Shadow Over the Heavenly Throne Chapter 2: I wasn’t powerless

Ti was an abstraction. I had no way of asuring days or months, but with each passing mont, my awareness sharpened. My mind, once adrift in darkness, now focused on a single thing—Qi.

I could feel it. It was everywhere. Flowing through my body, surrounding in this warm, enclosed world. It was like an invisible river, impossible to grasp, yet unmistakably present. The more I focused on it, the clearer it beca.

I couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. If I was conscious—if I could act—then I would do whatever it took to gain an advantage. My bloodline had grown weaker with each generation, but I had no intention of following that sa decline. I needed to find a way to make Qi my own.

"If I can’t capture it… maybe I can beco part of it."

For days, I experinted. I observed. Qi was unpredictable. Sotis it seed to respond to my will, other tis it ignored entirely. I tried to draw it in, to command it, but the results were minimal. That was when I understood—Qi was not sothing to be forced. It was like the breath of the world, the rhythm of a heartbeat. You had to move with it, not against it.

And that was when I made a mistake.

I beca too focused, trying to gather Qi in one place, forcing it into submission. In an instant, sothing changed—Qi reacted. But it wasn’t just responding. It was whipping around , churning, spinning wildly out of control.

Then—pain.

A searing, all-consuming pain tore through my body. Sothing was wrong. The Qi wasn’t behaving as it should—it was a storm, a hurricane raging inside , spiraling beyond my control. My body stiffened, my nerves burned, as if Qi itself was ripping apart from the inside.

And then, I heard her.

"Agh!"

A cry. Sharp, filled with pain.

My mother’s voice.

I froze.

"What’s happening?!" A frantic voice—soone else, not my mother. "Her Majesty—she’s experiencing intense pain!"

Pain? But… I was the one suffering.

Wait.

No.

The Qi I had been trying to manipulate—it wasn’t just flowing through . It was flowing through her.

I had pushed too hard. I had overdrawn our connection. I had done sothing I should not have done.

"Summon the healers imdiately!" soone shouted. "Sothing is wrong with the child!"

My heart, already racing, nearly stopped. A shiver ran through . I didn’t know what to do—I was too weak to fix this, too foolish to have foreseen the consequences.

Qi still raged, but I could feel it beginning to disperse. I tried to let go, to release control, to allow it to return to its natural state.

And then—silence.

The pain vanished.

My mother let out a shaky breath.

And so did I.

"That… that was strange," she murmured, her voice weaker than before. "For a mont, it felt as if sothing was draining my Qi…"

A sharp inhale. Soone held their breath. The room was silent. Then, cautiously, one of the healers spoke.

"The child… this child has an unusual Qi. I don’t yet know what it ans, but… sothing is changing within them."

A chill crawled down my spine.

If they discovered what I had done—if they started investigating why—I could be in danger.

I listened intently as the healers examined my mother, speaking in hushed voices.

Although they assured her it was nothing serious, their tones told a different story. They whispered among themselves, one even suggesting that sothing had ‘disrupted’ her Qi flow. If they dug deeper…

I could be in trouble.

My mother was exhausted, but unhard. They dismissed it as a one-ti anomaly.

But I knew better.

This was my fault.

And I could never let it happen again.

Because if things had gone differently… if the pain had intensified…

I could have died.

I could have been erased before I ever set foot in this world.

A cold shudder ran through my fragile, unborn body. This wasn’t a ga. One wrong move, and I wouldn’t get a second chance.

But that wasn’t all.

The Qi I had been using—the Qi that caused my mother pain—was hers.

Her energy.

Her life force.

And I had unknowingly stolen it.

It made sense. I was still a part of her, dependent on her for everything. So what I had done… was take sothing that wasn’t mine.

I trembled.

I couldn’t let this happen again.

If I didn’t sever my reliance on her Qi, I wouldn’t just hinder my own growth—I could harm her.

And if her cultivation weakened because of … she might see as a threat.

Royal families did not tolerate weakness. If she discovered I was unknowingly draining her power, she might decide to get rid of —before I ever had the chance to be born.

Not even maternal bonds would protect .

I had to break free from her Qi.

I had to find my own path.

I needed to learn how to control Qi—not just for my own sake, but for my survival. If I wanted to shape my own destiny, I had to start now.

I could no longer afford to simply avoid mistakes. I couldn’t hesitate.

I had to take control of my own Qi.

And if I didn’t have any?

Then I would find a way to create it.

But where should I start?

I searched inwardly, looking for any trace of my own Qi—anything that wasn’t connected to my mother. But all I found was emptiness.

Cold. Silent. Void.

What if I never found it?

What if I was born as another worthless royal heir, dood to live in the shadows of stronger cultivators?

No.

I couldn’t let that happen.

One mistake had nearly cost my life. I was walking a thin edge, one misstep away from falling into oblivion. I had to act fast.

All I could do now was listen.

So I did.

"Should we inform His Majesty?" one of the healers asked.

"No need. The child is stable, and Her Majesty is recovering. This was likely a one-ti incident," another responded, though uncertainty laced his voice.

"Only he can decide…" a third voice murmured.

Silence fell.

Him.

That na had been whispered throughout the royal court.

Whoever he was, his judgnt carried more weight than the king himself.

Why?

What made him so feared?

If this world belonged to the strong… then he had to be one of the strongest.

And if I wanted to survive, I needed to learn more about people like him.

Perhaps one day… I would stand before him.

But that was a distant goal.

For now, I had to focus on .

I withdrew into my own consciousness, searching for sothing—anything—that belonged only to .

My own Qi.

If it wasn’t in my body… then where?

How could I awaken it?

The more I searched, the more I felt… nothing.

Was I truly just… nothing?

Then—sothing stirred.

It wasn’t my mother’s Qi.

It was different.

Faint. Weak.

But mine.

A shiver of excitent coursed through .

For the first ti since my reincarnation, sothing inside belonged to .

A spark.

A sliver of light in the darkness.

And with that realization, exhilaration surged through .

I wasn’t just a mind trapped in an unborn body.

I was sothing more.

I had my own Qi.

My own path.

Laughter bubbled inside —not aloud, but in the silence of my confined world.

I wasn’t powerless.

Not anymore.