The Blindfolded Emperor: I Only Wanted a Quiet Life

Chapter 4: Three Fallen Stars

Jasper always had a saying—the higher you climb, the harder you fall, or every high has its low. Why not, when his life was a living example of that? He’d had everything and stood at the peak of his career, only to lose it all and end up with nothing. And whenever luck seemed to favor him, it always disappeared like smoke in the wind.

So as he stared at the third ability of the blindfold, even knowing the first two abilities would eventually leave him blind, he understood that it was worth the power. The world of cultivation he had read about—or better yet, every world he’d ever encountered—operated on one simple truth: the weak would always be trampled by the strong.

Jasper wasn’t dumb enough to believe otherwise.

Everyone had their goals and ambitions, no matter how holy they made themselves look. Even main characters who claimed to fight for noble causes were still the same at their core—if you had power, you fought your way to achieve what you wanted. The only difference was that victors wrote the tales, painting themselves as heroes while the fallen were remembered as villains.

Nothing was free.

But still, his luck couldn’t be that bad.

He read the third ability.

Third Ability — [Full Authority] (Three Uses)

The Eye was never meant to remain.

It was lost once.

It will be lost again.

The wearer is granted three uses of its full authority: the blindfold is lifted, and whatever the wearer looks upon is unmade—erased outright, as though it had never existed.

After the third…

The Eye of the Void will disappear, returning to that which even time cannot hold.

Jasper stared at the words, his eye twitching.

The system could have just given him a cooldown or something—why only three uses? This was supposed to be an item from a being of the Chaos Void, and yet it came with such a harsh limitation.

If his memory served correctly, the Chaos Void beings were entities that existed beyond the boundaries of reality itself, mentioned only once or twice in the original novel before the author dropped them entirely without any follow-up.

It was weird, honestly. Just bad writing, leaving such a powerful concept dangling without resolution.

He continued reading, and as he did, he noticed something else—his mind sea had awakened.

The realization settled into him like a stone dropping into still water, and he tried to recall the realms he’d read about in the story.

This cultivation system wasn’t the usual one found in most web novels—it had its own structure, with about twelve realms to reach immortality. Each realm was grouped into five phases.

The author had written that the reason for this was simple: there were particular realms where advancing from one to the next was the difference between earth and heaven, while others were merely stepping stones.

That was why they were grouped—the last realm that ended each phase and the first that began the next represented major leaps in power.

Starting with the Foundation phase, the first group had three realms within it. The second was the Master phase, also containing three realms. Third came the Spiritual Master phase with just two realms, the fourth was the Sovereign phase with two as well, and the final Eternal phase had two. Twelve realms in total.

Jasper sighed to himself, just realizing how far he had to go with only three uses of the blindfold’s ultimate ability.

But still, he hoped his future rewards would be worthwhile.

He asked the system to display his status, and the screen flickered with new writing.

The Blindless Sovereign System

Host: Jasper Stonehart

Rank: Unable to Foundation Phase 

Realm: None

Mind Sea Realm: Opened

Techniques: None

Jasper stared at the screen.

Was the last host this bad, or was he just too lazy to cultivate?

He couldn’t wrap his head around it. Why would someone challenge another cultivator when they had no cultivation of their own? That wasn’t confidence—that was practically begging to be killed.

Just as Jasper was lost in his thoughts, a knock came at the door. Chris and Victor’s voices filtered through, knowing their young master wasn’t cultivating.

“Young Master, your father has ordered for your presence immediately.”

Jasper blinked, genuinely surprised.

Who could blame him? He had always been neglected by the family—or rather, it was safer to say the previous owner of this body was never welcomed in the first place. So to hear his father wanted to see him was shocking, and Jasper had his doubts about what this could mean.

But he didn’t say anything.

He simply had to play the role of the former owner of this body—the obedient listener, the disappointing third son who never questioned anything.

He followed Chris and Victor as they led him through the inner estate, and as they walked, Jasper took in the surroundings with new eyes. The Stonehart estate sprawled across a considerable stretch of land, its architecture a blend of ancient elegance and subtle power.

Curved rooftops with dark tiles gleamed under the afternoon sun, and carefully manicured gardens lined the stone pathways, their flowers arranged in patterns that probably held some symbolic meaning he didn’t understand yet. Servants moved quietly along the edges of the walkways, heads bowed as they passed, while guards stood at regular intervals with sharp eyes that tracked his every step.

It was impressive, but modest compared to what Jasper imagined the greater noble families possessed. The Stonehart estate was a place of quiet dignity rather than overwhelming opulence, its wealth displayed through subtle details—the quality of the silk banners hanging from pillars, the fine craftsmanship of the wooden carvings that adorned doorways, the faint shimmer of protective formations woven into the very stones beneath his feet.

They reached the main building where the elders of the family and the head of the Stonehart household conducted their business, and the guards stationed at the entrance stopped Chris and Victor before allowing Jasper to enter alone.

As Jasper stepped into the head’s study, he took a moment to absorb the space. The room was spacious and lined with dark wooden shelves that stretched from floor to ceiling, each one crammed with scrolls, bound texts, and artifacts that hummed with faint spiritual energy.

A large desk dominated the center of the room, its surface cluttered with papers and a single ornate lamp that cast warm light across the space. Behind the desk sat a man Jasper recognized from the borrowed memories—his father, Lord Aldric Stonehart.

He was a stern-faced man with graying temples and eyes that held the weight of decades of responsibility. His robes were simple but finely made, and his posture spoke of a man who had spent his life carrying burdens he never asked for.

“Jasper,” his father said, his voice neutral. “Sit.”

---

Far away, in the kingdom of the Star Rise Dominion, the Empress sat on her throne.

Her royal palace was vast and breathtaking, with gold used liberally in its construction—not in the gaudy, ostentatious way of lesser kingdoms, but in a manner that felt almost otherworldly. Golden pillars rose to meet ceilings painted with scenes of ancient battles and mythical beasts, and the throne room itself stretched wide enough to hold a thousand subjects, though only a select few were permitted to stand before her.

The Empress herself was a beauty that every man in the world desired and every woman envied. She sat upon her throne with the casual grace of someone who had long since grown accustomed to power, her red robes draped elegantly across her form but doing little to conceal the smooth skin of her legs beneath.

She was beautiful and deadly in equal measure—a woman who demanded that others walk on eggshells around her, because those who didn’t rarely lived long enough to regret it.

But lately, some officials had begun to grow disloyal.

They stood before her now, their voices rising and falling as they pressed their case, trying to force her into doing something she had promised herself she would never do.

Marriage.

She looked at the officials, all of them begging for her to take a husband, and smiled.

The smile only made her look colder.