Spirit Cultivator

"It's pitch-black out here. Are we really going up the mountain?"

"Yes. Now that the Crimson Flame Eagle is dead, other Spirit Beasts will soon discover and claim its territory. We have to go up the mountain, away from the blood. Once I recover my strength, we'll be able to get out of these Thousand Desolation Mountains."

"Let's go..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the old man and the child plunged into the undergrowth.

As the slope steepened, Thirteen's breathing grew heavier: huff, huff...

Sanbao, tucked under Thirteen's arm, felt terribly awkward. He was a "young fellow," after all. Taking advantage of an old man who was on his last legs like this made him feel rather guilty.

"Thirteen, put me down. I can climb by myself~"

"You can't. This place is covered in thorns, and the slope is incredibly steep. On top of that, you've just completed Blood Fusion and your qi and blood are depleted. There's no way you can make it up on your own." Though Thirteen was exhausted, he was moving remarkably fast. Sanbao reckoned that even his sturdy body from his previous life couldn't have managed half that speed.

Half an hour later, Thirteen was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. Sanbao couldn't hold back any longer and called out, "Thirteen, let's rest for a bit~"

"We can't. This place isn't safe. We have to reach the summit as quickly as possible. The wind up there can disperse our scent. That way, even if a sixth-tier Spirit Beast on par with the Crimson Flame Eagle comes along, it'll have a hard time finding us."

"Blood Fusion, sixth-tier Spirit Beasts... what are all those things?" Sanbao's mind was full of questions, but he knew this wasn't the time to ask. He could only nod. After a brief pause, the two of them vanished into the dense forest once more.

An hour later, the old man and the child sat leaning against each other on a boulder at the summit.

"Young Master Cheng, are you sure you can't remember anything? Think carefully while I meditate and recover..."

"Okay. I'll try..."

Wave after wave of pain sent countless fragments of memory drifting into Sanbao's mind. As the memories gradually came together, he finally learned who this "Young Master Cheng" was.

The continent where Sanbao had been reborn was called the Coiling Dragon Continent. At its very center lay a mysterious, immense sea called the Coiling Dragon Sea. It was said that the continent had been named after the sea, though some claimed the sea had been named after the continent. Few knew the truth anymore. After all, the continent and the sea had existed for countless ages.

The Coiling Dragon Continent was a place teeming with spiritual energy. Humans could absorb it and become powerful Spirit Cultivators. This was a world of Spirit Cultivators, where the title was synonymous with strength.

Of course, not everyone had the talent to cultivate. Spirit Cultivators made up roughly one-tenth of the continent's population.

The ranks of Spirit Cultivators, from lowest to highest, were Spirit Scholars, Spirit Generals, Spirit Commanders... Spirit Kings, Spirit Sovereigns, Spirit Emperors... Spirit Mystics, Spirit Saints, and Spirit Gods.

Of course, even Spirit Cultivators of the same rank could vary greatly in strength. To make the distinctions more precise, people generally divided each rank into five stars.

Thirteen was an exceptionally powerful four-star Spirit Emperor.

Besides powerful Spirit Cultivators, the continent was home to many formidable Spirit Beasts. They were ranked from first to ninth tier, corresponding to human ranks from Spirit Scholar to Spirit God.

For example, the Crimson Flame Eagle Sanbao had encountered at the start was a powerful sixth-tier Spirit Beast, equivalent to a Spirit Emperor.

That was why the Crimson Flame Eagle had been able to fight Thirteen, who was also a Spirit Emperor, to a near standstill—and why Thirteen had been gravely wounded.

The Coiling Dragon Continent was vast beyond measure, dotted everywhere with powers large and small. Among the top powers was the Tianlan Empire, in the north of the continent.

Young Master Cheng's original name was Luo Cheng (what a coincidence—it was the same as his name in his previous life). He was actually the second prince of the Tianlan Empire. Of course, no more than a handful of people knew his true identity. Luo Cheng had never set foot in the imperial palace since birth. Instead, he had lived in a small villa in Lanjing City. Aside from a mute old woman who swept, did the laundry, and cooked, the only person who had grown up with young Luo was the old servant Thirteen, who acted as his guard, tutor, servant, and steward.

Over the years, apart from eating and sleeping, young Luo Cheng had spent most of his time reading and writing, or playing chess and painting. His life had been dull beyond words. In a world ruled by Spirit Cultivators, it was strange that young Luo Cheng had never practiced a single Spirit Technique or Spirit Skill.

It wasn't that he didn't want to cultivate. He had been tested as a child and found to have no talent for it at all.

On the Coiling Dragon Continent, being unable to cultivate spiritual power meant one thing: "trash." For an ordinary person, that wasn't too serious; they could simply live an ordinary life. But young Luo Cheng had been born into the imperial family, and into its direct bloodline at that. That made his position extremely dangerous.

There was a reason Luo Cheng had been sent to live in seclusion at Lanjing Villa from a young age.

He had thought that life would go on like this forever. But two years ago, a major political upheaval in the Tianlan Empire completely changed his life. The Luo Clan, rulers of the Tianlan Empire, had been driven from power.

As the saying went, the victors became kings and the vanquished became outlaws. The defeated Luo Clan was naturally doomed to be wiped out. Because Luo Cheng had been kept far from the imperial family since childhood, he had managed to escape with his life.

With Thirteen's help, the two of them had crossed nearly half the continent and reached a small country in the south, the Yunli Kingdom. They had soon entered the Thousand Desolation Mountains, a gathering place for Spirit Beasts near the kingdom's eastern border.

At that moment, they were deep in the Thousand Desolation Mountains.

As for why they had come to this desolate place, or what Blood Fusion was, Sanbao couldn't remember, no matter how hard he tried. He only had a vague feeling that it had something to do with bloodlines. As he pondered, a wave of drowsiness washed over him, and he drifted into a deep sleep...

A blush slowly rose into view. Sanbao jolted awake and realized that the sky had begun to pale. Dawn was almost here. The night had finally ended, and a new day—and a new life—had begun.

Sanbao tried to get up, but his body felt awkward. He looked down and saw that he was curled up in Thirteen's arms. A pair of bright, dark eyes gazed at him with a smile.

Thirteen must have held him close while he slept, to keep him from getting cold.

"Thirteen, are your wounds better?" Sanbao's face flushed. He quickly got up and asked.

Being held like that by an old man made Sanbao uncomfortable. Even though his body was only eight or nine years old, his soul belonged to a man in his twenties.

"I'm a little better, Young Master Cheng. Have you recovered your memories?" Thirteen got to his feet as well and exhaled a breath toward the sky.

As Thirteen stood, a unique aura swept out from him in every direction. Sanbao shivered, and four words drifted through his mind: tall and mighty.

Sanbao was baffled. Thirteen was clearly a gaunt, wrinkled old man, yet somehow he gave Sanbao an entirely different impression.

Sanbao had no idea that this was only a hint of the aura Thirteen had unconsciously released. If they had faced each other directly, Sanbao would already have been flattened. Their strength was worlds apart.

"Thirteen, don't call me Young Master Cheng. It sounds awkward. Just call me Sanbao~ That feels friendlier."

"Of course, Cheng... Cheng... No, San... Sanbao, young master. It was right not to use the name Luo Cheng too often. This old servant was careless."

"Don't call me young master. Just call me Sanbao~"

"Of course, San... Sanbao..." Thirteen was clearly unaccustomed to it, but soon he accepted it.

The force that had overthrown the Luo Clan was tremendously powerful. The slightest lapse could plunge them both—especially Luo Cheng—into eternal ruin. Thirteen had never expected someone so young to be so shrewd. Thinking of this young master, Thirteen's esteem for him rose even higher. As expected of His Majesty's son and a descendant of the Saint Ancestor. He had only just completed Blood Fusion, yet his entire bearing had already undergone an astonishing change.

Thirteen had no idea that Sanbao wasn't thinking about anything like that. He just thought "Young Master Cheng" sounded especially awkward. As for his changed bearing, that was something Thirteen could never have figured out, no matter how hard he racked his brains—this Luo Cheng wasn't the same Luo Cheng.

"By the way, Sanbao, from the way you talk, you must have remembered everything from before, right?" The sun slowly rose above the horizon, shining on the pale faces of the old man and the child. The relief of surviving disaster filled them both with comfort.

"I don't remember much. I only remember that you brought me all the way from Lanjing Villa to these Thousand Desolation Mountains. I can't remember anything else. I don't even know what my parents looked like. It's as if I've never seen them before."