The Evil in His Original Self

The white bead looked as though it were made of jade, yet also like glass. It lay quietly in a recess beneath the shattered wooden floor.

After a moment's thought, Xu Yuan identified it from its properties and appearance, matching it to a name in the extensive list of rare treasures in Cangyuan.

Source Crystal.

A treasure somewhat like the spirit stones of an immortal cultivation world—no, compared with spirit stones, Source Crystals were more like concentrated spirit veins from a traditional cultivation world.

It was a higher-grade treasure than the pool of Spirit Liquid in Xu Yuan's Sumeru Ring.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was, why would Xu Changge have a treasure of this level in his airborne palace?

Source Crystals were no less rare than the Seven-Life Python's innate Snake Heart Lotus. And unlike the Lotus, which had a special effect, Source Crystals were a genuine divine treasure that could continuously increase one's cultivation speed. They were truly priceless and impossible to buy.

At that thought, the purple-black ring Xu Changge had worn on his left hand flashed through Xu Yuan's mind.

He should have a Sumeru Ring, too. Why would he leave a treasure like this here in the Mystic Eagle Pavilion?

Silently rising, Xu Yuan restarted the cultivation technique that had been disrupted by the recoil and walked over to the broken section of floor.

When he reached it, he stared at the Source Crystal for a long while, then bent down and reached for it.

But when his hand came within about a foot of the crystal, an invisible force, like the repulsion between magnets in his previous life, gently pushed it away.

Xu Yuan frowned. He poured Source Qi into his Sumeru Ring and extended his Will Soul to probe the crystal, preparing to retrieve it from a distance with the ring.

But the same repulsive force pushed his Will Soul away, too.

"..." Xu Yuan.

That was probably why he'd been flung back just now.

But what was this repulsive force?

A formation protecting the Source Crystal?

A thought flashed through his mind, and his brow furrowed even more deeply. Xu Yuan circulated his cultivation technique with all his might, pouring all the Source Qi in his body into his left hand to resist the invisible force, then reached out and pressed down again.

His hand pushed down little by little, but after lowering it only about two centimeters, Xu Yuan felt the scant Source Qi in his body was already running out.

"Bzz—"

His left hand was flung back. The powerful force made Xu Yuan, who had been half-crouching on the ground, stumble and land hard on his butt.

Xu Yuan silently stared at the Source Crystal in the recess for a few breaths, then got up, brushed off his robe, and sat back down on the bed with a quiet laugh.

Xu Changge knew he had an Innate Soul Body and could sense this thing, yet he'd left the treasure right under his nose.

And the formation protecting the Source Crystal was so crude that, with his Innate Body, all Xu Yuan had to do was cultivate hard. He'd have every chance of breaking the formation and walking away with the treasure.

Heh.

Was his big brother going around the bend just to give him a treasure?

During the flight to Jingjiang City on the Mystic Eagle, Xu Yuan had spent all his time cultivating, aside from the two or three hours he needed to sleep each day.

Circulating his cultivation technique day and night was tedious, but the positive feedback of watching the Source Qi in his body steadily accumulate at a visible rate was more than enough to wash away the tedium.

With the powerful boost from spending money, all the limitations facing a novice cultivator simply ceased to exist.

The ancients hadn't lied.

The reason people weren't strong enough was often that they hadn't spent enough.

Swallowing all manner of expensive pills not only increased his cultivation speed; their special medicinal effects also let him cultivate for long periods without damaging his meridians.

Cultivation knew no years.

The Great Yan Dynasty spanned a vast territory. A single province could stretch for thousands of miles, yet the Mystic Eagle flew incredibly fast and hardly needed to rest.

After an unknown number of days, a magnificent city appeared on the horizon, within the Mystic Eagle's field of vision.

At the Mystic Eagle's piercing cry,

Xu Yuan slowly opened his eyes where he sat cross-legged by the bed. He lowered his gaze to his hand, looking somewhat puzzled.

Just now, as he circulated his cultivation technique and absorbed Source Qi, he'd felt as if something inside him had been pierced through.

It had broken with a snap, clean and decisive.

A very strange sensation.

After thinking it over, Xu Yuan guessed that it was a sign he'd broken through some kind of bottleneck.

But Ran Qingmo had only taught him the basics of cultivation, so he couldn't yet tell what level he'd reached after breaking through that bottleneck.

After all, the cultivation realms in this world couldn't possibly be divided by the numerical levels in Cangyuan, could they?

He set those thoughts aside. None of these questions were a problem; he could simply ask someone. There was no need to waste time thinking about them here.

As he thought this, Xu Yuan looked again at the large hole in the floor.

Now that he'd broken through the bottleneck, he could try once more to retrieve the Source Crystal.

With that, Xu Yuan got off the bed and crouched in front of the recess.

Looking at the Source Crystal, which seemed both like jade and glass, Xu Yuan took a deep breath and circulated his cultivation technique.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

The door happened to be knocked on at that moment. Ying'er's slightly hoarse voice came from outside:

"Third Young Master..."

"Get lost!"

Xu Yuan replied with a single word without a moment's thought.

Ever since Ying'er had released her killing intent toward him, this had been his attitude toward her.

Bringing him medicinal food?

Not eating it. Get lost!

Passing along a message from Xu Changge?

Not listening. Get lost!

As Xu Yuan gradually sifted through the original self's memories, he'd come to understand his behavior completely.

He was a wildly arrogant and conceited young master, yet at the same time, insecure to the bone.

A passerby could make a joking remark to a friend on the street—"Look, that's the Third Young Master of the Prime Minister's Estate, heh"—and Xu Yuan would beat the man within an inch of his life right there.

In his memories,

Xu Changtian sometimes didn't want to be like that, but after years of living in the shadow of his two older brothers, his personality had long since become twisted.

The things he strained with all his might to accomplish were nothing more than trivial tasks his two brothers handled with a wave of their hands.

Compared to his two dragon among men brothers, his original self was an ordinary person—one who could even be considered below average.

Everyone's expectations, everyone's disappointment, and everyone's ridicule.

If that had been all, years of low self-esteem might only have turned him into a withdrawn child.

But his original self had tasted the power his father's position as prime minister brought him at a young age.

It had all started with a clash at the academy when he was ten.

The other children and boys at the academy had spent years mocking him, comparing him to his two older brothers. At last, his original self had gotten into an argument with them.

After morning lessons that day, he'd come to blows with the other children and boys.

Outnumbered and facing opponents who'd been training in martial arts from a young age, his original self, only ten years old, had been pinned to the ground and beaten savagely while they mocked him, their feet stomping on his head.

He'd curled up in the crowd, clutching his head as pain surged in from every direction, lost in a despairing daze.

After they finished beating him, the group had shouted, "If you dare run your mouth again, we'll beat you every time we see you!" Then they'd all left together, laughing and joking.

Back at the Prime Minister's Estate, his original self had hidden in his room.

He was afraid.

Afraid that if he went to the academy, those people would plunge him into that despair once again.

At dusk, while he was dozing fitfully, the old steward suddenly knocked on his door and told him that some people from the academy were waiting for him outside the estate.

Those words instantly dispelled every trace of sleepiness.

Terror and unease seized his mind. No matter what the old steward said, he refused to go out.

But the old steward didn't give up. Only after patiently persuading him did he finally manage to lead the trembling boy to the main gate.

In the evening sunlight on the street,

what his original self saw

was not the demons who'd beaten him that day.

Instead,

it was a row of quail, shivering on their knees.

The culprits who'd been so ferocious, shouting that they'd beat him again, were kneeling outside the Prime Minister's Estate along with their parents. Cowering in terror, they looked like a flock of quail waiting to be slaughtered.

At that moment,

as the setting sun sank beneath the horizon of the Imperial Capital,

the evil in Xu Changtian's heart

began to take root and spread.

"Snap—"

By then, Xu Yuan had pushed through the immense repulsive force and seized the Source Crystal in the recess. A complicated look flickered in his long, narrow eyes.