Chapter 11: No One Is Born a Waste

Xiao Yan froze, spinning around sharply.

Before him stood a handsome young man in white robes, smiling warmly. His gaze was calm, yet carried a faint trace of encouragement and gentleness.

"Who are you? Did you come to laugh at me too?"

Xiao Yan ground his teeth as he spoke.

Nothing infuriated him more than being made a laughingstock.

"You've misunderstood," Su Bai shook his head, then continued, "I'm not here to laugh at you."

"Ha..."

Xiao Yan let out a hollow laugh, clearly unconvinced.

"Walk with me?" Su Bai said with a smile. "We can talk as we go."

"Why should I go anywhere with you?" Xiao Yan frowned and refused.

"If you want to defeat the people who humiliated you today — three years from now — then come with me."

With that, Su Bai turned and walked forward without another glance at Xiao Yan.

Along both sides of the street, pedestrians came and went in an endless stream, and the cries of vendors filled the air.

There were peddlers pushing their carts, wealthy merchants galloping on horseback, and young lords in fine silk robes holding folding fans.

There were also cultivators dressed in splendid attire, chatting and laughing freely — wherever they passed, the crowd parted in reverence.

"What did you mean by what you just said?"

Xiao Yan caught up, eyeing Su Bai with suspicion.

Su Bai didn't answer, nor did he slow his pace — he simply kept walking.

Seeing this, Xiao Yan quickened his steps and fell in beside him.

He wanted to see just what this young man — who didn't look much older than himself — was really up to.

A short while later, Su Bai finally stopped. He reached into his pocket, pulled out ten copper coins, and placed them in front of a legless beggar lying on the ground.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

The beggar trembled with gratitude, bowing repeatedly.

Xiao Yan, not quite understanding, rummaged through his own pocket and found a silver tael, which he held out to the beggar.

But the beggar stared at the gleaming silver and shook his hands frantically, his face filled with alarm.

"If you want to get him killed, go ahead and give him that silver tael," Su Bai spoke up.

"What?"

Xiao Yan was taken aback. "Why?"

Su Bai glanced at him calmly and said, "Ten copper coins will let him live three more days. A hundred coins might keep him lying here three more days. One silver tael, and he won't survive the night."

At those words, Xiao Yan's heart sank.

He looked around and noticed that many able-bodied beggars were already eyeing the silver in his hand.

In an instant, it all became clear.

"Beggars kneel and beg in the dirt just to survive. Peddlers rise before dawn and work past dusk just to feed their families. None of them have given up. None of them think of themselves as waste."

"Everyone is striving for their own life, working toward their own goals."

"You have your health, and your family is well-off. So tell me — why do you think of yourself as a waste?"

Su Bai looked at him steadily, speaking each word with deliberate care.

"Because I can't cultivate. I can't make Liu Yanran see me differently. I can't change anything about my situation."

Xiao Yan said quietly, his voice hollow, carrying an indescribable loneliness and desolation.

"In this world, no one is born a waste," Su Bai said softly. "Some people simply haven't found their own path yet."

"A path? Where is my path?" Xiao Yan laughed bitterly at himself.

"Every time I try to cultivate, I work so hard to gather even the tiniest bit of Spiritual Energy — and it just dissipates immediately."

"My father brought in a Foundation Establishment expert to examine me. He said I have no elixir field, and that I could never succeed in Qi Refining."

He could not refine qi. The path of immortality was forever closed to him. That was already a settled fact.

"If that's the case, then why did you just declare that challenge three years from now?" Su Bai countered.

"Of course — to prove it to them. To prove I'm not a waste!" Xiao Yan said through gritted teeth.

"Good!"

Su Bai laughed heartily.

"What are you laughing at?" Xiao Yan asked, puzzled.

"You have that resolve — that's enough," Su Bai said. "Three years from now, you'll prove you're no deadweight."

"Who exactly are you?" Xiao Yan asked, bewildered.

"Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect — Su Bai," Su Bai said with a smile.

"Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Sect? Su Bai?" Xiao Yan furrowed his brow and searched his memory, but found no trace of any sect called the Heavenly Dao Sect.

"If you want to surpass Liu Yanran three years from now, then wait for me here at dusk — when the sun sets — and come with me to the Heavenly Dao Sect."

With those words, Su Bai turned and walked away, leaving Xiao Yan standing there in a daze.

Xiao Yan stood rooted to the spot, lost in thought.

* * *

By the time Su Bai arrived at the entrance of the Hundred Sects Assembly, Xiao Lingxi and Zhuge Feng were already waiting for him.

Xiao Lingxi looked much the same as before — she had changed into a different dress, and even with her veil on, she still drew every eye around her.

Wait — drawing every eye...

Su Bai glanced around and sensed several carefully concealed gazes fixed on them.

He sighed inwardly. What had to come couldn't be avoided.

When soldiers come, meet them with soldiers; when floods rise, hold them back with earth. Once they reached the Heavenly Dao Sect, never mind a mere Lingxiao Sect — even the Heavenly King himself would have to kneel before Su Bai.

Zhuge Feng, on the other hand, looked like a completely different person. He wore a finely crafted brocade robe cinched with a purple-gold jade belt, and carried himself with far more presence than before.

On his chest, the characters "Heavenly Dao Sect" were embroidered in clear lettering.

Even so, he still wore an expression of nervous unease. For someone from a humble background like his, an outfit worth several dozen silver taels was an almost unimaginable extravagance.

"Head up, chest out — you're the Senior Brother of my Heavenly Dao Sect. Do you want people to laugh at us?" Su Bai walked over and gave him a sharp reprimand.

"Look at Lingxi — she's sharp and confident. Why are you cowering like that?"

"Learn to be confident. How do you expect to become a strong cultivator in the future if you can't even do that?"

At those words, Zhuge Feng immediately straightened up, and his bearing improved at once.

Xiao Lingxi pressed her lips together to hide a smile. She was fairly sure she'd just heard her master compliment her.

The group then stepped into the grand plaza of the Hundred Sects Assembly.

The crowd was as packed as ever. The number of sect and faction recruitment banners had risen to over a hundred and twenty.

However, the Lingxiao Sect's recruitment banner was nowhere to be seen this time. In its former spot hung an entirely different sign.

A bounty notice!

Information leading to capture: ten silver taels.

Capture: one hundred gold taels.

On the board was a large portrait — unmistakably of Xiao Lingxi.

"Who drew this? It looks nothing like me!"

Xiao Lingxi nearly flew into a rage upon seeing the portrait. Fortunately, Su Bai stepped in to restrain her in time — otherwise she likely would have torn the thing to shreds.

Meanwhile, Zhuge Feng pulled out the Heavenly Dao Sect's new recruitment banner, found a spot, and sat down.

It had to be said — with money behind it, the new banner had turned out quite well, a marked improvement over the original.

Combined with Zhuge Feng's polished new attire, he looked every bit the genuine disciple of an immortal sect, and drew a crowd almost immediately. There was none of the mockery and accusations of fraud that Su Bai had faced the last time.

Still, though many gathered to look, as soon as they saw that the monthly base stipend required thirty silver taels, everyone shook their heads.

An unheard-of sect, charging the same as the Lingxiao Sect?

With thirty silver taels, why would anyone choose this unknown Heavenly Dao Sect over the Lingxiao Sect?

Even a dog would shake its head at that.