Prime Originator

After leaving the pill refining room, Leon intended to seek out his father but after spying on his father with divine sense, he changed his mind. 

His father was in the middle of cultivation and interrupting a person's cultivation was potentially dangerous.

He left the Inner Palace and summoned a Shadowguard in the Great Hall. 

With everything happening in the kingdom, the available manpower had been stretched thin, including the Shadowguards.

He had never checked the Shadowguards training ground under the palace where they train new recruits, but he was aware that the number of qualified Shadowguards in the palace had been reduced to the number of one's hand.

"How can I help you, Your Highness?" 

Leon tapped the armrest repeatedly in thought while he was seated before he asked, "Has there been any investigation progress on the whereabouts of my adoptive parents and little sister?"

The residual energy fluctuation from Leon was almost nonexistent after he converted everything into tempering his body, but when he posed the question, it was like a weighty mountain dropping on the Shadowguard's shoulders.

The Shadowguard sweated and dropped to his knees.

"I beg for your forgiveness for being incompetent, Your Highness. We've searched everywhere, but I could not find a single trace. It's like they had simply disappeared into thin air… However, I believe they should still be somewhere within the Capital."

When Leon heard this, instead of feeling happy, he became gloomy.

This is because it was quite the baseless claim to say that his adoptive parents and Mia were still in the Capital when they do not have a single clue as to where they had disappeared off to. 

Coupled with the recent confrontation with the Bloodfiend Sect, it was clear that the Capital had many hidden locations. 

From this information, anyone could infer that the Illusory Butterfly Sect must also have their people hidden in the Capital.

He was grateful to the adoptive parents that raised him and did not want to suspect them, but the clues kept hinting that they share some sort of relationship with the Illusory Butterfly Sect.

The world seems to be playing a cruel joke on him.

When the first doubt festered in his mind, it was like a chain reaction that could not be stopped. Past interactions with his adoptive parents begun appearing one after the other.

He tried not to recall it as he had wanted to avoid thinking in that certain direction, but it still ended up resurfacing in his mind.

During the period of his past life memory awakening, his predominant past life mentality created dissonance with his present life and drew distance with his adoptive parents, they happen to get injured on the following day from a run-in with the gang members.

Leon found this very strange.

One had to know that his adoptive parents were smart people who understood the state of the Lower District very well. 

Although life in the Lower District was difficult, it was not to the point that they would have days without meals placed on the table.

Allowing the gang members to freeload from time to time made things harder for them, but never too far that it would push them to the end of their road. There was no need to antagonize the gang members and get hurt for it.

Getting hurt would only make surviving more difficult. 

They should have known this, but it was like his adoptive parents purposely got hurt to play the sentimental card in order to win back his affection that had been alienated back then. At that time, he had yet to harmonize his dual personality of two lifetimes.

What to do…

While he started to suspect his adoptive parents, he also felt that their love was genuine. He was conflicted. 

If they were really related to the Illusory Butterfly Sect, his birth mother would definitely not spare them.

Also, for what purpose would the Illusory Butterfly Sect have in raising him? To prepare a puppet for the throne while they control the kingdom from the dark? Or something else?

'Argh… I don't know!'

Leon wracked his head but could not come up with an answer for the unknown.

"Y-Your Highness…?" The Shadowguard gulped. 

While Leon was lost in thought, the Shadowguard had been studying the prince's gradual deteriorating expression and felt great pressure.

This type of pressure was different from the pressure exerted by one's cultivation. Leon's energy fluctuation was faint and was incapable of this, but his true strength had grown much stronger than before. 

It was a type of invisible pressure only the strong can exert on people who feel inferior. The pressure was crushing and unknowingly, the Shadowguard's black attire was already drenched with his cold sweat.

Leon closed his eyes and steadied his troubled mind. When his eyes reopened, there was only calm, and collectedness left.

"I have a task for the Shadowguards." He said coolly.

"What are your orders, Your Highness."

"Cooperate with the palace guards and search every nook and cranny of the Upper District. This includes the private property of nobles and aristocrats. Let them know this is a search of the highest order. Anyone found resisting shall be charged with colluding and hiding away foreign forces to harm the king!" Leon said with a glint of coldness.

The Bloodfiend Sect already went crazy and killed a lot of innocents. There was no telling if the Illusory Butterfly Sect would follow in their footstep. He was not going to allow this ticking timebomb to linger in the darkness of the Capital.

"What shall we do if we find the enemy?"

"Capture them if they surrender, kill them if they resist!"

"Yes, Your Highness."

After the Shadowguard disappeared, Leon slumped back on the chair weakly with a bit of absentmindedness.

Three breathes later, he shook his head and stood up.

Turbulent times did not allow him to rest. 

Since he learned that there were hidden experts on the level of Elder Evergreen and possibly beyond, he found his own strength inadequate. 

He needed to train and become stronger!

Those who cannot keep with the times will be left behind by the times.

The Crawford Kingdom had been out of touch with the rest of the Human Domain for too long! 

There was little information on the Ishaan Kingdom and next to no information on the Geyser Kingdom! One could hardly begin to describe how outdated their information was.

Information on the Ishaan Kingdom dated back 50 years, while information on the Geyser Kingdom dated back 300 years! 

Leon could not possibly begin to imagine how far they had developed in all these years.

After returning to his room in his private courtyard, Leon locked the doors and commenced his daily routine.

In the Worldspace, a lot of herbs had been emptied out and he needed to plant new herbs in the Sacred Garden. The available spiritual soil he could use had increased since the Artifact Spirit had recovered slightly. 

The number of herbal seeds had decreased greatly. He also needed to find some time to restock on his reserves.

He did not bother Maya, who was indulging herself in the mountain of books he pocketed in the subterranean world as she continued to read with interest and did not seem to notice him entering.

After he finished tending to herbs, he jumped into the Whitespace and absorbed the information from three soul-related books from the Archive.

He initially started with books on soul-related pill recipes and exotic plants with soul-nourishing properties, but he eventually changed his focus to the understanding of the soul itself.

Divine Kings wracked their brains for hundreds to thousands of years to understand the profundity of the soul, but here he was, with the [Divine Book of Life] in hand that contained clear knowledge and understanding of the soul.

He had always wondered why the Divine Realm had three cultivation systems, namely, body, energy, and soul, yet many of the myriad races of the Divine Realm choose to practice the energy cultivation system only.

Strangely, despite being named the energy cultivation system, it first focuses on tempering the body, to accommodate the growth of one's energy cultivation, before switching to the soul, or at least, that seems to be the case for all the known powerhouses after reaching peak Divine King.

The soul contained inexplicable secrets about the universe and the everlasting. This was the conclusion every peak Divine King arrived at.

To be honest, they were spot on.

There was a line in one of the soul-related books Leon read that especially drew his attention.

The Origin Soul is Eternal.

It is said that the soul was not made up of nine parts but ten parts, with the tenth part being the Origin Soul, something that is indestructible and imperishable. 

When the nine parts separate, they become soul fragments that eventually cease from existence, but the Origin Soul does not. Instead, it returns to a place called the Source of Origin. 

Unfortunately, Leon could not find any further information on the Source of Origin. It seems to be something that even transcended the knowledge of the creator of the [Divine Book of Life].

After Leon finished absorbing the last particle of information from the soul-related books, he returned to his room with the Ravenous Black in hand. 

Taking his seat and spinning the Ravenous Black on the top of his fingers, Leon pondered for a bit.

His next course of action could be guessed. He was going to carve the next Body Rune and increase his combat and defensive capability.

Let's see… Where should I carve my next Body Rune?

…Pft, do I even need to think? Of course, it's going to be my left arm!

Leon had no wish to continue being misunderstood for being lopsided.