After becoming the playboy of Mingzhu City, Lucas Carter was Jack Dawson's only friend. Lucas Carter had martial roots, but simply didn't like practicing martial arts, so he and Jack Dawson, who had no martial roots, spent their days loafing around Mingzhu City. Although Jack Dawson never intended to be a bully, in reality, no one in Mingzhu City dared to mess with him. Usually, as soon as people saw Jack Dawson and Lucas Carter coming, they would make way as quickly as possible.

Two years later, one day, when eighteen-year-old Jack Dawson and Lucas Carter were a bit tipsy in a restaurant, he saw Megan Bennett, who had returned to Mingzhu City to visit her family. Beside Megan Bennett stood a handsome young man dressed in white, carrying a long sword on his back.

At eighteen, Megan Bennett was even more beautiful and ethereal than two years before. Standing on the streets of Mingzhu City, her otherworldly grace seemed to drain all color from the city. From the look in her eyes, free from any worldly concerns, Jack Dawson knew that he no longer held even the slightest place in Megan Bennett's heart.

She and the young man in white looked like a perfect couple. All of this made Jack Dawson feel a pang of bitterness, and even though he knew he and Megan Bennett would never be together again, seeing this scene made him realize he had never truly let go.

"Heh, what's so great about that... Jack... If you had martial roots, even a hundred Megan Bennetts couldn't keep up with you... Come on, let's drink..."

Half-squinting, the drunken Lucas Carter raised another cup and downed it, his tongue slurring as he spoke.

Jack Dawson didn't drink. He thought about why he had studied medicine in the first place. Back then, he learned medicine because he was worried that, if he failed the martial roots test at sixteen, he would have to seek martial roots through the path of medicine. Why, after failing the test, had he completely forgotten his original resolve?

Not only that, he had wasted two years idling around Mingzhu City. Although his father never said a word to him, how could he not know the disappointment in his father's heart?

If that was the case, why had he spent four years studying medicine in the first place? Little Lucas was right—if he had martial roots, he, Jack Dawson, would be no worse than Megan Bennett.

Watching Megan Bennett gradually walk away, Jack Dawson stood up, drained the wine in his cup, and smashed it against the wall.

From today on, that sentimental youth would be gone forever.

"What is it?" mumbled Lucas Carter, looking up in a daze. As for the restaurant staff outside, even if Jack Dawson tore the place apart, they wouldn't dare come in and say a word.

Jack Dawson took a deep breath. "Little Lucas, I won't come out drinking anymore. I'm going to get back to doing my own thing."

Lucas Carter was already snoring, not hearing a word Jack Dawson said.

……

Jack Dawson meant what he said. He once again immersed himself in endless medical research.

In the Ji Kingdom, there was no one left who could be his teacher, but that didn't matter to Jack Dawson.

Another three years passed. In those three years, Jack Dawson tried countless medicinal herbs and experimented with countless prescriptions. Although he hadn't found a way to awaken martial roots, he had developed three formulas that could help martial artists in their cultivation.

Any one of these formulas would drive martial artists mad, but Jack Dawson hadn't shared a single one.

These days, Jack Dawson was even more frenzied, digging for herbs in the northern mountains, because he had found a new formula that might awaken martial roots. The main ingredient of this new formula was Tibetan hemp.

A stone? Jack Dawson bent down and picked up a dull gray stone from the soil he had just turned over.

He had been digging along the root of the Tibetan hemp, but instead of finding the herb, he dug up a stone.

He was about to toss the stone away, but the icy cold sensation in his hand made Jack Dawson feel that this stone was somehow different from ordinary rocks.

Maybe it was an ice jade stone. Jack Dawson didn't really care how much an ice jade stone was worth. Even though everyone in Mingzhu City thought he was good for nothing, at least he never lacked money.

His father, Shawn Dawson, was a founding hero of the Ji Kingdom and the brother of King Mingyi. Of his five older brothers, four had died for the country, and one had died protecting the third prince. Both of his sisters had married into the royal family. In the entire Ji Kingdom, the The Dawson Family was as wealthy and powerful as it could get.

With such a background, how could Jack Dawson ever lack money?

"If it really is ice jade, then today wasn't wasted after all..." Jack Dawson laughed at himself, wiping the dirt off the stone in his hand. He didn't care about the money; at least he hadn't come away empty-handed today.

Before Jack Dawson could put the stone in his pocket, a terrifying cracking sound split the air above. Jack Dawson looked up in shock and saw a black rift appear in the blue sky.

A pale golden bolt of lightning shot out from the black rift, striking straight at his head. It's over, Jack Dawson thought, instinctively closing his eyes, his face turning pale.

It felt as if a bucket of electrified ice water had been poured over his head. Jack Dawson's whole body felt cold and numb.

Nothing happened? Jack Dawson looked up. The black rift was still in the distant sky. He glanced at the dull gray stone in his hand and was shocked to find that a thin thread of pale gold had appeared in the center of the stone.