Chapter Three: Who Are You?

When Bai Jingyan opened his eyes again, the sky was as before—still night.

He knew he had been cultivating for an entire day.

For someone as experienced as Bai Jingyan, condensing a spiritual aperture was no difficult task. In just one day, he had successfully opened one.

For others, merely achieving this step could take anywhere from ten days to a month.

“I never imagined that person would grant me such a fortune,” Bai Jingyan thought.

He sensed that the spiritual aperture he had opened was as large as a basketball, whereas ordinary people’s apertures were typically only the size of an egg.

Next, Bai Jingyan needed to draw spiritual energy into the aperture.

As the first wisp of spiritual energy entered, he felt a chill, but it was fleeting, soon replaced by a burning heat scorching his body.

The first step of drawing in spiritual energy: body tempering.

As the spiritual energy continuously flowed into the aperture, Bai Jingyan felt as if a fire was burning inside, traveling along the aperture’s perimeter and coursing through his meridians throughout his body.

At that moment, Bai Jingyan quietly recited:

“The Chaos Divine Demon Art.”

“The first demon technique.”

“Spirit Fire Body Tempering!”

He formed hand seals, and a red glow began to emanate from his body as his temperature steadily rose.

“Is this the limit?” he wondered.

Feeling the discomfort in his body, Bai Jingyan sensed that if he continued tempering, his skin would start to crack, causing irreversible damage.

The technique he had just used was called the Chaos Divine Demon Art.

It was divided into three parts: the upper chaos technique, the middle divine technique, and the lower demon technique.

The cultivation levels ranked from highest to lowest were: Mortal, Spirit, King, Emperor, Commoner, Immortal, Sage, and God.

Bai Jingyan shook his head at the thought; to master the Chaos Technique to perfection required undergoing ten layers of death thunder tribulation, burning the body with the ultimate power of heaven and earth.

However, the first three parts of the Chaos Technique were more than enough for him at this stage. To face the ten death tribulations, he would need to master both the Immortal and Demon techniques to full completion.

Bai Jingyan opened his left palm, and a dim black mist rose, swirling spontaneously. Suddenly, a powerful energy surged from the edge of the mist but was immediately absorbed by it.

However, the energy did not last long. With a thunderous explosion, the black mist burst apart, sending Bai Jingyan flying backward.

He steadied himself against the wall, slowly rising, and looked at his bloodied left hand, a smile of delight crossing his face.

“As expected from an ancient secret technique—the force of that explosion should rival a martial skill at the Mortal level.”

Just as Bai Jingyan was still basking in his joy, he heard a creaking sound.

“Yan’er.”

Bai Huaiwu entered the room, his expression grave.

“Tell me, who exactly are you?”

“Bai Jingyan wouldn’t know these techniques, nor would he be so ruthless to himself.”

It was clear Bai Huaiwu was referring to the sword bone forging incident from the previous night.

“Father, what are you talking about?”

“Still pretending?”

Bai Huaiwu raised an eyebrow, suddenly appearing behind Bai Jingyan, delivering a palm strike.

“So fast!”

Bai Jingyan thought, this was bad. Although he had been brave and fierce in his past life, his frail body was now a burden. He was sent flying again like an arrow released from a bow.

Though Bai Huaiwu’s cultivation had declined due to an ambush, he was still far beyond Bai Jingyan, who had only just entered the Martial Disciple realm.

“Father, you’re hitting a bit hard.”

“That’s not how you treat a son.”

“You’ll kill me.”

Bai Jingyan struggled to crawl out from a pile of rubble.

Seeing Bai Huaiwu remain silent, Bai Jingyan clasped his hands before his chest, and between his palms appeared the swirling black mist.

Bai Huaiwu frowned.

“So it’s true—you’ve been possessed.”

Before Bai Jingyan could react, Bai Huaiwu vanished from sight.

Suddenly, Bai Jingyan felt his hands gripped tightly by a powerful hand. Bai Huaiwu’s right fist smashed solidly into his abdomen.

“Pft!”

Bai Jingyan coughed up a mouthful of blood before losing consciousness.

When he awoke, he expected to be imprisoned, but instead found himself lying on his original bed. Two familiar figures stood beside him.

One was Bai Huaiwu, who had knocked him unconscious, and the other a middle-aged man tending to his wounds.

“Awake?”

Bai Huaiwu asked stiffly.

Bai Jingyan nodded faintly, glancing at the two men.

“This is Chen Hu, royal physician of the Wang Court,” Bai Huaiwu introduced, leaning slightly toward Chen Hu.

The atmosphere in the room was heavy as Bai Jingyan awaited their words.

After a long pause, Chen Hu spoke:

“Do you know the true identity of the body you have possessed?”

“He is the Eighth Prince of the Wuhou Kingdom!”

Bai Jingyan covered his head, his memory blank regarding what Chen Hu had said.

Seeing this, Chen Hu hurriedly explained, “The Eighth Prince was assigned to the Bai Mansion before he even had memories.”

“So he was an abandoned prince.”

“That was not the king’s intention,” Chen Hu sighed.

“Sixteen years ago, the king secluded himself to break through to the pinnacle of martial arts, leaving the affairs of state in the hands of the queen.”

“At that time, the Eighth Prince had just been born, but the queen was at odds with his biological mother, Consort Qian.”

“On the day Consort Qian was about to give birth, the queen secretly swapped the prince with a raccoon. Consort Qian was then imprisoned in the cold palace.”

After hearing this, Bai Jingyan asked, “How do you know all this?”

“Do you think a ruler would simply neglect the country just because he is cultivating?” Chen Hu smiled wryly.

“The king originally entrusted power to Prime Minister Cheng Hongming, but later the queen reclaimed it.”

“As for the prince’s matter, an informI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.