Feng Zhang took in a deep breath and felt the magical energy in the air.
It was beautiful… pure… everything he had ever wanted in his life.
It felt like qi but at the same time it was not qi, he would be able to recognize the energy that evaded him all his life if it was.
His whole life he had known rejection.
When the others in his sect had begun to cultivate, he had only watched from the shadows, clutching his heirloom and forcing himself to smile as though it didn't matter.
The elders had called him defective.
His peers had called him a cripple. At best he had been pitied; at worst he had been beaten.
But this — this was different.
He willed the energy to enter his body.
At first, he doubted there would be any change.
He was so used to failure that he had come to expect it.
Even now, with Azel standing above him, silver hair gleaming and crimson eyes calm, Feng braced himself for nothingness.
And then it came.
