Mortal Realm — HongYe Continent, Western Region
Jinxu Sect
Jinxu Sect, one of the most powerful sects in the Western Region.
To outsiders, it's a gateway to glory, power and status, everything one could imagine.
However, to those inside, it's a nest of vultures where strength means little… and background means everything.
***
Servant Courtyard
"Tch. Look at this pathetic thing."
Jiang He's voice cut through the courtyard like a whip. He stood tall, robes crisp, posture lazy— the kind of laziness only someone untouchable could afford.
He glanced at the body on the ground, eyes filled with annoyance rather than pity.
"Clean him up. I don't want rumors making me look bad."
With that, he turned on his heel and walked off, humming to himself like he hadn't just brutalized someone. His three lackeys stood in silence, backs straight, expressions unreadable.
"Yes, Young Master," they said in unison, like trained dogs.
Left behind, sprawled on cracked stone, lay a boy with bloodied lips and a swollen jaw. His long white hair clung to his skin like wet threads. Beneath the bruises, his features were dangerously beautiful & elegant in a way that made people uncomfortable. But right now, he looked less like a person and more like a beaten stray.
One of the lackeys sneered. "You heard him. Clean up the trash."
"Ugh, don't look at me," the second muttered, recoiling. "Touching that cursed freak might jinx me."
"He's not dead," the third said. "Barely breathing. Let's just leave him."
The bruised boy stirred.
No sound. No glare. No begging.
He rose slowly and silently before he walked away. He didn't even spare them a glance.
The silence he left behind was heavier than the beating they lashes on him.
"…Who the hell does he think he is?" one muttered, his voice cracking slightly.
"Tsk, let him do whatever he wants— from Tomorrow, he won't be capable of doing anything anyway, haha."
With that being said, they left, while laughing heartily.
***
Elsewhere in the Courtyard
"Tch. Poor bastard got beat again," one servant muttered as Lin Tian passed by.
"I used to hate him," another whispered. "But now… I kinda just feel sorry for the guy."
"Pity? Nah. If it were me, I'd have killed myself by now." The first servant snorted. "Guess he's got talent for surviving, if nothing else."
They laughed. The kind of laugh that kicks down, never up.
Lin Tian heard every word.
But he didn't stop. Didn't speak.
Didn't even blink.
He was already way too used to being the talk of the town, the kind everyone can vent out their frustration with nobody even batting an eye out and wondering why they do it.
...
After a little walk, he made it back to his room—or rather, a storage shack where they had thrown a mattress in and called "his."
The moment he neared the mattress, he collapsed onto the bedding, his face layed flat on the mattress while his back faced the ceiling.
And as he silently remembered his sad life— the kind where he gets no love, respect, nothing but endless torment, from words, from beatings, from the silent, trash talks behind his back.
And that... broke him from the inside for the first time in years…
Tears started streaming down his cheek however there were no sobbing. Just a broken boy leaking everything he had been holding in his entire life.
"Why…? Why me…?" he questioned, his face molding into the kind everyone pity but no one tries to console.
"What did I ever do to deserve this?" he said, his voice getting a bit loud as he expressed everything he's been through since the start.
"Why the fuck was I even born?"
"Why would they even birth me if they had no intention to carry my responsibility! Just WHY!"
He clenched his fists until his nails dug into skin, He clenched so hard that a small amount of blood started leaking out through his skin.
Curse this heartless world. Curse the mocking heavens.
Curse those mockingly smiling face that ever turned on him.
And just like that, he lashes out, taking out everything that's been on him since the time he was born...
But eventually, sleep took him by a woosh, as darkness endulged him. Something that never does anything bad to him, his solo solace.
***
That Same Evening, Inner Sect Pavilion, Jiang He's Courtyard.
"Young master," one of the goons called him but... However, hesitation chimed onto him like a latch.
Jiang He raised a brow. "Just spit it out. There's no point in hiding anything from me."
"It's just that… when we left, that cursed bastard… he looked at us like we were trash. Like we weren't even worth glaring at."
"Yeah," the other one chimed in. "there was no fear, no hate, just genuine disgust."
"Oh yeah, young master!! That bastard was also muttering something while he was leaving— he definitely cursed all of us!" The third one, who had been silent joined in the conversation, adding fuel to the already burning fire the other two had caused.
Hearing all this, Jiang He's smile twitched, as he frowned.
"He dared to curse us? After all the mercy we had shown on him?" he said slowly, his voice cold, his aura flaring out like a wild beast, his killing intent intensifying.
"No doubt about it." The three goons said in unison, as a smirk started surging up on their face— "gotcha"
For a moment, silence prevailed in the room.
And then, a smile returned— a crooked, widened, sadistic smile.
"...Kill him."
"Young master?"
"Tonight. I want him erased. Quietly. Make sure the elders don't find out. No mercy. No mistakes."
They bowed immediately.
"B-but young master... The sect leader and all the elders has repeatedly told us not to kill him this weak.. what if t-this angers them?" One of the goon said, his voice cracking a bit as fear loomed over them
Jiang He turned his gaze to the moon outside.
"Don't worry, those old coots are only afraid of it trashing their reputation and inviting that old Heixu here... But don't worry, nothing will happen if we do it quietly and buried it down... nobody cares about him anyway."
"Yes young master!" Hearing their master's explaination convinced them, as the fear started disappearing, while their killing intent surging like wild beast.