Chapter 43: The Protected Prince - 43
Zhou Fan ignored Cao Lin's words and spent a little bit longer speaking to the kings and queens before he sent them back to their caves.
Cao Lin, the beasts and Yipeng still stayed behind, however, Cao Lin went back to his castle, Yippeng went back to his house and the beasts went to their habitats.
With everyone gone, Zhou Fan stood in the air alone.
Since he had nothing better to do, Zhou Fan went inside his house and ate some food, even though he didn't need to.
Once again, Zhou Fan observed his cultivation.
Although he had fused his cultivation and body with his soul, it still felt as if his soul could grow, not in size but in strength. Along with his soul, his body would continue to grow stronger.
Of course, this didn't mean that he would only grow his soul and body's strength. Instead, it was better to say that along with everything else, his soul would grow stronger.
Since Zhou Fan's soul was in its initial stage, he decided to call this realm, Nascent Soul.
After a while, Zhou Fan decided to continue cultivating. He had nothing to do and absolutely no enemies.
His current options were to conquer the world, destroy all sentient life on the world, or mind his own business. At least, that was all Zhou Fan could think on the top of his head.
Without wasting time, Zhou Fan started to cultivate.
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In the mortaniel empire, a boy no older than 16 was sneaking out of a castle window. This castle seemed to be made of pure gold and was many times bigger than any castle in the boundless empire.
This castle belonged to the 2nd strongest force in the mortaniel empire, the gautama kingdom. This was the strongest kingdom under the mortaniel empire, and the boy sneaking out the window was the 3rd prince.
As for why a prince of a powerful kingdom would need to sneak out, it was because he had been locked up from the outside. Although he was able to look out his windows and hear stories and see paintings, he had never truly been outside alone.
Those few times when he went outside, he was surrounded by guards and could only stay within the castle grounds.
Finally, at the rebellious age of 16, he snuck out. As he finally climbed down to the ground, the first thing he noticed was how hot the sun was. When he came out before, he was covered by many umbrellas and other cloths.
Next, he noticed how rough the ground was. Due to the fact that he never went outside, he got used to not wearing shoes and forgot to put them on.
Nevertheless, that didn't stop him from walking out of the castle, luckily unnoticed.
When he made it out of the castle grounds, he noticed how much rougher the concrete was. For a few minutes, he could only slowly walk one step at a time.
After just 5 minutes, his unexperienced feet were bleeding.
However, instead of focusing on the pain, he was staring at the blood astonished.
'What is this?' He thought to himself. He had never seen blood before. Nor had he heard of it.
After a couple more attempts, Siddhartha was able to ignore the pain and continue walking.
As he kept walking, the clean and full streets started to get less full, less clean, and much more sullen.
After a certain point, Siddhartha stopped next to an alley, smelling a horrible smell. Walking inside, Siddhartha saw what appeared to be an unconscious man.
However, when he stepped close, he saw a hole through the man's chest. He also saw maggots crawling over his rotting flesh.
For the first time in his life, the protected prince learned of death.
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In the dragon cave, Zhou Fan stretched his body which made many cracking noises.
He had been cultivating for 3 months before he finally broke into the second level of nascent soul. As expected, his soul and everything else had gotten much stronger.
However, this slow cultivation speed was annoying. Although mature for his age, Zhou Fan was only around 11 or 12. Spending multiple 3 month time periods cultivating was hard.
Therefore, Zhou Fan decided to once again leave the dragon cave. This time however, he would not settle down and would instead wander around the world.
Unfortunately, that meant that Zhou Fan would have to leave Xiaolong and the beasts behind. After all, he needed to go out in order to experience life. Such a thing could hardly be achieved with humongous beasts following him around.
Walking outside, Zhou Fan saw Xiaolong and the rest of the beast sparring. He also saw Yipeng and Cao Ling talking while resting against a tree.
While Zhou Fan was watching the beasts fight, he couldn't help but notice that Xiaolong seemed slightly more powerful than the other beasts. However, it wasn't such a big difference that Xiaolong could easily win.
As he stood there, Cao Lin noticed his presence. He walked over and said hi.
"Its been a while." He said while looking at Zhou Fan.
Hearing Cao Lin talk, the beasts stopped their battle and looked over. When they saw Zhou Fan, they all rushed over and rubbed against him.
After playing around for a bit, Zhou Fan told them the sad announcement. As if they could understand what he said, the beast's happy faces were instantly changed.
"How long will you be gone?" Asked Yipeng.
"I'm not sure. It may be half a year or 5 years. Either way, it will be a long time." Responded Zhou Fan.
After some convincing and some sad looks from the beasts, Zhou Fan chose to stay for another week before he left on his journey.
Over the week, both the beasts and the others tried to convince Zhou Fan to stay. Both the beast's puppy eyes and Cao Lin's logic were quite convincing.
No matter, Zhou Fan's mind was made up. He needed to understand the world and nothing could stop him.
Chapter 44: The Dao- 44
The week passed fairly quick as Zhou Fan spent it with the beasts.
However, it was now time for Zhou Fan to leave. After saying goodbye to each of the beasts, Cao Lin, and Yipeng, Zhou Fan was ready to leave.
He flew up and went to the exit tunnel. As he was leaving the cave, he turned around and took one last look at the blue crystal.
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As Zhou Fan flew out of the hole, he saw the recognizable courtyard. However, Zhou Fan didn't stop as he continued to rise into the air.
It wasn't long before Zhou Fan was directly under the clouds. If one looked from the ground, they would only see a black dot in the air.
Zhou Fan flew out of the city as fast as he could. Although he planned to experience the world, he was first going to go to another empire.
With his perfect memory, he was able to instantly recognize the surroundings. After a couple seconds of indecision, Zhou Fan flew to the east.
By going that way, Zhou Fan would first pass through the truth empire, then the 9th rank koi empire, then the 3rd rank sword empire, and finally, the mortaniel empire.
After an hour of flying at a speed that exceeded sound by more than 5 times, Zhou Fan landed in front of a big gate.
Above the gate, there was a sign that said 'Clarity Kingdom'.
This was one of the biggest kingdoms within the truth empire. If he recalled correctly, it was ranked 7th. After paying a fee of 5 copper, Zhou Fan walked into the city.
The first area he passed was a middle class area. Here, he could see many different types of people. There were kind and gentle people along with arrogant and rude people..
While walking, he could see a few homeless people around. There weren't many, but there were a few. As he passed another homeless person, he saw some guards roughly grab him and drag him somewhere.
Without stopping, Zhou Fan continued on.
The next place he saw was the noble district. Although he couldn't go far due to the gates and guards, Zhou Fan got a good look at it.
Not a single homeless or unhappy person in sight. He did, however, see one person with a suspiciously long mustache.
After another round of walking, Zhou Fan made it to an area much different than the rest.
In most places, it was referred to as the slums. Here, homeless and unhappy people were just about the only thing to see.
Most people were dirty and eating dirty food. There was trash on the ground and at some point, Zhou Fan almost started to fly in order to avoid it.
However, he remembered why he came here. To understand life in the world. Although he hadn't been prosperous as a child, Zhou Fan didn't have it too bad.
Comparing his previous life to any other person in the slums was ridiculous. After all, Zhou Fan had never had to eat dirty bread or sit around with dirt on his face.
Stepping on and over the trash on the ground, Zhou Fan almost had the urge to throw up. After a little, he became used to it and his reaction was no longer so intense.
Stopping in the middle of the street, Zhou Fan lifted his head up and took a deep breath. Although the smell was revolting, Zhou Fan acted as though he didn't notice it.
All of a sudden, a knife stabbed into Zhou Fan's body. A pain that he had never felt before started to run through Zhou Fan's mind.
As he fell on the ground, Zhou Fan looked up at the person who had just attacked him. Alongside him were 3 other people. All four of them looked dirty and poor.
There was nothing special about these people. There was absolutely no reason why they should have been able to pierce through Zhou Fan.
However, as he saw them coming towards him, Zhou Fan sealed his cultivation and returned to the same state that he was before he started to cultivate.
Of course, Zhou Fan wasn't a masochist, but he realized that he had never truly experienced pain. Although he had been worn out and tired, he had never been stabbed or slashed.
'Ouch' Zhou Fan thought.
Since his goal was to experience life, he needed to do it thoroughly. If that meant getting stabbed or beaten, Zhou Fan was willing to accept it.
As the boys saw him fall on the ground, they started to kick him and beat him. Zhou Fan was also stabbed 3 more times before they searched him for money, which he didn't have, and left.
As Zhou Fan laid on the ground, beaten and bruised, he passed out.
When Zhou Fan woke up, it was still day. Not the same day, but daytime. Getting up, his injuries were fully healed. Although he had sealed his cultivation, he couldn't be killed so easily.
Zhou Fan looked around and frowned. He was in the same exact place. Not a single person or guard woke him up or even moved his body.
'Pathetic' He thought.
After all, he was in the middle of the street! There should have at least been someone to collect his corpse. It was only now that Zhou Fan realized just how bad these people have it.
Shaking his head in disappointment, Zhou Fan got up and walked. As he passed out, Zhou Fan felt his understanding become clearer. As for what he was understanding, he couldn't quite describe.
It was as if it both existed and didn't exist. As if it was life and also death.
Since Zhou Fan had neither heard of it or felt it before, he decided to name it.
The Dao.
It was the first time he came into contact with something 'semi-magical' besides himself and lightning.
As he continued to walk, Zhou Fan exited through the other side of the kingdom. Although he had left it, he didn't unseal his cultivation and fly. Instead, he continued to walk on the path, now barefoot since the thieves stole his shoes. Luckily, they didn't steal his clothes.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
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