Outer Courtyard, Blue Wolf Sect, Chongfan Empire

The noise of arguing and mockery gradually faded away.

Shen Fang was in semi-comatose state, with his head full of blood, his half-bowed body constantly twitching and his hands creasing the mat on the bed.

And just now, he was battered and bullied by a crowd of people. Only his maid Xiaoya standing by him cried and begged for leniency.

That impact force of the stick almost killed him.

No one came to rescue him from such a serious injury. They treated him like a wild dog, leaving him alone and for dead.

"If it was half a year ago, no one would dare to hit me like this."

An implacable voice yelled in Shen Fangs mind.

The courtyard was quiet, with nobody else but the sound of leaves rubbing against the windows.

With limbs still twitching, he gradually felt some numbness in the headache and fell into a trance, while things of the past passed through his mind like smoke.

In the past, Shen Fang’s destiny was nothing like this.

He had a distinguished parentage as the descendant of an eminent general. His grandfather was the Frontier Commander of the Chongfan Empire.

At that time, he was escorted by his own guards and regimental commanders when he went out. He also took care of the large family business, and was admitted to the prominent Blue Wolf Sect.

Life was easy on him, favoring him with fancy clothes and strong horses. It looked like that he was the chosen one who provoked everyone’s admiration and envied others.

But unexpectedly, good days suddenly utterly gone down since then.

Half a year ago, Shen Family, who was framed by political enemies, was brutally exterminated. All members of the family died miserably. Without his identity as a disciple of the Blue Wolf Sect, he would have also been murdered and died in misery.

All of a sudden glory, wealth and status turned into ashes.

During that time, Shen Fang suppressed the hatred deeply in his heart and buried himself in hard cultivation, hoping that one day he could succeed and get the revenge for his family.

However, by that time he found himself incompetent in cultivation. No matter how hard he practiced, he could only reach the body exploitation of heaven layer three, and there was hardly any space for further refinement.

Only then did he realize that his family contributed to his admission to the Blue Wolf Sect, not his personal gift.

With fortune and cultivation both falling to the bottom, he gradually became the useless man in others eyes and the one target of mockery and insult.

More and more disciples in the sect came over to beat, scold and bully him.

Beating up the descendant of a previous general was supposed to be the best way to satisfy the distorted mentality of those people.

Shen Fang wasn’t strong enough to fight back and had to endure this all alone. He hoped that one day he would be strong.

But today, Hu Biao, grandson of the First Elder, came over with a crowd of people to rob Xiaoya as his maid by force.

Xiaoya followed Shen Fang to join the sect and served as his personal maid. Since Shen Family had been exterminated, Shen Fang had no one close to him except Xiaoya, the one who was regarded as a sister by blood. He would never allow anyone to take her away by force.

At that moment, he could not bear it any longer and fought back desperately. But he was no match for his vicious opponents. He was knocked down, punched and kicked on the ground.

At last, he was hit by a stick on the head and nearly died.

Wind blew into the house.

Shen Fang lay there in dizziness while past memories crowded in upon his mind. He wasn’t willing to see his family revenge unfulfilled, himself humiliated, and Xiaoya suffering with him.

On his head, for the spot hit by a stick, he suddenly felt more pain. It seemed that an axe was cutting downing and splitting his head.

Shen Fang was like in numbness. The pain caused his limbs to twitch, but he made no sound, just bit his lips to bear it.

Although he suffered such tremendous pain, there was still nothing he could do.

He must tolerate the pain and could not die like that.

If he died, Xiaoya would have no one to rely on.

In this world, he was Xiaoya’s only family member.. As her bother, he had to stand up again no matter how difficult, and protected her from any form of humiliation.

Click.

There came a low cracking sound.

The pain of axe cutting seemed to have splitting something in his head. Suddenly, Shen Fang could unexpectedly look inward and saw the scene inside his head.

It was a mist.

In the middle of the mist, the pineal gland was suspended in the void.

The sound just now was made by a crack at the top of the pineal gland.

The pineal gland was cracked. Am I completely crippled? Not willing for this, Shen Fang clenched his fists.

The pineal gland was suspended in the middle of the knowledge sea. From the opening on the top, the thick fog rose surprisingly, constantly filling the knowledge sea.

The fog was getting thicker and thicker, and its concentration in the knowledge sea was gradually reaching three, four, and five times of the normal level.

The fog symbolized a person's spiritual force.

As the fog grew stronger and stronger, Shen Fang finally realized something was wrong.

The spiritual force is so strong that it overflowed unconsciously from the knowledge sea, and as it diffused outwards, he could even saw the scene outside with his eyes closed.

His vision followed the spread of the spiritual force.

In the end, he saw the entire room.

At that moment, in his vision the whole world seemed to be dyed with all kinds of brilliant colors. The walls, tables, chairs, and old window lattices became magnificent, bright and incomparably clear.

He could even see colorful spiritual Qi floating in the void, and its silky and foggy movement.

Looking further into the distance, in the courtyard, he could see the tiny parasites wriggling in the cracks of the old tree and all lines on the its bark.

Shen Fang was shocked by the scene and felt stunned.

"It is the spiritual force."

"Had my spiritual force been suppressed until the rod broke my pineal gland and released it?"

Shen Fang was shocked and didn’t figure out what was going on.

The dense fog in the pineal gland released in a faster way. Its concentration in the knowledge sea gradually reached eight, nine and ten times of the normal level.

It still continued.

The concentration of the fog was too high as to gradually change from colorless to light golden, and then to golden in the squeezing and compression process.

The golden fog was full of vitality.

Shen Fang felt that he was different as unprecedented strength and fullness appeared in his mind. At this moment, he subconsciously circulated his inner Qi.

Buzz!

His inner force ran in his meridians at a terrible speed, dashing around madly.

The operation of inner force needed spiritual guidance.

To him, Inner Qi circulation was like a thin horse struggling with a big cart, but at this moment, with his spiritual force guiding his inner force, it was like ten elephants tugging a small cart.

After a few breaths, he finished circulating his inner Qi that needed half a day in the past.

At the end of circulation, Shen Fang felt his inner force improved a lot.

"Unbelievable, unbelievable!"

Shen Fang shivered a little and realized that with the rupture of his pineal gland, he might have ushered in his transformation.

Spiritual force was the life essence of a person, and also the most important gift and basics for cultivation.

Stronger spiritual force would definitely mean that his gift of cultivation was growing stronger.

Sword Drawing

Shen Fang rehearsed his best trained swordplay in his mind.

In an instant, just as he could see the lines of the bark, he spotted 13 inadequacies of force exertions in his Sword Drawing technique.

Before this, he thought that this technique had been trained to the extreme and his swordsmanship could not be improved furthermore. Until this moment, he found his swordplay was full of flaws, shapeless and powerless.

With the spiritual force, in an instance, he corrected 13 errors in strength exertion and thrust out his sword.

Cling-clang!

The sound of his swordplay was eardrum piercing, and the Qi was overflowing from the sword, like the lightning tearing up the night sky as well as a tiger whistling and a dragon roaring.

Shen Fang never thought the simple technique of Sword Drawing could exert such unpredictable power.

It's clearly that my gift of spiritual force is growing. That stick-hit unleased it unexpectedly.

Now I am no longer a useless man.

Shen Fang got rid of coma with his powerful spiritual force. Suddenly, he opened his eyes, which were full of brilliance.

He woke up in vitality and was an entirely different person.

Turning his head to the ransacked house, Shen Fang slowly supported himself up with his arms.