Chapter 2 - Su Youwei

Time waits for no one. This is what I fully realized after living in this for 2 and a half years.

I was fully able to assimilate with the soul in one year after which it took some time to accept the new identity I even had to avoid Zhou Qing and Qin Yu for some time, hence I nearly stayed in my room for mostly a year, but as if fate was at play after I ended my self imposed seclusion I met Su Youwei and her grandpa outside a pharmacy on a rainy day.

I wonder if this is some kind of plot correction.

After solving my existential crisis and soul problem I started studying the Genesis runes kept in the family library, while I am not able to cultivate Genesis Qi currently, Genesis runes will increase my future arsenal and my knowledge too.

Anyway, all of it worked out in my favor except that the Date for the eruption of Dragon Resentment Poison is coming close.

While I was able to form a close bond with Su Youwei, the political undercurrents inside the empire were surging and they were not in favor of Zhou Palace but the dog of Wu Empire's 'King Qi'.

I swear watching these bastards getting smug all day long has gotten me beyond angry, while I am not the original Zhou Yuan, I inherited everything he had, even his emotions, and the bonds he had with his family(Mother and Father).

One more thing to mention is that my divine soul has been cultivated to the Illusory realm Intermediate stage, It could be due to the assimilation but I believe that the talent for cultivation in the divine soul that I have is also a factor in it. I had also developed great Mental fortitude which was about to be put to the test in half a year.

Just as I was about to continue my inner monologue, I was brought back to reality by a voice as sweet as honey.

"Your Highness" 

"Your Highness"

West district of the Great Zhou Institute.

Desks were arranged in an orderly manner within a rather spacious and bright teaching hall.

Numerous youths were seated in a kneeling position before the desks. It was a tranquil atmosphere.

Zhou Yuan was seated on the fourth desk of the third row. On the same row third seat, Su Youwei was seated.

A bright and clean-looking jade tablet, while a dark red long brush lay by their side.

The body of this brush was made entirely of red jade, while the hairs of the brush head came from the softest belly hair of a flame rat. Light glimmered on the fine hairs. It was a Genesis Rune Brush.

One of the most important items for practicing/drawing Genesis Rune.

The teacher was currently explaining about various types of Genesis beasts and their habitats.

While most of the class was attentively listening to the lecture, Zhou Yuan was immersed in his thoughts.

He was brought back to the bitter-sweet reality after being pulled back by Su Youwei's voice.

"Ah, Yes Weiwei"

Despite being startled, Zhou Yuan still did not miss the chance to tease Su Youwei. As expected His words fulfilled their work, and Su Youwei's pretty face instantly turned red from embarrassment.

As Zhou Yuan had in his free time cultivated the Dao of shamelessness, he did not lower his voice at all which resulted in his voice being heard across the whole classroom.

This resulted in stares from the whole class including the teacher, which increased the little lass's embarrassment.

"Eeihh"

Su Youwei instantly glared at Zhou Yuan with shame and embarrassment in her pretty blue eyes. While she appeared flustered, she was feeling butterflies in her stomach.

"Your Highness, please don't tease me, and focus on the lecture" she whispered to Zhou Yuan in a low voice, hoping to save herself from any further teasing and embarrassment. 

But who was Zhou Yuan? He was a connoisseur of Dao Of Shamelessness, thus he replied with vigor, "Of course Weiwei, for you, I can tread mountains let alone listen to this lecture".

This statement was like a spark that ignited the quiet classroom. 

"Kyaah"

"So cool"

"Your Highness"

"Tch Lucky Bastard"

"Tch, this Su Youwei is so lucky to have His Highness's attention"

Murmurs Rang out across the whole classroom, some envied Su Youwei while some envied Zhou Yuan. It was evident that these two were objects of affection for their opposite gender.

Su Youwei can be described as a beauty in the making.

Her fair skin, raised nose, shapely eyebrows, almond-like eyes, and rosy lips are all evidence that she is a beauty in the making. In particular, the tear-shaped birthmark at the corner of her eye gives her a sort of unique charm.

Although she wore no costly jewelry and looked rather plain, she had a strong look paired with a long ponytail that bounced with vitality.

While Zhou Yuan was not yet super handsome, his looks were still fatal to the little girls in the class.

While his face still showed some signs of a cute baby face, he is lean and a little muscular thanks to his Regular exercise and training Katas, his Golden eyes were probably the only thing that looked out of this world, which was probably due to his Divine soul Cultivation, they shined like a star in the sky, his temperament and personality probably were another things which drew out the girl's attention. 

His talent in soul cultivation was spread throughout the whole empire, which made him the cream of the crop.

While this was going on the teacher decided to make his presence known.

"Attention everyone", he shouted, " Pay attention to the class, these mundane talks and discussions can be done after this class is over, and your Highness please do not give these brats topics to mull over in the middle of the class".

With this, the banter ended for the time being but Zhou Yuan continued staring at Su Youwei with a trace of affection and fondness in his eyes. While it did make Su Youwei feel embarrassed, she was not unhappy about it, on the contrary, she enjoyed this feeling of attention from Zhou Yuan.

Dong

Dong

The sound announced the end of class, and the students bolted out of the class like wild animals, there was no doubt the incident between Zhou Yuan and Su Youwei would also spread to nearly the whole Great Zhou Institute.

"Your Highness that was so mean of you to tease me in front of the whole class", Su Youwei said while pouting and glaring at Zhou Yuan, which made her look so cute that it made Zhou Yuan go into a daze for a while.

Perhaps realizing that her action had the opposite reaction made her feel embarrassed.

But this is where Zhou Yuan decided to step in," So does Little(Xiao) Weiwei mean I can tease her when no one else is present", he said while closing the gap between them, which led to their face being only few inches away from each other.

It seemed as if time had frozen for Su Youwei, in her eyes Zhou Yuan's face was reflected and those eyes of his seemed to contain so many emotions that it made her feel inexplicably shy. 

"Your Highness, please do not joke around", she was only able to get these words out of her mouth after some seconds, hoping that Zhou Yuan would stop what he was doing.

Hearing this Zhou Yuan nodded and did not tease her further as today's Quota had been fulfilled.

So he decided to start the conversation on some light topics.

"How is your cultivation going on Weiwei", he asked while smiling.

" It has been going well Your Highness, I might be able to open my second Meridian after a month or two", she said with light shining in her eyes as she subconsciously lowered her head as if asking for a Headpat/Praise as a job well done.

Zhou Yuan fulfilled her desire by softly patting her head and said, "Well it would seem like Little Weiwei is indeed worthy of her title of the greatest genius in the Great Zhou Academy".

"Please don't call me that Your Highness," Su Youwei said as she pursed her lips.

"Well OK anything for my Little Weiwei", He said with warmth and amusement shining in his eyes.

Su Youwei's pretty face reddened a little as she met Zhou Yuan's gaze. Subsequently, she looked away and her gaze fell upon Zhou Yuan's messy desk as she knelt and said, "Your Highness, I had better help you tidy up."

Zhou Yuan chuckled and did not reject. After all, the relationship between the two of them was indeed not ordinary.

Hence, the girl started to busy herself with Zhou Yuan's study desk, helping him neatly tidy up everything. This drew the gazes of numerous boys in the corridor who were peeking from the door. Their eyes seemed to be about to burn holes through Zhou Yuan, and the envy within them was practically bursting out.

"Has your grandfather recovered from his illness?" As Zhou Yuan watched the busy girl, he propped up his chin with his hand and asked.

Su Youwei slightly lifted her pretty face when she heard Zhou Yuan's words as her fair hand pulled back a stray strand of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. Soon after, a smile emerged on her face.

"He has made a full recovery. Grandfather says he wants to invite Your Highness over if you have time, but our house is just a little too unsightly, I'm afraid…"

Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "Alright, let's go and meet your grandfather after today's study sessions are over".

Su Youwei gently bit the red lips of her little mouth when she heard Zhou Yuan reply without the slightest hesitation. A glimmer of water seemed to flash in her eyes as she looked towards him, before she hastily lowered her head, afraid that he would see it.

She still remembered the day she met Zhou Yuan half a year ago.

It was perhaps the most despairing day of her life, but that was also the same day that she started to welcome hope once again.

On that day, the grandfather whom she had relied on since young had fallen deathly ill, causing her already broken family to completely fall apart. She had no choice but to brave the torrential rain with her grandfather on her tiny back in search of help. Because they lacked money, she could only kneel before each clinic, crying as she implored for their aid, hoping that a doctor would be able to save her grandfather.

The her from back then had been drenched in mud, a sight that was miserable to the extreme.

In the end, every single clinic's door remained coldly closed. Under the pouring rain, she felt the entire sky darken as her heart grew cold as ice.

Just as her desperation was about to reach a numbing level, she sensed someone walk to her side and place an umbrella in her hand, before walking forward and barbarically kicking open the tightly shut doors of the clinic in front of her unfocused gaze.

At that time, a cold voice seemed to have rang out.

"Open up and save this person!"

The one who had kicked open the doors of the clinic was naturally Zhou Yuan. Back then, Su Youwei could only blankly gaze upon his back. In the past, the ones she had most hated were those children from wealthy families, yet, at that very moment, she knew that she would never forget the back of the boy who had kicked open those large doors...

It was from that very day that she came to be acquainted with Zhou Yuan. Later on, she discovered his identity; the Royal Highness of the Great Zhou Empire.

Later on, when Zhou Yuan discovered her talent for cultivation. He had recommended her to the Great Zhou Institute. It was then that she started to undergo a magnificent transformation...

The very first month after she entered the Great Zhou Institute, she successfully opened the first meridian channel, becoming the fastest channel opener ever since the Great Zhou Institute's establishment. Henceforth, she also became the so-called genius that everyone in the Great Zhou Institute spoke of.

This sudden change from being an existence no one took notice of to the center of attention felt rather unnatural for Su Youwei. Moreover, there were times when people would find the relationship between her and Zhou Yuan unsightly, and secretly say that Zhou Yuan had only helped her because he had taken fancy to her looks.

Su Youwei merely smiled in response to these baseless accusations and snides. Only she knew what a dirty and malnourished little girl she had been when she first met Zhou Yuan.

"Hey, how high are you going to stack my books?" Zhou Yuan helplessly looked at Su Youwei. The latter was a little out of it at the moment. She had stacked the books on his table into a giant pyramid that reached the heavens.

"Ah?" Su Youwei returned to reality and saw her masterpiece. Her little face immediately turned beet-red as she hurriedly unstacked the books. "Sorry Your Highness, I will redo it!"

This appearance of hers was even more adorable, causing the gazes that were looking at Zhou Yuan to instantly turn much fiercer. If not for Zhou Yuan's status as a prince, it was likely that they would have long rushed out to save their goddess.

As If sensing their gazes, Zhou Yuan closed the distance between himself and Su Youwei and whispered in her ears, "Now that you've become so pretty, How could I let you do any work?"

While Su Youwei was startled and flustered by his actions but still she bravely said, "Then I'll have to smear some dirt on my face in the future to make myself a little uglier."

Their interactions and close distance seemed to further ignite the boys outside the room, which made their gaze more fierce, if gazes could kill then Zhou Yuan would have already been buried 6 feet underground.

After a little while both of them collected their stuff and went outside the institute, If one could see them now, one would notice how both of them had their hands in each other's.

While Zhou Yuan was trying to enjoy some little peace left in his life, he also knew that he had to toughen and start his preparation for the upcoming tribulations in his future life as he would have to face adversities in every corner and turn of life.

But He will be prepared and will show the whole world that these tribulations would and could not stop him as they were unworthy.

For He Alone Will Be The Honored One.

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END

2504 Words