​It was morning the following day. Ian was looking at his system screen with a frustrated expression.

​[Ian Thorne]

[Age:] 17

[Lifespan:] 73

[Martial Arts:] None

[Cultivation Arts:] Adamantine Ox Hide Technique

[Martial Stage:] Middle stage of Skin Cultivation

​[Prosperity Points:] 0

[Prosperity Shop]

​Dammit, that didn’t even give me a single point, Ian thought. So, if I kill someone, I won’t get a point at all. If I don’t find points, I won’t be able to fight enemies that are ahead.

​While he was deep in thought, his door was busted open by a girl in her pajamas.

​"Sis, you should try knocking sometimes. What if you surprise me while I’m naked?" Ian said with a smug smile on his face.

​"You...! I came running because I was worried about you, and here you are nonchalantly acting like nothing happened," Emma said, growling while puffing her cheeks.

​Ian only shook his head when he heard this, smiling.

​"Anyway, brother, I heard you killed an assassin who came to your room last night. For real, did you not get hurt or anything? I’m worried about you, you know."

​"I’m fine, you don’t have to worry about anything. As for you, you look better today," Ian said.

​"Yeah, I kinda had a good night’s sleep yesterday. I guess the fatigue from the passing days was catching up with me," Emma said.

​Before they could finish, there was a knock on the door.

​"Yes?" Ian said.

​"Young Master, the Lady and the Young Lady have arrived," a knight answered.

​"Mother!!" Emma ran out of the room, leaving Ian alone.

​This girl sure is energetic, Ian thought. He just followed behind Emma.

​In the long hallway, when the maids saw Ian, they just looked down and greeted him.

​News really spreads fast in this household, huh, Ian thought.

​After Ian passed, the maids started talking again.

​"Hey, did you see the body of that maid?" one whispered.

​"Yeah, I was so scared when I saw the guards carrying the body. It was so brutal. I couldn’t even see her face at all because it was covered with a cloth, but I heard the guards say if you saw her face you would puke on the spot. It was not even recognizable," another maid said. "I didn’t know the Young Master was so scary."

​When Ian got downstairs, he saw his mother, Emily, and of course Emma talking. But when he laid his eyes on his mother, he could see her happiness when she saw him, and tears started flowing down her cheeks. To his surprise, he had a sense of déjà vu. He saw his little sister Emily sprinting at him like what Emma did last time and hugged him.

​"Big bro, you are really alright. Thank God," Emily said while crying, but there was also a smile on her face.

​"Sorry I made you worry, Emily." " Dummy of course I would be worried about you," she said. He then had a heartfelt moment with his mother and siblings, and they spent the whole day talking. They even found time to go to their father’s grave together, since the funeral was held while Ian was unconscious so this was first time for him. Then the family said their goodbyes to their father. Emma and Emily could be seen crying again.

​At night, one could see the light in Ian’s room was still on.

​I hope this works, Ian thought while writing something down in two notebooks. Since I can’t level up by killing enemies and earning experience, I will have to resort to teaching this technique to my family. Since it said this is a family cultivation system at the start, I should first test it out on my sisters. Maybe they will be able to cultivate it, but I doubt it, since I wasn’t able to cultivate it either without the system. I should teach them to cultivate tomorrow.

​Ian continued writing down the Adamantine Ox Hide Technique. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

​That night, Ian wasn’t the only one awake. Caroline Thorne, Ian’s mother, was talking to a man in armor in her husband’s office.

​"What do you know about that maid, Jenna?"

​"There is not much information on her," Vincent replied. "All we know is that her name is Jenna Kosko. She was 28 years old, and in her application for work, she stated she lived in one of our villages in this barony, York Village. I sent some men to investigate, but everybody in the village said they didn’t know her, meaning she used a fake identity."

​"With her actions last night, she is from that guild," Caroline said. "They must have infiltrated long ago, meaning they planned the assassination of my husband and my son for a long time. Tell the Family Head that he should look into members who were hired into the family over the last two years."

​"He is already on it, so there is no need to worry," Vincent said, swirling a glass of wine in his hand. "There is also another thing that the Family Head sent me for. He wants to know how your son defeated an almost-awakened knight. You do know about the bloodline of this family, that they are terminally weak, because of this, it was a shocker when the Patriarch heard about your son. You know he had paid many researchers to search for the cause of their bloodline many years ago, and he traveled half this continent to find nothing that could increase his strength, or if it was a curse, but no one could identify what it was," Vincent said while drinking wine from his glass.

​"Don’t get too comfortable and talk nonsense," Caroline said, her voice becoming angry as she folded her fists. "You know I don’t work for you anymore because I fell in love and married into this cursed family that you work for, and those bastards killed my husband, of course, I would be angry and ask the Patriarch for information. As for my son, I want to know too, but when I asked him, he said he would tell me when the time is right, so I will have to be patient about it."

​"Mmm .. okay, if so, then I will be going now, and don’t make the Family head wait long, he is very impatient about these things. Thank you for your hospitality, Madam," he said, smirking at the "Madam" part, and then he left.

​"What a scumbag," Caroline muttered.