Deva Wizard: The Great Xian in King Arthur's Realm

Merlin?

Merlin, whose name was it? Did she say that name to address me?

Heaven lord! What was going on here?

“It’s alright if you still can’t answer me now. The fact that you’re awake already makes me feel so blessed. Thank all of the gods out there for helping my son.”

With tears falling down her eyes, the lady rushed to Tian Long and hugged him. As soon as his body touched hers, a series of memories came flushing into his consciousness. Unfamiliar, curious pieces—they were those of a seven-year-old boy named ‘Szirtes Merlin.’

The woman in front of him was ‘Szirtes Maye,’ the mother of this child. She was titled the third minor wife of ‘Szirtes Witcher’ of the Szirtes family.

To give some background on the Szirteses, there was ‘Szirtes Rosé,’ the leader of the family. He was a nobleman with the title, Earl of Migerburg. Migerburg was the land under the rule of the Aragon kingdom, one of the greatest kingdoms on Earth.

The man named ‘Witcher’ was the fourth child of Earl Szirtes.

He married three wives.

The first one also gave birth to a boy who was raised by the family.

The second wife was childless. But she loved and worshipped Witcher so dearly that she would even die for him…

And the last Witcher’s wife was Maye, the lady standing before Tian Long.

It was a shame that Witcher’s life was short-lived. He died from a communicable disease received while he was out on a tour of inspection. Not long after, that illness took his life.

His second wife was heart-wrenched. Since she adored and was devoted to her husband like he was her own life, after encountering his death, in despair, she decided to end her life and followed her love into the dark.

And after losing his son, Earl Szirtes was devastated.

Around the time of Witcher’s death, the tiny Merlin was born. Although Maye was one of his in-laws, he still loathed her since a part of him hated that his son made an unworthy servant his wife.

Aside from that, this grandchild was not only lowborn but also brought about a misfortune, for it took his son away from him. All these things made Earl Szirtes hate this mother and son even more profoundly.

As soon as Witcher died, Maye’s status was sunken. She was the third daughter-in-law only by the name. In reality, she was despised by people around her; her status, thereby, was lowered back to a servant.

And as for her little boy Merlin, he was recently sent to the son of Duke Cowe, the great Duke of Aragon, as his servant.

Even so, why was the nephew of the respectable Szirtes family sent to be a low servant?

Why was Earl Szirtes’s heart full of hatred for this mother and her son?

In only a few seconds, a large number of events: from the past to the present, of the boy named Merlin were streaming into Tina Long’s consciousness to the point where his brain, where all his knowledge was kept, felt dizzy.

It was the latest memory that was engraved in Tian Long’s mind: an image of the large river flushing frantically.

The large river?

Why did he have to see the large river?

While thinking that, the image before him started to get clearer. It was an image of a boy on his way to visit his hometown after he was sent to follow Duke Cowe’s son. However, he was obstructed by a kid jumping in and harassing him. The bullying was so severe that it accidentally made Merlin fall into the furious river stream.

The little child was struggling, fighting for his life. Alas, that could not help him overcome the flushing stream.

His tiny body was sinking and sinking.

Huff! Tian Long came back from going through the boy’s memory…

Perhaps, this was the body of that little boy?

The boy named Szirtes Merlin?

Tian Long inspected his small hands and feet. Every part of his body was minimized. This youthful skin was not exactly what he yearned for.

He examined things in his head. Speaking on a factual basis, he mistakenly got into the body he was not supposed to be in. This child had already died and the soul from this body had probably gone into the round of existence.

And why so?

Why did he who had succeeded the Xian practice end up in this body?

When he succeeded in the Soul Removal process, his soul was not supposed to be here. Heaven was where he was meant to be in.

Not here!

Tian Long was overwhelmed and saddened. For a short while, he could not help but feel miserable and resentful. Was it an error of Soul Removal that had put him in this situation?

As Tian Long stared into the scene in front of him again, the woman named Maye was still watching him with a worrisome look. If this was meant to happen, he would now accept his fate. Since he had been a practitioner for a hundred years, Tian Long could let go fairly quickly.

From now on, he had to live with the name of the little boy Merlin; and from this moment, he had to accept this woman as his mother.

Suddenly, the lady’s rough hand from hard work reached out to pat the boy’s head. Her eyes had a glare of a loving smile.

Why were her hands so rough?

Weren’t all the ladies supposed to have soft skin and hands?

But for Maye, these hands of hers were used to protect her child. Being an orphan, she had nowhere else to go except here; even if it meant her being a servant or whatever it was, she would not complain—all for her baby’s well-being.

“Mother” Tian Long--with the new name, Merlin--said.

Maye smiled fondly at her son then spoke with a gentle tone.

“Merlin, do you know how much I was worried about you? Don’t do childish things like this and worry me ever again, understood? ...Alright, I’m not going to nag you any longer. Take some rest. I will find you something to eat.”

The mother said caringly. She bent down to press her lips on the boy’s forehead, getting up, she walked out of the room.

So now there was only Tian Long in Merlin’s body in the room.

He slowly looked at the environment again. This place was so different from where he came from; the inside of this house seemed rather like a hut than a house. All four walls were made from rough rocks and clay.

Witnessing this made Merlin upset. He was once a practitioner at the utmost withering stage and when he saw Maye, he could not bring himself to see how tough it must be to live in this kind of place.

Although he lived a difficult life at the beginning of the practice, at the end when he was at the highest stage of the practice, he could easily find anything he wanted without sweating.

From now on, Tian Long in this little boy’s body would have to live with his name, Merlin.

He tried moving his hands and Xian Vital Energy to check his power.

Woo! Woo! Wooo!

Heaven!

What was happening?

Where did all the Qi he had been saving go?

He was a high-rank practitioner who had reached the utmost withering stage, with six hundred years of practicing, how come all his vital essence had now disappeared?

Or was this another consequence of a failed Soul Removal?

Going to Heaven was achieving the true Xian state. But first off, it required a successful soul-removing process. In the past, the spirits of the practitioners who had failed in removing their souls would be punished by Heaven slashing them into dust so they could not be reborn.

But why did he end up here after removing his soul?

Or was it a failure?

No, it was not. If it was so, his soul would have already been vanquished and disappeared. But it was not.

‘So, what on earth is happening? Is this another outcome of failure?’ His heart was buried in sorrow just considering that.

What the hell! What the bloody hell!

Tian Long in Merlin’s body lay down on the bed. The more he thought about it, the more agony he felt. He had never before thought that one failure would bring him so much pain that it would make him bleed tears.

Right now, all of his hard work had vanished into thin air. And his hundred-years accumulated vital essence had now gone with the wind.

The child in bed gritted his teeth in anger, sending out a gloomy atmosphere around him.

After encountering a tragedy in his past, Tian Long had been locking himself up, shutting the gate, and practicing religiously.

He barely stepped out into the outside world during those hundred years.

Only three times had he opened the gate and came out. The first time was when he achieved the budding stage, the second at the blooming stage, and the last time was when he succeeded the utmost withering stage. People in the bureau had almost forgotten about him.

As the time had passed, disciples decided to call him ‘an ancestor.’

Alas, all the foundations he had been building were shattered by this incident.

For he could no longer become an immortal as he had hoped, anxiety contaminated his thoughts. Memories came rushing into his head. They were those stories of his past life, of the force that drove him to become a Xian.

The more he thought about it, the sadder he became. But, suddenly, a thought came to his mind.

No! Don’t despair like this!

If he was still alive, still had flesh and blood, the practice did not end yet.

Realizing that brought a blazing hope back to Tian Long.

The child abruptly got off the bed again. He, right away, moved his body into a meditation posture.

After weighing things up, he could not let himself get stuck in sadness any longer. He got to move on although it meant taking the first step one more time. Merlin started absorbing the Xian vital force around him.

However…

Wait!

What was happening!?

Why was there no Xian energy in this place? Merlin could not sense any vital essence at all.

‘Holy heaven! What’s going on!’

Typically, Xian energy or at least vital essence should be around him. But now, not only could he not sense any Qi, but he also recognized a different kind of energy flow.

Merlin was astounded.

This world possessed neither Xian energy nor vital essence which were necessary for Xian and martial art practitioners. There was instead, some sort of strange, dense energy floating in the air.

He attempted to absorb this bizarre energy into his body by the method he was familiar with.

Unbelievable! His body was able to take that energy in.

“But why does it only move towards my heart?”

Merlin’s inexperienced body tried to control the strange energy inside him. Tian Long then tried to use the Xian technique to suppress the energy; once the unknown force had been suppressed for quite some time, it was distilled.

The peculiar energy turned into the energy he knew.

His Xian awareness was now retrieved; it could transform this unfamiliar energy into Xian vital essence.

Understanding that, the boy continued to accumulate this energy into his body. And shortly after that...

Chooo!

The boy’s body was fumed with a hot stream—airy, gray smoke. Merlin was soaked in sweat; and oddly enough, his scurf appeared.

This was...!

Level 1 of Qi accumulation!

Heaven! How could he achieve the first level so quickly?

It was real. The way his body pushed dark sweat out of every single pore meant that it was a successful Qi accumulation.

But how?

In his past life, it took him almost two years of practicing Qi accumulation to get there. But this time, a few seconds was already enough to get him through the first state.

How did he complete level 1 of Qi accumulation this fast?

Maybe…!

The bizarre energy he had been sensing in this realm was much stronger than the one in his previous world.

Merlin could not help smiling to himself. He was over the moon... The dying fire in his heart was now reignited and burning bright again.

If this really was going the way he was hoping, the path ahead of him would certainly be going in his favor. This strange energy was a wonderful source of power. And it was the most precious thing he had ever come across.

So, getting to the utmost withering stage and performing Soul Removal this time would not be as hard as before.

Even though a storm had been raging, there would surely be a clear sky and rainbows after the rain.

“Holy heaven! Thank you for giving me a second chance!”