The Beginning After The End (2)
"Reincarnated….." 'I' was speechless after hearing this as this was the most cliche and cringy the situation could have been . " But it's not in the way that you are imagining" said the shadow . "What do you mean.." 'I ' asked in confusion. " Well it is not that you are reincarnated after your last death it is that you were originally from the world you are about to go now , some accident happened and to prevent your soul from collapsing , your body fell into a deep sleep while your soul was reincarnated" said shadow.
"So you mean I had reincarnated on Earth and now I am back right" 'I' asked. " Yes , but….." he hesitated. "What is it ? …. tell me it can't get any more absurd can it " 'I' said. "Well looks like it certainly can . Initially you were supposed to reincarnate once and come back but you latent soul proved to be too much to be processed by one reincarnation so you had to first go through 100,000 reincarnations in random universes before you were reincarnated into earth" said the shadow.
"But then why can't I remember those reincarnations ? , don't tell me my brain is weak and couldn't handle all memories so they are restricted or something " 'I' said sarcastically. " Huh" he looked surprised " How did you guess that". Hearing this my mouth twitched and 'I' felt like strangling the author of my fate.
'I ' finally calmed down and asked " But if I am originally from this place I should at least have the memories of here right " . "Yes , you absolutely need at least those memories and that's the reason you are here , I will help you recall them " saying this he touched my temple and mumbled something and suddenly my vision went blank.
When the visuals returned 'I' found myself in the body of the crown prince of the Xia kingdom , 'I ' could see ,hear and feel everything but do nothing. At first it was really uncomfortable it felt like a strange dissonance , like it was a foreign body but as 'I' watched the crown prince's life , born with a heaven defying talent , his brutal training , his stellar progress, his rise to fame and his eventual downfall 'I' finally understood it was my own past .
'I' recalled when 'I' was born the skies rumbled and a golden dragon appeared in the skies , the winds blew as if it were a symphony , the grand priest of my kingdom described my fate to be unstoppable and infinite, he said 'I' was blessed by the heaven and would certainly achieve the impossible.
'I' was pampered from birth as my mother were the empress and it is only due to her family's support could my father despite being the fifth prince became the king defeating all his brothers. Although my father the king rarely even visited me 'I' assumed he was too busy in stately matters , 'I' was too naive to think otherwise and too busy in my own training to care.
Due to my heavenly talent 'I' became martial grand-master peak at the age of only 12 . It is important to note that in this world although martial artists existed they were rare as phoenix feathers , only one in a ten thousand people had the talent to embark on the martial way and these martial artists were then classified into realms and the subsequent nine sub-realms . The known realms in the Xia kingdom are apprentice>>expert>>master>>grand-master>>great-grand-master>>ancestor .
Reaching grand-master at the age of 12 was nothing sort of a miracle as the previous youngest grand-master was 45 years old and that was my grand father and in the entire kingdom of hundred million people there were no more than 10 grand-masters and even less great-grand-masters and ancestors .
My mother was ecstatic when 'I' told her the news of my promotion , 'I' still vividly remember her beautiful smile , that was the last time ' I ' saw my mother smile as that was the time my tragedy began. Unbeknownst to all of us the man 'I' called my father was growing restless day by day . He was already fearful of the influence my mother's family had and wanted to somehow diminish it and on top of that my rapid succession of ranks gave him tremendous pressure .
He started having nightmares that 'I ' will launch a coup and overthrow him , now my father was not a paranoid or evil man by any chance ,in fact he loved his children dearly but maybe it was the lust of power and the fear of losing it that finally broke the camel's back and he decided that my growth had to be curbed because if not 'I' would very soon reach his level of great-grand- master first rank and then even the elders of the kingdom will support the usurpation.
His chance came in the form of the attack of the neighbouring Wu kingdom. He knew 'I' was a naive battle maniac so 'I' would definitely want to participate so he secretly executed his plan to send me to the borders and then by hook or crook let me suffer some accident to hinder my spirit of cultivation .
As soon 'I' got the news about the war my boiling near-teenage blood decided 'I' would definitely participate in it . My mother was horrified when 'I' told her about the idea and she questioned me from where did 'I' hear this news because she had tried her best to hide it from me , of course it was my father's secret maneuver but nobody knew that. 'I' told her that 'I' heard it from one of my servants who was never found again when my mother tried to search for him.
My mother grounded me in my mansion fearing 'I' would rush to the battlefield as soon as 'I' got the chance, well she was right about that. That very night a commotion was created in the mansion by my fathers spies and 'I' although not knowing what had happened took advantage of this opportunity fled from my mansion with nothing but mu trusty sword and headed towards the battlefield dreaming of all the valour and excitement of war. What 'I' didn't know then that this will become the biggest mistake of my life.