Reaching for the Stars

Chapter Two

"By the look on your face, I am guessing that you did not succeed?" My grandfather's words were calm, but lacking any and all emotion, there wasn't even any disappointment, he like many of my other family members had likely expected this outcome. My parents had no love for me, they hadn't since the day after I turned ten and didn't pass the third common qi level.

All they had on their faces was disgust for me even being their child, I knew they likely didn't have any true feelings for my siblings or even each other, they were too selfish for that. The only reason my parents gave off the façade of love to my siblings it because they were eager to benefit from their success, the strength had passed onto them, my older brother by only two years was at the level of a Peak Martial Lord, higher still than even our parents, and he was only half their age.

I was dreading this conversation, and the resulting abandonment, but in another way I was also curious, curious as to how I might live if I had the chance to make my own choices, maybe wear cheaper clothes that I didn't need to put so much effort in to maintain, to be able to live without worrying about the next possible beating I might receive from my so called family members because they thought I was lacking.

My grandfather had never contributed to any of the hateful comments, or ever even beaten me, but neither had he done anything to stop the rest of my family either, as the leader of this family, he viewed me as something beneath his purview unless I did something terribly wrong, my parents had been begging for him to remove me from the family for years now, but he had stayed resilient, almost as if holding out hope for me to finally surpass that final level.

Of course, I knew that was likely just wishful thinking on my part, to have even one family member who might have cared for me like a true family should, in all likelihood he probably just didn't want to get rid of me too early in case I suddenly overcame my blockage. The Dagon family never did like disposing of pieces that could be useful. "You are correct, grandfather. I did not succeed, I still remain at the second common qi level." My mother and father's scoffs of annoyance were loud and obvious, though my grandfather did not pay them any attention at all.

"We had a deal, that if you could not reach the third common qi level, or even better surpass it, that you would be disowned as a member of the Dagon family. Do you remember that?" I nod gently, not sure how he could have ever expected me to forget something like that. "Seeing that you do indeed remember, I have no choice to remove you from our family." My heart drops as I wait for him to say that I was not allowed to take anything from the Dagon residence as I was no longer one of them. "However, I've received word that the old Dagon family shrine in the Silver Woods is in disrepair, as your last act of a member of this family you will head there and repair it in return for five gold coins.

A carriage will escort you to the edge of the forest, and you will be allowed to take only enough belongings to fit in one bag, this is the last grace the Dagon family will ever give you." I would expect my family to protest but five gold coins was nothing for them, they could spend that much in under half an hour. And while it may indeed seem like my grandfather was giving me one last gift, it wasn't as much of a gift as it seemed.

The Silver Woods were dangerous, filled with spiritual beasts and carnivorous plants, there is a reason the Dagon family shrine there was in disrepair, because the journey to it, to maintain it when those ancestors were long dead, was extremely dangerous, usually they only sent out a low disciple once a year to clean it up, and usually the disciple never even managed to make it there, let alone there and back. This was as good as sending me to my death while trying to look benevolent, even more so because many of those disciples who perished were even given a carriage for the entire trip, while my grandfather, sorry Marquis Dagon said I was only permitted the carriage until it reached the edge of the forest, and only one bag of my own possessions.