Mu Family residence.

Swish...whoosh.

Within a small courtyard, a youth around seventeen years old was practising with his single-edged sword.

The youth was very dedicated and focused. Every time he slashed his sword, he used the entirety of his strength, enough to rip the air apart with a piercing sound. Even the dried leaves that had fallen on the ground had been swept away due to the draft, forming an arc around the youth.

Swish….whoosh.

Beads of sweat had formed on the youth's forehead. His robe was already drenched in sweat. However, no matter how exhausted he was, the youth continued his practice with his sword.

"Big brother!! It's time for breakfast!!"

A high pitched voice suddenly resounded in the courtyard, breaking the rhythm that had been formed by the sound of the sword. The culprit was a pretty girl around thirteen years old. She was carrying a large tray with an assortment of dishes.

However, the youth ignored the girl's cry and continued to practice without respite.

"Big brother! I said breakfast is ready!!"

The girl once again reminded the youth as she arranged the dishes on the table under a tree.

But there was no response.

"Big Brother!!"

"Hey...Big Brother...yoo-hoo!!"

"Hmph! You are ignoring me again!" The girl stamped her foot and puffed her cheeks as she glared at her Big Brother.

However, it was only after the youth had completed his set of exercise that he finally stopped, sheathed his sword and walked towards the girl who was brimming with impatience.

"Xue'er! How many times do I have to tell you not to interrupt my training?!"

In response to the youth's admonishing, the girl just spat out her tongue and offered a damp towel so that he could wipe off the sweat.

"There are servants in the house who can deliver food. You should spend more time on your cultivation instead..." The youth said as he wiped down his sweat.

Although he was slightly annoyed by the girl's lack of discipline, this didn't stop the youth from taking his seat at the table.

"But cultivation is so boring…" Xue'er chirped as she eagerly served the dishes to the youth and took a seat.

The youth gave an exasperated sigh. This girl was becoming more and more lazy. He felt it was his obligation to drill some sense into her.

"Xue'er, your spirit root is excellent. If you waste your time like this, you will become an old hag before you can become a true cultivator…"

"I know...but it's so dull and lonely…Anyways, even if I don't practice, at most I will get old with Big Brother together...Here, try these meat dumplings first before they get cold..."

"You need to have patience and persistence when cultivating, even if it's boring. Besides, even if your brother becomes an old man, he still wants a cute little younger sister, you know?"

"All right, all right...I will cultivate hard and always be Big Brother's cute little sister...How do these dumplings taste? I made them myself!"

Xue'er looked at him with upturned eyes, eager for his praise.

"Mmm...they are delicious! Your craftsmanship has improved a lot..."

Xue'er giggled and beamed with pride.

"...If only you put that much effort in cultivation, I would have one less thing to worry about."

Xue'er was immediately depressed hearing the words that followed the praise.

"Big Brother! If I didn't make breakfast, you would have had to stay hungry. All the servants were busy…But instead of praising me, you...you! Hmph! That's it! I will not talk to you anymore!" The girl wrinkled her nose and pouted in righteous indignation.

"Hey! Hey! I am just worried about your future. Hmm...You said all servants were busy?!" The youth was somewhat surprised to hear this.

"Un! It's weird. When I went to the servant's quarter, it was empty. I asked the big housekeeper and he said that all servants that had been assigned to us had resigned and it would take some time for management to find some to allocate new ones...No other servants were free… Since it was already getting late for Big Brother's breakfast, I went to the kitchen myself and prepared some dishes myself…"

Hearing her explanation, the youth felt even more inconceivable and his expression turned solemn.

The Mu Family was a well-known cultivator family and it employed hundreds of people as servants. These servants would take care of daily necessities of Family members so they could focus on cultivation. It was unbelievable that there would be no servants free to take care of his breakfast. The Mu Family would never lack such low-level manpower.

Seeing her brother's serious expression, Xue'er couldn't help but become nervous.

"Big Brother...did I do something wrong?"

"It is not something you did...it's just...Forget it, you don't need to concern yourself about it. Where is Mei'er?"

Zhou Mei, who would usually join them for breakfast, was missing.

"Big Sister has gone out to hunt monster beasts in the Dark Forest..."

"This girl…" The youth massaged his forehead.

These two girls were of two completely opposite temperaments. One was very lazy while another was too assiduous. He always had a hard time dealing with them both.

"Let's just finish the breakfast for now…"

The youth was indeed very hungry after his training. It was a good thing that his little sister had prepared extra large portions, knowing his appetite.

The rest of breakfast went on rather peacefully, aside from the occasional chirping of one little girl.

"Umm...Big Brother!...I..." Xue'er was hesitant as she called her brother who had just finished his breakfast. She actually didn't eat as much as usual. She was fidgety and seemed uneasy throughout their breakfast.

"What is it? Did you get in a fight?" The youth noticed his little sister's abnormality and asked in a gentle voice so as to not scare her off.

"Big Brother...they...everyone...they were saying bad things about you…" Xue'er squirmed in her seat as she spoke.

"So that made you angry and you got into a fight?" The youth guessed.

Xue'er lowered her gaze with a somewhat guilty expression as she quickly narrated what had happened. Thankfully, it wasn't as much of a fight, more of a verbal argument.

Turned out, after she went out to seek the Big Housekeeper, she ran into other members of the Family on her way back. Xue'er greeted them as usual, but instead they were very rude. And soon started humiliating and insulting the youth. Xue'er was very annoyed. Her Big Brother had always been her idol, so hearing others badmouthing him, she soon got into a heated argument with them. The argument would have soon turned into an all out fight if Xue'er hadn't recalled it was getting late and that she still needed to prepare breakfast for her brother.

After hearing Xue'er's explanation, the youth couldn't help but sigh. He knew there were rumors about him floating around but he usually didn't concern himself with them. For the past year or so, he had rarely mixed with other members of the Family and had instead completely immersed himself in his own training. What he didn't anticipate was even juniors had now started insulting him.

Just a few days ago, both of their parents had been sent on a mission that would need them to leave the Falling Stones City and travel far. This meant that the siblings would not be able to see their parents for at least a few months.

On the surface, it wasn't anything unusual. In fact it was very common in cultivator families. Even close relatives would not meet each other for months, sometimes even years. Everyone would be often engrossed in cultivation and close up at times. You might have just come out of your seclusion, but who could have guessed that your relative just had an epiphany and decided to close up? Since cultivators had long lives, not many would make a fuss over not being able to see each other every other day.

First, there were the rumors. It had hardly been a few days their parents had left and all the servants had resigned. Now, there were others trying to draw Xue'er into trouble. It was fortunate that Xue'er didn't actually fight, otherwise the situation would have quickly escalated.

Xue'er might not be able to connect the signs due to her immaturity and inexperience. But it was very obvious to him.

Someone was targeting their family, or to be precise, him.

The youth was already aware that his position in the Family had become very unstable. The privileges he and his Family had been enjoying so far were because of his talent and potential as a cultivator.

When he was in the Meridian Opening boundary, the number of apertures the youth had managed to open were higher even than that of their Old Ancestor in the records, attracting attention of higher-ups of Mu Family.

It was a well-established fact that higher the number of apertures you have, faster will be your cultivation speed. This was not considering other factors like realm understanding or other heaven and earth treasures. If one cannot comprehend a realm, they simply cannot step into it. As for heaven and earth treasures, they were rare and would appear only every few decades or so.

Seeing his talent, the Mu Family had decided to nurture him. His position in the Family skyrocketed. His parent's status also rose. He and his family were given the privilege of residing in the central area, where spiritual qi was abundant.

The youth himself didn't disappoint his Family's expectations and quickly broke through the Fragmentation Boundary. He soon became the youngest member of the Family to step into the Spirit Gathering realm, becoming a true cultivator before fifteen. Then in less than a year he already climbed to the late stages of the Spirit Gathering realm. This further proved that not only the youth's cultivation speed was very fast, his comprehension was also monstrous, a genius.

Unfortunately, an accident happened.

When he was around sixteen, the youth went into the Dark Forest for training. This was not the first time the youth went into the forest to hunt monster beasts. He had been to and fro into the forest several times before. However, this time on his way back, he was sneak attacked by bandits. When fighting those bandits, the youth was seriously injured. His dantian was destroyed and his spirit root was also damaged.

From a rising star, Mu Chen soon became a fallen genius. The fall of this genius was faster than his rise, like a shooting star.