Chapter 88 - The Crown Prince
The ancestor took out a sword and slashed it towards Kai's throat. But the sword broke as soon as it touched Kai's skin.
Kai grabbed the ancestor's throat and smashed his body into the arena floor beside the body of his son.
Kai's eyes started to glow as he checked their minds for any seals. And just as he had thought, their minds contained the same seal the outcasts had.
"It's weird. The rest of the royal family didn't have any seal. So why do they have this seal?" Kai asked Mia and Mariel as they walked to stand beside him.
They didn't know the answer to this and because of the seal, Kai couldn't see their memories so he just had to go ahead with plan B.
He restored the arena, except the broken wall and the unconscious 6.5 man on the arena floor.
He then healed everyone and manipulated their memories. Since Tianjin and the ancestor had the seals on their mind, Kia could only make it look as though they had imagined all that.
He then woke up everyone as Mia and Mariel went back to stand near the stands. The ancestor and Tianjin were about to attack Kai when the audience started to cheer wildly.
Both of them didn't understand what was happening and frowned at each other. They then stared at Kai who had a look of fake concern on his face.
"Are you alright your majesty? Weren't you about to make me your personal bodyguard?" Kai asked in an innocent voice as their eyes widened.
Did they just imagine a scene where they were beaten by Kai but if it was their imagination, how could both of them imagine the same thing?
But there was no proof that Kai had done any of those and even the audience looked unfazed.
The emperor and the ancestor had no choice but to act as though everything was fine. They granted Kai the title of the emperor's personal bodyguard and ordered him to follow Tianjin twenty hours a day.
And with that, the ancestor and Tianjin started to fly back to the palace. Kai also rose in the air as went near Mia and Mariel for a moment.
He created an invisibility barrier around them as they followed the emperor and the ancestor.
"I will have to gather the information slowly and manage to not get caught during that since I cannot manipulate their memories." He said as they landed at the royal palace.
It was two times larger than the royal palace on the western continent and had a miniature Yellow Dragon sitting on top of the palace.
"Follow me to the throne room, you will see the court in session." Tianjin said as he lead Kai and the group towards the courtroom.
Unlike the other two royal palaces Kai had visited, the royal palace on the Central Continent was a mixture of many colors. The carpets were made from royal red wool while the walls were adorned with jade color wallpapers.
The furniture was mostly brown or gold in color while the ceiling was completely jade in color.
The throne room, however, was completely golden in color and the throne was made from real gold and jade.
The throne of the emperor was raised on a platform while many small thrones were present on the floor of the throne room.
All of the thrones, except the emperor's throne, were occupied by the various ministers.
Kai followed Tianjin to his throne and stood beside it. Kai gazed at the assembly of the gathered ministers as all of them were examining him.
"Is that your new personal bodyguard? He looks scrawnier than the previous one." One of the ministers commented.
"Maybe we should give him a test to prove that he is qualified for this job." Another minister said as Kai smiled.
"If by test, you mean those poorly hidden assassins, I don't think you are fit to be a minister." Kai said as the minister was taken aback.
"Well, does anyone else has any questions about my bodyguard?" Tianjin askes the gathering of ministers and no one objected.
"Then maybe we should talk about more pressing matters." Tianjin said as two ministers stood up at the same time.
"Your majesty, we don't want to disrespect you or anything but it's just that you have been dodging questions about this 'pink-haired alchemy master'." One of them said.
"Yes, your majesty. You come with otherworldly pills that you share with us without telling us where you got that from." The other one finished as both of them took their seats.
The entire throne room plunged into silence. It looked as though everyone present here wanted to know about this. The emperor sighed as he finally spoke.
"I will tell the court about this after three days. Is that enough for all of you?" Tianjin asked the ministers as they nodded.
"So we will find about Risea after three days." Mia said and since she was completely invisible, no one could hear her.
[ We can investigate Tianjin since I am his bodyguard and I am supposed to follow him everywhere he goes. ] Kai said using a spiritual message as the ministers and Tianjin talked about finance or something.
It went on for four hours and Kai stood there the entire time. Whereas, Mariel and Mia just slept on the throne room's floor.
When the session was finally over and the ministers went back to their homes, Tianjin stood up and stretched his body.
"Let's go to the dining hall. You can sit there and eat with us." Tianjin said to Kai as the two of them started walking towards the dining area.
Mia and Mariel also woke up and followed them. The dining hall was fully occupied with the members of the royal family, all of them waiting for Tianjin's arrival.
Three seats were left empty. Tianjin sat at the head seat and gestured for Kai to sit behind him in a much smaller chair.
"Now we just have to wait for Sungjin's arrival. That boy is always running late." A beautiful woman with shiny brown hair and warm brown eyes sighed as the rest of the royal family followed her example and sighed.
"Don't worry mother, I am already here." A voice was heard as a boy about 18 years of age made his appearance.
"This here is my wife, Fang Shiao. And this here is my youngest son, Fang Sungjin, the crown prince and my successor." Tianjin introduced his wife and son to Kai.
Shiao examined Kai with kind eyes whereas Sungjin eyed him with interest as though he was judging Kai's capabilities.
"Hmm, what is your name?" Sungjin asked as Kai smiled.
"My name is Kai and I am your father's latest bodyguard." Kai replied as he stood up and extended his hand towards Sungjin.
Sungjin stared at Kai's hand for a minute before shaking it with his hand. He unexpectedly tightened his grip around Kai's hand and started squeezing it.
"Trying to judge my strength huh." Kai smiled as he also tightened his grip around Sungjin's hand.
After a few minutes, he released Sungjin's hand and sat back on his seat. Sungjin narrowed his eyes at Kai before settling down on his own seat.
"Just so you know, that child is at the 9th stage of the heaven spirit realm." Tianjin whispered to Kai as he nodded.
After dinner, the members of the royal family went their separate ways to do their work. Sungjin was the second to last person to move away as he bowed to Tianjin.
"I am going to cultivate father." Sungjin said as he too went away.
"Well, I don't have anything to do. Just stand outside my door for the rest of the night." Tianjin said as he went and entered his room.
With nothing left to do, Kai just sat on the floor as Mia and Mariel also settled down with him.
"So we basically have to wait here." Mia sighed as it was quite boring.
"No something is going on in here. There's a group of cultivators waiting outside Tianjin's window and they are imperial guards who are bound by an oath to keep him safe. Why would he want a new random bodyguard and one without an oath at that?" Kai asked as he didn't understand Tianjin's actions.
"From my years of ruling, I am pretty sure Tianjin wants to send a message. He might be thinking that you are an assassin and he wants to show the public that he can easily capture and kill people like you. He wants everyone to know that the rule of the royal family is absolute." Mariel said as she had many years worth of experience.
"One thing is for sure, Risea is certainly in the grip of the Fang family. I guess we will have to wait for the next two days to find her." Kai sighed.
"I guess we will have to wait till morning." He said with surety and the three of them stayed like that till dawn.
Mia and Mariel had fallen asleep somewhere around midnight and were still asleep as Kai stood up and slowly walked away.
He appeared outside the palace as he saw the sun rising in the horizon. Even though he still hadn't found Risea, he was a step closer than before.
In two days, he would finally find her. But little did he know that in two days, many more things will happen.