The Wuma Heavenly Clan, originally one unified clan, was considered a relatively ancient heavenly clan in the Ancestral Martial Star Region.
The Wuma Heavenly Clan had long been a powerful presence in the Ancestral Martial Star Region, even once possessing the strength to vie for dominion over the entire region.
But later, two equally capable successors emerged within the clan.
The Wuma Heavenly Clan Leader at the time deeply favored both heirs, so he made a grave mistake.
He passed the position of clan leader to both of them simultaneously.
From then on, the Wuma Heavenly Clan appeared normal on the surface, but in reality, it had already split into two factions.
Initially, the two factions were evenly matched, but as the two leaders governed differently, the hearts of the people began to shift.
The support of the elders also started to lean one way.
Yet the position of clan leader couldn’t be abolished, so the distinction between the main clan and the branch clan came to be.
As the names suggest, the main clan was overwhelmingly dominant back then, constantly keeping the branch clan suppressed.
But after the first main clan leader passed away, the branch clan’s power surged, overtaking the main clan.
The branch clan, having been oppressed by the main clan for so long, harbored deep resentment, and once their strength surpassed the main clan, they outright expelled the main clan members from the Wuma Heavenly Clan, leading to the division into two clans seen today.
Regrettably, over the years, the main clan never rose again, instead declining further.
Meanwhile, the branch clan grew stronger, even now ranking among the top ten heavenly clans of the Ancestral Martial Star Region, its power surpassing that of the Li Heavenly Clan and Tang Heavenly Clan, also among the top ten.
Over all these years, the two clans’ standings had long diverged onto entirely different levels.
Yet the branch clan never forgot the days of being suppressed by the main clan, often coming to harass and humiliate the main clan’s people.
That year, Wuma Shengjie was only three years old, but due to her exceptional talent, she had already begun cultivating.
The branch clan leader brought his clan members and daughter to visit the main clan.
Wuma Shengjie, being a child, naturally didn’t understand the complexities of the two clans’ relationship, not to mention she was the apple of her parents’ and clan’s eye, always spoiled and never yielding to others.
While playing, she clashed with the branch clan leader’s daughter.
In truth, it was the branch clan leader’s daughter who struck first, and Wuma Shengjie, unwilling to tolerate it, retaliated, injuring her.
Though Wuma Shengjie was young, just a toddler, she had already grasped martial power, and not knowing restraint, she not only knocked the branch clan leader’s daughter unconscious, but also slapped her face with a palm, brutally disfiguring the girl’s cute little face.
In reality, as long as it wasn’t life-threatening, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
But the branch clan leader, who’d come looking for trouble in the first place, how could he tolerate his precious daughter suffering such an indignity?
Right then and there, he intended to take Wuma Shengjie’s life, it was only her parents’ desperate pleas on their knees that spared her from being killed on the spot.
Though she wasn’t killed, Wuma Shengjie didn’t escape that ordeal.
The branch clan members produced a pill and forced Wuma Shengjie to swallow it.
In truth, that pill was a meticulously crafted creation of the branch clan.
It was a drug meant to enhance strength, but due to a failed refinement, instead of boosting power, it would torment the user with unbearable agony until death, once its effects kicked in, even killing her outright wouldn’t stop it, death by the poison’s torment was the only outcome.
It was an exceptionally cruel poison.
At the time, the main clan didn’t know it was poison, nor how vicious it was, and since the branch clan framed it as a reward for Wuma Shengjie’s talent, a cultivation treasure, they didn’t think much of it and had her take it.
But when the poison took effect, Wuma Shengjie suffered terribly.
To save her life, her parents used a forbidden technique of the Wuma Heavenly Clan, sacrificing themselves to dispel the drug’s power.
By a stroke of fate, though the poison wasn’t fully purged, it transformed under those circumstances into a potent force Wuma Shengjie could wield.
That power became the blood curse within Wuma Shengjie.
Though she gained strength, she lost her parents.
She’d disguised herself as a boy ever since because her parents had always wanted a son, even once saying to others that a son was the true heir.
Back then, Wuma Shengjie had been upset by those words, but later, she took them as an unfulfilled wish of her parents.
To honor that wish, she was willing to live her entire life as a man.
But because the main clan failed to protect her parents back then, Wuma Shengjie harbored hatred not only for the branch clan, but also for the main clan.
“Brother Wuma, what’s past is past, you were powerless back then, it’s not your fault, I believe Shengjie will understand in time,” the Chu Heavenly Clan Leader stepped forward, patting the Wuma Heavenly Clan Leader’s shoulder.
“Sigh, I just hate it, hate that I can’t restore our ancestors’ glory, letting the Wuma Heavenly Clan fall to this state.”
“Now, the people of the Ancestral Martial Star Region see the branch clan as the true clan, while our main clan is just trash in their eyes, I can’t even protect my own people, I’m utterly useless,” the Wuma Heavenly Clan Leader said, his face full of anguish.
