Li Jing bid his farewell to Li Wei Ren and left the Martial Library. The guards outside greeted enthusiastically upon seeing him leave, "Have a good day, Young Master!"
Merely nodding in response, he quickly took off.
...
Li Chun, a 12 years old genius of Li family was hailed to be the greatest genius in the family until Li Xun appeared, stealing his thunder.
This year he had broken through to the 'Muscle and Skin Cleansing' stage of the Body Tempering Realm, becoming the youngest to do so, breaking the previous record which was held by another genius of the family decades ago.
That genius had broken through to the same realm at the of 13 and was the current Great Commander of the Maple Sky Kingdom.
However, before Li Chun could even celebrate this achievement of his, it was broken by Li Xun, the grandson of the First Elder, at the age of 11.
This caused him to be a bit jealous. However, this seed of jealously grew into a tree of hatred because of his parents and grandfather.
No longer did they smile when they saw him or praised for his accomplishment. All he heard every time he was with them was how he should work hard to surpass others or compare him to Li Xun.
They might have done this to motivate him but unknown to them, it had back fired. The hatred for Li Xun within him had been deeply rooted in his bones.
Yesterday, however, was a great day for him. His grandfather called him and praised him for his achievements and even smiled at him lovingly. He also gave him a task to complete. This was the first time his grandfather has given an important mission.
So, here he was today, standing in front of the academy gate, waiting for a certain someone to accomplish the task assigned by his grandfather. He wanted his grandfather to once again smile and praise him, to once again feel the affection of his loved ones. Thus, this mission was too important for him.
"Big brother Chun! Look, that brat his here!", standing beside him, a boy of his age, pointed in the direction was the gate.
Li Chun, who was lost in thought, heard his lackey's voice and looked in the direction he was pointing.
Beside him were three more kids of his age, they too looked. From a far, the five heads looked like a cluster of blue, shining stars under the brilliance of the sun.
"Li Ming, Li Xiao, Li Jun, Li Chen. Let's go, it's time to complete my grandfather's mission.", he said while walking forward.
Li Jing was heading back home from the Martial Library when he saw five blue heads approaching from a distance. Soon, he was able to see their faces clearly. However, except for the one in the middle, who was much likely their leader, he didn't recognize any of them.
Although they hadn't interacted even once, he had seen Li Chun on numerous occasions and knew his character very well. This guy was conceited and arrogant, for he was a genius and was extremely jealous of his cousin Li Xun.
Hence, he didn't like him.
The closer they got to him the more Li Jing realized that they were coming towards him, and from their gazes they seemed to have come with bad intentions. A flutter of nervousness washed him over as the distance between the two groups shrunk with each step forward.
However, much to his surprise, they walked past him. But before he could sigh in relief, a hand wrapped around his shoulder followed by a sneer.
"Oh! If it isn't the genius Young Master Jing! Greetings."
The five of them surrounded him. They had grin plastered on their faces and mockery welling up in their eyes.
Li Jing frowned but maintaining his calm he asked sternly, "What do you want?". His eyes directly gazing into Li Chun's.
However, Li Chun didn't say anything. Instead, the one who spoke was the kid who had his arm around him, "Haha, Young Master, we have heard of your famous deeds and wanted meet you Pantz pooper."
"Yeah, right. Young Master Pooper, why don't you poop in your pants right here and show us how you did it?", the one standing beside Li Chun mocked. His name was Li Xiao.
"Haha....", all of them started laughing and were expecting for Mr. Pantz pooper to scream or cry. However, to their disappointment, he only had an indifferent face.
They felt irritated by this fact.
Li Jun, who still had his arm around Li Jing's shoulder, tightened his grip, intending to let this trash young master shriek in pain. Anyway, his intentions were bound to fail, for he was much powerful than him.
Getting no reaction from him, Li Jun increased the strength of his grip but it was all futile. All their mocking and teasing had no effect on him. Thus, Li Chun chose a more radical way.
He took a step forward and used one-tenth of his strength to punch Li Jing in the gut.
Li Jing, on the other hand, saw the incoming punch, nonetheless he didn't block it. Instead prepared his body to take it.
"Gah!"
The force behind that punch was enough to cause his eyes to dilate for a split second and cough saliva.
"Cough! Cough!"
He fell onto his knees and coughed violently. Even though he was in the 'Muscle and Skin Cleansing' stage, Li Chun, too, was in that realm.
Li Chun glanced at him coldly before bending and looking into his eyes. He said, "You must be wondering why I am doing this, right?"
He wasn't in the least interested, nonetheless, nodded. He was curious as to what this fellow was going to say.
"Well, I can't stand the fact the despite having a low-level talent for Martial Path you're treated so well by your parents and live so happily. ...I can't stand you trash! You are a trash! Trash! Remember, Trash! From now on, I will beat you every time I see you!"
Li Chun slowly spoke before he suddenly burst in rage and slapped him before starting to kick him.
"F*ck, it hurts!"
Li Jing, despite, getting such ruthless trashing didn't retaliate even once. He didn't want to reveal his strength just yet. After all, their was a reason for everything. Until today, Li Chun didn't even bother looking at him but suddenly he couldn't stand him? What a joke!
Yesterday, it was Li Yuan and now it was Li Chun. The only thing both of them had in common was Li Wei Ren.
Li Chun being Li Wei Ren's grandson must be instructed to do this. So, he was sure that someone was secretly observing all of this in secret.
Thus, he could only defend his face with his arms and absorb all the incoming kicks.
"Big brother, stop! You will kill him at this rate.", seeing that Li Chun had no intentions of stopping, the four lackeys stepped in. They could beat the First Young Master and get away with it but if he died, it would be catastrophe, for their entire family would be massacred.
He snapped out of his madness when he heard their voice and glanced at Li Jing's bloody figure before calming down. He looked at his lackeys and said slowly, "Let's head back."
The moment he had mentioned about the loving parents Li Jing had, memories about how his parents treated him surfaced in his head, causing him to lose control and beating him excessively.
Li Jing, after getting beaten so badly, was about to lose control and retaliate, for he feared death despite being able to reincarnate endlessly with the help of Grand Heaven's Reincarnation Sutra.
Fortunately, Li Chun stopped in time, otherwise it would have been him who would be dead instead of him.
He saw those motherf- Ahem! His gaze turned cold while watching the backs of the bullies and swore to have revenge. Struggling to get up, he gritted while muttering, "This karma. I will repay you a hundred fold."
Dragging his injured body, he staggered his way back home. It was already evening when he reached home.
Upon seeing the state he was in, his mother was devastated and cried while caressing him all over. His father also rushed back upon hearing about his son's condition.
After treating all his bruises and wounds, his parents asked him how got injured so badly.
However, instead of telling the truth, Li Jing lied with a straight face, saying that he lost his way back home and ended in the forest at the back of the hill and fell, hitting the rocks and the trees.
Finally, after putting a lot of effort into calming his mother, he fell asleep. His parents also left seeing him sleep soundly.
Coming out of the room, Su Xiaoyue was the first to speak, "He is lying."
"I know. That brat, does he truly thinks we are idiots? He has been that route so many times that it is impossible for him to get lost, even if he wasn't a genius.", Li Shang sneered.
Su Xiaoyue nodded in agreement before speaking hatefully, "It must be that old bastards doing. Look, what state our son has ended up in! I will kill that bastard!"
She once again started sobbing.
Li Shang couldn't see her wife like this and hugged her before muttering softly, "Don't worry. That old coot will pay. I am going to write a letter to father."
Saying that he set off.