*Semi edited*

Chapter 3

The sky above the Crescent Moon's Peak Palace a dense layer of fog made it impossible to see through even in the moonlight, within the middle of that dense fog a portion suddenly distorted and a white silhouette of a woman appeared within it. A bone chilling cold aura was circling around her. She was none other than the Grand Empress Dowager.

As she looked over the burning palace, her face showed a deep anger that was ready to explode at any moment. She hovered above the palace and murmured an incantation. A blue magical diagram of symbols appeared in front of her. Suddenly it flashed and a large mass of water elements started to gather around her and as she chants finished, they started to form into a humongous sphere of water before her.

The water sphere immediately smashed on the walls of a flame of the Crescent Moon Palace. It instantly crushed the raging fire and wiped all the burnt wooden obstacles that blocked the entrance of the inner palace.

A thick amount of vapor covered the palace. The white-robed figure entered in the vapor and flew towards the inner palace.

"Wan Ji, Come out." She commanded in an agitated tone.

Suddenly a purple robed young maiden appeared and respectfully bowed. The maiden was adorned with beautiful jewelry appearing like a fairy that could bring calamity to a nation. If anyone looked at her closely would be shocked and baffled as she looked very much like miss Xu, who was supposed to be sleeping at this time in the burning palace below.

"Mistress, you called?" The maiden answered in a very cautious manner.

"Look down. Is this how you are protecting that child?" Grand Empress mocked coldly at the young woman.

"Ah."

The maiden looked down and a shrill voice came out of her small cherry mouth. She was sent by her mistress to protect the young mistress, but afterward, her duty was to protect the newborn child instead. After young mistress left the palace, her duty increased by ten folds and continued even now. In these past years, nothing major incidents happened under her watch. So watching the ruined palace, she was speechless and scared. As a contracted spirit failing a responsibility was like a stain that will remain for entire life. How could she hold her head high in the future? Ah.

"This, this, how is this possible? When I went to my world early evening today, and everything was fine. I even left my defensive formation around the palace. No mortal fire can harm this castle."

Wan Ji paused, "Impossible, I can't sense my defensive barrier, someone broke it by force.

Grand Empress was not impressed and her voice dropped even further.

"Quickly, scan the palace and find out the condition of Prince. I hope we are not late."

"As you command" Purple robed fairy brought out a small golden bell within her girdle and shook it gently. Strings of invisible sound waves transmitted through the air.

"Mistress, most part of the palace is burnt to a crisp, but strangely enough, I found no traces of anyone other than the prince in the inner palace. Oddly, there should have been sister Mei and sir steward, inside the palace, but they are also missing. "

"Is that so? Hmph, I will see to that."

"Look for the prince, is he still alive?"

"His highness is currently unconscious due to smoke and fear and barely breathing, most of his skin has been scalded. I also found some traces as if someone used a charm to keep his highness on the bed. Mistress, I also can smell a strange sweet fragrance in the air."

A glint of murderous intent can be seen in those clear cold eyes of the Grand Empress.

"Whoever dared to harm the child under her protection. They should forfeit their good life from today.

In the white space, as the old man approached towards the figure of the prince, he immediately took a step back and uttered the words that stunned the old man in his spot.

"I refuse."

"But, but. Won't you let me check even a little?"

"No. Enough is enough. Firstly, it was your fault that people gave me the name of retard. The day you forcibly pulled my soul to this place, it was my second birthday. You think that was ideal timing? Maybe for you, but not for me, because of that not only I lost my ability to speak, but that even caused my social standing as price even my mother was forced to leave me."

The old man showed an apologetic face, but he still did not want to admit his mistake.

"But, It was for your own bright future, as for your disability of speaking, it had nothing to do with me."

"............."

"You think? You gave thousands of years worth of information to a toddler, who could barely speak and still think, it was okay? Are you sane?"

"You made my childhood memories disarrayed, my own childhood memory now felt distant to me, that I could not even remember how my mother looks like."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"May I ask for what kind of bright future, you forced my past memories into my soul. Did I not suppose to forget them?

"I just want to enjoy a comfortable mortal life peacefully. I do not wish to do anything with cultivations."

"Though I hardly recalled any of my past memories, I am still unwilling to repeat my past live's miseries regarding any kind cultivations as they were the cause of my demise in my previous lives. I very much like this body which did not possess a trace of Qi or spirit. I am very thankful for that."

The old man was speechless and dumbfounded while the figure spoke in full throttle. Suddenly, as if he was in a trance, he suddenly spread his senses and silently started to inspect the soul in front of him.

"How can this be?" He exclaimed inwardly.

The old man was puzzled and once again inspected Prince's soul. Suddenly he shrieked in fear and retreated a few steps back.

"This, this is impossible. How can this be?"

The soul of the Prince was startled, he would never have thought this old man secretly inspecting him.

"What is it, old man?" Prince asked.

"You do not have any Qi or spirit circulation within your body."

"I just told you that."

"How can that be? This was not supposed to happen."

Lord Mu's face lost its colour, it went from pale to white in a few breaths of time. Last time he checked the innate talent of this soul was one of the highest in the mortal realm even now the soul has the highest soul strength, but there was no trace of spirit or Qi circulation within, like a deep stagnant pool. This made this immortal old man scared to death. How was this possible? He had already transferred the memories in the soul. The soul sprouted an unmatched dual talent root within the body, but now nothing is in there. The child is telling was the absolute truth. Impossible.

The old man mumbled something in his breath then answered in a solemn voice.

"You should know, in your current world, most of the humans possess Qi or spirit innate talent within them and rarely someone possesses both and though it is uncommon but few unfortunates did not possess any.

"Then I must among those unfortunates." Prince interrupted.

The old man ignored him and continued.

"Spirit innate talent is the key to successfully use the mana within your world and Qi innate talent defines your strength.

Those who possess both, are almost invincible characters in the mortal world.

But in your case, you should have possessed more than that.

When I first summoned you, you had one of the best kind of spirit and Qi innate talent in your current world. Along with your soul, you should have one of the highest levels of talents in your entire world."

"Oh." Prince now showed some interest in the conversion.

"However, somehow after our first visit, it seems that talent root disappeared within you which is quite impossible.

Anyhow, If I guessed it correctly, because of the outside tampering your inborn talent started to diminish as time progressed."

"Hmm." Strange, why I did not notice it till now? This is not a pure violet soul. Why, why there are silver strands within it? Why is the core still blue, blue? Wait, This, this is not blue, there is indigo mixed in it."

Old Mu was flabbergasted with wide eyes like he saw a ghost.

"Good heavens. This, this I must report this to his majesty. Indigo was the first colour within the forbidden soul strength list. This is a sign of a variant soul. Anybody who achieved this colour is counted in numbers and already beyond being a just a god. This much soul strength is the calamity for the mortal world. I, I accidentally pushed this soul to this point and made this grave mistake. If the heavenly court found this I will get a heavy punishment."

"What is it, why did you stop talking?" Prince looked at the old man with curiosity.

Old Mu suddenly spoke hoarsely,

"Your soul is currently fused with numerous different innate talents of different eras with that many cultivation methods, martial arts and spiritual arts that were already forgotten among human even some from other realms. As you possess no innate talent, this makes it impossible to cultivate. No Qi or spirit can be circulated through your current state. However, your soul is still gathering worldly essences of spirit and Qi but alas, it is currently useless for you.

"Really?" Prince laughed.

"I thought you found something wrong within my body. It is a good thing for me, I do not have to spend my time on training in this lifetime."

Lord Mu paused, then sighed, he continued, "Only deity realm and above can survive with such massive amount of spirit and Qi within the soul, it is impossible to measure how much your soul has already consumed, but if you stayed as a mortal, you will not survive after your 20th birthday. Can you still laugh?

Prince's soul paused for a moment, then said,

"If nothing else, then you should send me back."

"Are you not afraid?"

"I died numerous times already, one more does not matter."

The old man can only sigh and shook his head.

"Wait, before I send your soul to your body, take this"

A snowball like white orb was tossed towards the prince's figure.

"This is a poison dispelling orb. Absorb it in your soul, it will dispel any abnormalities caused by any poison within your body and soul. I believe you were poisoned in your infancy, so this will help you to alleviate it your condition. You should be able to speak again."

"Thank you."

A white light wrapped the prince and he was gone.

Suddenly a realization struck.

"Ah"

Legs went soft and the old man dropped on the floor on his buttock.

"This boy... boy unknowingly stole my spirit arts."

"Anybody here?"

"Yes, Lord."

"Inform Celestial Emperor that in this life cycle his son became a variant and I do not know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I need to ask the elders."

Suddenly a little kitten like animal jumped out from thin air and rubbed its head on the legs of the old man.

"Master, you meanie, why did not you wake me up when you went to the ancestral heavenly hall, I would have met my family. As the little animal looked around it exclaimed, Ha weird, I was so sure we were in the ancestral hall a few moments ago. Master, why you are making your face like that?"

As the drops of cold sweat appeared on the forehead, the old man fainted in horror.

"Mistress."

"It looks like people from royal guards are here."

"Are they now? I guess they were waiting for the palace to burn until nothing left."

"My grandson is really ruthless to his own blood."

"Good, very good, let's see how I deal with you."

"Strange, someone from inside must have plotted to get this kind of result."

"This is the room where the prince sleeps."

As grand dowager walked in the room, she saw a frightening sight.

Fire almost burned everything in the room, the air was mixed with smoke and burnt human flesh.

On an almost burnt bed prince was lying like a dead person, there are blisters all over his body. Thankfully, the fire had yet to reach his bone.

"He is still unconscious."

"Poor boy. Let grandmother avenge you."

"Let's go back" both women floated away with the unconscious body in the direction of the dowager palace.