2: There is always a way out

Originally, Dragon Snow had one more chance to turn her life around: through her son, because in the Great Ming Empire, Martial Dao was of utmost importance, and the Imperial Family placed even greater emphasis on it.

The Zhu Family's ability to endure for over a thousand years was not unrelated to the continuous birth of strong individuals within the Imperial Family.

Therefore, if Long Yuan possessed the talent of a strong individual, Dragon Snow could use this to establish her position in the Prince Fus Mansion, but unfortunately…

Thinking of this, Long Yuan couldn't help but sigh.

The Aptitude of his former self was truly not worth mentioning; to speak of it would be to shed bitter tears.

There was no 'most useless,' only 'more useless,' and he was not much different from a Mortal.

After the birth of every Imperial Family descendant, strong individuals would assess their Cultivation potential and guide their future training direction.

Although theoretically, sixteen years old was the best time for everyone to Awaken their Aptitude, with the eyesight of strong individuals, they could discern a baby's potential and approximate future situation even in infancy.

At this time, the main focus was on the baby's bone structure and Meridians; if these were poor, even if Aptitude was Awakened in the future, it was unlikely to have any dazzling performance.

Of course, if a Heaven-Defying Aptitude was Awakened, that would naturally be another matter.

And for Imperial Family descendants, the Xuanhuang Aura of their Bloodline was one of the important indicators for measuring their potential.

If the Xuanhuang Aura was strong, it meant that the Bloodline Power within them was powerful, with unlimited future development potential; conversely, the potential was limited.

The Great Ming Imperial Family had a Heaven-Grade sword art called “Xuanhuang Sword.”

Only direct descendants with a certain Bloodline Power could learn it, and for those with strong Bloodline Power and rich Xuanhuang Aura to Cultivate the Xuanhuang Sword Art, it would definitely yield twice the results with half the effort.

This was also one of the reasons why the Imperial Family attached such great importance to Bloodline Power.

As a true good-for-nothing, Zhu Deyuan naturally had no advantage in this regard.

The Xuanhuang Aura on him was extremely faint, almost nonexistent, and coupled with his small bone structure and blocked Meridians, he was dismissed by the strong individual responsible for testing him shortly after birth.

He was naturally disliked by Prince Fu, and it was not surprising that the mother and son reluctantly left the Residence.

It could be said that Zhu Deyuan's good-for-nothing Aptitude completely cut off Dragon Snow's path to a comeback.

Although Prince Fu did not directly divorce Dragon Snow, it was essentially no different from divorcing her.

Such a matter, in Long Yuan's eyes, was completely understandable; it was merely an Imperial Family scion indulging in a bit of romance while traveling, abandoning her in the end, and trifling with an innocent young girl.

It was a pity that Dragon Snow was quite naive and extremely persistent in her feelings, unable to let go.

After returning to Fengyang County, she remained depressed and eventually took her own life, leaving behind Zhu Deyuan, who was effectively an orphan…

“Alas…”

Long Yuan sighed softly, it seemed that no world lacked stories of scumbags and resentful women.

He used to hear about such things and thought they were commonplace, but when this happened to his former self's parents, wouldn't it cut off the path of this Transmigrator?

He had finally Transmigrated, only to become an actual orphan; was he not meant to live?

“Wait… didn't Dragon Snow still have her maiden Family in Fengyang County?”

Long Yuan suddenly thought of this matter.

The Long Family, after all, was not a small Family.

Dragon Snow being taken to the Prince Fus Mansion was a great joyous event for the Long Family, and it also greatly elevated the Long Family's status.

The Long Family, if not grateful, should at least have cherished Dragon Snow, right?

A glimmer of hope rose in Long Yuan's heart, and he quickly checked the information from that period.

The result… he was almost fuming with anger!

He never expected the Long Family to be so inhumane.

Initially, by leveraging Dragon Snow's favor with Prince Fu, they greatly elevated the Family's status in Fengyang County.

Their business flourished, and wealth poured in, transforming from a small Family to forcefully entering the Ranks of the five great Families in Fengyang County, becoming the sixth great Family, and even showing a subtle trend of rising further.

This attracted countless people in Fengyang County to flatter them, curry favor, and go to great lengths to ingratiate themselves.

However, at its Peak, Dragon Snow fell out of favor and returned, and the Long Family lost the backing of the Prince Fus Mansion.

After the news spread, the Long Family's status plummeted, and their financial resources were continuously eroded.

By now, they had returned to being a small Family, dependent on the other five great Families, having to act and eat according to their wishes.

All of this filled the Long Family members with resentment, but they did not attribute the Family's decline to their own incompetence; instead, they blamed all failures on Dragon Snow.

They not only publicly severed ties with Dragon Snow but even expelled her from the Long Family, ignoring her for over a decade, leaving her to fend for herself…

Imagine Dragon Snow, a weak woman, after being betrayed, was treated like this by her maiden Family; could she still bear it?

If not for the bond with her son, Zhu Deyuan, she probably wouldn't have held on for so long and would have gone for Reincarnation much earlier, right?

“Fortunately, there is always a way out…”

After sorting out the matter, Long Yuan couldn't help but exclaim softly, because he realized that his situation was not as bad as previously thought.

In a certain sense, he was much better off than ordinary people, even better than the so-called younger generation elites of those prominent Families in Fengyang!

The reason for saying this was that, fortunately, despite Dragon Snow's weakness, before leaving the Prince Fus Mansion, she still tried her best to secure the deserved benefits for herself and Zhu Deyuan.

Even the Long Family members did not expect this; with their character, if they had known this, they probably wouldn't have treated Dragon Snow and her son this way for over a decade.

As Prince Fu's former favored concubine, Dragon Snow knew well the terrible consequences she might face after falling out of favor.

To ensure that she and her son would not be destitute in the future, she had to secure the greatest benefits for herself before leaving.

After much thought, she realized that although she had no background or financial resources to compete with the other consorts and concubines in the Residence, she did have one thing: she had given Prince Fu a son.

This was enough to be her capital, even better than many other concubines in the Residence, because those people couldn't even give birth.

In the Great Ming Empire, as long as one possessed Imperial Family Bloodline, whether a Genius or a good-for-nothing, they could unconditionally receive a fixed amount of welfare from the Imperial Family.

This had been established as an iron rule by the Great Ming Taizu at the beginning of the nation's founding, and no one dared to violate it.

Because at that time, Profound Qi had not yet appeared in the world, and there was no distinction between Xuan Practitioners and Mortals as there is now, the welfare set by Taizu was differentiated by the Rank of descendants.

How to put it, direct descendants received more than collateral and branch families, and the closer the Bloodline, the more they received.

Prince Fu's Bloodline Rank in the current Great Ming Empire Imperial Family was extremely high.

If not for his philandering nature and less-than-stellar reputation, with the territory he possessed, he even had the potential to become a strong contender for the current Crown Prince.

This was also the fundamental reason why the Long Family was able to rise rapidly after Dragon Snow entered the Prince Fus Mansion.

Although Zhu Deyuan ranked 468th among Prince Fu's offspring, don't assume that Prince Fu's reproductive ability was so strong as to have countless descendants.

One must know that Prince Fu had favored not two thousand concubines, but close to a thousand, yet not as many as imagined bore offspring.

Moreover, among these offspring, females accounted for the vast majority.

Zhu Deyuan ranked ninth among the males, and was the youngest at the time.

Prince Fu should have more offspring in the past decade or so, but it is estimated that not too many more males will be added, because Prince Fu has this fate.

Therefore, Long Yuan's position in Prince Fu's descendant Bloodline was actually not low.

In those days, Prince Fu also called him “Old Ninth, Old Ninth,” and coincidentally, Prince Fu also ranked ninth among Emperor Ming's offspring, so he was also “Old Ninth.”

If not for Long Yuan's poor Aptitude, faint Xuanhuang Aura, and the malicious slanders of those concubines, Dragon Snow would not have been disliked by Prince Fu.

Ultimately, Dragon Snow and her son were merely sacrifices in the harem struggles within the Prince Fus Mansion.

Therefore, Dragon Snow, arguing on solid grounds, pointed to Taizu's dying wish from back then to fight for her welfare from the Prince Fus Mansion.

Coupled with the fact that Prince Fu was not entirely heartless, merely ordering people to handle matters according to the rules (after all, for Prince Fu, this welfare was issued by the Imperial Family, unrelated to the Prince Fus Mansion), Dragon Snow, before leaving, not only received a considerable amount of compensation from the Prince Fus Mansion but also successfully obtained the supreme black ring, which represented the welfare rights of an Imperial Family direct descendant, for Zhu Deyuan!

It was these assets and this supreme black ring that allowed the mother and son to live without worries about food and clothing, and even quite prosperously!

With their financial power, it would have been no problem at all for the small Long Family to maintain a respectable appearance.

However, the Long Family had gone too far, completely breaking Dragon Snow's heart, causing her to completely give up on her maiden Family.

She took Zhu Deyuan and lived in seclusion in Fengyang County, leading a simple life similar to ordinary people.

It wasn't until just before her death that she confided these matters to Zhu Deyuan and urged him to lay a good foundation in Martial Dao, striving for a good performance at the 16-year-old Awakening ceremony.

This was because it concerned his vital interests.

With the emergence of Profound Qi, the world was constantly changing, and the Imperial Family's welfare also underwent many changes.

In addition to differentiating between direct descendants, collateral families, and Bloodline Power, it was also related to Aptitude.

If Zhu Deyuan could Awaken a decent Aptitude, for example, a B-Rank or above Aptitude, then he could receive immense wealth from the Imperial Family and even potentially be recalled by the Imperial Family for focused Cultivation.

If he truly couldn't achieve a B-Rank or above Aptitude, a D-Rank or above would still suffice, because most people's Aptitude is actually below D-Rank.

Reaching D-Rank meant having a certain Cultivation value, which was already sufficient for an Imperial Family direct descendant.

At the very least, he could live a carefree, upper-class life as a young prince under the Imperial Family's protection for this lifetime.

Long Yuan thought of this and looked at a black bracelet on his left wrist.

It was half a finger wide, dark and smooth, sparkling with light, exuding a noble aura from its appearance to its details.

This was the supreme black ring that represented his status as an Imperial Family direct descendant.

At any bank in the Great Ming Empire, simply showing this ring would grant the highest level of service.

At any ranked hotel or other consumption venue, discerning people would even provide him with the best service without charging, in short, with this super black ring, he could travel almost unimpeded within the Great Ming Empire!

However, Zhu Deyuan had not yet truly experienced the wonder of this supreme black ring, because Dragon Snow had been taking care of him before he received the black ring, and he had no opportunity to use it.

And by the time he received it, Dragon Snow had already passed away.

At the same time, he also began to truly understand the terrifying aspects of the world he was in, and the difficult situation he would face alone in the future.

In this world of Xuan Practitioners, dangers were everywhere.

He was frail and sickly, lacked a foundation in Martial Dao.

If people knew his true identity and the supreme black ring, he might be ambushed before the Imperial Family even sent someone to find him.

This was also the real reason why Dragon Snow had always lived in seclusion with him; as an orphan and a widow, she simply dared not flaunt their wealth…

…