Chapter One: The Broken Cauldron

This time, I’m really going to become the laughingstock of the entire clan!

Logan Clark lay on his bed, a bitter smile on his face.

He had actually been knocked out by a stone that fell from the sky on the training grounds!

Although his cultivation was only at the second level of the Postnatal Realm, far from being a master, it shouldn’t have been enough for a mere stone to knock him out—let alone keep him unconscious for three days and nights!

“But where exactly did that stone come from? Judging by the height, it shouldn’t have been thrown from the training grounds!” Logan Clark recalled, rubbing his head. Strangely, there wasn’t a single wound.

“In any case, I’m already the clan’s acknowledged good-for-nothing. No matter how big a joke I make of myself, I can’t possibly be any more disgraced!”

Logan Clark laughed at himself, but as a descendant of a martial arts family, who would willingly become a useless person? Not only would he be mocked by his clansmen, but even the servants wouldn’t respect him as their master!

“My talent may be poor, but I train harder than anyone! ‘Heaven rewards diligence, heaven rewards diligence’—is this really how my efforts are repaid?”

He was the only grandson of the The Clark Family clan head, Nathan Clark. By rights, he should have enjoyed boundless glory. But three years ago, Nathan Clark entered seclusion to break through to the highest martial realm and hadn’t been heard from since. His parents had died young, and his only sister had joined some sect twelve years ago and never sent word again, leaving him all alone.

If that were all, Logan Clark wouldn’t be so miserable.

This is a world where strength is revered. In every clan, talented descendants are the most precious assets—the key to a clan’s survival and growth! Thus, the gifted are given special training and enjoy endless honor, while those with poor talent inevitably face discrimination.

Nathan Clark had no other male descendants besides Logan Clark, which meant that after Nathan Clark passed away, the clan head position would surely fall to another branch! As a result, Logan Clark’s position was naturally awkward. While Nathan Clark was still around, things were kept in check, but as his seclusion dragged on, Logan Clark became increasingly marginalized.

Now, the The Clark Family is under the firm control of the Grand Elder, Henry Clark, a man of great ambition. After Nathan Clark went into seclusion, he did everything he could to suppress Nathan Clark’s faction and support his own relatives.

—After more than a hundred years of development, the The Clark Family has countless branches, each vying for the clan head position and more cultivation resources for their own line.

After three years, the The Clark Family has all but changed hands. If not for fear of Nathan Clark’s formidable twelfth-level Postnatal Realm cultivation, Henry Clark would have usurped the clan head’s seat long ago.

In recent years, rumors have spread that Nathan Clark failed his breakthrough and has already perished, making Logan Clark’s life even harder. Take his monthly allowance, for example: by rights, it should be ten taels of silver, but last year it was reduced to five, and from a month ago, it dropped to just one!

No matter what, Logan Clark is still the legitimate eldest grandson of the The Clark Family. As long as Nathan Clark remains clan head, that fact won’t change! Those below would only dare to dock his allowance with the tacit approval of those in charge. Logan Clark could only swallow his anger!

On the other hand, he also hated his own weakness. If he had the talent of the clan’s geniuses, would he be in such a passive position?

“Endlessly blaming fate is pointless. I might as well seize the time to keep cultivating!”

Countless scornful gazes did not make Logan Clark lose heart or give up. Instead, they made him ever more tenacious. Once he set his sights on a path, even if he fell ten thousand times, he would stand up the ten thousand and first time and keep moving forward!

Logan Clark sat up from the bed, using his three activated acupoints to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy, then refined it into his own true essence with the Chiyang Technique.

Martial artists seize the fortune of heaven and earth to strengthen themselves, defying the heavens—the path of cultivation is arduous!

The human body has 360 acupoints, each able to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy, allowing martial artists to steal the essence of heaven and earth and turn it into their own power. But these acupoints are not born able to absorb spiritual energy. Most people are born with only one or two usable acupoints; the rest must be activated through postnatal cultivation, one by one.

The more acupoints activated, the faster one’s cultivation. Thus, to judge a person’s martial talent, you only need to see how many acupoints they have activated.

Logan Clark was born with only one activated acupoint, and since he began cultivating at age ten, in seven years he had only managed to activate two more! His progress was naturally slow—being at the mere second level of the Postnatal Realm was enough to make anyone laugh!

Even the average second-level martial artists in the clan had activated more than ten acupoints, which shows just how poor Logan Clark’s talent was!

“Open the acupoints, draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into my body, refine!”

Buzz!