Here is the first chapter of Five Elements of the Royal Sky.

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Chapter 1 – Although the Body is Dead, the Military Soul Has Not Been Extinguished

The Mengjia Prairie was located at the east side of the Qingyun Kingdom. It was closely neighbored by the East Sea, which was wide and it seemingly stretched on without a border. 

It had been passed down since countless years ago that a giant injured dragon fell to the sea, while its eyes fell onto the Prairie. As to whether or not this myth was real or fake, no one knew. Even so, contrary to what one might expect, the ones living on the Prairie, when compared to other people, had a far longer lifespan. As time passed, countless people came to the Mengjia Prairie in order to extend their lives. The place where the crowd gathered had a beautiful name – The East Pearl Tribe.  

The East Pearl Tribe had initially been a typical nomadic tribe within the Mengjia Prairie, but as more and more outsiders came to the tribe, it stopped its nomadic lifestyle and flourished into a thriving city – East Pearl City. 

Inside East Pearl City the original East Pearl Tribe members were overlords, who ruled over others’ life and death. 

The East Peal Tribe leader was a just man whom many revered and held in high regard. He managed to unite the entire Mengjia Prairie and every tribe went to pledge their allegiance to him. The Prairie, which had been covered in bloodshed throughout many millennia, was now peaceful.

While the Mengjia Prairie was peaceful, a utopia for humans, the rest of the continent was filled with unrest. The Qingyun Kingdom was on the verge of war against the surrounding kingdoms and empires.

Only the Mengjia Prairie was a peaceful oasis amidst a fatigued and war- plagued world. The citizens of East Pearl City increased steadily; the Mengjia Prairie was becoming the destination for many war veterans. 

The Qingyun Kingdom fell amidst the countless wars, and a new empire rose. The Riluo Empire emerged victorious in this chaotic era and their borders kept expanding. 

The Emperor of the Riluo Empire became blinded with success, his eyes were greedily eyeing the entire continent, and when they landed on the Mengjia Prairie, they shone unnaturally. 

The Emperor of Riluo Empire was smiling cunningly. He had a wish of making the Mengjia Prairie a special administrative region under his rule.

Rumors of immortal life had spread out from the Mengjia Prairie long ago, but while most of the continent believed it to be a legend and the stuff that fairytales were made from, the Emperor still felt that the Mengjia Prairie held some semblance of value. 

Unfortunately, things did not go as the Emperor had expected. The delegation which had been sent to the Mengjia Prairie returned empty handed, the tribe leader of the East Pearl Tribe refused to submit!

Anger flared in the eyes of the Riluo Empire’s Emperor; his insides were burning in fury. Without thinking about the consequences, he sent his armies to march towards the Mengjia Prairie. 

Fortunately, the East Pearl Tribe was prepared. The entire Mengjia Prairie had been united many years prior while the rest of the continent was filled with frenzied battle. 

As such, one could not afford to belittle the Mengjia Prairie. Their cultivators had longer lifespans, and thus their achievements were more significant than that of other places on the continent. Even so, the truth was that they were greatly disadvantaged because of their numbers.

When the two armies met at the outskirts of the Mengjia Prairie, everyone saw the emotions in each other’s eyes.

While the warriors of the Riluo Empire were arrogant and filled with certainty that this war would end with their victory, the eyes of the Mengjia Prairie’s soldiers were filled with determination.

Their eyes were glistening, their hearts beating as one. They understood that this battlefield was likely to become their final resting place, but not even one of them displayed fear or regret. 

Their backs were straight, their hands grasping their weapons, and their hearts sang songs about freedom. About peace. About tranquility. 

For their families, they would fight! 

For their freedom, they would fight!

For their peace, they would never give up!

Their eyes burned with passion, and when the battle finally began, they fought with tooth and nail, using all their resources to face against the surging tide of enemies. 

The soldiers from the Riluo Empire were genuinely shocked when they experienced the resistance that was put up by the Mengjia Prairie. Each and every prairie member killed more than ten times their own numbers; they were not giving up at all. 

This, however, caused even more frustration amongst the soldiers of the Riluo Empire. Enraged, their fighting prowess also increased, and slowly the soldiers of the Mengjia Prairie were pushed so far back that they had problems defending their borders.

The Battle for Mengjia Prairie lasted for three months before the Mengjia Prairie had to accept their demise. 

The Mengjia Prairie’s men were all dead, but even as the last man died, he died fighting against an entire army on his own. None of them surrendered, none of them gave up. To the very end, they fought against their enemies with all they could. 

Even the Riluo Empire’s soldiers, who at first had gotten deeply angered by this trait of theirs, in the end respected the men of the Mengjia Prairie more than any other people amongst the entire continent. 

Usually, a victory would have been celebrated with pillaging and looting the loser’s homes, but these soldiers of the Riluo Empire could not bring themselves to do so. 

They had seen how much the dead soldiers valued their families from Mengjia Prairie, they had seen how they had fought against impossible odds, but never wavered, and they felt that pillaging and looting would only make them seem barbaric. 

As such, the army marched straight to East Pearl City, where a second army met them. This time the army consisted of the elderly, the women, and even some children. 

The Riluo Empire’s soldier’s felt a chill run down their spine as they sensed the killing intent in this army’s eyes. 

Their families had been destroyed because of the emergence of the Riluo Empire. Their peaceful life would never return to what it had been before.

The Riluo Empire’s army was willing to lay down their weapons and leave the Mengjia Prairie. None of them felt any achievement for having come this far, and fighting against women, elders, and children were something they loathed to do. 

As such, they stopped their advance until further instructions, but the Emperor was unbending on his decision. The Mengjia Prairie had to become part of the Riluo Empire.

With no choice, the soldiers once more engaged in battle. Although this battle ended much quicker than the previous one, it was much more traumatizing for any soldier that had participated.

Eventually, no one survived in the Mengjia Prairie’s army, once again no prisoners were taken and noone surrendered, it was a fight to the death. 

When East Pearl City was conquered, they found that it was a ghost city. All the citizens had joined the army, all the men had been killed back at the first battlefield, and the rest died in the battle for the East Pearl City. 

Only a few survivors existed from the Mengjia Prairie, and one of them was the daughter of the Tribe leader. She was a poor child, only five years of age, and she had been handed over to the Tribe leader’s most trusted aide. 

Together they had long since fled East Pearl City, and they left even the Mengjia Prairie behind. 

The Mengjia Prairie, which previously had been named so because it was the home of dreams, was now renamed to the Blood River Prairie because blood had flowed like rivers in the three months it took them to take over the prairie. 

The Emperor of Riluo Empire sent people to take over the Blood River Prairie; some were officials while others were merchants. There were even commoners who chose to migrate to the prairie in the hope of eternal life. 

However, all of them were greatly disappointed. After the downfall of Mengjia Prairie, the age one reached when living in Blood River Prairie became normal – the same as in all the other regions on the continent. 

However, while the Mengjia Prairie had vanished, the little miss of the East Pearl Tribe was slowly growing older and older. 

Surprisingly enough, it seemed that when she turned twenty years of age, she no longer aged. Just like her, the aide that stayed by her side did not age even a year during the many that had passed since they became wanderers. 

Time flowed, and although the body was dead, the military soul was not extinguished. The young miss of the East Pearl Tribe never gave up the hope of restoring the East Pearl Tribe of the Mengjia Prairie to its former glory. 

Just like the miss never gave up on the Mengjia Prairie, the aide would always remember the stalwart men, women, and children who fought for their freedom. 

Even the many soldiers that participated in the war would never forget. Their biggest regret in life was to destroy such loyal and patriotic soldiers. These men were the ones they could always remember; every face of every person they had killed was etched into their minds forever.

These soldiers grew old. They got families and told their children and grandchildren about the Battle for Mengjia Prairie, but as they died out, no one truly understood how it had felt to fight such a ferocious army. 

Most of the children and grandchildren would chuckle and shake their heads whenever they thought about it. How could someone respect their enemy to such a degree? 

A hundred years went by, and the Riluo Empire flourished. The mortal world was peaceful. At this point, romance had blossomed between the miss of the East Pearl Tribe and her aide, but just as their love grew roots and their child was born, disaster struck the mortal world.

Purple air came from the east and covered the entire continent. Thunder and lightning appeared, and soon immortals who could fly in the sky started combing through the whole continent, clearly searching for something. 

Unfortunately, what they were searching for was the young miss from the East Pearl Tribe. 

It had been passed down since countless years ago that a giant injured dragon fell to the sea, while its eyes fell onto the Prairie. The truth was that this dragon was not a real dragon but one made from Qi. The eyes which had been said to land in the prairie were the ancestors of the East Pearl Tribe, and the reason that everyone in the Mengjia Prairie was capable of having long lifespans was also entirely connected to the East Pearl Tribe. 

The East Pearl Tribe came from another world. A world of immortal cultivation, a world much more prominent than the one that they were in now. 

They had been a side branch of a family clan but had been schemed against and banished from the world, down to the mortal lands. 

Now they had found out that a Purple Phoenix Constitution had been born in their family, and this was the hope they had waited for. 

They refused to let her go, and it was not before they threatened with killing her husband and child that she finally gave in.

Upon leaving, the leader of the group passed a jade slip over to the aide and told him to drop the child’s blood on the jade slip. 

Doing as he was told, a light shone, and the jade slip vanished into the child’s body. No one knew what happened to it after that. The aide was left alone, unaware of what might happen to his wife, not able to follow her, as he had to look after their child. 

Filled with grief and suffering, the aide found a secluded forest where he lived his days together with his daughter. All his love was poured onto this daughter of his, but his heart ached whenever he thought about his lost wife.