Chapter 65 - Xi Shen's Fourteenth Birthday... Past Events Came To Light

Seeing her son’s panic expression, Lady Ying frowned and said, “Well aren’t you a man? You should start thinking about how many grandkids you’re going to give me. Maybe I’ll start looking for some families' young daughters you could marry. How about that girl from the Xie Family? Even though she only has an Earth-grade innate talent, she has been tested for a rare Heaven-grade soul. Or how about that junior sister Wang Yuwei from our Divine Star Academy? Although your cousin has the hots for her, I wouldn’t mind having a chat with her to make her choose my Shen’er.”

Hearing his mother listing out candidates one after another for a supposed marriage, Xi Shen felt overwhelmed by this sudden development. He didn’t know if he would get married in the future, or even if he wanted to get married.

Wanting to stop his mother, Xi Shen said, “Mom, I’m really not ready to get married as of yet, you don’t need to find any potential wife for me!”

Lady Ying shot a nasty glare at Xi Shen when she heard him, before she said, “If you're not ready to think about marriage then don’t go around calling yourself a man.”

Though after saying that, Lady Ying put on a doting smile before she said, “You just need to stay as my little Shen’er. If anything is troubling you, you can tell me and mother well handle it.”

As she said that, she raised her hand and gently rubbed Xi Shen’s right cheek.

Like a bashful little kid, Xi Shen embarrassingly nodded his head.

However, he couldn't help but have a random thought appear in his mind.

‘I wonder how many people can say that they have a Soul Transformation Realm cultivator as a protective halo.’

‘As for father, I’m not sure which cultivation realm he is in, but it must be in the Legendary Heavenly Realm.’

Xi Shen knew his mother was in the Late Soul Transformation Realm but was rumored to be able to battle someone in the Heavenly Realm with her music zither.

Xi Shen had read numerous books about cultivation but not one went past the late stage of the Soul Transformation Realm. Even among the secret archives, no information was there.

He didn’t know the reason why the cultivation clans and institute, and even his family, decided to hide such information, but he speculated it must be the nature of the realm or something along those lines.

Asides from his father, only the elder of the Celestial Academy, the previous Academy Leader of the Divine Star Academy, and three others that have been said to reach this mysterious realm.

But this is not counting the previous generations. Some old monsters that have lived for numerous millennia were in hiding.

They were the leaders of the previous institutes and clans that had gone into hiding to focus on cultivating after passing on their mantle.

The Li Clan was the most famous for this, and each successive Emperor, which was eight since the very first, had said to have entered the Heavenly Realm during their reign before passing on the throne, just like Xi Shen’s father.

Though even knowing this fact, Ghuanyu was still hell-bent on stirring up trouble on the Maple Continent.

Xi Shen wasn’t the only one who had thought that Ghuanyu had either gone delusional after leading the Ming Clan for so long, or he had some guarantee that made him confident he could butt heads with the current rulers of the Continent.

Since the Ming Clan was once the Maple Continent’s ruling Royal Family, most people would be inclined to think it was the latter.

As these thoughts ran through Xi Shen’s mind, he suddenly came to when he heard his mother start speaking.

“Your birthday party is already being planned, and the invitations have already been sent out to the various parties. On the eighth day of the 11th month, your birthday celebration will be held.”

Xi Shen nodded his head at that, but he heard his mother then say again.

“Oh, outside guests from another continent have sent their wishes to be invited as well, so various sects and clan’s from the Star Bound Continent will be attending your birthday…”

Xi Shen frowned at this and was ready to ask why his birthday would draw the attention of powers on the Star Bound Continent, but he suddenly heard his mother’s last sentence that made him look at her dumbfounded.

“...You’ll also be performing a song at the start of the celebration.”

Xi Shen immediately responded with befuddlement, “Why was the second prince of the Maple Continent performing a song at his own birthday, isn’t that position reserved for the actual performers who would be there? I’m not going to sing in front of so many people, that would be too embarrassing!”

Lady Ying’s hand was still on Xi Shen’s cheek, so when she heard him say that she had access to his right ear and she didn’t hesitate to pull on his earlobe. Which caused Xi Shen to yelp in pain even with his Heavenly Physique strengthening his body.

As Lady Ying tugged on Xi Shen’s ear, she berated him and said, “Why are you always so against singing, huh? I bet you think that’s what girls do and since you call yourself a man, I guest that it would hurt your pride to perform a woman’s work! Huh?!”

Hearing this, Xi Shen immediately denied it, “No-no-no, mother that’s not it! I just have stage fright, and I don’t like being the center of attention! I don’t think singing is only for women, I'm not thinking along those lines at all!”

Hearing her son’s words and seeing his sincere expression mixed with a bit of pain, she could tell he wasn’t lying.

Though she still held onto his earlobe for a bit longer and said after snorting, “It’s only a formality for the recipient of the birthday celebration to show of a skill of his, so there’s no need to be so worried about it.”

After that, Lady Ying let go of Xi Shen's throbbing earlobe and he couldn’t help but think in his heart, ‘If that’s the case why should I sing to display a talent, can’t I do something else?’

Xi Shen was still against this sudden arrangement being made by his mother, but he guessed he had to suck it up and just do it.

While rubbing his ears slightly, Xi Shen saw a thoughtful look on his mother’s face. He then heard her ask, “Shen’er, is the Celestial Academy a good fit for you?”

This question made Xi Shen got curious about what his mother meant, so he asked, “Why do you ask mother?”

After a moment of pause, Lady Ying then said, “It’s just that I think the Divine Star Academy would be a better suit for you since they have a department that solely focuses on studying music, as well as learning new ways to incorporate music into the cultivation world and battle opponents. The Celestial Academy has no such department, aren’t you going to be hindered in your progress to become a Soul Cultivator if you stay there? Mother can teach you what she knows, but it’s still better to learn from an institution that focuses on Soul Cultivation.”

Xi Shen hadn’t thought of that problem before, but his mother was right. From certain things he saw within the Celestial Academy, he could tell that they had a low opinion for Soul Cultivators who were basically musicians.

Meaning it would be hard to study being a Soul Cultivator if there was no environment designated for him to do so. Everyone’s focus in the Celestial Academy was just on their Qi cultivation, and the progress of their martial arts skills.

Thinking up to here, Xi Shen asked his mother curiously, “Mother, do you know why the Celestial Academy disregards Soul Cultivators so much? I found Soul Arts within their academy, so there must have been a time when Soul Cultivation was recognized by them.”

Lady Ying thought for a short moment before she released a long sigh as if she had decided to tell Xi Shen something rather troubling.

“This is not a kept secret, but not many people know about it, or were there any records of it anywhere on the Maple Continent.”

When Xi Shen heard that, he was taken aback. He hadn’t expected his simple question to touch on such a topic. He then listen closely to his mother’s words to see what this was all about.

“In the past, the 4th Emperor of our Li Royal Family took the Profound Sword Sect Patriarch at the time's third daughter when he ascended the throne as a peace-treaty marriage between the two continents.”

Upon hearing this Xi Shen was completely surprised, but his mother didn’t give him time to digest this piece of news and only continued to speak.

“She was the first concubine of the emperor but because of her status, she was treated no different than the queen herself. So when she took an interest in the Divine Star Academy music department and had suggested another Academy be built which would solely focus on combining the various aspects of the Music Dao and the Sword Dao together. The emperor didn’t object, and thus the Divine Music Academy was built. But who could have thought this was just a cover-up to her affair with another disciple from the Profound Sword Sect, who she had requested to be appointed as the Academy Leader.”

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Word Count: 1556