The night breeze stirred the branches of the old plum tree.
A single blossom drifted gently through the air before landing between father and son.
Neither of them moved.
Ye Chen picked up the small white flower and turned it over between his fingers.
"When I was your age…"
He smiled faintly.
"…I believed strength alone could solve every problem."
Ye Fu remained silent.
His father rarely spoke about himself.
Tonight was different.
"When I was twelve, I also stood in that arena."
"I ranked first."
Ye Fu's eyes widened slightly.
"First?"
Ye Chen nodded.
"The following year…"
"First again."
"And the year after that…"
"Still first."
His voice carried no pride.
Only calm remembrance.
"The elders praised me."
"The younger disciples admired me."
"Even neighboring clans had begun asking about the Ye Clan's young genius."
He chuckled softly.
"I believed I could become someone extraordinary."
Ye Fu looked at his father in disbelief.
The thin, quiet man sitting beside him…
Had once been the pride of the clan.
"I was accepted into a cultivation academy beyond our county."
"For the first time…"
"I realized how small our Ye Clan truly was."
He lifted his eyes toward the stars.
"Our clan is like a single leaf."
"The county is a tree."
"The kingdom is a forest."
"And beyond that…"
"There are mountains of forests."
Ye Fu followed his father's gaze.
The stars stretched endlessly across the heavens.
"So many…"
he whispered.
Ye Chen nodded.
"The world is much larger than we imagine."
He fell silent for a moment.
Then his expression changed.
A sadness settled quietly in his eyes.
"That was where I met your mother."
Ye Fu smiled.
"Mother always says you were stubborn."
Ye Chen laughed.
"She isn't wrong."
His laughter faded into a warm smile.
"She came from another small family."
"She wasn't the strongest disciple."
"She wasn't the fastest."
"But…"
"She never gave up."
"No matter how difficult the training became…"
"She would stand up one more time."
Ye Chen looked down at his hands.
"I admired that."
"We trained together."
"We argued."
"We competed."
"We traveled."
"Before I realized it…"
"I had fallen in love."
Ye Fu listened quietly.
His father rarely smiled this much.
"Several years later…"
"During one of our missions…"
"We encountered something we should never have faced."
Ye Chen's voice became softer.
"A spirit beast far beyond our abilities."
"We fought."
"We ran."
"We failed."
He closed his eyes.
"Your mother was gravely injured."
"The poison entered her meridians."
"The academy's physicians…"
"…couldn't save her."
Ye Fu's breathing slowed.
This…
He had never heard before.
"There was only one method left."
Ye Chen's fingers unconsciously touched his own chest.
"I transferred the essence of my cultivation into her."
"It wasn't a technique anyone would recommend."
"It destroyed my cultivation foundation."
"It shortened my future."
"It shattered everything I had worked for."
"But…"
He smiled.
"She lived."
The moonlight reflected gently in Ye Fu's silver-gray eyes.
"You never regretted it?"
Ye Chen looked at him.
Not even for a heartbeat.
"No."
His answer came without hesitation.
"Power can be cultivated again."
"A loved one…"
"Cannot."
Silence returned.
The insects continued singing beneath the night sky.
Ye Fu lowered his head.
He finally understood.
His father had not become weak because he lacked talent.
He had become weak…
Because he chose love over power.
After several moments…
Ye Fu asked quietly,
"Then…"
"Why do the elders mock you?"
Ye Chen smiled bitterly.
"Because cultivators respect strength."
"They admire success."
"But…"
"They rarely understand sacrifice."
He reached over and gently placed a hand upon Ye Fu's shoulder.
"Never hate them."
"They simply see the world differently."
The old plum tree rustled again.
Ye Chen stood slowly.
His movements were unhurried.
"You know…"
"My mother once told me something."
Ye Fu looked up.
"Your grandmother?"
Ye Chen nodded.
"She was never a cultivator."
"But she possessed more wisdom than many elders."
He looked toward the moon.
"When I was young…"
"I also wanted to become the strongest beneath the heavens."
"I asked her…"
'How do I know whether I'm walking the right path?'
Ye Chen smiled.
"She answered with a story."
He turned toward Ye Fu.
"A story I've never told anyone."
"A story about snow…"
"…and the path that lies beneath it."
Ye Fu straightened.
The night suddenly felt quieter.
Even the wind seemed to pause.
His father looked toward the distant mountains, where pale moonlight rested upon their peaks like a blanket of white.
Then he began.
"Imagine a traveler walking through a mountain covered in fresh snow…"
The night grew quieter.
Moonlight bathed the courtyard in silver, and the fragrance of plum blossoms lingered in the cool air.
Ye Fu stared at his father for a long moment before gathering the courage to ask the question that had been on his mind since the ceremony.
"Father…"
Ye Chen turned to him with a gentle smile.
"Yes?"
Ye Fu hesitated.
"When you were at your peak…"
"…what was your cultivation realm?"
"And…"
"What bloodline had you awakened?"
For a brief moment, Ye Chen was silent.
A soft breeze lifted a few strands of his hair as memories long buried resurfaced.
Finally, he smiled.
"I wondered when you would ask."
He looked toward the distant mountains.
"When I was sixteen, I awakened the White Bear Bloodline."
Ye Fu's eyes widened.
"The White Bear?"
Ye Chen nodded.
"It is a Silver Beast-tier bloodline."
"It specializes in endurance, overwhelming physical strength, and protecting others."
A faint smile crossed his lips.
"Perhaps…"
"It suited me more than I realized."
He looked down at his own hands.
"By the time I was nineteen, I had reached the Peak Foundation Realm."
"At twenty-one…"
"I stepped into the Spirit Awakening Realm."
Ye Fu's breathing caught.
The Spirit Awakening Realm…
That was already beyond anything he had ever imagined.
Ye Chen chuckled softly.
"To the Ye Clan…"
"I was called a genius."
"The elders believed I would one day become Patriarch."
"Some even dreamed that I might lead the Ye Clan into becoming a respected regional clan."
He shook his head.
"But then…"
"I entered the academy."
His expression grew thoughtful.
"There, I met disciples younger than me who had already surpassed my cultivation."
"I met clans whose weakest elders could defeat our strongest with a single technique."
"I met bloodlines I had never even heard of."
"The White Bear Bloodline, which everyone praised within our clan…"
"…was merely respectable in the outside world."
Ye Fu lowered his head.
"So…"
"We really are…"
"A frog at the bottom of a well?"
Ye Chen smiled.
"Exactly."
"Our Ye Clan is only a small leaf drifting upon a vast river."
He picked up a fallen Silver Leaf from the courtyard and placed it gently in Ye Fu's palm.
"This leaf is beautiful."
"It has survived countless seasons."
"But if it believes the entire world is only this courtyard…"
"…it will never know there are forests beyond the mountains."
Ye Fu looked at the leaf resting in his hand.
His father's words slowly settled into his heart.
After a long silence, he looked up again.
"Father…"
"Then…"
"What is the highest bloodline you've ever seen?"
Ye Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.
He looked toward the moonlit sky.
"For myself…"
"The highest I ever witnessed was a cultivator who possessed the Thunder Eagle Bloodline."
"He was from a powerful clan."
"When he released his aura…"
"It felt as though a storm had descended from the heavens."
Ye Fu listened without blinking.
Ye Chen continued.
"But that…"
"…is still far from the peak."
"I have only heard stories of the Legendary Beast bloodlines."
"And above even them…"
He paused.
"…the Dragon Bloodlines."
His voice became almost a whisper.
"They are not bloodlines ordinary people speak of."
"Most cultivators live their entire lives without seeing one."
"Their existence is treated as legend."
Ye Fu followed his father's gaze toward the stars.
A strange feeling stirred within him.
He couldn't explain why.
It was as if something deep inside his soul responded to the mere mention of dragons.
The feeling lasted only an instant.
Then it vanished.
Ye Chen noticed nothing.
He simply smiled and rested a hand on his son's shoulder.
"Do not chase legends, Fu'er."
"Walk one step at a time."
"The greatest mountains…"
"…are climbed with ordinary footsteps."