The next day bright and early, Qin Yu left the Prince Mansion alone and returned to Cloud Mist Villa, accompanied only by Black Hawk.
Back at Cloud Mist Villa, Qin Yu trained even more diligently. In fact, he drastically reduced the time he had planned to spend on accepting assassin missions, devoting most of his time to constantly improving himself. Knowing this, Qin De could only give a wry smile, saying nothing at all.
Half a month later, deep into the night.
Qin Yu walked out of his room and stood in the center of the courtyard. Suddenly, with a powerful push off his feet, he swung and flashed onto the roof in an instant. Sitting atop the roof, Qin Yu looked at the boundless starry sky in silence, with Black Hawk also quietly staying by his side.
Cloud Mist Villa was situated mid-mountain, and from the roof, Qin Yu could even see a nearby cliff. Cold wind blew from the deep and dark cliff, yet Qin Yu felt nothing.
"Little Black, I feel so superfluous, extremely superfluous," Qin Yu said in a low voice to the Black Hawk beside him.
The Black Hawk's glossy eyes stared at Qin Yu as it opened its vast wings and draped them over Qin Yu's back, as if comforting him.
Gazing at the starry sky, Qin Yu's voice was a bit ethereal and carried a hint of bitterness, "When I was little, I thought my father didn't care about me, so I diligently practiced cultivation just hoping that he would spend more time with me. But when I grew up, I found out that he does care about me deep down. It's just... he has his own issues to deal with and no time to waste on me. To annihilate the Imperial Family Xiang to seek revenge for my mother—indeed, it's very difficult. Father, Big Brother, Second Brother—they've all been trying hard, but me..."
"I'm of no use at all. I'm not skilled in politics, nor do I know how to lead troops. With the little martial arts ability I have, it's completely useless in the midst of thousands of soldiers." Qin Yu clenched his fists tightly, "Actually... I want to help my father. In fact, I want to make myself useful, even just a little bit."
It's a case of high hopes crushed.
Qin Yu despised himself for being useless.
From his childhood to his adulthood, Qin Yu always felt lonely, although he could sense his father's concern. But from the age of six to sixteen, a full ten years, the father and son had spent no more than a month together.
He didn't resent his father; he just hated his own uselessness.
Now he understood what his father was doing. Qin Yu also wanted to do something. He wanted to help his father, but really, he was not the least bit helpful.
"To my father, I might just be a burden. The Innate Realm. When will I be able to reach it? Considering my current pace of improvement in martial strength, to reach the limit of Outer Strength, it would take at least five or six years," he sighed.
After a long time, Qin Yu suddenly stood up, took a deep breath, his eyes flashing with resolute light.
"Big Brother, Second Brother, Father, you're all working tirelessly, preparing for the big battle five years from now. Then, in these five years, I too will persist in my cultivation. At least within these five years... I want to reach the realm of Teacher Zhao Yunxing, attain the Postnatal Extreme," Qin Yu set a goal for himself.
Value, every person living in this world should have value. At the least, they should be somewhat valuable in their parents' eyes, otherwise life is mere survival. Qin Yu disliked the idea of being a spoiled scion merely relying on his father's status; he wanted to achieve something, at the very least... to be of some help to his father.
...
The Hidden Dragon Continent was incredibly vast, yet the ocean beyond the continent was ten to a hundred times larger. Suddenly—
The endless ocean began to undulate violently without any storms, surging violently without any apparent reason. At the same time, nature's spiritual energy throughout the world trembled all at once; the waves rose up a hundred feet high before crashing down thunderously. All cultivators sensed the chaos of nature's spiritual energy, and for a moment, they were unable to absorb it at all.
"Whoosh!"
In the sky, a meteor appeared out of nowhere, streaking diagonally across the sky towards the Hidden Dragon Continent at great speed, even emitting a sharp howling sound. Moments later, the meteor vanished. And nature's spiritual energy instantly returned to stability, and the boundless ocean also returned to its usual state.
...
"A meteor!" Qin Yu saw a meteor flying from the high altitude far away, and immediately watched carefully from the rooftop. The meteor was actually flying directly towards Qin Yu's direction. Qin Yu's eyes lit up, and he laughed, "No way, this meteor wouldn't be heading straight for Cloud Mist Villa, would it?"
Qin Yu knew that some Outer Heaven Meteorite Iron was often formed when meteors like these fell to Earth.
"Perhaps I could even find a large block of Outer Heaven Meteorite Iron," Qin Yu thought secretly. However, to Qin Yu's slight disappointment, the meteor vanished into thin air when it was still a good distance away from him halfway through its flight.
"Oh well, being able to see a meteor is still quite lucky," Qin Yu said with a slight smile, then leaped off the roof, intending to jump down. But as he leaped, Qin Yu suddenly saw a bright flash in his eyes.
"What is that?" Qin Yu faintly saw a faint light shining in the West Garden, which aroused his curiosity. He immediately ran towards the West Garden, arrived, and looked carefully around but saw nothing unusual.
As Qin Yu walked a few steps by the hot spring, he suddenly noticed a glint on the ground.
"What is that." Qin Yu vaguely saw something like a crystal on the ground. He crouched down for a closer look, and it turned out to be a red crystalline object that resembled a pendant. He picked it up and placed it in his hand; the crystal was shaped like a tear.
"Blood-red, teardrop-shaped crystal, it should be a crystal," Qin Yu thought as he looked at the crystal in his palm, unconsciously taking a liking to it.
"Setting this 'crystal' and making a pendant out of it would be nice. If I gave it to Little Lu, she would definitely love it. Hmm, what should I call it once it's made?" Qin Yu frowned and thought for a moment, then his eyes brightened, "Hey, since it was found after seeing a meteor and it's shaped like a tear, let's call it 'Meteor Tear'."
Meteor Tear, Qin Yu was quite satisfied with this name.
Qin Yu even tried holding it against his chest and nodded in satisfaction. However, suddenly Qin Yu felt the crystal in his palm lighten, the 'crystal' he had just held... somehow disappeared eerily. Right there in the palm of his hand, it vanished out of thin air.
Qin Yu's eyes widened in astonishment.
"Is this some kind of trickery?" his heart throbbed violently, for he had never encountered anything so bizarre.
The object in his hand vanished into nothingness, as if it had never existed. But Qin Yu was absolutely certain he had found a blood-red teardrop-shaped crystalline object, and he had even named it Meteor Tear.
"How could it have disappeared? Could there be an Innate Expert or an Upper Immortal using telekinesis to take it directly?" Qin Yu pondered, "No, that's not right. I was holding it in the palm of my hand. Even with telekinesis, I should have felt the 'crystal' move, right? Could it simply have disappeared into thin air?"
Qin Yu could not fathom it; transporting an object into thin air was an incredible Divine Skill.
"Not even an Upper Immortal might have such Divine Skills, right? And would such a supreme expert come in the middle of the night just to play tricks on me?" Qin Yu was full of confusion.
In the West Garden, a baffled Qin Yu pondered for a long time. After finding no reason, he could only leave the West Garden with his bewilderment and helplessness.