Chapter 1: Lighting Up a Skill Tree

"Xie, the Crown Prince has been standing here for at least two hours, hasn't he?"

In the elegant courtyard, the young maid Qiao leaned close to another maid. She lowered her voice as she looked at the young man staring blankly under a towering ancient tree nearby.

"Yes," Xi replied.

The maid named Xi cast a slightly worried glance at the boy. Turning her head, she added, "He ate at noon, and now it's almost past 1:00 PM."

"Sigh." Qiao followed Xi's gaze and let out an equally anxious sigh. "His Highness the Crown Prince has been like this for almost half a month now, hasn't he? Should we report this to the Princess Consort?"

Xi's face showed a hint of hesitation. After a moment of thought, she shook her head.

"Let's wait and see. Have you forgotten why Lan was transferred away?"

Hearing this, Qiao nodded timidly. She had finally managed to be assigned to the Crown Prince's side, and she certainly didn't want to be chased away and demoted back to an ordinary maid over something like this.

Under the tree, the young man was completely oblivious to his maids' gossiping. As he stared at the towering ancient tree in front of him, his face was full of utter conflict.

Right now, his mind was entirely consumed by one single question: What did he have to do to light up this massive tree?

Having been in this world for sixteen years and having read countless books in Prince Jing's Residence, Su Han believed he had a sufficient understanding of this world. However, no matter how much he understood, when it came to the tree before him, Su Han had to admit that he was nothing but completely and utterly bewildered.

The story had to start half a month ago.

Half a month ago, the Crown Prince of Prince Jing's Residence, Su Han, celebrated his sixteenth birthday.

After a whole day of lively festivities, Su Han walked back to his small courtyard under the twilight. As he pushed open the courtyard gate and headed toward his bedroom, he habitually glanced at the massive tree in the corner, which was so thick it would take four or five people to wrap their arms around it.

After this customary glance, Su Han withdrew his gaze, just as he had done countless times before, and continued walking toward his room. But after taking only two steps, his raised foot paused slightly.

He subconsciously turned his head to look at the tree again. This time, however, he couldn't casually pull his eyes away.

There were words!

Where Su Han's gaze landed, three glowing words seemed to be carved into the massive tree: Skill Tree.

Actually, that wasn't quite accurate. It wasn't that the words "Skill Tree" were physically carved into the bark. Rather, when he looked at the tree, it was as if a voice at the bottom of his heart was telling him that right in front of his eyes was a Skill Tree.

Su Han even developed an inexplicable intuition: if he lit up this Skill Tree, he could obtain the skills within it.

This whole situation... was getting a bit too fantastical.

That night, after guarding the giant tree in the courtyard and staring at it for half the night without seeing a single trace of any legendary skill, Su Han returned to his room. He tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

The next morning, the moment Su Han got out of bed, he immediately ran out to the courtyard to check on the tree.

When he looked at it, that strange feeling still lingered in his heart, as if the glowing words "Skill Tree" were truly engraved on the trunk.

In response to this, Su Han first spent three days proving to himself that he hadn't gone insane or started hallucinating. Through indirect questioning, he came to a firm conclusion: apart from him, absolutely no one else in the Prince's Residence—from his own parents down to a Ninth-Class Family Servant—saw anything unusual about this tree.

This towering ancient tree with a history of one thousand three hundred years had been personally planted by the Su Family's ancestor, the founding emperor of Jing Country, in the very year he established the nation. But aside from that historical fact, it held no other extraordinary qualities in anyone else's eyes.

Only in Su Han's eyes was it a Skill Tree that could teach him skills if he just lit it up.

First, he hadn't lost his mind. Second, to everyone else, this tree was just an ordinary tree that happened to be a bit larger than other ordinary trees.

Using the process of elimination, Su Han easily reached a conclusion: this was a fortuitous encounter meant exclusively for him.

This stroke of luck had come so suddenly that Su Han didn't want to wait a single day longer. He couldn't wait to light up this Skill Tree and learn the skills it contained.

However, when Su Han actually tried to light up the Skill Tree, a new problem arose.

Apart from giving him that inexplicable feeling of "this is a Skill Tree; light it up and you can get its skills," it looked like a completely normal tree in every other way.

How exactly was he supposed to light up a normal tree? He didn't have any legendary Skill Points on him, either!

And so, in order to light up his Skill Tree, Su Han had carried out a series of experiments over the past ten days or so.

He hung lanterns on the tree.

He smeared fluorescent powder on its trunk.

He even dragged a bunch of servants out into the sun to focus light onto the tree using magnifying glasses, just to make it shine.

Unfortunately, after trying almost every method he could think of, Su Han still failed to unlock the new achievement of lighting up a Skill Tree. To this day, he still hadn't learned a single skill from this legendary Skill Tree.

At one point, Su Han even couldn't help but suspect that this was merely an ordinary tree, and that the whole Skill Tree thing was just a figment of his imagination.

But the nearly shimmering words "Skill Tree" in his vision, combined with the incredibly real intuition that told him he could learn skills by lighting it up, were too convincing to doubt. It compelled him to keep trying, time and time again.

"Phew."

After standing in front of the Skill Tree for over two hours yet again, Su Han took a deep breath and let out a long exhale.

"Su Xiao'Er!"

He turned his head, his Qi sinking into the Dantian, and shouted clearly and resonantly toward the outside of the courtyard.

CREAK.

With the sound of a door opening and a sudden gust of wind, a boy of the same age—around sixteen or seventeen—appeared in front of Su Han.

"Crown Prince, you called for me?" Su Xiao'Er stood before Su Han with his head bowed, looking entirely at his master's disposal.

"Su Xiao'Er, I am going to entrust you with a daunting task. Do you dare to do it?"

Su Xiao'Er reflexively brought his legs together, lifting his head and puffing out his chest while staring straight ahead. "Su Xiao'Er pledges his life to complete any task the Crown Prince assigns."

"Very good. I wasn't wrong about you." Su Han nodded in satisfaction and patted Su Xiao'Er on the shoulder. "Su Xiao'Er, go to the butler right now and ask for three buckets of kerosene. Have them all delivered to my courtyard."

"Yes, sir."

Su Xiao'Er complied and turned to leave. Before long, three buckets of kerosene were neatly arranged in front of Su Han.

"Crown Prince, the kerosene you requested has been delivered."

"Mm." Su Han nodded. He looked at the kerosene, then back at the Skill Tree, a hint of hesitation lingering in his eyes.

"Crown Prince, what do you need Su Xiao'Er to do next?"

Su Xiao'Er's words pulled Su Han back to reality. Turning his head to glance at the servant boy, Su Han raised a finger and pointed at the Skill Tree.

"Su Xiao'Er, pour all this kerosene onto that tree."

"Su Xiao'Er guarantees to complete... wait, what? What did you say to do with this kerosene, Crown Prince?"

Su Han kept his finger pointed at the Skill Tree. "Pour it on the tree."

Su Xiao'Er's face instantly turned deathly pale. After taking a few deep breaths, his gaze turned fierce. He looked up at Su Han with a look of fearless resolve.

"Crown Prince, if I lose my life over this, please take good care of my hard-working old dad... and my hard-working old dad."

Su Han was speechless.

WHOOSH!

A flint was gently tossed into the air. In an instant, a roaring inferno engulfed the Skill Tree that had been completely drenched in kerosene.

After throwing the flint, Su Han kept his eyes locked tightly onto the blazing Skill Tree.

The moment the raging flames devoured the massive tree, Su Han's eyes were filled with complex, exasperated WTF thoughts, mixed with an intense, undeniable surge of joy.

He thought, "Damn it! So this is how you're supposed to 'light up' the Skill Tree?!"

Not only did the tree have to be bright, but he actually had to physically set it on fire!

At this very moment, right before Su Han's eyes, this roaring, burning tree was no longer just a simple tree.

Before him, a line of small text was flashing on this Skill Tree left behind by his ancestor:

Skill Tree (Lit Up)!