At first, it was barely more than a flicker.
But it grew.
Brighter. Stronger. Closer.
He reached out… not with his hands though. His body had already vanished.
He reached out with his soul. His essence.
And when he touched it…
The pain vanished. So did the darkness.
And then…
A cry.
"Wahhh… wahhhh…"
"My voice. Why am I crying?" he suddenly felt puzzled.
He didn't mean to. But his body trembled without permission. He tried to stop, tried to breathe steadily, control his limbs…but nothing listened.
He wasn't in control at all.
Not anymore.
He slowly opened his eyes. His sight was still a bit hazy. Shapes loomed around him…blurred and formless.
Slowly, his vision grew clear. First, a ceiling. Then, unknown figures staring at him.
He could hear the voices as well.
"He cries like a baby… but stares like a lion," someone muttered watching his gaze.
Then a softer one, trembling with warmth:
"He's so adorable… Look at him, Rudeous. Our son."
"Son?" Aiden's mind raced. It all felt jumbled up.
While he was still trying to process, a hand brushed against his forehead.
Gentle lips pressed against his skin.
"My sweet boy… Logan."
The name sounded unfamiliar, yet filled with warmth.
"Logan? No… I'm…" His mind froze.
He didn't remember his last breath.
Only the sword.
The betrayal.
Nolan's face.
His own blood on the dirt.
Then the voice in the void…
"A soul unyielding shall not perish."
"Was I dreaming?! Or am I hallucinating now?! What the hell is going on?"
His mind was buzzing with these internal thoughts. And then there were these two unknown persons.
They called themselves Rudeous and Alice. Their voices were kind, even the male one which was deep. He saw their faces, just barely. The woman had silver hair and black eyes while the man had light brown hair and sharp green eyes.
"Parents?" It made no sense.
"I died, didn't I? Then what am I doing here? Where the hell is this place?" he couldn't put together what was going on anymore.
Time passed slowly. Many others came to visit him. Some cupped his cheek and gave it an affectionate pull while some caressed his head. All praised and congratulated both Rudeous and Alice.
Soon the night fell and then came the moment he had been waiting for. He needed to know what was going on.
That night, in the silence of the nursery, he focused inward.
There were no voices. Just the quiet hum of the wind outside the window.
He closed his eyes.
His breathing slowed.
He inhaled, then held it for a few seconds, and then exhaled slowly.
A rhythm carved into him through decades of training.
The minutes dragged on.
And then suddenly….
He felt something.
Just a flicker but not hard to recognize.
Qi!
It was faint. Not in a form.
Not gathered in a dantian. Not running through proper meridians. Nothing like the world he came from.
But….it was there.
He could feel its existence.
Just barely, but enough. He had been familiar with this for his whole life.
Relief enveloped him.
Tears rolled down his cheeks.
Gratitude? Regret? He didn't know.
But one thing was clear.
His memories weren't illusions. His past life wasn't a lie.
He really had a life.
And now?
He had been reborn.
He opened his eyes and stared at the wooden ceiling above.
His body was weak. Useless for now.
But his mind was clear, capable of thinking.
"This isn't an illusion," he told himself. "This is real."
His instinct immediately told him what to do next.
He couldn't cultivate. Not yet. His body wasn't ready.
"I must observe for now. Learn. Adapt."
And that's exactly what he did.
He began to watch everything. Like he was collecting information to survive in this new place.
The way Alice leaned over him, whispering lullabies in soft, breathy tones.
The way Rudeous stood near the door, arms crossed, saying little but seeing everything.
"So they really are my parents."
He heard the servants too. Their quiet voices, hushed gossip.
They respected Alice. But not like nobility.
She was kind, polite, and gentle.
But she wasn't from a noble background.
Rudeous… he held power. He wasn't cruel. But he was distant.
Often his gaze lingered on Aiden or presently Logan. But it felt more like he was calculating instead of being affectionate.
Then came the other woman.
Lady Mirena.
He only saw her once.
She entered the room with a servant trailing behind. Her posture was perfect. But her expression was too cold.
She looked at him.
Not like a child, but more like a problem. Like a threat.
She said nothing and left.
Alice's shoulders had stiffened the moment she walked in.
"The first wife."
He understood instantly.
Then came the boy.
A few years older. He looked proud in tailored robes.
"Darius," someone addressed him.
He walked past Logan's cradle once. He slowed down a bit while passing and looked at him.
Their eyes met.
Logan didn't blink. Neither did he.
Darius sneered. "He looks boring." he walked away.
"So. I'm not alone. I have a brother." Logan thought.
He was already mapping the family structure in his mind.
Rudeous was a noble. Two wives. Two sons. One heir. One spare.
He'd seen it all before… in kingdoms, in courts, in bloodied war camps.
This world had power. And where there's power… there's hierarchy.
Days passed like that.
Observation. Breathing. Quiet reflection.
He cried only when necessary, to stay unnoticed.
He mimicked the blank stares of infants. The clumsy movements.
But inside, he watched everything.
Alice's kindness. Darius's arrogance. The quiet pressure in the halls.
Days passed, and slowly, his body began to respond. Small movements. Then crawling.
Then came the moment he hadn't expected.
He had crawled too fast and slipped on polished marble.
A sharp jolt of pain ran through his elbow.
It wasn't serious.
But the frustration… it hit hard.
He clenched his teeth…. but they didn't even exist yet.
He cried out.
Not from injury.
But from weakness. From helplessness.
Alice rushed in.
"Oh, my poor baby…"
She lifted him gently onto the bed, humming softly to calm him.
Then she placed her hand over the bruised spot on his arm.
A soft green glow lit beneath her palm.
Warm. Comforting.
And then… the pain started fading.
Logan's eyes widened.
She wasn't using any medical kit. She wasn't even holding anything.
Just… touching.
And then, what came next shocked him even more.
With a wave of her hand, water drifted from the air.
She used it to wipe his tear-streaked cheeks.
"What the hell was that?" Logan totally lost his cool inside his mind.
Water. From nothing.
Light. From her hands.
No way it was any internal energy manipulation. He was sure of it.
No Qi. No internal energy. No technique.
This was entirely different.
He couldn't shake what he had just seen.
Alice's hand glowing softly, the warmth, the water floating gently in the air, then the pain slowly vanishing. It all felt so unreal.
His mind buzzed with these internal thoughts.
He totally forgot to cry.
Just stared at her with wide frozen eyes like time had stopped.
Not from fear.
But from awe.
"This world… It's different."
"None of what I knew explained what I just saw. It broke every rule I lived by."
Something like glowing mist swirled around Alice. Logan couldn't see it. But he felt it somehow.
He lay back on the bed after Alice left the room. The ceiling above looked the same but his thoughts didn't.
"First, I was reborn.
I wasn't even sure if it was real.
But somehow I could still make sense when I felt the Qi.
But now… this?"
His heart was pounding so fast.
This unknown phenomenon..this existence that he felt… it stirred something inside Logan that he thought had died long ago.
"Curiosity."
In the days that followed, he showed nothing unusual.
He acted like any other infant…fumbling, giggling, crying when needed. But inside, his thoughts were wide awake, constantly chasing every detail he saw.
He watched servants clean the halls with a flick of their fingers, brooms sweeping the floor without touch.
He saw bandages wrap themselves around small wounds.
It wasn't just Alice.
Everyone used it.
Those glowing, dust-like particles? They were everywhere.
He studied the rhythm of it.
This wasn't his regular internal energy and Qi flowing through the veins and meridians.
He listened quietly, piecing things together. The glowing mist drifting through the air… it was mana. And when people controlled it, bent it to their will… they called it…
MAGIC!!!!
Logan continued watching silently.
Sometimes, he tried to draw in those mist-like particles and manipulate them. But he failed. Still, he wasn't disappointed. He was curious- but not in a hurry
He knew exactly what chasing power blindly could lead to. His past life taught him that the hard way. Betrayed by his disciple.
"I lost everyone, not because I was weak, but because we were all running after power with no purpose.
Not this time.
This time, if I seek strength again, it won't be for glory. It won't be for status.
It'll be for one reason only….
To protect the people I couldn't protect before.
The ones I love."