The Marquis They Threw Away

Chapter Two: A Complete Transformation

On the outskirts of town stood a run-down old house behind a crumbling wall. A cold wind swept through the yard, and the whole place felt empty and forsaken.

Gideon pushed open the gate, and a stench of decay rolled out to meet him. He frowned. This was the new home the King had prepared for him, the place where he would be kept as a prisoner from now on.

He stood before the gate, and an endless sorrow welled up in his chest. He could no longer hold it back, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Young Master!"

Wren rushed to help him up, her face full of worry.

"Wren, how many years have you been with me?"

"Seven years."

Her thoughts seemed to be pulled back to that winter, bitterly cold, when she was eight years old and nearly froze to death in the snow. The young master had found her and raised her with care. She had taken the surname Hale, and even the name Wren had been given to her by him.

"Seven years. Time flies."

Gideon looked up. The night was as black as ink, just like his heart at that moment, empty of any light.

Suddenly, he clenched his fist, a cold glint in his eyes.

"The fate of Morrow was mine to decide, and it is mine to throw into chaos. Wren, tell your three older brothers to be ready."

"Yes, Young Master."

Wren nodded. She knew that Morrow was about to be turned upside down once more.

Gideon walked into the yard, opened a door at random, and staggered inside.

"I want to be alone for a while."

He shut the door tightly and spat out another mouthful of blood. His old injury had flared up again, and with everything he had endured that day, he could hold on no longer. He collapsed to the floor and lost consciousness.

Boom.

A golden light struck the depths of his soul and pulled him out of the darkness.

The scene before him changed. A golden world opened around him, and he saw his shattered wellspring and a nine-colored jade stone spinning at tremendous speed.

The jade was no bigger than a thumb, and Gideon knew it well. It had appeared the first time he looked inward at his wellspring, back when he began his training.

The nine-colored jade had been with him since birth, sleeping in the wellspring for years without ever getting in the way of his training. Over time, he had forgotten it.

Now, in this desperate hour, the jade was behaving strangely.

Buzzing.

The stone trembled violently, as if some ancient force were pushing against it from inside.

The next moment, the jade burst apart with a crash, and a crimson-gold palace rose from the broken wellspring.

The nine-story golden palace grew larger and larger until it stood before him.

"Where is this place?"

Gideon was filled with doubt and astonishment. Even for a man of his composure and experience, it was a shock to find a golden palace growing inside him.

The gleaming towers and halls seemed to belong to the heavens. His feet carried him forward on their own, and soon he stood before the palace gates.

The bronze gates gave off an aura of countless ages, as if they had existed since the dawn of time. They were covered with densely packed runes, ancient and mysterious. Above them, two words were carved in enormous letters: Eternal Temple.

Standing before it, Gideon felt so small he barely existed, a single drop in the ocean.

The doors creaked open. Blinding light poured out of the hall, so bright and so full of color that he could not keep his eyes open.

He kept his excitement in check. He knew his time had come.

He still had no idea what this temple was. But he was a cripple with a shattered wellspring and broken channels, so there was nothing left in the world that could frighten him.

As he stepped inside, a flood of knowledge rushed into his mind.

The Eternal Temple, awe-inspiring through the ages. Master the Eternal Skyreach Art, forge the Nine Thunder Veins, and achieve the Eternal Sovereign Body.

Gideon found himself on the first floor of the temple. In front of him lay a huge pool that roared without pause.

The Thunder Pool was a full ten feet square. Seven-colored lightning crackled across its surface, and the thunder sounded like the howls of ten thousand ancient beasts, enough to send chills down a man's spine.

"Master the Eternal Skyreach Art, forge the Nine Thunder Veins, achieve the Eternal Sovereign Body. Does that mean I have to jump into this pool, form the Thunder Veins, and lay the foundation for the Eternal Sovereign Body?"

He was thinking of the words that had surfaced in his mind.

"You're quite smart."

An aged voice rang out, and Gideon flinched.

"Who? Who's speaking?"

He looked around but saw no one. Still, he was certain someone had spoken. It was no hallucination.

"Zzz... zzz... whoosh..."

What answered him was a chorus of snores, loud and clear, rising and falling in waves along with the thunder from the pool.

"Elder? Elder..."

He called out several times, but the only reply was another hearty snore.

"This..."

Gideon was speechless. The Eternal Temple had been hidden inside the nine-colored jade, and now it had grown out of his wellspring, which meant it was inside his own body. And someone was sleeping in it? Wasn't that absurd?

Since he couldn't wake the stranger, he turned his attention to the pool. The mysterious voice had confirmed his guess. The Thunder Pool was his chance, and there was no reason to back away.

"I'm a cripple. What do I have to be afraid of? The worst that can happen is that I die."

Gideon gritted his teeth and leaped into the pool.

"Ahhh!"

A shrill scream echoed through the temple. Even with his iron will, he could not endure the pain of being tempered by lightning.

The bolts turned into lightning serpents that drilled into his body again and again, trying to tear through his channels and devour every inch of his skin.

The pain was excruciating. The agony was scorching. His body was engulfed in lightning and fire, a phoenix rising from the ashes.

The first level of the Eternal Skyreach Art: Thunder Vein Foundation!

A formula seeped into his mind. Gideon's willpower far exceeded that of ordinary men. He endured the pain that was tearing him apart and kept his mind from breaking. He ran the formula through his thoughts and began to absorb the power of lightning with everything he had.

Soon, a Thunder Vein formed inside him, running through his whole body like an ancient river, gathering lightning without end.

In the discipline of power, the wellspring is the foundation. With the wellspring at the center, a warrior draws on the primal energy of sky and earth to open the eighteen channels of the body and link them in pairs.

Eleanor Ashcroft was an eighth-rank master, which meant she had opened sixteen channels. Wren had opened eighteen, which made her a ninth-rank master.

Opening the channels was only the foundation. In this vast world, it was nothing to be proud of. Above the ninth rank lay the Awakened Realm, and only those who reached it could truly count themselves among the warriors.

Morrow was only an ordinary kingdom on the continent of Cloudreach, with few Awakened experts. At his peak, Gideon, the Champion Marquis, had already reached the Awakened Realm and was nearly invincible in Morrow.

Now his broken channels had been rebuilt. If he could forge all nine Thunder Veins, who could say how powerful he would become?

The endless pain kept eating away at his body until he was numb with agony.

But his mind grew clearer and clearer, and the speed at which he ran the formula increased.

Soon the second, third, and fourth Thunder Veins appeared. By the time the fifth had formed, Gideon could no longer feel the lightning at all. All he felt was an indescribable pleasure.

"So comfortable."

He bathed in the sea of thunder. With five Thunder Veins as the foundation, the remaining four took shape on their own.

"Zzz... zzz... boom..."

The sleeper snored louder and louder, almost like thunder.

"Honored elder, aren't you being a little rude?"

Gideon was completely speechless. What kind of creature was sleeping in this temple? He had been screaming like a baby, and it had slept soundly through all of it.

The suffocating snores rolled on, thick as ever.

Never mind. He would just keep going.

Over the next three days, he advanced with unstoppable momentum and fully formed the Nine Thunder Veins inside his body. The nine brand-new channels replaced his old eighteen and ran through his whole body, all of them connected to his wellspring.

At the same time, his shattered wellspring was completely restored, and it became a sea of lightning, rolling and surging. An unmatched power swept through him, and the long-lost feeling of strength made him throw back his head and roar at the sky.

"Ha ha ha! My wellspring is restored and the Thunder Veins are formed. By my current level, I should be at the ninth rank, no doubt. But the Thunder Veins give me far more than my old eighteen channels ever did. I can feel it. My power has already passed my peak."

He felt the changes in his body, and boundless pride and joy surged through him.

"He actually formed the Nine Thunder Veins in just three days."

The snoring stopped. The voice spoke again, this time with surprise.

"Elder, you're awake. I have some questions for you."

Gideon spoke up quickly.

"No need to ask. I am the guardian of this Eternal Temple. Now that you have awakened the Eternal Sovereign Body, you are the master of this temple. Your path is still long. Many interesting things are waiting for you to discover in the nine-story temple."

The guardian answered his questions in a single breath.

"How should I address you, Elder? Would you be so kind as to show yourself?"

"What am I called? What am I? Who am I? I am a ball of fire, I... zzz... howl..."

The snoring began again. He had fallen asleep!

Gideon just shook his head.

Was sleeping really that addictive?

The guardian had said he spent three days forming the Thunder Veins, which meant three days had passed since he entered the temple.

He had no idea what had happened outside in that time. With a thought, he left the Eternal Temple.

In the yard, true energy was clashing. Someone was fighting.

He pushed open the door and saw Wren locked in a fierce battle with a figure in black.

"As expected of the Scarlet Wraith the Champion Marquis trained in secret. Even at the ninth rank, you've withstood three of my moves."

The man in black looked at Wren in surprise, then struck out with his palm. It froze halfway through the strike, and the temperature of the entire yard plunged with that single blow.

Gideon's face changed the moment he saw that palm.

"Stop!"

Wren had exceptional bones and rare talent. She had been born with a fiery inner energy, and she trained under Gideon's own guidance. Though she was only at the ninth rank, she already had the strength to fight opponents at the Awakened level.

But she was no match for the man in front of her.

The man in black turned to Gideon, stopped his attack, and showed a cold face in the darkness.

"Champion Marquis, how have you been?"

"It's you."

Gideon strode up to Wren, his eyes blazing with fury as he glared at the man. In that instant, he understood everything.

"Marcus Thorne, Captain of the King's Guard."

His chest heaved, his thoughts a storm.

"A month ago, at Broken Sky Mountain, I was fighting the enemy's commander when someone ambushed me at the critical moment. That is what left me in this state. The man who ambushed me that day was you."

He knew the name Marcus Thorne, but he'd never once seen him fight. Still, he could never forget the Frost Palm that Thorne had just used on Wren. It was the same technique used in the ambush on the mountain.

If it hadn't been for that sneak attack, with his strength, how could he have been defeated?

"That's right. It was me."

Thorne had been found out, so he stopped hiding it. After all, the Champion Marquis was a cripple now. What could he do, even knowing the truth?

"So the King wants me dead."

Gideon's fingernails dug into his palms, and his body trembled.

"Why?"

He could understand losing his title and being cast off by the princess, now that he was crippled. But now he knew the King himself had arranged all of it.

It had all been a plot.

But why?

He had won great victories and served the kingdom in countless ways. Why was he being treated like this?

"The reason? Gideon, seeing how pitiful you are, I might as well tell you."

Thorne smiled coolly.

"You're famous and beloved, Champion Marquis, and your achievements outshine the King's own. You reached the Awakened Realm at twenty-two. With a man like you around, the King can't sleep at night. You are too young.

"On top of that, the King has learned that you took in four extraordinary young prodigies and trained them in secret. Now they are the four hidden threats at your back. Think about it. How terrifying is a man like you? How could the King sleep?"

Boom.

Thorne's words hit Gideon like a thunderbolt and left him stunned.

So that was it. He'd outshone his own king.

The King lay awake at night, but Gideon had never once thought of rebellion.

"Three days ago, the princess was beaten by your maid. A fifteen-year-old ninth-rank expert! How terrifying. And what's more terrifying is that the Four Wraiths you trained have vanished without a trace. The other three may already have slipped into the court.

"Tell us where those three are, and the King will guarantee that the Champion Marquis lives a long and peaceful life in the capital."

Thorne let the words sink in — that was why he'd come tonight.

The discovery of the Four Wraiths was the real reason the Champion Marquis was being imprisoned.

The Champion Marquis's influence was too great. If his followers were not wiped out, the King would still never sleep in peace.