Chapter 001: Thunderstruck

Boom!

A clap of thunder caused by a bolt of lightning echoed across the land!!

“Something’s wrong, Mr. Miller was struck by lightning!!”

This could also be described as the sound caused by lightning, spreading throughout the entire The Miller Family estate in a very short time. At that moment, everyone habitually froze for a second, and then, just as habitually—

Kept on working!

And it seemed that, regarding this news, no one showed the panic one might expect; instead, they treated it with remarkable calmness!!

The The Miller Family, a renowned family on the Divine Martial Continent famous for their forging skills—though not the very best on the continent, they were definitely first-class. A family with such specialized skills, even if their martial strength wasn’t outstanding, was still highly sought after. Simply put, the The Miller Family was quite popular.

In Tianfeng Kingdom, where the The Miller Family resided, they were a top-tier family. In Qingyun Prefecture, they were one of the elite families, a force not to be underestimated!

Naturally, the Mr. Miller of such a family attracted much attention. However, judging by the reaction of the The Miller Family members, it seemed this Mr. Miller had some special issues.

That’s right, there was a problem, and almost everyone knew about it—at least, in Qingyun Prefecture, it was common knowledge.

Everyone knew that the Mr. Miller of the The Miller Family, this top family in Qingyun Prefecture, was a good-for-nothing—truly useless, almost incapable of anything.

Not only were his meridians unable to cultivate any techniques, but his mind was also a bit slower than normal. In other words, his intelligence wasn’t high!

Even so, Mr. Miller’s parents still loved him dearly and never gave up on him!

Upon hearing that Mr. Miller had been struck by lightning, his parents rushed over immediately. They saw their son now pitch black, his life or death uncertain.

At this moment, both parents looked extremely worried, and the mother was so anxious that she began to cry…

“What happened?” Mr. Miller’s father asked in a deep voice. “Why was Mr. Miller struck by lightning again?”

Again? Why the word “again”?

Faced with this question, everyone fell silent. No one responded.

“Where is Evan?” After a while, Mr. Miller’s father spoke, his tone clearly displeased. It seemed that either Evan was involved in this matter, or he was simply not well-liked.

“Evan is… he should be in his room, or maybe in the study, or perhaps in the kitchen, or possibly in the sword-forging room, or the pill room, or the mechanism room…” Those gathered began to answer, and it seemed they had listed nearly every place in the The Miller Family estate.

“That’s as good as saying nothing. Where is he right now? Go find him for me. I want to ask if he’s been teaching Mr. Miller nonsense again. How many times has this happened already!!” Mr. Miller’s father said angrily.

“We’ll go look right away… This Evan is just too unpredictable. He’s a house servant, we’re house servants too, so why is he always running around everywhere?”

“That’s because everyone needs his help with odd jobs. He’s a lower-ranked house servant—anyone can order him around.”

“Enough talking, let’s hurry up and find him, or Second Master will take it out on us!!”

“Yeah, no matter what he’s done this time, he can take the blame himself. We don’t want to get dragged into it!!”

……

In a very remote corner of the The Miller Family estate, rare and exotic herbs grew everywhere—this was the The Miller Family’s herb garden, home to many rare species not found on the market.

Naturally, the herb garden supplied the The Miller Family’s pill room—it was the foundation of the pill room!

Although the The Miller Family was a forging family, they had also achieved some success in alchemy. Ordinary pills could be produced by the The Miller Family.

But that was limited to ordinary, or at best slightly superior, pills. For anything better or higher-grade, they had to buy from alchemy families.

When everyone arrived at the herb garden, they found a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old youth inside, weeding and tending to the herbs. This youth was the one everyone had been talking about—

Evan!!

“You’re in trouble, Mr. Miller was struck by lightning…” came a jumble of voices.

“Ah, Mr. Miller was struck by lightning again? This really has nothing to do with me this time. I haven’t left the herb garden all day—Mr. Carter can vouch for me!!” Evan said innocently.

From Evan’s words, it was clear that in the past, some incidents had indeed involved him, for example—

“Even if you’re here, it doesn’t matter. Who told you to keep talking nonsense to Mr. Miller, saying that getting struck by lightning might make him smarter? Now, whenever there’s thunder and lightning, he climbs to high places and even brings an iron rod to act as a lightning rod. That’s all your doing.”