The little girl looked somewhat uneasy, her eyes revealing a sense of inferiority.

Wherever she walked, there were mocking laughs from the younger generation.

The little girl's name was ‘Jane Taylor’, she had no surname, and was the adopted daughter whom the family head Nathaniel Reed had brought back from outside. She was slightly younger than John Reed, but they were the same age.

Her cultivation talent was an oddity among the younger generation of the Luo family. John Reed’s aptitude was frighteningly high, while hers was abysmally poor.

Last year, both she and John Reed participated in the test for the first time. John Reed’s strength reached over nine hundred jin, while hers was as low as twenty-three jin.

A strength of twenty-three jin was still a world away from even the first level of the Body Tempering Realm, Skin Refining, only a bit stronger than a nine-year-old girl who had never cultivated.

Both were children of the family head Nathaniel Reed, but her performance and John Reed’s were complete opposites.

Of course, no one found this too strange. After all, John Reed was Nathaniel Reed’s biological son, while Jane Taylor was just an adopted daughter whom Nathaniel Reed had brought back from outside.

That year, Nathaniel Reed returned to the Luo family carrying Jane Taylor, badly injured, his cultivation having fallen to the Dao Embryo Realm. From then on, his cultivation never improved again.

Because of her poor aptitude, and because Nathaniel Reed was gravely injured when he brought her back, causing a once peerless genius to halt his progress, she was not well regarded in the Luo family.

However, Nathaniel Reed treated her as his own, and John Reed also protected her in every way. Others at most dared to laugh at her, but never dared to bully her.

It wasn’t until John Reed, returning from the strength testing stone, and Jane Taylor, stepping out from the crowd, met each other that the guests’ gazes finally fell on the small figure standing in front of John Reed.

“Jane Taylor, don’t be afraid. No matter how far you can go in cultivation, your brother will always have your back…!” John Reed patted Jane Taylor’s shoulder, gave her an encouraging look, and then returned to his seat.

Encouraged by John Reed, Jane Taylor lifted her head a little, walked up to the strength testing stone, took a deep breath, then clenched her teeth, seemingly gathering all her strength.

“Ha—!”

Little Jane Taylor shouted loudly, thrusting her fist straight forward, striking the strength testing stone.

In the next instant, her small arm bounced back as if shocked by electricity, her brows furrowing deeply—the rebound clearly caused her quite a bit of pain.

The strength testing stone remained calm as water, not a ripple appearing, but two numbers were displayed—30.

“Jane Taylor, strength thirty jin, unqualified.”

The surrounding guests immediately burst into laughter, and some of the younger generation doubled over with laughter.

In a year, she had only increased her strength by seven jin. Such results were truly unworthy of a martial artist.

Jane Taylor immediately lowered her head, dejected.

John Reed frowned, and at once, several of the laughing juniors nearby quickly fell silent, not daring to go too far.

After Jane Taylor, dozens more juniors took the test. Most had average results, but a few did quite well.

For example, the second elder’s grandson Felix Reed, eleven years old this year, on his third test, his strength had already reached over one thousand one hundred and seventy jin. The third elder’s grandson Quincy Reed, twelve years old, though not as strong as Hugh Reed, was still better than Eugene Reed, reaching one thousand five hundred and thirty-four jin.

……

The strength tests for the Luo family’s younger generation were completed, and the guests from all sides took their leave, their words full of respect for the Luo family.

The Luo family had promising successors, especially with John Reed present. It was easy to imagine that in a few years, the Luo family’s status in Pingyang County would rise even higher.

Night fell, at the Luo family’s main residence.

Nathaniel Reed sat in the study, with John Reed standing before him.

“Cough, cough…!” Nathaniel Reed coughed lightly, reached into his robe, and took out a small cauldron about a third the size of a fist, gently stroking it.

John Reed looked at his father, listening to the cough, feeling a pang in his heart.

When outside, Nathaniel Reed would never act like this. Only when alone with John Reed would he show his exhaustion.

“It was that person who harmed father like this…!” John Reed gritted his teeth, flames flickering in his eyes, a name flashing through his mind: “Howard Newman.”

Ten years ago, Nathaniel Reed returned to the Luo family carrying the infant Jane Taylor, gravely injured, his cultivation falling to the peak of the Dao Embryo Realm, unable to advance further.

Later, news came that the one who injured Nathaniel Reed was none other than the young master of the Nangong family, one of the four great families of the Great Chu Immortal Dynasty, and one of the top ten geniuses of the younger generation in the dynasty—Howard Newman.

Nathaniel Reed gently stroked the small cauldron. After dozens of breaths, he finally raised his eyes to look at John Reed, handed the cauldron over, and said, “Take it.”

“Father, this is…?” John Reed took the cauldron and asked.

“Your mother left it for you.” Nathaniel Reed looked at John Reed, but his gaze was distant, as if seeing memories through time and space.

“My mother…?” John Reed’s expression changed. From childhood to now, he had never seen his mother, and not only him—except for Nathaniel Reed, no one in the Luo family had ever seen her.

One day ten years ago, the Luo family’s dazzling genius Nathaniel Reed returned, bringing back a son—John Reed.