"Everything is fine now, Tian'er. Grandpa won't let anybody hurt you anymore. Let's go home now; your mother must be waiting for you," said Long Ren while smiling at Long Tian. However, to his dismay, he received no response.
He looked at Long Tian only to see him looking back at him, but his lifeless eyes had no focus, and his face was expressionless. He was just lying there limply.
"Tian'er??? Are you alright? Say something..." Long Ren said in a tender voice. Unfortunately, he received no reaction at all from Long Tian. All he saw was a pair of lifeless eyes, staring back at him.
"Alright, let's go home. You're probably tired, you need some rest."
After saying so, Long Ren flew towards the Long Manor while carrying Long Tian in his arms.
Long Ren entered the mansion with Long Tian in his arms and straightaway went to Long Tian's courtyard. His courtyard was beautiful and huge, which was to be expected as it was, after all the dwelling of the genius young master of the Long clan.
The outside was covered with a beautiful garden. Having a wide variety of colorful flowers, Long Tian liked looking at them whenever he came out of his room. There were many capable servants assigned to the task of tending to the garden, and they did their work with full dedication as they knew how much their young master liked this garden.
"Father in law, what happened to Tian'er? Why are you carrying him like that?" Just as Long Ren entered the courtyard, came the worried voice of Sima Ziyi. She was the Mother of Long Tian, and the daughter-in-law of Long Ren.
She had another identity. She was from the Sima clan. In addition to that, she was the daughter of the Sima clan's leader, making her of high standing although her clan wasn't as strong as the three super clans 'Long, Gu and Qin', it was still amongst the top 5 most influential clans in the nation.
"Ziyi... Someone attacked him; there was an assassination attempt. Thank the heavens he's still alive." Long Ren said in a worried tone
Ziyi ran towards him and took Long Tian's frail, limp body from her grandfather's arms into hers.
"Tian'er, are you alright? Say something to me, look, its mother. Please, say something!" Ziyi had beads of tears drop from her eyes as she looked at her son. She kept talking to him, trying to get him to speak, but there was no response.
"Let him rest first; he needs it. I'll tell you everything that happened later," said Long Ren. Only then did Ziyi came to her senses. She took Long Tian into the house, put him to bed, and covered him with a golden blanket for him to rest. After looking at her son for a while, with tears in her eyes, she came out.
She went straight to where Long Ren was standing.
"Who did this to Tian'er?" she asked with a voice filled with grief.
"Unfortunately, I don't know who it was, or I would destroy everyone and everything related to them and make them wish they were never born on this planet!!" Said Long Ren while looking in the direction of Long Tian's room.
Then, he described everything that happened in great detail, how he knew Long Tian was in danger, what he saw when he got there and how he saved Long Tian. Ziyi was shocked to learn that her child was dead for a few moments. Tears kept pouring out of her eyes as she imagined what her son must have had faced for the past few hours.
Long Ren had already sent someone to get the royal physician with his seal in tow. The physician he invited was the best physician in all the nations. He mostly treated members of the royal family and the three super clans. He was called Physician Zhang.
After the physician arrived, he went to check on Long Tian. After a long and thorough inspection, he came out and said, "I don't think there is anything wrong with Long Tian. His body is pretty much healthy other than a few minor injuries."
Physician Zhang stopped for a moment and then continued.
"I'm not sure how or why it happened, but Long Tian has lost his intelligence and has become retarded." He quickly realized that he had said something wrong and hastily corrected himself.
"I mean, he has become slow. He can't process what's happening around him. It's just like when you try talking about complicated matters with a 2-year-old, you won't get any response."
"Is there a solution?" asked Long Ren in a heavy tone.
"I am not sure what will work. Maybe he'll be fine after a few days of rest, or perhaps he won't ever recover. Anything can happen, and I can't say anything for sure as I've never seen this condition before, but I'll pray that he gets better soon."
"I should go now," said the doctor.
"I'll follow you out," said Long Ren with a heavy heart as he escorted physician Zhang out.
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As Long Chen accumulated these memories, he also felt sad thinking about what the 8-year-old child had to face. What made him especially upset was what happened after Long Tian lost his intelligence and became dull and not to forget how the people in his own clan treated him.
His cousins constantly bullied him. His cousins could only be jealous of his talent but couldn't take it out on him due to his strength and position before; but now that he had lost everything, they could finally do so to their heart's content.
They would take him out with the excuse of playing and bully him. They would make him sit on his hands and knees and use him as a table, sometimes even kick him from behind to make him fall and get injured, but whenever they were inquired regarding the injuries, they would give excuses, saying that he fell while coming home. He did nothing as he couldn't even understand that he was actually being bullied.
Even the servants stopped showing him respect when no one was there to supervise them. They would treat him like they were the masters instead of the opposite.
That was how four years passed. By then, he was 12 years old, and his cultivation still stagnated at the peak of the Body Refining Realm; but that wasn't so special anymore as he was no longer the strongest in his generation. Many of his peers had reached the 10th stage of the Body Refining Realm by the time they reach 12.
Even in his clan, there were 5 of them. There were also a few who had already broken past Body Refining and were at Spirit Establishment, with the strongest in his clan's younger generation being the son of his eldest uncle. He was only 13 this year and was already at the 3rd stage of the Spirit Refining Realm.
"Hah, now that I'm here, time to get everything back. I'll show them that a Dragon is always superior to wolves, no matter how injured. I must assess the situation for a few days first before I let everyone know that I've recovered. Got to see the friends and enemies." Long Chen smiled as he got off the bed, ready to start his journey in this new world.
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