The following year, I held the prince back from advancing to Martial Master. He wasn’t happy about the delay, but there was no meaningful difference between advancing at age 19 and advancing at age 20. So, instead of advancing a year earlier, it was far more important for him to take that time to cultivate his soul.

I didn’t have any knowledge of soul cultivation, and I wasn’t willing to attempt practicing it myself, so all I could do was provide the prince with a technique manual and allow him to learn how to cultivate it on his own.

After he started doing so, I never heard him talk about bringing that girl back to the palace again. However, while that matter had been successfully dealt with, I wasn’t sure what the cost would be. The soul cultivation technique was supposed to make him feel detached from the world. This could create future complications, but I had no choice other than to deal with such issues as they arose.

After a year of improving the strength of his soul, I helped Prince CaoHan advance to Martial Master. I would have waited longer if I could have, but we were out of time, and stagnation had started to become a real risk.

Then, following his successful breakthrough, we agreed that he would advance at a slow but steady pace that would allow him to reach his goal of Grandmaster before 30 while still giving him plenty of time to cultivate his soul.

I did my best to ensure each meridian he formed was as perfect as I could make it, but pill toxins were still a serious issue. Advancing to Martial Master had allowed CaoHan to requisition a supply of Meridian Builder Pills, but they were still only Mid-Purity. Even limiting him to one pill per meridian, the foundation we were able to forge was worse than either of us would have wished.

At 28 years old, the prince ascended to Peak Master, and the only things left for him to do were to construct his dantian and compress his qi.

This was where we hit a roadblock. His earth affinity was still only mid nine-star, and with a peak seven-star affinity, I didn’t have enough control inside of his body to help him advance to Grandmaster.

After giving it some thought, I decided to push my earth affinity to the next level. After all, I had no reason to expect that I would need the credits in this life, and I was planning to experiment with an earth qi technique in my next, so this purchase would help me both now and in the future.

“System, permanently upgrade my earth affinity to peak six-star.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 16 million credits. 136,660,775 credits remaining.

With a six-star earth affinity, I was able to help Prince CaoHan smoothly advance to Grandmaster at the age of 29, meeting his goal one year earlier than necessary.

The very next day, a man dressed in the livery of an imperial guard entered the main hall of the prince’s palace without knocking or announcing his presence. “Prince Du CaoHan, by order of his imperial majesty, you have been granted permission to enter the Grandmaster Trial on the fifth of next month.”

He didn’t wait for a response. He immediately turned around and left.

I looked at the prince and saw a look of exultation on his face. “My prince, what is the Trial?”

“It is my opportunity to prove myself.”

I considered asking for more details, but I decided to follow a different course. “What do we need to do to prepare?”

The prince laughed. “Nothing. No one can stop me now.”

This response concerned me. Were the mental effects of the prince’s cultivation technique beginning to overpower the increases in his soul strength? The manual that I had given him was only equivalent to a Rank 1 technique, so it might not be able to keep up with the effects of his technique after his ascension to Grandmaster. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a better soul technique to give him.

“Very well, my prince, how shall we proceed?”

A look of conviction crossed his face. “I need to cultivate. I need any edge that I can get to push myself as far as possible.”

When the date of the prince’s Trial arrived, both he and I were taken to a carriage. It had no windows, and I noticed signs of formations that would confuse our senses so that we wouldn’t be able to deduce our destination from the coach’s movements.

Normally, as a steward, I wouldn’t have been allowed to join the prince for this event, but since I was also the sole member of his retinue, I was required to play the role of his witness.

We exited the carriage on top of a bluff that overlooked a rock quarry where dozens of nobles had already assembled. The path down into the quarry led to a dark crevasse where the Trial was to take place. To both the left and the right of the crevasse’s entrance, there were five tall crystalline pillars.

On the bluff, a large palanquin sat at the head of the trail that led down to the Trial. The moment the prince and I disembarked from our carriage, a powerful voice boomed from this palanquin and nearly knocked me to my knees. “Prince Du CaoHan, son of Emperor Du XianTong, descendant of Emperor Du XiongMing. Present yourself!”

The prince straightened his back and lifted his chin. With a powerful demeanor, he walked to the front of the palanquin and kneeled.

“Father, I am ready to prove my strength.”

The same voice boomed out again. “Prince Du CaoHan. Proceed to the Trial. Display your might for the empire to witness.”

The prince lowered his head in a subtle bow, then stood. Walking with all the pride of an imperial scion, he descended into the quarry and entered the dark crevasse below.

Once he was out of sight, a fierce discussion broke out between the nobles around me.

“How high do you think he will get? Think he can make it to eight-star this time?” someone asked with a laugh.

This text was taken from NovelBin. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Come off it, Jin. He’s a Grandmaster. If he can’t make seven-star, then he’ll be the joke of the entire empire.”

“Isn’t he already? I bet all he does is whore around all day. That’s all someone like him is good for.”

“Jin! You really shouldn’t say that about—”

The men’s words were cut off by a dull brown glow bursting forth from the pillar farthest to the left of the entrance.

Jin laughed. “Well, at least he made it to low nine-star. I’ll give him credit for not being entirely worthless.”

Over the next few minutes, the brown glow intensified until a narrow beam of light shot from the top of the crystal toward the entrance of the crevasse.

“Peak nine-star,” boomed the voice from the palanquin.

“So, he actually has improved since last time. Do you think the nine-star test was to see how many women he could bed? Maybe his practice is paying off,” said Jin, with a snide tone.

His conversation partner just shook his head.

After a few more minutes, a second pillar started to glow a rusty red color. Fifteen minutes later, it, too, shot a narrow beam of light toward the opening of the crevasse.

“Peak eight-star,” boomed the voice.

“Now we get to see if he actually learned anything, or if he’s just a paper tiger.”

Half an hour later, a third pillar began to glow with a beige hue, and an hour after that, it reached peak brightness and shot a third beam toward the opening.

“Peak seven-star,” announced the man in the palanquin.

An hour passed, and a fourth pillar began to glow a faint ochre hue.

“See, Jin. I knew he would reach six-star.”

I looked around and saw that the crowd of nobles had become tense. They were here to see the empire’s number one failure, not the rise of a competitor.

Two hours later, the fourth crystal brightened fully, and another beam struck the Trial’s entrance.

“Peak six-star!”

A hush fell over the crowd. No one was happy. When the fifth pillar began to glow a soft russet brown, people began to whisper. However, when it suddenly shot out a beam of light without brightening further, the mood instantly relaxed, and people breathed a sigh of relief.

The prince was forcefully ejected from the crevasse and flung to the base of the palanquin.

“Du CaoHan, present yourself!” the voice boomed.

The prince looked spent, but he quickly kowtowed.

“Prince CaoHan, you have shown promise by ascending to Martial Grandmaster at such an early age. You have been granted a low five-star affinity by the Brilliant Sun Grandmaster Trial. The Emperor hereby awards you one hundred thousand gold, a full retinue, and lordship of Red Sword City in the Brilliant East Kingdom.”

The prince gritted his teeth, and even from as far away as I was, I could still see the anger in his face. “Thank you, Father.”

When we returned to the main hall of the Cold Wind Palace, I felt conflicted. For the first time, I had definitive confirmation that Du XiongMing was the living ancestor of Brilliant Sun’s ruling family, but I wouldn’t be able to do much with this knowledge, since I was being shipped off to a remote village on the eastern side of the empire.

The prince, however, didn’t feel conflicted in the slightest. He was pissed.

“That cur of a father only granted me a remote border city! How dare he! He must be afraid that I will usurp his position as Emperor. I won’t allow this to stop me. Nothing can stop me! I will kill that bastard father of mine and take his throne by force if I have to!”

To me, the prince being given a significantly higher affinity and a free lordship seemed excessively generous, but it didn’t meet the prince’s expectations. Even though he had done well in the Trial, his cultivation madness had been triggered. He felt like he had lost, and he wasn’t allowed to lose. The Grandmaster technique that he had insisted on using would only continue to amplify these effects, and I worried about what would happen in the future.

I felt like it was all my fault. I should have provided him with Perfect pills. I had… reasons not to do so, but pill toxins were ruining this boy’s life.

I refocused my mind. The past was the past. I couldn’t change it. We just needed to do better from here.

Later that day, the prince’s palace was filled with new people. The full retinue awarded by the Emperor had arrived, and there would be ministers and servants to take over the management of everything in the prince’s new domain.

I was set to become a steward in truth at this point. With professionals available, I should have been relegated to managing the servants while those more knowledgeable took over guiding the prince. However, CaoHan hadn’t agreed with this.

The prince gathered his entire retinue in the main hall to plan for our future. “Welcome, advisors, to the Cold Wind Palace.”

There were scattered bows and murmurs of thanks, but the reaction was muted.

“While I welcome you all, I do not know you. You were all appointed by my father, and while I admire his judgment, I must place my trust in those who have proven their loyalty.”

The prince gazed meaningfully at his new followers. “Therefore, I announce Steward Fang’s promotion to the position of Chancellor. He has been with me for years, and he is one of the reasons I was able to reach this point. I expect you all to work through him in the days ahead.”

The prince nodded to me, and I stepped forward. “The prince has been entrusted with the lordship of Red Sword City. We will depart for his new domain next month. Return to your quarters and begin drawing up plans for how the prince may be able to improve the city and boost its productivity. Everyone is dismissed, save for Tutor Long.”

Everyone cleared out, leaving the prince, the tutor, and me alone in the room.

“Tutor Long, I understand that you have significant experience in training cultivators, is that correct?”

“Yes, Chancellor.”

I looked at the prince, and he nodded at me.

“Due to his circumstances, the prince was forced to consume several pills with rather poor purity. The amount of pill toxins that he has accumulated in his system is… unfortunate. Do you know of any way to resolve this issue?”

In the past, my solution to pill toxin buildup had always been to avoid it in the first place, so I hadn’t done much research on solving the issue. I could only hope that an imperial tutor would have some ideas.

“How many pills has he taken, and what was their quality?”

“One pill at each stage of cultivation since Martial Disciple 4, starting about 13 years ago. All were Mid-Purity.”

The tutor winced. “This is a serious problem.” He hesitated but kept speaking. “The toxic energy from pills is far more tenacious than impure qi. It is difficult to remove. I know of only one solution.”

He paused, looking at the prince. “You must first disperse your cultivation base by taking an Energy Expulsion Pill. This will completely expunge all energy from your body, including that which has been tainted by pill toxins. Then, you will need to build a new, clean cultivation base from scratch. This will significantly reduce the effects that the pill toxins have on you. However, the toxins will remain in your body. There is no way to remove them entirely.”

Something about the tutor's movements and the tone of his voice made me want to slap him for his impertinence. He should never have said that the prince ‘must’ do something. I felt my hand twitch instinctively. I wanted to slap him, but I caught the reaction in time and stopped myself.

“I must become a mortal once more?” asked the prince in a neutral tone. I could see the complete rejection of the idea boiling under the surface.

“Yes, but as long as you can return to your current level of cultivation within a few years, there will be no long-term side effects. The biggest risk would be not being able to cultivate swiftly enough to keep stagnation at bay. But, if we can secure a source of Perfect pills, this shouldn’t be a problem, though.”

The prince nodded, considering the option.

The tutor grimaced slightly. “There is one additional difficulty, however. Your system likely has a substantial amount of toxins in it, and they have been there for far too long. A Rank 3 Expulsion Pill won’t work. You will need a Rank 4 pill, and that is expensive, Lord-level alchemy. The cost will be dozens of spirit stones.”

The prince responded before I could say anything. “Is this the only way?”

“It is the only way that I am aware of, my prince.”

“Very well, we set the issue aside, then. I cannot allow for such delays in my cultivation. Instead, I must simply gain mastery over such petty concerns. Chancellor Fang, arrange for better pills in the future, but do not bring this issue up again.”

“Yes, my prince.” I bowed, accepting his ruling. I could have tried to change his mind, but I didn’t have any real solution to the underlying problem.