Volume 1, Chapter 1: Once Fallen from Grace, A Man Is Worth Less Than a Dog

"Mu Yi! How dare you drug and violate my girlfriend Qin Wanqing? You deserve to die a thousand deaths!"

A large door suddenly burst open from the inside, and a figure flew out in a disheveled state, crashing heavily into the pouring rain.

"Why…"

Mu Yi lay struggling in the torrential downpour, propping himself up and looking at the man and woman who had just emerged from his room.

The man was tall and imposing, his presence fierce and overwhelming, as if an ancient demonic god had descended upon the world.

The woman was slender and graceful, breathtakingly beautiful beyond compare.

"Mu Yi, don’t blame me. This is reality. I no longer want to strive—I want to win effortlessly."

Qin Wanqing stepped gracefully before Mu Yi, crouching down and gently patting his face with her palm. "You shouldn’t have told me you awakened the True Dragon bloodline. Innocent men can be punished for possessing precious treasures."

"Is that your reason for betraying me?"

"What more reason do you need? This world is like this. Wanqing is very clever; she doesn’t need to think twice about how to choose."

Ling Tiandu sneered coldly. "Mu Yi, you are nothing but a young master from a humble family in Lieshan City. You’re unworthy of the True Dragon bloodline. I hereby declare that your True Dragon bloodline must be returned to its rightful owner."

"Ah!"

Mu Yi felt as if his body was about to explode. Ling Tiandu’s five fingers, imbued with destructive power, plunged directly into his chest, forcibly extracting the True Dragon bloodline and absorbing it into himself.

"Hahaha! I, Ling Tiandu, am the thirty-second holy son of Daqian Academy. This True Dragon bloodline was tailor-made for me. It was only because Heaven was blind that a worthless wretch like you could usurp it. Now, it has finally returned to its rightful owner!"

Ling Tiandu laughed heartily, his eyes radiating overwhelming pride and commanding power.

Mu Yi, having his True Dragon bloodline ripped away, not only lost all his cultivation but had his dantian completely destroyed. His meridians and limbs were crippled; he was like a crippled man, unable even to get up, his hands and feet powerless.

"Young Lord Ling…"

At that moment, a white-haired elder silently appeared amid the rain.

"Elder Guo, the outer disciple Mu Yi attempted to drug and violate the holy son Ling Tiandu’s girlfriend Qin Wanqing last night. I caught him red-handed and have stripped him of all his cultivation. You know what must be done next, don’t you?"

Guo Baihe, elder of the Punishment Hall at Daqian Academy, had witnessed the entire incident firsthand in the rain.

"Rest assured, I will execute Mu Yi immediately."

Guo Baihe said coldly, looking at Mu Yi as if he were a dead dog.

"No, I want him to live!" Qin Wanqing spoke up, staring fiercely at Mu Yi. "I know he hates me deeply, but I don’t want him to die so easily. I want him to see with his own eyes how right my choice was. In the end, he is nothing but a pile of rotting mud."

Qin Wanqing, once Mu Yi’s beloved girlfriend—the woman for whom Mu Yi was willing to sacrifice everything, even his life—now revealed the most poisonous heart.

"Hahaha! Very well, Wanqing. Let this worthless wretch see how I, Ling Tiandu, soar to the skies after obtaining the True Dragon bloodline."

Ling Tiandu laughed again. "Elder Guo, spare this wretch’s life but expel him from the academy. Sometimes, living is a greater punishment than death."

With that, he and Qin Wanqing disappeared into the pouring rain.

Thunder rumbled across the sky, the downpour relentless.

---

The two in the scene: one cold and ruthless, the other like a puddle of mud.

"Mu Yi, don’t blame me—blame your fate. This world does not truly treat heroes equally regardless of origin. You are just a nobody who awakened the True Dragon bloodline, and that is the greatest tragedy of your life."

Guo Baihe looked at Mu Yi with utter indifference, as if this was the natural order of the world.

"Daqian Academy’s outer disciple Mu Yi attempted to drug and violate the holy son Ling Tiandu’s girlfriend Qin Wanqing last night, caught red-handed, cultivation stripped, unforgivable!"

"I, Guo Baihe, represent the Punishment Hall to announce that Mu Yi is hereby stripped of his disciple status at Daqian Academy and expelled from the academy, effective immediately!"

At the Punishment Square in the Outer Academy of Daqian Academy.

Mu Yi was tightly bound and fastened high upon a stone pillar, exposed to the judgment of the crowd.

"Unbelievable! The Outer Academy’s number one prodigy, Mu Yi, dared to drug the girlfriend of the holy son Ling Tiandu. Has he lost his mind?"

"I heard Qin Wanqing was originally Mu Yi’s girlfriend…"

"Bah! Qin Wanqing is a figure of unmatched beauty. I only caught a glimpse of her once and was stunned. A woman like that is a disaster for men, an unparalleled beauty—how could someone from the Outer Academy like Mu Yi possibly deserve her?"

"Mu Yi was a toad trying to eat swan meat, and now he’s finally getting his comeuppance!"

Several hundred people surrounded the scene.

All of them used to be Mu Yi’s admirers.

Back then, Mu Yi was the brightest star among ten thousand outer disciples.

Now, he was nothing more than a dead dog.

The words that once praised him were grand and magnificent.

Now, the insults were venomous and harsh.

This is human nature.

Once fallen from power, a man is worth less than a dog.

"Look, half an hour has passed, and yet no one from the Mu family has come to take him. Though he’s cultivation-less and crippled, he is still the heir of the Mu family..."

"That was before. Now, he’s no longer any kind of heir. I doubt the Mu family will waste resources on a worthless cripple."

"So what will happen to Mu Yi? If no one from his family comes, what will the academy do?"

"Simple. After a few hours, they’ll just throw him to the wolves in the back mountain."

Mockery and laughter never ceased.

Mu Yi, tied to the pillar, heard it all and was filled with rage and despair, spewing a mouthful of blood.

He had been framed.

Yet he was still the Mu family’s heir.

Once he risked life and limb for the Mu family, but now they had clearly cast him aside.

"I hate it so much…"

Mu Yi’s heart sank into despair, cursing heaven and earth, even harboring wild thoughts of annihilating everything in this world.

---

"Who says no one from the Mu family is coming?"

At the darkest moment, when all hope seemed lost, suddenly a clear, fragile voice pierced the silence like a flicker of light in endless darkness, igniting a fire in Mu Yi’s heart.

A single spark can start a prairie fire.

Mu Yi looked up and saw a young girl pushing through the crowd.

Her body was frail, her complexion pale, as fragile as willow catkins in the wind, easily toppled by a strong breeze.

Everyone in the Mu family might have abandoned him, but this girl would not.

"Young master, I’ve come to take you home!"

The girl came to Mu Yi’s side, holding his body, and finally broke down crying.

The girl before him was his maid, Ye Yuwei.

"Hmm? Why has the Ye family sent such a sickly girl?"

"I know her—this is Ye Yuwei, Mu Yi’s maid. She suffers from the Absolute Cold poison. Over the past year, every reward Mu Yi earned in the sect was spent without exception on fire-natured spirit medicines to try to cure her."

"Hahaha! Truly a mismatched pair of rotten fruits. The former heir of the Mu family has fallen so low that now it’s his maid who comes to fetch him home!"

The crowd continued to mock and ridicule.

"If you want to take your worthless young master away, you’ll have to crawl on your knees past us!"

Those who had once been Mu Yi’s little fans now bullied their former idol. They had been so sure that no one from the Mu family would come, but Ye Yuwei’s appearance instantly proved them wrong.

Enraged and humiliated, they deliberately blocked Ye Yuwei’s path, refusing to let her approach Mu Yi.

"Fine, I’ll kneel!"

Ye Yuwei did not hesitate. Her eyes held only Mu Yi, tied up and bleeding.

"Yuwei…"

Mu Yi’s heart shattered at the sight.

He hated himself for being so powerless!

Anger overwhelmed him, aggravating his injuries, and he coughed up more blood. The world spun, his vision darkened.

Faintly, he sensed Ye Yuwei lifting him in her arms, while the surrounding laughter of mockery echoed.

Just as he was about to lose consciousness completely—

Boom!

Suddenly, deep within the place where his True Dragon bloodline had been extracted, a lightning-like force exploded!

"Break to rebuild, invincible under heaven!"

A distant, ancient voice thundered through the ages, ringing in Mu Yi’s mind like a great bell!