Ever Heart Ritual

In front of the palace

(CROWN PRINCE POV)

It was another noisy day. If I was one of those crown princes 100 years ago, I would've been dressed in my best and escorted to the main hall for the Ever Heart Ritual. But a hundred years ago, the crystal ball... shattered.

Nearly a thousand years ago, a goddess fell to our land. She was called Bai Ge. Like her name, she was pure and elegant. The emperor was in a hurry to prepare for Bai Ge, but she arrived before he finished preparing. And came face to face with one of his concubines. His concubine, Gang Shi, thought that Bai Ge was another one of the emperor's consorts, so she tripped and placed the blame on Bai Ge. When everyone rushed over, Gang Shi was sobbing on the ground while Bai Ge stood over her. Thinking that Bai Ge bullied Gang Shi, everyone started to berate Bai Ge. Meanwhile, Bai Ge simply asked if they knew the way back to heavens. But this was met with laughter and sneers. Bai Ge was indignant that everyone thought that she was a fraud, so she brought a wilting plant to life. Flowers bloomed before everone's eyes. The concubine and the eunuchs' complaints all died in their throats. This was a true goddess. They started to weep and prostrate at the floor, begging for forgiveness. Being kindhearted, she merely turned to the pale concubine and said,

"Since you were vile and shameless, thinking that I was a newly added consort, I will give the royal family a crystal ball that would determine the soulmates of every prince and princess. You would not have a chance to enter the palace and live a life of riches."

With that said, every generation's emperor got to live and die old with his true love, all except for Imperial Father and me.

It was such a pity for the concubine though. She could've lived the rest of her days in peace, but she just had to offend the goddess.

Until the crystal ball gets fixed, I can only focus on the task at hand and keep the marriage proposals at bay.

**********

In the Sea of Disorder

Wei An was barely holding on as she fought to stay intact in the turbulent waves. After the storm passed, Wei An sighed in relief. A few minutes ago, Shan Yue had clapped her hands and teleported Wei An to the Sea of Disorder. However, unlike the trip to the volcano, Wei An had fell from the sky, straight into the heart of a storm.

Just as the tension was going to fade away, a new natural disaster occurred. The water around began to swirl, slowly at first, then gained speed. In the middle of it all, Wei An felt her mind enter turmoil. Countless images of warriors fighting flashed across her mind, moving like water. Mages were healing the injured with water, soothing and calming them. Another scene flicked by. A warrior was gathering the essence of water and used that to wipe out millions and millions of soldiers. Just like the fire attribute, water could destroy and repair humans. Wei An suddenly felt drowsy. She could distinctively hear her mother whispering to her, lulling her to sleep, but another part of her consciousness yelled for her to stay awake. Which one should she choose? Wei An felt so tired, yet some part of her knew that if she fell asleep, she would never wake up again. Just then, she saw people that bullied her. Right! She still had her revenge. Perhaps this was just another trial.

As Wei An awoke, a single pearl shone before her. Somehow, she knew that she had to swallow it in order to gain the water attribute. Wei An grabbed the pearl and swallowed it whole. Wei An could feel a core taking place inside of her. Right now, half of it was red, and the other was blue. Slowly, a portion of both began to mix together, fighting to claim territory. After a long time of torture, the two sides calmed down when they saw that they couldn't dominate over each other. Deep down, Wei An understood that it was only because she saw similarities between the two opposing attributes. However, the process was painful, perhaps even more painful than the fire trial. Wei An felt like ants were gnawing on her flesh while her insides were both burning and freezing. Taking some time to stabilize her condition, Wei An sat down and began to meditate.

After Wei An finished meditating, Shan Yue said,

"Master, I think we could settle for water and fire duality. I've run out of places for you to visit. For now, we should focus on stabilizing your base and broadening your horizons."

Wei An smiled. It was finally time for her to show her might.