C1 A Drop of Dew from Half a Door

Chapter One: A Single Drop of Dew at the Half-Open Door

In the Shattered Lands, within the city of Rosehaven, lightning illuminated the sky as thunder roared, heralding a torrential downpour.

Amidst the relentless rain, a young man in tattered clothing lay drenched, his body sporadically twitching and flickering with electric light. Nearby, several youths stood with expressions of panic.

"Third Young Master, we must make haste and leave. We only intended to give him a beating, but who would have thought he'd be struck by lightning in such a cursed manner!" they exclaimed.

All eyes turned to a striking young man dressed in fine garments, the very picture of a noble's son.

"Why the panic? He was struck dead by lightning, not by our hands. He's a bastard child. Even if my father, the clan elder, were to intervene, what concern is it of ours?" Lin Huan said, his eyes betraying a mix of fear and satisfaction. He spread his hands, attempting to steady his nerves.

"Let's go!" With one final look at the lifeless body of Lin Xi on the ground, the group sprinted away into the rain.

...

"Where am I?" Lin Xi wondered, adrift in an endless void of darkness, feeling as though he were ascending.

Looking down, he saw a charred corpse amidst the rain, motionless even as residual lightning crackled around it.

"Is that... me?" Lin Xi's memory flooded back.

Moments before, his resentful half-brother Lin Huan, along with a pack of cronies, had accused him of stealing exotic meat from the Lucky Mug and cornered him on his way home in the rain, beating him mercilessly. Then, a fierce bolt of lightning had struck, and his consciousness had departed from his body into this vast darkness.

Lin Xi felt a deep sorrow. If he had been alone, death would have been the end. But he couldn't afford to die!

He had his father, Chef Lin, the preeminent chef of Rosehaven and the Lin family's golden goose.

Lin Xi's biological father, the patriarch of the Lin family, in a drunken stupor, had forced himself upon Ke'er, a servant, resulting in Lin Xi's birth. Fearing the influential main house, he had nearly let them kill both mother and child.

Thankfully, Chef Lin, unable to stand by and watch, claimed that Ke'er had been with him and agreed to marry her, allowing Lin Xi to be born. However, due to the main house lady's brutal treatment, Lin Xi had been injured in the womb, born with a disability that prevented him from cultivating. Since the age of eight, he had worked alongside Chef Lin at the Lucky Mug.

My adoptive father braved the depths of the Weeping Mountains in search of Invigorating Grass for me, vanishing without a trace. His paternal love and devotion weigh more heavily on my heart than the mountains themselves.

Then there's my dear sister, Ke'er, who was taken in by my adoptive father and raised alongside me. She's the epitome of cuteness and obedience, always brewing medicinal soups with great care to heal my wounds. It's hard to believe that such a slender girl could carry her brother, who weighs over a hundred kilos, to the doctor's door.

I can't shake the feeling that my adoptive father might still be alive, and Ke'er still needs someone to look after her. How could I seek my own release from this mortal coil and embrace death with a smile?

To die now would be heartless...

Driven by a fierce will to survive, Lin Xi refused to give in to death.

With all his might, he reached for his charred body below.

Yet, it seemed as if his soul was tethered to something, causing excruciating pain with the slightest movement.

But Lin Xi didn't care about the pain.

He was determined to live!

Finally, as he withstood the agony and his body plummeted, a burst of purple light flared behind him, propelling his consciousness into his forehead.

A sharp pang of pain and a tingling sensation caused his still body to shudder back to life.

A violent cough wracked Lin Xi, confirming to him that he was indeed alive.

But in the next instant, Lin Xi's shaking form became rigid.

He had become aware of his sea of consciousness.

In the vast darkness, a dilapidated gateway hovered, half-collapsed, within his mind's ocean.

This fragment of a gateway, seemingly insignificant, loomed majestically, reaching skyward as if it were miles high.

It appeared to have been forsaken for eons, with three layers of ancient, weathered eaves stacked upon one another.

The central eave was positioned above, while the two flanking eaves were situated below.

Upon glimpsing this gateway, Lin Xi was suddenly overwhelmed by an intense hunger, his stomach growling loudly.

Ignoring everything else, he shakily picked up pieces of Demonic Beast meat from the ground and began to chew voraciously.

As the meat touched his lips, a dim purple glow emanated from the eave on the lower left side.

Lin Xi was captivated by the shimmering purple light dancing along the eaves, sensing that it harbored a powerful energy within.

Refining essence into energy!

A vague idea surfaced in Lin Xi's mind, though he couldn't fathom why the image of a half-collapsed archway had appeared in his thoughts.

But one thing he was certain of: it was closely related to his recent encounter with lightning.

The archway appeared ancient and weathered, as if it had been eroded by the passage of countless years.

Yet with each violent cough, the purple light flickered more intensely, growing brighter as if the energy within was rapidly building up.

Finally... after consuming the last of the beast meat, an eerie energy surged from his stomach to his mind.

On the left, the purple light on the eaves flared up, mysterious and intense.

Amidst the increasingly luminous purple glow, a round green droplet began to form, slowly condensing and rotating.

Drip!

After what seemed like an eternity, under Lin Xi's almost breathless watch, the green droplet pierced through the misty purple light and fell.

At that moment, the droplet descended from the dark, chaotic sea of his consciousness and instantly permeated his skull.

Lin Xi's body was nearly entirely carbonized, devoid of any sign of life.

But as the green dew soaked into his charred flesh, a tremendous vitality infused his body, spreading throughout in an instant.

Lin Xi watched as the charred husk covering his body cracked and crumbled, making a chorus of squeaks and creaks.

Beneath the carbon shell, wherever the potent energy of the green dew traveled, new flesh and blood formed, and tendons regenerated.

The meridians that had been blocked since childhood were miraculously growing back!

His twisted and obstructed meridians had once meant a life without the hope of cultivation. Since the age of eight, he had worked alongside his adoptive father, Chef Lin of the Lucky Mug, mastering the art of the kitchen knife. Though adept at culinary skills, he struggled even to slaughter a chicken, let alone take a life.

But now, everything had changed.

The energy from the green dew revitalized his entire body, not only regenerating Lin Xi's flesh and blood but also reconstructing his meridians.

With his blood surging, Lin Xi rose from the rain-soaked ground. The carbonized shell of his body crackled and shattered, falling away piece by piece.

Bathed in the nourishment of the green dew, his eyes gained the ability to see in the dark.

As a result, he observed that once the charred shell had cracked and peeled away, his body was bare, his skin as fresh and gleaming as that of a newly peeled egg. A subtle sheen twinkled across his flesh.

With a clench of his fists, his strength surged to incredible levels.

Roar!

Lin Xi gripped his fists tightly and let out a primal roar to the heavens, releasing the pent-up fury and exhilaration within him.