Emperor's Reckoning

Summit of Geniuses. The meeting of true geniuses was acknowledged both publicly and privately. It was an open meeting to share their thoughts and experiences of what they have discovered. They were also the people that had earned the right to enter the competition that was held in heaven.

The summit was at the top of the highest mountain in the mortal world, Mount Adamrest1. It was chilling throughout but no snow ever build up there. It was the cold breeze of spring and nothing more.

The plateau in the middle was made out of a perfectly circular ancient stone with a beautiful engraving of time immemorial. It floated against the clear sparkling water with twins of giant trees bundled the sides of the unlikely pond. The green leaves slowly dance despite the grueling gale at such altitude. It proved how thick and strong the roots were.

Experts from all over the world may not be invited to sit on that special plateau but they were all allowed to watch and listen since it might benefit their cultivation journey.. There was indeed no amount of gold and beads that could be worth a ticket for this event thus, there was not any.

The public event was one of the most anticipated events in the world. The great families over the mortal world definitely coming in. Some even use this event to select prominent individuals for marriage. Two powerful beings getting married, their descendant would surely soar to the sky and striving against the other stars.

The place was already packed with onlookers. There were experts from varying regions and they all clattered up with smiles whilst conversing with one another. 

"I can't wait for this to start! I wonder if there will be a fight."

"Hah, there will always be a fight, they love to spar against one another."

The experts couldn't contain their excitement. They were looking left and right to any sign if there were any of the geniuses coming over. However there were those that were talking about the current situation in the mortal world.

"I've heard that Treas had fallen?"

The heavy topic brought about silence in some parts of the circle. There was no doubt that their furrowing eyebrows and groaning disappointment proved the answer. 

One of them let out a heavy sigh, "It seems so, it would be high likelihood that the great families will take over their treasures. Not like we can do much about it."

"I disagree..."

"Huh?"

"The great families won't do much of anything, at least not in the near future."

"Why is that?"

"You have not heard the cause of their fall?"

"How could I? I only knew it yesterday from a friend of mine. He didn't give me specific details but his face was really pale as if he just escaped the clutches of death."

"Hmm. —"

Their conversation stop as they furrowed their eyebrows in a certain direction. There was a young man accompanied by an army of nobles behind him. His dashing brown hair was charming to his sculpted face. The lean figure spent not much time before standing on the special plateau as the rest of his followers hovered in the sky with smiles on their end.

He knelt and put his palm against the plateau before the plateau glowed a silver glow. A pillar was erected from the plateau and brought the onlookers to awe.

"It's higher than last time!"

"I expect nothing less from young master Porealus."

"The Arunga family surely punctual as always."

"It's called class!"

The man with the brown hair smirked against the praises that were thrown at him. He jumped to the pillar before sitting down.

"I see that you are as punctual as ever, Arunga," a silky female voice came out of nowhere before a whisk of smoke came in and revealed a figure.

Porealus raised one of his eyebrows before he looked down.

Clad in white the woman had a slender figure to the touch. She wore slightly revealing clothes and her beautiful goblet waist was on display. The coldness of ice surround her navel as her icy blue hair was as long as her hips.

"That was not smoke! That was dry ice!"

"A-Amazing!"

"Ice Queen Ivy!"

Porealus smirked before he said, "You're not so bad yourself, Miss Yuki."

Ivy Yuki disregard his remark before kneeling and touched the plateau. The same thing happened before a pillar was erected. The uncanny height was almost identical to the ones under Porealus but it was a bit higher if one looked closely. She smiled before she jumped and sit at the top of it. Slightly looking down at Porealus, she felt a little bit of dopamine from her vanity.

"I knew it, the Yuki family came along."

"Yeah, they are undetectable as always."

Women wearing the same color palette were hovering behind Ivy after revealing themselves out of thin air. 

"Two representatives of the great families had gathered," said one of the onlookers.

"Porealus, you seem to have grown some strength since the last meeting."

"Aren't we all, Miss Ivy."

"True," Ivy nodded. Her blue ice nails rested on the armrest as she leaned back.

A man with red hair was piercing against the sky before landing on top of the plateau.

"Sorry, for being late, heh, not like this is the first time," said the blonde man. He was not as lean as Porealus but his figure was powerful and that slim curved sword beside his waist caught much attention. He was wearing a simple robe unlike the formal Porealus.

"The Sword Genius, Zet Argonaut!"

"Then those behind him are, the Argonaut family!"

Cultivators consist of men and women were hovering in the air behind Zet with their swords hanging on their waists.

Zet knelt and did the ceremony before a pillar was erected.

"Not bad, considering you are the youngest of all of us," commented Poeralus.

"Hehe, you think so?" he jumped to his seat above. 

Though he had the shortest pillars of the three, his age was a contributing factor.

"There they are, the three of four great families, Argonaut family ruled the north Mortal World, Yuki ruled the east Mortal World, and then Arunga the west."

"Only Yunesia and Treas left."