The Third prince of the Tao Dynasty was one heavily favoured by the Emperor. His mother was his Majesties' favourite concubine, and the Prince had great cultivation talent. He was the only real competition to the crown prince of the Dynasty, Tao Meng.
Many would believe this was a blessing, to be favoured by the ruler of such a vast territory, to be a genius even amongst the most talented in the dynasty, but to the third Prince Tao An, named by the emperor with the character for 'Peace', he dreaded it. If he had an elder to advise him, they would have told this poor prince to hide his talents until the inevitable fight for the throne. Showing prowess even greater than the crown prince would only paint a target on his back.
Crown prince Tao Meng had good relations to the other prince and princesses, cutting off support for the third prince as he saw him as a threat to his succession. He had managed to gather the rest of the noble offspring to his side and oppress and ridicule the third prince at any chance he had. Because of this, the third prince became introverted and rarely left his palace quarters. The meeting with the Emperor about the foreign invasion was the first time in three years his siblings had seen him.
Currently, the third prince was over a hundred miles to the East of central Tao Dynasty, approaching its Eastern borders. Due to the news of invasion, the Eastern border had been reinforced with over a million members of the imperial army, a third of which were cultivators ranging from the Qi Refinement realm to one hundred Void Soul realm Generals spread across the border. One could see the difference in strength between Central and Eastern continent. Just one Tao Dynasty was comparable to multiple supreme tribes.
Turning his head to look behind him, Tao An sighed in dejection. "These bastards just don't give up, do they?"
Chasing the third prince were the lackeys of the crown prince, consisting of ten Core formation experts. Core formation was a realm that many considered unattainable, typically unmatched within their local region, and yet the crown prince could easily call upon ten to hunt the third prince like a dog.
The attack was naturally due to the news of invasion. If the emperor died in combat with the invading armies, it was hard to tell which side the ministers would favour, hence, the crown prince was in a rush to kill this third brother of his. As cruel as this sounded, this was a normal situation in the battle of the princes, and frequently took place through the years.
With no choice and no backup, the third prince fled his palace towards the Eastern border. He planned to live a life of isolation, knowing he had no chance for revenge.
The forest he was trekking through had hindered his movements somewhat, causing the enemies behind to catch up. He was also a core formation realm after all, and there was little difference in the strength between them. This forest hindered both his enemies and himself.
Approaching the end of the forest, a mountain came into view before him. This would normally be an uneventful sight, one of the many mountains throughout the jungle he had fled past, however, this mountain was covered in a thick grey mist, akin to dark clouds hovering stationary over the mountain.
Spotting this mountain, the third prince finally saw hope in escape. He thought he could use the weak visibility to get rid of these assassins, and plan his next move.
Thinking of this, he sped up a mountain trial on the side and cut through the tall grass in his way, eventually reaching a lower peak. Looking back, he could no longer see his enemies, nor could he hear them. Now that he thought about it, he could hear nothing.
A mountain and he could hear nothing? No wind, no animals, no trees swinging and no crickets. The Grassy mountainside and the small peak he was on was completely and eerily silent.
Now he had stopped to comprehend this, he was startled.
Looking around him and finding no abnormalities, he thought to himself 'This should be fine, right? I'll take a rest here, recuperate my injuries and set off for the Eastern border to mix in with the cultivators there. At the least, I'll have food and supplies.'
Calming himself down, he started to relax.
----
Tao Jue eyed this young man with surprise from the above mountain peak.
'To think that the first person to stumble on my mountain was a prince! Is it fate? No, have I invented fate? Do I need to invent fate?' He started to confuse himself.
'Well, this kid truly has luck. To meet me is his greatest fortune!'
He began to walk down the mountain as a mortal towards the third prince.