Changes and a Weird Place

Huan Meirong wasn't sleepy at all, as an Empress, she had been used to sleep late and wake up before anyone. The reason to dismiss this little boy was to check this body herself, she hadn't been able to do it.

She first opened her eyes, but as if were midnight, it was all black. She clenched her teeth and sighed as she thought, 'Well, never mind. This Empress luck… no, not right. My luck is pretty good, not only is my full name the same but I was a three-ringed Alchemist, thus this blindness won't hinder me too much.'

Alchemists were sparse through the world not only because they needed to have the fire and wood elements as their attributes but because of the need of a strong soul and the sense of it at the early stages of cultivation. A powerful soul was the most important part as it let an Alchemist feel and scan the herb's essence and aid in the refinement to control the flame and separate the products. Therefore with the passing time an Alchemist will rely on its soul force to see and feel.

At length, she began to feel her soul. "Ah!" she suddenly exclaimed lowly and unconsciously opened wide her blind eyes.

She got up and sat cross-legged on the bed. She closed her eyes and felt her soul once again, 'This… my soul force grew. Such a good luck I have indeed, with this soul in some years I will be able to become a six-ringed Alchemist. And this body is so young.'

She was getting all excited; the status of an Alchemist in this land will always be prominent. This was the main reason she was able to marry the Crown Prince as his Crown Princess when she only was a concubine born daughter, though her family also played a great role. She was only a two-ringed Alchemist when she got married and when she became a three-ringed Alchemist she was able to secure her position as the Empress when the Crown Prince ascended the throne.

She scanned her body in her fluster and this let her speechless. There was no shred of martial energy in this body, the corners of her mouth pumped and in an unbelievable manner she gave a swept over the previous host memories.

After a couple of minutes she sighed and shook her head, 'No wonder, after so many doctors said the same, they had given up right away on her. They hadn't even checked her attribute affinity. Her combat efficacy will have been low but she could still have something for self-preservation. Sigh, this body is also weaker than the average because of bad nourishment, like this, it can't withstand martial energy circulation. Tsk, tsk…' as she was feeling heartache because of the previous owner ill-treatment that it didn't amount a sliver of her past tragedy, she felt something wrong.

With furrowed brows, she scanned all her body; she didn't find anything that she hadn't already found. But she clearly felt something moving. 'If it isn't in my body, it won't be in my soul, right? I just crossed here, soul abnormalities must be understandable, but still…' with this line of thought, she quickly felt her soul, and she found it.

'A black hole is in the head of my soul. My soul has a hole!' This scared the wits out of her but forcing herself to calm down, she curiously observed the black spot and said to herself, 'This isn't a hole. This little thing, how could be stuck to my soul?' That's right, she recognised it; it was a marquise-shaped black stone that glittered like the stars. This was an heirloom from her mother, and she had left it to her when she passed away in her previous life, though it was handed to her by the hands of her father; it was the only thing she had from her. She always wore it as a necklace because of it. Even when she had faced her dreadful fate, she had had it with her.

She observed the little black stone, and after a while, she tried to move it from her head with her soul force. Just as her soul force touched the black stone, she felt a sucking force; she didn't have time to retrieve her soul force and was sucked into the marquise-shaped black stone.

"Auch…" She was thrown to the ground, she blinked hard and saw nothing, "Oh, right, my eyes can only distinguish black now," she mocked herself.

She got up and spread out her soul force; she got astounded with what she saw, she exclaimed, "It's just as if I am seeing with my eyes." She laughed and jumped from happiness, she couldn't believe it.

One must know that through soul force, one could see things black defined by white lines, and with more focus one could see the aura and the composition of things; of course, this is determined by the power of soul force. But here, she can see things all coloured.

She looked down and saw a pair of skinny white hands, she then saw that she was dressed in a simple white robe with a wide white sash and no decorations and her mouth twitched, she had come to hate white though she had liked it since birth; she had died wearing all white after all.

She shook her head and scanned the place, but her soul force only reached to cover some tens of kilometres around her. The ground was lush green, and there were trees with green foliage and no flowers. One hundred meters in front of her was a nine-layered pagoda but she couldn't inspect the inside, beside it there was a lake with a rest pavilion in the middle. She ran forward, but no towards the pagoda but to the lake instead.

After some minutes of running and gotten herself out of breath, she looked at the lake; the water was crystal clear and calm with no fish or another kind of living thing inside. She was able to see her own reflection; she was skinny and looked sickly, even more with the white robe but the wide sleeves helped her a little to not look like a bag of bones. She then saw her face and was taken aback; she couldn't believe that her new face looked exactly like the one in her previous life though it was thin, she still recognised her countenance. She bit her lower lip when she saw her closed eyes and opened them; they were phoenix shaped with long eyelashes, truly beautiful, but her dark pupils seemed lifeless, devoid of glitter.