The martial art described inside was very simple. It explained how to breathe and which route the energy should flow through one's body so that it could be refined before one stored it in their dantian.

Xue Wei read through the entire technique, not skipping even a word. He read it time and time again until he understood it by heart, and it was only then that he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He sat down in a lotus position and closed his eyes. Breathing heavily, he absorbed the surrounding energy into his body. He could feel a slight golden wisp of energy enter his body, and he instantly started to rotate it in accordance with the way the book had described.

As he rotated it through his body, he felt how pure energy was, but moments after, as the energy reached his dantian, it all dissipated through his body as if his dantian could not accommodate it.

Shock, disappointment, and disbelief filled Xue Wei's face. He had read that the amount of the energy that stayed in one’s dantian depended on how talented they were, but to have all of it leave and not even a tiny bit remain truly left Xue Wei dumbfounded.

Thinking that he might have done it wrong, Xue Wei decided to try once more. But after trying time and time again, he obtained the same result.

"I better ask father!" he said to himself as he went towards the front of the shop. As he walked out of his room, his heart was trembling from shock. He felt how his dreams were on the verge of shattering, and he was tearing up but forced the tears to stay in his eyes and not overflow.

Xue Wei was only ten years old. He had expected to be a talent only seen once a generation. He expected that he was a true master and would become a real martial artist! But he could see the truth before him! So far it seemed as if he was worse than trash at cultivating. He could see that his talents were so poor that he still might be a once in a generation cultivator, just not in the way he wished!

Grumbling and feeling down, Xue Wei went towards the front of their store, but a frown took hold on his face on the way over. He was almost at the front, and as he reached it, a metallic scent filled his nostrils.

"Is father dealing with corpse grass or blood ginseng?" he wondered as he opened the door. But the moment he opened it, he froze.

In front of him was his father, but he seemed strange. Something was impaled through his chest. The more Xue Wei looked, the more horrified he became. He dropped the cultivation technique to the floor, his eyes widened in shock, and his mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.

Right now, a long arm covered with azure scales and spikes had been thrust through his father's chest; the metallic scent came from the blood which was oozing out like water from a broken fountain. The azure-scaled hand had small streams of blood flowing off the scales, giving the otherwise beautiful scales a menacing appearance.

The moment Xue Wei opened the door, his father turned his head. His eyes misted over, and a trail of blood could be seen running down the corner of his mouth. Blood frothed at his mouth as he opened it.

"Run... Little Wei... Run!" he whispered with what little strength he had left before his eyes were completely devoid of all life.

"Father! Father!" Although he had been told to run, Xue Wei's legs went soft, and they collapsed beneath him. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he started bawling out loud as he slowly climbed towards his father's corpse that was still hanging on the scaled arm.

The arm was suddenly swung to the side, and the corpse of his father was flung into the wall. Blood sprayed everywhere and the sound of bones breaking made Xue Wei scream out and feel nauseous. As he reached his father's side, he saw a large hole on his chest where he had been impaled. With trembling fingers, he touched his father's still warm face that was splashed with blood and frozen in fear.

A sound came from footsteps that moved towards him, and finally, Xue Wei looked at the arm that had impaled his father and would most likely impale him soon as well.

The arm that was covered in azure scales and spikes slowly changed from the arm of a demon to the arm of a normal human. Even the sleeve of a robe appeared on this arm, a robe that seemed very familiar to the young child. His eyes followed up the rest of the robe till his eyes landed on the face of the handsome young man he had seen earlier that day.