There is no direct correlation between a person's lack of talent or poor academic performance and their character.

Yun Huang returned to her residence—a luxurious estate located in the suburbs of Jiangxia City.

The estate's gate was made of heavy metal, flanked by two security guards dressed in black uniforms.

Her car slowly passed through the gate and drove down a wide tree-lined avenue, lined with rare and expensive flowers.

At the end of the avenue stood a grand building, its white exterior gleaming under the sunlight.

A butler in a tailcoat had been waiting for some time.

He respectfully opened the car door and gave a slight bow. "Welcome home, Miss."

Yun Huang nodded expressionlessly and stepped into the hall.

The hall's ceiling soared ten meters high, adorned with a massive crystal chandelier whose light refracted brilliantly through countless prisms.

The floor was paved with expensive marble tiles, polished to a mirror-like sheen that reflected Yun Huang's figure.

Yet, despite its opulence, the space felt cold—as if it lacked warmth.

Yun Huang walked through the hall and ascended a spiral staircase.

The corridor was lined with spacious training rooms and a study.

She headed to the northwest corner and pushed open her bedroom door.

The walls were a soft beige, the floor covered in plush carpeting.

Aside from a bed in the center, a desk, and a bookshelf against the wall, there was nothing else in the room.

It didn’t resemble a normal girl’s bedroom at all.

Yun Huang stood by the window, gazing outside, but a hollow emptiness settled in her chest.

This mansion, for all its extravagance, was nothing more than an exquisitely crafted cage—one that trapped her completely.

Of course, some might call her ungrateful.

"Living in luxury yet blind to her blessings," they’d say. "Countless people dream of being born into such wealth."

Yun Huang glanced at the surveillance camera mounted on the wall.

Her fingers trembled slightly.

Did those people really think she had any time for "entertainment" or "enjoyment"?

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

She counted silently in her mind.

Knock knock knock!

A sharp rapping sounded at the door.

A soft, delicate voice called from outside, "Huang Huang, the butler said you're back?"

Ah, it was that woman.

Despite monitoring her for over a dozen hours a day, she still pretended to be considerate.

Or perhaps it was precisely because the surveillance showed her every move that she bothered with this fake courtesy—knocking on the door as if she respected Yun Huang’s privacy.

Yun Huang was certain that if she smashed the camera, the woman would immediately drop the act and barge in.

"Did you get it?"

Yun Huang opened the door with a blank expression, manifesting the [Desire-Severing Robe] in her hand using soul energy. "Yes."

Outside stood an elegant woman with flawless makeup.

Her clothes were made of high-end fabric, tailored to perfection—clearly the work of a master designer and worth a fortune.

Diamond earrings dangled from her ears, a gemstone necklace adorned her neck, and an intricately designed jade bracelet wrapped around her wrist. Each piece of jewelry accentuated her noble demeanor.

It was just a shame that while each piece alone would be stunning, cramming them all together…

Made her look less like aristocracy and more like a tacky nouveau riche.

"Good, you got it. Head to the training room and test its effects. I had to pull some strings to acquire this. Though it’s only a rare card, it has a calming and focus-enhancing effect. At the sixth-tier stage, it’s excellent for cultivation support."

"You are a Pathseeker of Great Xia, to be honest, your mother hopes you can appear as a seventh-rank cultivator during the martial examination..."

"You know, ever since your father passed away, too many people have been eyeing the Yun Family like a piece of juicy meat. With just the two of us, a pitiful mother and daughter, the Yun Family must maintain enough value for your father's old connections to still acknowledge us, to protect us. Mother is doing this for your sake..."

"Back in the day, a single word from me would have made the Cardholders' Association deliver the card to our doorstep. Now they actually expect you to go pick it up yourself?"

"Do they not realize how precious your cultivation time is?!"

Blah blah blah...

Yun Huang didn't register a single word of the rest.

She had long mastered the skill of automatically filtering out this woman's nonsense.

Until...

"Oh, by the way, when you went to the Association to collect the card today, did you spend a long time talking to some boy?"

"Mother looked into him. His name is Su Qi. He used to be quite promising, but as the old saying goes, 'Early brilliance often fades with age.'"

"He ended up becoming utterly mediocre. Now, at twenty-four, he’s only just broken through to the sixth rank today."

"You handled this poorly. You shouldn’t have transferred money to him from your own phone. What if this toad dreams of eating swan meat and tries to add your SourceChat using your number? Next time, avoid such societal dregs."

"As a Pathseeker, you should mingle more with talented peers."

Normally, Yun Huang would nod expressionlessly and say, "I understand."

But for some reason, this time, she burned with the urge to retort.

"A person’s lack of talent, ability, or academic success has no direct correlation with their character."

"Why do adults like you always assume such people are 'bad' or 'societal dregs'?"

"Slap!"

A sharp crack echoed as a palm struck Yun Huang’s face. The woman’s voice turned shrill: "Who taught you to speak like this?!"

"I’m asking you—who put these words in your mouth?!"

Yun Huang didn’t flinch. "Guardian Jiang. Go ask him if those are his words."

The woman instantly deflated.

The person Yun Huang named was the Guardian of Jiangxia City, its strongest cultivator—a supreme tenth-rank Celestial Realm expert.

Even at its peak, the Yun Family had only been his equal.

Naturally, the woman wouldn’t dare trouble him over such a trivial matter.

Put simply, she was a bully who preyed on the weak.

A gold-digger who lucked into marrying into a wealthy family.

Now, with the family on the brink of collapse, she was scrambling desperately.

The Yun Family had no real Pathseeker.

It was all a lie spun by the Yun matriarch to cling to her fading status.

"I’m going to cultivate."

Those five words were the only thing that could shut the woman up.

No matter how displeased she was, she would never interfere with Yun Huang’s cultivation time.

After all...

It was only through mountains of resources, reckless pill consumption, and twenty-hour daily training sessions that Yun Huang had reached her current level.

......

Five hours later.

Yun Huang stood in the training grounds, drenched in blood.

While her peers still fantasized about working hard to glimpse the wonders of the Source Realm, she had long grown accustomed to life-and-death battles against captive Source Realm creatures.

Today, it was three sixth-tier Swiftlight Beasts, known for their speed.

She deliberately left an opening, nearly allowing herself to be ambushed, only striking at the very last moment.

The cost was being splattered head to toe in their foul-smelling blood.

Not for any grand reason.

Just so she could take a proper bath.

Only then could Yun Huang briefly escape surveillance.

After all, even that woman wouldn’t dare install cameras in the bathroom.

With how advanced the internet was these days, if some opportunist—or a traitor within the Yun Family—leaked the footage, the carefully crafted image that woman had built would collapse instantly.

"He... understood..."

Yun Huang murmured to herself, a flicker of hope flashing in her eyes.

But that hope vanished like a shooting star, leaving only a fleeting shadow behind.

"Hah... So what if he understood?"

Her situation was beyond her own power to change.

The woman who "gave birth to her" had tightened her control to an all-encompassing degree, even monitoring her thoughts and emotions.

Could he really save her?

Exhausted, Yun Huang dragged herself into the bathroom. The moment the door closed, she finally felt a brief respite.

Water cascaded over her, washing away the blood and fatigue.

She closed her eyes, letting the cold water soak her long hair, as if it could rinse away the weight and pain in her heart.

Curled up, Yun Huang slowly drowned in the sound of running water.