Frost coated the jagged stone slabs of the outer courtyard like broken glass.
Bitter wind sliced through Kai Fan’s threadbare robes, biting into his scarred flesh with relentless fury.
He lay face-down in the freezing mud, his cheek pressed against the slush while blood dripped from his split lip.
Above him stood Kai Lin, his half-brother, wearing a sneer that dripped with pure, sadistic pleasure.
"Look at you, crawling like the dog you are," Kai Lin mocked, his heavy leather boot grinding into Kai's left hand.
Bones popped beneath the weight, but Kai refused to give him the satisfaction of a scream.
He clenched his jaw so hard his teeth groaned, a thick vein throbbing violently at his temple.
Blood dripped from his split lip, mixing with the dirt and melting snow beneath him.
His fingernails dug into the frozen earth, desperate to find some leverage, some way to fight back.
Several high-ranking servants and minor cousins of the Fan Clan stood in a semi-circle, their faces twisted in mocking amusement.
They enjoyed seeing the young master of the clan reduced to a punching bag.
It reinforced their own fragile sense of superiority in a world where strength was everything.
One of the guards, a fat man named Wu, spat on the ground near Kai's face.
"Look at him, the great young master Fan," Wu sneered, his laughter joined by the others.
"No wonder the Patriarch doesn't even want to look at him."
Kai Lin smirked, enjoying the sycophancy of his subordinates.
He stepped closer, his heavy boot pressing harder against Kai's fingers.
"You see, Kai Fan? Even the servants know your place," Kai Lin whispered, his voice dripping with venom.
Anger burned like hot coals in his chest, yet his crippled body remained utterly useless.
Born with fragile meridians, Kai had always been the black sheep, the useless trash of the powerful Fan Clan.
But today, Kai Lin wanted to ensure he would never even stand again.
"Still got that stubborn look in your eyes, brother?" Kai Lin laughed, lifting his right fist.
Crimson Qi flared around his knuckles, smelling of sulfur and burning ozone.
This was the Blazing Sun Fist, a mid-grade martial technique Kai would never be allowed to learn.
Heat flared in the freezing courtyard as Kai Lin drove his fist straight into Kai’s chest.
An agonizing explosion of heat ripped through Kai's torso, shattering his remaining functional meridians.
Fragile pathways that carried his meager life force snapped like dry twigs under a boot.
Spitting a torrent of crimson blood onto the pristine white snow, Kai collapsed backward.
His vision blurred into a dizzying haze of white and red.
Every breath felt like swallowing molten glass, his body utterly broken by the strike.
Pain radiated from his core, but it was nothing compared to the coldness of the man watching from above.
High on the stone balcony of the main estate, Patriarch Fan Ruo stood dressed in luxurious white furs.
His biological father looked down at his broken, bleeding son with absolute indifference.
No anger showed on the Patriarch's face, only a profound disappointment that Kai even existed.
To Fan Ruo, a son without cultivation potential was worse than a corpse; he was an embarrassment.
Without a single word, the Patriarch turned his back and disappeared into the warmth of the inner pavilion.
Despair, dark and suffocating, threatened to drown Kai as he watched his father walk away.
That cold back was the ultimate betrayal, sealing the deep wound in Kai's heart.
He would never trust anyone again, never let himself be vulnerable to the whims of the powerful.
"Throw this trash back into his kennel," Kai Lin ordered, wiping a speck of dirt from his silk trousers.
Two burly guards stepped forward, dragging Kai’s limp body across the frozen stones.
They tossed him ruthlessly onto the rotting floorboards of his dilapidated shed at the edge of the estate.
---
Darkness enveloped him as the guards slammed the heavy wooden door shut, leaving him to freeze.
Kai lay in the dark, shivering violently as the cold seeped into his shattered bones.
He could feel his heartbeat slowing, his life draining into the dirty straw beneath him.
Cold air whistled through the gaps in the rotting walls, carrying the scent of impending winter.
Every gasp for air brought a wave of blinding agony from his ruined chest.
Kai Lin's fiery Qi was still eating away at his remaining vitality, slowly burning his insides to ash.
Memories of his childhood flashed behind his eyelids, bitter and mocking.
Once, before his meridians had withered and cracked, his father had looked at him with pride.
But the moment the clan elders declared him a useless cripple, that pride turned to cold disgust.
Discarded like common trash, Kai had been relegated to this outer courtyard, forgotten by all.
Only his stepmother, the mesmerizing yet distant Matriarch Liu Rushi, occasionally glanced his way.
Even she, however, was out of reach, a high-and-mighty cultivator of the Core Formation realm.
"I can't die like this," Kai whispered, his voice a pathetic rasp in the quiet room.
Hatred burned hot in his chest, the only thing keeping his spirit from slipping into the void.
He wanted to tear down the Fan Clan, to make his father beg for mercy on his knees.
No one would save him, he knew that now.
Trusting others was a luxury for the weak, a mistake he would never repeat.
If he somehow survived this night, he would only rely on himself and whatever power he could seize.
Death felt incredibly close, its cold hands wrapping around his throat as his breath slowed to a crawl.
He closed his eyes, expecting the final darkness to claim him.
Instead, a sharp, ringing tone echoed inside his skull, shattering the silence.
---
Suddenly, a brilliant crimson light flared in his failing vision, blinding him.
Geometric lines of red energy traced themselves across his eyes, forming complex runic patterns.
A mechanical sound chimed inside his mind, vibrating through his very soul.
[Ding! Host's life signs critical. Sovereign Yin-Yang System initiating emergency startup.]
[Sensing broken meridians... Standard Qi cultivation impossible for host's current physical state.]
[Sovereign Yin-Yang System fully activated to rewrite host's destiny.]
Kai blinked, wondering if this was a death-induced hallucination.
Red text remained suspended in the air, glowing with an otherworldly intensity.
He felt a strange, warm energy begin to pool at the base of his spine, fighting back the icy death.
[Warning: Host's physical vessel will collapse in three minutes without immediate intervention.]
[To survive, host must bind with a high-level Matriarch of exceptional Yin energy.]
[Yin-Yang dual cultivation is the only path to repair your shattered meridians and ascend the nine realms.]
[Yin-Yang dual cultivation path detected as optimal.]
[Unlocking Host Talent: Eyes of the Sovereign (allows observation of any female cultivator's Yin purity, cultivation level, and compatibility).]
[Initializing initial bonding sequence.]
"A Matriarch?" Kai thought, his mind racing despite the agonizing pain wracking his frame.
He understood what the system was demanding.
He had to seduce, charm, and conquer the most powerful, mature women of the cultivation world.
Fear of betrayal warred with his desperate urge to survive.
To bind himself to another meant vulnerability, something he swore he would never permit.
Yet, the system offered a solution—a binding contract that ensured absolute loyalty, preventing any backstabbing.
With a binding contract, no woman could ever betray him or turn her back on him like his father did.
This realization brought a cold, calculating smirk to his bloody lips.
He would use this system to build an army of loyal, powerful matriarchs and crush everyone who wronged him.
Charming and protecting these mature matriarchs would unlock supreme power, transforming his fragile body into an unstoppable force.
He would no longer be the discarded cripple, but a master who controlled the very heavens.
First, however, he had to survive the next few minutes.
Moreover, the system promised a way to bypass his crippled meridians entirely.
Instead of slowly gathering Qi from the atmosphere, he could absorb the pure, refined Yin energy of powerful female cultivators.
This method was infinitely faster and completely bypassed his physical limitations.
[Scanning immediate surroundings for suitable high-level Yin targets...]
[Target found in close proximity. Warning: Extremely dangerous. Target cultivation level: Core Formation.]
[System preparing binding protocol. Host must initiate contact to secure the bond.]
Outside, the wind howled louder, shaking the flimsy roof of his wooden shack.
An oppressive silence suddenly fell over the entire outer courtyard, smothering the sound of the wind.
Heavy air grew thick, filled with a suffocating power that made it difficult to breathe.
Kai felt his heart hammer against his broken ribs as the temperature plummeted to sub-zero levels.
Frost began to spread rapidly across the dirt floor, glittering like diamonds in the dim light.
He knew this presence all too well.
Matriarch Liu Rushi, his stepmother, was known for her icy temperament and absolute ruthlessness.
She was a woman of peerless beauty and terrifying power, feared by everyone in the Fan Clan.
Why was she coming to his dilapidated shack at this time of night?
Slowly, the sound of light, elegant footsteps echoed against the frozen ground outside.
Each step felt like a heavy drumbeat, vibrating through the floorboards and into Kai's shattered chest.
His breath hitched as the crimson system interface flashed rapidly before his eyes.
[Target acquired: Matriarch Liu Rushi.]
[Yin Purity: 99%. Cultivation: Core Formation Realm.]
[Compatibility: Perfect. Initiating binding sequence upon contact.]
A massive, terrifying spiritual pressure descends upon the courtyard as the system locks onto its first target, the estate's beautiful yet deadly stepmother, Matriarch Liu Rushi, who is currently walking toward Kai's bleeding body.