Seven years.
In the mortal world, seven years was enough for a child to become a man, for a seed to become a sapling, and for a kingdom to rise or fall. But in the timeless, suspended daylight of the Lin Clan's Ancestral Pocket Realm, seven years felt like a single, suffocating afternoon that refused to end.
Thwack!
An axe, chipped and rusted, buried itself deep into the trunk of an Iron-Bark Pine.
"Ninety-nine," a voice grunted, the sound rough with exertion.
Thwack!
"One hundred."
Lin Kai wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his forearm. At fifteen years old, he had grown into a young man of striking, albeit rugged, appearance. His black hair, still streaked with those peculiar crimson strips, was tied back messily with a piece of twine. His muscles were lean and corded, hard as flint—the result of seven years of manual labor without the aid of high-level Qi.
He wasn't standing in the opulent training grounds of the Crimson Cloud Pavilion anymore. Those days were a hazy fever dream he could barely recall.
Instead, he stood in a clearing in the further Southern Quadrant—the "Wilderness Zone" of the pocket realm. Here, the meticulously manicured floating islands gave way to untamed forests and rocky outcrops. His home was a small, dilapidated wooden hut that leaked when it rained and froze when it snowed.
"Breakfast time, Xiao Bai," Lin Kai murmured, pulling the axe free.
A blur of white fur shot out from the underbrush.
Yip!
A small snow-white fox, possessing three elegant tails and eyes like molten gold, landed gracefully on his shoulder. She nuzzled his cheek, her fur soft against his calloused skin.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you're hungry," Lin Kai chuckled, a genuine smile breaking the stoic mask he usually wore. "I caught a Spirit Hare yesterday. Let's roast it."
He walked to a nearby pond to wash up. The water was freezing, fed by underground springs, but Lin Kai stripped off his tunic and splashed the icy liquid over his face without flinching. He looked at his reflection in the water.
The face staring back was handsome, with high cheekbones and intense eyes, but it was marred by a shadow of weariness that no fifteen-year-old should possess.
'Who are you, really?' he thought, staring at the ripples.
His memory was a strange, fragmented thing. He remembered Earth—the cars, the college, the truck. But his life here? It was full of holes.
He knew he was born in the Lin Clan. He knew he had failed the Blood Awakening at age eight, branded as "Grade Zero Trash." But his parents?
In his mind, they were faceless ghosts. He was told they were main branch clan members who had died in service to the clan shortly after his birth and his uncle is none other than the great clan leader. He believed he was an orphan, kept in the pocket realm only out of the Clan's twisted sense of mercy—or perhaps, as a living warning to others.
'Even this fox,' Lin Kai thought, reaching up to scratch Xiao Bai's ears. 'I found you shivering in a hollow log five years ago, didn't I? Just two strays finding each other.'
After washing up, he returned to the hut. He opened a dusty wooden chest and pulled out a set of robes. They were white with blue trim—the official ceremonial robes of a Lin Clan disciple. They were old, the fabric thinning at the elbows, but he had kept them meticulously clean.
Today was important.
He dressed in silence, smoothing out the wrinkles. He sat on the edge of his straw bed, Xiao Bai curling up in his lap, sensing his anxiety.
"Today is the day, girl," Lin Kai whispered. "The Affinity Test. The Body Constitution Test."
In the world of cultivation, Bloodline was King. But it wasn't the only path.
If a cultivator lacked a bloodline, they could still rise if they had a rare Elemental Affinity (like Thunder or Void) or a special Constitution (like the Tyrant Bone Body).
'I failed the Blood Test,' Lin Kai thought, his jaw tightening. 'But maybe... maybe I have an affinity. Fire? Wind? Anything other than this nothingness.'
His thoughts drifted, as they often did, to the one thing that anchored him to the main clan.
Lin Yan'er.
The Clan Leader's daughter. The genius. His fiancée.
It was a joke, really. A cruel cosmic prank. He hadn't seen her in seven years. Rumors said she was in the Human Greatland, training. Others said she was in seclusion. But the engagement... the engagement remained.
'Why haven't they cancelled it?' Lin Kai wondered for the thousandth time.
It made his life hell. When he tried to go to the Clan Library to borrow low-level scrolls, the other disciples would block his path.
"Look, it's the Toad lusting after Swan meat!"
"Hey, Trash Kai, do you really think the Clan Leader will let you marry her? You're just a placeholder!"
He had learned to endure. He learned that fighting back physically only got him beaten by their bodyguards. He learned that silence was his only shield. He had tried to petition the Elders to cancel the engagement himself, to free himself from the mockery, but his letters were burned before they even reached the administration hall.
He was a prisoner. Too weak to be respected, too "important" (as a political pawn) to be kicked out.
'I want to leave,' Lin Kai thought, looking out the window at the barrier of clouds that marked the edge of the realm.
'There is a whole world out there. The Azure Heaven Landscapes. The Endless Ocean. If I fail today... I will beg them to exile me. I'd rather be a beggar in the mortal world than a prisoner in paradise.'
Knock. Knock.