Emperor's Reckoning

The sect leaders turned grim except for the old patriarch who shook his head in denial. He couldn't believe that a young man whose cultivation level was at the same as the empress could be called emperor not because the latter inherited the title.

"It must have been a different person!"

The old patriarch strongly denied. He refused to believe such a thing but the middle-aged man gave him a glare instead,

"It's not about you, believe it or not, it's about preparation. Did you forget who came back here empty-handed? Because you were unprepared for the wild card! He suddenly came, your son didn't win the throne-like he supposed to, instead, he is dead, buried by nothing but the wind!"

"Ugh!"

The old patriarch gritted his teeth as the middle-aged man in the uniform told his shameful fruits of the labor. Not only they came back with their heads hung down, but they also came back with less than what they had come with. 

"Clear your head of your delusional thoughts for a second! You're not the king of the world! Anything is possible now, you've seen yourself how the empress with her cultivation level casually ripped your students out of their breaths. At the very least, your son's death will not be in vain. Using his death as an excuse would be the valid reason to attack them! That way, we could gain their sympathy from those neutral sides to not interfere with the grudge."

The middle-aged man smiled before he continued, "Also, that will be the time where we will lower our head and be shameless."

The sect leaders looked at each other with worried faces. Even if they had a valid reason to attack them, their numbers and qualities were still a problem. The power that Jin had far surpassed each of them but their combination could probably make out of something with a price.

"Then what do you suggest?" asked one of the sect leaders.

"That is quite easy since big brother and sister-in-law never wanted to be involved with the battle of inheritance, their allies fell short compare to ours."

"But the Alrude sides had their eyes set toward Empress Cecile, they have been planting the seeds of bond ever since Lady Sophia was there to be her assistant or sort," said one of the sect leaders.

"Yes, that is true, it's been a far wide known move from the Alrude line, those shameless fellows! Trying to rope in Emperor Jin from her daughter!" added one of them.

"They are playing the long game, but the seeds that they sow didn't seem to germinate even after all this time. The empress stated it herself that she also didn't care for the inheritance of battle. She even... hm...." one of the sect leaders started to hesitate in his latter words before he stole a glance against the old patriarch.

"Hmm? What is it? Did you left off something important in your recounting of the events?" asked the middle-aged man with a tone of authority. 

"Err.. hmm. The truth is, the empress was ready to give the Blue World for us willingly."

"What?"

"However..." he stole a glance at the old patriarch once more before explaining it further, "She only gave us one condition and that was not to interfere with her and her husband, but, Loh's patriarch over there is quite adamant in getting his revenge over Kaiju's horrible extinction."

The old patriarch furrowed his eyebrows before he glare at the sect leader that explained the true situation. He knew the latter used very selective words to describe the events that he had purposely hidden from the middle-aged man.

"Are you kidding me?"

"You can cut my head if I lied, ask the others, ask the witnesses, they knew what truly happened," the sect leader opened his arms in surrender.

"Gah!" the middle-aged man slowly pinched his glabella to control his raging fury. They were actually given a golden chance but didn't take it over because of an act of revenge. However, considering the old patriarch's situation, he really couldn't blame him for wanting to save his face against the other, though he knew the former didn't care about the boy at all.

The old patriarch didn't dare to say a word but dare to give a clear glance. He knew the middle-aged man would understand his situation. The latter might be born out of nobility but his demeanor was built upon experience.

"Nothing could surpass a man's thirst for revenge from losing his son, his act is understandable."

The middle-aged man needed to say it, otherwise, he would have lost all respect from the others. Without knowing it, the two of them were on the same boat. If he were to say otherwise he would lose all their royalty because if one didn't care for his own kin how could he cared for others, they were pions but not that stupid.

"We don't need supplies, we need power. I will try to reach out to new allies. Have any of you heard of a group named Legion?"

The sect leaders were looking at each other with confused looks. It looked like nobody had ever heard the name of the group. The middle-aged man slightly contemplated before he muttered his opinion. "Legion is an underground group that is probably comparable to Abyss Tower in terms of power. However, they were shrouded with mysteries that even the connection from the Treas family couldn't unveil."

"Then it's a double-edged sword?"

"Not really, we need to know their goals first to know if they are aligned with us or not."

"Hmm.. don't you think that making so many allies would turn out to be a bad thing? The treasuries would be too little for us to catch with our empty hands."

"Hahaha!" the middle-aged man laughed as he walked away from the round table and toward the door before stopping.

"Don't underestimate the Treas's treasury, your greed would even have greed by the time you see what I've seen."

The middle-aged man left the room with their eyebrows raised. They looked at each other before one smile affected the others. 

--------------------

Meanwhile, Jugen's group had finally arrived in the Center City by luxurious boat. There was nothing but awe when their feet stepped inside the lone gorgeous island. 

However, the air was dead as the people seemed to have just disappeared from sight. There were only empty buildings, not even a single animal was seen let alone people. 

"Woah, this whole island is empty, I wonder where hubby is at!" Ryona immediately jumped on top of a building before gazing around like a monkey. Her excitement couldn't even be handle by Kyoko sometimes as the latter shook her head.

"Older sister, why am I the one carrying this half-rotten old man?!" Jugen complained as he never thought the voyage would turn out like this. His handsome face was bitter as he carried the old man by his back.

"Don't ask me, you carried him on your back yourself," Karina shook her head before she walked away.

"Wu wu wu!" Fenrir slightly walked away from Jugen's leg before the little black wolf jumped around excited in the new place.  His nose caught up to something before scurried his way off out of everyone's sight.

Meanwhile, Luna was taking a glance at the huge castle that protruded out of the island. She had a hunch that Lyon was probably somewhere inside that towering building. She didn't pay attention to the dead city at all before her rival Princess Aelina was tugged her delt.

"What are you looking at?" asked the latter.

"Of course I'm looking at the castle, why would I want to look at you."

"You really are getting cocky ever since you slept with Lyon!"

Princes Aelina didn't even lower her voice when she said those words. With Luna's face turning a red hue, the former pinched her head with her hands.

"Fusya Fusya!"

The giant salamander immediately scurried off its way just like Fenrir but Tuey was on top of its back. 

"Whoa whoa! Wait for a minute wait!" Fusya didn't wait anymore before he put up top speed in under a minute leaving the onlookers nothing but dust.

"What's up with the animal anyway, hohoho, is his charm really that deadly. HM?!"

Emperor Jin was shaking his head with a smile before he felt a familiar presence right in the castle.

"Oh no!" he immediately leaped under the onlooker's eyes before flying toward the castle in haste.

Tuey managed to take a glance upward before seeing the old man flew over them and went straight. She shook her head, "Even an old man is charmed by you, totally deadly older brother, totally deadly."

Her tail slightly waggle before he caught a cloud of dust in her eyes, "Slow down, slow down!" but Fusya heard no command, it only had those black eyes toward the castle. 

"Was that? A giant lizard?" Karina slightly tilted her head.