Chapter 2: An Unlucky Identity

The moment Zhao Hai fainted, a set of memories that did not belong to him suddenly appeared in his mind. It was like a program that didn't belong on your computer being suddenly installed, causing Zhao Hai's brain to nearly crash. While it hadn't completely crashed, it was effectively paralyzed, slowly digesting the information flooding his mind.

He did not know how much time had passed when Zhao Hai finally woke up. He felt that his brain now contained a set of memories that were entirely foreign to him.

In these memories, his name was Adam Buda. He was born into a family of military generals in the AKS Empire on the Ark Continent. His family had served the AKS Empire for three generations and held the high rank of Marquis. However, by Adam’s generation, the family had fallen into decline. Adam himself was a spoiled playboy. With his mother having died early and his father constantly away leading troops, he had become lawless to the extreme, bullying men and oppressing women, committing every evil imaginable. Yet, because his father was someone who fiercely protected his own and held great military power, no one dared to touch him.

However, his father had made one fatal mistake: during the transition between the old and new kings of the AKS Empire, he had backed the wrong side.

The forty-seventh king of the AKS Empire had fifteen princes, five of whom were eligible to inherit the throne: the First, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Thirteenth Princes.

The laws of the AKS Empire stipulated that only children born to the Queen or the Noble Consorts had the right to inherit the throne. Of course, not even all children born to the Queen or Noble Consorts could inherit; only those who had been granted the title of Grand Duke or higher were eligible.

Every member of the royal family was born with the title of Count. If they did not perform any meritorious service for the Empire, they would remain Counts for their entire lives—Counts without a fiefdom. Only by performing meritorious deeds could their titles rise, up to the highest rank of Prince.

Naturally, children of the Queen and Noble Consorts would never hold only the title of Count. They were generally granted the title of Duke, and then, by performing a small service or finding any excuse, they could be promoted to Grand Duke, and finally to Prince, allowing them to inherit the throne.

The five princes of the forty-seventh AKS king who were eligible for the throne were all Princes. The First and Fourth Princes were born to the Queen; the Third and Seventh Princes were born to Noble Consort Karin; and the Thirteenth Prince was born to Noble Consort Avril. The Thirteenth Prince was the weakest of them all and had never been highly regarded. People always believed that since the First Prince was born to the Queen, he was the legitimate heir. The Third Prince had always been in league with the First Prince, so many nobles in the Empire supported the First Prince’s succession. The Fourth and Seventh Princes were allies; the Seventh Prince had the support of the Fourth Prince and the Karin family, so his standing in the court was also very high. Only the Thirteenth Prince, being the youngest, the weakest, and the most low-profile, was never favored by anyone.

Adam’s father was part of the First Prince’s faction, which was normal, as the First Prince had the most support at the time. The Buda family was not an old-money noble house; they had only risen to the rank of Marquis step-by-step through military merit starting from Adam’s great-grandfather. They wanted to quickly break into the ranks of the established nobility, so they chose to support the First Prince, who was the most likely to become king. That way, once the First Prince ascended the throne, the Buda family could potentially enter the core of the AKS Empire’s power and become truly recognized nobles.

One must understand that on the continent, there were two types of nobles: the old-money nobility and the newly-risen nobility. The gap between them was obvious. New nobles were generally considered "nouveau riche" and would not be accepted by the old-money nobles, meaning they could not enter the core of the nation's power.

After many years of development on the continent, the role of the nobility within a country was immense. At times, they could even dictate the rise and fall of a nation. In particular, those old-money families that had developed for thousands of years and dozens of generations were a force within the Empire that even the imperial power feared. It could be said that those old-money nobles were the true core of the Empire's power, and every newly-appointed noble yearned for their recognition.

To gain the recognition of those old-money nobles, one naturally needed corresponding strength. The Buda family’s rise had been too rapid—a method the previous AKS kings had devised to balance the old-money nobles. But after the forty-sixth king died, life became difficult for the Buda family. The new king wanted to promote them, but the old nobles wanted to suppress them, so they had no choice but to continuously support the new king to ensure the family's survival.

However, Adam’s father had backed the wrong side. He supported the First Prince, who had the most support, but in the end, he did not become king. Instead, the most low-profile and seemingly weakest Thirteenth Prince ascended the throne. The First Prince was ordered to commit suicide, and everyone in his faction met a miserable end. Adam’s father was also thrown into prison on a trumped-up charge and died there under mysterious circumstances. Adam’s past misdeeds were also dug up, but because of the presence of Green and the others, the Empire feared the trouble that several level-eight experts could cause. Furthermore, the new emperor had just ascended the throne and needed to appear magnanimous, so they treated Adam with leniency. They demoted the Marquis title Adam was supposed to inherit to a Viscount, replaced their fertile fiefdom with the Black Soil Wasteland, and Adam himself was force-fed the Water of Nothingness, becoming a complete cripple.

Usually, even if nobles had fiefdoms, they would leave them to be managed by stewards or trusted individuals. Although the fiefdom was their foundation, they would remain in the Imperial Capital to keep an eye on any changes in the Empire—what was beneficial to the family and what was not.

But Adam and his family were different. After the King changed their fiefdom, they were ordered to leave the Imperial Capital within three days and were forbidden from leaving their fiefdom for the next three years. This was something that had never happened to any other family.

The current king of the AKS Empire, the former Thirteenth Prince Aboy AKS, treated the Buda family this way for two reasons: first, because the Buda family was part of the First Prince’s faction, and second, because of pressure from the old-money nobles. Now that he had just ascended the throne, he naturally wanted to suppress the First and Seventh Prince’s factions with all his might, but he dared not touch the great noble houses. The old-money nobles, however, found the Buda family an eyesore and naturally pressured Aboy from the sidelines, which led to his decision.

The reason Adam was made to drink the Water of Nothingness was because of the Buda family’s ancestral cultivation method, the "Mad Dragon Qi." This cultivation method was very famous on the continent; it had been obtained by Adam’s great-grandfather by chance. Its cultivation speed was three times faster than ordinary Qi techniques, and its attack power was extremely strong. It had always been a top-tier cultivation method coveted by all the great families of the Empire. If Adam were still able to learn Qi, and if he were to truly master the Mad Dragon Qi and remember today’s grudge, it would be a threat to both the great noble houses and the royal family. Thus, Aboy made Adam drink the Water of Nothingness.

The reason Aboy did not kill Adam, besides the aforementioned reasons, was that Green had offered this cultivation method to Aboy and had taken a poisonous oath that no one from the Buda family would ever practice the Mad Dragon Qi again. That was why Aboy spared Adam.

Of course, Green did not offer this technique to Aboy openly. He had entered the palace at night, sought out Aboy, and then presented the technique. He did this for two reasons: first, to plead for Adam, and second, to let Aboy know his strength, so that Aboy would abandon the idea of killing Adam.

Aboy was indeed afraid of an expert like Green causing him trouble, so he agreed to Green’s request, only demoting Adam’s title and changing his fiefdom, without taking Adam’s life.

Green also agreed. He was very clear that although his own strength was not weak, the imperial family’s strength was also very strong. The reason he was able to enter the palace without anyone knowing was, first, because he was very familiar with the layout of the palace, and second, because the new emperor had just ascended the throne, the palace had undergone a major reshuffling, and its defenses were still a bit weak. Combined with the special technique he practiced, he had managed to avoid detection.

The reason Green had not gone to save Adam’s father earlier was that he had assumed Aboy would not kill him. After all, Adam’s father was a bargaining chip for the royal family to use against the old-money nobles; the royal family should not have discarded him so easily.

But they had not expected that Aboy was able to ascend the throne precisely because of the support of those old-money nobles. So, after he ascended the throne, he naturally had to curry favor with them, and thus he killed Adam’s father. By the time Green received the news, Adam’s father was already dead. Green had no choice but to find a way to protect Adam, the last bloodline of the Buda family.

The reason he handed over the Mad Dragon Qi cultivation method was also because of the Water of Nothingness. The reason the Water of Nothingness was considered a supreme treasure on the continent was not just because it made it impossible for one to practice magic or Qi; more tyrannically, this condition would continue down to one's descendants.

In other words, once you drank the Water of Nothingness, your descendants would also be unable to learn magic or Qi, and this would only end after ten generations.

But that was ten whole generations! Ten generations unable to learn magic or Qi—what would they become by then? Whether the family would still exist or be able to continue to the tenth generation were all unknowns. This was the terrifying aspect of the Water of Nothingness, and it was the reason Green handed over the Mad Dragon Qi.

Since Adam and the ten generations of the Buda family after him would have no way to learn the Mad Dragon Qi, what was the point of keeping it? It was better to hand it over in exchange for Adam’s life. That was why Green had handed over the Mad Dragon Qi without hesitation.

And facts proved that he had done the right thing. If he hadn't handed over the Mad Dragon Qi, it was unlikely that Adam would have been able to leave the Imperial Capital alive.

But whether someone had tampered with the Water of Nothingness or Adam himself was simply incompatible with it, the fact remained that after drinking it, Adam fainted and did not wake up until they reached the fiefdom. By the time he woke up, he had already transformed from the playboy Adam into the Earth otaku, Zhao Hai.

(End of chapter)