Volume One: Land of Dust

Chapter 001: The Young William Bennett

Early morning. A faint, hazy light appeared on the horizon, and the entire Yuyang City was still shrouded in the darkness before dawn...

Yuyang City, Zhao Family.

Teng!

The young man reflexively threw off his warm quilt, jumped out of bed, dressed, and washed up—all in one smooth motion.

At this hour, the vast majority of clan juniors, and even some servants, were still sound asleep...

The youth was about thirteen or fourteen, slightly thin, with a fair and youthful face. Though not particularly handsome, he was very pleasant to look at.

Especially his eyes—clear and spirited, shining with determination: "If I persist a little longer, I’ll break through to Martial Arts Level Two, and those people from the Zhao family will finally shut up."

The young man’s name was William Bennett.

Half a year ago, thanks to his outstanding performance, he was selected from the Qingye Town Zhao branch family to join the Zhao Family in Yuyang City.

In the Zhao family of Qingye Town, he was one of the top youths of his age, the first to advance to "Martial Arts Level One," thus stepping out of the ranks of ordinary people and into the world of martial arts.

At that time, the elders in town all praised his talent, saying his future would be limitless.

His family and parents placed great hopes on him.

But only William Bennett knew that he had worked several times harder than his peers to become the so-called genius of Qingye Town...

The Zhao family of Qingye Town was just one branch of the main Zhao clan, entitled to recommend two members to the main family every five years.

Recommended alongside William Bennett was a girl from the same clan, "Sarah Bennett," who advanced to Martial Arts Level One two months after him.

When leaving Qingye Town, William Bennett was full of fighting spirit, determined to make a name for himself in the Zhao Family and show his worth.

However, after joining the Zhao Family, William Bennett realized just how narrow his world had been...

In terms of scale and strength, the Zhao family of Qingye Town had only a little over a hundred people, with just seven or eight youths of his age.

But the Zhao Family in Yuyang City was a massive clan with tens of thousands of members, controlling vast lands, mines, and other resources—hundreds of times stronger than the branch family in Qingye Town!

In the branch family, he was considered outstanding, even a genius... but in the main Zhao clan, he was almost at the bottom, a humble outer disciple!

Many of the Zhao Family’s youths had already reached Martial Arts Level Two or higher; some outstanding ones had reached Level Three. Rumor had it that some clan geniuses even possessed the terrifying cultivation of Level Four or above...

Faced with this reality, William Bennett felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him, making him realize his own ignorance and insignificance.

Moreover, the girl "Sarah Bennett" who came from Qingye Town with him—a beauty in the making—gradually distanced herself from him after joining the Zhao Family and became close with one of the top three outer disciples.

Back in Qingye Town, Sarah Bennett had greatly admired William Bennett, even harboring feelings for him. But at that time, William Bennett was focused solely on cultivation, naive and oblivious, and did not respond.

After that, the deeply affected William Bennett trained even harder and more diligently.

He once swore that he would earn a place for himself in the Zhao Family, in Yuyang City.

Otherwise, he would never return to Qingye Town!

...

After washing up, William Bennett took a deep breath and strode quickly toward the family’s martial training ground.

Hah! Hah!...

William Bennett half-squatted in a horse stance, his fists whistling through the air as he practiced the Zhao Family’s classic fist technique—"Flame Steel Fist."

"Flame Steel Fist" was only a basic martial art, but William Bennett practiced it with meticulous precision and smooth proficiency.

In the secular world, ordinary martial arts are divided into five levels: basic, low, intermediate, high, and top.

Basic martial arts have the lowest entry threshold, focusing on tempering the body and strengthening the blood, with limited lethality.

Generally, the higher the martial art’s level, the greater its power and the better its cultivation effects.

But as a branch family member without exceptional talent, William Bennett found it very difficult to access higher-level martial arts.

"I’ve been stuck at the peak of Martial Arts Level One for a long time. I’m still a bit short of breaking through to Level Two."

After practicing for a while, William Bennett was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

William Bennett’s talent wasn’t bad, but the reason he couldn’t keep up with the main Zhao family’s disciples was that they had access to more advanced training methods and came from wealthy backgrounds, allowing them to use precious elixirs and herbs to greatly speed up their cultivation.

It was said that some Zhao clan children had their bodies strengthened with rare medicinal liquids from a young age, breaking through to Martial Arts Level One before the age of ten, giving them a natural advantage.

At the starting line, William Bennett was far behind them.

Half an hour later, the sun slowly rose above the horizon.

On the training ground, more and more Zhao Family disciples appeared, chatting and laughing, playing around.

When some of the Zhao clan youths caught sight of William Bennett, their expressions suddenly turned cold, even showing a hint of disdain and contempt.

This attitude was not directed at William Bennett alone.