Lu Yang lowered his gaze, but his fists slightly clenched within his sleeves before slowly loosening.

Indeed, this was the cultivation world.

A world where the strong prey on the weak, without strength or background, no matter how high the talent, you’re just a slightly bigger and more interesting ant to someone else.

Without strength, you can die without ever knowing why, just like his past life self.

Without strength... I can’t get too involved in worldly matters. I must stay away from trouble until I’m powerful enough to protect myself.

Lu Yang silently chanted in his heart for the umpteenth time since arriving at the Lu Family.

The Rising Sun Mansion stood at the eastern side of the Lu Family estate, not grand compared to the towering halls and pavilions of the main family, but still slightly superior to the main hall of the mortal branch.

It was the place that represented the cradle of talent for the Lu Family, where all its past pillars had lived at some point.

Yet none of the children were as excited as they were when they first arrived.

Clearly, they had been dealt a huge blow from the scene some time ago.

"This will be where you’re going to live for the next year or until you have officially stepped into the Body Tempering Realm, then you will be assigned a seperate courtyard."

Lu Chuan clearly did not pay much attention to the children’s emotions, or rather, he had seen too much such scenes over the years and experienced much, gradually growing numb to it.

"Remember who you are, because from this moment forward, you carry the face of the entire Lu Family. The Lu Family does not forbid competition, but there are rules. You may clash, spar, or even vent, but if you dare cripple or seriously injure fellow clan members, the consequences will be severe."

At these words, the children hurriedly nodded to indicate their understanding.

Lu Yang snorted in his heart.

Rules...

They only restrained the weak. The truly powerful made the rules.

Remembering the scene he had just witnessed a while back, a faint coldness surfaced within Lu Yang.

The Lu Family was a cultivation clan, not a charity hall.

It was the same for any other force in this world.

Talent, strength, background, those are the things that matter, specially the latter two.

He had to transform his talent into strength and background as quickly as possible to truly lay the foundation of this life.

Otherwise, merely talent alone was not enough, and might even prove to be a disaster if shown.

...

Night gradually descended, with the moon hanging high in the sky.

The Rising Sun Mansion was quiet, most of the children having already fallen asleep due to being exhausted throughout the day.

Lu Yang lay silently on his bed, moonlight seeping through the wooden window, illuminating the small room.

On the table besides the bed were various things, medicinal pills, medicinal bath liquids, herbs, instruction manuals, clan rulebooks, and so on, that had been delivered in the evening by the servants.

Even servants in the Lu Family possessed cultivation, ranging from the First to Third Stages of Body Tempering Realm.

On the surface, the Lu Family had more than five hundred cultivators, most in the Body Tempering Realm, and more than ten in the Spirit Awakening Realm, who served as the pillars holding up the sky of the Lu Family. In the dark, there might be more.

The middle aged man from the Internal Affairs Hall earlier was the Internal Affairs Grand Elder of the Lu Family, a genuine Spirit Awakening Realm powerhouse.

Aside from him, there were the External Affairs Grand Elder, True Teaching Grand Elder, and Law Enforcement Grand Elder, all at the Spirit Awakening Realm.

These were all Grand Elders, a notch above the ordinary Spirit Awakening Realm elders in status due to special circumstances around them.

They held the same authority as the Family Head and were only beneath the Supreme Elder, who was the recognized most powerful being in the Lu Family, said to have touched the threshold of the Spirit Awakening Realm’s later stages.

The young master from the main branch beating up the other boy from earlier today was the grandson of a Spirit Awakening Realm elder, possessing extraordinary status, allowing him to act recklessly.

After all, he didn’t seriously injure or cripple the other party, so it only counter as a small skirmish between children according to the clan rules.

Lu Yang’s thoughts slowly stilled into calmness.

His consciousness trembled as the world around him began to fade, and he once again appeared in that mysterious, boundless space.

Even though he had been here more than once, Lu Yang’s heart trembled every time he came here.

Looking up, a massive card with cracks appeared before him, golden light erupting from the cracks.

On the card was the figure of a tall old man who stood straight like a pine tree, with white hair and beard, a trace of weariness in his cloudy yet unwilling eyes, with his hands behind his back, wearing a black robe that gave him a sense of majesty.

A few small characters were inscribed on the card.

[Character Card]

[Lu Yang]

[Peak Cultivation: Peak Ninth Stage of Body Tempering Realm]

[Status: Summonable]

[Summon Duration: Fifteen Minutes]

Behind the card, it seemed as if the old man’s figure had come to life, gazing down at the current Lu Yang with calm, ancient well-like eyes.

Lu Yang’s breath subconsciously hitched.

This was his ultimate trump card in the present life, his own past life self, the one who died in unwillingness and self blame.

He had discovered such a thing long ago, this card seemed to be a special perk granted by the Script of Reincarnation.

It could allow him to summon his past life self for a total of fifteen minutes at any given moment, possessing the peak strength of his past life, but that was all he could understand for the time being.

The peak of Body Tempering Realm, although the lowest realm of cultivation, was definitely not a figure to be ignored even in the Lu Family.

In critical moments, this could potentially save his life.

Lu Yang looked up, meeting the gaze of that old, withered figure without fear.

For a moment, there was absolutely stillness in the boundless space.

*Crack!*

Then, everything shattered like glass, returning Lu Yang’s conscious back to reality.

Lu Yang slowly closed his eyes, yet a faint curve of his lips betrayed his inner excitement.

...

*Dong!* *Dong!* *Dong!*

Before the sun had risen, a series of bell sounds echoed across the estate.

Lu Yang and the other children hurriedly got up and headed towards the training grounds, where a small crowd of six or seven children their age had already gathered.

They wore purple robed embroidered with golden patterns, their bearing extraordinary.

These were the children of the main line who would also begin cultivation alongside them and lived in the Rising Sun Mansion.

However, they had no intention of talking with the mortal branch children, maintaining their distance, with only one or two giving a faint nod at their arrival.

Most mortal branch children gave them awkward nods and humble smiles, with a few lowering their gaze instinctively.

Lu Yang glanced at them and nodded in greeting calmly, waiting for the arrival of the instructor.

As time passed, more people gathered around, mostly older children who had already moved out of the Rising Sun Mansion, curious about the new batch of clan talents.

Lu Yang had his eyes lowered, quietly scanning the environment.

Just then, the sound of several footsteps at once broke the already barely maintained tranquil atmosphere in the training grounds.

A young boy around six or seven years of age strode in arrogantly, accompanied by a group of sycophantic followers with fawning smiles on their faces and a stern faced young man in black robes, presumably the former’s guard.

From the boy’s exquisite robes and conceited expression, he indeed belonged to the main line.

"Young master Lu Ming..."

"That’s young master Lu Ming? The one said to be among the top five talents of the Lu Family, advancing to the Body Tempering Realm in less than a month after starting cultivation?"

"It’s already almost been a year since then, he should be approaching the peak of Body Tempering Realm First Stage by now..."

From the scattered conversations around him, Lu Yang figured out the boy’s identity.

Lu Ming, the youngest son of a Spirit Awakening Realm elder, one of the top five geniuses in the Lu Family’s younger generation, who achieved the Body Tempering Realm and became a cultivator within a month of starting cultivation.

The top ten geniuses of the Lu Family all were certain to become Spirit Awakening Realm pillars in the future.

And they were not half baked Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators who exhausted all their potential to reach that realm; they could all break through to that realm under sixty years of age, possessing plenty of potential to improve even further in the Spirit Awakening Realm.

Just as Lu Yang was reviewing the information in his mind, Lu Ming’s gaze suddenly landed on him and flashed with interest.

"Hey, you, you’re the brat who’s said to have the highest potential among this batch of mortal descendents, aren’t you?"