By the time Cao Lin turned two, he could speak with the clarity of children much older than him; some might even take him for a 7-8 year old by his intelligence, but his physical health was a little behind his fellows, a little shorter than children of his age.

  Most children of the Cao Clan, born and brought up in qi-rich courtyards and fed spiritual supplements from birth, learned to walk within their first six months—bodies strong, but thoughts sluggish. Lin had been the opposite. He first spoke at half a year old, astonishing the nurses with his articulate babble. Yet he didn't take his first steps until after his first birthday. Frail in body, yet frighteningly quick in thought.

  Feng Ruyan never said it aloud, but sometimes, when she watched him playing with children of his age, she did get a little worried.

  "Yellow-level combat talent..." The words had haunted her since the day the appraisal stone dimmed at his touch. Even among the lowest rankings, yellow was little better than nothing. A mortal who first awakened their spiritual root may only have red or at best orange level combat talent; compared to them, her son was better, but only compared to them. In the Cao clan, even the guards had green level combat talent. In a world where strength reigned supreme, having yellow level of talent one couldn't even dream of having a good life.

  Still... there was hope. Lin's beast affinity was the factor bright enough to overshadow his lack of combat talent. Even as just a 2-year-old, the boy had an unnatural level of control over animals.

  In the garden of the palace, filled with enough trees and shrubs to be classified as a small forest, the boy was often found surrounded by small animals—squirrels, rabbits, fawns.

  That, along with his bright mind, gave enough relief to Ruyan that she could focus on her faction strengthening process.

  …

  'If you had to reincarnate me, couldn't you have at least given me a strong body? Do you know how shameful it is that even your younger siblings can run much faster and farther than you?' Lin shouted in his heart while looking at the sky, as the children surrounding him ran past him like he was just jogging.

  Once again defeated, Lin could only go back to the only place which provided him a little semblance of peace in the world.

  In the little clearing in the garden, Lin had placed a small chair. With his small pocket filled with nuts and leaves, he made a small sound. Soon, many heads popped up in his surroundings.

  Every animal which now came into view was like someone had taken the animal from his home planet and maxed their cuteness. The squirrels were so fluffy that one might die rubbing their cheeks, chubby rabbits sat on his lap, and small nudges came from golden fawns asking for more food.

  'Maybe after dying I came to heaven,' Lin thought while petting a fawn which had eaten its fill and was now resting on his lap. He couldn't voice his thoughts out loud because of the ever-present shadow in his surroundings. After complaining to his mother about this, he had found out about the shadow guard assigned to him.

  "Young master, where are you? It is time for your cultivation practice," came the voice of an old lady from just outside the forest Lin was in.

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  All of the animals in the surrounding area started growling toward the source of the voice. Due to the duty of calling him for practice every day being placed on Granny Wu, the animals had really started to hate the lady who always came to take Lin away from them.

  "Hahaha, it is not her fault, guys. I will come back tomorrow," Lin said with a smile and left to greet his nanny.

  "Granny Wu, I was just about to come," he said, coming out of the forest.

  "Yaya, one day I am sure those little fellows will assassinate me for taking you away from them," Granny Wu chuckled, pointing behind Lin where many small heads were glaring at her with angry eyes, which on their cute faces only looked much cuter.

  "They would never... I think," Lin said and followed Granny Wu back to the palace. Like always, his mother was busy with meetings and tea parties, but unlike a normal 2-year-old who would think his mother was not giving him any time and was busy with parties, Lin knew what she was doing.

  From when he first got back his memories, or was able to access them, he had seen the results of his mother's hard work. The parties she used to host kept getting bigger and bigger, various resources being provided to others without asking anything in return.

  At first, he didn't understand the reason behind all this, but slowly over the year, when the tad bits of information he had got made him paint a somewhat clear picture in his mind. And thanks to Granny Wu's talkative nature, the info was really enough to get one clear picture.

  He was the son of the clan head of the Cao clan, one of the most powerful clans in the world, and his mother was just one of the many concubines of his father. From the story of his birth, it was clear that his mom didn't have much power in the clan and was just here because she was the wife of the clan head.

  With this info, it became increasingly clear why his mother was working so hard and not taking anything in return... she was building a faction to support him in the future, which he knew thanks to Granny Wu telling him to grow big and strong enough to lead the mighty Cao clan.

  And even with all of the work, his mother still found some free time to be with him. One of those times was this.

  He entered the room filled with enough qi to make the skin tremble with excitement...

  'Oh, I have not mentioned about qi, right? Well, there is not much to mention—the all-powerful energy in the world which gives us a chance to cultivate and break the chains which are holding us back, giving us a chance to fight against the demonic beasts who are out there for our blood and bodies.

  Well, I had not seen one till now, only some small cute animals, which could never be considered demonic at all.' Being an adult... semi-adult in a child's body, Lin had developed a weird habit of talking to himself, since there was literally no one he could talk normally to.

  As the door of the cultivation room opened, Granny Wu remained outside, and Lin entered. The room was in stark contrast to the rest of the palace. There was no decoration, no furniture, nothing in the room, only two mats in the center of the array built on the floor. One of the mats was currently occupied by Feng Ruyan, his own mother.

  "How was it, Lin?" she asked, opening her eyes.

  "Same as always, Mother. I lost the race against Yin once again, but I made a new friend today. Do you know there's a blue fawn in our garden as well? Initially, he was a little scared of me, but soon he also became a friend, so today was actually a good day," Lin started blabbering. This was the only time of the day where he didn't measure how he spoke, always feeling calm and happy in his mother's presence.

  "And did you name your new friend?" she asked... With this, the conversation kept going while Ruyan slowly cultivated, and Lin just sat quietly in the room. Since he was still too small to cultivate, he had to rely on his natural qi absorption until he activated his spiritual root, whose timing varied for everyone.

  Some develop it when they are 5 years old, some can't do that till they are 10—all depends on talent, which Lin felt he was lacking in. Though with how things were, he wasn't in any hurry to develop it anytime soon either.

  Because once he did, all hell would break loose: cultivation training, keeping up with others, fighting for no reason at all, and most importantly, living away from his mother.

  No, he was not ready for that at all.

  …

  (Like that, one year passed...)