Chapter 4: 4 years later

 Four years went by as Feng Chanui found his life as a baby finally come to an end. In the span of those years, Feng Feilong and Feng Batui led a crusade against other powers.

Their enemies had formed coalitions against them for a very long time now. Those forces were comprised of the Li Family, the Wolf Gang, and the Beiming Clan.

The Li Family was mainly a smuggling group which dealt with all sorts of atrocious activities, such as selling slaves, stealing goods, and assassination.

The wolf gang was working under them as some sort of covert company.

Even though It was more of a bandit group than anything else, they helped the family keep their image. It was ridiculous because most people were already aware of the truth. Still, without proof, they were free to act in a self-serving way.

The Beiming Clan was among the 8 big organizations of the Prefecture :

The Qin Family, Meng Clan, Yan Family, Feng Clan, Yong Clan, Jiren Clan, Tai Institute, and the Beiming Clan.

It was at the bottom of the ladder, but they were rapidly growing under the flourishing business of the Li Family. They also had history with the Feng Clan so they needed a backer.

After observing their actions for more than 10 years, Feng Batui determined that the Li were the Yong clan's loyal dogs. The clan who wanted to substitute for the Feng clan's position.He wasn't able to determine how this cooperation came to be...

But they used the Li to mess with the Feng clan's interests, and it worked. Their industries were declining due to sabotage and corruption.

For this single reason, the Li became the scapegoat. Not only could they not profit; they also hastened their downfall. Both the Beiming and Li were annihilated as collateral damage between the two mammoths.

The Feng and the Yong, hating one another, was already public knowledge...

Feng Chanui witnessed those events unfold when he was just a few weeks old.

He realized how much of a "dog eats dog" world this was. Anyone could lose his life at any moment.Sometimes calamities weren't even a form of karma. Being weak itself constituted a sin.

To survive here, someone needed a combination of wits, luck, and wisdom. And last but not the least, talent!

With his system, it was easy for him to figure out his foes and their plans, but he lacked the strength to truss up a chicken right now.

During these years he had been observing his family and this was how he gauged the power structure :

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The strongest was obviously the old patriarch and his oldest son. Those two were just monsters who had hidden their real strength deeply. He wasn't even sure that the young patriarch wasn't as, if not stronger than his father in a real life and death showdown.

His grandfather was the only Martial Elder in the Family but he wasn't too clear about his uncle's strength; he estimated it to be at the Guru level. Despite a lower level, he had terrifying battle efficiency and he seemed to have broken through during the previous campaign.

Surprisingly enough, his grumpy grandmother held the third position. She was just above, the Grand Elder, Feng Shilong. But this divide was not small...and Feng Shilong knew it best.

His grandmother was a Peak Martial Senior, while Feng Shilong was just a regular one. What made his grandmother terrifying was her Dao path. Even among sorcerers, she was abnormally skilled.

Sorcerers weren't scarce at all, however, it took a long time for them to cast their spells. Unreasonable as she was, the old woman decided to not obey this common perception. She was nicknamed as the "quick-tempered witch" among her peers back in the day...

Cultivation was very mysterious on the Tianyang Continent. It wasn't like how he pictured it in those novels, where people would just have one main path of cultivation.

No; here cultivation was achieved by absorbing the energy of heaven and earth. The difference laid in the fact that they used the elements to absorb energy. Elemental affinity could be viewed as the link with the heavens.

In addition to attributes, people had to pick their class once they broke through the body tempering stage.

The division between classes was as such :

Tanks: Berserkers, Paladins

DPS: Scabbards, Nightwalkers, Warriors, Gladiators, Rogues, Monks, Runemasters, Sorcerers

Status alters: Druids, Bishops, Demonbanes, Espers, Saboteurs, Scholars

Versatile: Shamans, Necromancers, Beastmasters

Long Rangers: Snipers, Artificers, Geomancers

This classification came over time. Cultivators knew never to trust completely in this; putting labels on people was dangerous...Over time, a lot of people who trusted too much in this system suffered losses.

Meeting one or two freaks along the way wasn't something unusual. Feng Yange was such one example. There were even rumors of Rogues with more resilience than Tanks of the same level...

Affinities and bloodlines mattered a lot concerning how exotic people could turn out. Even with a somewhat stereotyped class, what would change a stalemate, and made the difference, was individual talent and cultivation methods.

Cultivation, after all, was about escaping the bindings imposed upon mortals.

It was a struggle against common sense in the first place...

Not only that but all kinds of treasures roamed between heaven and earth. Cultivators with extraordinary talent usually had such encounters, descended from immortals, or just won the genetic lottery.

According to a view, there were a lot more classes in the past. A part of humans' history was lost after empires fell and rose.

Who knows how many outrageous classes had been buried and lied dormant. The 20+ ones they used today were probably the tip of the iceberg. Feng Chanui really liked this theory...

As he was thinking about all this, he realized bloodlines were even more amazing.

He was impatient to start and explore how his own worked. Was this one exclusive to him or did someone in the past possess the same?

"Whatever, right now I have something more urgent to deal with."

He put those thoughts aside and looked at the floor. There were some candies and several miscellaneous books spread all over the room.

"...This can't go on." He concluded after one last disdainful glimpse. This was today's harvest.