Chapter 20: The Battle for the Sequence

I climbed the stairs and sat down on one of the steps.

Below me were countless freshmen, sweating profusely under the scorching sun.

After a brief hesitation, Su Liumeng lifted her skirt—petal-like in texture—and walked over to sit beside me on the same step.

“What do you want?”

Her tone was no longer as polite as before.

“You… are Xiaoyu?”

I tilted my head, watching the flicker in her eyes.

“I am. So what?”

Su Liumeng pursed her lips, her gaze turning slightly dazed as if she were falling into memories.

Her tone became strangely airy.

“If I remember correctly… it’s been a long time since we sat together like this, hasn’t it?”

“It has been a long time.” I was briefly stunned, as if an old memory had just been triggered.

“It must be eight years.”

Su Liumeng looked at me and suddenly smiled.

“You came to the Su family nine years ago. I was brought back about half a year later. There was indeed a brief, carefree time between us.”

“But after that, everything changed.”

“Mother told me that if I couldn’t pass the tests, my end would be miserable. So just like you, I began to treat you as my rival. We both fell into a period that felt like the end of the world.”

“The account ‘Yu’—I created it secretly during that time.”

“Back then, I almost couldn’t hold on anymore… Luckily, I met someone online…”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but I already knew who she meant.

After a long silence, Su Liumeng resumed the conversation.

“You probably thought that my so-called hardship was just about defeating you in the competition for succession?”

She gave a bitter laugh. “It was only this morning, after passing the final trial, that I learned the full truth.”

“Do you know why you were taken in by the Su family in the first place?”

“It’s because—you were the only one out of hundreds of children who passed the third trial. The reward for that test was being adopted into the Su family.”

“The trials had already begun, long before you were even aware.”

“It was a cultivation game disguised as fate—constant and quiet selection.”

“Unlike your path, I was born with the Su family’s bloodline.

So from the start, my mother told me the truth: I had to endure the hardest trial right from the beginning.”

“By day, I had to rise step by step while dealing with your constant pressure. At night, I had to undergo countless torturous training sessions.”

Su Liumeng closed her eyes in pain.

“This is the ‘Battle for the Sequence’ in a thousand-year-old aristocratic clan. Only those who claim one of the top seven ranks may stay in the Su family and gain real power.”

Su Liumeng slowly opened her eyes, and the look she gave me suddenly carried a trace of pity.
“You didn’t actually lose to me.”

“You… were already outstanding enough.”

“You were cast out of the Su family simply because… you failed to pass the opening of the fifth trial.”

“That trial is simple in theory, but in reality it’s as insurmountable as a chasm—it requires one to possess a spiritual foundation suitable for cultivation.”

“And you, unfortunately, were born with an innately Yin constitution… and were male.”

“The Su family didn’t want to give up on you at first. Over the years, they tried many ways, but they couldn’t find any method to allow a male with such a Yin body to cultivate.”

“That’s why you were temporarily abandoned and expelled from the Su family.”

My gaze gradually grew more complex, and scenes from the past began replaying in my mind.

No wonder…

I had to study so many things from such a young age.

As I listened to her voice by my ear, my fists clenched tightly, and my trembling eyelashes betrayed the turmoil beneath my otherwise calm appearance.

Su Liumeng looked toward the sky, her eyes growing distant.

“Only those who pass the fifth trial are eligible to participate in the Sequence Struggle.”

“The Su family’s roots are deeply entrenched and vast—it is divided into five branches. My biological parents belong to one of them. The ‘gu-rearing game’ is happening across all branches simultaneously.”

“Last week, on my birthday, I passed the fifth trial.”

“That’s why I was told all of these secrets once I became an adult.”

Then she did something bold—she suddenly lifted a corner of her skirt in front of me.

At the very top of her inner thigh was a jet-black mark shaped like a butterfly, strikingly stark against her pale skin.

“Did you think I spent my birthday having dinner with my parents?”

“This scar is the permanent price I paid during the trial.”

This was completely different from everything I had ever known.

It was shaking the foundation of my worldview up to this point.

In truth, that worldview had already been shattered into pieces when the ghost fetus appeared in my life.

So now, I was oddly quick to accept it.

I had always thought my conflict with Su Liumeng was fueled by jealousy—jealousy of her position in the family, and my desire to win more affection from our parents, which drove all our overt and covert rivalry.

But thinking back now, it was more about our adoptive parents stoking the flames behind the scenes.

Su Liumeng looked at me and smiled freely.

“Have you always seen me as your rival? Always resented me?”

“You weren’t wrong to do so. Up until this morning, I thought exactly the same way about you.”

“I used to really dislike you too.”

“But after I learned the truth, it all just… melted away.”

“You and I—how innocent we both are.”

“This is a ‘gu-rearing’ game played by a millennia-old clan to perpetuate its bloodline.”

“Even if you hadn’t been in the Su family, there would still have been others—Zhang San or Li Si—competing with me.”

“You and I are the same, both mere sacrifices in this game. If I don’t hate the circumstances of my birth, if I don’t resist the absurd rules of this ancient clan, but instead treat you as my lifelong enemy—then I’ve completely missed the point.”

“It was only after I came to terms with that… that I could bring myself to offer you that milk tea without any lingering resentment.”

Her voice suddenly paused, her lips pressing into a line, and she fell silent.

The Su family…

I stared at the fingernail I had just broken and lifted my head to gaze at the blue sky and white clouds above.

That vast, boundless sky no longer represented freedom to me.

Instead, it felt like an invisible web woven tightly around me, suffocating, inescapable.

Anyone who suddenly learned that their entire life had been designed and orchestrated from the start would likely have a moment of complete mental collapse.

My thoughts drifted back to over a decade ago.

Back when I was still in the orphanage, under the guidance of the director, I had participated in many complex “games.”

During those two or three years, I won against everyone.

I’d thought it was just the director’s way of fostering intelligence… but now I realized that Su family’s selection process had already started back then.

If someone like me, raised in such an adverse environment, could still get into Beiqing University, the top institution in the country, then naturally, my intelligence was beyond question.

Even though I was supposedly the Su family’s adopted son, I still endured bullying from classmates and constant targeting from Su Liumeng in class.

One event after another, they all started forming a single, coherent thread in my mind.

I had to endure the malice of both my “family” and society—and still rely solely on myself to be accepted into the top university in the land. That must have been the Su family’s Fourth Trial.

So… I don’t have a spiritual root, huh? I gave a bitter laugh and shook my head.

No wonder my parents’ attitudes changed so drastically just before my birthday.

I looked at the bleeding, broken nail on my middle finger—yet I felt no pain. Only a numb hollowness stretched out from the depths of my chest.

Su Liumeng stared at me, her gaze complicated, her voice low and unclear.

“Didn’t you say… my liking you, despite us being ‘enemies,’ was just some spoiled young lady’s game?”

“Well, this is the fundamental reason you’ve been so curious about.”

“Do you still think my feelings were just a momentary whim?”

In the depths of her starry eyes, there was a trace of disappointment—like a dream quietly shattering.

“I’m sorry.”

I found myself thinking back to many years ago—a time that had been filled with joy on the internet.

Back then, I always called her Little Rain.

I used to comfort her again and again… and, in truth, I sought strength from her too.

After all, my life in the Su family hadn’t been nearly as glamorous as others imagined…

Later, the forum that required the StarDust Game account to log in was shut down.

And from that moment on, I lost all contact with Little Rain.

Who would’ve thought that she had never forgotten me—and even figured out, just from my in-game username, that I was the same person who’d once ruled the gaming world as the legendary Yan Shen.

Su Liumeng licked her dry lips; the pink tip of her tongue left a trace in my vision.

“It was only after I passed the Fifth Trial that I was allowed to start handling personal matters.”

“So once I became an adult, I couldn’t wait to reach out to you.”

“I told myself… maybe you’ve changed, maybe you’re no longer the same person from back then.

But then what happened this morning finally helped me let go of that last knot in my heart.”

She stood up from the steps and casually dusted off her skirt.

“To be honest, when I heard what you said earlier, I was really disappointed.”

“But then I thought… you didn’t know anything. Without knowing the full story, you couldn’t judge it fairly. And I guess that’s understandable.”

“I’ve said everything I needed to say.”

“If you still think the way you did earlier, then I’d rather you be just a stranger I never meet again in this life.”

“Let that beautiful memory… stay buried in my heart forever.”

Right now, my head was in a complete mess. It hurt, and I couldn’t think straight at all.

“Let me… go back and think things over.”

Su Liumeng’s gaze was eerily calm. Her formulaic, faint smile was the epitome of a well-trained aristocratic heiress—flawless and composed, as if she had practiced it a thousand times.

“Liking someone can be very simple… but also very difficult.”

“You can take a few more days to think about it.”

“If you change your mind, we can try spending some time together.”

“Even just as friends—that’s fine.”

“Being friends with me, Su Liumeng, won’t bring you any regret or grievance.”

Her light pink princess dress looked even softer and lovelier under the brilliant sunlight, much like her flower-like face—flawless and delicate even from a low angle.

Just as she was about to leave, her steps suddenly paused.

Her voice drifted back softly with the wind.

“Out of respect for the fact that you were once Nine Yan, I’ll give you a free gift.”

“Your identity modification wasn’t done cleanly.”

“If the Su family finds out that you are now a female of the pure yin constitution, they will stop at nothing to drag you back into the trials.”

“So, I covered up the traces for you.”

“Whether you stay at Beiqing University and live as an ordinary college student, or return to the Su family to participate in that so-called battle for power—”

“It’s all up to you.”

The stairway beside me had become completely empty.

Yet the faint fragrance of the girl still lingered in the air.