The courtyard was crowded with clan youths lining up for evaluation, and the moment Yun Zhen stepped onto the stone tiles, the noise shifted. Whispering. Snickers. A few pointed fingers. None of it surprised him, but the sheer weight of it hit the weak mortal body harder than he expected.
He pressed a hand against his ribs to steady himself and muttered, "They're loud already, and I barely walked in."
A boy to the right lifted his voice on purpose, "Look, the bastard son crawled out again. I thought he was dying in that shack."
Another boy laughed too loudly.
"Dying? Someone like him needs to die five times before the clan stops wasting food on him."
Yun Zhen kept walking. His steps were steady, even though his legs shook with every movement. The body hurt, but his will didn't.
One boy stepped forward with a smirk.
"Hey, bastard, you hearing us or pretending again?"
Yun Zhen turned his head slightly, eyes calm.
"I heard you. I'm simply not interested."
The courtyard fell quiet for one breath.
Someone asked under their breath, "Since when does he talk like that?"
Another whispered, "He usually hides his face and trembles."
Yun Zhen didn't bother explaining. He just kept walking toward the back of the line where the weak and unimportant stood.
As he moved, his mind offered flickers of memory again, memories of the boy whose body he now lived in. Small Yun Zhen kneeling in mud while a servant scolded him for breaking a bucket. Yun Zhen being pushed aside during meals. Elders ignoring him like he didn't exist.
And another memory deeper than those—
a woman lying weak in bed, holding a newborn Yun Xue in her arms while Yun Zhen, a toddler, watched from the doorway.
Qiu Lanyue.
Yun Xue's mother.
The only woman the clan head ever loved.
She had arrived at the clan already carrying Yun Xue, and when she died a few years later, Yun Xue became the clan's precious heir, the symbol of innocence and talent.
Meanwhile, the whispers around Yun Zhen grew sharper:
"He's only here because the clan head felt guilt."
"His mother was some outsider with no name."
"He stains our bloodline."
"He should have been left outside to die."
Yun Zhen inhaled slowly.
No wonder the boy lived with fear in his bones.
He reached the center of the courtyard just as the elders finished organizing the groups. When he stopped moving, a quiet voice came from behind him.
"You walk straight today."
He didn't need to turn to know who it was.
Yun Xue stepped in front of him, blocking his view of the elders. Her expression was sharp, controlled, and annoyed, like she was already tired of dealing with him. Her long black hair was tied up high, and her red robe fit her body with the kind of proud ease that came from being raised as the clan's treasure.
She looked him up and down and muttered, "You aren't even shaking like usual."
He answered calmly, "I woke up with a different view."
Her eyebrows drew together.
"That's not a real answer."
He looked back at her without flinching.
"Then ask a real question."
A few disciples around them froze mid-whisper.
Yun Xue blinked once, slowly, as if trying to process the tone he'd used. She stepped closer and circled him, her boots scraping lightly against the stone.
She said in a low voice, "You're moving differently, and even your eyes feel wrong. When someone like you changes overnight, it usually means trouble."
He gave a small, humorless breath.
"You've been watching me too closely if you noticed that much before breakfast."
Her face flushed slightly—not from embarrassment but from irritation.
"I watch because I don't trust you, not because I care."
He shrugged slightly.
"That's still attention."
She clicked her tongue and grabbed his wrist, checking his pulse energy with a touch of her spiritual sense. Her eyes widened.
"This is steady," she said in shock. "Yours has never been steady. It's always broken, weak, and collapsing."
Yun Zhen pulled his wrist back gently.
"Don't touch me so casually unless you're ready to take responsibility."
Yun Xue stumbled back a half-step, her voice caught between anger and surprise.
"What did you just say to me?"
He answered with steady eyes, "Exactly what you heard."
Her cheeks redden again, and she turned away so no one would see the small crack in her expression.
Inside, Yun Zhen felt a strange mix of amusement and pity.
'You grew up loved, while this body grew up starving. No wonder you resent me. You thought father's mistake made your mother's life harder. You blamed the wrong person, but I can't expect a child to know better.'
Before he could speak again, two clan youths walked up, blocking the way forward.
The taller one shoved his shoulder lightly.
"Hey, bastard, you think acting calm makes you stronger."
Yun Zhen answered, "No. It just makes your voice less important."
The boy snarled and pointed a finger at him.
"You're asking for—"
Yun Zhen stepped forward in a smooth movement, and the boy stumbled backward in surprise. The second boy tried to shoulder-check him, but Yun Zhen shifted sideways and walked between them with clean footwork that shouldn't have been possible with such a weak body.
He didn't resist them.
He simply used timing.
The courtyard went silent again.
Yun Xue muttered, "That's not how he used to move."
One boy shouted, "He dodged me. He actually dodged."
The other whispered, "He never trained before. How did he even do that?"
Yun Zhen stopped near the center of the field, ignoring the stunned faces.
An elder on the platform pointed at him with obvious irritation.
"That one again. We waste time watching him fail every season."
Another elder didn't bother looking, only waving a dismissive hand.
"He's useless. Write him down as failure before we begin."
A few disciples laughed.
Yun Zhen lowered his head slightly, not in shame—just thinking.
They base everything on a broken body and past weakness. They have no idea what I once was. No idea what I will become.
An elder glanced his way again, this time hesitating.
Something in Yun Zhen's posture, his silent confidence, didn't match the trash reputation they assigned to him.
The elder frowned, confused.
Before anyone could dwell on it, the gathering ended, and disciples began moving away to their tasks. Yun Zhen turned to leave, but Yun Xue stepped in front of him again.
Her voice was lower now and edged with tension.
"We're not done. You changed. Don't lie to me."
He replied calmly, "You already know lying isn't my style."
"That's what makes this even stranger," she argued while stepping closer, "and if you're hiding something dangerous, I'm not letting it slip into the clan."
He met her gaze directly.
"I'm not hiding danger. I'm removing fear."
She frowned.
"That still doesn't make sense."
He took a slow breath.
"You've been carrying the clan's hope since you were a child. And you grew up watching everyone bend around you while they walked over me. You think I became something else overnight, but maybe I just stopped crawling."
Her chest rose as she inhaled sharply.
"Don't twist this. You were nothing but trouble. My mother—"
He cut her off gently.
"Your mother was the only person in this house who ever looked at me without disgust."
Yun Xue froze.
Her voice softened without her meaning to.
"You… remember her?"
He nodded slightly.
"I remember how she smiled at you. And how she hid her cough so you wouldn't cry. And how the clan only accepted her because father insisted."
Yun Xue stepped back a half-step, her expression shaken.
"That's… no one ever talks about that."
Yun Zhen spoke quietly, "You resent me because you blamed me for his past. You thought his mistake brought pressure on your mother. You grew up holding that weight alone."
Her lips parted, but she said nothing.
He added in a soft tone, "Blame him, not me."
She opened her mouth to answer but stopped. She reached out suddenly to grab his arm again, wanting to have another conversation, but Yun Zhen moved first and caught her wrist lightly.
Her heartbeat jumped.
Her eyes widened.
"You shouldn't be faster than me. You shouldn't move like this."
He replied, "Maybe I got tired of being who I was."
She pulled her hand back slowly, unsure whether to be angry or lost.
"You're not the same Yun Zhen," she whispered.
He answered, "Then stop looking for the old one."
He stepped past her, but his vision blurred again without warning.
His heart thudded weakly.
The world tilted.
He dropped to one knee, hand clutching his chest as heat rushed up his spine.
Yun Xue gasped and rushed toward him.
"Yun Zhen—?"
Symbols flashed across his vision again—the same strange silver shapes from before—forming incomplete rows of patterns that hovered in the air like broken fragments of a forgotten script.
He whispered, "Not again… it's waking up."
Yun Xue knelt beside him, her hand reaching out hesitantly.
"What's happening to you, and why do your eyes look like that?"
Yun Zhen didn't answer. His breath shook, but not from fear.
A cold voice echoed faintly from deep inside his mind:
[Preparing to awaken…]
He closed his eyes, a tired smile rising on his lips.
'So you finally decided to show yourself.'
Yun Xue stared at him, confused and worried, the wind stirring her hair as she whispered, "What are you?"
Yun Zhen lifted his head slowly.
"I'm someone who stopped dying."
The silver symbols appear once more.
End Of Chapter 3