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After I was born, my parents stopped believing that dragons breed dragons and phoenixes breed phoenixes.
Otherwise, how could they have produced me—a spineless little turtle who did nothing but bow and scrape?
Two invincible prodigies talked it over one whole night and concluded:
"Better to train yourself than to train the kid."
And so I ended up with a father who could break every technique in the world with one sword,
and a mother overflowing with martial power and utterly void of morals, the Poison Physician.
My days were spent burning through my father's spirit stones to feed ungrateful wretches,
raiding my mother's divine elixirs to save heartless men, and waiting for my parents to hand me spirit artifacts and spirit pills.
Until the two of them ascended together.
The night my junior sister's meridians shattered all at once, the Master and my senior brother bowed their heads and begged me:
"Evie, your talent may be dismal, but your heart of the Dao is steady, and one day you'll ascend. Your junior sister's life, though, can't wait. Without the ascension treasure your parents left behind, she'll perish, body and soul, this very day!"
Everyone stared at me with red-rimmed eyes, like they were looking at a slab of meat.
I explained, plainly: "My parents didn't leave any ascension treasure."
"If your junior sister's life hangs by a thread, why not save her first with bone-mending herb?"
The Master's face went cold in an instant.
My senior brother pinned my shoulder, then in one motion snapped my destined sword.
"This is no time for you to be selfish! Let's see how you ascend now, without a destined sword!"
I sighed and lifted my eyes to the sky.
"Mother, Father, someone's hitting me."
After all, they didn't know that my constitution was special—it only takes in and never lets out. Cross my parents and you might live.
Cross me, and even your spiritual root gets drained dry.
1.
"Heh. Besides crying for your parents, what can you actually do?"
My senior brother's face twisted with mockery, his contemptuous gaze raking over me.
"Without their protection, you'd best behave. Hand the ascension treasure over to Joanna Henson, and be good about it."
I pressed my fingers to my brow and said, helplessly,
"Spirit stones, spirit artifacts, spirit pills—take whatever you want.
But the ascension treasure, that I don't have.
Because I never wanted to ascend, and even if my parents had such a treasure, they'd never have left it to me."
Impatience flickered across my senior brother's eyes.
Before he could speak, the Master beside him gave his sleeves a flick.
"You can fool the whole world, but you can't fool me. Hand over the treasure now, and I'll still let you save some face. Otherwise..."
He raised his eyes, thick with threat.
"Lord Ruochen, it's come to this—just tell her the truth!"
"You little wretch! The whole sect knows you have the ascension treasure. Refuse to give it up, and we won't tolerate you!"
"That's right—the Kunlun Sect doesn't keep useless people, especially spoiled brats like you who lean on their parents!"
Set against the disciples' outrage was my dying junior sister.
She lifted a weak hand, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Senior sister, don't listen to them.
Joanna knows senior sister is the kindest of all. More than half the sect owes you a debt. Joanna begs you—bring out the ascension treasure and save my life!"
I shook my head, in earnest.
"Bone-mending herb, Marrow-Cleansing Pills—take as much as you want. But the ascension treasure, I truly don't have."
"Evelyn Mercer!"
My senior brother stepped forward, twisting my wrist as he shouted:
"Quit the act! Joanna says you've a heart like a bodhisattva. I say you've honey on your lips and a serpent in your heart!"
"Joanna's life is worth far more than some treasure! How can you be this selfish?"
I wept from the pain, shaking all over.
"I've never even heard of any ascension treasure!"
"Lies!"
My senior brother wrenched harder, and the bones in my hand snapped with a crisp crack.
I nearly blacked out.
Something like confusion crossed his eyes, and through clenched teeth he demanded, "Evelyn Mercer!"
"You've always been obedient. Why dig in your heels now? You already have everything ordinary people could never dream of. Do you really care this much about ascending?"
"I don't have it, and that's the truth. And if I have to go ask my parents for it, there won't be time anyway."
Just as my parents said, I was soft by nature—here I was, still helping them think of a way out.
The watching disciples eyed me strangely, too.
"Is there something wrong with Senior Sister Mercer? The way she's putting her whole heart into finding a solution, she doesn't look like someone hoarding a treasure."
"Could it be the Immortal Sovereign and the Poison Physician really didn't leave any treasure behind?"
"Impossible! Then why would they have pressed Evelyn Mercer to ascend as soon as she could, before they left? They must have prepared something. It's just that some people are selfish and won't share it with us."
As the murmuring rose, someone suddenly cut in:
"But what if there really isn't one? If we do this, how are we supposed to answer to the Immortal Sovereign?"
Remembering my parents' martial might, a cold sweat broke out over the crowd.
"If Evelyn Mercer goes and tells on us..."
The Master gave a cold snort.
"I'll bear all of it."
He shot me a light glance. "It's a small injury. Once it's healed, there won't be a mark left."
"And Evelyn isn't the sort to go tattling, is she?"
If I were a power like my parents, I'd have slapped him across the face long ago.
But I was only a wretchedly ungifted people-pleaser, good for nothing but swallowing my anger and nodding along.
And I even added, kindly,
"I'll find a way to heal Joanna's injuries.
Whatever treasures in my quarters can be of use, my junior sister may take.
And this so-called ascension treasure—if you can find it, you may take that too."
They were all things my parents gave me anyway, things I had no use for. Giving them away was no loss.
Call it charity.
I really couldn't be bothered to squabble with them over where this pile of junk ended up.
But Joanna—my junior sister—looked as if she'd spotted buried treasure, her coughing stopping cold.
"Go search!"
"We mustn't waste senior sister's kindness."
