Above The Sky-Chapter 1908 - 396: The Unfinished Prologue

Once there was a prince. He was neither the eldest son nor a legitimate son, merely an illegitimate son born to the emperor and a consort.

He grew up amidst the intrigue and deceit of the royal family; his mother couldn’t help him in the slightest. Although the Setal Imperial Family didn’t enforce particularly strict controls over the princes and princesses, in the power struggles between the eldest imperial son and legitimate sons, every prince and princess was closely monitored. Any intention to step out of line would be suppressed.

Of course, he didn’t care, because the places he went and the things he did could be known to anyone.

He liked going to the library and also enjoyed conducting ecological surveys in the countryside. Before he was fourteen, he had already written two academic works: one was the "Report on the Development of Biological Resources Around the Imperial Capital," and the other was "On the Power Struggles and Issues Related to the Loss of Arable Land Surrounding the Water Resources of the Quinor Plains."

Obviously, none of his peers, nor even his elder siblings twelve years his senior, could truly understand what he was writing. Even those who understood a little didn’t comprehend why he would conduct such "pointless" research.

The brothers and sisters believed it was the Eleventh Prince’s way of showing himself to be ’smart’, ’useful’, and ’harmless’. This was indeed the case; no one felt threatened by a true genius scholar. Even if some found it pretentious, they never discovered any flaws in him. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Later, everyone knew that as long as the funding was provided, the Eleventh Prince was more than happy not to compete for the position of Crown Prince. He would rather spend all day outside conducting research, then return to the Imperial Capital to immerse himself in the laboratory, studying his strange insects, slime molds, and who knows what else.

The prince understood clearly that the reason he was able to achieve such accomplishments was because he was a prince.

Because of his status, he could go wherever he wanted, research whatever he pleased, and local officials would assist.

The reason he could achieve so much at fourteen, besides his inherent talent, was that no one obstructed his pursuit of interests; some even actively supported him.

For ordinary people, this would be impossible. In his studies and explorations of various ecologies, the Eleventh Prince realized that many people’s lives could not be as they wished. Their lifelong struggles were for survival, not living.

Escorted by a group of local officials as he ventured into the mountains in search of a rare magical plant, children his age in local villages were already becoming independent, even getting married and having children. They had to fight against the poisonous insects and ferocious beasts of the wild, and ate the simplest, coarsest food daily.

He once locked eyes with such a peer — in the other’s gaze, aside from caution and respect, there was a numbness born from exhaustion.

Those numb eyes took root in his heart.

Undoubtedly, being a prince allowed him to choose the life he desired.

But being a prince also indeed shackled his potential.

If he were the child of an ordinary wealthy merchant or a typical Sublimator family, with the Eleventh Prince’s talent, even if his achievements were a bit lower, he could have become a leader in a certain field long ago. But because he was a prince, and one without potential for the throne, he had to avoid standing out too much, lest he be suppressed by his siblings.

He didn’t mind this.

Because he simply wanted to explore this vast world, to personally experience the boundless vastness of the world, to witness with his own eyes the beauty, legends, and folklore depicted in books... He wanted to know too much, therefore he didn’t care about achievements and status.

The starry sky and double moons, the drifting clouds and swift winds, the vast seas and long rivers, the towering mountains... those wondrous magical beasts, the extraordinary Ascension Sites, the distant wonders spoken of only in adventurers’ tales, and the ancient ruins seen only in legends.

Adventurers, in the camps, played music full of longing for distant lands; ballad poets in taverns played instruments and sang those exaggerated epic stories.

Compared to these things, the throne was merely trivial; he never wanted to be emperor.

Yet perhaps it’s a blessing, or maybe a curse.

The freer one is from the seat, the more they inevitably become its prisoner.

During an exploration, while investigating a certain prehistoric ruin, the prince unexpectedly acquired a legendary item that would change his life forever.

A ’Silver Chip’.

The chip wasn’t discovered by him first. In fact, this prehistoric ruin had already been explored multiple times in the past, and the Silver Chip was located at the center of a group of skeletons, stored within an Obsidian Box.

Analysis showed that everyone perished fighting over the Silver Chip, poisoning water sources and murdering each other... not a single one of the eleven ruins adventurers survived; they were all forever left in an obscure cave corner of the ruins.

The reason the prince discovered this hidden spot was due to his Spirit Energy.

Driven by a desire to see unseen, strange, rare sights and events, his Spirit Energy guided him along paths between all things, helping him uncover extraordinary connections within the ordinary — it was by following these ancient clues that he found this remote corner.