After everyone was reborn, I was strictly disciplined.

Suppressed cries of humiliation echoed through the room, each one piercing Lu Chengyuan's very soul.

He kept his head bowed low, the stray hairs on his forehead obscuring the crimson turmoil in his eyes, and his long eyelashes trembled violently when his eyes were closed.

It felt as if something hard was inside his chest, shattering inch by inch amidst the forced pleas, crushing even his last shred of pride into dust.

He collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted, his back hunched over like a shrimp, his eyes vacant as if his soul had been ripped away, and his breathing heavy and broken.

Xie Xingran then slowly straightened up and ordered the punishment of Wu Hao to be stopped.

Wu Hao had already fainted from the pain and was curled up in the courtyard, unable to move.

Xie Xingran patted off non-existent wrinkles on her robe, walked slowly to Lu Chengyuan, and said in a calm tone, "That's more like it. When you're asking for help, you should act like one."

His gaze swept over Lu Chengyuan's deathly pale face without the slightest ripple, then he turned and walked towards the door, ignoring Lu's feet, and gave a curt order:

"Come on, let me take you to see your mother who is about to pass away."

Wujia Village is nestled in the folds of a continuous mountain range. It is a village so poor that even the sunlight seems reluctant to linger.

More than forty households were crammed onto the hillside, with mud walls and thatched roofs. Each family relied on a few plots of land to make a living, generation after generation living with the soil and struggling to make ends meet.

In this mortal village, if a child is found to have spiritual roots and is accepted into a celestial sect, it is considered that their ancestors have accumulated eight generations of good deeds, which would make the whole village envious for several years.

When Wu Hao and Lu Chengyuan were chosen by the Fire Marrow Pill Holy Land, the entire Wu Family Village was in an uproar. Countless eyes were filled with jealousy and envy, hoping that the two of them could rise to prominence and, incidentally, help the village.

So when Xie Xingran's figure landed at the village entrance accompanied by the sound of his attendants' horses' hooves, it almost instantly caused a stir throughout the village.

The villagers rushed towards Lu Chengyuan's house, crowding the courtyard and surrounding it, tiptoeing and craning their necks, as if they wanted to see right into the yard.

They wanted to see if this distinguished person from the immortal sect was truly as described in the stories, with flowing robes and an air of otherworldly grace.

Before they could even take a step closer, they were forced back by the cold, hard gazes of the accompanying guards. Their blades gleamed coldly, and the guards said in deep voices, "All of you, step back!"

With just one sentence, the noisy courtyard fell silent instantly. The villagers huddled in place, not daring to breathe, only daring to steal glances out of the corner of their eyes.

Xie Xingran stood in the courtyard, dressed in a magnificent and exquisite brocade robe with cloud patterns. Her delicate features carried an innate pride, and the noble air surrounding her was out of place with the dilapidated mud-brick courtyard and withered weeds. She exuded a superior and aloof demeanor.

He frowned in disgust, his gaze sweeping over the dilapidated thatched hut. The wooden door was cracked and mottled, the corners of the walls were covered with moss, and even the window paper had several holes.

Inside the room, Lu's mother lay on the bed with her eyes closed, her face as white as rice paper, and her breathing so weak that it was almost imperceptible. Years of being bedridden had left her without even the strength to turn over.

The air was thick with the smell of herbs, mixed with a faint stench of decay that emanates from prolonged bed rest, making one's nasal passages feel tight.

Xie Xingran immediately raised her hand to cover her nose, her brows furrowing, her disgust undisguised: "How can it be so awful? It smells terrible, it's practically filthy my nose."

In the corner, Lu Chengxue suddenly clenched the hem of her clothes, her face instantly turning bright red, then quickly fading to a pale pink, leaving only unease and anxiety.

She is thirteen or fourteen years old this year. She should be at an age where she is jumping around and has a bright and cheerful face. However, years of malnutrition have made her thinner and smaller than girls of the same age, and her face is pale as if she has been ill for a long time.

Her hair was dry, yellow, and sparse, simply tied with a coarse cloth rope. Her thin, bluish finger joints were prominent. Only her eyes, like dew-kissed apricot kernels, were wet and pitiful.

She bit her lower lip and stammered as she stepped forward, her voice barely audible: "Honorable sir, my mother is very ill, and all the money in the house has been spent on medicine, so the house is... is so dilapidated. Please don't be angry."

As she spoke, she lowered her head slightly, her long eyelashes concealing the embarrassment in her eyes, her fingers nervously twisting the hem of her dress. It was a coarse cloth skirt with several patches, the cleanest garment she could find.

Xie Xingran glanced at her, his gaze lingering on her delicate features.

With her willow-leaf eyebrows arched and her almond-shaped eyes filled with moisture, even though she was so thin she was almost unrecognizable, her natural beauty could not be hidden. Like a small wildflower barely blooming in the cold wind, she was fragile yet touching.

A strange doubt flashed through his mind: Lu Chengyuan's sister is so beautiful, how could Lu Chengyuan let such a beautiful sister stay in this poor and remote place, setting up a stall on the street every day to earn money for medicine? Isn't he afraid that she will be snatched away?

However, this thought was fleeting; he rarely thought about things that didn't concern him.

His purpose in coming here was not for Lu Chengyuan's mother, but to see if Lu Chengxue, the rumored most cherished younger sister of Lu Chengyuan, also possessed the destiny of a chosen one, just like Lu Chengyuan.

Xie Xingran's lips curled into a wicked smile. "Yeah, your family is really shabby. You and your brother are useless too, you can't even scrape together the money to repair a proper house. The reason your mother is dying so fast might be because she was angered to death by your pathetic state."

"No, no!"

Lu Chengxue suddenly looked up, her eyes instantly reddening, large tears welling up but she stubbornly held them back, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

"Mother's illness is due to overwork, not... not because we upset her..."

She became more and more anxious as she spoke, her voice trembling with tears, but she bit her lip tightly, refusing to let the tears fall.

She knew she couldn't offend this important person, for her mother's life was in his hands.

Xie Xingran looked at her as she tried to hold back her tears, but felt nothing in his heart, and his mind was completely silent.

As expected, she was just an ordinary girl, not a woman destined for greatness.

Just as he was about to turn around, Lu Chengyuan's hoarse voice came from behind him.

Lu Chengyuan's face was still deathly pale, but his eyes, which had once burned with the flames of arrogance, now suppressed humiliation as he slowly lowered his proud head before Xie Xingran.

That was the head he had never bowed to anyone, his pride, his dignity as a man, but now it was shattered completely for his mother.

"Young Master," his voice was dry and hoarse, as if squeezed out bit by bit from between his teeth, each word tinged with blood, "bestowing upon the elixir to save my mother's life."

"Please..."

The last two words were so soft they were almost inaudible, yet they exhausted all his strength.

[Ding—Villain's emotional fluctuation detected, Villain value +100]

The notification sounded in her mind, and Xie Xingran instantly felt relieved, her smile deepening.

He loved this feeling—trampling on someone else's pride and dignity, watching them grit their teeth in hatred yet forced to bow their heads and beg for mercy. It was more exhilarating than any game.

He casually raised his hand, took out a pill from his storage bracelet, and with a slight movement of his fingertips, the pill flew towards Lu Chengyuan with a faint spiritual light.

It was a low-grade Healing Pill, a common pill found everywhere in the Fire Marrow Pill Holy Land, and not worth mentioning to him.

"for you."

Lu Chengyuan's pupils contracted sharply, and he hurriedly reached out to catch it, his fingers trembling with tension.

He gripped the warm pill tightly, the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from his palm clearly perceptible.

This was the Healing Pill that he had sought in every holy land, a life-saving medicine that could save his mother's life. But in Xie Xingran's hands, it was just a trinket tossed around casually, as worthless as dust.

Her already fragile self-esteem was utterly crushed to dust at that moment.

He gritted his teeth, hiding the humiliation and hatred in his eyes. Without saying a word, he turned and quickly walked to the bedside, carefully pried open his mother's mouth, and fed her the healing pill.

The pill entered her stomach and instantly transformed into a warm spiritual energy, spreading along Lu's mother's meridians.

In a short while, her previously faint and almost nonexistent breathing became steady and long, her pale cheeks gradually regained color, and her tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.

"Mother!" Lu Chengxue immediately rushed to the bedside, tightly grasping her mother's withered hand, her voice choked with sobs, filled with the overwhelming joy of having her mother back. "Mother, wake up! Look at me!"

Lu's mother's eyelashes trembled slightly as she slowly opened her cloudy eyes. Her gaze lingered for a moment on her daughter's tear-streaked face before settling on Lu Chengyuan standing beside her. Her voice was weak but warm: "Chengyuan... Chengxue..."