Chapter 1440: Friend?

In an Empire that had just seemingly avoided a disaster a few years back, a person stood tall in the Emperor's Imperial Palace. He wore luxurious blue robes and looked into the horizon with two women standing behind him, both of them taking the personal space by his sides. They looked beautiful enough to attract the gazes of many men.

"My Emperor, who are you waiting for? You have already enjoyed the scenery for a few minutes. So it couldn't be that you were just sightseeing, right?"

"Sigh, Iona. It's time I left this place. Are you going to stay and plot to become another man's woman, or are you coming with me?"

"You...! Alexi! You doubt my allegiance and loyalty to you?"

"Well, you did switch from my bastard father to me when he died, so why wouldn't you switch from me to someone else?"

Iona Ethren looked angered, but she couldn't retort to that as it was nothing but the truth.

"Prove your allegiance by sticking with me, and perhaps one day, you'll earn my complete trust rather than a half-hearted one."

"How about you? Hyacinth? Do you wish to-"

"I'll follow wherever my Emperor, my Alexi goes~" The woman called Hyacinth gently uttered as she held him by the arm.

Iona Ethren looked extremely jealous as she looked at the two of them making love with just their words. She bit her lips, feeling wronged. Wasn't entertaining him with her body and other exotic things enough? 

She had even birthed a daughter for him!!!

What did she have to do to prove her worth even after she tried so hard?

Tears fell from her eyes as she felt aggrieved and hurt.

She was no longer the scheming woman she once had been. 

It wasn't like she wished to be scheming. On the contrary, she was nothing but a cheerful woman from a wealthy family, fantasizing about her future husband while cultivating. However, the previous Emperor, Kaiser Ethren, obtained her using vile means and raped her, making her give birth to her son Hadre Ethren. The latter had been executed by the Alstreim Family two years ago for the wrongs that the Ethren Empire had committed.

What could she have done other than scheme using her wits to survive in the Imperial Palace and make it to the level of Empress by pleasing the man she hated?

In fact, to humiliate Kaiser Ethren, she had seduced her son Hadre Ethren and made love with him because, within the Imperial Palace, the only man who could visit her was her son other than the Emperor. She had all the hate in her heart to make a cuckold out of the Emperor of the Ethren Empire at that time and succeeded.

It was just she didn't wish anyone to find out since her son would be executed, but still, he was executed by the Alstreim Family for a wrong he hadn't even committed. It was quite ironic because she had abandoned her sense of virtue to that bastard to please him and make her son the next Emperor, only to have both of them die in the end.

It was laughable till the point that she had almost gone insane.

Then, after losing the person she cared about most in this world, she had to give herself his exiled son, Alexi Ethren, or miserably die somewhere eventually in the worst-case scenario. She obviously chose the former as she didn't want to die, thinking it would be the same thing all over again.

However, after all those nights that he made gentle love with her and whispered words of love that she never experienced, even giving birth to a daughter, she had inevitably fallen in love with him, but he hadn't understood her feelings and took a woman named Hyacinth from a Peak-Level King Grade Power in the third level of the city a year ago, giving all his love to her and made her his Empress while she was still a concubine.

Even then, she had fought hard to keep his favor, but that still wasn't enough!? Why? 

Alexi Ethren sighed as he looked at Iona Ethren, "You don't understand, do you? I love you more than you think, Iona. However, if you betray me, I would have no choice but to kill you. But, on the other hand, if you want to leave now, this is your chance. Remember, you stayed with me all this time when I just asked for you to become my woman only for a single night?"

Iona Ethren became taken aback before her body began to tremble.

That's right... She recalled that he had never forced her other than that one night when she became his woman. Afterward, she had stuck to him by her own volition after he gave her status as a concubine, thinking that she was gaining power but, in truth, slowly falling in love as she made love with him time after time.

"I... I want to go with you..."

Iona Ethren's lips trembled as she cried.

"Please don't leave my daughter and me..."

Alexi Ethren's pupils trembled before he smiled, "Come here..."

Iona Ethren felt glad as she pounced to her place by him and shared a passionate kiss.

"Do you love me...?"

Alexi held Iona by her waist while Hyacinth teasingly smiled from the other side.

Iona Ethren's lips trembled as she resplendently smiled. 

"I love you dearly, Alexi~"

All these years, she had never uttered those words to Alexi. She did not even want to lie about that. They leaned in for a passionate kiss again, deeply sharing the emotions they had suppressed all this long.

"Am I interrupting?" 

"Fuck!"

"Who...!?

The three of them separated, instantly taking a battle pose as they summoned their weapons out and looked at the source of the voice before one of them sighed.

"Damn, you're so fast, Davis. Didn't you tell me that you just left the Alstreim Family?"

Davis smiled as he shrugged at Alexi Ethren.

"I tried to be as slow as I can since I know you would be doing something like this like the last time, but it seems that if I had come a bit late, you might already be back in bed at this rate..."

Alexi Ethren's brows twitched, but he didn't deny it. On the other hand, Iona Ethren and Hyacinth looked shocked at Davis's presence. For heaven's sake, they were inside a Low-Level Emperor Grade Formation that had both defenses to protect and illusions to curb others from looking at them! 

How did he get inside!?

Alexi Ethren smiled and gestured.

"Go inside, my lovely ladies..."

They came out of their reverie and listened to his speech, finally realizing that their man had been waiting for this person out here. They went back to their rooms, feeling threatened because this man could easily enter here like it was nothing.

Davis and Alexi Ethren looked at each other before they grinned, gripping their hands as if testing their strength.

"Ahahah! I've been waiting for you to come, Davis. I heard of your achievements in the Alstreim Family. Your cultivation growth speed, it's terrifying that I almost began to think that you're a magical beast..."

Davis couldn't help but chuckle, "And you managed to enter Mid-Level Law Sea Stage within two years. That's wonderful."

"Thanks to that vial of nectar you gave us, I was able to vastly strengthen my Body Tempering Cultivation as well. I'm glad to see you again and heartened to know that you haven't changed. I thought you already forgot about me..."

"Ahaha... I only have three friends in my life, including you..."

"Hehe, that speaks volumes..."

Alexi Ethren grinned before he took a deep breath and loosened the grip before they took their hands back.

"So, have you managed to release the second parchment yet? I thought of leaving the Ethren Empire to pursue ancestor Garvin Woller's words, but I felt like I should give these to you before leaving for the wider world. Honestly, I don't care about the second parchment. It doesn't matter if you haven't been able to release it yet because I already saw that there were copies of some scrolls and understood that they should be given to you." 

Alexi Ethren looked as if he was going to give him when Davis raised his hands.

"Don't. You'd be regretting your decision if the second parchment had something else written."

Alexi Ethren blinked, "It's just a bunch of scrolls with rare copies. Besides, I couldn't even read them until I reach the Soul King Stage, so who cares if you got it now or later?"

Davis sighed. He could see that Alexi Ethren really thought of him as a friend. He took out the second parchment and began to unravel it with his soul force, and the words written by Garvin Woller became revealed.

[

Ahahahah!

Congratulations, lad!

You've finally become a Soul King!

Ahaha! I feel so happy even though I might have begun a new life from reincarnating already! You have almost reached my level! Now, it's just a few steps to the peak, almost reaching the stage that I once failed to reach.

As my disciple, you must make sure you step into the Soul Emperor Stage, so I have prepared you a copy of Lesser Comprehensions of the Soul Emperor Stage that I complied with after years of comprehending. Unfortunately, the inheritance I found was incomplete even though it belonged to a High-Level Soul Emperor Stage Powerhouse, so you could only make do with this to stumble my way into the Soul Emperor Stage.

However, even though I was unable to, with your talent, I know that you will definitely become one.

Furthermore, I have included many Emperor Grade Pill Recipes and Spirit Formations in two other scrolls. I hope that you will become powerful and get revenge for me when you're powerful enough!

Nonetheless, live well, and don't die like me.

Oh, my chosen descendant. You should give the above things I have mentioned to your benefactor. I am sure that he has already led the Woller Family to supremacy, and even if he didn't, he deserves these rewards. Therefore, aid each other to the best of your abilities so that you could win in the end and become a grand power, perhaps, a hegemon of a Territory!

I believe that you will all respect my wishes and let me enjoy my next life peacefully.

-Garvin Woller

]

'Man, I feel somewhat sad for not having life energy with me at that time...'

Davis became a bit nostalgic and emotional as he read the letter before he gave it to Alexi Ethren.

Alexi Ethren read, his eyes going wide in shock, but he continued to read till the end before he raised his head, his lips quivering in deep shock that made his body go numb.

He moved his lips, wanting to say something. It took him a while before he could finally say it.

"Davis, you're a... Soul King?"