The rear courtyard of the Long Clan was quiet.
Too quiet.
Broken walls. Fallen tiles. Dry weeds between cracked stones.
No incense. No ancestral tablets.
Only the sealed Ancestral Well at the center.
It was covered with heavy iron bars and stone plates carved with faded sealing marks.
No one maintained it.
Spiritual qi around it was thin.
Unstable.
Servants passed through the courtyard quickly.
They avoided looking at Long Tianyuan.
He carried buckets of water from the outer storage.
Chopped wood.
Cleaned debris.
Qi Refining 3rd layer.
Assigned to manual labor.
Punishment disguised as "discipline."
He did not complain.
Sweat ran down his back.
His breathing remained steady.
Each movement circulated qi through his meridians.
Slow.
Controlled.
But the spiritual qi here was sparse.
Cultivating in this place was almost useless.
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Confident.
Tianyuan did not turn immediately.
He recognized the aura.
Hot.
Sharp.
Qi Refining 7th layer.
Long Wei.
"You work hard."
Long Wei's voice carried amusement.
Tianyuan set down the axe.
"Senior cousin."
Long Wei circled him.
"Do you know why I came?"
Tianyuan met his eyes.
"To supervise?"
Long Wei laughed.
"Supervise trash?"
He stopped beside the sealed well.
"You were removed from the core candidate list yesterday."
"Yes."
"Your mother didn't cry?"
"She understands clan rules."
Long Wei's smile thinned.
"Clan rules."
He stepped closer.
"You were always a stain."
"Bloodline from a sidelined branch, yet competing for inheritance."
Tianyuan said nothing.
Long Wei's aura pressed down.
Qi Refining 7th layer suppression.
Heavy.
Tianyuan's shoulders sank slightly.
Meridians trembled.
This was the gap.
Four layers.
Overwhelming.
Long Wei spoke calmly.
"Do you know the difference between Qi Refining 3rd and 7th layer?"
Tianyuan's breathing tightened.
"Four layers."
Long Wei shook his head.
"Wrong."
"Between 3rd and 7th, I can break your meridians in one strike."
His qi flared.
Heat distorted the air.
"You were born with Impure Mixed Root."
"Ceiling Qi Refining 6th layer."
"I have Single Fire Root."
"Thirty percent Jin Dan potential."
His voice turned cold.
"Do you think the clan will investigate if you fall into an abandoned well?"
Silence.
The courtyard wind stopped.
Tianyuan's eyes sharpened.
"So that's your plan."
Long Wei leaned close.
"You should thank me."
"I'm erasing disgrace."
His palm moved.
Fast.
Qi Refining 7th layer strength.
He did not use a technique.
Just raw force.
A shove to the chest.
Tianyuan's body flew backward.
His heel caught broken stone.
The iron bars over the well had been loosened long ago.
His weight slammed into them.
They shifted.
Stone cracked.
The seal plate tilted.
Then—
Empty air.
The world flipped.
Darkness swallowed him.
The well was deeper than it looked.
Wind rushed past his ears.
He reached for the edge.
Missed.
The walls blurred.
Black.
Cold.
Impact.
Bone met stone.
A crack echoed.
Air exploded from his lungs.
Pain detonated through his spine.
His back struck first.
Then shoulder.
Then head.
Something snapped in his ribs.
His vision flashed white.
Then black.
Dust fell from above.
Far away, he heard Long Wei's voice.
"Careless."
A pause.
"Even trash can slip."
Footsteps.
Receding.
Silence returned.
Tianyuan lay twisted at the bottom.
The well was dry.
No water.
Only jagged stone.
His right arm bent unnaturally.
Breathing shallow.
Each inhale stabbed his chest.
Ribs fractured.
His qi scattered violently.
Meridians trembled.
Qi Refining 3rd layer stability shattered.
Inside his dantian—
Qi churned like a storm.
Uncontrolled.
He coughed.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
It ran down his chin.
Dripped onto the stone beneath him.
So this was the plan.
Not humiliation.
Erasure.
He tried to move.
Agony.
His meridians felt torn.
Qi clashed internally.
If this continued—
His dantian would rupture.
He would cripple.
Or die.
Above, the circle of light at the well's mouth grew smaller.
Clouds moved across it.
He was alone.
No elder would come.
No servant would check.
Rear courtyard was abandoned.
This well was forgotten for generations.
He laughed once.
It turned into a cough.
"Strength protects strength."
No one protects the weak.
His vision blurred.
Cold seeped into his bones.
His blood continued to drip.
It flowed along the uneven wall beside him.
The stone texture was strange.
Not smooth.
Vein-like patterns ran through it.
Dark lines twisting inside the rock.
His blood touched one of those lines.
For a moment—
Nothing.
Then—
A faint pulse.
Deep beneath the stone.
Tianyuan's eyes flickered.
Was that his heartbeat?
No.
It was slower.
He coughed again.
More blood.
It smeared across the wall.
The vein-pattern absorbed it.
Quietly.
The pulse grew stronger.
Thump.
Thump.
The well air changed.
Not richer in qi.
Heavier.
Ancient.
Tianyuan tried to lift his head.
His muscles barely responded.
His consciousness drifted.
Inside the stone—
Something dormant stirred.
No voice.
No consciousness.
Only instinct.
Blood.
Familiar blood.
The pulse synchronized with his failing heartbeat.
Thump.
Thump.
Suddenly—
Heat.
It surged from the wall into his back.
Like molten metal injected into his spine.
He convulsed.
A hoarse sound tore from his throat.
His bloodstream ignited.
Burning.
Not external flame.
Internal.
His meridians expanded violently.
Qi that had been scattered was dragged inward.
Forced.
His dantian trembled.
It felt as if claws were tearing it open from inside.
He slammed his fist against the ground.
Stone cracked beneath his knuckles.
"Ah—!"
No technique guided it.
No control.
Only raw force flooding in.
His bones creaked.
Micro-fractures healed.
Then cracked again.
Skin along his arms tingled.
Underneath—
Hardness.
As if something pressed against the flesh from inside.
Scales?
No.
Just sensation.
Fleeting.
His spine arched unnaturally.
Meridians stretched beyond normal capacity.
If a normal Qi Refining 3rd layer cultivator endured this—
They would explode.
His dantian swelled.
Qi poured into it without refinement.
Unfiltered.
Wild.
He felt like he was drowning in fire.
Black impurities burst from his pores.
Sticky.
Foul.
His body shook uncontrollably.
His broken ribs shifted.
Bone fragments realigned with cracking sounds.
Pain layered over pain.
He bit his own tongue.
Blood filled his mouth.
The pulse from the wall intensified.
Thump.
Thump.
Each beat forced more energy into him.
His cultivation base surged.
Qi Refining 3rd layer—
Peak.
His dantian trembled at the edge of breakthrough.
But the qi was unstable.
Violent.
He had no technique to guide it.
No elder to stabilize his meridians.
His consciousness flickered.
If he lost control now—
His dantian would burst.
Permanent cripple.
He forced his eyes open.
Focus.
Circulate.
He dragged the wild qi along his meridians manually.
Slow.
Painful.
Like pulling blades through flesh.
His teeth ground together.
The pulse suddenly weakened.
As if the source had exhausted itself.
The heat subsided slightly.
His body collapsed against the wall.
Breathing ragged.
Inside—
Qi Refining 4th layer barrier trembled.
Cracks formed.
With one final surge—
His dantian expanded.
Qi stabilized.
Barely.
Qi Refining 4th layer.
He lay there, unmoving.
Not triumphant.
Barely alive.
The well returned to silence.
The vein-like patterns in the wall dimmed.
As if nothing had happened.
Tianyuan stared into darkness.
He understood clearly now.
The clan would not protect him.
Rules existed to justify power.
If he had died—
It would be called accident.
His fingers dug into the stone.
Cold resolve settled in his eyes.
"If I climb…"
His voice was hoarse.
"I climb alone."
No reliance.
No mercy.
Only strength.
Above the well, wind passed over the courtyard.
Clouds parted.
Night deepened.
Far above the Long Clan residence—
The sky was clear.
No thunderclouds.
No rain.
Yet—
A thin bolt of lightning fell from nowhere.
Sharp.
White.
It struck near the ancestral grounds.
For a brief moment—
The earth trembled faintly.
Then silence returned.
Deep within the abandoned well—
Long Tianyuan slowly pushed himself upright.
Qi Refining 4th layer.
Alive.