“Zhijin, it’s raining heavily; rest early so you don’t catch a cold.” Ye Baolin walked up gently to his daughter; a loving smile on his handsome face, but it held a trace of lament.

Ye Zhijin’s head raised a little as her hand intimately linked her father’s arm. Her pair of bright eyes sparkling, in a spoiled little girl’s demeanor asked, “Dad, what are you lamenting about?”

“Haha,”

Ye Baolin chuckled, a finger poked tenderly on the delicate nose saying, “Lamenting that I finally brought up my daughter after all these years of trial. Moreover, my daughter grew up to be so beautiful and slender; it’s just that my heart aches a little every time I see, thinking one day my darling daughter would be tricked away by some ‘bastard’ and I will feel uncomfortable ah.”

“Dad, what are you saying; I’m not marrying anyone and will accompany you forever.” Ye Zhijin’s eyes became red-rimmed and declared in a somber voice. Then, with father and daughter’s arms linking, they watched the raindrops falling in the dusk sky.

“You can't not marry, Dad can’t support you for a lifetime. When your mother passed away, she said all men are bastards, but we will search for a slightly better ‘bastard’ for you so that she will feel better.”

“Puchi…”

Ye Zhijin was amused by her father’s words, the corner of her eyes curved into crescent-shaped smiles, then frowning and a low voice enquiring, “Dad, are you missing Mother?”

“Yes, I miss her.”

Ye Baolin had a faraway look on his face, and then sighed and looked at the delicate face next to him, “You look more like your mother every day; just as beautiful, just as smart. If she knew this, she’ll definitely be very happy.”

“I think what Mom was happiest at was to marry you.”

Ye Zhijin leaned lightly on her father’s arm; she knew father would think of her mother often. Unfortunately, there were joys and there were sorrows in the mortal world like the moon disappears when morning comes, no one can stop it.

“Mm, let’s not talk about this anymore. What have you found out in recent days?” Ye Baolin lightly patted his precious daughter’s head, and a smile appeared on his face. He was much comforted with this daughter at his side.

“From the recent situation, it seems the An Family, Qin Family as well as the Bai Family has ill-intentions. But, were unable to find out how much preparation they’ve done. What are the winning chances they think they have to be brave enough to deal with our Ye Family?” Ye Zhijin said.

The smile on Ye Baolin’s face gradually disappeared, he replied “It has been many years yet they have never given up. Until this day, the time and effort they had spent in preparation, how could they think of giving up?”

“Do they think we are that easy to deal with!” Ye Zhijin no longer spoke after that, silently she watched the raindrops as the sky turned dark.

…

A quiet morning after the rain washed the great earth. The air seemed fresher than usual as if the fragrance of the earth were floating in the air.

In the back mountain behind the Du Clan compound, up on the huge rock, a purpled-robed young man was sitting cross-legged; his hands moved continuously making seals and both eyes were closed. His body was shrouded in a pale golden light, enveloping even the huge rock that the rain last night did not affect where Du Shaofu sat at. The golden energy light snaked in and out of his body, looking mysterious and profound.

Sitting on the rock, the purple-robed young man’s chest moved up and down as he breathed, each time his breath stretched longer than the last. As time goes on, it felt that there is something rippling in the air that is invisible to the eye, as if something from this world entered the young man’s body as he breathed, making his skin glow with a tinge of pale gold and runes moving on the surface.

“Freak! This kid is an abnormal bastard!”

Not far away, beside the Demon Scale Tiger was the illusionary figure of Zhen Qingchun who was staring at the purple-robed young man sitting cross-legged on the rock; muttering incessantly to himself.

Half a month’s time had gone by and everything happened out of Zhen Qingchun’s estimation. Once again the little freak kid achieves such progress in refining medicine; it wasn’t necessary for him to explain it in detail and the kid could infer three things from one, possessing great comprehension ability; the same with his martial cultivation.

“Hu~!”

When it reached noon, the young man on the rock finally finished his practice. The golden light that shrouded him returned into his body; after he breathed a stream of foul qi, his long lashes fluttered and he opened his eyes. A trace of golden light flickered deep within, there is a hidden sharp edge in them.

“The dans Brother Qingchun refined are truly something good. With this rate of progress, I think it wouldn’t take long to advance into the mid-Xiantian.”

He felt the abundant surging xuanqi inside his body, a smile appeared on Du Shaofu’s face. The dans refined by Zhen Qingchun had a great effect and made his practice progress seemed effortless, gaining more than twice the usual result. This gave birth to admiration towards Zhen Qingchun in Du Shaofu’s heart.

“Continue to work hard, and strive for a breakthrough.” Du Shaofu muttered lightly. He stretched lazily and then leaped off the rock.

“This smelly kid is really abnormal ah.”

Two days later, Zhen Qingchun was utterly dumbfounded when he saw Du Shaofu threw himself against the cliff wall after stuffing a bunch of elixirs into his mouth; large chunks of rocks fell to the ground and some turned into powder from Du Shaofu’s ‘attack.’

With Zhen Qingchun’s eyesight, of course, he could see how strong Du Shaofu’s physique was, he was practically a human form infant Garuda.

Such a strong physical body wasn’t something a normal human can have, not even those old heritage families or ancient race can achieve it. Moreover, they won’t have such a crazy physique refining technique that could turn a human body harder than steel.

“Abnormal bastard, this bastard is abnormal!”

Another three days later, when Zhen Qingchun saw the liquid essence floating in Du Shaofu’s Spirit Talisman Cauldron, the dumbfounded expression on his face remained for a very long time that it seemed like Zhen Qingchun might not recover from the blow. He worked hard for some months before succeeding to refine the liquid essence, but this freak of a kid used only ten days!

Especially when in those ten days, this kid used some hours to practice his martial cultivation and temper his body using the Golden-winged Garuda’s method; practically multi-tasking! But the result was a staggering success; this kid made everything seemed so easy. In refining the liquid essence, Du Shaofu failed twice, wasting merely a few thousand xuanbi’s materials. During his own rookie days, he failed five times, wasting more than a couple of thousands worth of elixirs.

Day passed after day, and the day of the Five Families Junior Competition grew closer. Thus, Stone City became even livelier as gossips related to the Five Families filled the streets, becoming an after meal topic.

The contest between the Five Families ran according to many years of tradition, betting on the contestants are inevitable.

The talented younger generations from each of the Five Families became champion candidates.

And in every competition, there would be an emergence of a black horse, and these people were always more interested in a dark horse for its high winning odds. If the right choice was made, they could be rich overnight.

In Stone City, many betting points were opened, hearsay, that these were controlled by none other than the Five Families themselves, earning fortunes every year.

In every betting point, almost all the families’ great talent younger generation were listed up.

Because the participants’ name needed to be submitted a few days before the competition begins. Thus, the participants’ entry details weren't any secret. This made it easy for the betting points to gather this information to facilitate the bets to be made.

There were quite a number of ‘hot’ contestants this time ‘round, like the Ye Family’s Ye Zhijin, the An Family’s An Long and An Hu, the Bai Family’s Bai Mingtian, and Bai Caiyi.

But popular contestants naturally have lower returns. Still, their popularity was undeniable.