Jiang woke up with a throbbing headache; his whole body was hurting and aching with pain. His eyelids felt heavy and numb, almost lifeless. He tried to make sense of his surroundings and gradually realised that he was in a carriage.
Jiang tried to clear his thoughts and to think of why he was in such a situation in the first place; dressed like a noble lady with a thick veil covering most of his face even though he was a male. Eventually, all his memories came rushing back, exploding in his head like fireworks. It hurt even more than he expected. With his current headache, the hurt was unparalleled and he could barely breathe properly.
Jiang figured out that he was in the same carriage that was supposed to convey him to the palace in the Capital city of the Tang Qin Shang Empire. He was dressed in female clothing because he was expected to take his half-sister’s place. But Jiang distinctly remembered that the carriage had overturn and was damaged before they reached the Capital. He was also quite clear about the fact that he never arrived at his destination because he died an untimely death.
The more his past memories flooded into his mind, the more he came to realise that there really was something inexplicable and supernatural about the situation. He clearly remembered being killed but, how was he still alive. He didn’t know how or why he repeated his past life. The only possible explanation he had, no matter how preposterous, was that he had somehow travelled back in time.
He had been given a second chance in life, a chance to live again! Bittersweet tears burned his eyes and his lower lips trembled. Jiang couldn’t believe his good fortune. His past life felt like a dream... like it had never happened.
Jiang was overwhelmed with emotions, and one particular emotion that almost drove him insane was a sense of acute loneliness. It was like in a world where many existed, none could see him for who he truly was. It was as if he was invisible.
With dazed eyes, Jiang looked out the window of his carriage and noticed that it was daytime. He painfully recalled the events from his past life. The ambush that led to his death had taken place on the night of the second day, after their arrival in Yang Province. He was just sixteen and still so young, but he had to go to the Yellow River. In retrospect, Jiang was quite relieved that he didn't get to meet King Yama, the ruler of the underworld. He had been given the opportunity to re-live his life again.
The Imperial Palace was in the central region, known as the Capital in Yang Province, which was a little far from the Lei Manor in Yin Province. In his past life, Jiang remembered it took the carriage two days to arrive on the outskirts of Yang Province. If the journey had continued unhindered, they would have enter the Palace's gates, the following morning. Unfortunately, he didn't get to see the Palace then.
"Where are we now?" Jiang lazily asked one of the guards riding beside the carriage. The guards were supposed to protect him from harm, but when the assassins came, they all flee faster than a cheetah. Although Jiang had doubts as to whether those guards were able to keep their lives safe in his past. He believed that any escape attempt was going to end in failure. To maintain the secret, the renowned General Lei would certainly ensure the silence of everyone involved. That way, the conspiracy wouldn't be discovered when the tragic incident was investigated.
"We are approaching the Yue Valley. We will spend the night there." The guard replied and Jiang let out a sigh of relief.
If they were just approaching Yue Valley and spending the night there, it meant it was still the first day of his journey to the Capital. Then he still had a chance to escape the ill fate of being killed again.
Jiang began to make plans, he couldn’t trust anyone else, so he would have to escape on his own. He must follow a different route from the one that the assassins took to ambush them. There were many things for him to think through before night fall, but there wasn't much time.
He needed to get to Yang Province at all cost, to be safe from the assassins at the very least. Jiang assumed 'at the very least' because he did not know what awaited him beyond the borders of Yang Province.
Powers or no powers, he must escape tonight, because he knew the people accompanying him on this journey wouldn't be expecting him to run away. By morning, when they discovered his tent was empty, he would be long gone. He only prayed that they wouldn't send an Air Elemental Master after him or else he would stand no chance. Air Elementals were well known for their speed which was unsurpassed.Just thinking about his last life and the way he died made him shiver with fear.
At that moment, the rusted old ring on his finger, that his mother gave him and which had always been dormant and ordinary before, started to shine. All these years, the ring had remained well fitted on his last finger. As time went on, it seemed to him that the ring reshaped itself so that it could continuously fit that particular finger. But he wasn’t really able to tell or be sure since he had always been so skinny.
The ring continued to shine brightly. Jiang was thankful to the heavens that the sun was high in the sky. Those who were outside didn't notice that there was something unusual inside the carriage. The ring that had never left his last finger suddenly flew out of it's own volition. It happened so fast, that before Jiang could properly comprehend what was happening it flew to the center of his forehead and began to embed itself.
He wanted to scream loudly like a newborn but knew he couldn't draw any attention. So he suppressed his cries and bite his bottom lip harshly, to the point that blood started dripping down. It felt like his brain was being ripped out from his head. At the same time, he felt something being melted inside his skull, just like when a blacksmith smelted metal to make a weapon. He suffered agonising pain, the type that could drive any man crazy, yet he was just a boy who had to bear it all in silence.
After the ring melted into his forehead, its liquid form was unique and didn't felt like any metal as it flowed into Jiang's bloodstream. The sensation all over his body was strangely euphoric. It was hard to explain the feeling but the previous pain that Jiang felt was gone for now. Also for some reason, Jiang could see the internal workings of his own body.
The melted ring then flowed to his core where mana would have been stored if he had been able to cultivate. This was the first time that Jiang could view the inside of his body and he was very surprised to see something that looked very scary within him. It was a black, hazy substance.
That strange substance was corroding his core, and had actually prevented him from storing mana all those years despite his vigorous training. Anyway, the substance seemed to be forced out by the liquefied form of the rusted ring which gradually began to reform itself again. This time the ring took the shape of a large space within Jiang's core, and within that space was a cauldron. Jiang couldn't explain what was happening, he didn't know whether the situation was good for him or not. Everything that he experienced up to this moment was simply too incomprehensible.
As the special space was being formed, Jiang felt a very familiar sensation once again and he couldn't no longer pay attention to the space as he was in a state of constant pain. All he could focus on at that moment was the excruciating pain. In fact, he didn't even know when or how he blacked out.
***
"Mistress… Mistress!" Jiang heard one of the servants call out repeatedly as he woke up from his deep slumber. "We have arrived at the Yue Valley. The tents have been set up, and you can go and relax now." Another servant assigned by Jiang's father added.
"Thanks… Wait, what? We are at the Yue Valley already?" Jiang asked, not believing what he just heard. "Yes, Mistress." The servant answered innocently.
Jiang wanted to curse the heavens for doing this to him. The time that he was supposed to use to plan his escape was wasted in sleeping instead! "Are you okay?" The servant asked worriedly.
"No need to worry about me, I am fine and will be out soon, so you can leave,” Jiang replied grudgingly. It wasn't the servants’ fault but one hardly blame him for being in such a bad mood. His life was on the line after all, and he couldn't afford to sleep as he had just done. Until he was safely behind the walls of the Palace, where presumably his father's influence wouldn't reach, he believed he had no right to sleep so soundly.
Jiang was wearing yet another of his half-sister’s annoyingly eyecatching yellow flowing gowns with wide sleeves and he was adorned with heavy jades and jewels. His hair too was elaborately styled with very rare and expensive head ornaments. It might be every girl's dream to be dressed so fashionably. However, Jiang was not a young mistress. He couldn’t understand why someone would design a robe like this. It wasn’t easy to wear at all! His neck was aching from the weight of all the heavy items on his head. Even his back was not spared from the torture. Both his wrists were begging for mercy as well due to the bangles wrapped around them so tightly. Only his legs were spared from all that beautification.
Jiang wondered how ladies managed. How they could possibly wear such things on a daily basis without going crazy! He absolutely wasn't used to or comfortable wearing such feminine clothes or expensive jewellery. He also knew that if he were to wear all those items while escaping, they would only slow him down, and he couldn't have that.
Jiang knew that he had to steal some clothes and change into them. Then, when he approached the Capital, he could change back to his sister’s extravagant clothing. He had apparently forgotten that he carried his one and only robe, and his robe was expressly designed for ease of movement. Jiang knew that he'd be more comfortable wearing male robes.
Tonight was going to be a long night, Jiang mused as he sighed deeply. He stepped out of the carriage and continued brainstorming on how he could survive running into the endless darkness of the night in the Yue Valley surrounded by a thick forest. As a breeze from the valley brushed his face, Jiang discovered something extremely astonishing, something life-changing. It was startling beyond imagination to him. And if the family that had thrown him aside were to know about what he had just discovered, they would be in the same state of shock that Jiang was in right now, if not more
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