[BOOK FOUR START] Chapter 134: Distressed Mother

[BOOK FOUR START] Chapter 134: Distressed Mother

The throne room of Emperor Jevian Lloude Dust was considered a great show of humility.

A simple construction of plain wood. A small and humble room, perhaps as large as the house of an affluent mortal family. This was the pattern with the emperor’s image. He had no clan—no lineage. He took no wives or concubines and had no children or relatives.

Praise be unto Emperor Lloude Dust, for he lived only to serve the greater good, the survival and well-being of the Yixine Empire.

But the reality of it, beneath the shiny surface, was quite different.

He wasn’t humble. He was pragmatic.

He didn’t renounce a lineage for the greater good—he did it to have no weaknesses.

Indeed.

His humble throne room was no shame to him, for nobody was qualified to strip him of face.

For who could do anything to one of only two second-step diamond path cultivators in the entire realm? The Grand Queen was a recluse, so she, as the only other cultivator with comparable power to his, certainly wasn’t going to get in his way.

Emperor Jeevian, for all his glory, had a nasty secret. His story of coming from a humble upbringing was categorically a massive lie. In truth, he wasn’t from this realm at all. The residents of this world had no hope of ever reaching rank two of the subdivinity stage. Even the Grand Queen could only do it due to the assistance of the Great God himself, and the second rank was the most he could help her reach.

So who was he? Where had he come from? It was a long, harrowing story of getting stuck in a collapsing mystical realm for numerous millennia. Detached from any worlds, he had floated in the void, barely kept alive by a self-inflicted stasis that threatened to break apart with each passing moment.

However, in a miracle of profound, heavenly fortune, the broken mystical realm found another reality to attach to.

But... to his abject terror... the new world he found himself in...

It was a lost realm.

Yet, he found this might not have been the worst thing in the world. First, in such a place, he was virtually invincible. Sure, there was an outpost maintained by the Heavenly Alliance to ensure that no hidden threats could appear, but some lower-realm wench calling herself a queen stood no chance against a former prodigy of Descending Heavenly Dragon Clan.

But there was a problem. It was the very reason the Heavenly Alliance had cut this realm off from the connection to the Omnirealm—the Monster Apocalypse. These creatures were no sacred or even demonic beasts. They were a horrific abomination, a foul play by the Devil Anarchy aiming to ensure that, since they couldn’t claim it, nobody could have this realm for themselves. An act of mutual destruction.

If he could find a way to cope with it or find a way to use the mutated, disgusting sin disguised as spirit powers to his advantage, he would be unstoppable. Indeed. Nobody could have this realm. But he wanted to claim it. As soon as he rid it of the infestation or found a way to suppress it, it would be his alone to rule over as he pleased.

That was the ultimate aspiration of Emperor Jeevian Lloude Dust—the supreme ruler of a desolate, abandoned wasteland—and future god of this realm.

The divine authority he had here, although hampered by the existence of that Langen puppet, was quite incredible. He could sense lesser subdivinity stage cultivators in the range of the entire Xinkummar continent, as long as they weren’t hiding in a mystical realm. Until this moment, this had been his most significant tool for remaining in power. Nobody, not a single individual, could ascend past rank three of the divine spark stage without his permission and stay on the continent.

With all these plans in place and the authority and rule he had established, one could only imagine how he felt when that divine authority suddenly vanished. One could only guess what was going through his mind as he spotted Hosolar the Starflailer’s projection above the capital.

And one could only presume just how furious he felt when he learned that the demigod was after his greatest hope for solving his predicament.

***

Dukean, the young master of the Emperium sect, stood at the tower's edge, wearing his usual, easy smile as he grinned at him. That brat was definitely up to no good.

“Why now!?” he asked, outraged. “Why do you have to come to ruin this spectacular moment!? Begone! I’m watching history unfold!”

“Oh?” Dukean asked, his easy smile widening. “Brother Kalen, do you truly not wish to show me some face after the favor I granted you?”

Kalen winced at that. Of fucking course that had to come to bite him in the ass at the absolute worst moment.

Sighing, he turned around with a disgruntled mumbling and spat, “Speak, you vile thing, what do you want?”

At that moment, however, his attitude was forced to change. From nowhere, a certain man appeared. A man he recognized.

“L... Lord Bob,” Kalen uttered, glancing between the repulsive, disgusting figure and the beautiful Bob, his lovely patron. “I... I had no clue you were allied with...” he spluttered, unable to wrap his mind around what was happening. Something about this felt wrong.

“Dun’ worry, mate, hahaha!” Bob chuckled, ever the cheerful man. “This little boy owes me a favor, and I just so overheard he had you by the balls! Hahahahaha!” he cackled vociferously. “So I thought I’d do you a solid and tell him to let you off the hook!”

“I...” Kalen couldn’t believe it. “That is... highly generous of you, Brother Bob; you have shown me great face by doing this.”

“Nah, don’t worry bout’ it,” Bob said, spitting on the marble table again, but Kalen had no intention of getting irritated. This man had no flaws in his eyes. Nay, he could be compared to a saint!

“What a blessed day this is!” Bob proclaimed, caressing his triple chin as he stared simultaneously at the projection of the beautiful woman above and off somewhere in the distance. “I hate to interrupt such a moment, but I need some shit from you!”

“Some... Sh...?”

“Stuff.”

“Ah,” Kalen blinked. “I understand. What is it that Brother Bob desires?”

Bob threw a small scroll Kalen’s way out of his dimension ring. As soon as his gaze landed on it, Kalen froze. “I... I’m sorry, dear sir, but this is... I do not mean to offend you, Great Benefactor, but I...” he glanced at the absurd list of items and back to the man before him. “I am not sure whether you can afford all this...”

Without hesitation, Bob pulled another object out of his ring. Kalen’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. He had seen many cores in his life. So he could tell at a glance.

This ungodly object before him... It was an S-9-grade, platinum-ranked monster core.

***

Dukean and Neave were told to wait as Kalen had to return to his headquarters to fetch the bulk of the items. In his disguise as Bob, Neave’s foot hopped anxiously. He had yet to fuse his spirit powers here, so the burden of interference was back in full force. And if that wasn’t enough...

“N... Neave,” Dukean tried, “Is that your real—?”

“If you say anything to Marven,” Neave said, “or any of the others, I’m going to kill you immediately.”

Dukean swallowed his following words and looked away, turning back to the sky where the beautiful woman continued pleading for Neave to return.