All Chapters of The Stepping Stones: Chapter 21 - Chapter 29
29 chapters
The Bullies and the Victims(1)
"You are an absolute trash,""You're a shame to your family's name,""You don't deserve me, trash,""What are you doing here, trash?"I grew up hearing all sorts of comments like this. It wasn't anything special. It was just the norm but while overusing the word lost its edge to me, it wasn't the same for everyone else.They were blunt to the point of it being scary.How was this even possible? It was an edgy thing until I was over 7 years old.I heard new insults being tossed around every day, like 'I'm your Grandfather', 'Is that all you have?', 'I'll crush you like an ant, brat' but by the time I was 10, even that started to bore me.I could hear it all day with the most malicious intent, yet it wouldn't affect me, at most, it would make me wince a little inside.Now, things were different for the folks around. Every time they screamed, "TRASH", it was a mini victory for them, a cause of celebration, a reason behind t
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The Honoured and the Fallen(2)
The crowd held their breath for some reason, waiting for the paralysis boy with a 'trash imagination' to pull off a miracle, and that's exactly what he did.The ball shone with a blinding white light and by the time the glimmer faded away, the five 'immortals' were on the verge of fighting each other, all keen to take him into their sect.The cause of this... was a Low-Heaven Spirit Root, one that hasn't been seen in the millions of miles of the region around us in ages.When the argument was about to scale up, the City Lord, my maternal uncle bowed and asked them to leave the choice to his son.Originally, the 5 of them would have slapped him shut, but considering his status as the father of the supreme genius, they shut up and let the boy decide.As the boy with spirited eyes hesitated to make his choice, I looked around at the rest of my bizarre cousins.The bullies were looking at it with a mixture of fear and uncertainty, probably cursi
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The Domineering and the Pragmatic(3)
How did my cousin reach the third realm of Qi refining and become the strongest of our cohort was beyond me, but now that he did, it was bound to cause me trouble. Our sect was divided into the outer court, inner court, and central court. One wasn't allowed entry into the central court until they had established their foundations and transcended the Qi Refining realm. As for the inner court? These were the lifeline of the sect. They didn't have to complete missions, they had abundant resources and each one of them was nurtured lovingly by the sect. The purpose of this competition, in fact, was to select 10 more inner court disciples. Naturally, the disciples were already pumped up, intent on giving it their all to acquire a position in the top ten and change their fate once and for all. The battle spirit and fighting intent of the disciples was contagious but in my eyes, performing in a competition like a monkey with an abused and single-minded idiot
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Egomaniac Cousins(4)
As time passed, the idea of my revenge didn't fade away like I thought it would. I was a cultivator as well, and in my humble hut, as I did nothing but cultivate, there was only so much I could think.I did a lot of mental gymnastics and enacted various plans in my head. All possibilities that I could think of though, seemed to be leading me towards a miserable end.One month after the tournament was done, an Outer sect elder came to my doorstep, to ask me of my reasons to admit defeat at the start of the tournament despite having the highest cultivation of our cohort.I shook my head and told him I wasn't prepared to risk my life for a tournament.He then started lecturing me seriously about the perilous cultivation world and the dangers outside. After he was done, he saw my uninterested expression and told me to 'man up' and face my troubles instead of always trying to escape them.After he left my hut, I thought long and hard about his superfici
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The Regressor and the Reincarnater(5)
The tournament was about to start after 3 days and to 'protect' me from my 'ice-cold' cousin, the leading elder that interrogated me decided to let me stay with the other inner court and chief court disciples.The violent guy was locked somewhere else in isolation for three days by the elder.The second day after coming into the sect's inn, I had a visitor.I was surprised. It was my manipulative cousin. As I thought, she had arrived with fanfare to boost her reputation.I copied my cool ex-vegetable cousin and replied, "You don't qualify to meet me."But this was a tough opponent. Instead of being enraged, she made an even more pitiable and wronged expression and sobbingly said, "Why brother? WHY? What did I do to deserve this?"With just one move, she made the focus of the proceedings shift from the fight of the two ex-bullied guys in the tournament, cousins from a rival sect, to their 'arrogant bootlicking cousin' behind the scenes.<
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Crowd Versus the Regressor(6)
I looked at them for a long time, prepared to enjoy their fight. It was funny how they were both at the peak of the Qi Refining realm and yet had contemptuous expressions on their faces as if they were fighting a block of wood instead of an adversary.The violent guy was the first to attack. At this point, it just seemed natural when that happened. It was a sharp and nasty punch.The ex-vegetable's expression quickly changed as he used his palm to narrowly deflect it.In a single move, both of them were shocked by each other's ability and reaction. The ex-vegetable's killing intent was soon palpable for an unknown reason.I was now thinking, did I take it too far? After all, to have him killed didn't seem like an appropriate punishment for what he did to me but that feeling quickly faded away when I recalled that these two guys would probably fight to death sooner or later. All I did only brought that day forward, nothing more, nothing less.<
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The Fall and the Rise
Amidst the jarring cheers of the crowd, the fight between the two characters continued on the stage without a hint of affection.They were like two machines that didn't know how to stop. Now and then, the regressor, the 'ex-vegetable guy' would face another few punches while being distracted by the creative insults being thrown his way.The elder managing the fight didn't have the authority to shut all the spectators up. They could have set up noise cancellation, but who would be willing to spend spirit stones without any personal interest? He wasn't from the sword cultivation sect anyway. This tournament was supposed to be an easy victory for him. Just how much did he change the world by traveling back in time? He was panicking a little inwardly."MOLEST THIS VIOLENT CHILD~~"Moreover, cheers like these weren't helping him either. As a powerful and authoritative figure in his previous life, if he admitted his defeat here, it wou
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Can't Bear it Anymore
Yo, why is everyone looking at me like that? You guys were shouting even more creative insults than I had given you credit for.I almost thought it wasn't even the cultivation world anymore, no one said, 'trash', 'grandfather', or 'sneered', just good old trolling.Watching the ultimate moves of the two guys gave me nausea for an unknown reason. Just as I drank some water to quench my thirst, the fight was already over and everyone was giving me weird looks.I looked at the stage where only the violent guy was standing now, holding a golden crystal in his hand. Eh, where did the other one go?People around me were far too shocked and horrified to answer me. My miserable helpless cousin was bawling like a child, as usual, and my manipulative cousin was wiping her tears as well.What the f*ck happened in a few moments? Guys, I have FOMO, can anyone cue me in, to the really cool thing that just happened?Before I could ask anyone, the previous
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The Rise of the Fallen(last)
Of course, mindlessly rampaging wasn't allowed by the managing elder, the organizers, and the leading elder of the women sect team. He was put down quickly by these guys but he was still staring at my Goddess with killing intent. I didn't miss this chance to attack his rationality again, "SHE WAS ALSO THE ONE THAT ORDERED US TO BEAT SENSE INTO YOU, PIECE OF TRASH BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT. YOU'RE NOT MY COUSIN, YOU'RE A MONSTER."My words triggered his sensitive spots because as soon as he heard them, he stood up with a dangerous aura sizzling out of him. Even the elders were feeling a bit afraid of him now, but he still wasn't set free. They needed to abide by the rules after all.Being suppressed by the elders made him livid, as his turbulent rage found an outlet. At this moment, everyone that stopped him from killing us was his mortal enemy, if he had to slaughter the world, then so be it.Blood covered his eyes and body as
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