2 years later

Having my talent, I was decided as a high probability Crown Prince. So I was always watched, letting me unable to move alone, I was forced to learn about politics, knowledge, and manners, necessary for a crown prince. It was somehow entertaining learning about the history of the empire, not so much about manners. But I supposed that every new knowledge could be used, so I learned all.

The Douluo Continent had three main forces, Spirit Hall, Heaven Dou Empire, and Star Luo Empire, each empire with different kingdoms in it. For strength, there's a somewhat unstable equilibrium between the three, keeping a peace that following canon it won't last long.

As part of Heaven Dou Empire, I studied about it especially. What I learned about politics, really made me frown. From the outside, it may seem that the emperor had all the power and controls the empire, and it's not entirely wrong per se. But, it's not what I would call a centric power. Yeah, our family controls the empire's politics, but we are too dependent on outside powers, that would be the 7 Great Clans, especially the Upper Three.

In a world like this were power is the most important, you can expect that the strongest you'll be the emperor, but in our case, my father at 30 some years is only a Spirit King. He might breakthrough in the future, but he would never go beyond Spirit Sage, and as his battle experience is mostly non-existent, he cannot be considered as a powerhouse. Our greater strength relies on numbers of the army.

The actual strength of the empire is in its 7 Great Clans. They are the Upper Three who had at least one titled douluo, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, the Seven Treasure Titled Glaze Pagoda Clan, and the Clear Sky Hammer Clan. And the Lower Four who had great numbers and foundation but their strongest people are only at Spirit Douluo level, the Blazing Clan, the Godwind Clan, the Skywater Clan, and the Armored Elephant Clan.

The truth is that my family keep his position as emperor mostly thanks to the Seven Treasure Titled Glaze Pagoda Clan who always support our family, if they decided otherwise, it wouldn't pass much time before a new emperor would come. The other clan's fidelity is not very reliable, if I do not remember wrong, some of them will defect towards Spirit Hall. People can change their words quite easily when the bets are against, not like I am much different.

Knowing this, I asked how my family started governing like this. The story is about thousands of years before, I must say that in this world there's very little change, how can empires last tens of thousands of years without perishing like in Earth, I suppose that having all-powerful people that lives over 300 years old it helps, and that only people related with them accomplish the same acts as it's all about genetics, obtaining a million years old worm would also help.

The Heaven Dou Empire was formed by an ancestor of mine. He had a mutation in his spirit making it much stronger than normal, he grew becoming one of the strongest of the continent and used this power to assimilate all the surrounding kingdoms, forming an empire using strength.

The problem was that none of his children inherit his spirit, most of them having the actual Heavenly Swan. Knowing that his descendants couldn't continue governing with strength after his death, he made a treat with the clans and defeated kingdoms. He would let them self management, letting them free to decide their internal management, also, the empire would protect them acting as a shield to them. Of course, in case of war all they should help, the imperial family will work more as politics managing the empire, while the clan can focus completely in cultivate their strength with the best condition.

For clan like the Seven Treasure Titled Glaze Pagoda Clan who had a lot of money, but not always high-level cultivators, it was insurance to keep their money, so they gladly accepted. After all these years, finishing it like this.

***

More than 2 year had passed since I absorbed my first ring and a lot of things had changed. One change was that my third little brother had bornt, Xue Beng, the future emperor following canon.

Then, there was the biggest changes. Ironically, all these big changes were due to an unchangeable fact, my spirit rank. After breaking through rank 11 after obtaining my spirit, I had been unable to even increase one rank.

At first, it was thought that I might be cultivation wrong or simply my cultivation was slow, but when the time passed and my spirit energy didn't grow, it was clear that there was a big problem. Of course, this problem was that I couldn't cultivate. Following all the instructions of teachers, trying to use other cultivations, even the use of spiritual herbs, they were low-grade, nothing as heaven-defying as Tang San's immortal treasure but they should do the trick, nothing worked.

I already measured my rank countless of times to not vail, not that there's was the need as I already knew that I wasn't able to absorb. As I try to cultivate, I could feel my spirit energy not flowing at all, how could I absorb energy like this?

During the first year, my family put a lot of effort into trying to find some explication and solution, but seeing all it to the drain, they started slowly giving up, only trying something from time to time.

This had made me lose a lot of favor from father and other nobles, the possibility of becoming the crown prince falling to almost 0. As even if an emperor doesn't need to be the most powerful as he focuses on politics rather than his own strength, it can't be permitted to some trash to become the future emperor, especially if there are other better options. Without going very far, my little brother Long. He had his awakening ceremony, awakening the Heavenly Swan with innate spirit energy of 7, one considered very talented, and in less than a month he breakthrough rank 8 cultivating normally, so he didn't have my problem. So most of the attention was directed to him.

I don't really think about it as something bad, finally, the tight vigilance around me was loosing, leaving freer to whatever I wanted and with less responsibilities. Even uncle Xing changed his behavior, I must say that I prefer his smirks and disdain looks, looking down at me of now rather than the calculative trying to even kill me than before.

The truth was that I wouldn't mind leaving it like this. A life full of luxury as the prince of an empire, too weak for even be a danger. I doubt that even Spirit Hall would target me now. Even if the empire was going to be destroyed, I could simply stuff my pockets with money and leave, living a calm life after. The problem was that fucking psycho and God! I didn't know who the psycho was reincarnated and how he would be able to find me, but God already told me that it was useless to run and that we will recognize each other. So I need somehow to solve my problem, to be strong enough to face him, difficult as I didn't know his cultivation or talent.

For now, I had a plan to solve my problem. This was using my twin spirits. I would try to absorb a spirit ring for my halberd spirit and see what happen, maybe the new boost of spirit energy of the ring would solve my problem.

For this, I wanted to escape from the palace, trying to find a spirit beast to absorb its ring. I learned that Sunset Forest was very near, so it won't take much time to fly there. I would try it tomorrow, and if I am unable to leave the palace or finding a spirit beast, I would give up in hiding my twin spirits, telling it to my parents and obtaining their help for obtaining the ring.

Tomorrow my future would be greatly decided.