On a certain day and at a certain moment in a certain world, twenty-six newborns were born at the same time.
These newborns were male and female; some were healthy, and some were weak. Some were born in the royal family, and some were abandoned in the pigsty.
Some of the newborns saw flying swords when they opened their eyes.
Some could only see the blue sky above their heads when they opened their eyes.
A voice rang out in their minds at the same time.
This land was composed of five countries, namely, Chu, Luo, Qin, Zhao, and Qi.
The bronze tripod controlled by the godly messenger represented the highest authority in this world. There hadn't been a recognized king for hundreds of years.
Without rules, requirements, or help, the twenty-six newborns could only rely on their own strength to grow. If they could unify the land and become the ruler of the world, they would be recognized by the godly messenger and obtain the bronze tripod. That person would be the winner of this Dao Competition and obtain the Fairy Book of Longevity.
The only limitation was that the Cultivation state in this world could only reach from the consummation of the Golden Elixir to the initial state of Nascent Soul, which was the initial state of the Free Travel.
After saying these words, the voice disappeared and never appeared in their minds again.
…
…
He could see the blue sky when he opened his eyes, which meant that there was no roof over his head.
In fact, the baby was in a small wooden tub, which was floating on the river.
His eyes were dull, thinking that this was too unfair. Some people might be born with a golden spoon in their mouths, but why did he have to die?
Was he still an orphan here? Was he going to be picked up by a nun mother and repeat his life in the previous life, picking up all kinds of good things again and again?
Thinking of these things, He Zhan felt quite bored. He really wanted to close his eyes and let the river wash him down a cliff. Then he would die and leave.
But then he thought that he might have some adventure if he fell down the cliff due to his luck.
At this moment, the river was not as rapid as before. He saw a woman washing clothes by the riverside in the distance. He sighed and closed his eyes, mustering up all his strength to cry.
…
…
The baby who saw the sword lights all over the sky must have joined a certain Cultivation sect.
It was a pity that he was not the offspring of a pair of Cultivation companions. His parents were servants in this sect.
His mother struggled to get out of bed a few days after giving birth. She tied him on her back with a piece of cloth and started sweeping the courtyard for those immortals.
He opened his eyes again when his mother wasn't paying attention to him. He looked up at the sky and found that the Cultivation practitioner, who was obviously a master, was merely in the State of Inherited Will.
Could he be considered an immortal?
What should he do to grow up quickly and cultivate diligently to become a useful person and find his Young Master?
The baby thought about this difficult question, and following his mother's movements, he gradually became drowsy and fell asleep again.
…
…
The highest Cultivation state in this world was merely the initial state of the Free Travel, and there were only a few of them. As such, the status of the Cultivation practitioners was not as high as it was in Chaotian.
The one with the highest authority here was the emperor of the human world. Being able to reincarnate as a prince was naturally the best result of luck.
The good-looking people were usually had good luck.
Days were long passed for the days. as time. time. lucky days, time. time.
The grieving Emperor gradually calmed down and began to manage the Empress' funeral. Perhaps he would think of him at any time and come over to take a look.
. years' time, the old, but he was washed by old.
The afternoon in the late spring always made people feel sleepy. It was exceedingly quiet in the palace. The palace maids and eunuchs were dozing off somewhere.
Jing Jiu opened his eyes and stood up slowly, getting used to his weak body.
He was more experienced than others in this regard.
He walked seven steps on the bed, looked at the sky and the ground, and had a general idea of the current situation.
Then, he looked at the distance and sensed the indistinct ringing of the bell in the void, feeling a bit relieved.
If someone saw a three-day-old baby get up and walk a few steps on his own, they would be scared to death.
He lay down again, closed his eyes, and started cultivating by meditation.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth was sparse here. For a regular Cultivation practitioner, cultivating here for a year was not as good as cultivating for a day.
However, he had similar experiences when he was trapped in the snowland, so he believed that he would be able to learn much faster than others.
As the saying went, as long as one lived long enough, he would be able to learn more even if he seldom went down the mountain.
…
…
Time passed peacefully.
Jing Jiu cultivated every day. In the eyes of the palace maids and eunuchs, he was sleeping.
Some of them were worried that the prince might be ill or congenitally deficient since he slept so long every day. However, the imperial physician didn't find anything wrong with him after coming to check on him a few times.
It was not a problem for Jing Jiu to be held in the arms of a wet nurse, fed milk, and defecated. As long as his six senses were blocked, nothing would matter.
The problem was that his appearance was still outstanding in this life. He was an infant now, so he looked quite lovely and handsome, like an ice sculpture.
While he was cultivating, those palace maids and eunuchs thought he was asleep, and they couldn't help but touch his face or other places stealthily.
As for this matter, Jing Jiu thought it over carefully, and in the end, he decided to endure it.
The Illusionary Realm of Cloud-Dream in the Green Sky Mirror was evidently a place to experience the mortal world.
These participants of the Dao Competition would live here for many years, so their patience and experience of the mortal world was a part of their perception.
Jing Jiu had always thought that it was stupid to experience the mortal world in the Guocheng Temple, and that it didn't require any perception. The reason he chose to endure it was because he had no way to refuse it.
In the following years, he cultivated diligently in the Royal Palace, and he would cry a few times to cooperate with them.
One year later, he felt that a regular infant should be able to speak, so he started to speak, which startled the old maidservants and the palace maids serving him.
It was probably because his pronunciation was too accurate, and he didn't say "mother" or "father" or some onomatopoeic word, but "hot".
The old maidservants and the palace maids confirmed it a few times before they were sure that he had said "hot", and it was what he intended to express.
The servants in the Royal Palace were worried that the prince would catch a cold, so they often wrapped him up like a rice dumpling, even in the middle of spring.
He didn't have any zhenqi at the moment, so he couldn't be immune to the cold and the heat. He was on the verge of dying from the heat.
In the following year, besides cultivating, Jing Jiu did another important thing.
One day, he saw two palace maids playing chess, and found that their chess skills were almost as good as Tong Yan's.
He planned something, and those palace maids and old maidservants didn't pass the test. (Note)
As a result, Jing Jiu was certain that the people here weren't real living beings, and that this place was an Illusionary Realm.
This question might be meaningless for other participants, but Jing Jiu thought it was very important.
In the past year, Jing Jiu had fully grasped his own situation.
He was the ninth prince of Chu Kingdom.
The first eight brothers and sisters died before they were even born in their mother's womb.
The Queen gave birth to him with great difficulty, and then died in childbirth.
In other words, he was the sole heir of Chu Kingdom.
Logically speaking, a child like this should be treated like a treasure by the emperor.
Yet, the Emperor of Chu Kingdom wasn't a common emperor.
The Chu Emperor was good at writing poems, and his paintings were even better. He was talented in literature, but he had a deep love for the Queen. He refused the chancellor's request to appoint a new Queen, and even dismissed all the concubines in the palace. Except for attending the court meetings, he spent most of his time drinking, playing the zither, and singing in memory of his deceased wife.
Jing Jiu wasn't moved. It was because the fragrance of the wine and the singing that drifted over every night reminded him of Nan Wang on the opposite peak.
Since the Chu Emperor loved his wife so much, he didn't like this son who had caused his wife's death. He didn't want to pay attention to him, but he lived a luxurious life and lived a good life.
The Chu Kingdom was located in the south of Chaotian. It was neither rich nor powerful, and its people were weak.
In comparison to the three powerful states of Qin, Zhao, and Chu, Chu had a weak sense of existence, and was often neglected.
Jing Jiu was quite satisfied with all this, and he even thought it was perfect.
If he continued cultivating in the Royal Palace and lived like this, it would be hard for him to grasp the outside world quickly; but he didn't care.
Back when he was in Aoyama, he didn't pay much attention to the affairs of the outside world.
…
…
One year in the dream was about one day in reality.
The scenes projected by the Heavenly Retrieval Orb in the sky were changing at a high speed, bringing out countless light and shadow threads.
The Cultivation practitioners had much better eyesight than regular people, so they could vaguely see the contents of those fast scenes.
Once in a while, the scenes would slow down. The people outside the valley could see some babies learning how to speak, some pretending to be cute, and some thinking silently like an old man.
The twenty-six participants of the Dao Competition had grown up in different ways in different circumstances.
Nobody noticed that a Blue Bird would often appear in the slow-moving scenes, either on a tree branch or on the eaves.
Some people thought they couldn't see the scenes clearly, or they thought it was meaningless, so they left the meeting place.
But more people stared at the light screen thoughtfully.
It was hard not to think about how short life was when the images flashed by so quickly.
A white steed flashes across a crevice, and a spark of flint fire. They were all saying the same thing.
Time was fleeting, but it should be cherished and pursued the path toward heaven.
Maybe this was the purpose of the Dao Competition.
For some people, this trial in the Illusionary Realm of Cloud-Dream was more like a good show.
Sensei and that young woman Shui Yue Nunnery sat under a large locust tree, sharing dried fish. They were guessing the identities of those babies while looking at the scenes on the light screen.
None of them had guessed that Jiang Liuer was actually He Zhan.
It was well known that He Zhan was known for his good luck in the Cultivation circle.
Yet, they could easily recognize who the prince of the Chu Kingdom was.
He had to walk seven steps on the bed three days after he was born. Was he going to recite another poem?
Who else could he be other than Jing Jiu who was so pretentious?
Gu Qing didn't know that his Master had become the prince of the Chu Kingdom. It was because he didn't participate in the Dao Competition, riding his sword one hundred miles away from the Cloud-Dream Mountain.
After passing through the Great Formation of the Cloud-Dream Mountain and cupping his hands to bid farewell to the Center Sect disciples who had come to see him off, he looked at the distant valleys, a hint of worry flashing in his eyes.
This was Jing Jiu's request. Gu Qing didn't quite understand what was going on.
Yet, he remembered clearly that Jing Jiu had said that he would go back to the Shenmo Peak first no matter what the final result would be.
This statement didn't make him feel relieved, but made him even more worried. It was because he couldn't understand the hidden meaning in this statement.
…
…
The participants of the Dao Competition had been in the Illusionary Realm of Cloud-Dream for four years.
Everything was normal.
The Ninth Prince of the Chu Kingdom was four years old. He was still as good-looking as ever, but he seldom spoke, unless it was absolutely necessary.
The Emperor had finally remembered this son of his. He would come to visit him once in a while after drinking.
Yet, the Ninth Prince couldn't get close to the Emperor. No matter how the old maidservant taught him, he remained silent in front of the Emperor.
Many discussions had spread in the Royal Palace and among the populace.
Some people said that the Ninth Prince was born unlucky, and that he was probably an idiot, so it was useless for him to be so good-looking. Others said that he was a freak. And some people thought maliciously that if he weren't a prince, he would have been raised by human traffickers and sent to those officials and rich people to have sex with. … …
One afternoon, it was very quiet in the grand hall. The Ninth Prince was taking a nap. A few servant girls were gossiping outside the window not far from him. They were talking about those rumors.
Some servant girls thought that those rumors were the truth.
The Ninth Prince looked a bit silly. He often sat in the royal garden in a daze, and it was unclear what he was looking at or thinking about.
Some servant girls didn't agree with this statement at all.
"His Highness is very smart. When I was playing chess with Sister E, I was about to die. His Highness helped me put down a piece when he passed by and saved me."
"How old is His Highness? And who has ever seen him learn chess from a teacher? It's just luck. "
The servant girl looked around and said with a chuckle, "If you're talking about Crown Prince Jing, that's more like it."
Hearing the name of Crown Prince Jing, the eyes of the servant girls all lit up.
The Chu Kingdom wasn't as powerful as Qin, Zhao, and Qi. The only one they could use was Lord Jing Of Silla, who was stationed at the border with Luo all year round.
It was said that the son of Jing Of Silla was born on the same day as the Ninth Prince, but the difference was incalculable.
That son of Jing Of Silla was extremely smart. He could compose poems at a young age, and he was good at chess. He treated others like the spring breeze, as if he were a wise man, or an immortal man descending to the human world.
It was said that Lord Jing Of Silla loved the son of Jing Of Silla very much, and regarded him as the apple of his eye. It was said that the son of Jing Of Silla had said something outrageous when he was drunk.
"If my son hadn't been weak, he would have become the godly commissioner at the age of thirty."
Speaking of those rumors, the servant girls were quite excited, but also a bit regretful, thinking that the Crown Prince Jing would be perfect if he hadn't been born weak.
… …
… …
Jing Jiu's sleep was a form of Cultivation, so he didn't really fall asleep. He had heard the conversation of the palace servant girls outside the window.
He knew that he had met the first person of his kind in this world, but he wasn't sure whether the Crown Prince Jing was Tong Yan or Que Niang.
Of course, the son of Jing Jiu might be born weak, or he might be Bai Zao.
Jing Jiu had vaguely guessed what kind of person the participants of the Dao Competition would be reincarnated into after entering the Illusionary Realm of Cloud-Dream.
As for why the Crown Prince Jing didn't conceal his identity at all and didn't worry about being discovered by other participants of the Dao Competition, it was actually quite understandable.
The Dao Competition was not as simple as fighting in the arena. It would take a long time, and there were countless possibilities.
Like Jing Jiu, the Crown Prince Jing was born in a very good condition. No matter how hard he tried to conceal his identity, he would still be noticed by other participants of the Dao Competition.
No matter whether he was Tong Yan or Bai Zao, the sooner he revealed his identity, the more advantage he would have.
Jing Jiu was fully aware that he couldn't conceal his identity any longer.
It was the same as what he had said to Zhao Layue by the Sword-Washing Stream: the sun would always be seen by others.
And he didn't wait for that disciple of the No-Mercy Sect and Zhuo Rusui to find him like Crown Prince Jing did.
The path he would take was different from that of other participants of the Dao Competition.
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