"He is a weapon seller, alright. He wouldn't miss an opportunity to make the business even in an engagement ceremony." Shang Wen shook his head with a smile. Some disdained his approach while the others were amazed upon hearing about such a weapon. The Emperor belonged to the latter.
He had a promise with Mark regarding three attack helicopters but since there's an opportunity to strengthen the Imperial army, why shouldn't he take his chances? Fortunately, he wouldn't have that much competition. Or so does he think.
Soon, everyone went to the dining section and sat down. Alina and butler robots served food to the tables. All the guests have visited the store. So, they were familiar with those robots. But, instead of explaining the weapons, they were acting as trained menservants. Alina worked hard during the past couple of days just for this occasion.
"Okay, Song Yue, let's have lunch?" Mark asked his fiancée once every guest had taken the table.
Song Yue nodded.
As they walked toward an empty table, suddenly, the Emperor called them, "Lu Zhen, Song Yue."
As they turned their heads to look at the Emperor along with other guests, Shang Fu said, "Join us."
Usually, the couple will join the table of the groom's family but since Mark is alone and Song Yun doesn't appear to invite his daughter and future son-in-law to his table, the Emperor offered the couple to should join the imperial family for dining.
At first, Mark rejected it but as Shang Fu insisted that every citizen of the Empire is his family, the former felt like he could atleast dine with the people who gave him expensive gifts. If he had looked at them like a family, Mark would have been disgusted to even stay there. But, because he treated them as guests in his heart, he was able to eat with them while enjoying the delicacies.
Lan Jingyi and Shang Jiao were happy to see that Mark had to follow the custom even by great coincidence while Song Yun, on the other hand, was brimming in great anger. Despite the fact that Alina's cooking skill is comparable to one of the best chefs in the Empire, even a dessert left a sour taste in his mouth.
Alongside the normal dishes, Mark also introduced western dishes of his world to the Emperor. At the same time, Allen and Alina were doing the same to the other guests. Some found those new dishes weird and others found them fascinating.
Of course, Alina didn't forget her mission of collecting reviews from the guests regarding the dishes from Mark's past world. The guests were reminded of those restaurant managers who do the same when introducing new dishes to wealthy/ noble customers.
In roughly about an hour, the members of the Imperial family along with Mark and Song Yue were done with eating. Some are still in the middle of the dining. But, no one needed to wait for anyone to finish anyway.
Soon, Emperor Shang and his family alongside General Ye Yin left on the giant stingray, which was hovering in the sky hundreds of meters away, until it received the call of its master. Bai Xun didn't tag along with them because of some reason.
And once the giant stingray was out of sight, Song Yun, who didn't even seem like he ate much during the past hour, abruptly rose to his feet.
Until now, the atmosphere was quite peaceful. And everyone is also enjoying the delicacies.
But, all of a sudden, Song Yun spoke to his three guys in knight armors who were quietly standing behind him and his wife like guards. "What are you waiting for? Kill him and get my daughter back."
Bai Xun was stunned in surprise.
"What!" Everyone stopped whatever they are doing whether it is eating or talking. As his voice isn't small, even Mark heard it clearly. In fact, he smiled a little bit as he mumbled, "it is time."
Without wasting time, he launched his bloodline skill.
"Absolute Freezing"
Before they even reached Mark, the ice erupted from him, freezing everything and everyone except for Alina and Allen. Even Bai Xun wasn't spared from behind frozen.
The crisis was averted right but Mark didn't dare to be careless as two of those guards are at the elementary stage of the legendary realm (low-8-circle) and the remaining one is at the peak stage of Exalt realm (peak-7-circle). With far higher ether particles than him, they could resist his skill effect and might be able to free within 30 seconds at most.
At the same time, he doesn't want to depend on Bai Xun as he was a cousin of Song Yun and might turn a blind eye.
So, he made his next move without bothering to give any opportunity to his enemies at all.
"Open inventory"
Mark then took out an advancement pill from his inventory and quickly swallowed it.
<strong>*Ding! You absorbed the Advancement pill (intermediate). Each of your stat is increased by 1 for the next 60 minutes.</strong>
<strong>*Ding! Your ether energy temporarily increased to 1 million points.</strong>
<strong>*Ding! You temporarily received a new summon, Thunder Shark</strong>
<strong>*Ding! You temporarily received a new summon, Ice Tiger</strong>
He doesn't plan on summoning the beasts, which are only in 6-circle. Instead, he went on ahead, summoning the Lightning Clone, which might consume the same 1% ether for every second regardless of his total amount but has far greater strength than the enemies.
"Activate, Lightning Clone"
Once he unleashed his skill, the lightning clone was summoned.
Because of the pill, his base intelligence stat rose to 6.2. Then, the amulet of magic further boosted it by 25%. So, his overall intelligent stat ended up at 7.75. The lightning clone was one whole realm above his maximum stat.
As a result, a lightning clone with the cultivation level of peak-eight-circle was summoned. Mark felt that this was enough.
Looking at the three frozen guards who somehow could move their eyes while trying to use their ether energy to escape the frozen state, Mark gave an order, "kill them. Rip their skin and take out their hearts."
He doesn't have any mercy and neither does he care whether drawing blood at an event like an Engagement ceremony will bring bad luck to his relationship with Song Yue. The only thing on his mind is to show everyone that he is no longer someone who needed to depend on weapons to kill his enemies.
As the three guards were almost about to escape the frozen state while using all of their ether energy, the lightning clone charged toward them and pierced their armors with its bare hand.
It forcefully took out the hearts from their respective bodies one after another. Naturally, due to its overwhelming strength, the clone was unsuccessful in bringing out the hearts without damage. As the hearts were crushed anyway, Mark dismissed the clone and walked towards those bodies with holes in their chests.
He planned to store them in his inventory due to their high-quality armor and the storage rings and later, present them as evidence at the court but upon remembering Bai Xun's presence, Mark only ordered Allen to strip their armor and storage rings, placing them in his inventory.
Roughly after 40 seconds of time, Bai Xun escaped from the frozen state. And he appeared to be speechless. He might have been frozen earlier but he saw how easily Mark defeated those three.
Another 20 seconds later, Song Yun was free but his expression changed a lot. Like Bai Xun, he too watched the one-sided massacre. As a person who knew their strength beforehand, he could only become afraid of Mark. There was no arrogance or hatred left. Only fear could be seen on his face.
Bai Xun then shouted, "Song Yun, what the hell was that?"
Song Yun was however silent. He could only stare at Mark who was staring back at him coldly.
Another 60 seconds passed away and the ice disappeared on its own.
Most of the guests alongside Song Yue started shivering because of the extreme cold temperature they just experienced.
It was then Mark finally moved. Walking forward at a slow pace, he spoke, "Song Yun, I showed mercy to you three times until now and even a while, I gave you a warning. However, you became so arrogant that you didn't even care about it. But, now, you have crossed the line. You dared to collude with the Church of Doom and attempt to kill me. I'm at the end of my patience."
Song Yun, who was utterly terrified, lost his balance and took the support of the chair as he took a glance at the dead bodies once again.
"Church of Doom?" Bai Xun's facial expression changed all of a sudden. On the other hand, Song Yue and Cheng Xiao appeared to be too shocked that words cannot escape their mouths at the moment.