Li Chen's obsession with the divine started at a tender age of six, after learning about the existence of QiLin and divination. He became obsessed with the art, researching and reading countless books about it.
When he couldn't read certain books that were too complicated, he made his tutors read them out loud and explained it to him. At first it was viewed as passion and so everyone supported him.
He went out of his way to ask the holy guards and knights to show him their Lin manipulation because he wouldn't be allowed to channel it himself until he was 12.
However, he did not care, of course. He secretly followed the techniques from books and tried to cultivate his own Lin, almost going insane several times.
Despite defying the laws of nature, he somehow managed to draw upon pure Lin at the age of ten, shocking everyone and cementing his position as a genius in the palace.
That didn't last long as he refused to stop.
It was common knowledge that imperial royals could only draw upon "pure Lin"; their cores were fixedly defined in the divine realm as direct descendants of heaven already, they could not shape their core to obtain QiLin from other sources by any means, and of course, Li Chen fought against such a fact.
As stubborn as he always had been, he did everything in his power to try to draw Lin from almost everything despite the odds. Growing frustrated, he ended up doing despicable things.
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"Your Royal Highness…what are you doing…" a maid dropped on her knees, eyes widened with terror as her body shook in fear.
She had just walked into the most horrific scene. Prince Li Chen's chamber was crowded with bodies of dead animals.
Rabbits, insects, birds, anything that he could find. His royal gown and even face was bathe in the red liquid, his hand dripping as he was gauging the bodies of these animals wide open.
His room stank with the stench smell of raw grotesqueness.
"uuhgh-" the maid crawled backwards, she was trying to hold back the vomit caught in her throat.
"Whats wrong…" His innocent eyes sparkled, "I am just trying to understand the core of these animals."
As he spoke, the disgusting scent gravitated a groups of servants and knights towards his chamber, their reaction wasn't much better than the horrified maid. Their faces turned pale, some immediately ran off and threw up.
"Your highness…"
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"Li Chen. Why did you do that?" The late emperor of Tianxia looked down at the tiny figure of his eldest son from above the throne.
"I don't understand what I did wrong, Father—"
"It's your majesty."
"Your majesty… I was only doing what any QiLin practitioner would. I needed to understand those animals to cultivate their Lin!"
"Any practitioner…" The king closed his tired eyes as his fingers massaged his temple. "Li Chen, I have told you many times. You are royal blood. You cannot draw Lin from other sources. What you did was immoral and unethical. No future emperor should do anything like that. You need to repent your actions."
"But Your Majesty, no royals have actually tried. If you just let me—"
"This is not up for debate." The emperor glared, his voice firm and commanding. "Watch the prince closely. Never leave him alone. Make sure he does not do such things again." He commanded the royal servant kneeling behind the prince.
"Your Majesty!!" Li Chen yelped.
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Suppressing Prince Li was no use. His obsession only grew by the years and his experiments worsened. He became a menace in the palace, constantly picking fights and even threatening guests who visited. His provocation never got better, and on one fateful day, he was on track to take on five Lin cultivators all at once.
The fight was hectic, heavy. Things got serious. His understanding of Lin deepened through the fight, which led him to invent a powerful divination technique on the spot, resulting in a massacre. The tragedy left a massive, messy aftermath. The palace was in uproar.
Prince Li was still only sixteen then and was sentenced to two years of lockdown. It was supposed to be a time for redemption, but he made it his mission to practice the hardest form of pure divination, which was healing of the flesh.
Curative divination was a practice that used pure Lin to regenerate the flesh by replicating its molecular structure in the divine realm.
It was a skill that not even the emperor could master, and Li Chen was just that unreasonable.
He constantly cut himself while he was isolated in his chamber to cultivate and practice it. Unfortunately, he was successful, and that confidence only made him more reckless.
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The day Li Chen was released.
"Li Wan! My brother, how are you? You're all grown up now!!" Li Chen ran toward his younger brother.
"Chen Ge," Li Wan said, returning the embrace. "It's been long. Was it lonely in there?"
"No way, it was the best time I've had." A smirk of mischief lit up his face. "I've been well, and there's something I need to show you!" His eyes glinted with arrogance.
Li Wan let out a sigh, suspicion already growing. "Brother… did you do something again?"
"How mean! You should be excited to know what I've obtained, Li Wan."
"…What have you obtained?" A smile of defeat. He waited for his brother's response.
"I've successfully mastered curative divination!!" He gripped his brother's shoulder and shook him violently before hopping around. "Do you want to see?"
"Wha—?"
Li Wan couldn't finish his sentence before Li Chen yanked the imperial sword hanging on his waist and slashed a deep, decently large wound into his brother's arm. Blood dribbled down.
"Li Chen!"
"Shush, don't worry, watch." He levitated into a sitting stance mid-air and began drawing numerous strange hand motions. His Lin energy was unusual, the kind no one had seen before.
Waves of force danced around his body in beautiful forms before getting sucked into the wound, and the flesh on his hand began to grow back.
"You… did it." Li Wan's voice was filled with disbelief.
"Isn't your brother amazing?" Li Chen landed back on the ground and patted his brother's shoulder. "Pick up your sword."
Li Wan raised an eyebrow. "Why… what are you planning?" He picked up the blade.
"Let's battle, Li Wan. It's been a while. I need to test!" A powerful aura of QiLin coated Li Chen's body. He didn't let his brother say a word before charging.
"This is exactly why you were locked up." Li Wan grunted, going head-on against the monster.
"HAHAHAHA! This is amazing!" Li Chen went all out, not holding back his power one bit.
"Oi!"
"Don't worry. I'll heal you, my brother. I won't let you die."
Li Chen's attacks were relentless. Despite having no weapon, he drew upon pure Lin to mimic a divine blade. He assaulted his brother without regard for the damage he inflicted.
Li Wan wasn't weak, but his brother was overwhelming. Most of Li Chen's techniques were self-invented and unpredictable.
Their battle soared into the sky, smashing back down into the ground with intensity. The servants and knights tried to intervene, but they were no match for the sheer strength and speed of the princes.
Amid the chaos, with all the high-class holy knights attending the imperial meeting, the princes clashed, sending out gusts of power that made the whole palace tremble.
The fight ended with Li Wan stepping back. "Li Chen, this is enough—" He wasn't able to finish before a sharp blade pierced his stomach.
"???" He dropped to his knees, hand tightly gripping the wound to stop the bleeding. "Ugh…"
"YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS!!!!!!" Servants and knights rushed toward them. "PRINCE LI!!!!"
Li Chen started laughing. "Hey, calm down. I'll heal him!" He created a hard shield around them, blocking anyone from coming closer.
"PRINCE LI! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!!!" Maids and guards slammed on the glassy border.
Li Chen's hands moved again, swaying and twirling with strange patterns. Each motion was wrapped in his unique Lin. He sat down before the bleeding prince and tried to push Lin into the wound.
"AH!" Li Wan cried in pain. He knew he wasn't getting healed.
The tension escalated. Li Chen kept trying, but nothing was working. His brother's condition was deteriorating fast.
"Why…" Li Chen muttered. His face turned pale. "Why won't it work…" His relaxed expression cracked into desperation.
"Stop it already…"
Thup Li Wan collapsed to the ground. The defense shield shattered. Servants rushed to the fallen prince, panic on their faces, chants of distress filling the air as they tried to stop the bleeding.
Li Chen stood frozen, watching the chaos he caused. Realisation struck. Guilt and horror consumed him.
Doctors were summoned. The emperor and empress rushed to the treatment chamber.
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Following the event, Li Chen was more remorseful than ever before. His usual defiance vanished. He accepted his punishment without protest, withstanding the 200 lashes in the palace's torture chamber.
"Brother, I said it's fine. You don't have to visit me every time," Li Wan said, his tone distant.
"I know."
"…This is not like you. It feels strange."
"Haha… Can't a brother repent for his mistake?"
"If only you were this remorseful ten years ago."
"For him to repent only after hurting his brother..." Their mother, the empress, entered with a bowl of medicated soup. "The almighty genius Li Chen must care a lot for his brother, wouldn't you say so?" She placed the bowl beside Li Wan's bed.
"Mother." They greeted her.
Li Chen looked down.
"Don't pout like that, my son." The empress patted his head. "You've already repented. There's no need to live in shame and guilt forever. What you did was wrong, but Mommy knows you were just truly passionate about your divination."
Li Wan sighed. "I told you I'm fine, Chen Ge." He glared at his strangely-behaving brother. "It'll heal soon enough."