When people start to become too comfortable after enjoying the kingdom's prosperity over a long passage of time, they begin taking it for granted and start looking for their own interests.
They forget the terror that awaits them on the other side of the wall.
The kingdom would not be able enjoy prosperity forever. Referring from the records of history, no kingdom had ever been able to endure the test of time and remain standing forever.
The Crawford kingdom had already begun to show signs of decline from within.
17 years ago, a coup d'état had occurred. Although, it had ultimately failed and the duke who led it was executed, it had weakened the royal family. Thousands of soldiers had perished, the newborn prince went missing and the king had fallen into coma with no signs of waking up after suffering severe injuries to the head.
Since then, the kingdom has been under the queen's ruling. Those who voiced their opposition were all personally executed by the queen in cold blood.
The tragedy of her family had transformed her into a cold ruthless ruler.
The throne belongs to her husband and she will defend it with her life. All who eyes the throne shall be killed without mercy.
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"My house is just there." Lina pointed in front to the building.
"Ah I see, Then I will see you next time. Goodnight teacher." Leon left without waiting for her reply.
Lina wanted to return his coat but considering she would be exposing herself; she held onto it and decided to return it at a later time after it is washed.
"Goodnight."
Heading inside her home, she tried to make her way to her room quietly but was immediately spotted.
"My daughter, you are finally—What happened to you?"
After noticing her appearance, her father's warming welcoming was immediately replaced with concern.
Lina's eyes swelled as she recounts what happened to her as they sat at the dinner table with her mother where the food had already gone cold. It was her father's birthday.
"Such audacity!!!"
Robert was immediately enraged and slammed the table after hearing his daughter's grievance.
How can he let his daughter be bullied like this!? But alas he is too useless of a father...
He was even reliant on his daughter to support the family.
The Greene family of the past was a military one, producing outstanding generals for each generation. However, he was no longer an outstanding general. He is completely ordinary.
"Alas, if it weren't for that damn curse!"
The downfall of their family first began when they were mistaken to have favored the duke's side when the coup took place. Reasonably thinking, their entire family would have been executed as rebels.
However, due to their lack of participation in the matter and in addition to their military contribution, they were spared. But not without consequences.
They were forced to drink the Water of Absolute Nothingness, a sinister and powerful poison that sealed their bloodline ability.
Although the queen seems lenient in the matter, the punishment was an absolute vicious one. The effects of the poison is passed onto their descendants and from their descendants onto the next like a contagious disease.
It is not much different to cutting off one's lineage.
After being angry for a short moment, Robert could not do anything else except deflate back onto his chair.
"Sigh, this is the price for not supporting the royal family."
They should be thankful for just being alive and keeping their nobility status.
"Go wash up and then come back down for dinner."
Not much could be done. They didn't possess the strength to avenge their grievance.
"Mm." Lina nodded sadly.
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Leon's home was not far from Lina's, only 5 minutes' walk. Leon closed the distance in a matter of seconds with his tempered body prowess.
Sneaking into the house, he headed straight for the bathroom and washed off the impurities.
His foster parents had later found out he was home and questioned him why he came home so late.
Leon made some random excuse of having stayed back for club activities that involved teaching dogs some tricks and how to behave.
Although his adoptive parents had their doubts about what kind club that was, they did not question further.
Kids will eventually grow up and have their own thoughts and secrets.
However, they were a bit sad when Leon addressed them as 'adoptive mother' and 'adoptive father' by accident, instead of the usual dad and mum.
Leon had subconsciously created some distance between them due to the fresh memory of his previous life.
He had immediately noticed this problem but didn't have a good solution to tackle the problem.
Although they were not his real birth parents, they did raise him with love and care.
Originally this would not have been a problem for the previous Leon, but now that his memories had awakened, with the more dominant one being the latter, he couldn't bring himself to call them mum and dad immediately and required time to adjust himself.
His soul was experiencing an unique problem. It wasn't as simple as taking over a new body or awakening past life memory. It was like two souls sharing one body, except they were both souls belong to him.
One lived for 30 years in the Divine Realm and the other lived for 17 years in the world, he soon learnt to be called Gaia.
The two souls began clashing for dominance, making his character complicated like a person suffering from multiple personality disorder.
'Which one is real me? Which one is not?'
Leon felt lost and the problem was difficult to ignore. However, he had no solution for it.
Maybe he could accept both life and fuse the two opposing soul, however there was an invisible barrier, preventing them from merging into one.
Leon wished he had someone who can enlighten him and give him the answers he needs. Unfortunately, no one can help him, except himself.
The soul was a complicated and very profound topic that not even the peak experts of the Divine Realm dare lay claim to having complete understanding of it.
He can only leave it be for now as he is clueless with which direction to take regarding the issue.
'It's better to focus on cultivation.'
It is already late in the night, but since Leon have the spare time alone, why would he waste it on sleep?
Fortunately, after cultivating a strand of primal chaos energy, he can now access the [Divine Book of Life] in his soul core. The World space of the divine book has a special environment, overflowing with lifeforce that aids the growth of spirit plants planted inside.
The spirit herbs grown inside also have a higher chance of upgrading to a higher tier, the lower the current tier and the longer the spirit herb stays inside. Unfortunately, the higher rank divine herbs don't enjoy this benefit. Spirit and divine rank herbs that have already been harvested will not have its medicinal properties deteriorate if it remains inside the world space.
Spirit herbs were divided into 5 tiers and Divine herbs were divided into 4 tiers. The high the tier, the stronger its medicinal properties.
More importantly, in the [Divine Book of Life] is the record all plants in existence and a plethora of complete pill recipes, from spirit to divine rank. However, to peruse the information, one must use their divine sense to see it. So, if one has the book in hand without being at the Divine state then tough luck.
Luckily, Leon is an anomaly who has retained his divine sense ability without possessing his past Divine state cultivation.
'I can't concoct any pills to aid my practice for now, but I should take a look at what spirit herbs are available so I can plan ahead,' was what Leon thought since he does not have a pill cauldron and rare flame to concoct pills with. Of course, one can also use normal flames, but it would affect the final grade of the pill.
When Leon inspected the world space, he was immediately dejected. The expected overflowing lifeforce-filled world space was not there. Most of the space have been greyed and the divine rank plants have all withered and looked lifeless.
A small patch of lifeforce was still present but only the lower tier spirits herbs survived.
Leon's mouth twitched at the sight.
'Of course, even divine treasures are not completely indestructible.' He should be grateful it survived on the journey of reincarnation with him. Perhaps, even his father's power was insufficient to allow him safe passage into the cycle of reincarnation and the [Divine Book of Life] had used up its powers to provide the extra help needed for him to complete the journey successfully.
It finally made sense to him why he didn't possess his memory immediately upon rebirth and the divine treasure was probably in hibernation up until now, recovering its powers.
Leon continued to stare at the low tier spirit herbs.
'I guess, it's better than nothing.'
It will be more difficult than ever for him to achieve the Divine state without the divine rank herbs but it's fine. Life was never meant to be easy.
He didn't experience any hardship while he was under the halo of his father in the past, but he guessed no one can escape the fate of hardship. He's just experiencing it a little later than others.
'Fortunately, all the herbs needed to concoct the Meridian Fortification Pill is present. But where in Gaia, will I find a pill cauldron?' Leon thought. 'Maybe an antique shop? I should give it a look tomorrow.'
The Meridian Fortification Pill, as the name suggest, will allow him to strengthen his meridians so it can bear a bigger load of energy. This will help him refine more energy at a time, increasing his cultivation speed.
Being clear of his objective, Leon sat cross-legged on the bed in meditation and continue practice the [Hegemony of Primal Chaos].