Chapter 5: The Queen

In the tranquil and elegant rear garden of the Du Manor, Du Long lounged comfortably on a recliner, basking in the warm sunlight. Nearby, a stone table was laden with an assortment of pastries and fresh fruit for his enjoyment. The servant, Ah Gui, stood respectfully by his side.

Du Long half-closed his eyes, his right index finger absentmindedly tracing the dark serpent ring encircling his left ring finger, while myriad thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind.

Everything that had happened recently was far too bizarre. Finally finding a moment of peace, he began to carefully comb through his memories, determined to uncover exactly what had transpired with himself, for his heart could not rest until he had an answer.

To avoid overlooking any detail, he dredged up the entire course of his life, examining it minutely in hopes of finding some cause and effect linking past and present.

In his recollection, before the age of five, he was not only far from a cultivation failure but could even have been considered a prodigy on the martial path. At three, he sensed the existence of the Vast Heaven Qi; by five, he had trained to the fifth level of Qi Accumulation.

But everything changed in the year he turned five.

He remembered it clearly—it was the summer of the Star Era, year 995, on a stormy night. Thunder and lightning raged over the capital of the Vast Heaven Empire, the peals shaking the very city. At only five years old, he had been terrified, and thus the events of that night were etched deeply in his memory.

After that dreadful storm, Lingyun Mountain in the northwest outskirts of the imperial capital split in two, leaving behind a thousand-foot sheer cliff.

Previously, Lingyun Mountain had no such precipice or abyss. Yet, after that night of storm, the entire mountain seemed cleaved by a giant’s blade—one half collapsed and vanished without a trace, while the other half stood resolute, forming a treacherous escarpment.

It was not long after that night that, while playing in the rear garden of the Du Manor, he had stumbled across the dark serpent ring now on his hand. Taken with its unusual appearance, he slipped it onto his left ring finger, never suspecting that the ring, which had been a size too large, would instantly shrink and cling tightly to him.

From that moment on, no matter what he tried, he could never remove it.

“That’s right! It all began then—my dantian could no longer absorb or store the Vast Heaven Qi, and even the fifth-level qi I’d painstakingly accumulated began to dissipate…” Du Long suddenly slapped his forehead.

As the saying goes, those embroiled in the game see less clearly. For years, he had struggled to understand why his dantian could no longer hold qi, never suspecting that the answer lay with this very ring.

What he did not know was that the ring constantly emitted an invisible ripple, undetectable to any eye, enveloping his entire being. This ripple completely isolated the fluctuations of qi within his dantian, which was why others could not discern that he had already reached the first level of Qi Accumulation.

“Ten years ago…” A flash of insight struck him, and Du Long suddenly recalled something. He hurriedly roused the little golden snake dozing on his right arm.

“Little Jin Jing! Didn’t you once say you spent about ten years in that valley?” Du Long asked the little snake, his face alight with excitement.

The little golden snake nodded drowsily, still not fully awake. “Mm… about ten years, I suppose. Why are you disturbing my sleep to ask this?”

“Look at this ring! Do you recognize it?” Du Long extended his left hand, waving the dark serpent ring in front of the snake.

The little snake shook its head in confusion. “Isn’t it just a black ring?”

Rolling his eyes, Du Long realized the misunderstanding and quickly clarified, “I mean, before you met me, had you ever seen this ring? Does it seem familiar?”

The little snake gazed pensively at the serpent ring for a long moment before replying, “Though I don’t recall seeing it before, I sense a very familiar aura. It was this aura that attracted me. After being alone in the valley for ten years, I decided to form a closer bond with you—that’s why I bit you, as I remembered from instinct…”

Though not a definitive answer, Du Long felt he was one step closer to the truth. He could now surmise why he had gone from prodigy to failure all those years ago.

As for why he had returned to the events of five years prior, that was a mystery he could not yet unravel. He would have to await another opportunity to investigate further.

“Well, well! Who do we have here, so at leisure as to waste away in this picturesque garden? Why, it’s the useless Ninth Young Master, just rejected by Zhao Lin’er! Hahaha…” Just as Du Long was deep in thought, a piercingly mocking voice snapped him from his reverie.

He didn’t need to look to know who it was—who else but Du Wei, the self-important youth from the Sixth Uncle’s branch?

A sharp glint flashed in Du Long’s tiger-like eyes, but he gave no reply. Instead, he took a slow sip of fragrant tea, not even deigning to glance at Du Wei and his two lackeys swaggering over. Ah Gui, standing by, kept his head low, not daring to involve himself in the disputes of the Du family scions.

In the third generation of the Du clan, Du Long was the ninth in rank—hence the nickname “Venomous Dragon Ninth.” Du Wei was seventh, older by a year and a half. Their fathers, third and sixth among the second generation, were rivals, so Du Wei frequently sought to give Du Long a hard time.

Within the family, the second brother Du Zhentian was a Second Rank Loyal Martial General, while the sixth, Du Zhennan, held the title of Second Rank Vigorous General. The two were the pillars of the family’s military might, and their respective lines formed the two main factions within the clan.

Unfortunately, Du Long’s decline in cultivation had diminished both his and his father’s standing, resulting in most of the third generation siding with Du Wei.

For Du Long to completely ignore him like this was unprecedented. In recent years, Du Long always went out of his way to avoid Du Wei—what had gotten into him today?

Du Wei’s plan had been to deliver a few barbs and be done, but the frozen smile on his face gave way to irritation as he quickened his pace, determined to see what had emboldened Du Long to treat him with such disregard.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise! The sun must be rising in the west for someone to have the gall to play the lord in front of me!” Reaching the recliner, Du Wei glared down with contempt, voice dripping with scorn.

His two cousins flanking him burst into raucous laughter, one of them—Du Kang—going so far as to point at Du Long and jeer, “A piece of trash dumped by the Zhao family, putting on airs here? Shame on you! It’s bad enough you’ve disgraced yourself, must you bring shame to our Du clan as well? You deserve a lesson!”

Du Long lifted his head, his gaze as cold and sharp as a blade, fixing on the blustering Du Kang. Just as he was about to act, a clear, commanding voice rang out from the northwest corner of the garden.

“Du Wei! What’s this—are you here to bully Du Long again?” The attention of everyone present, including Du Long, was drawn to the speaker—a tall, striking young woman in blue, her figure the very embodiment of fiery beauty, striding purposefully toward them.

The two lackeys shrank at once, swallowing nervously, clearly intimidated by her. Even Du Wei’s lips twitched with unease—he too feared this blue-clad woman.

“Heh… Cousin Cai Ni! Us, bully Du Long? Never! We just happened to run into him after hearing about his broken engagement with Zhao Lin’er. We were merely offering our regards, nothing more. We’ll be off to our training now!” Du Wei forced a laugh as he explained to Du Cai Ni, shot a resentful glare at Du Long, and muttered under his breath, “Hmph! You got lucky today. Always hiding behind a woman—just you wait!”

Du Long didn’t so much as twitch an eyelid, once again treating Du Wei as though he were invisible. There was no point in giving venomous flies like him the satisfaction of acknowledgment.

“What, you’re not done here yet?” Du Cai Ni stepped closer, her beautiful eyes flashing with annoyance as she glared at Du Wei, who still lingered.

“Let’s go!” Du Wei had no choice but to lead his two companions away, but the look in his eyes made it clear he would seek another opportunity to trouble Du Long.

With a cold sneer at their retreating backs, Du Cai Ni turned to Du Long, her face softening with concern. “Why do you always attract that lot?”

Leaning back in his chair, Du Long regarded the blue-clad beauty before him with a thoughtful gaze. She was the eldest daughter of Du Zhen Dong, the family’s first son, and the only member of the third generation who ever showed him any kindness.

She was also a second-year student at the empire’s premier martial academy—the Royal Institute of Vast Heaven—and had reached the second level of Qi Cyclone. With her straightforward and fiery temperament, few in the capital, let alone the Du clan, dared to cross her.

Strongest among her generation in both age and power, Du Cai Ni was the undisputed leading lady of the Du clan.