25: Chapter 25 Fourth Life, All-in Failure? Watch Me Turn the Tide (Part Two)

In this life, his name was Wang Shi. Having lost both parents at a young age, he sold himself into the Tianhuang Princes Mansion at nine just to survive.

Now twelve, he was the lowest-ranking cleaning servant in the mansion.

Because he was dull and didn't know how to play the social game, the steward sent him to the courtyard of the Third Prince, Heir Xiao Heng, who was the least favored in the mansion.

He did the filthiest and most exhausting work in the entire mansion, endured the most beatings and scolding, often went without meals, and lived a life worse than a dog.

Not to mention practicing martial arts.

Even though he had added 50 points to his Bone Talent and 50 points to his Comprehension at the start of this life—which theoretically gave him above-average aptitude and should have easily allowed him to enter the Iron Skin Realm—

the original owner, who hadn't awakened his memories yet, had been terrified of poverty and hunger since childhood.

Being short-sighted, he valued his meager monthly wages more than his own life, so how could he bear to spend money asking the steward to have his Bone Talent tested?

Such great talent was wasted just like that.

It was precisely because he didn't know how to handle people and was stingy and unsociable that he ended up in such a miserable state.

With intermittent meals, he had worn his body down to the point of collapse.

No money, no power, no background, and no one knew of his talent.

In this strictly hierarchical Tianhuang Princes Mansion, any minor steward could bully him at will, and he wouldn't even be able to make a ripple.

He couldn't even guarantee his own survival, let alone seek revenge against the enemies from his previous life.

Wang Shi sat on the ground, his back against the cold wall, staring at the overgrown courtyard before him, feeling his scalp tingle.

It hurt, it really hurt!

He had calculated the baseline returns of his extreme stat allocation and considered the possibility of advancing further by going all-in on his background, but he never anticipated that going all-in on his background would have such a backlash.

800 points in background didn't give him any starting buffs; it only bought him an entry ticket to the Tianhuang Princes Mansion.

How the hell was this worth 800 points!

Shurima! Give me a refund!!!

Managing to suppress his surging emotions with great difficulty, the exhausted Wang Shi finally finished his work before dark.

At night, he retreated once again into that drafty woodshed.

Outside, the cold wind howled, causing the wooden door of the woodshed to creak, and the freezing air poured in through the cracks, making him shiver uncontrollably.

Yet his heart was colder than this bone-chilling wind.

He sat cross-legged on the cold straw, gritting his teeth, recalling and grinding the names of his enemies from his previous life over and over in his mind.

Fang Xiaoru.

The traitor within the Chen family.

Those Inner Sect Disciples of the Four Seasons Holy Land who were in the Copper Bone Realm.

And the mastermind who might be hiding in the shadows, as well as those desperate criminals who swung their blades at the Chen clansmen, their hands stained with blood.

Every scene, every action, was branded into his soul like a hot iron.

Each time he recalled them, his hatred deepened, the despair in his eyes diminished, and in its place was a bone-chilling ruthlessness.

What to do?

Rely on cultivation? Impossible.

In his current situation, relying solely on standard cultivation, he would at most barely touch the Copper Bone Realm, becoming nothing more than a mid-level guard in the mansion.

He wouldn't even be worthy of carrying his enemies' shoes.

Furthermore, he couldn't even obtain the qualifications to cultivate right now.

Not to mention whether this body, depleted to the extreme, could support the consumption of blood and energy required for cultivation, he couldn't even find an introductory technique.

If he were to use the techniques from his previous life, once discovered, their origin would be traced back immediately, and if he were even slightly careless, he would be branded a spy and executed on the spot.

Go and seek refuge with his big brother, Chen Xuan? That was even more impossible.

With his current identity, he couldn't even leave the gate of the Tianhuang Princes Mansion, let alone the fact that he was just a nameless servant. Even if he actually reached the Four Seasons Holy Land, how could he see the high and mighty Silver Marrow Martial Lord?

Moreover, even if he did see Chen Xuan, how could he gain his trust? Empty words would likely just lead to him being treated as a madman and killed on the spot.

Unless he was willing to reveal the secret of his reincarnation and tell a few embarrassing childhood stories that only the two brothers knew, he would only have a fifty-fifty chance of gaining his trust.

But his reincarnation was his greatest trump card and could absolutely not be exposed.

He could not gamble on human nature!

The Silver Marrow Martial Lord had a lifespan of three hundred years; once Chen Xuan developed greed, he might end up dying prematurely for several lifetimes, and even his golden finger might be completely destroyed.

This was something he absolutely could not accept.

Path after path, he thought of them, only to block them off with his own hands.

The woodshed was deathly silent, with only the wailing of the howling wind.

Wang Shi sat there withered, not sleeping all night.

The bloodshot veins in his eyes grew thicker, but the madness and despair in his eyes faded bit by bit.

In the end, only a near-maniacal calmness remained, along with that ruthlessness of someone willing to risk everything.

Forget it!

What is the glory or shame of one lifetime? What is face?

If he were to sink into oblivion in this life, he simply could not accept it.

A man must not only be ruthless to others but even more ruthless to himself.

In this life, he would choose a different path.

He would climb step by step to the very top, and openly crush those enemies just like crushing an ant!

He would drag these rats out of the gutter one by one, grind their bones into ash, and exterminate their families!

Wang Shi finally understood.

The family background he had gone all-in for was not useless; he had just thought about it wrong before.

The upper limit of a family background always included various aspects; it was not just the starting identity at birth, but also the peak of power he could reach.

And this was the "power content."

The Tianhuang Princes Mansion was the center of power for the entire Huangyan Prefecture.

A single word from the Prince of Tianhuang could determine the life or death of the vast majority of factions within Huangyan Prefecture.

Even the Four Seasons Holy Land, which possessed a Martial King ancestor, had to carefully consider the decisions of the mansion.

After all, this continent was the domain of the three great dynasties; the imperial court was the greatest power on this land.

And he had already obtained an entry ticket to the center of power in Huangyan Prefecture, one of the nine provinces of the Tianwu Dynasty.

From here on, it would only depend on whether his methods were clever enough and ruthless enough.

Wang Shi slowly opened his eyes. In the thick, impenetrable darkness of the woodshed, a flash of clear and resolute cold light shone in his eyes.

But one must eat one bite at a time, and walk one step at a time.

The most urgent thing for him now was to first nurture this body that was falling apart from depletion, lest he end up dying before his grand undertaking was even half complete.

Once his body was healthy, then they could talk about the next step.

He had to first lower his head and act small, smooth things over with the steward Liu Quan, remove the label of "thorn in the side," and secure basic stability.

More importantly, he could use the more relaxed situation to figure out the personnel network and hierarchy of rules within the Tianhuang Princes Mansion, planning before taking action.

He couldn't continue like this, knowing nothing other than the fact that he was in the Tianhuang Princes Mansion, while being completely in the dark about the layout of the mansion and the situation in the outside world.

Like a headless fly, he might die one day without even knowing how it happened.

With his mind made up, Wang Shi suppressed the restlessness in his heart and, using the faint light of the waning moon leaking in through the window, propped up his weak body and sat up.