Kayden’s kingdom had slowly become a mystery. There were two absolute truths in the world: the first was death, and the second was that Kayden’s test had been conducted longer than the current empire had existed.
"What makes someone a genius?" Kayden was delivering one of his thousands of lectures. Many people who attended these lectures over the centuries eventually became his disciples.
"Strength above others," a voice came from the crowd. No one there feared Kayden—only respected him, as he had never harmed a soul in this world.
"Perfect," Kayden replied, leaving the person in ecstasy, "but also terribly wrong. When you are surrounded by geniuses, what makes you different? Strength?"
Kayden’s questions made everyone think deeply, and most often, they failed to find the right answer. It made no sense to be strong if everyone around you was strong, as that made strength common.
"Genius comes from the ability to become something unique, a mage who has never been seen and cannot be copied. That is a true genius. The paths already traveled only lead to the same places," Kayden concluded the lecture and promised to return in an hour.
An hour later, there he was, in front of half a trillion people—a number that remained constant, sometimes rising and sometimes falling. Having lived so long, Kayden noticed that the world maintained a balance in the number of lives.
The world seemed to have a will of its own, self-regulating. In many instances, the population would reach extremely high levels, and then mysterious diseases or wars would erupt everywhere. When the population was low, peace reigned.
Kayden developed the hypothesis that this was due to the number of souls. The world couldn’t handle too many souls at once and needed a certain minimum quantity. This last part didn’t make much sense to Kayden.
The world seemed to have some sort of rationality, but it was probably something rational done irrationally, like how computers execute programs. Worlds, too, must be capable of managing their laws.
"Good luck to you all," Kayden unleashed his aura and killing intent freely upon all the people present.
Over the years, he had increased the difficulty by several degrees. Strong minds were good, but strength alone no longer produced the results he sought for his research. Now, he only wanted the pinnacle of willpower. This left him without any disciples for years.
Most fainted immediately. The rest remained motionless, unable even to move forward or think clearly. But this time, something different happened...
A barefoot adolescent, wearing tattered clothes, was walking toward Kayden as if the pressure didn’t exist at all. His eyes... were empty. That look...
Kayden had seen it before when he looked in the mirror. The boy was short, barely 1.50 meters tall, practically a dwarf in a world where everyone was well-developed physically due to mana.
His hair was straw-yellow, and he was extremely malnourished. Whip marks covered his body, making it clear to everyone that he had been severely mistreated all his life.
"Congratulations, boy. What’s your name?" Kayden noticed the boy’s eyes didn’t even flicker at the recognition.
"I don’t have a name. My owners don’t allow me to have one," Kayden confirmed his theory at that moment.
"Your owners… what do you want to do with them?" Kayden asked as if offering candy.
"Kill them. All of them, even the children," came the harsh reply, something no ordinary person would say without hesitation.
"Are they here? Just point them out," Kayden saw the boy indicate a family with several sixth-realm mages among them. They weren’t weak, but as soon as Kayden thought of killing them, the universe did the rest.
Not even the children were spared. Everyone was killed instantly. Finally, Kayden saw a glimmer of recognition in the boy’s eyes, but just a flicker, as if it had been a single step.
"Enter and wait for the end of the test," Kayden ordered his new disciple. After just a few more minutes, no one else survived the test, something he had expected. After wishing good luck to everyone next year, Kayden entered the temple.
"Why don’t you have any cultivation?" Kayden had noticed it before but had saved the question for a private setting.
"I was born . I can’t feel the mana inside my body," Kayden’s eyes nearly popped with excitement at the opportunity.
"I’m going to do a small test on you. It will hurt." Kayden didn’t wait for the boy’s response and removed 5% of his past lives in a single motion. The boy was assaulted by infernal pain and couldn’t even move his eyes.
Unlike all the other disciples, the boy stood up afterward, looking at Kayden in shock. But that wasn’t the issue—the fact that he could stand after a session of past-life removal was.
"Congratulations, boy. Do you want to choose a name?" Kayden asked his disciple.
"I don’t have one in mind, master," the boy managed to reply calmly despite the pain he had just endured. It wasn’t something the body could easily handle; it was a pain directly in the soul.
"I’ll call you Han Heart," Kayden said, recalling certain things from his past. It was just something he liked, with no sentimental value.
"Thank you, master. But what about my problem with mana?" Kayden smiled.
"That’s not a problem, boy. Just follow my instructions."
In the following years, Kayden had Han cultivate his body like someone from Earth. It took two decades, with proper nutrition and excellent resources, for him to reach the true peak of the human body.
Past lives were slowly removed, and the boy’s mind continued to grow in strength rapidly. By this point, soul attacks were met with some resistance, which was impressive since it had taken Konan millennia to reach that level.
The problem with the boy’s body was impossible to fix, Kayden had two options at that moment, simply put him in another body or place him as a monarch, the second was preferable, as it would increase the quality of his study.