The Next Day.
The Third Day.
The Fourth Day.
At this age, Li Qingwan's life was quite dull and monotonous. Every day, she soaked in high-temperature skin-peeling medicinal baths, then endured beatings until her body could no longer take it.
Her father was also a tough person. For every blow Li Qingwan received, he inflicted the same on himself. So, the physical activation of the Longxi Li family was just a game of self-torture between father and daughter?
Cheng Jinyang was utterly speechless.
The family lineage appraisal center was a place they visited monthly.
However, the results were always the same: a barely passable Fifth Grade, with no chance of breaking into Fourth Grade.
Eventually, even the appraisal center staff got annoyed. One day, while printing the report, they called Li Qingwan's father aside.
"See this person?" The staff member pulled up a record on a tablet.
"Mm." Li Qingwan's father nodded.
"Li Jingai, the clan leader's daughter, with a guaranteed Fourth Grade bloodline, can aim for the Third Grade." The staff member smiled. "Such excellent bloodline talent, how did it come about? Innate! Her father is our Longxi Li clan's leader, with the Third Grade talent. Could his daughter be any worse?"
"Li Fenghe, don't you know your own talent level? Guaranteed Sixth Grade, aiming for the Fifth Grade at best. Your daughter can barely reach the Fifth Grade now. What are you dissatisfied with? Why do you have to compare her with the clan leader's daughter?"
Li Qingwan's father's face turned pale. After a while, he said, "But her mother…"
"Your wife was indeed guaranteed Fifth Grade, who could aim for the Fourth Grade, but wasn't that dragged down by your bloodline?" The staff member impatiently threw the report at him. "Besides, didn't your wife fail to reach the Fifth Grade before she passed away?"
Li Qingwan's father stood there in a daze, as if he had lost the ability to speak.
Until his daughter's voice brought him back from his sorrow. He numbly looked down to see Li Qingwan, tears streaming down her face, pleading, "Dad, let's go home."
She didn't want to stay here any longer.
Her father sighed deeply but didn't nod and say "Let's go home" like he had countless times before. Instead, with a deathly expression, he forced a smile that was more painful than crying and trembled, "Qingwan, I've thought it over and I think you should…"
"Dad!" Li Qingwan stepped back in confusion, with a pale, almost despairing expression.
Then she ran away without looking back, ignoring her father's calls.
Cheng Jinyang, in his ghostly form, followed her as she ran hysterically, finally stopping at the entrance of a nearby martial arts gym.
Within the Longxi Li family territory, there were many martial arts gyms open exclusively for clan members, free of charge. This gym was famous for training hard qigong, such as the Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt.
With tears still on her face, young Li Qingwan went to an unattended counter to get a key and opened a "Bronze Man Room."
The so-called "Bronze Men" were not the gold-painted monks from Shaolin's Wooden Men Alley or puppets driven by intricate mechanisms but genuine combat androids, which could be programmed to attack according to the trainee's requirements.
Normally, trainees would wear protective gear. Although the Li family's abilities could make them immune to injury, pain was still inevitable. People trained in the gym to improve their hard qigong efficiency, not to suffer.
However, Cheng Jinyang noticed that young Li Qingwan didn't wear any protective gear—even though the gear was piled in the corner of the room—she directly launched an attack on the combat android.
Then she was heavily knocked to the ground.
It wasn't because the combat android was too fast but because she didn't even try to defend herself. She simply rushed forward and took the blow head-on, then was knocked down.
The combat android stopped, its program determining that the opponent had lost combat capability. But soon, young Li Qingwan shakily got up again and wiped the dust off her bruised mouth.
"Again," she said.
Another heavy blow, Li Qingwan took half a step back, but this time she didn't immediately fall. She only staggered a bit.
"Again." She spat out a bloody saliva and said through gritted teeth.
The third time, the fourth time... up to the one hundred and first time, Cheng Jinyang couldn't help but be astonished. He silently rejoiced that he was in ghost form and not possessing Teacher Li's body, otherwise he would truly be tortured to madness by the pain.
Recalling the first time he entered Miss Wang's dream, Wang Wanrou had also endured severe headaches, imprinting her thoughts on herself again and again. In a sense, Teacher Li and Miss Wang were similar types of people... both were ruthless.
However, upon closer observation, there were differences between the two.
When Wang Wanrou endured the headaches, her belief was incredibly firm. Because of her narcissism, she believed "there is only this one path" and firmly believed "I can definitely see it through to the end".
But Li Qingwan was different. Her mental state was confused and fragmented. The reason she chose to continuously torment herself was not because she truly believed "this path will work", but simply because there was no other way.
Thinking of this, Cheng Jinyang felt a sense of empathetic sorrow.
After all, he too came from a humble background. Before meeting Ah Zhi and obtaining his own "golden finger", he had experienced a period where he seemed to sink into a quagmire, watching himself sink... with boundless darkness on all sides.
Now, there seemed to be no way forward.
"Why!" A cry of despair interrupted his thoughts.
Cheng Jinyang stood there and realized he had returned to his physical state. Li Qingwan of normal age was looking at him, tears streaming down her face with almost uncontrollable sadness.
"Jinyang, tell me..." She muttered almost as if possessed, hurriedly walking towards him. "Why do some people come into the world with inherent advantages, possessing exceptional talents without needing to exert any effort?"
"Why have I endured so much hardship, yet the heavens are so stingy in their rewards?"
"Qingwan, calm down." Cheng Jinyang stepped back repeatedly until his back was against the wall of the arena. But Li Qingwan didn't stop, she just grabbed his collar, pressing down on him, her voice carrying a mixture of despair, resentment, and even pleading as she trembled and pursued:
"Tell me, is it because I was born... born destined to be worthless? No matter how much suffering I endure, I can't break free from the shackles fate has placed upon me?"
"Um, well, not necessarily." Cheng Jinyang hedged, "Actually, maybe there are other methods to increase the concentration of bloodlines?"
"Yes, yes..." Li Qingwan's complexion worsened, her eyes seeming to lose their luster, becoming murky and dim, murmuring, "There must be a way. Yes, I just haven't worked hard enough... I haven't endured enough pain yet, I have to continue..."
"I have to continue..."
In her echoing and repetitive voice, the entire dream was collapsing rapidly.