The Relic of the Three Realms Ruler

Chapter 2

Several days passed, yet Lin Jiang remained unconscious.

His entire body was wrapped in white bandages, making him look like a mummy.

Unbeknownst to him, everything would change the moment he awakened. A transformation he had never imagined awaited him.

What Lin Jiang did not know was that the news of his shattered dantian and ruined talent had already spread throughout Linjiang City.

The rumors brought great shame to the Jiang family, which had been working hard to restore its honor in the city.

On the seventh day, Lin Jiang finally opened his eyes. The instant he regained consciousness, excruciating pain surged through every part of his body.

"It hurts..." Lin Jiang groaned.

However, he quickly ignored the pain after hearing a commotion outside the room where he was resting.

"What's going on out there?" he muttered.

Enduring the agony, Lin Jiang forced himself out of bed. When he opened the door, he was stunned to see his father kneeling before a man he recognized immediately.

"Father, what's happening?" Lin Jiang asked.

Every pair of eyes turned toward him, filled with contempt and ridicule.

"So, the useless brat is finally awake," the man sneered.

He was Master Qu, one of the most respected and influential figures in Linjiang City.

"Father-in-law, what's going on?" Lin Jiang asked, desperate for an explanation.

Slap!

His answer came in the form of a hard slap across the face, accompanied by eyes filled with disgust and disdain.

"Don't call me your father-in-law! From this day forward, the engagement between you and my daughter, Mai Qu, is canceled!" Master Qu shouted.

"Why?" Lin Jiang asked in disbelief.

"Because I refuse to marry someone as worthless as you!"

The voice belonged to a beautiful ten-year-old girl. Although she was still very young, her extraordinary beauty was already impossible to ignore.

"Mai... what's happening?" Lin Jiang asked, utterly confused.

He could not understand what was happening.

As far as he knew, he and Mai Qu had been engaged since childhood, and both of them had accepted the arrangement.

But after the news of Lin Jiang's destroyed dantian spread throughout the city, Master Qu immediately decided to sever all ties with the Jiang family, including canceling the engagement between his daughter, Mai Qu, and Lin Jiang.

In the past, Master Qu had been proud that his daughter was engaged to Lin Jiang because of the boy's extraordinary talent.

Now, however, everything had changed.

Lin Jiang's future had been destroyed. In everyone's eyes, he was nothing more than worthless trash.

"Give me an explanation!" Lin Jiang demanded.

"Ask your father," Master Qu replied coldly.

After delivering one final look of contempt, Master Qu left the Jiang residence with Mai Qu without showing even the slightest respect.

"Father, what happened?" Lin Jiang asked.

"I am not your father!" Master Jiang roared before turning around and walking away, leaving Lin Jiang standing at the doorway.

Lin Jiang was completely bewildered. He desperately wanted to know what had happened.

"Ning, what happened?" he asked his younger sister, Ning Jiang.

"You've brought disgrace upon the Jiang family," Sui Jiang, Lin Jiang's older brother, answered instead.

"What do you mean?" Lin Jiang asked.

Ning Jiang explained everything that had happened, and every word shattered the last of Lin Jiang's hopes.

"That's impossible..." Lin Jiang muttered as he collapsed weakly in front of his room.

"Because of you, our family has become the laughingstock of the entire city!" Sui Jiang shouted.

The fifteen-year-old grabbed Lin Jiang's clothes and glared at him with blazing anger.

"You should have died. That would've been better for everyone!"

Slap!

Bang!

A slap followed by a heavy punch crashed into Lin Jiang's stomach.

The pain throughout his body became even more unbearable. As an eleven-year-old boy, there was no way he could endure such suffering.

"Brother Sui, stop! Don't make Brother Lin suffer even more!" Ning Jiang cried.

"You fool! You know nothing!" Sui Jiang yelled. "You're just a girl. Don't you realize that if our family's reputation keeps falling, no respectable young man will ever want to marry you?"

"This has nothing to do with my son."

The gentle voice belonged to Wen Jiang, Lin Jiang's mother.

"Mother..." Lin Jiang called softly.

"Sui Jiang, Ning Jiang, you may leave. I'll stay with Lin Jiang," the woman in her forties said gently.

"Just throw him out, Mother," Sui Jiang said before leaving.

Unable to accept everything that had happened, Lin Jiang sat there in silence, not knowing what to do.

"Don't think about it too much," Wen Jiang comforted him.

"I'm nothing but trash now, Mother," Lin Jiang said bitterly.

"No. You'll always be the best son I could ever have."

"No, Mother. I'm no longer the Lin Jiang I used to be. I'm nothing but garbage now. I'll only become a burden to this family."

"So you finally realize it, you piece of trash?" Master Jiang shouted as he returned.

"Husband, please don't push our son any further. We have to help him," Wen Jiang pleaded, trying to calm her husband.

"No. He doesn't deserve our help. He'll only bring more trouble to this family!"

"There are still countless reasons for our son to keep living. Please don't make him suffer any more."

"Silence!" Master Jiang roared.

He pulled a dagger from inside his robes and walked toward Lin Jiang.

"What are you doing?" Wen Jiang cried as she stepped in front of him.

"Move!" Master Jiang barked, shoving his wife aside.

"Don't do this!" Wen Jiang screamed as she grabbed his leg.

"I told you to stay out of this!" Master Jiang shouted.

His anger had reached its limit after the humiliation inflicted upon him by the Qu family—his former future in-laws.

Thud!

Master Jiang threw the dagger onto the floor in front of Lin Jiang.

"Pick it up," he said coldly. "You have only two choices."

"Choices? What do you mean, Father?" Lin Jiang asked.

"Don't call me Father. I don't have a son who's nothing but trash."

"But Father—"

"Enough! Decide for yourself. Either kill yourself... or leave this house forever."

"Kill myself... or leave?" Lin Jiang whispered sadly as he looked into his father's cold, merciless eyes.