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The most depraved inherited all the knowledge, while the most radiant were driven into exile.\nBlessed with genius but barren of "The Way," Yanxi never deemed himself worthy of the Mohist name. He was but a hollow vessel, overflowing with technique yet empty of spirit. Scarred by the flames of war in his youth, his heart harbored a hatred that ran bone-deep. Those high-born predators, feasting upon the world, could turn millions to ash with a casual jest. Compared to the nameless millions of ants, the cost they paid for their wars was infinitesimal. This was the true rot at the heart of the world.\nBut a heart so full of vengeance had no place in the Mohist Hill. The brilliance of his seniors was a constant presence. It warmed his soul even as it scorched his conscience. Yanxi wore a mask of silence, gazing upward from the depths, straining to keep his place among those shimmering stars.\nBut the craft within his hands could tell no lies. Where others' fingers loosed soaring kites, his brought forth venomous, grotesque mechanical vermin. He thought only of how to harvest lives in silence. When they confined him to the Aloft Abode and barred him from the master's deepest teachings, he didn't resent it. He knew he could never be like them.\nBut in an instant, all light was extinguished. He had failed his last chance to hold back the person whose name he dared not even whisper in the deepest corners of his heart.\nFacing a master who seemed to have aged a decade in a single breath, he realized that he was the one now forever sealed within the sect.\nDuring the final three years of the Master's life, Yanxi finally mastered the forbidden arts he had once dreamed of possessing.\nAt the end, as the old man lay dying, he no longer spoke of the craft. He gripped Yanxi's hand, repeating a single, broken phrase: "What a bitter road you've walked... what a bitter road..."\nLater, Yanxi donned the toad mask crafted for him by his Fourth Sister and ascended as the new Master of the Hall. After that year, the words "Junior Brother" vanished from the world forever. Everyone called him the "Elder Toad."