The Journey of the God Emperor

Chapter 2: Stone Edge City

-Dawn, About 5 kilometers outside Stone Edge City, Viridescent Empire-

A carriage was travelling through a vast green forest along a rocky road. Inside, Lloyd was sitting in the middle while being accompanied by two of the men and Francis. The remaining two men were outside, with one man as the coachman and the other man as the lookout for possible outside threats.

'Last thing I remembered, I attempted to save a cat, then when I was about to be hit by a truck, my pendant abruptly shined and enveloped my whole body.' Lloyd mused.

'Then, I was saved by my pendant? What, my pendant?!' Lloyd immediately searched his body for his pendant. ‘Phew! I thought It wasn't able to come with me.' Lloyd thought. All of Lloyd's belongings before he got reincarnated was not able to come with him so he thought that he lost his pendant.

"Bro, you okay?" Francis asked when he saw Lloyd moving all of a sudden.

"Oh, yes I'm fine...” Lloyd responded.

‘I feel weird, why is that?’ Lloyd thought. He touched his face and was shocked for a second. He used both of his hands and when he confirmed something, he internally screamed, ‘What the hell!? Where’s my acne?’

“Uhmm… Francis, do you have a mirror or something?” Lloyd asked Francis

“Huh? Ah… yes I have one here in my pocket.” Even though Francis was wondering why Lloyd wanted a mirror, he still handed it over.

“Thank you,” Lloyd took the mirror and viewed himself.

When Lloyd looked at himself, he saw a simple looking face of a 13-year-old boy with short black hair and brown eyes. However, what made that face stand out was the fair and smooth skin.

“What!?” Lloyd accidentally blurted out.

“Bro, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Are you still hurting somewhere?” Francis concernedly asked.

“Huh… No, I am fine. Don’t mind me,” Lloyd said.

“Oh. Okay,” Francis replied.

‘Why do I have such a fair skin without any traces of acne? I have acnes all over my face before,’ Lloyd wondered. Suddenly, memories, which does not belong to him, flowed into his mind.

‘What the hell? Whose memories are these? Are these mine?’ While these memories were going into his mind, Lloyd realized something, ‘No... These are the memories of the owner of this body.’

In those memories, Lloyd found the answers to his questions. It turned out that Lloyd really died when the truck struck him and his mind transmigrated into a dead body. The body belonged to someone with the same name and face as him. The previous Lloyd died during a test in his school and how he died became a mystery for all.

‘So, parallel universes does exist. How exhilarating. How mysterious,’ Lloyd gasped in awe.

‘Anyway, I should be careful because it does not looked like what killed this kid is not just any ordinary accident. First off, I should not reveal to anyone that the previous Lloyd really died and that I transmigrated to possess his dead body,’ Lloyd mused.

‘I hope both my mother and brother are doing fine without me. I miss them,’ Lloyd further thought. Lloyd remembered that since he transmigrated, his family must have been having a funeral for him.

'Come to think of it, I wonder why Francis calls me his brother. Is Francis my biological brother?' Lloyd wondered to himself. Lloyd searched his memories and got his answer. It turned out that Francis was not Lloyd's biological brother but instead just a friend, a close friend. Francis decided to call Lloyd his brother when Lloyd saved Francis from bullies when they were still children.

'I'm still not used to this feeling of having two kinds of memories. This reminds me of that one novel which I have read. Oh well, for now, I will try to accept this reality and just cope with the situation. Go with the flow, I always say.' Lloyd thought.

'Also, is this an alternate world? Or a completely new world?’ Lloyd searched his memories once again and after some time, found his answer. This world, where he was currently located, was called, “Origin Attribute”. He’s on the human realm, specifically, in one of the cities of Viridescent Empire called Stone Edge. Here, the technologies being used was still in medieval era. This is a world of cultivation; where the strong preys upon the weak. Here, as long as you have the strength, you can do pretty much almost anything. Ever since the dawn of time, Mana, which is a subset of Life Energy, has always been around. Mana is the spiritual fuel that makes magic work. It can be stored on the lower dantian which is located two inches below your belly button. By cultivating, or learning to store, control and harness the mana inside the body, any living being can become stronger by using mana-driven magic. Through the various efforts of sages and masters throughout the long passage of time, many cultivation techniques were made which can simplify or hasten the amount or duration of cultivation. Moreover, various types of Mana arts, which directly uses the physical body to maximize its fullest potential, were developed. Mana arts were the equivalent to the Martial arts on Earth. Of course, besides mana arts, those lacking in physical strength but have high aptitude for storing and utilizing mana developed Hermetic Magic which specializes in using mana as the source of many forms of magic.

‘On Earth, talks about mana and magic are either found on very old Asian textbooks or on modern fantasy comics or novels and it was never proved to be real. However, here, it is actually all real? Wow! And cultivation? Cultivating? Does it mean that as long as I put in the effort and cultivate long enough, I will be able to do anything? Maybe, I can even find a way to go back to Earth!’ Lloyd analyzed. ‘However, my body right now is a total trash.'

‘Also, how coincidental it is that I was transmigrated on someone who not only looks like me but also have the same first and last name as me. Is this also the work of this pendant?' Lloyd thought. Lloyd grabbed his pendant from under his shirt and observed it. The pendant was still the same; it was a beautiful, classic and heirloom-quality black stone pendant, which was intricately crafted with alternate silver and gold chains. Although now, the black stone was now a dazzling multi-colored rainbow-like stone which appears to be moving. It has five colors: Red, Blue, White, Yellow, and Green, spinning around inside the stone. Lloyd focused his gaze on the stone and was immediately left on a trance.

"Bro, is there something wrong?" Francis asked when he noticed Lloyd acting weird again.

Lloyd immediately got back to reality and responded, "Huh? No... I'm fine. By the way, where are we?" Lloyd asked while simultaneously hiding the pendant once again under his shirt.

"Oh, he he. Why don't you look outside the window? We're approaching our city." Francis cheerfully said. Lloyd looked outside and saw that they are now leaving the forest and was about to reach a gigantic brick wall. No, gigantic was an understatement. This wall was about 200 meters in height and looks the same with what Lloyd imagined a wall in a city in heavens would look like. Except, the wall in front of them looked archaic, it felt like it had withstood the long passage of time.  Lloyd also saw gigantic flying creatures going in and out of the wall with something on their backs. He asked Francis about it and even though Francis was bewildered as to how Lloyd was asking about common knowledge, he still responded.

‘Maybe my brother is still shaken after being almost cremated,’ Francis thought.

Francis said to Lloyd that those were flying beasts and their masters riding on their backs.

“Bro, you see that over there? The one on the upper left side of the wall? That’s a flood dragon,” Francis explained.

Lloyd gasped in amazement, “A flood dragon? Does it mean that dragons exist here?”

“Yes and maybe No. That flood dragon is not a true dragon. Maybe someday, when it miraculously encounter a great fortune, it can evolve into a true dragon. True dragons are now only written on books and is considered as one of the mythical creatures,” Francis patiently explained.

“Wow, I see. So, even here, true dragons are myths,” Lloyd unconsciously said.

“Huh? Here? What do you mean?” Francis curiously asked.

“Ah? Uhmm it’s nothing. What about that winged lion over there?” Lloyd hurriedly asked. He pointed at a flying large lion on the south side of the wall.

“Oh that? It’s a Pixiu,” Francis explained.

“A pixiu?” Lloyd asked.

“Yes, they are auspicious creatures said to bring fortune and wealth to their masters,” Francis said.

“Wow…,” Lloyd was amazed again.

Lloyd continued to ask Francis about the creatures while they were on their way to the city entrance. After some time, finally, they arrived on the gate. The gate was also huge, about 15 meters in height. It was made with some kind of metal but looked tougher than metal. A lot of various types of people were queueing to go in the city. Those people in line were mostly composed with humans but Lloyd saw a person with the head of an ox but have a human body, heck, there's even a rooster man, with the head of a rooster but with the body of a man. In Lloyd's memories, these were actually mixed breeds between human and monsters, called Demihumans. Lloyd thought that demihumans were just figments of imagination by people on Earth but here, they were real. Lloyd proceeded to have high hopes in someday meeting a cute and adorable cat girl, a cat girl with the head and body of a human and only with cat ears and cat tails, not those with cat heads. While Lloyd was daydreaming, their group proceeded to the front without stopping. What's astonishing however, was that nobody stopped them. Lloyd recovered most of the previous Lloyd's' memories so he knew why.

When they went past the guards, the guards hurriedly bowed to the carriage with a subservient attitude and greeted them..

"Greetings, Young Masters!"

Even though Lloyd and Francis was inside the carriage, they didn't bother to open the window and greet the guards back.

After entering, Francis faced Lloyd and said, "Welcome Home Bro! To our hometown, Stone Edge City!"

"Yeah, yeah...thanks," Lloyd responded with a slight annoyance in his voice. By now, he recovered most of the previous Lloyd's memories so he now know Francis' background and character. Francis' clan was one of the three Aristocratic clans in their city just next in power to Noble Clans. These clans rose to power through business and trade. Since they were the ones who keeps the city alive, the royal clan and the noble clans recognized their importance, and also because they were extremely wealthy. Francis was a spoiled brat since birth because he was the next clan head of their clan.

"Hehe, shall we now go to your clan compound or to a hospital first?" Francis asked Lloyd.

"Let's go to my residence," Lloyd responded. Lloyd wants to know the current environment in his family first before anything else.

'I want to know if what really happened to the previous owner of this body was an accident or someone orchestrated his death behind the shadows.' Lloyd mused to himself.

"Okay, anyway, it is already getting late. I will drop you off then I will head home after. I'll see you tomorrow," Francis said. They went through the various streets and proceeded to Lloyd's residence. Lloyd closed his eyes during the whole trip maybe because he was tired. What's interesting was that nobody tried to delay their carriage, may it be people or vehicle, everyone went to the side wherever the carriage passed. It really demonstrated their respective clans' power. It did not took too long to arrive at their destination.

When they arrived, Lloyd prepared to get off the carriage.

"Bro, just take a rest and I'll visit you in the morning," Francis said.

"I know, Francis. You said that already. Anyway, thank you for being there for me," Lloyd emotionally said. Only he knows how much pressure Francis must have went through just to attend his so-called "Funeral/cremation".

"Oh come on! Haha! We are brothers! That's what bros do!" Francis said while laughing it off.

‘It’s the least that I could’ve done for you,' Francis said to himself.

"Anyway, I'm really glad that you're alive," Francis added.

"Me too," Lloyd responded while smiling.

When the carriage left, Lloyd proceeded to enter the premise of the residence. Their clan's area of residence was enormous. A tall wall separates the luxurious interior of the residence from the rambunctious noises outside. It is like a whole new world when you enter it. Likewise, the gate was also quite huge and was made with the same metal from the front gate of the city entrance. Two stone merlions or creatures with lion heads and fish tails were positioned at each sides of the entrance, adding to the luxuriousness and grandness of the place. When Lloyd was about to enter, he was greeted by two muscular guards wearing chinese soldier clothings with armors with the yin and yang symbol at their chests which signifies the insignia of the Blanc Clan at the front gate.

"Greetings, Young master!" the two guards said at the same time.

"Hmmm..." Lloyd nodded.  Lloyd didn't bother to formally greet them not because he was haughty or prideful but because he know their true colors and besides, they were just ordinary guards. True enough, when Lloyd was not even getting far from the guards, he heard their whispers.

"So that trash of a young master managed to survive. I can't believe that his ability to survive is comparable to a cockroach." one of the guards whispered.

"I agree, our clan would surely suffer if that trash becomes the next clan head. Our second young master is many times more deserving of the position," Added by the other guard.

"Yes, our second young master is already at the third level of Mana Gathering Realm despite being only 10 years old," The other guard fanatically said.

'Hmmm. So he advanced by a level when I was gone,' Lloyd. Through Lloyd's memories, he learned that cultivating have various levels and it will depend on the talent, techniques, understanding of mana and time on which they cultivated. Lloyd's level was only at the second level of Mana Creating Realm. There are three levels for each realm and the Mana Gathering realm is the first realm when a person starts to cultivate. In this realm, the cultivators should sense the presence of Mana in the environment and then gradually start to absorb these mana into their lower dantian. By absorbing these mana, it not only gives the cultivator some insights to control, use and store mana, but it also strengthens the body as the mana flows throughout the cultivator's body. In this realm, the cultivator can start to use limited types of mana arts and/or hermetic magic. Also, in this stage, the body was being prepared and developed for the next realms in cultivation.

Going back to the present situation, Lloyd just ignored the guards and proceeded to his residence.

"So this is my own place." Lloyd whispered to himself. Lloyd's residence was quite simple. It was a somewhat dilapidated one-story building with red bricks as its walls. Even though it looks like that, the inside of the room was quite nice and comfortable. The reason why the previous Lloyd was residing in such a worn down house despite being the son of the clan chief was due to Lloyd's unfortunate past. The previous Lloyd actually had the second best body constitution when he was born, being colored green, a noble-grade constitution, which means that it was just below the color blue, or a royal-ranked constitution. Constitutions or Body Constitutions were one of the basis for the talent of a person in cultivating. In other words, it was one of the things, which determines one’s future.

The Measuring Device used for identifying the rank of a person's Body constitution uses colors to know and distinguish each ranks. The rank of body constitutions from lowest to highest were as follows:

Red color - Lowest Rank

Orange color - Normal Rank

Green color – Noble Rank

Blue color – Royal Rank

            White color - Special Constitutions

A special body constitution does not belong in the rankings of body constitution because it varies depending upon the person. Some can be more effective and powerful than a royal ranked and some can be a trashier constitution than the color red, which was the lowest ranked body constitution.

Growing up, Lloyd was the apple of the eye of everyone in his city. At just a young age of seven, he was already at the second level of Mana Gathering Realm, which was quite a feat to have been achieved by a child of his age. Everyone thought that Lloyd would be a very capable man when he grows up. Well, almost everyone, the clan chief’s second wife was jealous of the first wife so she plotted a heinous act. When Lloyd was seven years old, the second wife poisoned the first wife with the help of the younger brother of the clan chief, which resulted to the untimely demise of Lloyd’s mother. Lloyd was not spared and was also poisoned but somehow, he luckily survived. However, in return, Lloyd’s potential was ruined. His body constitution turned to red, which was of the lowest grade. Everyone was disappointed and even his father, the clan chief, abandoned Lloyd in a sense wherein he became the trash of the city. Nobody bothered to investigate on the cause and just on the result. Since then, Lloyd lived on the background, he didn’t even bothered to cultivate when he knew that he’ll never amount to anything. However, despite of all that has happened to Lloyd, he remained kind and humble to everyone.

Going back to the present situation, Lloyd's room has a wooden dinner table on the corner with a single chair and a four-pane window. It also have a room with a single bed made with metal and a pair of quite soft pillows. The only problem was that during winter season, the cold seeps inside the room making it cold.

"I should get used to this lifestyle as soon as possible if I want to live in this world," Lloyd mused.

He then sat down on his bed, staring dazedly in empty space. After a while, he frisked for his pendant under his shirt. When he found it, Lloyd grabbed and pulled it from under his shirt and closely inspected it. This pendant was their Family Heirloom. Lloyd's mother said to him that their ancestor found it on the beach of Itangon, Bula a long, long time ago. That ancestor, ever since finding it, had great luck in their business and health. Because of that, the pendant became their Family Charm of some sort. It's been a long time since then, with the pendant being passed down from one generation to the next until Lloyd was entrusted to keep it with him at all times.

"If I'm not mistaken, this pendant came from this world. So, this really brings luck on its owner, huh? Interesting. I'll try to sleep now because there's definitely a lot of things which are going to happen tomorrow," Lloyd said. After that, he hid it once again under his shirt and lay on his bed.

"The establishments and infrastructures here actually closely resembles the medieval era of Earth with the style of buildings and infrastructures. Interesting." Lloyd added. Lloyd have not noticed that the multi-colored stone in the pendant was now only four colors.