“I don’t want to return this jade pendant…” the young woman shook her head instinctively.

When she was three, her father had taken her hand and told her she was to be betrothed.

It wasn’t to any of the Four Great Families of Yunzhou City, but to a cousin her aunt had brought back. His biological father was unknown, and he bore his mother’s surname.

She had been unwilling, but could not resist her family’s pressure.

It was only after her powerful aunt passed away suddenly following a failed Tribulation that the marriage arrangement finally met with a turning point.

The jade pendant, carved with a Blood Jade Qilin, had been worn around her neck since the beginning of the engagement. Its jade was cool to the touch, yet it kept her warm in winter and cool in summer.

Even on the coldest days when snow flew thick and fast, she needed only a single layer of thin gauze to walk outside.

She had long since considered the pendant her own possession, and had grown accustomed to all the conveniences it provided.

How could she possibly be willing to return it? Moreover… she had a vague, lingering feeling that there was something else special about this jade pendant.

Yu Jinghan noticed the gaze and looked over. Yu Feixue instinctively turned away.

The young man lowered his eyes. His gaze, hidden in the shadow of his brow, was cold like ink dissolving into a deep pool, slowly freezing into ice.

He had heard those words: that cultivators like us should not be bound by worldly marriages, that love is a mutual affection. It was clearly a demand to break the engagement.

Fine, let them break it, he thought. I don’t care. But the Yu family refused to return his mother’s belongings, including that Blood Jade.

He would never forget the Yu family’s faces as his mother lay dying.

“Heartless? My dear nephew, your mother has always been supported by the family in food and clothing. The condition was that if Pei Xuan attacked the Cultivation World, she would protect the Yu family single-handedly. But Pei Xuan never came, did he? The Yu family has no need for her protection.”

“She has an Inner Demon, and she failed her Tribulation. What does that have to do with us?”

“Yes, she hasn’t passed away yet, only critically injured. True, the Yu family possesses countless heavenly treasures, but why should a dying woman with failing vitality need so many spiritual medicines to prolong her life? The family still supports four Nascent Soul Stage masters. Have you asked them if they are willing to carve out their offerings to cure your mother?”

As soon as his mother passed away, the Yu family revealed their true colors.

He was thrown into the dust, enduring the cold indifference of his elders, the bullying of servants, and endless torment from the shadows.

Unable to practice Grain Avoidance, he often went without a meal.

Yu Jinghan never understood. He and Yu Feixue shared a quarter of their bloodline, both members of the Yu family.

The Immortal Sect aristocratic families were the most ruthless, where the strong preyed on the weak. Yet, though Yu Feixue’s cultivation talent was inferior to his, their statuses were worlds apart.

The exalted Yu Feixue had everything. He had nothing but the Blood Jade his mother had left him.

The spring rain was icy, falling on his brow and trickling down his straight nose. His thin clothes were already soaked through. Yu Jinghan’s face was pale, his body almost numb.

Seated in the warm pavilion, the young lady paused. As if afraid he might cling to her, she hastily moved away from the railing.

The maidservant glanced at the Young Master Cousin kneeling on the ground, then at her young mistress, whose tense face betrayed her obvious annoyance.

Gathering her courage, she pleaded, “Young Lady, it is only a jade pendant. The Young Master has been kneeling for a whole day. This spring chill is biting; I fear he will fall ill.”

Yu Feixue shook her head, her voice soft. “How could we cultivators be so frail? He’s knelt before. Every time he’s made a mistake, Father has punished him. He should be used to it by now…”

But Old Master Yu had punished him on purpose!

The maidservant was new, and she didn’t understand why. The Young Lady had no cultivation at all, yet the entire Yu Mansion treated her like a precious pearl, catering to her every whim.

The Young Master Cousin, on the other hand, had been determined to escape the pangs of hunger. Without any heavenly treasures or the guidance of a Nascent Soul Stage expert, he had managed to reach the Qi Condensation stage on his own.

When the news spread, a deathly silence fell over the Yu Mansion. Old Master Yu, infuriated, ordered him to kneel for three days and nights without a single grain of rice.

The maidservant thought for a moment, then tried a different approach, appealing to emotion. “Young Lady, you are cousins. You grew up together. How can you bear to watch him kneel like this?”

“I can’t bear it,” Yu Feixue said. “But if I tell him to get up, Father will be displeased.” What the young woman left unsaid was that she didn’t want him to get up either.

Her thoughts were still a hazy blur, but she was a girl of strong will.

Just as she had learned from the commoners she encountered while walking the streets of Yunzhou City, if she showed them a friendly face, they would take advantage of it, only to leave her displeased. That was why she worried… if she told Yu Jinghan to stand up and stop kneeling, and he took the opportunity to ask for his mother’s keepsake back, would she give it to him or not?

The young man grew colder and colder, his lowered eyelashes beaded with countless raindrops.

He had become a statue, drenched in rain. The spring chill seemed to seep into his very organs into every finger, every rib leaving his face a deathly pale, a sight so heart-wrenching it stole her breath.

A certain beauty-obsessed little one, completely captivated and utterly lacking in resolve, stared blankly for a moment before hurriedly running over to him.

Everywhere he looked, there was only water. The cold was so extreme it numbed his senses. He felt detached from his own body, forgetting everything as his eyes grew vacant. Within his heart, a demonic obsession grew wildly, and a ceaseless torrent of resentment quietly took root.

Kill them… Kill them…

A widow and her orphaned son are already weak enough, yet they still want to drive you out of the Yu Family and seize your mother’s belongings for themselves.

Just then, the drizzling rain was blocked. An umbrella had appeared, and the silhouette of a child stood before him.

Many years later, Yu Jinghan still remembered this scene clearly.

A young child had squatted beside him, his snow-white robes spotless. Holding the umbrella over him, the child asked in a clear, crisp voice, “Brother, why are you kneeling here?”

The question jolted him awake. Through the rain-filled vision, the child’s skin was incredibly fair, his entire being radiating a soft, shimmering light like a celestial child descended from the Ninth Heaven.

Those jet-black, crystalline eyes peered closely at him, filled with genuine curiosity and concern.

Children possessed a natural advantage, and Ye Qing was the epitome of it.

His eyes were exceptionally large. When his small face was buried in the fluffy, snow-white fox fur, and he tilted his head to look at someone with those dark, glistening pupils, almost no one except the most cold-hearted of people could refuse him.

“I am demanding something that rightfully belongs to me…”

Yu Jinghan’s eyes narrowed slightly, his voice flat. His hand, pressed against the ground, seemed to be digging into the very tiles.

Ye Qing’s eyes widened. He couldn’t understand why such a handsome and dashing gege would use such a humble manner to ask for something.

The rain was so cold!

Tang Xi had no objection to showing kindness to a baby.

But the moment he saw Yu Jinghan’s face, his expression changed drastically. He shouted, “Qingqing, get away from him, quickly!”

Ye Qing: “?”

Tang Xi himself hadn’t expected this.

The disheveled youth in the rain, who looked ready to collapse at any moment, was actually Yu Jinghan!

“Qingqing, you know gege is a future fallen cultivator who knows every single detail of the Cultivation World like the back of his hand. This youth is named Yu Jinghan, and in the future, he will be a figure who brings a reign of terror!” Tang Xi’s words poured out like beans from a bamboo tube.

Reign of terror?

The baby was startled, his soft hand almost losing its grip on the umbrella.

Thinking he had scared the child, Tang Xi softened his voice. “Don’t be afraid. Let’s just go home. According to the Immortal History, Yu Jinghan was born with a Sword Bone and possesses extraordinary talent a once-in-ten-thousand-year genius. But that is his future. Right now, he is just the Young Master Cousin of the Yu Mansion, enduring endless coldness and contempt. He’s nothing special; you don’t need to worry about him.”

That’s right. This year, Yu Jinghan was still being tormented in Yu Mansion. His cultivation was only at the Qi Refining stage, and he had yet to condense that aura of ruthless indifference and brutal decisiveness.

Tang Xi had to admit that the youth kneeling in the rain looked desolate and solitary. From his appearance alone, one could never guess he would later become such a decisive and ruthless figure.

Ye Qing nodded.

“Oh, oh, oh!” He sounded so impressive.

After three years of raising the cub, Tang Xi knew the cub’s heart.

“Qingqing, don’t feel sorry for him,” Tang Xi said in disapproval. “Don’t be fooled by his elegant and noble appearance. In reality, he is the child of a female immortal cultivator and a demonic cultivator. His parents committed the act without an Immortal Contract and gave birth to him, a shame upon the great families. The Yu family knows full well that he carries more than half demonic blood in his veins, which is why they abuse him.”

In the future, when the Nine Provinces were destroyed, many surviving cultivators reviewed past memory fragments and were shocked to discover that a twisted childhood had a profound impact on a cultivator.

It was precisely because Yu Jinghan had suffered bullying in the first half of his life due to his impure bloodline that he developed his solitary and cold personality.

His innate nature was unappealing, and after joining the sect, he also suffered from the jealousy and ostracism of his fellow disciples. Later, he could no longer suppress the demonic qi, directly fell into demonic corruption, and became the second Pei Xuan.

“I’m guessing this is the moment he gets his engagement broken off,” Tang Xi urged, his voice frantic. “His demonic aura is about to erupt for the first time. I heard that when it happened, he seriously injured everyone on an entire street. Get away from him, quick!!!”

Tang Xi’s mind raced as he tried to pull Ye Qing away from the future Demon Lord. This street was so vast didn’t that include Ye Qing’s current position?

The Yu Mansion had never been known for its benevolence, but Tang Xi’s allegiance still lay with the Immortal Sect. He had an innate aversion to demonic blood.

Except for Qingqing, of course.

Little did he know, the human cub’s mind was not filled with fear, but with a series of explosive keywords: Extraordinary talent, abused in his first half of life, engagement broken off, defying fate.

Wait… isn’t this the standard setup for a ‘broken engagement’ male lead on Qidian?

His small fists clenched instinctively, his eyes sparkling with the thrill of gossip. He stared intently at the young man.

Yu Jinghan remained kneeling, his gaze calm and indifferent. He seemed oblivious to the child’s tilted umbrella and the sound of his excited breathing.

He had finally accepted his own uniqueness.

Because this man and soul were completely exposed to his vision, as were every single word of their conversation. The moment the demonic cultivator’s bloodline awakened, he believed it instantly.

No one could feel the Yu Family’s attitude toward him more vividly than he did, trapped in the vortex of the Yu Mansion.

They belittled and berated his mother at will, and they harshly mistreated and abused him when he was young. Though they clearly looked down on him, their attitude was also filled with wariness.

The so-called engagement was not only an act of charity but also a means to hold him back and control him.

The uncontrollable murderous intent he had just felt was, as it turned out, demonic qi.

The young man clenched his palm into a tight fist, his lowered eyelashes concealing the flickering dark light in his ink-black pupils.

A faint, imperceptible red glow was hidden in the depths of his eyes, making his dark brows and eyes stand out even more.

He maintained his previous posture, revealing not the slightest clue.

Tang Xi continued, “The demonic qi is out of control. The power it releases is too great for an ordinary mortal body to withstand. You’re just an ordinary cub, hurry and run!”

This damned Demon Lord, stay far away from the future of the Cultivation World!

Ye Qing was very obedient and was about to run away with his little feet.

But someone else moved even faster. The young man seemed unable to hold on any longer; his eyes closed, and he collapsed heavily into the puddle, splashing water everywhere.

The hem of the snow-white fox fur coat had soaked the young child beside them, staining his clean little face and leaving him utterly bewildered.

Ye Qing had been about to run, but seeing this, his expression turned confused and puzzled, and he stopped instinctively.

“Brother Tang Xi, this older brother has fainted. He’s not having a demonic power rampage!”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Tang Xi was also stunned, his handsome face filled with bewilderment.

According to the timeline, this young man should have had an outbreak of demonic energy, first changing his appearance with crimson eyes, followed by a massive surge in strength.

A servant from the Yu Mansion would then come to kick him while he was down, only to be torn apart by the blood-stained mouth. Next would be a kind-hearted maidservant, then a mortal passing by on the street.

This incident would cause a huge uproar in Yunzhou City, leading to Yu Jinghan being rejected by the Guiyuan Sect. No matter how good his talent and bone structure were, the Guiyuan Sect would never accept someone who had lost his humanity.

Unable to enter the top Immortal Sect, Yu Jinghan could only join a low-ranking sect filled with schemes and infighting, thus stepping onto the wrong path.

But now, nothing had happened. The young man appeared completely normal.

Clad in coarse linen clothes, he lay unconscious on the ground, his features fully revealed beneath his bangs. His handsome face was gaunt, his lips were bruised blue, and his skin was so transparent it was nearly deathly pale.

He lay motionless, as if on the verge of losing all signs of life.

Tang Xi couldn’t sense a single trace of demonic energy either. This was completely wrong!

Wait, let him think it over calmly.

“He looks so pitiful, and his body is so cold.” Ye Qing squatted down, his protective instincts flaring up.

He secretly made a decision: “Let’s take him home and find a medical cultivator to treat him.”

Huff puff, huff puff, he dragged the future Immortal Lord back to his home.

No! This young man is a terrifying figure with a solitary and arrogant temperament! Cub, you’re three and a half years old now. How can you let your head be turned by a pretty face!

Tang Xi opened his mouth to object, but then he thought of the terrifying figures already at home.

He immediately swallowed his protest. Drag him back, drag him back… home will be even more terrifying.