Mu Chengxue saw him shaking his head and said in a low voice, “Just give up. Those ancient cultivation methods have already gone with the end of that era.” She thought that Xiao Chen was only looking for those ancient cultivation methods.

Xiao Chen said nothing. Ancient cultivation methods? Wasn’t his Mystic Cyan Cultivation Method the most abstruse ancient cultivation method? But he had tried countless times to cultivate and nothing worked. He could not feel any Spiritual Qi at all.

“Why can you cultivate to Core Forming Realm, while I can’t feel any Spiritual Qi?” He asked the question he wanted to ask the most.

Mu Chengxue was dumbstruck while looking at him. She then said, “I thought you were a man who knows a lot about cultivating. But how can you ask such a simple and even funny question?”

Xiao Chen frowned and said, “Funny? I really don’t know.”

Mu Chengxue shook her head and said nothing.

“Tell me. What exactly is going on? I really don’t know.” Xiao Chen lost his patience.

“All right, give me your hand.”

Xiao Chen pulled up his sleeves and stretched out his hand as she said.

Mu Chengxue placed two fingers together as a slight amount of white radiance glowed on the fingertips. She then pressed two fingertips on his wrist. A moment later, her eyebrows furrowed tighter and tighter. Finally, she said, “You don’t even have a single Spiritual Meridian. How can you feel the Spiritual Qi from heaven and earth?”

“Spiritual Meridian? What is it?” Xiao Chen was confused. When he cultivated in the Mystic Cyan Sect, he had never heard of something called Spiritual Meridian.

Mu Chengxue shook her head and realized he knew nothing. “The Spiritual Meridian is the basics of a Cultivator. One must have at least one Spiritual Meridian to feel the Spiritual Qi from heaven and earth. One who has three Spiritual Meridians enjoys an excellent talent. One who has six are peerless. One who has nine are saints. One can have 12 Spiritual Meridians at most, and nobody completely had 12 Spiritual Meridians in thousands of years.”

After having listened to her for a while, Xiao Chen asked a question he hated to ask. “Do you mean that I can’t cultivate only because I don’t have even a single Spiritual Meridian?”

Mu Chengxue nodded and said, “You can say so.”

Xiao Chen seemed to been struck by a thunderbolt out of the blue. Back then, he had never heard of this Spiritual Meridian, and everybody could cultivate. Even one with the worst talent could cultivate to Qi Refining Realm in eight to ten years, and then work harder to reach Foundation Building Realm. Those with better talent could reach Core Forming Realm or even Nascent Soul Realm. His talent was peerless in that era, but now…

He felt a bit helpless. Was there really a heavenly law that ruled the common people? He shouldn’t have been alive now. Was the god punishing and torturing him now only because he survived that calamity?

He stood on his feet and then staggered out of the cave. He finally got the answer he always wanted to know, but the truth was so cruel.

“You helped me to break through that formation. I can give you a layer of Mystic Skill. Within a month, I’ll make you able to beat any cultivator lower than Foundation Building Realm,” said Mu Chengxue behind him.

“No, thanks…” Xiao Chen said in a weak voice.

Mu Chengxue sighed and then murmured while thinking, “How can he have not a single Spiritual Meridian? Something’s not right! I just feel his… Is he… Hey! Wait! Come back!”

She suddenly raised her head in shock. But Xiao Chen had already vanished without a trace.

Returning to Purple Bine Pavilion where he lived, Xiao Chen punched at a big banyan tree, making the leaves rustling.

“Why!”

He yelled at the sky and then punched at the tree again and again until he smashed the tree bark and left his hands covered with blood.

“Why! Master, where are you?” “Why did you save me? Why did you make me suffer like this? Tell me…”

After waking up from the long sleeping, thousands of years had passed. This was actually the most painful thing to him, yet he had no one to talk to.

“Why did you leave me alone in this world? Why can’t I die even if I wanted to? Master, kill me, please…”

He howled desperately and clenched the tree trunk with both hands. His fingers wedged into the tree bark as blood was flowing down the trunk. But this didn’t matter, because the wounds on his fingers would surely be healed in three days without a visible scar.

“Young… Young Master! Bad news!”

At this moment, an urgent voice came from outside. Xiao Chen turned around and saw a red-shirted girl running to him hurriedly. This girl was named Lil Ruo, and his mother bought her from a villain down the mountain many years ago. This girl was his maid, but Xiao Chen had treated her as his sister since he was a kid.

“Take your time, Lil Ruo. What’s the matter?”

“Uncle Yifan… Uncle Yifan…” Lil Ruo could not catch her breath and say the words.

Xiao Chen grasped her shoulders. “Calm down. What happened to my father?”

“Uncle Yifan is having words with some elders in the main hall. They are about to pick up a fight! Young master, go stop him quickly. Uncle Yifan can’t defeat those elders!”

“What!?”

Xiao Chen immediately rushed outside his residence. The Conference Hall of the Xiao Family, Fly Cloud Hall, was located in the Fly Cloud Court. Before he reached the hall, he already heard a violent quarrel from inside. Countless Xiao Family disciples had already thronged outside the hall, pointing at the hall and chattering.

In the hall, Xiao Yifan and some elders already looked flushed. Xiao Yifan thundered, “What’s the matter with three more years? Huh? Your coffins will be ready in three years or something?”

“Everybody knows that your son is a loser! He can’t do anything even if given 10 more years!” A red-robed elder refuted angrily.

Another elder continued, “Xiao Yifan! Don’t act on your wish only because you’re the son of the chieftain! Even though you’ve grown up and had a say in family issues, we are your seniors! Mind your manner while speaking to us!”

Xiao Yifan snarled, “I am talking to you in a manner! My Chen’er is about to reach Onefold. What’s so wrong about three more years?”

“It’s not that we don’t give him time! The Clan Rules have been set! We have made exceptions time and time again! Are you even taking the rules seriously?” snarled the red-robed elder.

“Enough!”

Just at this point, a cold thunder came to the hall as Xiao Chen stepped in. The red-robed elder pointed at him and said to Xiao Yifan, “Look! Your son is here now! Did you just said that he is about to reach Onefold?”

He then used his hand as a knife to cut off the corner of a fine sandalwood table, and then handed it over to Xiao Yifan, saying, “Let him break this piece of sandalwood and I’ll give him three more years!”

Xiao Chen walked forth, snatched the sandalwood, and smashed it to the ground. He snarled, “Enough! I, Xiao Chen, will no longer make things difficult for you elders! After grandpa’s birthday this month, I’ll leave!”

Xiao Yifan looked at him and said, “Chen’er…”

Xiao Chen swung his sleeves coldly and said, “Father, you don’t have to beg them! Don’t you know about their secret, filthy plans?” After saying so, he looked at each elder with cold eyes that could even freeze people.

Of course, they wanted Xiao Chen gone so that Xiao Yifan would have no successor, and then they could naturally split Xiao Yifan’s businesses.

The red-robed elder said in a deep voice, “Xiao Chen, you don’t practice martial arts and all you can do is playing instruments, painting, or writing. How can you blame the other people? And you’ve always been thinking of becoming a Cultivator. How can you become a Cultivator when you can’t even reach Onefold?!” He then swung his sleeve too.

Many disciples were watching at the door of the hall. A youth from afar walked through the throng. It was Xiao Yuan. He crossed his arms and smiled coldly, saying, “Since you are expert at the instrument, chess, calligraphy, and painting, what are you doing in our Xiao Family? If words get out, the others may think that Xiao Family starts to sell paintings and calligraphy works.”

His words aroused laughter among the crowd, while Xiao Yifan looked more terrible. But because Xiao Yuan was first brother’s son and also a genius in Xiao Family, he could not talk back.

At this point, a cold voice of a woman rose from outside, “Since you’ve got what you want, there’s no need to hurt the others by saying those things.”

The air suddenly became frozen.