Two days after Lothur departed from Peters City...
After leaving his women, Lothur traveled quickly through Linn Province, soon reaching the border of that territory with that of the Three Great Lakes Region.
He had already received the information from Klaus regarding how to track down the Emperor, so he was going directly to this old fellow.
Given his travel advantages, Lothur would only need a few more hours to reach his initial destination!
...
While Lothur was moving closer to the Leopoldine family group, Daemon's group was currently in the ruins of that area of the Three Great Lakes Region.
After fleeing the imperial family weeks ago, they had gone into isolation while their most renowned formations masters and blacksmiths worked with the Blood Crystal.
It was not easy to produce a Platinum-grade weapon, even more so considering the level of the people involved. But the technologies of the people who lived in this area thousands of years ago were very advanced, and everyone in Daemon's group believed they could produce such a weapon.
So all the forces of this group were in the vicinity of this property, holding positions to defend the place if necessary.
Daemon was among the men at one of the front posts, meditating while surveying an area of his group's encirclement.
"They are closing in on us. How is our progress?" Daemon asked his people.
"We're at 75%, boss. We need more time." A voice came from the communicator ahead of where this man with silver hair and a beard stood.
...
At the same time, in another part of this superb forest, the Emperor's group was standing at this instant around a fire where some skewers with fish were grilling.
"Daemon's group can't be far away. Their tracks are getting stronger and stronger." Sitting next to the old emperor, one of the strongest men in the group said this while holding a mug in one of his hands.
The emperor was drinking a hot drink, and upon hearing this, he narrowed his eyes. "We need to locate him as quickly as possible. If that damned Daemon manages to develop a weapon from the Blood Crystal, the whole empire will be in chaos."
? ? ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ?.
His fear was not his eldest son using a Platinum-grade weapon to take over the empire, destroy his family, etc. No, Daemon had never shown any interest in leading.
The problem was who Daemon would target with a Platinum-grade weapon!
The Jansen family and other powers from the shadows of Leopoldine!
Daemon was very talented, but from a young age, he had always been lazy about training, classes, the idea of leading, etc. The only things that made him work hard were those that had to do with his dead mother.
He would become committed and work hard when something related to her came up.
Hell, when he did this, few in the entire empire, including families living in the shadows of this state, could compare to him.
When he acted like this as a child, part of the Leopoldine family elders saw in Daemon the empire's future, someone with the potential to become a Saint.
Unfortunately for them, Daemon's focus was not on the state...
He would have the power to kill Saints with a Platinum-grade weapon even though he was only a Transcendent!
As such, Emperor Leopoldine couldn't help but worry about his group's delay.
"We will increase the scope of the search." One of the level 17 elders in the group said seriously.
While the stronger ones around the emperor were talking about this, someone weaker, there to support the group, ran up to near the emperor and announced.
"Your Majesty, we have news from Peters City."I think you should take a look at
The emperor took his focus off the fire before him and looked at that man, indicating for him to continue.
"The Ritter Motor Company recently held a large auction and raised 140 million gold coins. Even the Jansen and Carstensen families joined the auction and bought parts of Lothur Ritter's company."
Hearing that, the men in the surrounding area, still muttering things about Daemon and the Blood Crystal, stopped to look at that man.
"140 million gold coins?" The emperor asked. "Are you sure about that? Aren't they silver coins?"
That was an astonishing amount!
How could the emperor so easily believe that a company created a few months ago had been sold for that amount?
"I am sure, Your Majesty. His Highness Klaus Leopoldine's group sent that information directly from Peters City." That imperial guard responsible for that kind of communication with the rest of the family stated before adding. "Also, the women of Lothur Ritter have leveled up their cultivations considerably recently.
Viktoria is currently a Divine Soul Transcendent."
"What?" The old elders of the imperial family stood up, shouting in shock.
One hundred forty million gold coins was an absurd amount, but Lothur's cars had their potential. However, cultivation was not easy, and it took many years for even promising talents in the empire to reach this cultivation level!
But Viktoria had reached this cultivation in just a few months!
Everyone there, even the old emperor, made ugly expressions, feeling that if this was true, there was something going on in the Ritter family.
"Has Klaus' group reported anything else?" The emperor asked.
"No, just that we will have to honor the position of the Morning Star Academy with a few million gold coins..."
That was a problem, but given the problems this man had in mind, he couldn't be bothered with coins at this point.
"That's bad..." He closed his eyes and muttered. "I feel that dark times are approaching us.
Cultivators do not increase their strength so suddenly without magnificent opportunities arising." The old man said in a deep tone.
As someone who had experienced many things in his long life, he and some of his elders knew that opportunities of this level did not come out of nowhere.
The world had its rules. Balance was the key to everything!
A great good would only arise together with a great evil.
A great opportunity would only arise if a great danger, something terrible, were approaching.
Many thought the appearance of a valuable resource was a blessing, but experts like them knew this was not true. A valuable resource appearing in a place was the same as a mark of chaos, a sign that very complicated problems would arise around the site of the emergence of such a resource.
As such, after the old emperor's comment, all these men felt their worries rise.
But not only they thought this.
A shadow high up in a nearby tree couldn't help but consider the same.
'Is it really? Am I a bad omen?'
...