Chapter 1: The Dormant Youth

  Dormant youth

  Just after the New Year, in Tianyuan City, there were still occasional firecracker sounds, mixed with children's laughter, and a joyful atmosphere.

  The smell of gunpowder left after the firecracker burns out is very refreshing when smelled.

  In a corner of the Zhou family's large courtyard, on an open space, a young man was constantly practicing his fist techniques.

  He sometimes punches, sometimes kicks to the side, and sometimes crouches down to withdraw his steps and sweep his claws. His moves are ruthless and swift, quick and precise, obviously a master of a highly accomplished fist technique.

  This man was Zhou Yuan, the third generation of the Zhou family.

  "Master Zhou Yuan, can we have a spar with you!!" Two servants beside him said with a smile, although it was a sparring attitude, but their faces were cold and sinister, revealing their ulterior motives.

  In the Zhou family, Zhou Yuan was of very low status. Although he was the direct grandson of the family head, having lost his parents at a young age, he was looked down upon by everyone in this large family.

  The two servants saw Zhou Yuan practicing his fist and thought of bullying him.

  Zhou Yuan's heart stirred, "Since I broke through to the Fu Organs boundary, I haven't fought with anyone. These slaves actually want to bully me? They must be blind in both eyes! Fine, let me teach them a lesson and vent my anger."

  "Wild Ox Mighty Fist!!!" Zhou Yuan let out a low shout, his fist technique instantly unfolding, opening and closing, enveloping the two servants.

  "What a fierce and powerful fist! His strength is immense!!" The two servants knew at a glance that Zhou Yuan's abilities had improved again, and immediately clenched their fists in front of their faces.

  Bang!!!

  Crack!

  Two guards were knocked flying out, blood spouting from their mouths, and for a time they lay on the ground unable to get up, apparently seriously injured.

  "You... you actually broke through to the Diaphragm Boundary! So fast!!!"

  The two guardians said in disbelief.

  "You think you can bully me? You're a blind dog slave, get out of here!!!"

  Two servants fled in disarray, but Zhou Yuan remained immersed in his cultivation, from a young age he had been diligently cultivating, never once slackening.

  The Great Dry Country is the largest empire in this world, with a vast territory of tens of millions of miles, occupying almost two-thirds of the continent. It is truly the Celestial Empire, and no other empire dares to offend it. Every year at New Year's, many large and small empires bring tribute from afar, traveling thousands of miles to pay homage and show their submissive heart.

  Tianyuan City could only be considered an ordinary city in Daqian Country, with a population of 100,000.

  The lord of Tianyuan City is named Zhou Tiānchén. He is a straightforward and majestic person, an extremely upright individual.

  The castle owner, Zhou Tianchen, had two sons, one named Zhou Yangsheng and the other named Zhou Chunsheng. Zhou Yuan's father was Zhou Chunsheng, but from the time of his birth, he had never seen his parents. It is said that they died in an accident while capturing a two-stage wolf demon during an outing.

  Zhou Yuan has been lonely and helpless since he was a child, without the protection of his parents. In such a big family like the Zhou's, he suffered from exclusion, although not to the extent of physical violence, but cold treatment was inevitable.

  Zhou Yuan had been practicing diligently since he was young, and his goal was to one day make a name for himself and let those who looked down on him surrender to him.

  Hoo hoo hoo...

  Zhou Yuan panted heavily, his fists and feet striking out like a stormy rain, at an extremely fast speed that made it impossible for anyone standing next to him to see his movements. With Zhou Yuan's current strength, ordinary strong men, even twenty or thirty of them, were no match for him.

  After a long while, Zhou Yuan stopped, his body slightly heaving as he obviously calmed the turbulent blood and energy.

  "My physical body has reached the seventh boundary, with skin, flesh, tendons, bones, blood, internal organs, acupoints, and spiritual sense. I have cultivated my internal organs to be exceptionally strong and resilient, almost immune to all diseases. To reach the next boundary of acupoint, I need to use blood to stimulate the Tianmen point, fetal hidden blood, and violent points, which can greatly enhance my power. However, I don't have a cultivation chart, and I couldn't find the location of the three acupoints, so I dare not cultivate recklessly, otherwise, it's easy to go crazy and die."

  Thinking of this, Zhou Yuan sighed and shook his head. "My current strength can already take down twenty or thirty strong men with my bare hands and emerge victorious. I don't know what concept it is to cultivate even higher and more profound techniques. However, in our Zhou family, only the family head and Grandfather Zhou Yangsheng, as well as some of the elders, have cultivated to this realm. All three generations of disciples are only at the Physical Body Realm. Even the peak of the Physical Body Realm, the Spiritual Inspiration Realm, has only been reached by Second Grandfather Zhou Tianbao's grandson, Zhou Chaofan."

  On this continent, the cultivators' realm of cultivation starts with the physical body. The first level is the skin and flesh realm, where those who reach it can make their skin and flesh extremely tough, greatly increasing their resistance to impact. The second level is the muscle and vein realm, which gives the body strong elasticity, making a punch feel like a whip lash. The third level is the skeletal realm, allowing for more penetrating attacks. The fourth level is the blood realm, where one can freely circulate blood throughout the body, self-healing some internal injuries caused by cultivation. The fifth level is the current realm of Zhou Yuan, the visceral realm, which makes the internal organs extremely tough and resilient, immune to all diseases and toxins. The sixth level is the acupoint realm, where blood impacts the three major acupoints - Tianmen, Taizang, and Baoli - unleashing human potential, greatly increasing strength, making lifting a bronze cauldron a trivial matter. The seventh level is the spiritual inspiration realm, where one's spirit and will become extremely sharp, able to counter even the fastest attacks through conditioned reflexes, a truly mysterious effect.

  Tapping...

  Just at this moment, Zhou Yuan heard a sound of footsteps treading on the ground, "Someone is coming, within 100 steps!!"

  Zhou Yuan's physical cultivation was exceptionally strong, and his blood often flowed throughout his body, making all five senses extremely sensitive. Not to mention a hundred steps away, even two hundred steps away, the slightest movement could be easily captured.

  "Master Zhou Yuan, a high-ranking member of the family, is holding an annual meeting at Fengyuntang. The head of the household has summoned you to attend!!!"

  A man in his late 40s or early 50s, wearing a gray hemp robe and a square hat on his head, walked in. He was clearly a servant. Zhou Yuan recognized the man as Li Shan, an ordinary servant who often came to deliver messages before leaving again.

  This time was no exception, Li Shan brought back the host's words and turned around to leave.

  Zhou Yuan saw all this, curled his lips, such an ordinary servant, not very respectful to him, which made Zhou Yuan feel uncomfortable in his heart. However, he didn't want to care about these things either. As long as it wasn't something that annoyed him too much, generally, he wouldn't care too much.

  The place where Zhou Yuan was cultivating wasn't far from his living quarters, and he arrived in an instant. Returning to his room, Zhou Yuan washed his face and tidied up his clothes before immediately heading towards the Wind Cloud Pavilion.

  The Fengyuntang is where the high-level meetings of the Zhou family are held, usually presided over by Zhou Tianchen, and occasionally also convened by some Punishment Elders or Transmission Elders.

  This time, Zhou Yuan also knew that it was an annual meeting held by the Zhou family at the beginning of each year. Generally, the head of the household would announce some disciples who had reached a certain age to enter the Scripture Pavilion and choose their own technique scriptures.

  Zhou family disciples, as long as they are eighteen years old, have the qualification to enter the Scripture Pavilion once, where they can freely browse some cultivation classics. However, they cannot bring them out. As for how much you can comprehend, it depends on your innate talent.

  The interior of the Zhou family mansion was extremely vast, and it took Zhou Yuan a full incense stick's worth of time to finally arrive at the Wind Cloud Hall.

  From a distance, Zhou Yuan had already seen the family head, Zhou Tianchen, sitting at the top of the grand hall. Looking at this grandfather who was actually over sixty years old but looked no different from someone in his forties, Zhou Yuan's heart was filled with reverence.

  Walking up to the grand hall entrance, Zhou Yuan adjusted his clothes and shouted, "Zhou Yuan requests an audience!!!"

  Zhou Tianchen's gaze swept over Zhou Yuan, and he smiled faintly. "Zhou Yuan, it's been a long time since we last met. Your progress is quite rapid. Last year when I saw you, you were only at the Blood Realm, but now, after just one year, you've already entered the Marrow Realm... Great, great... Come on in and find yourself a seat!"

  Zhou Yuan nodded and slowly walked into the grand hall, looking around and seeing that there was only one empty chair next to his Second Grandfather Zhou Tianbao. Next to Zhou Tianbao were his son and daughter, Zhou Mingjue and Zhou Wenqing.

  Zhou Yuan slightly furrowed his brow, Zhou Tianbao was his second uncle, but he had always been very mean to him, often scolding him. Including Zhou Tianbao's line, they all looked down on Zhou Yuan and often gave him a hard time.

  Reluctantly returned reluctantly, but there was only one seat, Zhou Yuan didn't want to torment himself.

  He slowly walked up to Zhou Tianbao's side, bowed to him, and then prepared to sit down.

  "You insolent whelp, what qualifications do you have to sit beside me? Move your chair to the entrance of the great hall, that's where you belong!!" Zhou Tianbo rebuked mercilessly.

  In a general family meeting, the seating arrangement is usually determined by status, with the head of the household sitting at the top and the others arranged in order of seniority. However, this is not always strictly observed within the family. Zhou Tianbao's behavior was like that, although he didn't do anything wrong, it was a bit too much, making it difficult for Zhou Yuan to save face.

  Zhou Yuan knew that the other party was making things difficult for him and wanted to make him feel embarrassed, a nameless fire that would ignite him in an instant. However, he didn't erupt, since meeting that old ancestor, he had learned to be patient.

  It's not cowardice, but suppressing this anger and waiting for the right moment to double the revenge on others.

  "You old thing, in my eyes, there's no distinction between the noble and the lowly. When I'm strong enough, I'll make you wish you were dead!!!" Zhou Yuan's heart was secretly burning with hatred.

  But Zhou Yuan was also a person who knew the times, and he knew that it was not suitable to make an enemy of Zhou Tian at this time. After all, his own strength was still too weak, and if he wanted to call out to Zhou Tian, he would have to break through to the Law Phase first.

  "Second brother, why bother with the young ones? Zhou Yuan's parents passed away early, we should treat him well!!" Zhou Tianchen said to Zhou Tianbao.

  Zhou Tian glared at Zhou Yuan and said, "I understand, big brother."

  Zhou Tianchen looked at Zhou Yuan and nodded encouragingly before continuing.

  "In our Zhou family, there is a rule that anyone who is eighteen years old and a direct descendant of the family can have three quotas every year to enter the Scripture Pavilion once. This year, I plan to let Zhou Yuan, Zhou Chaofan, and Zhou Qing'er go."

  "So, according to previous regulations, tomorrow is the day to enter the Scripture Pavilion. You three juniors must make good preparations!!!"

  "Big brother, I think this matter still needs to be discussed. After all, Chao Fan and Qing Er are both about to enter the Law Realm, one from the Spiritual Inspiration Realm and the other from the Blood Aperture Realm. It's only natural that they should enter the Scripture Storage Pavilion. As for Zhou Yuan, he's just at the Qi Refining Realm, his strength is too weak, and it wouldn't be of much use even if he entered the pavilion..."

  Zhou Tian's eyebrows furrowed, "What?! Continue!!!"

  "Both of them said that Chao Fan and Qing Er were raised under the care of their family elders, and their cultivation was also clean and honest. But Zhou Yuan, he had such a cultivation without being taught by anyone, it came out of nowhere, if he rashly enters the Zang Jing I'm afraid..."

  When Zhou Tianbao said this, Zhou Yuan's anger was ignited again. The other party actually wanted to stop him from entering the Zangjing Pavilion. To know that his current cultivation is difficult to advance even an inch, on the one hand, it is because he does not have the map of the Blood Aperture Realm, and on the other hand, he has no opportunity to see more profound and deeper classics.

  Now that he has a rare opportunity, Zhou Tianbo actually wants to stop himself. Thinking of this, Zhou Yuan had long thrown away the teachings of his ancestors.

  Wow!!!!!

  Zhou Yuan suddenly stood up straight, glaring at Zhou Tianbao in anger, but only with anger, without any extreme words or actions.

  "What are you doing? You dare to glare at me like that? Sit down!!!"

  Zhou Tianchen waved his hand, indicating that everyone should stop arguing. "Let's end it here for today. Tianbao, don't say any more. The ancestral teachings are clear: just because Zhou Yuan's cultivation background is unclear and he lacks strength, we won't deprive him of the opportunity to enter the Scripture Pavilion. This is also my decision. Today's meeting is dismissed!!!"

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