In one of the corridors of the Imperial Palace, two children ran carelessly. The younger one was dressed in red imperial robes, indicating that he belonged to the imperial family. His black hair was gathered on top of his head in a way that proved he belonged to a noble family, and his orange eyes shone in the setting sun, while his intelligent, charismatic eyes made him look like a sage.
Mais was not a Sage. Not even close.
But neither was the boy next to him.
The boy next to him, a little older than him, was dressed in a completely black robe and had light brown hair. His green eyes resembled swords. Just from the way he looked, it was clear that at his age, he was the embodiment of incredible power. He had a sword on his back that was one meter long, and he was ten centimeters taller than Mais. Yes, this was Lagos, who was seen as a future elite.
Lagos clearly radiated a much stronger aura than Mais. He was so far superior to Mais that the comparison was meaningless. But there was also a power that Mais had that he did not. The feeling emanating from this body was the understanding of the Tao itself.
Mais had insights into understanding the Tao. Lagos did not.
Lagos and Mais walked calmly down the corridor and seemed to be talking calmly to each other, but this was not true. A maid was coming toward them. They were only talking to deceive the maid. The young maid had not worked in the palace for a long time. She did not know the interesting truth about the 3rd prince. She carefully bowed to the 3rd prince. The next moment, when they were only a few meters apart, Mais hit Lagos on the back of the neck and ran away.
He ran straight towards the maid.
The maid carried a silver tray to deliver medicine to a low-ranking member of the imperial family. Although this person was one of the concubines of the 1st prince, she was considered a family member. She was very strict among the servants, and this old woman did not want to make a mistake.
She was scared when she saw Mais running towards her. 3rd Prince was going to hit her.
But at that moment, Mais turned his body slightly and walked past her without touching her.
'Oh...'
But just as she relaxed, the fast and powerful youth in front of her collided directly with her body.
PATT...!
The tray and the medicine and water spilled onto the floor. As the maid's face went white, Lagos scratched his head and then saw what he had done. An embarrassed look appeared on his face.
"I'm sorry."
He said this, but with no sign of being sorry, he got up and continued to chase Mais down the corridor. The maid hurried back to the kitchen to prepare the medicine again.
"Did you get it?" asked Lagos on the other side. Mais nodded. It wasn't until then that the maid realized she was missing something.
She had no wallet!
As much as it seemed that Lagos might have been the one to steal it, it was Mais who was the thief. Mais might not have been a very good cultivator, but he was a great thief. Those people who were worlds above him, those people who could have destroyed him with a wave of their hands, didn't matter. It was indeed dishonorable for a prince, but Mais was so good at it that only Lagos and the head eunuchs knew the truth.
They were clearly weaker in speed and stealth. Even Lagos was as close to a servant as one could get. He was not yet as strong as they were. But somehow they managed, and it had become quite a fun hobby for them. At least Lagos tried to learn the tricks of the trade from Mais. This skill might come in handy in the future.
Mais and Lagos left the precious palace that stretched for miles. His father had forbidden Mais to enter many places because he might be hypersensitive to the strange energies radiating around them. After all, Mais was only in the Beginning Realm and could not withstand the presence of countless energies of various kinds. Even though Mais had a seal that allowed him to withstand the pressure of the palace at all times, it was only for the palace. Although the emperor gave it to many special people, including servants, he did not want them to go outside the palace too much. Both the servants and Mais.
But there was one place outside the palace that Mais and Lagos could still withstand, and the servants could not.
The Fountain of Tao!
This was a garden hundreds of meters in size. The lush green grass was carefully cut by a very unique gardener. This grass alone was an ingredient that could help refine the pills in the Sage Realm. After all, they grew under the tremendous influence of the Tao Fountain.
In the middle of the garden was a fountain that was as ordinary as any other fountain around the palace, given the circumstances of the palace. Of course, it was not ordinary. It was the Tao Fountain itself, a precious treasure of the imperial family.
It was said that the previous empress had received it from a close friend.
Mais had found this fountain a year ago when he suddenly got out of bed at night and left the palace. Mais, who had not been able to start his cultivation until then, felt the cold that day and took an incredible step forward, opening the gates of this Tao. He had directly passed the stage of seeing the trace of the Tao!
That day, instead of the possibility of cultivation completely disappearing, he had reached the 4th level of the Beginning Realm thanks to this Tao breakthrough. However, he was not talented, and it took him a year to reach the 5th level.
Lagos was by far a hundred times, maybe a thousand times more successful. Perhaps his understanding of the Tao was not as good as Mais', but he was far superior to Mais in cultivation and did not seem to be far from grasping the traces of the Tao. The Sword Emperor, who had made an exception by bestowing great gifts on the Emperor, was able to obtain permission for his son to train in the fountain to grasp the Traces of the Tao.
As the two of them sat in front of the fountain, what they saw was completely different, yet they both found peace in this fountain.
"Are you sure you want to be emperor in the future? Aren't you excited to explore the vastness of the planet?" asked Lagos. His eyes were on the gurgling flow of the fountain, but his mind didn't seem to be there. If his father saw him, he would be furious at the laziness of the child for whom he had sacrificed so many gifts, magical items, and Tao weapons.
Mais just laughed. When he laughed, two small dimples appeared on his cheeks, making him look even cuter. Maybe he was just a little boy now, but when he grew up, he would be able to show off his nobility very well.
"I have no choice, my talent makes it impossible for me to reach heaven. If I stay in the palace as an emperor, I won't have to worry about my safety. Maybe my cultivation will even speed up and I can live a little longer. Besides, when I become an emperor, the whole planet will be mine anyway. I can travel as much as I want."
Lagos' face froze as he looked at the fountain. But then he let out a sigh. How sad it was that Mais was born this way. He turned his head to look at Mais. He was fiddling with a thin black and white balancing rod he didn't know where he got it from. He was making waves in the still water of the fountain. He looked quite relaxed. As if he had no worries and it was natural. He was only 8 years old.
" Don't you have any dreams, Mais? "
Lagos asked at that moment. He looked into the orange eyes of the young prince. When had he ever let his curiosity stop him?
Mais laughed and turned his small eyes deep into the fountain. His gaze was certainly not like those of his peers. It was much deeper. He was a prince. He had endured a lot of training up to this age and had lost the chance to be like his peers the moment he was born.
His maturity was also not just because he was a prince. He knew that everyone he loved would outlive him. He was born with that knowledge. He might be the youngest, but he would be the first to die. He matured with this knowledge. And Lagos felt himself losing his sharpness as he looked at him. At that moment, he couldn't help but think that Mais' eyes were shrouded in a veil of mystery. He could not understand Mais' thoughts without living the life he was living.
"Do I have a dream? I do."
"I want to live."
BOOOOMM...!!!
BOOOOMM...!!!!
The two suddenly felt the ground shake and a huge explosion. Mais' eardrums nearly burst and he was deaf for a moment. But he could still see. Lagos, who was with him, was fine. But he knew Mais was not. Little Mais' eyes blurred for a moment and he seemed to lose consciousness. He was too weak. Lagos himself was almost knocked unconscious by the explosion, but he did not faint. Because they were in the palace. He absorbed most of the blast.
Lagos took Mais's arm.
As they both turned their heads to the sky, they saw the great protective shield of the capital appear. It was a great shield, built by the first emperor. It was unique. It could withstand even emperors. But now, a great attack had occurred, even affecting the capital.
"Watch out!"
Lagos no longer cared about Mais's answer. What mattered was their lives. Before he had a chance to think, he grabbed Mais and ran through the barrier toward the palace to avoid the rain of rocks that was coming at them. Realizing the true speed and power of Lagos for the first time, it was hard to say that Mais was not shocked. Even the wind in his face would have broken his neck under normal circumstances. It was Logos himself that kept him alive. Mais could see that he was only a short distance away from becoming the Sage.
Mais looked up at the sky while in Lagos' arms. At that moment he realized that a man was looking down at the palace from the sky, outside the barrier. He had seen Mais. He had seen everything. Everyone and the community was analyzed in milliseconds in his huge cultivating brain. A boy like Mais could not understand how powerful a man was standing so casually in the city sky. He couldn't even imagine it. And he would never have dared to imagine it, for he would never have been able to reach those heights.
But now he was their enemy. Mais wanted him to fall, but he wouldn't fall because he wanted to.
He couldn't even make out the shape of the man's body. He was just a dot in the sky, but he saw the man raise his hand as he stepped into the sky.
BOOMMM....!!!
Suddenly, a large red laser struck the barrier, and instantly the entire city began to shake. A massive earthquake caused thousands of buildings to collapse. The giant red laser was about to break through the barrier! How scary was that? Mais had never seen anything like it in his life. At that moment, the power of the laser increased even more, and its thickness exceeded 300 meters. The earthquake was so strong that Lagos lost his balance while running, and both of them were swept off their feet and flew toward the palace gate.
At that moment, Lagos should not have worried about himself. If he had hit the gate, he would not have been injured at all, but the same could not be said for Mais. Here he was as weak as an ant!
Suddenly, Mais spun in the air and swung his balance staff to the ground. When the staff hit the ground, of course it didn't pierce the ground, but the friction on the ground slowed down Mais' speed, and when Mais hit a few spots on his body, those spots started to turn white, and then he slammed into the double door.
BANNGG...!
Lagos grabbed his head and stood up to see Mais lying on the floor with his shoulder pressed against the open door. It wasn't the only place he was hurt, but he was holding it and his face was painfully grim, but he wasn't screaming. The pain he felt at that moment should have made an 8 year old scream.
"Are you okay, Mais?"
Mais nodded with tears in his eyes. He was an 8-year-old boy, after all, and it was hard to hold back his tears. They had to go to the palace. Not scream and cry. It was then, as they made their way into the palace, that Lagos realized what was happening. He understood what Mais had done at that moment. How had he protected himself from pain during the collision?
Mais had not touched his shoulder before the collision. But he had touched many parts of his body. These touches came from his understanding of the Tao of Cold. Mais had used the cold to numb his limbs and temporarily prevent him from feeling pain.
Lagos sighed. He hadn't even seen the traces of the Tao, but Mais had managed to use it in addition to feeling the Tao.
'Amazing!'
Despite all his abilities, Logos couldn't help but think that this was amazing.