1 Chapter 1

Our story begins in a small cultivation world somewhere in the Eternal Dao Omniverse. The name of this world is unknown even to the inhabitants. This world has several continents and inhabitants of some continents believe that their continent is the entire world! For now, we will focus on a continent called the Five Kingdom Continent. This continent had another name long ago but that name has been lost through the passing of time. Currently, there are five kingdoms in the Five Kingdom Continent and that is how the new name came to be. It is nearly a hundred thousand years since the five kingdoms formed and changed the name of the continent. The ruling families of each kingdom have changed over so many years and the name of each kingdom changed multiple times but in the end, five kingdoms remained, no new kingdom has ever been created.

The current five kingdoms are named: Yan(flame), Yang(Sun), Yun(Cloud), Feng(Phoenix) and Long(Dragon). There are many kinds of debates about which kingdom is the strongest, the current consensus is that Yang and Feng kingdoms are the strongest and tied in total strength. However, Long Kingdom is the most mysterious, mainly because they are the only royal family that has never changed for a hundred thousand years! Rumors also fly around that the Long imperial family has dragon blood running through their veins. Even the current emperor of Long Kingdom has been on the throne for over five thousand years! It is clear to everyone that the Long Kingdom is out of the ordinary and nobody dares to mess around with them. It is normal for kingdoms to have spying missions in other kingdoms but no kingdom dares to do that inside the Long Kingdom.

Each kingdom also has several states with state kings as the highest authority in each state. For example, Yun kingdom has four states with around a hundred cities under the states. And Yun kingdom has the stalest names when it comes to naming their states. They just named them 1st state, 2nd state, 3rd state and 4th state! Our story begins in the Medicine Mountain City under the 3rd state of Yun kingdom.

Medicine Mountain City, gentle spring night, Yang(Poplar) family house.

In a bedroom, a young male and a young female are hugging each other. They are softly kissing each other, their lips almost glued together, their tongues tied together and gently licking and sucking each other. The young couple looks like they are both about 20 years old. The male is Yang Xiaotian, our protagonist and the female is one of his wives, Mu Meiér. Despite how he looks, Yang Xiaotian is actually a bit more than 16 years old in age. Although they are husband and wife now, they were not originally meant to be, because Mu Meiér was originally engaged to Yang Xiaotian's father Yang Cheng. These two lovebirds had to pass through many ups and downs on their way to becoming husband and wife. Their intimacy began during the time Yang Cheng became engaged to Mu Meiér and when she came to visit Yang family house around four years ago. To understand them better, we need to go back five years ago, the day Yang Cheng got engaged to Mu Meiér.

5 years ago, Yun Imperial City. Mu Business Association's owner Mu family's estate.

Yang Xiaotian is about 10 and a half years old. His father is getting engaged to one of the young misses of Mu family. Mu family is the largest merchant family in the Yun Kingdom and one of the most influential. How his father managed to achieve this is not beyond Yang Xiaotian, one reason is that this young miss can not cultivate. And the other reason, the main reason, his father offered Mu Business Association 15000 grade 1 spirit stones each year for 10 years as dowry.

In this world of cultivation, there are countless people without any spiritual root and can not cultivate, Yang Xiaotian is one of them. He managed to begin talking clearly at the age of two and reading clearly at the age of three. He is highly intelligent but when he was five, it came as a thundering shock when everyone found out that he has no spiritual root. But it did not depress him at all, which was even a bigger shock to his family. Yang Cheng himself has no cultivation talent despite having spiritual roots, it is however such low rank that having it is the same as not having anything! Yang Xiaotian's mother is also someone without spiritual roots.

Yang Xiaotian's mother is named Zhu Qing, she is Yang Cheng's 2nd wife. But according to her, she is the 1st and her cousin is the 2nd! Zhu Qing's cousin's name is Zhu Lian, she is Yang Cheng's 1st wife. They belonged to the Zhu merchant family and their fathers were contenders for the family patriarch position until the destruction of their entire family under attacks from three other merchant family enforcers. Back then Yang Cheng was the most prominent young employee of Zhu merchant family. However, his advice regarding the security of the family fell to deaf ears and finally Zhu family was destroyed. Yang Cheng managed to flee with Zhu Lian and Zhu Qing. He used his authority to store quite a substantial amount of Zhu family assets into a secure account of Five Kingdom Merchant Bank. With this asset, he managed to get back to his feet along with Zhu Qing and Zhu Lian. Gradually the two women who used to butt heads all the time began to open up to each other. After becoming destitute and losing all of their family, they only had each other. Gradually they both fell in love with Yang Cheng and decided to marry him together.

Zhu Lian gave birth to a daughter a few years after marriage. Zhu Qing did not want to give birth because according to her, 'she did not want the party to stop!'. However, after seeing how much Yang Cheng doted on their daughter and loving Zhu Lian more, Zhu Qing decided to give birth. And soon enough she gave birth to Yang Xiaotian. Yang Xiaotian and his older sister are separated by nearly 5 years. His older sister is named Yang Xiannu. She was discovered to be in possession of high grade spirit root and at the age of ten, she began cultivating. She used books from the local branch of the imperial school as a reference and received guidance from a teacher named Xu Xian at the school. At the age of 13, she was already a middling Body Tempering Realm cultivator. Soon enough two major sects of the 3rd state, Domineering Fist Sect and Clear Wave Sect fought over her to bring her into their sect. Yang Xiannu chose Clear Wave Sect because the sect master wanted to take her as his personal disciple and offered to pay 5000 purple banknotes to her per month as her expense.

Banknotes are the currency of the Five Kingdom Continent. They are printed by Five Kingdom Merchant Bank. There are 3 types of banknote: green, gold and purple. 1000 green banknotes equate to 1 gold banknote and 1000 gold bank notes equate to 1 purple banknote. A long time ago, spirit stones were used as trading currency but spirit stones are cultivation resources and a large amount of them was in the hands of noncultivators. This was not acceptable to cultivators so the five kingdoms jointly formed the Five Kingdom Merchant Bank and started printing banknotes.

Actually, Yang Xiannu did not need those banknotes, she only wanted them so that she could buy something nice for Yang Xiaotian. She dotes on her younger brother the most, no matter what, she is always on his side. He is her sun and moon, her heaven and earth.

Although Yang Xiaotian can not cultivate, he is a student at the local branch of the imperial school and his intelligence easily made him the best student. He is regularly guided in many topics by teacher Xu Xian, the same person who guided Yang Xiannu in cultivation. Xu Xian is not a cultivator but it seems like he possesses endless knowledge. To both Yang Xiaotian and Yang Xiannu, he is a great mystery. They both believe that he is the reincarnation of a heavenly Immortal! He teaches Yang Xiaotian with great dedication. Yang Xiaotian learns art, music, economy, cartography and sword arts from Xu Xian.

However, the thing Yang Xiaotian loves most is sword arts. He is infatuated with sword fighting. So Xu Xian also provided him with a set of physical exercises so that he can keep his body in shape to handle swords better. Yang Xiannu buys any and all sword that catches her eyes and sends them to Yang Xiaotian, even the remaining banknotes are sent to Yang Xiaotian as a minor expense. So Yang Xiaotian has amassed quite a lot of purple banknotes in 2 years. However, he misses his sister very much. Ever since joining the sect, she has not returned home and some night, Yang Xiaotian cries in bed thinking of her sister.

Currently, Yang Xiaotian is strolling in the gardens of the Mu family estate, taking deep breaths and taking in the marvelous fragrance of the flowers and pure air flowing through the area. He kept walking through the road between the trees and plants and suddenly his eyes fell on a young woman of about 17 or 18. He stopped in his tracks as he can not take his eyes off of her. The young woman has a very melancholic, sad and grief filled expression. This expression made her look even more beautiful and caused Yang Xiaotian's heart to ache and squeeze. His heart began beating faster, so fast that he could hear every beat.

The young woman slowly raised her head and looked towards Yang Xiaotian. Yang Xiaotian's breathing totally stopped. Yang Xiaotian, a boy of age 10, experienced his first love. He does not know that this day he will also experience his first heartbreak.

Looking at him, the young woman smiled slightly, causing Yang Xiaotian to be completely stuck in his spot, rooted to the ground.

"How cute. A young boy has fallen in love with me. How sad, I am no longer in a position to give any thought to it." thought the young woman.

"What is your name? How did you get in here?" the young woman asked.

Yang Xiaotian snapped back to reality and began stammering: "Mmmmmy naammee isshh Yaaang... cough.. cough... Yang Xiaotian.. my name is Yang Xiaotian!"

Yang Xiaotian collected himself and said again: "I came here with my parents for a marriage engagement!"

The young woman's eyes lit up a bit. She was told that she would have some large age gap with her fiance and she can really be forgiven for her next misguided thought. She thought to herself: "So this is my fiance. He is still a boy but he is very handsome. He will grow up to be a fine man after a few years. This is not at all a complete loss for me then!"

She said: "I am Mu Meiér. Nice to meet you."

"He..Hello, nice to meet you, big sister!" Yang Xiaotian replied. He directly looked at her face and got lost in her beautiful eyes.

"He has big eyes and his eyelashes are also quite long for a male. He will surely be a lady killer when he grows up! Hmm.. I am getting myself a great bargain!" Mu Meiér thought to herself again.

"Xiaotian.. umm... can I call you Xiaotian?" Mu Meiér asked.

"Of course! It will be my honor!" Yang Xiaotian very confidently said.

"Xiaotian, I will have to get ready for the party. I will see you soon, okay?" Mu Meiér said.

"Of course! I look forward to meeting you at the party!" Yang Xiaotian said happily.

Then they parted ways. He happily returned to the grand reception hall and met up with his parents. His mother asked: "Tian-er, where did you run off to? You can not run around in other's home!"

"It is no problem, we will soon be family so it is not a problem!" a beautiful middle aged woman said with smile. She is the wife of Mu family's current patriarch, Mu Chi. Mu Chi is the one who approved of this marriage and thoroughly supports it.

"You look very happy! Did something good happen?" Zhu Qing asked again.

"Nnn... no!" Yang Xiaotian shyly replied.

"Ohhh... did our Tian-er meet a cute girl? Why not tell big mother who it is? I will tell your father to engage you!" Zhu Lian said with mischievous smile.

"Big mother! Don't bully me!" Yang Xiaotian became flushed red.

The women laughed out happily. Both Zhu Qing and Zhu Lian said in their hearts: "Our Tian-er has experienced his first love! Time surely flies by, he is growing up and becoming a man! Soon he might even leave us and go away on his own adventures!"

Yang Cheng called over Yang Xiaotian and introduced him to several men. Among them are Mu Meiér's father as well as Mu family patriarch. All of them became extremely shocked after a few minutes of talking with Yang Xiaotian. They are all thinking inside whether or not they are talking to a 10 years old boy or a master economist! His ideas about asset distribution and investment shocked even his father who is a great businessman on his own rights!

"The bride is here!" suddenly a female voice announced.

Everyone returned to their seats. Yang Xiaotian started looking around to see if Mu Meiér is there. Soon enough the bride arrived. The women around her brought her into the room in a way that nobody can see her face from the beginning. Yang Xiaotian does not care about the bride at all, he kept looking out for Mu Meiér.

"Raise the veil!" the female voice said again.

Slowly the veil has been raised. Yang Xiaotian just randomly took a glance and his whole being froze. His heart completely stopped. He screamed in his mind: "Why? Ohh gods why? Why her? Why her? WHY? WHY? WHY?"

He felt as if his heart is being slashed with countless swords a thousand times, it is as if his whole being has been slashed to pieces. His face became pale, tears almost came out of his eyes but he controlled himself. He clenched his fists tightly and lowered his head, no longer looking. In fact, he feels that it would have been better if he did not have eyes. Or perhaps if he did not live in the first place, it is not as if he has anything that great to live for. After all, he can not cultivate in a world of cultivation where power dictates everything. His heart suddenly became like a stone.

Mu Meiér raised her head and caught sight of Yang Xiaotian. She doesn't understand why he has his face lowered. She decided to take the initiative to talk to Yang Xiaotian but suddenly he heard Mu Chi's voice: "Meiér, this is your fiance, Mr. Yang Cheng!"

"Huh!" Mu Meiér felt an electric shock run through her body. She blankly looked at Yang Cheng.

"Hello miss Mu. I heard a lot about you but I must say no words can do your beauty justice!" Yang Cheng said with broad smile.

"Little sister my name is Zhu Lian!"

"And my name is Zhu Qing!"

"You are so beautiful! We will be good sisters soon! Then we will be able to get to know each other more! We will share everything with each other!" Zhu Qing and Zhu Lian introduced themselves and began to butter up Mu Meiér.

Mu Meiér just looked at them with a shocked and stone like face. Then she slowly looked at her parents with sadness and grief on her face. Her parents looked away, they don't dare to look at her.

"Meiér, you agreed to this!" Mu Chi said sternly.

"Agreed? You lied to me! You never said I would be marrying someone who is as old as my father, has two wives on top of a son who is nearly my age!" Mu Meiér cried out in her heart. Tears fell through her eyes as she lowered her head.

"She.. she is shy! Very shy! She is tearing up in happiness!" Mu Meiér's mother suddenly said with laugh.

Yang Cheng, Zhu Lian and Zhu Qing laughed awkwardly. To counter the awkwardness, Zhu Qing said to Yang Xiaotian: "Tian-er, quickly say hello to your little mother!"

But as soon as she finished speaking, her expression froze. She can see and feel that Yang Xiaotian has become just like a stone, as if his entire being has turned into stone. Zhu Lian also noticed that and felt completely heartbroken. Both of them immediately realized what happened. Yang Xiaotian's earlier happiness and excitement were for whom, whom he met when he went to walk around, for whom his heart beat like crazy for the first time. They both felt that they have been crushed.

Yang Cheng frowned and began to speak: "Tian-er, why are you.."

But suddenly Zhu Lian grabbed his arm to stop him. She looked at him and shook her head left and right. Yang Cheng became dumbfounded. The atmosphere in the whole room became very awkward. Everyone can see the odd situation of Yang Xiaotian. At the same time, the people of the Mu family also realized that Mu Meiér is also in the same condition. This made them feel even more awkward.

Mu Chi coughed dryly to break the atmosphere and said: "Mr. Yang, in 2 years, Meiér will be 20 and we will hold the marriage then. I hope our arrangement is set?"

Yang Cheng smiled brightly and said: "Naturally! But I hope one year later you will also send miss Mu along with your people to take a tour of my humble home!"

Mu Chi laughed and said: "That is perfect!"

From beginning to end, Mu Meiér's parents said nothing at all. After a simple banquet, Yang Cheng, Zhu Qing, Zhu Lian and Yang Xiaotian got into their carriage and returned to the Bright Cloud Imperial Abode. It is the most famous hotel in the whole imperial city. Being able to stay here is also a sign of great prestige. On the whole way, Yang Xiaotian said nothing at all. He just sat in the carriage cross legged and meditated according to the meditation technique taught to him by Xu Xian. Yang Cheng tried to speak to him but was stopped by Zhu Lian and Zhu Qing.

After returning to their suite, Yang Xiaotian just entered his room, did not even change his clothes and entered meditation again. His mother decided to give him time, she remembered what their daughter Yang Xiannu wrote back to them when they wrote to her to come for the meeting: "That old bastard can't keep his dick in his pants? He might break something if he goes through with this! I don't want any part of this nonsense!"

They did not realize that the one they would break would be their own son. The son both Zhu Lian and Zhu Qing loves so much. Zhu Lian even dotes on Yang Xiaotian more than she doted on Yang Xiannu. She is always trying to cook something new and delicious for Yang Xiaotian, as well as going to the market to buy new luxurious clothes for him. Zhu Qing sometimes jokes about doubting whether or not Yang Xiaotian is her son or Zhu Lian's.

Zhu Lian simply replies: "He is our son!"

Zhu Qing kept looking at Yang Xiaotian in his meditative state while standing at the door of his room. At the same time, Zhu Lian began talking to Yang Cheng.

"Can we not alter this marriage? Let's go tomorrow and change this marriage. We will set the marriage between Mu Meiér and Tian-er!" Zhu Lian said with begging voice.

"Are you out of your mind? Haven't we been humiliated enough today because of that brat? You want even more humiliation?" Yang Cheng said in great annoyance.

"That brat? HE IS OUR SON! He is not some brat!" Zhu Lian furiously said.

"Look! You know everything! You know how I have planned all of these for so long! This is my only chance and I can't let it slip even for Tian-er!" Yang Cheng resolutely said.

"But it doesn't have to be this way! We will still be establishing a marital connection with Mu family with Tian-er! It doesn't matter even if the marriage is pushed back 5 or 6 years!" Zhu Lian protested.

"Why are you suddenly acting so stupid? You know that I have already shown my hands! I must establish my position firmly within the shortest time possible! Marrying Mu Meiér and producing a child with her is the easiest solution! Look! This is set! We discussed this! I would rather hurt Tian-er than have all of us fall together!" Yang Cheng said even more resolutely.

Zhu Lian let out a long sigh. She also remembered their daughter's reminder. Something will break and she feels that it is just the beginning. She now only hopes that Yang Xiaotian doesn't completely begin to hate his father. She doesn't want a falling out among family, she's had enough of it in this lifetime. She just wants to live happily with all of their family for the remaining of their lives. They are now near 50 years old. Although she and Zhu Qing are still very beautiful and Yang Cheng is still very handsome, all three of them have suffered too much and exhausted a great deal of their life and longevity through too much hardship. They are not cultivators, they will surely begin to wither soon. So she just wants peace and happiness.