The sun was up, and the world of the Azure Cloud Sect was buzzing with the usual morning routine. Arrogant disciples were showing off their moves, and the younger ones were scurrying around, doing chores. Lin Feng, fresh off his one-night cultivation binge, felt like a completely different person. The weakness was gone, replaced by a subtle, humming power. He was still in the body of a nobody, but inside, he was a god ready to walk among men.
He grabbed a bucket and a cloth, pretending to be the same old servant-disciple. He was about to start wiping down some training dummies when he heard a familiar, gentle voice.
"Lin Feng, you're up early."
It was Mei Hua. She was walking towards him, a grace to her step that made the other disciples look like clumsy kids. She stopped a few feet away, her eyes scanning him. "Are you feeling better? Your color... it's much better than last night."
Raijin's mind instantly saw the tiny flicker of genuine concern in her eyes. It was a stark contrast to the calculating greed of his betrayers. He smiled, a small, genuine one that felt new to him. "Yes, Senior Sister. I feel much better. Thank you for the medicine."
She seemed surprised by his confident tone. "That's good to hear. But you know Chen Wu and his friends... they won't stop."
He just shrugged, and in that simple gesture, there was a quiet confidence that wasn't there yesterday. "Let them try."
Her eyes widened just a fraction. That one line held more steel than the entire personality of the old Lin Feng. She saw something in him, something new, and it intrigued her. It was a look Raijin was all too familiar with—the look of a genius seeing a hidden diamond.
He decided to repay her kindness. "Senior Sister," he said, his voice low. "Your cultivation... you're close to a breakthrough, aren't you? But there's a problem, isn't there? A slight instability in your meridians."
Mei Hua's perfect composure broke. Her eyes went wide with shock. "How... how did you know? I haven't told anyone."
"Just a lucky guess," he said with a secret half-smile. "Your technique is good, but it has a minor flaw. You need to circulate the energy counter-clockwise on the fourth meridian. It will stabilize the flow and push you through."
He watched her mind race, her brilliant intellect already processing the impossible information. It was an ancient, almost forgotten trick. The kind of thing only a cosmic sovereign would know. Mei Hua, the sect's genius, had just been given a shortcut by the sect's biggest loser. And she knew it was a genuine, life-changing piece of advice.
A voice cut through the moment. "Well, well, look what we have here. The sect's waste giving advice to our top genius."
It was Chen Wu, the same brute who had killed him yesterday, and his two lackeys. He sneered, a cruel look on his face. "Did you tell him how you fixed your shattered spiritual root, Mei Hua?"
Lin Feng met Chen Wu's gaze, and for the first time, Raijin's cold, ancient fury mixed with the boy's burning humiliation. The air around him seemed to grow heavier, just for a second. He wasn't going to fight him. Not yet. He didn't need to. He was a god. Chen Wu was a bug.
He just smirked. "What's the matter, Chen Wu? Jealous that I'm talking to her?"
It was a simple insult, but the sheer audacity of it coming from Lin Feng stunned everyone. Chen Wu went red with rage. "You want to die again, you piece of trash?"
Lin Feng just shook his head, a look of pity on his face. "If you only knew."
He walked away, leaving a fuming Chen Wu and a completely bewildered Mei Hua in his wake. The old Lin Feng would have cowered. The new one knew the game was just beginning. He had given his future wife a secret boost, and now he had shown his future enemy a glimpse of his new defiance. The game was on.
End of chapter 4