ASCENSION OF THE FORSAKEN DISCIPLE

“Look at him, Azure Cloud Sect’s eternal trash! Even pigs cultivate faster than Kai Lin!”

Li Shen’s voice boomed across the training yard, cutting through the morning air like a whip cane. Dozens of outer disciples burst into laughter. Their jeers echoed against the ancient stone walls of the sect’s martial field.

Sixteen-year-old Kai Lin stood in the center of the arena. He was panting with sweat rolling down his pale face. His frail body trembled from exertion as the wooden practice sword slipped from his hands and clattered onto the tiles. He bent over, clutching his chest. His breath was shallow. His veins screamed with pain and his broken meridians reminded him of his unworthiness once more.

“Trash! Trash! Trash!” The crowd of outer disciples chanted and their words  went through the atmosphere. It sunk into Kai's ears … but he hated it 

Kai clenched his fists. His nails are digging into his palm. He wanted to scream, to prove them wrong, but no words came. His body had betrayed him again.

“Pathetic.”

The single word came cold and sharp. Elder Zhao Tianren was dressed in azure robes embroidered with golden cloud patterns, and stood at the far end of the yard with his arms folded. 

His gaze was indifferent and his lips curled faintly in disdain. The overseer of the outer sect disciples, Zhao Tianren rarely used insulting words but when he did, they cut deeper than swords.

Kai’s chest tightened. He wanted to stand tall, but under Zhao Tianren’s gaze, he felt smaller than an ant.

Li Shen was tall and broad-shouldered. He walked forward with a smirk. He was the shining star of the outer sect. He was already at the peak of Body Refinement at just seventeen. “Elder Zhao,” Li Shen said with mock politeness, “this Kai Lin wastes everyone’s time. He has broken meridians and no spiritual root worth mentioning. Why does the sect even bother keeping him?”

The disciples burst into laughter again and they all startrr contributing to what he said. 

“Yes, why keep him? He’s just here for free meals!”

“I heard his father was a coward who vanished years ago. Trash runs in the family!”

“Maybe the sect keeps him around so we can laugh during training!”

Kai’s vision blurred.  Anger surged in his chest. His father, Lin Chen. The name stabbed into his heart.

“Father…” That name slipped out of his tongue. 

The flash of memory came in his mind. Kai's father was a tall man with a back as straight as a spear. He stood beneath the tall azure banners of the sect. His voice was firm, “Kai, remember, dignity is the only thing they cannot strip from you. Even if the world calls you trash, never bow your head.”

And then, blood and whispers of betrayal clashed in his head. His father had vanished after clashing with sect elders. No one spoke of him anymore. Some said he fled in disgrace and Some said he was executed. Kai never believed any of it. His father was not a coward. He couldn’t be.

But under the jeering eyes of the sect, Kai could not even defend his father’s name.

“Pick up the sword, trash.” Li Shen kicked it toward him. The wood struck Kai’s shin before skidding across the ground.

Kai staggered but didn’t fall. Slowly, he bent and picked up the weapon with his fingers trembling.

He raised his eyes to Li Shen. “One day, I’ll…”

“Silence!” Elder Zhao’s voice cracked across the courtyard like thunder without even letting him complete his statement. 

His sharp eyes glinted dangerously. “Kai Lin, do you think this training ground is a place for empty boasts? You cannot even complete the first stance of the Azure Cloud Sword Manual. Your existence is a shame to the sect.”

Kai’s lips parted, but Zhao’s next words crushed him.

“From this day forward, you will perform labor until you learn humility. The Ancestral Trial Grounds have been neglected a long time. You will clean them alone until further notice.”

Gasps rippled through the disciples lips all at once. No one expected that harsh punishment.

“The Ancestral Trial Grounds?” one whispered. “That cursed place?”

“Even elders avoid going there after nightfall…”

“To send a useless outer disciple there, it’s basically exile!”

Li Shen grinned broadly. “A fitting punishment, Elder Zhao. Trash should be tossed into trash.”

Kai’s chest burned. He wanted to argue, to beg for fairness, but Zhao Tianren’s cold gaze silenced him. In the depths of those eyes, Kai saw a sense of recognition. It was fleeting, but it chilled him.

“Does he… know something about Father?” Kai thought in his head. But couldn't say a word to him. 

Zhao Tianren turned, his robes billowing. “Take him away.”

The disciples jeered and laughed as Kai was shoved toward the gates. Someone spat at his feet. Another tossed a stone that struck his shoulder.

“Don’t come back alive, trash!”

“Better ghosts than garbage disciples like you!”

Kai stumbled forward but kept walking. He wouldn’t bow to their pressures just as his father had said to him, not to them and not today.

……….

…..

The Ancestral Trial Grounds was beyond the sect’s bustling yards. It was hidden behind moss-covered stone gates that groaned open with an eerie creak. The air was cold and very heavy since the place has been abandoned for years. 

Broken statues of ancient sect ancestors stood half-buried in the weeds and their faces had been eroded although solemn.

Kai entered alone, dragging a broom behind him. Every step he took inside felt like an exile and every breath he took was a reminder of his disgrace.

But as he swept away the dust that covered the layers of the ancient carvings, his thoughts burned brighter.

“They call me trash. They laugh at me. They think I’ll die here. But I will not bow. I will not break. One day, I believe I will be able to cultivate too.”

He paused, resting his forehead against the broom handle. His chest still throbbed from earlier humiliation, but deep within, a faint ember flickered.

 His father’s voice echoed once more, “Dignity, Kai. Even if the heavens call you worthless, you must carve your worth with your own hands.”

The broom scraped against a crack in the stone floor. A sharp clink echoed in the silence. Curious, Kai brushed away the dust. His eyes widened. Beneath the dirt  was a faint glowing sigil, glowing and humming like a human heart. 

For a moment, the jeers of Li Shen, the scorn of Zhao Tianren and the weight of humiliation all faded at its sight. 

“What is this?” He thought in his head. 

Something ancient stirred beneath his fingertips.

Kai’s bones quickened. Instead of running away and reporting the situation, he wanted to know more about what he saw. 

He didn’t know why, but his instincts screamed that this discovery was no accident.