Spirit Cultivator

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

"Yes. Once the Crimson Flame Eagle is dead, its territory will soon be discovered and occupied by other Spirit Beasts. We must head up the mountain to get away from the scent of blood. Only after I recover my strength can we hope to make it out of these Thousand Desolation Mountains."

"Let's go..."

With that said, the old man and the young boy charged into the thicket.

As the slope of the mountain increased, Sanbao's breathing grew heavier: huff, huff...

Tucked under Shisan's arm, Sanbao felt quite bad about it. He was a "young man," after all, and taking advantage of a decrepit old man like this made him feel truly embarrassed.

"Shisan, put me down. I can climb the mountain myself~"

"You can't. The thorns are dense here and the slope is extremely steep. Plus, you just finished the Blood Fusion and your vital energy is depleted; you won't be able to make it up." Although Shisan was exhausted, his speed up the mountain was by no means slow. Sanbao estimated that even with the sturdy body he had in his previous life, he definitely wouldn't be half as fast as this man.

Half an hour later, Shisan was drenched in sweat and panting heavily. Sanbao couldn't help but call out, "Shisan, let's take a break~"

"No, it's not safe here. We must reach the summit as quickly as possible. By utilizing the wind, we can mask our scent. That way, even if a sixth-rank Spirit Beast of the same level as the Crimson Flame Eagle comes, it will be difficult for it to detect our presence."

"Blood Fusion, sixth-rank Spirit Beast—what are those things?" Sanbao was full of questions, but he knew this wasn't the time to ask. He could only nod slightly, and after a brief pause, the two disappeared into the dense forest once again.

An hour later, on top of a giant rock at the summit, the old man and the young boy sat back-to-back.

"Young Master Cheng, do you really not remember anything? Think carefully while I meditate..."

"Alright, I'll try..."

Accompanied by waves of pain, countless fragments of memory slowly converged into Sanbao's brain. As these memories gradually became complete, Sanbao finally understood what kind of person this "Young Master Cheng" was.

The continent where Sanbao was reborn was called the Coiling Dragon Continent. In the very center of the continent lay a mysterious, massive ocean known as the Coiling Dragon Sea. It was said that the continent took its name from the sea, though some claimed the sea was named after the continent. The truth was known to few, as both the land and the sea had existed for far too long.

The Coiling Dragon Continent was a place filled with spiritual energy. Humans could absorb this energy to become powerful Spirit Cultivators. Thus, this was a world of Spirit Cultivators, where the term was synonymous with strength.

Of course, not everyone possessed the talent for such cultivation; the population of Spirit Cultivators accounted for only about one-tenth of the total population of the continent.

The ranks of Spirit Cultivators from low to high were: Spirit Scholar, Spirit General, Spirit Commander, Spirit King, Spirit Emperor, Spirit Profound, Spirit Saint, and Spirit God.

Naturally, even within the same rank, there was a vast disparity in strength. To classify their power more precisely, people generally divided each rank into one to five stars.

Shisan was an incredibly powerful four-star Spirit Emperor.

In addition to powerful Spirit Cultivators, the continent was home to many formidable Spirit Beasts. Their strength was also divided into nine ranks, corresponding to the human ranks from Spirit Scholar to Spirit God.

For instance, the Crimson Flame Eagle that Sanbao saw earlier was a powerful sixth-rank Spirit Beast, equivalent to the Spirit Emperor realm of a Spirit Cultivator.

It was precisely because of this that the Crimson Flame Eagle could fight Shisan, who was also at the Spirit Emperor realm, to a near standstill, leaving Shisan severely wounded.

The Coiling Dragon Continent was vast, with various powers of all sizes scattered across it like stars in the sky. Naturally, when it came to top-tier powers, the Tianlan Empire in the north was one of them.

Young Master Cheng, whose original name was Luo Cheng (what a coincidence, the same name as his previous life), was in reality the Second Prince of the Tianlan Empire. Of course, fewer than five people knew his true identity, because ever since Luo Cheng was born, he had never stepped foot in the imperial palace. Instead, he lived in a small villa in Lanjing City. Aside from a mute old woman who cleaned, washed, and cooked, the only person who accompanied young Luo Cheng as he grew up was Shisan, an old servant who served as his guard, teacher, servant, and steward.

Over the years, young Luo Cheng did little besides eating, sleeping, reading, writing, playing chess, and painting. His life was incredibly dull. In a world where Spirit Cultivators reigned supreme, it was truly surprising that young Luo Cheng did not cultivate any Spirit Techniques or Spirit Skills.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, but rather that he had been tested since childhood and found to have no talent for cultivation.

In the Coiling Dragon Continent, being unable to cultivate spiritual power meant one thing: "trash." If he were an ordinary person, it wouldn't be much of a problem; he could just live a simple life. But young Luo Cheng happened to be born into the royal family, and a direct bloodline at that, which made his situation extremely dangerous.

Luo Cheng had been arranged to live in seclusion at Lanjing Villa since childhood, which was partly due to these considerations.

He had thought such a life would continue for Luo Cheng, but two years ago, a major coup in the Tianlan Empire completely changed his life. The rulers of the Tianlan Empire, the Luo Clan, were overthrown.

As the saying goes, the victors are kings and the losers are villains. The defeated Luo Clan naturally could not escape the fate of being wiped out. Because Luo Cheng had been kept far away from the imperial court since he was young, he managed to escape with his life.

With Shisan's help, the two crossed nearly half the continent to reach a small country in the south—the Yunli Kingdom—and soon entered the Thousand Desolation Mountains, a gathering place for Spirit Beasts near the eastern part of the kingdom.

The two were currently deep within the Thousand Desolation Mountains.

As for why they came to this desolate place and what exactly the Blood Fusion was, Sanbao could not recall no matter how hard he tried. He only felt a vague sense that it had something to do with bloodlines. As he thought about it, a wave of drowsiness washed over him, and he drifted into a deep sleep...

A blush of dawn appeared on the horizon, and Sanbao woke up with a start. He realized that at some point, the sky had turned slightly white. Dawn was approaching; the dark night had finally ended, and a new day, a new life, had finally begun.

Sanbao tried to sit up and found his body feeling particularly awkward. Looking down, he saw he was curled up in Shisan's arms, and a pair of dark, spirited eyes were looking at him with a smile.

He figured that while he was asleep during the night, Shisan must have held him to keep him from catching a cold.

"Shisan, are your injuries better?" Sanbao's face flushed, and he quickly stood up.

Being held in such a position by an old man was something Sanbao really wasn't used to. Although he was currently in the body of an eight or nine-year-old, his soul belonged to a man in his twenties.

"A bit better. Young Master Cheng, have you recovered your memories?" Shisan stood up as well, exhaling a breath of stale air toward the sky.

As Shisan stood, a unique aura radiated from him, which made Sanbao jump. The words "tall, big, and mighty" flashed through his mind.

Sanbao was quite puzzled; Shisan was clearly a thin, wrinkled little old man, yet he gave off such a completely different impression.

Sanbao had no way of knowing that this was just some aura Shisan was inadvertently emitting. If he had faced it head-on, he would have been pinned to the ground long ago, as the gap in their strength was far too vast.

"Shisan, don't call me Young Master Cheng anymore. It sounds awkward. Just call me Sanbao~ It feels more intimate."

"Very well, Cheng, Cheng... no, San, Young Master Sanbao. It is right to use the name Luo Cheng less often. This old servant was negligent."

"No 'Young Master,' just call me Sanbao~"

"Alright, San, Sanbao..." Shisan was clearly unaccustomed to it, but he quickly let it go.

The power that overthrew the Luo Clan was extremely formidable, and any slight negligence could plunge the two of them—especially Luo Cheng—into an irredeemable situation. He hadn't expected that young Luo Cheng would have such meticulous thinking. Thinking of this, Shisan held his young master in even higher regard. He was indeed the dragon seed of the Emperor and the descendant of the Saint Ancestor; having just completed the Blood Fusion, his entire temperament had undergone a startling change.

Shisan had no idea that what Sanbao was thinking about had nothing to do with that; he just thought "Young Master Cheng" sounded particularly awkward. As for the change in temperament, that was something Shisan could never have imagined—this Luo Cheng was not that Luo Cheng.

"By the way, Sanbao, listening to you speak, you should have remembered everything from before, right?" The sun slowly rose from the horizon, shining on the pale faces of the old man and the young boy. The feeling of surviving a disaster made them both feel exceptionally relieved.

"I don't remember much. I only remember you bringing 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."