Chapter 43: I Am James Constantine

Day 299

Tomorrow will mark exactly 300 days since we began practicing. To commemorate this, the clan has decided to organize a preparatory tournament among the younger generations.

This is likely to take some time and be quite annoying given that there are more than a hundred candidates my age, but it's worth it.

From what I know, the top three will receive a formation pill. These will allow us to easily enter the foundation establishment stage without any side effects.

In other words, the top three will certainly have a head start in next year's competition.

Additionally, they will distribute a whole array of artifacts and spirit stones. Even though they will only be lower-grade spirit stones, it's enough to increase my cultivation speed several times over.

Moreover, I have a good chance. I managed to reach the advanced stage of body forging a few days ago.

Now, my external meridian network has completely reinforced my skin.

Even if a qi accumulation cultivator attacks me with all of his strength barehanded, they won't be able to harm me. I've also gained some resistance to blades.

From what I know, only a handful of my peers will be at the same level as me, so I have a good chance of being among the top three.

...

Herald stared at his plate filled with some unknown meat and a strange sauce.

Although the dish looked delicious, he didn't dare to touch it. His years at the academy had been so disastrous that anything could be a trap, and it had happened more than once that his food was poisoned.

"Dear, why aren't you saying anything?"

Herald looked up and saw the red-moon Naga female across from him.

She was significantly larger than him, measuring about seven meters long.

It seemed that this race was not a great fan of clothing. All they wore were some ornaments like necklaces, rings, or bracelets on their arms and wrists.

They were in a large dining room big enough to serve as a ballroom, both seated across from each other at a wide dining table. At a glance, it could easily accommodate dozens of people.

Although Herald seemed lost, he was actually analyzing everything around him and looking for a way to escape.

There were two guards standing by the only door in the room, including the one who had pinned him with his aura earlier.

Seeing how they stood as equals, it was very likely that both were at the same level. Maybe there were even more guards at this level.

"This is not good for me. In my previous world, those guys would be famous generals leading entire battalions, but here, they are just simple guards. Even the royal family didn't have so many resources."

Herald thought. He had no idea how he ended up here or what the identity of this body was, but he wanted to escape as soon as possible.

He had just gained a new life and absolutely didn't want to waste it being manipulated by these people. He had seen how nobles treated their offspring.

They didn't care about their well-being at all. To them, they were just tools to be used to increase their power and influence.

"Dear, please say something."

For the second time, he looked at the female across from him. Despite her fierce appearance with sharp claws and pointed teeth, she looked sad and stared at him with pained eyes.

"Humph, I won't fall for that kind of trap again. That other bitch made the same face before throwing me into the bottomless ravine."

Herald said nothing and lowered his head back to his plate, playing with his fork without consuming anything.

He heard the female sigh when suddenly, the door burst open with a loud crash and a blurry figure rushed into the room.

Before he could react, the figure was in front of him and had jumped on him.

"I knew it, they're planning something bad."

He closed his eyes, bracing for the pain that was to come, but instead was grabbed by a pair of strong arms and pulled from his chair.

"Sniff – Little brother – sniff – I was so scared – sniff – you've been in a coma for three years – sniff – I thought you'd never wake up – sniff."

A female red-moon Naga hugged him tightly, suffocating him with her scaly twin peaks, and torrents of tears poured onto his face.

The female on the other side of the table suddenly stood up and slammed her fist on the table, leaving a web of cracks.

"Layla, let go of your brother immediately, he just woke up, and his body is still weak."

Layla immediately let him go with an embarrassed smile, wiping away her tears.

"Sniff – Sorry, James, it's just been so long since I've seen you standing up."

Herald looked down at his plate, which had been thrown to the floor when his mother hit the table.

"That was dad's favorite table," his sister said.

His mother shrugged, looking at the long cracks snaking across the stone table.

"It's fine, it's just furniture. We can buy another one, even if this mineral is quite rare, we can still find it."

His sister took one of the chairs and sat right next to Herald.

"So, little brother, what are you going to do now?"

Herald remained silent and finally decided to take a risk. After all, given the power of the people gathered here, he wouldn't be able to escape anytime soon.

"I... I don't remember anything."

...

The next day, Herald was lying in his bed while a young Valyr woman stood by his bedside.

"His condition is quite strange. Years ago, when Arthur brought him to me, the poison had spread throughout his body. Even though I managed to detoxify it all, James had already suffered permanent damage to his soul. No matter what I did, I couldn't heal him because it had been too long."

Herald nodded.

Since yesterday, he had pretended to suffer from memory loss, and his mother had explained many things about this world to him.

First of all, there were two continents in this world, but the three races—the red-moon Nagas, the Valyrs, and the Novarians—controlled only the largest one.

Next, the power systems were different from those of his original world. Here, there were mainly three systems: those who relied on raw bloodline, mages, and cultivators.

Even though there were beings using magic in his old world, they seemed fundamentally different from mages.

Now about his place in all of this.

He was the second and last child of the Constantine family.

His father, Arthur Constantine, and his mother, Laura Constantine, were both golden core cultivators (rank 4), while his sister, Layla Constantine, was at the very beginning of foundation establishment (rank 3).

However, he was sure of one thing despite not having experienced it: his mother was stronger than he had been at his peak in his previous life.

One can call it simple feelings, but Herald was sure that Laura could easily deal with him.

As for his father, he was the lord of the White Lotus City, so even though he hadn't met him yet, he should be the most powerful person in this city.

About White Lotus City, it was one of the three largest cities on this continent outside of New Dawn, the capital.

Under its jurisdiction, there were three smaller cities and nine villages.

Just by seeing the current state of the city, it was evident that this world was much stronger and more advanced than the one in his previous life, but it seems to have less people.

Finally, the person at his bedside was Ruvia Luminara. According to his mother, she was one of the few most powerful and oldest people in this world who normally lived in the capital.

Initially, Herald thought the original owner of this body had been a victim of a conflict between noble houses, but apparently, that was not the case.

When he was six years old (remember, with the short growth cycle of the red-moon Nagas, it's like being a teenager), his sister decided to took him into the forest for hunting.

The problem was that they ventured too deep and entered the territory of a pinnacle rank 3 great beast on the verge of becoming a spirit beast.

Fortunately for them, it was limited by its bloodline and hadn't yet reached that realm otherwise they would both be dead.

Nevertheless, it was a centennial black mamba, known for its extremely potent venom.

Even if it was at the critical stage of its breakthrough and didn't pay any attention to them, it was enough for the original owner of this body, who didn't controlled spiritual energy, to be poisoned by the venomous aura of the place.

"It seems the original owner died, and I took his place thanks to the pagoda. That's why it has no energy left."

"James… JAMES?"

His mother's cry suddenly brought him out of his thoughts.

"Huh, what?"

"Did you listen to what Lady Luminara said?"

"Uh… I…"

His mother sighed, and the Valyr burst out laughing.

"It's alright, he must still be disoriented and lost with everything happening, especially with his memory loss," she said to his mother before turning to him.

"I have already checked your body, and you have no problem there. You have even already become a beginner great Warrior. However, the black mamba is an extremely venomous snake. Since its breakthrough, his poison can even contaminate the soul. Even though it was a great beast at that time, your soul was still poisoned and the poison merged into your spiritual sea. I will scan it to see if you are completely healed, but you must relax and let me do it, otherwise, I might have difficulties, okay?"

Herald's heart tightened at the thought of her detecting the pagoda, but he couldn't refuse.

Resigned, he could only nod and close his eyes.

Ruvia smiled and placed her hands on his temples.

Immediately, Herald felt his mind emptying and unconsciously tried to stay awake.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

The soft voice in his head seemed coated in honey, and he felt his mental defenses weakening.

As his resistance disappeared, her consciousness scanned every square inch of his spiritual sea.

Quickly, she found a kind of singularity in his soul. In the real world, Ruvia frowned and began analyzing it.

To her great surprise, James' soul was very powerful, almost as much as an official mage.

On the other hand, this singularity was quite strange. If at first glance it resembled part of James' soul, it was actually encompassed within it and seemed to have its own independence.

Herald felt Ruvia pause on a part of his soul and began to panic, thinking she had found the pagoda, and tried to push her away before she could find the artifact.

The Valyr sensed it, but her consciousness was already in his spiritual sea. She cast several rank 3 spells and managed to calm him down and put his consciousness into artificial sleep.

Once calm, she spent several minutes deciphering this strange phenomenon.

"That's it!"

After some time, she managed to draw a parallel with one of the books from the great library.

"I see, James must have unconsciously sealed some of his memories with the remnants of the poison. This allowed the other part of his soul to recover and simultaneously strengthen itself. That would explain why his soul is so strong and why he lost his memory."

Ruvia set up a barrier between this singularity and Herald's main soul and began treating him.

"This is a good temporary solution and remains a ticking time bomb for the future, but at least it works for now. Back then, I couldn't remove the poison because it had merged with his soul, and I was afraid of causing irreversible damage. Now it's different. At worst, he will lose some memories, but he could live without. The most important thing is to remove the danger."

She focused all her attention and cast several spells, forming a kind of matrix around the strange singularity.

Since Herald's soul was quite strong, she didn't hold back and deployed her full power.

Slowly, her mana left her spiritual sea and entered Herald's, purifying the singularity and dissipating the black mamba's poison.

When she finished, she let go of the young red-moon Naga's head and sighed in relief, turning to Laura Constantine.

"I have dispelled the remaining poison in his soul, but I had to put him to sleep. He should wake up in a few hours without problems, but I'll still wait until he regains consciousness before leaving."

...

Herald felt his spiritual sea tremble as a flood of memories inundated his brain.

He remembered when he was just a newborn, as his father, mother, and barely teenage sister looked at him with loving eyes.

He remembered his childhood, when he learned theoretical lessons with his mother and spear arts with his father.

He remembered the talent ceremony at the age of five, when the Cardinal of White Lotus City performed the aptitude test and discovered he had a supreme spiritual root.

He remembered his father's joy, his mother's happiness, and the crowd's incredulity on that day.

He remembered his sister's breakthrough into the body forging realm and how she had begged him to go with her into the forest to hunt.

He remembered the feeling of freedom and joy at the beginning of their journey and the terror he felt seeing that sleeping thirty-meter-long black snake.

Finally, he remembered his slow loss of consciousness at home as his sister cried her heart out and his mother panicked.

...

A few hours later, Herald slowly opened his eyes and saw his mother's worried figure.

Before she could say anything, he looked her straight in the eyes as his vision blurred with moisture.

"I remember, Mom, I remember everything. My name is James Constantine."