Zu Mari slammed his fist into the unrelenting bark of a tree. It didn’t even have the decency to chip off a piece, let alone bend around his unstoppable fist like he'd seen others do.

His cultivation was a joke. His strength was less than a child’s. All his life, Zu had been a useless weakling. He couldn’t even find friends among other outcasts, who feared that they’d be dragged down by association.

Only his spirit was extraordinary. His unwavering determination to fight in the face of every hardship the cruelties of fate could throw at him.

Zu punched the tree again.

Something fell, a silver pill that glowed like the moon, and landed right in his hand. He stared at it, astonished. It was so strong he couldn’t sense its presence at all, so powerful it felt like a void in existence. He could see it with his eyes, but it felt like a breath of wind as he enclosed it in his hand and to his weak spiritual sense it drew every bit of free-floating natural energy nearby into itself like the gravity of a black hole.

Zu Mari looked up at the tree in case it might be a tree of mystical power or an awakened tree to whom he should offer an apology for punching its trunk. But to his best examination the tree was perfectly ordinary in every way. It looked the same as the trees to either side.

Then he heard the sonic boom of someone flying at unnatural speed, and in a flash of insight he knew what must have happened. Two great immortals had clashed somewhere far above him. The victor had left, and the defeated… had dropped this great treasure when he perished.

Zu’s breath caught and he considered how best to turn this situation to his advantage. He could hunt down the victorious immortal and gain his favor by turning over this great treasure, but then he’d be late finishing his chores and his clan would banish him. What was the use of an immortal’s favor if it came at the cost of never returning home?

Besides, there was another option. He could swallow this immortal’s treasure and take its power for himself. No sooner did the thought cross his mind than he put it into action. Suddenly afraid that the immortal would return and search for his treasure, Zu swallowed the air-light moon pill at once.

The change was immediate. Power like pure fire flooded through his core. He felt his channels being purged, his power condensing and any impurities being burned away like chaff. He felt the power of the world rushing in toward him to fill the sudden void at his center as the power inside him compressed it all tighter and tighter, refining his spirit purer and purer into the most perfect core he could ever have imagined.

Zu Mari hardly noticed the other changes, so consumed by the spiritual awakening taking place within his soul, but his scrawny and weak body was growing at an incredible rate, making him taller and his muscles twisting and flexing with new power. He now looked like the sort of person who had been building his body for centuries rather than the sort who was too weak and useless to even be given a basic training manual.

But when he returned to the clan in the evening to do his chores, everyone else certainly didn’t fail to notice. Whispers followed him, girls giggled and batted their eyes at him, and the senior disciples followed his progress with wide eyes and jaws dropping open in awe.

His grandfather had been visiting this branch of the clan for political reasons, but as he sensed Zu approaching he came out in person to greet this powerful stranger. When he saw that it was his own weakest grandchild, his heart almost stopped.

“Zu? You have grown since I saw you last.”

“Isn’t it wonderful! I finally feel like I can perform the secret techniques and not bring shame to the Mari name.” Zu bowed respectfully. “Please, grandfather, I have only one request. May I be granted access to our library? I will study harder than anyone you have ever heard of in all of history, and prove that I can bring the greatest respect to our Mari clan!”

Grandfather Gari stroked his beard and nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, my wonderful Zu. I have always secretly hoped that you would become the greatest among us. You were my favourite, you know. You may have access to the library, but more than that. Take this.” Grandfather Gari held out a key that was blacker than oil at midnight, so black that Zu had a hard time looking at it. “This will open the Sacred Vault beneath the library. Take any of the treasures that you like, and study well the sacred tomes within. I know you will become worthy of the power I am granting you.”

“I will! Thank you!” Abandoning formality, Zu stepped forward and threw himself upon his grandfather, hugging him close. “I always liked to imagine someone secretly cared about me,” he said.

Grandfather Gari nodded and patted his back, tears in the old man’s eyes. “I only wish it had not been necessary to withdraw all visible support from you, but until you were strong enough to protect yourself any sign of my favor would have only led to your being murdered by the envious. It is better this way. Now you can take up my mantle and inherit everything when I am gone.”

He had twenty-seven other older grandchildren who were in line ahead of Zu, but it would only take a few words in his will to change that. Soon, Zu Mari would be the sole heir and designate future leader of the entire Mari clan and all its holdings across seven provinces.

Zu had worked hard his whole life. He absolutely deserved every reward that was coming to him.

But even as Zu and Grandfather Gari celebrated their new loving relationship, other eyes were watching with envy and hatred.

Mari Kayli crossed her arms and watched the old man take the fool under his wing so easily, as though he'd ever cared for him.

Zu… It was unbelievable that someone so talentless would suddenly become so mighty. But it was undeniable that he had become incredibly powerful in just one day. He had changed in everything from demeanor to core strength since the morning.

Kayli had worked for seventeen years to earn her place as third granddaughter, and she fully intended to become head of the clan one day. To have the talentless Zu suddenly jump past her… it was unacceptable.

Zu Mari would submit to her precedence, or he would die.