"Young miss, are you sure it's fine for you to go out now?"
Wanwan and I were walking down the streets of the night market. It has been two weeks already and I have yet to be used to this new body that I acquired. I spent the whole two weeks inside the premises of the Jiu residence under the watch of mother and grandfather. During my whole stay, so to say, they were quite awkward and hesitant towards me. The servants, not much of a surprise, often gave me a look like I have grown a few more heads over the past weeks. I suspect they grew suspicious of my indifferent attitude and temperament. I even caught a rumor circulating inside the residence that I changed due to my near-death experience the last time I initiated suicide. Needless to say, I didn't really bother to address these issues. They are bound to question my actions because in the first place, the young miss they have been taking care of all these years, is dead. Not that I planned to reveal this little secret of course, because I have decided to live in place of the deceased Jiu Xinyi of the Jiu Mansion.
Much to my surprise, the young miss of the Jiu family- or should I say, the past owner of the body, Jiu Xinyi- had a very outstanding background. Disregarding the fact that her mother was divorced by her biological father, chased out of the house to be exact, had an impressive background. Her Jiu family had a rich history and had been regarded highly by the royal family since the founding of the Nanchang Empire. Her family has produced exceptional generals, to what the people call 'Blue-eyed General Bloodline'.
The current family head is her-- my grandfather Jiu Tinghao. He had led the Jiu army as an excellent military general that even the emperor recognizes. The Jiu army serves as the sword and shield of the Nanchang Empire, hence the emperor would regard it highly if he doesn't want his own sword to pierce him. Despite that, Jiu Tinghao was too unfortunate because he has not yet produced a rightful heir yet. The Jiu family's blue-eyed bloodline is a bit of a requirement, so to say. Although my mother had two older brothers, they didn't inherit the blue eyes that the Jiu family is looking for, because of this they have gone their separate ways from the family and got married. As far as her memory serves me, there is a legend behind the blue eyed generals from the Jiu family. Amusingly, the past Jiu Xinyi was the first woman in the family who inherited the blue eyes. But because of the fact that she was a woman, she wasn't even considered to be an heir.
"Did you see that? The Jiu family's young miss!" A few tables from where I was sitting, two women were seated and started talking about my appearance in the night market.
"Oh, I heard she committed suicide but failed." I don't even know if what they're doing is gossiping or intentionally doing it for me to hear. Their voice was oddly loud enough for me to hear who is seated a few tables away.
"If I were her, I would be too ashamed to show myself." Not that I'm bothered though, I mean, I had my fair share of gossip and rumors way back in my past life. A lot of people grew hatred towards me and I was completely aware of it that's why I got used to it.
"Eh? What happened?"
"Apparently, it was said that the third prince revoked their engagement to the young miss because of her awful attitude. It turns out it was all a cover-up!"
"What was the real reason behind it then?"
"She's a cripple." Now that I think about it, that would be the main reason behind the sudden cancelation of the engagement. Not that I care.
In this world, at the early age of 15, every individual will awaken their special constitution. Each individual foster's a unique constitution to what they call "Aura". There are four different kinds of Aura, the psychic aura, saintess aura, wielder's aura, and the demonic aura.
The psychic aura is blue in color, it is cultivated by tempering one's own consciousness and subconscious. It is extremely hard to cultivate because failure results in losing one's rationality, in other words, you'll end up at the mental facility back in my past life. Although it is extremely hard to foster, it has lots to offer. It heightens one's awareness, it enables the individual to sense something up to a certain range depending on the level of cultivation. Of course, the higher the cultivation, the wider the range of this ability. Another ability is to incapacitate your enemy, the higher the cultivation, the longer you can disable their movements. Another known ability from this aura is the ability to control someone's consciousness. The individual is able to trap others in a lifelike world inside their divine consciousness. The higher the cultivation, the harder it takes to sense that you have been trapped and break free from this spell. Because of these few abilities, high leveled psychic cultivators are often feared by humanity.
On the other hand, the saintess aura is green in color. It is cultivated by making medicinal pills and exposing yourself and doing alchemy. Individuals with this aura has abilities focused on healing and poison. Most of the individuals who foster this aura are either an alchemist or a physician.
Out of the four, the wielder's aura is the most common. It is orange in color and can be cultivated in many ways. An individual can choose to cultivate either through combat, knowledge, and creativity, or craftsmanship. Individuals who foster this ability are either soldier, writers, poets, scholars, painters, blacksmiths, and other work-related to these cultivations. Mainly speaking, they are the workforce of every country.
Last but not least is the demonic aura, the strongest out of all the aura's and is extremely hard to cultivate due to its high demands in cultivation. It is red in color and can be only cultivated through the help of heaven rank pills, bloodbath, combat, and lives of others. It's a sinister aura and is hard to take control of. Rumors say that an individual who fosters this aura has the ability to erase memories, alter their appearance, and kill someone at the snap of their fingers. Fortunately, this aura only foster's and reside only on a few people. It was said that if someone was found out to awaken with this aura they are immediately killed on the spot or banished from their countries. Because of that, demonic aura remained to be only a legend written on books.
In order to foster these aura's, individuals are required to cultivate them. The higher you reach in cultivation, the greater the demand and the purer it gets. Of course, if you have talent, the faster you reach the top ranks. Ranks are divided into seven and each has nine respective sub ranks. The ranks are as follows; practitioner, master, grandmaster, mythical, mythical king, mythical saint, and divine overlord. Usually, each rank takes years to cultivate and the further you go, the harder and longer it takes.
Jiu family's current patriarch, Jiu Tinghao is at grandmaster 8th rank. So to speak, it took him forty-two years to reach his current rank at age fifty-seven. I, on the other hand, is still at practitioner 1st rank at age nineteen. No wonder people branded the past Jiu Xinyi as a cripple. For four years, she still remained at 1st rank and got her engagement canceled. Although she was fortunate to awaken the psychic aura, she was still branded as a cripple. Not only its a once in a few thousand people who foster this aura, but it is also extremely hard to cultivate it. It didn't even do justice that she's a wimp and didn't want to end up losing her rationality.
She once tried cultivating her psychic aura but ended up in vain. She almost got engulfed by her own divine consciousness and ended up being trapped in it for three months. Since then, she avoided cultivating and focused on getting engaged with the third prince instead. Not only she was interested in the prince himself, but she also wanted a talented husband that would fill in her lackings. Despite being a cripple, she was sure to at least get a talented husband with her looks.
Not that she's ugly, she actually had good looks. She had long straight black raven hair that reached her hips. Her deep blue eyes made her distinct from others who had black or brown orbs. Small lips and a slightly upturned nose that fit her face perfectly. Although she's shorter than me in my previous life. She had a slender body and had the right curves in the right places. And just maybe missing a bit of something in the front, but she's fine. If not for her arrogant and bitchy personality she would've been pursued by lots of men. Oh well, not that I'm one to speak of.