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This morning's sunrise was a breathtaking display of radiant colors. Bright streaks of red, pink, and orange slowly overcame the dark blue and purple of the twilight sky. The sky resembled a prism; all the colors blended perfectly into each other. The sun itself was just peeking out of the horizon, and its brilliant rays already s.h.i.+ned brightly and began to warm the air.

And staring at this radiant sun was a touth sitting on a roof with a deep reddish color. This astonis.h.i.+ng scene along with the youth perfectly resembles that of a famous master artist's work.

This youth who was sitting is Arthur Vermillion.

It will be 2 days from now until his birthday. But instead of a face full of excitement, joy and antic.i.p.ation. His face shows that of a man who all the problems in the world fell before him.

"Arthur!"

A gentle and familiar voice breaks the train of thoughts that was rus.h.i.+ng inside Arthur's head.

He immediately got up and he suddenly took a 180 degree turn as his original depressed and worried face became a much more handsome, elegant and joyful face.

If this was seen by anyone they would probably think that his face was made by some sort of sorcery.

"Good morning, father.", Arthur said as he smiled showing off his perfectly aligned teeth.

"Don't good morning me! What are you dawdling about up there, you are about to be late for school!", The man said with a serious but warm att.i.tude.

This man was Arthur's Father, Jiu Vermillion.

Arthur then quickly realized this and he then immediately said his father goodbye and immediately left the Vermillion Family's Residence.

When Jiu Vermillion finally saw his son leave, he lightly glowered.

Of course he knew what was the reason that his son was always up there alone, and pondering.

It is simply because of his poor innate talent. His fellow disciples have always been 2 miles ahead of him while he was still stuck at being a mere ordinary mortal.

If things keep going in this way, the family might be removed from the 3 major families of the White Alyssum City. This is something that Jiu Vermillion was not hoping for.

-White Alyssum Martial Inst.i.tute-

Arthur Vermillion was just on time for school. However, he still attracted some attention since he was the last person to come.

When he was about to take a seat, he immediately heard someone said a cruel insinuation.

"Humph! Since when did a failure like become so important?! You are such a disgrace to—"

The youth who was insinuating was immediately halted by a cold and icy eyes.

When he turned around he noticed that the gaze that was staring at him was a beautiful girl wearing a green long dress.

If she stared at him a little more gently, he might even declare her love to her immediately even if he gets rejected. However, reality is very cruel as there's not even a single shed of gentleness that can be seen in her eyes, only fear. This was the combination of both background and power being used at the same time.

This girl was the daughter of the Jade Family's Patriarch, Rose Jade. She is the most outstanding student of the cla.s.s this year. Only Luna Bluan, the daughter of the Bluan Family's Great Elder can slightly match her.

Upon recognizing who she was, he immediately apologized, "I.. I'm s.. sorry, I d... didn't mean to—".

When Rose Jade saw how this man acted cowardly in front of her, she immediately turned her gaze away from him, completely disregarding him. After that, she turned her head to Arthur Vermillion and patted the seat beside her, hinting him to take a seat there.

Arthur Vermillion on the other hand, lightly smiled and shook his head. Thereafter, he chose a seat that would make him stand out less.

This kind of reaction that Arthur Vermillion gave was already expected by Rose Jade. Although she was a still a bit dissappointed, she wasn't willing to give up her relations.h.i.+p with him.

---

After the cla.s.s has ended, Arthur walked towards the Vermillion Family's Residence when a gentle and warm hand suddenly touched his shoulder and halted his movement. He turned around and saw Rose Jade who was lightly smiling at him.

"You shouldn't decline your fiancee's invitation."

"Fiancee?", Arthur laughed as soon as this word entered his ears, "I actually find this word very funny.", Arthur lightly said as he leisurely carried along walking towards the Vermillion Family's Residence.

Rose Jade was about to stop him again but as soon as her hand reached the back of his fading back, she changed her mind when he recalled how his eyes looked when he was talking to her.

When she was about six years old, she and Arthur became close friends. And a year after that, her father carefully explained to her that she and Arthur would become really close when they grow up, to the point that he would have another grandchild to play with and he started laughing boisterously. She didn't understood it at first but when she grew up, she realized the meaning behind his words and later that day she went into her father's room angrily and she throwed everything in his room at him. Her father never understood why she did that up until now.

But instead of being shy when she is with Arthur, she was being close to him instead. Arthur also realized what he's feeling and he also began to become closer to her but everything gradually changed when they stepped onto the path of cultivation.

-Vermillion Family's Residence-

Arthur was training outside with two wooden dummies in front of him. His face full of sweat and exhaustion, his knee shaking and his blood dripping from the repeated collision of his fists and the wooden dummies.

After a couple minutes of rest he started swinging his fists and his legs at the two wooden dummies. His moves were good but there is something that was lacking in it. And that was power and speed.

Arthur already reached what an ordinary mortal thirteen year old kid like him could do. So in order to improve himself, he needs to cultivate but that is where his problem lies.

When he first started cultivating, there was something blocking him from reaching the first stage of the Body Strengthening Realm. And that was something that he couldn't remove or even understand. That is the reason why he is stuck at being a mortal while everyone was already at the first stage of the Body Strengthening Realm including Jade Rose, who is said to almost break into the second realm.

This greatly depressed Arthur but he still continued fighting! He worked harder than everyone and trained harder than everyone, he wanted to become someone at the same level of Rose so that he could be with her again but he doesn't want her to have a weak man like him beside her so he decided to ignore her for now and decided to focus on cultivation.

After his training he went directly to his room and immediately fell into a deep sleep.