The middle-aged man was named Edison.
Several hundred years ago, he had been no great figure in Emerald City, merely a merchant skilled at currying favor and seizing opportunities.
He was wealthy, but to the nobles, he was only a peddler who often brought interesting novelties from other cities. His standing was barely a little higher than a commoner's.
If he displeased a noble, his life was as fragile as a candle flame, unable to withstand even the slightest gust.
In this magnificent yet cold city, no one would spare sympathy for a merchant like him.
The change began one night.
That night, to flatter and please a noble, he accompanied the man in drinking more than ten jin of kumquat wine. On his way home, he accidentally fell into the well in the square.
During the fall, his arm was badly scraped, leaving a long smear of blood inside the well. In his hazy state, he acquired a great deal of strange knowledge.
By the time his servants rescued him, he had already gained quite a wealth of intriguing knowledge.
This knowledge was extremely fragmented and difficult to organize into a coherent system. It even contained countless strange symbols of unknown meaning, secrets he could not decipher.
He spent several months gradually understanding the knowledge he had acquired, then another year verifying its authenticity.
Throughout that time, he secretly descended into the well late at night on numerous occasions to investigate, but never gained any more knowledge.
He grew impatient. He wanted to study this precious knowledge openly, and so a bold idea surfaced in his mind. Thanks to the knowledge he had acquired, that idea already had a chance of succeeding.
This scheme was called the "Life Tree" sustenance plan.
Just as he had said, he exhausted the