"Strongest? Yeah, right! So what if you are the strongest when you can't even live your life with your own decisions?"
A young man, nearly nineteen years old, stared at the ceiling of his room and muttered while drinking some beer.
He clutched his fist around the tin can, and it squeezed into a small piece of metal.
"Am I the luckiest transmigrator? Or, do I have bad luck?"
He lowered his head and laughed with a dark expression.
"Born in the strongest family, reached the highest level of strength, but I can't even leave the house."
His name was Eon D Grant. He was the son of Michal D Grant. His father was the most powerful person in the world.
Not the strongest, but with his resources and cultivation, he was definitely the most powerful.
There was a difference, and this difference was created by their experience.
Their Grant family had survived for hundreds of thousands of years. They had more than a hundred Emperors through their family history.
"Why?"
He muttered. He couldn't understand why he was reborn in this world, in this family.
He didn't resent it, but he couldn't accept it either.
Exchanging freedom for strength was the opposite of what people would do.
In fact, the people of this world cultivate for the sake of freedom. Only when their strength reaches a certain point, they truly become free.
Becoming Ninth Grade Warlock, also known as Emperor Realm, he was supposed to be the freest person in the world.
But reality didn't work like that.
In this family, he didn't have freedom. He couldn't even step out of the land of his family. Although this land was quite big, it was still a cage.
He couldn't find a friend. He couldn't find a drinking partner. He could talk to random people. He couldn't leave.
He had many things. He had resources, power, and people at his fingertips. If he had this power in any other world, he could easily rule the world.
And, this family chose to ignore all of that, just for the sake of keeping a secret.
A secret discovered by Alexander the Ancestor. His ancestor discovered an ancient formation that could help them cultivate.
In just one day, one could skip the whole grade. In just nine days, one could reach the very peak of the world.
The same level that people needed hundreds or thousands of years to reach.
The difference was so massive that their family couldn't even take a small risk of exposing it.
Even without that, most people were already suspicious of his family possessing a treasure.
Still, when Alexander the Ancestor discovered this formation, he used it to become a Ninth Grade Warlock in just nine days.
But since the progress didn't reflect the strength, he created another rule. A person was only allowed to use it once a year.
So, Eon started his cultivation at the age of ten. At the age of nineteen, he reached the Ninth Grade.
He didn't lack anything except freedom.
In this family, hierarchy was important.
When his ancestor discovered his growth, he married several women and established the Grant Family as a powerhouse.
But when he realized that his wives could share the secrets of the formation, he killed them.
He just let them give birth and killed them. This was a secret that he only told to his eldest son, who later told it to the next Family Head.
Franx the Hero was the eldest son of Alexander the Ancestor. After learning about his mother's and aunts' deaths at the hands of his father, he left the family.
He was already an Emperor and much stronger than his father. So, when he left, his father couldn't stop him.
He traveled the world to learn more about this world. Through his travels, he came to understand his father.
He didn't forgive him, but he understood him.
In this world, even for a small resource, brothers would kill each other. Just for the lack of talent, a father would abandon one of his sons to favor another.
A woman would cheat on her husband. A girl would abandon her fiancé. This was just a normal thing in this world.
It made him realize the importance of that formation and the reason behind his father's action.
But realization didn't help him forgive his father. During his journey, he learned many things and explored his own power.
Mystical Energies exist in the world, and warlocks absorb mystical energy, transform it into mana, and store it within their bodies.
Mystical Energy contained a large amount of vitality that would improve one's lifespan.
But to absorb mystical energy, one would need talent.
Talent came in the form of three aspects: Soul, Comprehension, and Bone.
Mystic Soul was the manifestation of one's connection with nature. Upon awakening Mystic Soul, a person could start their cultivation journey.
Only Mystic Soul could absorb mystical energy.
But Comprehension was necessary for the transformation of mystical energy and understanding of natural elements.
To transform mystical energy, one would need to extract the vitality from mystical energy and merge it with their bodies.
Upon going through a small evolution, their bodies would discrete a powerful energy that would act as a catalyst for the expansion of the remaining energy.
That expanded energy would be stored in the Mana Pool of a person's body. The Mana Pool existed within the center of their body, in an independent space.
Warrior Bone was the result of one's ancestor growing significantly stronger and improving their physique to the point where it could be inherited in a special form.
A person's Warrior Bone could speed up their cultivation, give them an extra strength during battle, and even help them establish a solid foundation.
Eon was born with the connection to Void Soul.
It was the mystic soul that represented the Grant Family's connection with Space.
Because of this, if he tried leaving the house, his parents would instantly sense it.
And, he would face severe punishment.
Abandoning his cultivation, erasing the memories of the formation, and kicking him out of the family.
That was the result of breaking the rules in this family.
This rule was established by the son of Franx the Hero.
Franx not only created Void Scripture for the family that helped them strengthen their connection to the space, but he also created five different scriptures.
And, he gave away the basic versions of those scriptures to the world. That's how he was crowned Hero.
In this world where sharing was impossible, he literally gave ordinary people a chance to get a high-level Energy Manipulation Technique.
After returning home, he fought with his father and imprisoned him. He couldn't bring himself to kill his father.
Then, he told his brothers about the atrocities his father committed. So, he established a new way to continue the family.
They would marry their cousins.
This way, the secret of their family wouldn't be leaked.
This rule, however, was changed by his son, Tyler the Enforcer.
Tyler was born as the eldest son of the family. Because of this, he was carefully trained by his father to become the strongest.
His father also allowed him to travel around the world and gain more knowledge.
During his journey, he fell in love with a woman.
Since they weren't allowed to marry someone outside the family, he decided to stay outside for hundreds of years.
During this time, he helped the woman get stronger and reach her full potential.
Although she didn't reach Ninth Rank, she still managed to achieve Seventh Rank within a few hundred years.
Once he realized she couldn't improve, he took her back. He wanted to convince his father about this.
But when he returned home, he found the death of the Ancestor.
It turned out their cultivation was improved through shortening their lifespan.
So, even though they had managed to reach Ninth Rank, they only had a thousand years of lifespan.
His grandfather died so early because he cultivated too fast.
Upon realizing this truth, father and son talked about the strategy to continue their family.
During this time, they came up with the idea of marrying outside the family, but just to make sure the women wouldn't betray them, they would follow a certain procedure.
This was the procedure that gave Eon five wives.
After his birth, his parents selected four girls who were twenty years older than him, came from prominent families, and had good talent to be his wives.
This was done to make sure the girls were at the age of understanding the severity of their family secret.
After all, the father and son duo didn't want to commit the same action that their father/grandfather did.
That's why Eon didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky. The moment after his birth, he had five wives.
More importantly, except for leaving the family, he was given anything he wished within the boundaries of his family.
Anything!