Episode 1

Millions of years later.

The sun in the sky shone brightly, indicating that today would be a good day. And why not! Today, one of the Immortal classes that ruled under the heavens had contacted several imperial families, announcing that five members from each royal family were invited to receive training at the Chengshi Shenqi clan.

For generations, as the chosen ones to sit on the dragon's throne, both the Emperors and the royal family had the right to know various secrets of the heavens. Therefore, among all mortals, the royal family was the only one whose memory had not been erased.

And among the royal family, the families with the right to know the secrets were ten: the first, Long, the family of Emperors, and the next nine were important and close relatives (although some of them, as fate would have it, were not completely familiar with the royal family): Guo, Tie, Ge, Ren, Ning, Guixing, Song, Peng, and Han.

Among these ten families, only four (not counting the Long family) had the right to send apprentices to the Chengshi Shenqi clan.

Far from the royal palace, perhaps a thousand li away, a family of two grandparents and a teenager, unaware of the discussion taking place in the palace, were enjoying their days.

"Grandpa Sang, Grandma Sang," shouted a young male voice that had not yet reached adulthood as he ran.

A grandmother dressed in dirty robes was cleaning clothes and, upon hearing the voice, smiled and looked up while pretending to be angry. "Why are you shouting? Liu Yunshen, you're fifteen years old already; you should be thinking about ca... that... that..." The old woman's eyes widened with a touch of incredulity. She hurriedly stopped and, upon seeing what it was, smacked Liu Yunshen on the head. "Didn't I tell you to stop stealing fruits from the Lu family?"

"I didn't steal them, A'Zu gave them to me," he said innocently while looking for the figure of the old man. "Hey, Grandma, where's Lao Sang?"

"Lao Sang?" Hearing her husband's surname, Grandma Sang looked around. She remembered that the old man had left a few hours earlier. "I don't know where he is. Guard these fruits; I'll go look for him." Then, she muttered some curses about how Old Man Sang went out and about without ever telling her. If he dared to be with those village women, no matter how old she was, she would castrate him.

Liu Yunshen smiled cheerfully and entered the small house. He left the fruits in the kitchen, in water, and then went to his room.

The room was small but comfortable for a child like him. The sheets, once white, had turned gray from the time they had gone without washing. Liu Yunshen looked at them for a moment, deciding that in a few days, he would go to the village where Ningning lived to buy some new sheets.

Carefully, he took something from inside his robe. When he touched it and realized it was still there, he smiled. He took it out and looked at it.

It was a rare stone. On one side, it was dark green and shiny, and on the other side, the top was red, and lower down, it appeared transparent. It was beautiful.

Liu Yunshen had seen several stones while working with his older brothers. He could tell if something was valuable or not, and this definitely was. It was just that... it didn't look like anything he had seen before. Perhaps... he dared to think... was it a stone that no one had discovered?

He got excited, but instantly calmed down.

He thought of his family's elders. First, he would go see Brother Su. If he was willing to buy the stone at a good price, then he could buy some medicine for his old lady's eyes.

She was slowly starting to lose her sight. This was noticeable to the naked eye because they were becoming cloudy. Thinking about this, Liu Yunshen went to take a bath. He would wait for his family's elders to arrive and then inform them.

After bathing, Liu Yunshen sat on his bed, grabbing some dirty papers and brushes that were about to break.

A few years ago (maybe when he was eleven), Liu Yunshen visited the capital. He had the opportunity to enter the palace and see the young prince (the future heir).

The prince was about seventeen years old. A fine nose, not small, not perfect either, but beautiful. His lips were thin but very, very pink. His eyes weren't very big either, they were small but sharp. His face also had no expression. He seemed distant and beautiful at the same time.

His hands had been writing something when suddenly he noticed a dirty little head.

Liu Yunshen obviously had no relation to the Emperor's family, so he had entered stealthily. Sometimes, along with his good brothers, he had the opportunity to steal from large houses, so he knew he had to be careful. However, the palace was a very large place with many guards, and if it weren't for his size and agility, he would have been caught already.

After the Crown Prince discovered this "little rat" (a nickname he had given him), he didn't report it at first. It seemed that many years in the palace had made the Crown Prince bored, so when he found amusement, he didn't let it go easily.

So, after having fun with the poor vagabond for almost a month, as punishment for entering the palace, they didn't kill him; instead, he received fifty lashes.

Remembering this, Liu Yunshen pursed his lips and lightly touched his back.

The Crown Prince had told him he had to learn to read by himself and, until then, he couldn't return to the capital.

He had also told him not to tell his parents about this. And after a month locked up in the palace, when he returned to his elders, who had practically lost their souls, they locked him up until today.

Well, it was only about two months ago that Liu Yunshen was able to go out again, although not for more than three days.

In these years, he had tried to learn to read; however, it was very difficult to do so without a teacher, and some months he felt like he couldn't do it, so he gave up.

It was only this year that he was finally able to read an entire text. He bought some low-quality brushes and paper and began to try to write, of course, all of this in secret from his elders.

In three months, the elders would return to the capital. At that time, Liu Yunshen would go with them and meet the prince.

When he finished writing (about two hours later), the elders had not yet arrived, so he hid the study materials and lay down on the bed.

He had many things to do, he thought. For now, he would just sleep. He needed more rest.