WebNovels

Chapter 2 - Chapter 1 - Legacy Unveiled

Chapter One: The Legacy Unveiled

The door to the Patriarch's study swung inward. The imposing figure behind the desk looked up from his parchments, his long, well-kept black hair tied in a ponytail that accentuated his sharp features. Long Qingxiao's emerald green eyes showed a hint of curiosity; this was not a normal visit.

His wife, Zi Rou, stood by the bookshelf, having also noticed the unusual event. She remained there, quietly watching to see how it would play out.

Long Tian was surprised to see his mother in the room. Even after all these years, he still couldn't fathom her beauty.

She was tall and graceful, her posture naturally elegant in a way that made the purple and black robes she wore seem like royal garments. She carried herself with a modest dignity, aware of the attention her figure drew but refusing to indulge it. Her face was a masterpiece of soft lines and profound warmth, framed by a stunning cascade of scarlet hair. And her eyes—a deep, tranquil blue—held a kindness and depth that made mere physical beauty seem shallow.

The actresses and models of his past life were like beautiful paintings, carefully composed and framed. Zi Rou was the living sunrise. There was no comparison. Her beauty wasn't just something to look at; it was part of her very being, as natural and undeniable as the mountains surrounding Glory City. To him, she was simply… Mom. And that made her beauty even more profound.

"Tian'er?"

His father's calm voice brought him back from his thoughts.

No need to go back there now, he thought, lifting his deep-sea blue eyes to meet his father's emerald green ones. "Nothing, I was just surprised Mom is here. But it's even better that she is. Can we talk?"

"Yes, we can. Has something happened?" Long Qingxiao asked, noticing the tension in his son's tone.

"Nothing happened," Long Tian answered, a bit too quickly.

"Are you sure, son? You seem nervous." The concern in his mother's voice made Long Tian's mind scream in frustration. He thought he was prepared for this.

So he breathed, long and steady, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he saw the worry in his parents' faces and said, calmly, "Nothing happened, really. It's just… what I want to talk about is very important, and we can't do it here."

Interpreting this as a child who had done something wrong but was afraid to confess, Zi Rou asked, "Where, then?"

"That's the thing. You will need to trust me. Both of you." His tone grew more serious, almost un-childlike, though his high, youthful voice betrayed him.

It was a strange combination, but one both parents were familiar with. Long Tian had always been very smart and often spoke this way. Yes, at first they had feared an old soul had taken their son's body, especially during his first three years, with the nightmares and the way he always kept them at arm's length. But they had performed the tests, and his soul was normal and clear, empty of any scars such a possession would leave. In the end, he was just a smart boy with a lot of nightmares—a phase that had, thankfully, passed two years ago.

"We trust you, son," Long Qingxiao said, a small, reassuring smile on his face.

Long Tian nodded and took a ring from his pocket.

The Patriarch recognized it immediately. Its black-and-gold surface, the coiling dragons engraved upon it—so like the ones embroidered on the back of his robe—were impossible to mistake. He remembered it as nothing more than an old trinket, left forgotten in a dust-covered wooden box in the far corner of the family's vault. He had tried to bond with it then, thinking perhaps it was some relic overlooked by careless ancestors. But nothing had happened. At the time, when the family's situation was crumbling, even that small disappointment had stung.

Days later he had asked his grandmother, the current Grand Elder. She had been raised to the post only because a disastrous expedition had claimed all the family's Gold Rank experts, forcing a sudden reshuffle. She had told him his grandfather had tried the same thing, with the same result. The ring had been dismissed as worthless, and so it stayed—forgotten and unremarked.

Until now.

"Tian'er, what is this?!"

His wife's shocked voice pulled the Patriarch from his thoughts. He followed her gaze to the center of the room, and his breath caught. A spatial rift hung in the air, and by his wife's reaction, his son had to be the one who opened it.

Before his father could form a word—a command, a question, a plea—Long Tian stepped back into the shimmering void.

Long Qingxiao and Zi Rou exchanged a single glance—a flash of worry, a flicker of despair—and moved as one, lunging after their son without a second thought. He had asked for trust, and they gave it.

Beyond the rift, they stood starstruck. A sky of the most profound blue stretched in a seemingly infinite, cloudless expanse. Strangely, there was no sun, yet everything was illuminated with the clear, bright light of a summer midday. For all its brilliance, the air carried a crisp, wintery chill, soothed by the gentlest spring breeze.

Before them stood a two-story house built of rich brown wood, looking as though it had been freshly made. Beyond it, a lake of crystalline water sparkled, its clarity surpassing even the purest Soul Crystals—a truth they knew with an inexplicable certainty. Past the lake, the land stretched into a distant haze.

To their right, vast farming lands unfolded, so expansive they dwarfed the family's current holdings. To their left, an ancient forest stretched to the horizon, a sprawling tapestry of trees containing varieties they could not even fathom.

"Unbelievable, isn't it?"

The childish voice pulled them from their stupor. They turned to find their son standing where the rift had already closed. Behind him, far in the distance, a range of snowy mountains ran parallel to the woods and farmland.

"I also didn't believe such a place was possible before I came inside," he added.

"Tian'er," his father asked, his voice thick with awe, "where are we?"

"The honest answer? I'm not certain..." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "But I think it has something to do with the ring." He gestured with his hand, the ring—which had strangely resized itself to fit his finger—gleaming in the impossible light.

"But how?" Long Qingxiao protested, his strategist's mind grappling with the impossibility. "I know this ring, son. I tried to bond with it myself. My grandfather did too. It never reacted to anyone." Realization dawned, his eyes widening. "That's why you wanted to visit the vaults. You weren't just looking at 'something cool.' You wanted the ring from the beginning. But why? How could you possibly know it would work for you?"

Long Tian met his father's intense gaze, understanding his confusion. He took a steadying breath; from here, there was no turning back. "Because," he said, his voice quiet but clear, "I knew how to bind it to me."

A heavy silence fell. Zi Rou, her apprehension growing, was the one to voice the question hanging in the air. "Son," she whispered, her hand instinctively finding her husband's arm for support. "How could you know that?"

Long Tian looked between their worried faces. "It's... a very long and difficult conversation."

"Son, whatever it is, we will listen, okay?" his mother assured him, though the worry in her eyes was unmistakable.

"Your mother is right," Long Qingxiao echoed, his voice firm yet gentle. "We can handle it."

A slow, grateful smile touched Long Tian's lips. "Then let me tell you a tale," he said. "But not here. Let's get inside the house."

The trio walked toward the house, and Zi Rou broke the silence. "Son, how does this place work?"

"I don't know everything about the Space Farm—as I call it," Long Tian admitted. "But I can feel everything inside it. I mean everything. Father, for example, is at the peak of the Gold Rank. And you, Mother, are at the peak of the Silver Rank."

His words made the pair stop in their tracks, their eyes widening in shock.

Long Qingxiao's composure didn't just crack; it froze. For a single, heart-stopping moment, he stared at his son, his mind racing past the shock of the secret being revealed and landing on a far more impossible question. He looked from Long Tian to his wife, Zi Rou, the only person in the world who knew. Her own wide-eyed surprise was the only confirmation he needed that this was not a childish guess.

"How...?" he breathed, his voice barely a whisper. The question wasn't about the secret. It was about the boy who had just exposed it.

"Like I said," Long Tian answered calmly, continuing his walk, "I know everything inside this place. But it has limitations. For instance, I don't know what your Soul Forms are." As he finished speaking, they arrived at the doorstep of the wooden house.

"Soul Form? What is that?" Zi Rou asked curiously, already stepping inside.

Long Qingxiao frowned. The term was unknown to him, but from the earnestness in his son's voice, it was clear the word was important. He found himself very interested to see where this conversation would lead.

"After the promised tale, I'll explain it, Mom. Let's sit." Long Tian walked in and took a seat at the round table in the middle of the dining room.

The silence in the wooden house grew heavier with each passing second. Long Tian knew he had to speak, but the words felt like stones in his throat.

"So, the tale then..." he began, his voice softer than they were used to. He straightened his posture, bracing himself. "First, you know about the possibility of a soul taking over another body, right?"

Long Qingxiao's face grew grim. "We do. It was our first fear."

"We checked you, Tian'er," Zi Rou added softly, her gaze unwavering. "There were no scars. No signs of a violation."

The air left Long Tian's lungs in a rush. They knew. They had investigated the worst-case scenario and had chosen to love him despite the uncertainty. This was the permission he hadn't known he needed. The words he had locked away now fought to be free.

In his mind, he knew the truth: they had treated him as their son even at his worst. Yet, a deeper fear had always lived within him—the dread that the moment he revealed himself, he would be seen not as their child, but as a thief who had stolen another's life.

Their unconditional love, voiced aloud now, shattered that fear. And in its place, a new, solemn resolution crystallized. He would never tell them that the infant they had hoped for had never been destined to draw breath. He would spare them that hollow grief. He had fought for this life, for the right to exist in this world and in their hearts. He was their son. He had earned that title not by chance, but through a brutal, internal war they could never imagine. He would let the lie of a fused soul stand as the truth, a shield to protect them from a pain they did not deserve.

As this final, protective vow sealed within him, the Farm Space gave a profound, shuddering sigh, as if the very realm was acknowledging his choice and settling into its true, rightful master. The last chain of fear fell away, leaving only certainty.

"You were right," he whispered, his voice raw with emotion. "It wasn't a possession." He wiped his tears and smiled at his mother. The reassuring smile on his father's face paved the way for the rest. "The day I was born, I had to fight for this body, for the right to draw my first breath." He tightened his hands, and before he could continue, a whisper took his attention away.

"So that's why..." It was his father. It was like the man was reliving the worst moment of his life. His face was pale and his eyes wide. It was strange to see a man always so straight and imposing look so fragile.

"That's why what, Qingxiao?" Zi Rou asked, her eyes narrowing at her husband.

He looked at her and then at his son. He knew he couldn't keep that secret anymore. "The day Tian was born..." he began, his voice rough. "He didn't breathe for far too long. You had fallen asleep shortly after his birth. I was so afraid. And then I saw my grandmother's face; she was holding the baby with the same pain in her eyes she had when my father's and grandfather's bodies were brought home that damned day! I knew what she would say, but then... Tian cried. It was a cry so loud and unlike a child recently born. I was sure then, and even more sure now, that he was claiming victory. Now I know what kind of victory he was celebrating. After that, I made Grandma swear never to tell you. I couldn't bear to let you know that our child almost died at birth."

Zi Rou's expression shifted from confusion to deep, pained understanding. The initial spark of anger at being kept in the dark was instantly smothered by a more familiar ache. "You... you absolute fool," she whispered, her voice trembling not with rage, but with weary love. She reached out and gripped his hand. "You carry everything alone, don't you? The grief of the family, the weight of your own power... and now this. You hoard our pain like a dragon hoards treasure, thinking you're building a fortress to protect me. You're just building a wall to shut yourself inside."

That caught Long Tian's attention. Yes, why was his father hiding his cultivation? If he announced it, their family would return to aristocrat status; they could seize more opportunities beyond the city. This didn't make sense to him.

"Father," he interjected, "not to change the subject, but why are you hiding your cultivation anyway? With the family cultivation technique and a draconic Demon Spirit, I'm willing to bet you're the strongest Gold Rank in the city."

Long Qingxiao looked at his son, the vulnerability in his eyes receding behind a familiar, calculating mask. After a long moment, he said, "End your tale, and I will tell mine."

More Chapters