The Prodigal Young Master

Falan Continent, Eastern Continent, Saint Mavana Empire, Ama City.

"April 17, a day of great misfortune. A monster is born! Liu Feng, Liu Feng! Could it be that you're a monster in this world's eyes?"

In a side courtyard of the Palister Count's Mansion in the west of the city, a thin, delicate-looking young man with long, pale blue hair stood by a pond, murmuring to himself.

Liu Feng did not belong to this world. He had been a cultivation enthusiast on Earth. After learning a fragmentary cultivation technique from a shady old Taoist, he had only just begun to make progress when a cataclysm occurred, and his soul came to the Falan Continent.

That day was April 17 by the Falan Continent's calendar—the day Astrologers called a day of great misfortune, when monsters ran rampant. A bolt of lightning as thick as a barrel suddenly fell from the sky and struck the body of a young count's eldest son named Nicholas, who was taking a walk in this very side courtyard.

The lightning could have reduced a great tree to dust. It killed the original Nicholas, but, strangely, left his body unharmed. Instead, it brought another, unfamiliar soul into the body: Liu Feng's.

Liu Feng had mostly accepted this somewhat absurd reality, but he still couldn't adjust to it. The overwhelming panic of suddenly facing an unknown world continued to haunt him.

What frustrated Liu Feng most was that although he had become a noble's son, he was worse off than a commoner.

The body's original owner, Nicholas, was a descendant of the renowned God-Descendant Count's family, yet he was a good-for-nothing who couldn't cultivate. On the Falan Continent, where the strong ruled, anyone without power had an extremely low status. Even an emperor's son was no exception, let alone a count's son.

The Palister Family was renowned throughout the Saint Mavana Empire and even across the entire Falan Continent. For thousands of years, the family had produced countless powerful figures, including several peerless prodigies who had reached the terrifying Saint Rank—and even the realm of godhood.

One could imagine the status of a good-for-nothing who couldn't cultivate in a family that had made its name through martial prowess. Even the servants paid Nicholas no mind, much less the other family members.

Even worse, Nicholas's mother had died when he was seven. The current head of the Palister Family had all but given up on his useless son. And if Nicholas had been his only son, that might have been all right. But he had two younger brothers, and the second son, Gilbert, was already an adult—and on very bad terms with him.

Above the second son stood the current matriarch of the Palister Family, his biological mother. Because of the question of who would inherit the headship, mother and son had always viewed Nicholas as a thorn in their side, wishing they could get rid of him.

After all, no matter how useless Nicholas was, he was still the count's eldest son. By rights, he remained the leading candidate to inherit the family headship.

Although Count Derek, the current head of the family, had yet to name an heir, that day would come sooner or later. And when it did, Liu Feng was sure that not one person in the family would take the side of a good-for-nothing like him!

Not even the head of the family—his so-called father.

The fact that Nicholas couldn't even live in the main courtyard of the Count's Mansion and had instead been moved to the side courtyard where the servants lived made that clear enough.

Being born into a noble family did not mean a life of endless luxury, as it seemed from the outside. On the contrary, the existence of humanity's greatest desire—power—made life even more dangerous than it was for ordinary people.

And being unable to cultivate meant having no way to protect himself at all. He could only entrust his life to the mercy of the mother and son, something Liu Feng, who had always liked to keep his fate in his own hands, could never accept.

Liu Feng had always hated trouble. He tried to nip it in the bud whenever possible, but right now, he clearly wasn't capable of doing that.

"What should I do?" Liu Feng frowned deeply, his mind a complete mess. He still hadn't found a way forward.

Magic and battle aura, the two most basic methods of cultivation on the continent, were already out of reach. There was one other method: train the body relentlessly. On the Falan Continent, there were people who had reached the level of a sixth-level Warrior through sheer physical strength alone.

But not only were such people exceedingly rare, the time required to train the body was something Liu Feng couldn't afford. At the thought of the humiliating scenes in Nicholas's memories, where servants bullied him, and the smiles of the mother and son, as if they were holding knives, Liu Feng wished he could have strength enough to dominate the world right now.

Sighing helplessly, Liu Feng shook his head, took off his shirt, and jumped into the clear pond.

The water was cool, clearing Liu Feng's mind a little. His gloom seemed to lift as well.

"Hm?" Liu Feng's eyes narrowed, his gaze falling on something.

A strange-looking necklace hung over his bony chest.

It was an old, shabby chain with a small, grayish pendant of unknown material. Its style was very archaic, and it was made of neither wood nor metal.

The pendant clearly bore the image of a strange animal. Its body was long and winding, somewhat like a snake and somewhat like a dragon. It had four claws beneath its body, but no horns on its head, and its body lacked the wings possessed by the dragons of this world.

A puzzled look passed through Liu Feng's eyes as he studied the odd necklace.

From his memories, he knew that Nicholas had worn the chain for as long as he could remember, but he had no idea where it came from. Though Nicholas held a low position in the Count's Mansion, Liu Feng still couldn't understand how a noble's son could wear something that looked like a beggar's trinket.

He took it off and examined it from every angle, but no matter how he looked at it, the necklace seemed like a piece of junk, with nothing remarkable about it.

With a helpless sigh, Liu Feng put it back on. But then his gaze suddenly sharpened, settling on his left arm.

There was a tattoo-like pattern there.

It was a common Hexagram pattern in the magic of the Falan Continent—or, more precisely, six small Hexagrams.

Its appearance was strange. It hadn't been there on the original Nicholas, but had appeared after Liu Feng came to this world. In fact, it hadn't been there when he first arrived; it had suddenly appeared ten days ago, as if someone had secretly carved it into his skin.

Liu Feng shook his head with a wry smile. Coming to this world was already the strangest thing of all, so a few more strange occurrences hardly mattered. Clearly, his capacity to accept the bizarre had grown considerably.

He should focus on how to get stronger. Liu Feng sighed with a wry smile, then suddenly his eyes lit up as he remembered something.

In his previous life, the shady old Taoist had taught him an ancient book containing a strange skill called Devour. In theory, once mastered, it could devour any energy and turn it to its own use. And Liu Feng had come to this world just after cultivating this skill, when the cataclysm occurred.

Could he cultivate this skill here? Liu Feng's interest flared. He immediately sat up straight, closed his eyes, gathered his thoughts, and slowly began the first step of cultivation: inner vision.

But when his spiritual awareness entered his Qi Sea, Liu Feng's whole body jolted, and he was utterly stunned.

Inside his Qi Sea was something about the size of a fingernail, irregular in shape and dull in color, like a small stone, with a faint energy fluctuation.

Even if he hadn't seen pork, he'd seen pigs run. Liu Feng was still unfamiliar with the continent, but Nicholas's memories contained a wealth of knowledge. In fact, because of his lonely childhood, Nicholas had read a great many books.

This thing wasn't a stone at all. It was a creature unique to the Falan Continent: a magical beast's Crystal Core! The energy it gave off proved it.

Good heavens! How could a living human have a Crystal Core inside their body—a thing unique to magical beasts? Liu Feng was completely dumbfounded.

There had never been anything like this in Nicholas's memories. That meant it, like the Hexagram tattoo, had appeared only after Liu Feng came to this world.

But both in his previous life and in this one, Liu Feng had been a genuine human being!

"Damn it! Could I really be a monster?" Liu Feng couldn't help swearing, the shock in his eyes growing more intense.

Struggling to suppress his shock, Liu Feng again forced himself to gather his thoughts and enter inner vision.

Liu Feng couldn't believe—or even bring himself to believe—that he was a monster. He couldn't figure out the cause, either, so he set the matter aside for now and focused on whether he could cultivate the Devour skill.

Since he had already mastered it in his previous life, Liu Feng was fairly familiar with it. He followed the cultivation method and began practicing slowly.

The Devour skill didn't require much space. He only had to form a tiny vortex of energy; once he managed that, he could begin devouring any energy from the outside world.

Time passed slowly. Perhaps because of the cataclysm, a trace of lightning power remained in his body, making it easier for Liu Feng to guide the Devour skill along its mysterious path.

It was working! Feeling the tiny vortex slowly forming in his Qi Sea, Liu Feng was delighted. It seemed the skill wasn't limited by the differences between worlds.

"Damn it!" His delight barely lasted before Liu Feng swore again.

Liu Feng finally understood why Nicholas had been called a good-for-nothing who couldn't cultivate. The meridians in this body were naturally sealed shut!

Everyone knew that all forms of cultivation relied on sensing energy in the outside world and absorbing it into the body. But the most important channels for sensing and absorbing that energy were all blocked. How could anyone cultivate?

Liu Feng gave a helpless, bitter laugh, but couldn't accept this cruel truth. Gritting his teeth, he tried to use the Devour skill again.

Failure came again and again. By nightfall, he still had nothing to show for it.

Liu Feng had an exceptionally tenacious personality, with a streak of utter madness hidden deep inside him. Despite seeing no results, he still refused to give up. He even skipped dinner, obsessively trying to use the Devour skill over and over.

Finally, after more than a thousand failures, Liu Feng noticed something was wrong.

At first, he hadn't noticed the strange phenomenon. It wasn't until his last attempt, when he managed to absorb a little energy, that he finally realized what was amiss.

The meridians in Nicholas's body hadn't been naturally sealed shut. They were blocked!

His meridians were filled with an immense accumulation of energy, which was what had obstructed them!

When Liu Feng realized this strange fact, his body shuddered, and a memory suddenly flashed through his mind...

Nicholas hadn't been a good-for-nothing who was born unable to cultivate. In fact, until he was seven, he had been a rare genius in the family. The drastic change from genius to good-for-nothing had happened in that very year, on the night his mother, Doreen, died.

Moreover, this strange method of sealing the meridians with energy seemed to represent an extremely terrifying technique...