## Chapter 1: The Survival Guide of a Useless Prince
The scent of fermented spirit peaches and roasted heavenly dragon-carp hung heavy in the opulent air of the Great Solarity Hall. Golden chandeliers, fueled by the cores of profound beasts, cast a warm, flickering glow over the hundreds of nobles, ministers, and royal family members gathered within. It was a scene of unimaginable wealth and absolute power, the beating heart of the Great Yan Dynasty, a cultivation empire that spanned millions of miles and governed the fates of billions of mortals and cultivators alike.
Amidst the silk sleeves, the clinking of jade cups, and the veiled, calculating glances of the imperial court, sat Li Ye.
He was the Ninth Prince of Great Yan, and today was his sixteenth birthday. By all rights, a sixteenth birthday in the royal family was a momentous occasion. It was the age of awakening, the time when a prince's spiritual roots were formally tested before the ancestral altar, determining whether he would become a dragon soaring through the nine heavens or a worm writhing in the mud.
Li Ye, however, had already been declared a worm long ago.
Slumped in his carved mahogany chair, his robes of deep violet silk slightly disheveled, Li Ye held a jade flagon of wine in one hand, his face flushed with the rosy hue of deep intoxication. His eyes were half-closed, his head lolling to the side as he giggled at a passing servant girl, his breath reeking of high-grade spirit wine.
"More..." Li Ye slurred, slamming the empty flagon onto the table with a loud, ungraceful clatter that drew sneers of disgust from the neighboring tables. "Bring this prince more of the Thousand-Year Dream wine! And bring that dancer over here, the one with the bells on her ankles!"
At the tables nearby, his older half-brothers watched him with expressions ranging from pity to outright contempt.
"A disgrace," the First Prince muttered, his posture perfectly straight, his aura radiating the sharp, cutting edge of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. "To think the blood of the Imperial Father flows through the veins of such trash. Sixteen years old, and he hasn't even sensed Qi. He spends his days in brothels and his nights gambling."
"Brother, be at ease," the Third Prince said with a serpentine smile, waving a fan painted with soaring cranes. "A dynasty needs its pillars, but it also needs its footstools. Little Ninth serves perfectly well as an example of what not to be. Besides, his lack of ambition is... comforting."
Li Ye heard every word. His senses, sharpened not by cultivation but by decades of brutal, unforgiving experience in a life long past, picked up the subtle shifts in the air, the micro-expressions on his brothers' faces, the exact rhythm of their breathing.
He continued to smile foolishly, swaying in his seat, but behind the hazy, drunken veil of his eyes, an intellect as cold and sharp as a scalpel was constantly working.
In a previous life, on a world of steel and concrete, he had not been a prince. He had been a ghost. Code-named 'Zero', he was the top intelligence operative and assassin for a global superpower. He had collapsed regimes, orchestrated silent coups, and eliminated targets heavily guarded by modern armies, all without leaving a single fingerprint behind. He survived in that ruthless world by adhering to three absolute principles: Trust no one. Never reveal your true strength. Always have a contingency plan.
His reward for a lifetime of perfect service? Betrayal. The agency he served decided he knew too much, possessed too much lethal skill, and had become a liability. He was poisoned by his handler—the only person in the world he had dared to consider a friend.
When he closed his eyes in that world, he expected the void. Instead, he opened them to the silk-draped crib of the Great Yan Dynasty's imperial harem, reborn as the son of an unloved concubine who died in childbirth.
From the moment he could walk, Li Ye recognized the imperial palace for what it was: a gilded meat grinder. The struggle for the throne was a subtle, blood-soaked game where brothers poisoned brothers, concubines cursed each other, and showing even a hint of talent was an invitation to an early grave. Geniuses died young here. The mediocre, however, were ignored.
And so, Li Ye became the most perfectly mediocre, harmless, and useless entity the dynasty had ever seen. He faked a completely sealed meridian network. He acted the part of a lecherous, lazy, gluttonous fool. He was a piece of trash, a silk-pants prince with no backing, no talent, and no ambition.
But a top spy never truly stops operating.
While the court saw a drunken fool, the criminal underworld of the capital knew of a shadowy figure who controlled the black market. Over the past ten years, using his knowledge of psychology, economics, and clandestine operations, Li Ye had secretly built an empire in the shadows.
He had founded the Golden Scales Chamber of Commerce, a massive conglomerate that controlled the supply lines of low-grade spirit stones and medicinal herbs throughout the southern provinces. He had established the Hidden Blades, a network of assassins and intelligence gatherers comprised of orphans he had personally trained in the lethal arts of espionage and assassination.
He had done all of this through proxy leaders, dead drops, and convoluted chains of command. Even the heads of his organizations did not know the true identity of their master. To them, he was simply "The Architect."
*Patience,* Li Ye thought, taking another swig of wine and letting some of it spill down his chin. *Survival is a marathon, not a sprint. The higher you stand in the light, the larger the target on your back.*
Suddenly, the deafening chatter of the hall fell dead silent.
At the far end of the Great Solarity Hall, sitting upon a throne carved from a single piece of profound ice-jade, Emperor Li Yuan raised a hand. The Emperor was a terrifying figure, a mighty cultivator at the Void Amalgamation realm whose very breath could alter the weather in the capital. His eyes, cold and fathomless, swept over the hall before landing on his drunken ninth son.
Li Ye immediately sensed the shift in the room's atmosphere. He felt the phantom prickle of killing intent, the subtle weight of political maneuvering. He slumped lower in his chair, pretending to fall half-asleep.
"Today marks the sixteenth winter of my ninth son, Li Ye," the Emperor's voice echoed, carrying a resonant power that vibrated in the chests of everyone present. It wasn't a voice of fatherly warmth; it was the voice of a god moving pieces on a chessboard.
"Though he lacks the divine roots for the grand Dao, he is still of imperial blood. It is time he took on the responsibilities of a man. Chancellor Wang, read the decree."
An elderly man in elaborate court robes stepped forward, unfurling a scroll of shimmering golden silk.
Li Ye's internal alarms blared. *Responsibilities? Marriage? A fiefdom? What is the old monster planning?* He maintained his slack-jawed expression, letting out a soft, drunken snore.
The Chancellor cleared his throat, his voice magically amplified. "By the will of the Heavens and the decree of the Emperor! The Ninth Prince, Li Ye, having reached the age of maturity, shall be granted a grand marriage. The bride chosen is the jewel of the Northern Reaches, the commander of the Frost-Iron Vanguard... Lin Xuan, daughter of General Lin Kuang!"
A collective gasp sucked the air out of the Great Solarity Hall. The silence that followed was so absolute you could hear a pin drop. Then, a low murmur of shock, disbelief, and poorly concealed amusement ripped through the crowd.
Even Li Ye, behind his mask of drunken stupor, felt his heart skip a beat.
*Lin Xuan? The Female God of War?* Every intelligence report he had read over the past three years flashed through his mind. Lin Xuan was a monster. At eighteen years old, she had already broken through to the Nascent Soul realm, a feat practically unheard of in the history of Great Yan. She was a military genius, a ruthless killer who bathed in the blood of the northern barbarian tribes. She despised weakness, hated the capital's decadent nobles, and was fiercely loyal to her father, the general who controlled a third of the empire's military might.
Why would the Emperor marry his most useless son to the most powerful young woman in the empire?
The political calculus processed in Li Ye's mind in milliseconds.
*The Lin family's military power is growing too great. The Emperor fears a rebellion. He needs to tie the Lin family to the royal family to keep them in check. But, if he marries Lin Xuan to a capable prince—like the First or Third Prince—that prince would gain the backing of the northern army, instantly upsetting the balance of power and threatening the Emperor's own throne. The solution? Marry the general's terrifying daughter to the most absolute trash in the royal family.*
It was a masterstroke of political humiliation and control. It insulted the Lin family while simultaneously neutralizing Lin Xuan as a political asset for any ambitious prince.
And it placed Li Ye right in the crosshairs of a furious, bloodthirsty female general who would likely despise him the moment she laid eyes on him.
"Ninth Brother!" the First Prince called out, unable to hide his malicious glee. "Did you hear the Imperial Father's grace? You are to marry General Lin's daughter! You truly are blessed by the heavens!"
Li Ye blinked, rubbing his eyes clumsily. He pushed himself up, swaying violently, and offered a sloppy, exaggerated bow toward the throne.
"Thank... thank you, Imperial Father!" Li Ye yelled, his voice cracking. "Is... is she pretty? I heard the women from the north are very... very fierce in bed! Can she drink as much as I can?"
A wave of laughter erupted from the nobles. Disgust flashed across the Emperor's cold eyes, but he merely waved a hand dismissively. "The wedding will take place in one month. Take the prince back to his estate to rest. He has disgraced himself enough for one night."
Two eunuchs quickly stepped forward, grabbing Li Ye by the arms and practically dragging him out of the hall. He continued to babble nonsense, singing a bawdy tavern song as they hauled him through the magnificent corridors of the imperial palace.
The midnight air was crisp and biting as the unmarked, unassuming carriage rattled over the cobblestones toward the outer ring of the capital. The Ninth Prince's estate was located far from the luxurious inner city, situated in a quiet, almost forgotten district.
Inside the carriage, the suffocating stench of cheap perfume and alcohol lingered. But the man sitting on the velvet cushions was no longer the bumbling fool from the banquet.
The moment the carriage doors had closed, Li Ye's posture had straightened with military precision. The drunken flush vanished from his face, replaced by an expression of absolute, terrifying calm. His eyes, previously glazed and wandering, were now sharp, clear, and cold as the void.
He reached into his robes, pulling out a small porcelain vial, and swallowed a pill that instantly neutralized the alcohol in his system. He hadn't actually drank much; most of it had ended up on his robes, but a spy never took chances with his own cognitive functions.
"Shadow," Li Ye spoke. His voice was no longer the high-pitched slur of a playboy, but a deep, resonant baritone that carried undeniable authority.
From the absolute darkness of the carriage corner, a figure seemed to peel itself away from the shadows. It was a man dressed entirely in black, his face obscured by a featureless mask. He dropped to one knee, bowing his head in perfect submission.
"Master," the assassin replied, his voice a dry rasp.
"The decree tonight," Li Ye said, staring out the window at the passing city. "I need an updated profile on Lin Xuan by morning. Every habit, every battle she has fought, every servant in her retinue. I want to know how many breaths she takes in a minute while sleeping."
"It will be done, Master. The Hidden Blades in the north have already been mobilizing." Shadow hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Master... this marriage. It puts you in grave danger. Lin Xuan is known to be temperamental. If she feels insulted by this arrangement, she may attempt to accidentally 'cripple' you during a spar to void the marriage."
"I am aware," Li Ye said softly. "The Emperor has placed me on the executioner's block to stall for time against the Lin family. If Lin Xuan kills me, the Emperor has the perfect excuse to execute her and strip her father of his command for murdering a royal prince. I am the bait."
He smiled, a chilling, humorless curve of his lips. "It is a good plan. Unfortunately for my beloved Imperial Father, I have no intention of dying for his political games."
The carriage slowed, passing through the rusted iron gates of the Ninth Prince's Manor. The courtyard was overgrown with weeds, the paint on the pillars peeling. It looked exactly like the residence of an impoverished, forgotten prince.
Li Ye stepped out of the carriage. The driver, an old man who looked like a stiff breeze could knock him over, gave a subtle nod. The old man was, in fact, a mid-stage Core Formation master, a rogue cultivator Li Ye had saved from a blood feud five years ago, whose loyalty was bound by an unbreakable blood oath.
Li Ye walked through the dilapidated halls of his manor, dismissing the few clumsy maids and servants. He entered his study, a dusty room filled with cheap romance novels and poetry scrolls. He walked to the bookshelf, pulling a specific sequence of three books.
*Click.*
The entire bookshelf sank silently into the floor, revealing a stone staircase illuminated by glowing moss. Li Ye descended, the heavy stone door sealing seamlessly behind him.
At the bottom of the stairs lay his true domain.
The underground base was a marvel of architectural and runic engineering. Massive pillars inscribed with sound-dampening, Qi-masking, and divine-sense-blocking arrays supported the ceiling. Ranks of heavily armed, silent guards stood at attention, their auras concealed but lethal. These were his personal guards, trained in the arts of group combat and shadow strikes.
He walked into the central command chamber, taking a seat behind a massive obsidian desk. Several figures stepped forward from the gloom.
"Report," Li Ye commanded.
A plump man wearing the garish silks of a merchant bowed low. This was Gold, the public face of the Golden Scales Chamber of Commerce. "Master, the grain reserves in the southern provinces have been secured. We have also cornered the market on the Blood-Clotting Grass. The military will have to buy from our shell companies at a three-hundred percent markup."
"Good. Divert those funds into purchasing more high-grade spirit stones. I want the concealment arrays around this base upgraded to withstand the divine sense of a Dao Integration expert."
Gold wiped sweat from his brow. "Dao Integration? Master, even the Emperor is only at the Void Amalgamation realm. Surely that is... excessive?"
Li Ye's eyes narrowed, pinning the merchant in place. "There is no such thing as excessive caution, Gold. If a Dao Integration old monster happens to fly over the capital, I do not want him sensing even a single drop of spiritual energy from beneath this estate. Do it."
"Y-yes, Master!"
Next, a slender woman wrapped in viper-skin armor stepped forward. Viper, the head of his assassination wing. "Master. We eliminated the three spies the Third Prince planted in the outer estate. We made it look like a gambling dispute gone wrong. Their bodies were dumped in the river."
"Clean up the loose ends. Burn the gambling den they visited so there are no witnesses to their last whereabouts," Li Ye ordered.
He dismissed them, rubbing his temples.
Trust no one. Even these subordinates, bound by oaths and loyalty, were kept compartmentalized. Gold didn't know about the assassins. Viper didn't know about the merchants. Shadow, his spymaster, only knew what Li Ye allowed him to know.
Li Ye was cautious to a fault. In this world of cultivation, where people could fly on swords and incinerate cities with a wave of their hands, caution was the only thing keeping him alive.
He himself was not a cripple. Over the past sixteen years, using the vast wealth of his secret empire, he had purchased top-tier cultivation resources on the black market. He possessed a rare, mutated shadow-attribute spiritual root. Through painstaking, agonizing cultivation during the dead of night, he had reached the late stage of the Foundation Establishment realm.
For a sixteen-year-old, Foundation Establishment was impressive, entering the ranks of 'geniuses'. But in the grand scheme of the dynasty, it was nothing. The First Prince was at the same level. Lin Xuan, his new fiancé, was a Nascent Soul monster—two entire major realms above him.
*If it comes to a fight, she could crush me with a single finger,* Li Ye thought, his expression grim.
He had a personal rule for combat, forged from the blood of his past life: *Never engage an enemy unless you are absolutely certain of victory.* In this cultivation world, variables were everywhere. Magical treasures, secret arts, bloodline awakenings—a seemingly weak opponent could suddenly turn the tables.
Therefore, his golden rule was simple: He would only ever fight someone directly if they were at least two major cultivation realms below him.
If he was Foundation Establishment, he would only fight a Body Tempering mortal. If he faced a Qi Condensation cultivator, he would run, hide, or use his assassins. He refused to take even a one percent risk of failure.
*I need more power. But cultivating any faster will cause fluctuations in the world's spiritual energy that the palace stargazers will notice. I am stuck.*
Li Ye sighed, looking at a mechanical clock on his desk. It was nearing midnight. The exact hour of his birth.
*Tick. Tick. Tick. Ding.*
The moment the clock struck midnight, marking the official end of his sixteenth birthday, a strange, mechanical chime echoed, not in the room, but directly inside his mind.
**[Ding! Host has reached sixteen years of age. Survival parameters met.]**
**[Initializing the Supreme AFK Dao Companion System...]**
Li Ye instantly drew a poisoned dagger from his sleeve, his aura flaring as he scanned the room. "Who's there? Shadow? Viper?"
Silence answered him. The room was empty.
**[System Binding Complete. Detecting Host's current status...]**
**[Host Cultivation: Late Foundation Establishment.]**
**[Host Talent: Mutated Shadow Root (High Grade).]**
**[Host Persona: Extreme Cowardice/Paranoia detected. Adjusting system parameters to suit Host's psychological profile.]**
*Cowardice?* Li Ye thought, his eyes narrowing. *It's called tactical preservation, you voice in my head.* He realized it was a 'System'. He had read enough cheap web novels in his past life to know the concept. A golden finger. A heavenly cheat.
He didn't relax. Systems were unknown variables. Unknown variables meant danger.
"What is your function?" Li Ye demanded silently in his mind, maintaining absolute physical stillness.
**[The Supreme AFK Dao Companion System is designed to allow the Host to live a life of perfect tranquility and absolute dominance without lifting a finger.]**
**[Core Function: The System will bind to the Host's legally recognized Dao Companion (Wife/Fiancée). The System will automatically and continuously synchronize the Host's cultivation, physical strength, and martial skill comprehension to ensure the Host is ALWAYS exactly TWO MAJOR REALMS and TEN SKILL LEVELS above the bound partner.]**
Li Ye froze. The dagger in his hand trembled slightly.
*Always two major realms above?* **[Ding! Detecting Imperial Decree of Marriage.]**
**[Binding Target: Lin Xuan (The Female God of War).]**
**[Scanning Target's Cultivation...]**
**[Target Cultivation: Early Nascent Soul Realm.]**
Li Ye's eyes widened. Wait. If she was Nascent Soul...
**[Calculation Complete. Target is Nascent Soul. To maintain the mandated two major realms superiority, the Host must be elevated.]**
**[Nascent Soul -> Soul Formation -> Void Amalgamation.]**
**[Commencing mandatory AFK cultivation upgrade to: Early Void Amalgamation Realm.]**
**[Warning: Massive energy influx. Initiating perfect stealth protocol to conceal breakthrough from the Heavenly Dao and external observers.]**
"Wait, wait, wait!" Li Ye panicked. Cultivation breakthroughs were violent, explosive affairs. People exploded if they took in too much Qi too fast. Jumping from Foundation Establishment to Void Amalgamation? He would be turned into a fine mist of blood!
But the System did not care for his panic.
Suddenly, the world went silent. Time within the underground chamber seemed to freeze.
A profound, ancient, and terrifyingly pure energy poured down from the void, bypassing the ceiling, bypassing the arrays, and flooding directly into the crown of Li Ye's head.
There was no pain. There was only a sensation of utter, terrifying expansion.
His Foundation Establishment pillars shattered, instantly liquefying into a swirling golden sea of Qi.
In the span of a single breath, that sea compressed, crystallizing into a perfectly round, luminous golden core. Core Formation achieved.
Another breath. The golden core cracked, revealing a tiny, glowing miniature version of Li Ye sitting cross-legged. Nascent Soul achieved.
Another breath. The miniature infant grew, its eyes opening to reveal profound wisdom, merging with his very soul to create a towering avatar of shadow and light within his mindscape. Soul Formation achieved.
And finally, the avatar shattered, fusing seamlessly into his flesh, his blood, and the very fabric of the space around him. His mortal limitations vanished. He felt the laws of the world—gravity, time, spatial fabric—bending to his will. He was one with the void.
Void Amalgamation achieved.
The entire process took less than ten seconds. It was completely silent. Not a single wisp of spiritual energy leaked out of his body. To anyone looking at him, he was still just a mortal with sealed meridians.
Li Ye sat perfectly still in his obsidian chair. He looked at his hands. They looked the same. Pale, soft, the hands of a pampered prince.
He reached out and gently tapped the corner of his massive obsidian desk—a desk carved from a stone known to withstand the full-force blow of a Core Formation cultivator.
At his light tap, the corner of the desk silently dissolved into fine gray ash, scattering onto the floor.
He didn't use Qi. He didn't use a martial art. It was just the sheer, passive, terrifying physical strength of a Void Amalgamation expert.
Li Ye took a deep breath. His mind, previously calculating a thousand ways to survive an assassination by his new fiancé, suddenly went completely blank.
The Emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty, the most powerful man within millions of miles, the man who had ruled for a thousand years... was at the Void Amalgamation Realm.
Li Ye, the sixteen-year-old trash prince who had spent his life acting like a drunken fool, had just reached the exact same realm in ten seconds because his fiancée was a workaholic martial artist.
**[Ding! Upgrade complete. As long as the Host remains engaged/married to Lin Xuan, the System will continuously monitor her progress. If she trains, you gain the benefits magnified. If she breaks through to Soul Formation, the Host will automatically be elevated to Dao Integration.]**
**[Host may now comfortably AFK. Have a nice day.]**
Li Ye stared at the ash on the floor.
A normal person might have thrown their head back and laughed. A normal person might have immediately flown out of the underground base, kicked open the doors of the Great Solarity Hall, and demanded the throne from his father. A normal person would have reveled in their newfound, god-like power.
Li Ye was not a normal person. He was a paranoid ex-spy.
He immediately started hyperventilating.
*I'm Void Amalgamation!* his mind screamed. *That means the Heavenly Tribulation should have noticed me! What if there are hidden Dao Integration ancestors sleeping beneath the palace? What if this power is unstable? What if someone notices I don't breathe in my sleep anymore?!*
He forcefully calmed himself down, employing ancient meditation techniques to steady his racing heart.
*Think. Think like 'Zero'. Analyze the new paradigm.*
He had unimaginable power. But power was just a tool. If he revealed it, he would become the target of every hidden monster, every rival empire, and the Heavenly Dao itself.
His eyes hardened. The golden rule remained unchanged. Hide your fangs.
*I will only fight someone two major realms below me,* he reminded himself.
He was at the Void Amalgamation realm.
One realm below him was Soul Formation.
Two realms below him was Nascent Soul.
A slow, terrifyingly dark smile spread across Li Ye's face.
He was Void Amalgamation. That meant, according to his strictest, most paranoid rules of engagement, it was now *perfectly safe* for him to assassinate a Nascent Soul cultivator.
His lovely fiancé, the Female God of War, the monster who terrified the northern borders and hated him with a passion, was at the Nascent Soul realm.
*My dear Lin Xuan,* Li Ye thought, leaning back in his chair and pouring himself a cup of mundane tea. *I hope you enjoy martial arts. I hope you cultivate until your meridians bleed. I hope you become the strongest woman under the heavens.*
*Because the harder you work, the stronger I get.*
"Shadow," Li Ye called out softly to the empty room.
Instantly, the spymaster materialized, dropping to one knee. He did not notice the profound, abyss-like depth in his master's eyes, suppressed perfectly by the System's stealth protocols.
"Cancel the defensive preparations against the Lin family," Li Ye ordered, taking a sip of his tea. "Instead, send word to the Golden Scales Chamber of Commerce. I want them to anonymously donate fifty thousand high-grade spirit stones and our entire stock of Heaven-tier bodily refinement pills to the Northern Army."
Shadow looked up, visibly shocked. "Master? Are you intending to appease her?"
"No," Li Ye smiled, the smile of a hunter who has just realized the trap works flawlessly. "I am sponsoring my wife's cultivation. After all, behind every successful woman, there is a completely useless, lazy, and harmless husband doing absolutely nothing."
He stood up, stretching his arms. "I'm going to bed. If the Emperor calls for me tomorrow, tell them I'm hungover. I have a lot of 'nothing' to do."