"Just a little bit more, and I'll be able to start cultivation."

An over-enthusiastic boy could be seen talking to himself. The boy was standing on a cliff with his ink-black hair fluttering in the air, if one were to look from a distance, it would seem a monarch overlooking their territory. Ever since he could perceive his surroundings, he was amazed by the older people's abilities.

They could condense what was known as qi and do amazing feats like flying. This greatly impressed the little Lin Feng since he had discovered painfully he couldn't fly. He had asked his mother how he too could also do the same, but he was told he needed to start cultivation, and to his disappointment, he needed to be twelve years old to embark on the journey. His mother explained to him that it was something related to his fleshy body not being able to handle qi circulation. At least, that is what he understood from the explanation he was given. Lin Feng waited for four long years, but finally, the time arrived as expected. Though the four years had been long, his father, the patriarch of the Lin family, had subjected him to excruciating exercises.

'well, I guess I should head back home."

Lin Feng muttered to himself as he walked back to his house with his hands behind his back, imitating the old ancestors of the family. As he approached his house, he saw a boy roughly his age pacing back and forth in front of his courtyard. Lin Feng couldn't help but furrow his brows because he didn't expect someone to visit him unless his father summoned him.

Sure enough, when the boy saw him, he immediately cupped his fist and handed him a letter before bolting off as if he had encountered his natural enemy. Lin Feng couldn't help but smile wryly. His father threatened to exile anyone who associated with him with the excuse of wanting him to learn to be independent. Lin Feng didn't care much about it as he had already learned to be self-sufficient.

He read the letter from his father as he walked to his house. From the letter,  his father told him to go to the main hall to open his meridians. He threw the letter on the table as he took the already cold meal prepared in the morning before going to his exercise routine.

He ate the uninteresting food bitterly. Anyways he had heard that at a certain stage in cultivation, cultivators didn't need to eat, so he had never taken preparing meals seriously. He then jumped on his bed as he recalled his successful training exercises. He remembered how his father had strictly supervised him until he got used to the training.

Speaking of his father, Lin Yao, all he knows about him was that he is a powerful cultivator that his grandfather brought from somewhere and introduced him as his son to the shock of the elders.

Some elders were against it, but they disappeared mysteriously, and the rest could only accept reluctantly. His father then proceeded to "convince" the other families to become the subsidiary families of their Lin family hence becoming the most powerful family in the northern kingdom,  apart from the royal family.

This had made many younger generations worship his father and treat his words as law. His father had then gone on to marry from the second most powerful family, the Zhao family. After merging the two families, Lin Feng was born. His early childhood was normal until he showed interest in cultivation. His father had then appeared and started training his body. His mother, on the other hand, stopped seeing him. He had been sad for quite some time before adapting to it and developing the self-dependence they wanted him to have. Lin Feng put the thoughts at the back of his mind, and he couldn't help but smile when he thought about cultivation.

...

"what do you think about the boy?" An old voice could be heard from a hidden room in the main hall of the Lin family.

"The outcome will be the same whether he has a high or low talent. All we need is time." A cold, indifferent voice could be heard replying to the old man beside him. These two were the father and grandfather pair of Lin Feng.

Their planning and brutal actions had devastated families in the northern kingdom. It was a pair that many families and small sects dreaded.

"Do you need to do that to your son? Can't you pick anyone from the branch families? They are more useless than my son." A Beautiful voice interrupted the two. This voice belonged to Zhao Lin, Lin Feng's mother.

"You do know this is for both our families to be able to overcome those royal dogs."

Lin Yao answered her coldly, thinking how long he has been stuck at the peak of Domain formation. His chance to advance to the void transformation realm finally had come. He couldn't allow this to be hindered because of stupid emotions like family love.

Zhao Lin hesitated for a while before nodding, she had never been a good mother, but that didn't mean she liked the idea for her son to be treated as a cultivation tool. She was a possessive woman, so she didn't like her things being taken away from her. This thought only flashed briefly through her mind before she discarded it. Anyway, she was getting a better deal out of it. After her husband takes over the kingdom, she would naturally become the queen. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but be expectant of the future.

As others were dictating his future, Lin Feng had no way of knowing he was already a fish on a chopping board. He had the most comfortable sleep he had ever had for a long time as he dreamt of the journey he was to start on the following day.