A Legend of a Heavenly Cultivator

4 Oppressed by One's Own Family

Chu Jianqiu leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

Within his mind realm, the tower's light pulsed softly. Warm. Like another heartbeat.

He did not know where the tower came from. Perhaps his mother had left it before she departed. Perhaps his father. Perhaps neither of them had anything to do with it and the tower came from something else, from the fall into that ravine itself, from the boundary between life and death that he had briefly touched.

No answers for now.

But Chu Jianqiu was in no hurry to find answers. As he became stronger, as more of the tower's doors opened, he was certain the answers would come on their own.

'What matters now is...'

The sound of footsteps was heard again from the corridor.

But the steps were different. Quieter. Heavier.

Chu Jianqiu opened his eyes.

Ru Hua appeared at the door of the main room.

Yet this time it was not a hurried or spirited expression that she brought home. The girl stood with her head slightly lowered, and even from several steps away, Chu Jianqiu could see that something was wrong.

Her left cheek.

Red. Slightly swollen.

And at the corner of her eye, there was a trace of redness that indicated that whether from pain or anger or both, the little girl had nearly cried but managed to hold it in.

Chu Jianqiu rose from his chair with a movement far faster than his body's condition should have allowed.

"Ru Hua."

His voice was not loud. But there was something in it that made the girl lift her head.

"What happened?"

Ru Hua pressed her lips together briefly, then answered with a voice kept carefully from breaking. "The treasure room was guarded, Young Master. When I asked for Young Master's monthly allowance, Physician Wen said that... he said Young Master was already dead. He said there was no allowance for someone who was already dead. And when I said Young Master was still alive and had just returned home, he..." The girl stopped for a moment. "He slapped my cheek and told me to leave."

The silence in that room felt different from before.

Chu Jianqiu did not move for two full seconds.

Then he walked toward the door.

"Young Master?" Ru Hua called out in a small voice.

"Show me where the treasure room is." His voice was calm. Too calm. "Now."

Chapter 3 — An Unexpected Awakening

The Chu Family treasure room was located in the eastern wing of the complex, guarded by two thick wooden doors reinforced with iron bars and a guard who rotated every four hours. Chu Jianqiu had memorized all of this since childhood. What had changed was not the layout, but who now felt entitled to stand there like the master of the house.

He stepped into the eastern corridor with Ru Hua slightly behind him.

The sound of conversation came from within, occasionally punctuated by loud, impolite laughter. The treasure room door was wide open, and inside, a young man around eighteen years old sat in the guard's chair with his feet propped up on the table, a small bottle of wine grasped in his hand.

Chu Bolin.

A cousin from the family's second branch. His age was two years younger than Chu Jianqiu, but his build was larger, bulkier, with a facial expression accustomed to looking down on things. Behind him stood two family servants who seemed to function more as personal followers than true servants.

When Chu Jianqiu's steps halted at the threshold, Chu Bolin turned lazily.

Then his eyes froze.

Three seconds passed in awkward silence.

Then Chu Bolin laughed.

"Well, well." He lowered his feet from the table casually, spinning his wine bottle once between his fingers. "So what that little servant girl said earlier was true. You are still alive, Jianqiu." He paused briefly, then narrowed his eyes. "Or more precisely, you can still walk."

"Where is my monthly allowance?" Chu Jianqiu wasted no time on pleasantries.

Chu Bolin shrugged. "Allowance for whom? As far as I know, our family head has already left. And the news circulating in this city, spreading since yesterday afternoon, says that Young Master Chu Jianqiu has been devoured by wild beasts." He sipped his wine slowly. "The treasure room cannot release medicine for someone who is not registered as a living family member. That is the rule."

"A rule you made up yourself."

"A rule that applies." Chu Bolin straightened his body, standing with an expression that shifted slightly sharper. "Besides, even if you are indeed still alive and somehow survived that ravine, your condition must be..." His eyes swept over Chu Jianqiu's body from top to bottom, searching for something. "Your dantian must be destroyed. Your cultivation must be gone. You come here pretending to stand upright, but I know your real condition."

Ru Hua behind Chu Jianqiu clenched her fists quietly.

Chu Jianqiu did not answer immediately.

His eyes shifted briefly to Ru Hua's left cheek that was still reddened, then returned to Chu Bolin's face.

"You are the one who slapped my servant earlier."

Not a question. A statement.

Chu Bolin scoffed. "That little girl didn't know her place. Kept insisting you were still alive, kept demanding medicine allowance for a corpse that she said could walk on its own. What should I have done, let her keep babbling?" He waved his hand as if shooing a fly. "One slap is not a big deal. She's fine."

"She's fine."

Chu Jianqiu repeated those words in the exact same tone as Chu Bolin, but with completely different content.

Then he stepped inside.

Chu Bolin did not retreat, but something in his expression changed, like someone suddenly unsure of his own calculations. His two followers behind him immediately moved forward to take positions.

"What do you want to do?" Chu Bolin asked, his tone still attempting to sound casual but with tension behind it. "You have no qi. Your cultivation is gone. Don't pretend to be..."

Chu Jianqiu's hand moved.

Not a big strike. Not the movement of his former cultivation. Just one quick jerk of the hand, precisely striking Chu Bolin's wrist so that the wine bottle slipped free and fell to the floor with a sharp shattering sound.

Then, before Chu Bolin could react, a thrust of qi that felt very inconsistent with the condition of someone who was supposed to have no cultivation left flowed from Chu Jianqiu's palm and struck his cousin's shoulder hard enough to make him stumble two steps backward.

Silence.

Chu Bolin steadied himself with a hand gripping the edge of the table. His expression was no longer casual. His eyes looked at Chu Jianqiu with a mixture of confusion and something resembling disbelief.

'He still has qi? But the way he walked earlier, his body posture...'

"You..." Chu Bolin gritted his teeth. "You two! Grab him!"

His two followers immediately moved.

And that was when the situation in the treasure room began to become more crowded than anyone had planned.

Chu Jianqiu blocked the first attack by deflecting the direction of the punch using the side of his arm, spinning his body, and pushing the first attacker into the second attacker so that both crashed into each other. His movements were not as smooth as before, there was still stiffness here and there because his meridians had only just recovered, but their effectiveness was undeniable.

Qi flowed in a small but sharp amount.

Enough.

The sounds of thuds, groans, and a chair being shoved filled the room for the next several seconds. Then silence returned.

Chu Bolin's two followers were no longer in a position to stand with confidence. One sat in the corner with an expression that said he did not expect today to end like this. The other was massaging his shoulder while avoiding eye contact with anyone.

Chu Bolin himself stood with his jaw tightly clenched, his eyes burning.

"You will regret this," he muttered.

"Before I regret it," Chu Jianqiu replied calmly, "please confirm first that my little servant girl's cheek is fine."

Then a voice from the direction of the door cut through the tension.

"What is going on here?"

That voice was old but strong, carrying an authority that came from age and long experience. Chu Jianqiu turned.

A white haired man stood at the threshold, his robe simple but of quality, his deep eyes surveying the entire situation in the room with one trained sweep.

Elder Chu Minghan.

One of the few elders who still held shares of Chu Jianqiu's trust since his father left. The old man looked at Chu Bolin, then looked at Chu Jianqiu, then looked at the two people sitting on the floor with uncomfortable expressions.

"Chu Jianqiu." His tone was not angry. More like relief hidden well. "You are alive."

"So it appears, Elder."

Chu Minghan turned to Chu Bolin with a gaze far less warm. "Bolin. Get out."

"But Elder, he started it..."

"Get out."

Chu Bolin pressed his lips together, looked at Chu Jianqiu with a gaze that held an unspoken promise, then walked out with steps that tried to appear unhurried. His two followers followed slightly more hastily.

Elder Chu Minghan entered the room, standing a few steps from Chu Jianqiu. His eyes examined the young man's condition carefully, the way someone long involved in the cultivation world examines a person, searching for indications of qi, searching for signs of internal injury.

"Your condition?" he asked quietly.

"Partially recovered."

"Your dantian?"

"Still usable."

The elder drew a long breath, more a breath of relief than worry. "Thank goodness." He shook his head gently. "When the news about you spread yesterday, I did not believe it immediately. But there was nothing I could prove."

"Elder does not need to prove anything." Chu Jianqiu looked at him. "I will prove myself that I am still here."

A commotion sounded from outside, and Chu Bolin reappeared at the threshold, this time with a face that looked more confident because someone was behind him.

Another elder. Younger than Chu Minghan, with a face that suggested he and Chu Bolin had a relationship exceeding that of a mere elder and ordinary family member.

Elder Chu Renfa.

Chu Bolin's protector. Everyone in this family knew that.

"Jianqiu." Chu Renfa's tone was not warm. "You just returned home and immediately caused a disturbance in the treasure room. This is not the way a proper heir returns."

"A proper way," Chu Jianqiu repeated, "does not seem to be the way people here use when treating my servant."

"That small matter is..."

"Enough." Chu Minghan raised one hand with an authority that could not be ignored even by Chu Renfa. "This is not the right time and place for this debate." His eyes shifted to Chu Bolin with a gaze containing a clear warning. "Bolin. If you have something to say to Jianqiu, say it the right way."

Chu Bolin gritted his teeth.

Then he looked at Chu Jianqiu with a gaze that no longer hid his hostility.

"Fine," he said at last. "The right way." He raised his chin slightly. "Tomorrow morning, in the main training ground. An open challenge. I want to know how much of that ability of yours you say still remains, brother." That last word he uttered with an emphasis that contained no brotherly feeling whatsoever.

Chu Jianqiu looked at him for a moment.

'He does not know what happened inside that ravine. He does not know about that tower. All he knows is that my dantian should be destroyed and my cultivation should be gone. He thinks this is a fight he has already won before it has even begun.'

The corner of Chu Jianqiu's lips lifted slightly.

"Tomorrow morning," he answered. "I will be there."