275-283

Chapter 275 - A Chilly Gaze So Frighteningly Cold

On the way to Violet Plum Courtyard, Leon ended up finding a nearby palace maid to escort him there. It could not be helped.

With the unjustified prejudice, the palace maids have against him, walking into Violet Plum Courtyard with a sleeping Lily in his hand would be like stirring the hornet's nest.

Along the way, the palace maid would peek at Leon from the corner of her eye from time to time. She did not feel the same repulsion, the older palace maids had for the prince.

She felt there was something wrong with her senior maids' way of thinking. It should be a great thing if the prince fancied them. Why were they disgusted instead?

Perhaps, this was the difference in views between the traditional and newer generation—No, nobles and commoners? Or simply the taken and the single?

"You're were one of the girls saved from the underground auction back then, weren't you? How is your current life working out for you? Do you like it?" Leon spoke. The palace maid's subtle glances did not escape his notice.

The palace maid was overjoyed. Although the memory of nearly being auctioned off into slavery was not a pleasant one, being remembered by the prince was a great honor.

"Thank you for saving Sherry back then, Your Highness. Sherry will never forget the kindness your Highness has bestowed upon us and allowed us to work in the Royal Palace. Life… Life has been good, Your Highness." The palace maid, Sherry said softly with her head lowered.

Noticing something slightly off about Sherry's subtle action, Leon frowned slightly. There was a slight hesitation and her smile seemed more forced towards the last part of her words.

"Are there some difficulties in the palace that you are not telling me about?"

"I-It's nothing, Your Highness." Sherry panicked slightly.

Her panic made Leon furrow his brows. He gave Sherry a deep look noticed some bruising and swelling on her face. Although the palace had tried to hide it under her bangs, nothing can be hidden from Leon's divine sense.

"Where did you get that bruise?"

"Ah? I... I just tripped and hit my head earlier today, Your Highness. Please don't ask anymore." Sherry averted her eyes and bit her lips.

Seeing her like this, Leon did not try to pry any further. He no longer needed to. He had a realization that admitting these young ladies into the palace might not have been a good thing, that is if they did not have any backing.

Maids who can work in the royal palace are all women who came from reputable families. As such, palace maids were different to maids from noble households. Leon had neglected this detail.

A palace maid was also referred to as a lady-in-waiting. They work in the palace to find their future husbands amongst the members of the palace with status.

If they could not find one, the Queen could also find one for them. They were not normal servants, or rather they were not servants at all. They were assistants.

As such, in ordinary circumstances, royalties would not wilfully punish them if they did not step out of line or commit any crime worthy of punishment. At least, that was how it was in the past.

"We are here, Your Highness." Sherry declared softly.

Leon nodded and took a step forward, but then he suddenly paused.

"Which room does Lily's mother stay in? What about Lily?"

"Senior Maid Lily and her mother both live in the same room to the furthest left."

It did not take long for Leon's pupils to contract when he stepped inside Violet Plum Courtyard. He had swept the courtyard with his divine sense to confirm the location of Lily's room and found her sickly mother in bed.

However, there was also something else going on in the courtyard that made his mood soured immediately.

There were several palace maids gathered inside of a room on the right side instead of attending to their daily chores around the palace. Normally, a palace maid was very busy every day. There were simply too many chores to keep such a large palace clean every day.

A gathering of palace maids in their living quarters was also not a problem, even slacking off a bit did not bother Leon. The Outer Palace had too many spare courtyards filled unoccupied living quarters it was silly.

What DID bother him was that the palace maids were separated into two groups, the senior maids and the new maids.

The new maids were surrounded by the senior maids as they were thrashed and condemned with harsh words. It did not take a genius to guess that the new maids were being bullied by the senior maids.

At this point, even if Leon did not know how Sherry got her bruises, he could already see why through the images his divine sense was feeding him.

"Follow me," Leon said with a low tone. He walked in the direction of the rooms on the right side.

Sherry was confused, but kindly reminded, "Eh? Senior Lily and her mother's room is in the far-left room, Your Highness."

"I know. There's something else to take care of first."

…

Inside the third room of Violet Plum Courtyard.

"Filthy commoner, I gave you such a simple task like cleaning my room because I looked highly upon you, yet you dare to steal my stuff?! Where did you hide my cultivation resource?! Cough it up!"

A senior maid pulled the hair of a new maid and gave her a resounding slap before proceeding to give a kick to the stomach.

The difference in strength between senior maids who enjoyed the cultivation resources of the palace and the new maids who had barely started on their cultivation was simply too great!

The new maid almost lost consciousness from that single slap and immediately spat blood after the kick.

"Wuwu… I didn't steal anything." The new maid wept with a pale face full of tears while coughing up more blood. Obviously, the kick had seriously injured her!

"Bullshit! If you didn't then who did?! Do you think I would believe that my cultivation resource would just disappear on its own!?"

"Stop it! You seniors are too overbearing! Not only do you seniors take away the monthly quota allocated to us, you even beat us for no good reason! Ellie is one of the kindest girls I know! She would never steal! If you want to find the culprit, you should ask that senior! I saw her walking out of Senior Claire's room earlier before Ellie entered!"

Another new maid tried to defend the grievously wounded new maid, Ellie but she was immediately pinned down and stepped on by another senior maid.

"Nonsense! Sister Claire and I have been very good for years! How dare you accuse me of stealing from her! You two must be accomplices! Sister Claire's cultivation resource must be on you! Where did you hide it!"

"Ahhh!"

The new maid screamed in pain as she had hand broken after being stepped on with excessive pressure.

Tears filled the new maid's eyes, but she gritted her teeth and endured tenaciously. Even if she gets killed, she will not plead for mercy. She was fed up with the excessive bullying!

"Kill me if you dare, Darcy! See how you will explain to Senior Lily when she finds out!"

The senior maid, Darcy's eyes grew cold with killing intent and broke the other hand. "You think I don't dare?! You're just a commoner! No one will care if you die!"

"You're wrong! The prince will care! We were saved and taken in due to the prince's benevolence! What you doing to us is nothing short of stepping on his Highness's grace!"

The new maid spouted nonsense. She was not sure if the prince would care or not, but she no longer fears speaking carelessly in the face of death.

"Melody… I really didn't steal anything…" Ellie weakly called out before coughing up another batch of blood while fearing for her fellow sister's life. She felt a heavy feeling of drowsiness as her eyes became unfocused.

All the new maids still had their commoner and inferior mindset. It was also for that reason that they had kept silent about the bullying until now.

"I know Ellie… I know..."

Melody tried not to cry. She could sense Ellie's lifeforce was slipping away.

The three senior maids were hesitant after hearing Melody's claims. It was not without reason and might very well be true! But only if the prince finds out the truth!

Darcy and Claire both glinted with ruthlessness in the next moment! They were prepared to silence the two new maids.

Claire no longer cared who stole from her. The new maids only need to cry to the prince, and she would be in deep trouble for being too heavy-handed if they report to the prince. And by the looks of it, the new maids no longer feared them and were prepared to do just that! They had to die!

No one will know the truth except them if the two new maids both die! She could just make up some treacherous crimes and pin it on them after!

"Stop it, Darcy! I won't allow any further harm to these two girls. You both have been far too heavy-handed this time! Ellie needs to be treated immediately!" The third senior maid finally spoke up with a frowned and stopped them.

As a lady of noble birth, she shared the same disdain for commoners and was also inclined to believe that the new maid Ellie had stolen from Claire. Thus, it will not matter if they die.

However, despite being at death's door, the new maid did not plead guilty, making her finally convinced that the new maids were innocent. Her moral principals compelled her to intervene!

"Don't stop us, Ember! They must die for us to live! If you don't step aside, you will have to join them!"

Ember was silent. They were all 9th step Awakeners, but it would be too much for her to take on the both of them if she wanted to intervene.

Ember clenched her fist as she was stuck between a crossroad. Does she risk her life to intervene or turn a blind eye to the injustice in front of her?

After waging a furious battle between choices in her mind, her fist loosens. She had decided to turn a blind eye!

It was also at this moment that a mountain of pressure came crashing down on the room as the door to the room was swept open by a gust of wind.

Leon stepped inside with a chilly gaze so cold it felt like the three senior maids have been plunged into the lowest level of frozen hell!

Chapter 276 - Rescue And Punishment

The mountain-like pressure suffocated the senior maids as their breathing became difficult while their backs were drenched in cold sweats. They never knew the prince's gaze could be so frightening!

The three senior maids were frozen solid, not daring to move a single inch. They were under the illusion that if they did, they would die! The prince's black pupils were like endless dark abyss that would swallow them whole!

The sleeping Lily was still mounted on Leon's left shoulder like a dead log, while Sherry had followed right behind.

When Sherry looked inside and saw the state of her fellow sisters, she quickly gasped with watery eyes. "How horrible!"

"Your Highness!"

The joy in Melody's eyes could not be hidden as tears she had been trying to hold back burst like a collapsing dam. The prince's timely appearance represented hope for Ellie!

'Please save Ellie!'

Without saying a single word, Leon had already flickered right in front of Ellie before Melody could voice these words.

Under his Divine Will, the grey ring of energy lit up with a bright green glow and spun at high speed. Layers after layers of wood element spilled out of his body and gently wrapped around the dying Ellie who had already closed her eyes.

At the same time, a Tier-3 All-Purpose Healing Pill shot out of his Worldspace and entered Ellie's mouth before melting into pure medicinal essence that quickly spread throughout her body.

Leon was accelerating the absorption of the recovery pill with his Divine Will, while he observed the situation and changes of her body with his divine sense. He was wholly focused on Ellie's recovery.

It was a race against time, but he knew he was going to make it! Nevertheless, a drop of sweat still managed to trickle down the side of his face!

Several shattered bones and multiple crushed organs. From the shape of concavity outside, Leon could tell it was the result of a single kick and a terribly vicious one at that!

The new maids were only 1st step Awakeners, while their divine cultivation was surprisingly at the 4th layer of Body Tempering Realm!

With the monthly allocation of cultivation resources to all palace maids and palace guards, it was no problem for the new maids to have reached the 4th step Awakener Realm by now. What the hell was going with that?!

Leon did not know what had transpired before, thus he did not hastily mete out punishment. Otherwise, the two senior maids would have been crippled by him.

When he had swept his divine sense over to the room, the two new maids were already grievously injured with the three senior maids surrounding them.

Ellie, in her unconsciousness state, she had a dream. She felt like she was floating down a river stream of ice and fire.

One half of her body was freezing from the loss of blood and decreasing body temperature, while the other half was burning from the pain.

Her body was powerless and could not respond to her will as her body continued to be carried by the flow.

Just when her body was about to reach the edge of the stream and plunge down the waterfall of ice and fire, the lush green trees on each side of the stream extended countless rope-like leaves and caught her from plunging over the edge.

As more and more leaves wrapped around her body and slowly pulled her back, she no longer felt the burning fire nor freezing cold, but a gentle warmth from autumn and a soothing coolness from spring. In short, she felt like she had returned to nature's embrace.

Before she realized it, everything ended as her consciousness returned and her eyes slowly opened. What greeted her next was the prince's wholehearted attention and focus. The comfort she felt had come from the prince healing her!

Ellie felt that all the unfair treatment she had suffered in the past two months was for this exact moment. Her young maiden heart was snatched away as she looks at the prince with a quiet gaze and warm trickling tears.

"Everything is alright now."

Leon sighed with relief as the new maid's condition had stabilized. He swept his cold gaze across all three senior maids.

"Who can tell me what happened here?"

"I… can tell you what happened, Your Highness."

Melody's unsteady voice mixed with pain drew Leon's attention.

Claire did not know when, but she had long released her grip of Ellie's hair, but Darcy still had one of her feet on Melody's broken hand.

Leon's gaze fell on the foot before he shot Darcy a casual look before the senior maid retracted her foot and retreated with a pale face.

In that single glance, she had seen the manifestation of death itself in the form of a behemoth-shaped black gassy aura. Everything seemed like it was just an illusion, but her body would not stop trembling with fear.

Leon's gaze returned to Melody, silently acknowledging her continuation. Another All-Purpose Healing Pill found its way into her mouth and traveled to her two broken hands as they recovered slowly.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

Melody silently appreciated the miraculous effects of the pill before she drew a sharp breath and steadied her mind.

"Everything happened after Senior Claire accused Ellie of stealing Senior Claire cultivation resources while cleaning her room. But your Highness, I know Ellie! She would never steal! In fact, I saw Senior Darcy entered Senior Claire's room before Ellie entered to clean it!"

Although Darcy had anticipated it, her expression still changes abruptly and quickly countered. "She's lying, Your Highness! I did do such a thing!"

"Quiet."

Leon's glare immediately shut the senior maid up. He turns back to Melody and nodded.

"Continue."

"After that, it was as your Highness would expect. I tried to defend Ellie and had my hands broken. Ellie's injuries have resulted from Senior Claire's ruthless beating. I tried bringing up your Highness's name with the intention to report all the bullying we suffered since we came here to your Highness if I managed to survive. As a result, they tried to silence us. Senior Ember tried to stop them and that's when your Highness appeared before us."

"Anyone have anything to add or different to say to that?"

Claire and Darcy glanced at each other and knew that whatever they say would not be convincing. The swept Ember with a pleading look. Only her words could save them.

Everyone's eyes soon rested on Ember, except Ellie who only had her gaze on Leon and nothing else. Ember suddenly felt some pressure from the attention and tried to calm herself with a deep breath.

What should she say?

When she had tried to defend the new maids, Claire and Darcy had been prepared to kill her too. Even if she saves them, their relationship would never be the same, not to mention there was no guarantee that her lie would save them.

Ember no longer needed to think further. She had made her decision. There was no need to disadvantage herself for them.

"Everything was exactly as Junior Melody had said."

Boom!

It was like an explosion had gone off in the heads of both Claire and Darcy as they paled. It is over! Ember's words were no different than a death sentence for them.

"What about your cultivation levels? Care to explain why you and Ellie are still at the 1st step Awakener Realm despite the monthly quota of cultivation resource all palace maids should be receiving?" Leon asked Ember while giving Sherry a glance.

Sherry was also a 1st step Awakener, but she was less talented than Ellie and Melody as she was still at the 3rd layer of the Body Tempering Realm.

"Except for the Awakening Pills we had taken to awaken, all our cultivation pills had been taken away each month by our seniors under the so-called reason of tuition fee."

Boom!

Melody's sent another round of explosion in the two senior maids' head. It really was over for them. Ember also felt a trickle sweat. She had never taken any of the new maids' cultivation resources, but Melody did not clarify this and simply said "seniors."

"Alright, I understand everything now. I will now judge this case and mete out punishment accordingly." Leon said while giving Darcy in particular, the last glance. "Anything you want to confess before I start? It might lessen your punishment."

Darcy widened her eyes and trembled, but still gritted her teeth.

"No!"

'It was impossible! His Highness was bluffing! There's no way that he could have found out she was the thief! She had hidden very well!'

Leon's gaze soon turned cold.

"The thief who stole the cultivation resources was her." Leon pointed at Darcy for everyone to see, before contemptuously commenting, "It's the first time, I've seen such a shameless person hiding the stolen goods in their womb!"

"You truly know how to make full use of your womanly assets." Leon snickered sarcastically. No one would ever think of searching such a spot and the bodily fluids could conceal the medicinal smell of the cultivation pills. It was truly a shameless place to hide it. "Take it out!"

Leon's words shocked everyone. When Darcy did as she was ordered, everyone was filled with an even greater shock! How did the prince even find out it was there?! How!?

"I can't believe it was you all along!" Claire glared.

Darcy plopped to the ground in disbelief. She could not understand how the prince knew. Moreover, her move had moved on its own! What just happened!

"Now for the punishments."

Leon's cold words rang in Darcy's ears. She felt the prince's vice grip on her head as she was lifted and accepted her fate with closed eyes. A strange force was pulling away from her cultivation.

"Ahh! Is this some mistake, Your Highness? Ahhh…."

"No!"

Claire's cries made Darcy reopened her eyes. Claire was similarly gripped like her.

After crippling both their cultivations by draining them all and making them his own, Leon broke through to 9-stars before tossing the two senior maids like lifeless dolls to Ember's feet.

"Throw them into prison and send words to their families to reclaim their lives for 50 million Craws each within seven days! Otherwise, have the palace guards execute them after the seven days expires!"

No one felt sorry for the two senior maids. It was what they deserved.

"Ah? Am I not going to be punished too?" Ember asked with surprise.

"Did you do anything that deserves to be punished?"

"N-N… No?"

"Then do you want to be punished?"

"N-No!"

"Then why are you asking! Go now!"

"Y-Yes, Your Highness!"

Ember picked up two senior maids and quickly left to toss them into prison with a slightly embarrassed face.

"Your wounds will fully heal in the next few minutes. Alright, everything here has been settled. I'll be leaving now."

Tier-1 recovery pills would have done the trick, but Leon used Tier-3s on them. It was not strange for their recovery to be quick.

Leon left with the dead-asleep Lily still on his shoulder. He was amazed that the was able to sleep through all of that. Exactly how much sleep was she lacking?!

"Huehuehue… meat… zzz." Lily mumbled in her sleep with two reddish bumps on her forehead, one of the left and one on the right.

Leon gave her a glance and his expression went stiff. His left side was completely slobbered in drool!

Back in the third room.

"Why would his Highness go through the trouble of finding the culprit if the same punishment was going to be given to the two seniors anyway?" Sherry wore a confused look.

Melody furrowed her brows in thought.

"His Highness wanted to prove my innocence," Ellie said dazedly with warm flowing tears, but a radiant smile also hung on her face. "Melody... Sherry…"

"Uh… yeah?"

"I think I am in love."

Chapter 277 - Yin Poisoning

"You've fallen in love with his Highness?" Melody widened eyes with surprise. "We can be considered quite pretty, but everyone by his Highness's side are flawless beauties. Besides, we are also of common birth. I'm afraid his Highness would not be interested in any of us…"

Ellie shook her head with a dampened look. "I know, but his Highness was too dazzling. I do not have high hopes, but I also cannot control my feelings. I only hope that I can accompany his Highness on his journey, staying by his side and tending to his chores."

"That's might still be difficult. His Highness is so powerful. We would just be baggage slowing him down…"

"So… does no one want to keep those?" Sherry asked hesitantly while to point the three slimy pills the crippled Darcy had "excreted" from her flowerpot.

Ellie and Melody glanced at the slimy pills with a repulsive look before looking at Sherry with aghast.

"Don't tell me, you still want to consume those pills?!"

"Of course not! Even if I clean it, I will still find it disgusting!" Sherry blushed.

"Then what do you want it for?" Melody asked with doubt.

"Of course, I want to 'gift' it to those seniors when they ask for more tuition fees from us during next month's quota allocation," Sherry said with a wicked smile.

"That is so… evil." Ellie was shocked, but her lips curved up. "But I like it."

"I don't think his Highness will leave things as they are now that his Highness knows that the other sisters and we are being bullied by the seniors."

"Hehehe, it's alright. If that happens, we can just try to really gift it to them then."

"That's true. Sherry, you are so mean~ But I like how you think!" Melody smiled.

"Hmph! They asked for it! You don't know how shocked I was when I saw you two! Especially, you Ellie! I was so scared! I thought you were a goner!"

"I thought I was too." Ellie held her hands close to her chest with a mesmerizing look. "But then His Highness came and save me like a prince charming. Eh? That's not right. His Highness is a prince and he is charming."

"He's a real prince charming!"

"Mmm, Mmm."

The girls chatted for some time until the wounds of Ellie and Melody were fully healed. There was some awkwardness in the movements of Melody's fingers, but she felt it would return to normal with some time and practice.

"Eh? I think that was Senior Lily on his Highness's shoulder, wasn't she?"

"Oh yeah, I think it was."

It was only now that Ellie and Melody recalled the 'dead log' on Leon's shoulder throughout the whole ordeal.

"What does his Highness want to do with Senior Lily?"

"I think his Highness was just bringing Senior Lily back to her room?" Sherry answered with uncertainty.

"Let's go take a look."

"Mm."

…

Leon had shortly arrived outside the room in the furthest left of the Violet Plum Courtyard after leaving the third room. The metal door was closed and locked, but no metal lock was truly a lock in front of a metal-user.

Of course, Leon could just search Lily's body for the key, but it was inappropriate. Plus, using Divine Will was quicker.

Click.

The metal door opened, and a nauseating rush of strong medicinal scent assaulted him as he entered.

"Lily? Are you back?" A sickly woman tried to get up, but she could only turn her head while coughing heavily. She immediately froze on the sight of the unfamiliar figure carrying her daughter. "Who… Who are you? What did you do to my daughter?"

"You must be Lily's mother. I… I am the divine doctor your daughter found for you before she fell asleep as you can see here."

"Divine doctor? Aren't you a tad too young, lad? There's no need to try and deceive me with vain hope. Neither the chief physician nor the doctors were able to find a cure in the past six years. I have already come to terms with my illness."

Simply put, Lily's mother, Sara had already given up on getting cured. Leon understood her doubt, but he simply smiled without a comment.

He proceeded to place Lily onto the empty bed next to Lily's mother like he was unloading a bag of rice from his shoulder. The springiness and softness of the bed ensured that no harm befall Lily as a result of his coarse actions.

Lily's mother's brows were slightly furrowed as she noticed two swollen bumps on her daughter's forehead before she became slightly nervous.

Rather than falling asleep, it looked like her daughter was knocked unconscious. Was this person actually a kidnapper? But that would not make sense either. Would a kidnapper bring the person to their home, and in the palace no less?

"Why does my daughter have two bumps on her forehead?"

Leon's lips twitched slightly when the question was raised, before he shamelessly answered, "She fell asleep while standing, causing her head to hit the wall before her body slanted and hit her head on the ground after."

"Is that so?"

Sara's forehead was furrowed with dark lines with strong doubt. The two bumps were so evenly matched. There was no way hitting the ground would be softer hitting the wall, right?

"Ahem, let's talk about your illness instead, Madam." Leon interrupted her train of thoughts with a cough.

Looking at Sara's condition, Leon drew in a sharp breath and became serious after a thorough inspection with divine sense.

Lily's mother's body was filled with casts keeping her body in place from the neck down, but Leon could see that it was already a thorough mess despite the preventative measures. The bones were all out of places and some were even applying pressure on her core organs.

Two small bones also protruded from Sara's forehead like horns, coupled with poor blood circulation that makes her complexion deathly pale, it appeared like some devilish transformation.

Leon could see that this was not the result of some illness or rare disease but poisoning, or rather yin poisoning to be exact.

This type of yin poisoning was very volatile and likes to hide within the bone marrow, eating it from inside out.

It was a small amount of yin poison, but it had wreaked havoc in Lily's mother's body for so long, her bones have become very fragile and deformed.

The yin poison itself can be easily cured, but the problem was no one had the skills nor technology to locate it. As long as the yin poison was not removed, even if the person continues to consume recovery elixirs, the condition will still continue to deteriorate, albeit slightly slower.

Continuously consuming elixirs was only delaying the inevitable and not a solution. Not everyone could have divine sense and directly see the source of the problem plaguing Lily's mother like Leon.

It was quite surprising for someone like this to still be alive, but the heavy scent of medicine made him understood that a lot of rare elixirs and herbs had been used to prolong her life in the past six years.

"There's no need to be despondent, young man. Like I said, I have already come to terms with it. No one can cure it." Sara took Leon's frown as a look of incapability. She had already expected this.

"You're wrong. It can be cured."

"Really?" Sara was surprised. "Then why do you frown?"

"It'll be a very painful process. The question is, are you up for it?"

Sara quietly looked at her sleeping daughter. She did not have much time left. For the past three days straight, her daughter had not slept in order to take care of her due to her health taking a turn for the worse.

Even so, she wanted to stay with her daughter for a little longer. She did not know the young man and could not trust his skills. If anything went wrong, she might just die on the spot. She was ready to reject his offer.

"You don't seem to trust me." Leon shook his head wryly as he read her thoughts. "Your body should be in a lot of pain right now. It's admirable that you were able to endure it for so long. Allow me to demonstrate some of my skills by easing the pain for you."

Leon did not wait for Lily's mother's agreement. Silver needles flew out of his hands shot into various parts of her body.

The bones were deformed, organs have shifted and even the acupuncture points were slightly off, but Leon could see everything through his divine sense as the silver needles were inserted into their rightful place.

Sara was colored with surprise. Her body felt numb, but the pain had been reduced to such a low level that it even feels comfortable like taking the weight off a person who carried a big boulder on his back all his life.

"It appears that I have severely underestimated you, young man. I apologize for doubting your skills."

It would not have been so easy to convince Sara, but Leon did not even touch his silver needles. She could see that the young man possesses mystical skills and decided to pin her hopes on a miracle for one last time.

"Please begin the treatment." Sara gritted her teeth in preparation. If Leon said it was going to be painful despite being able to numb her pain, then it means that it was truly going to be a painful process.

Leon nodded.

Chapter 278 - Recovery And Joy

Receiving Lily's mother's consent, Leon made some preparations by taking out an empty pill bottle and scribbled some reinforcement runes onto it with Ravenous Black.

The treatment process had already been thought out into three simple steps: removal, resetting, and nurturing.

First comes the removal of the yin poison. If it were before, he would have chosen to burn the yin poison directly, but now he had an even more effective method that would not leave behind any dregs in the bone marrow.

With Divine Will and divine sense, he was able to lock onto the yin poison and extract it directly. When Leon first removed the casts, Sara's sunken body was exposed. Parts of it were quite flat.

Sara's head was slightly inclined, just enough to see parts of her body. It was also the first time she had seen the state of her own body in years as she drew in a sharp breath to calm herself. It was beyond terrible.

Soon, she saw tiny specks of greenish-silver mist rising from various spots on her body as they gathered towards Leon.

After Leon made sure that he had extracted every bit of yin poison in Lily's mother's body, he sealed them in the reinforced pill bottle he prepared beforehand. He was keeping it for research later. He wanted to know its origins.

The yin poison only erodes the bone. It does not cause Lily's mother to have a pair of horn-like bones protruding from her forehead. This was an abnormal growth in the bones and was related to something else.

Within the greenish-silvery mist, Leon had detected a faint trace of dark miasma. It was so faint that he had almost missed it.

"This is the root cause of my suffering in the past six years? What is it?"

"Correct, it's a type of yin poison that likes to hide in bone marrows and eroded it from inside out. Do you remember how you might have come in contact with this?"

After Sara shook her head, Leon did not press Lily's mother for an answer. She was not exactly in the best state to answer. It is not too late to ask again when she has recovered.

"That's fine. You can take your time to recall when you are better."

Sara nodded, before asking, "Is the treatment finished? That's wasn't so bad. I didn't really feel anything."

"You might want to grit your teeth now. It's going to be very painful." Leon stated as he made Lily's mother swallow a Tier-3 All-Purpose Healing Pill.

He had to fix all the bones and organs back into place before the recovery. If Leon allowed for the Lily's mother's body to recover as is, the current bone structure would settle and become trickier to fix.

He had to do it while the bones were still flexible and malleable. However, the fragility of the bones would no doubt cause it to crack and shatter during the reforming process. Thus, the bones needed to be healed while he was fixing their deformity.

The pain Leon mentioned, came from the continuous cycle of breaking and healing of the bones.

"I'm ready." Sara gritted.

Leon did not hesitate once he was giving the confirmation. The silver needles were removed to not obstruct his treatment. The pain receptors were unblocked but a green layer of wood element softly wrapped around Sara's body as he started with the upper body.

Lily's mother spasmed with pain as she felt more of her bones breaking, but she was able to endure it with her great tolerance.

However, after the first wave would come a second wave, then a third, a fourth, and so on until Leon finishes reforming her bones. By the fifth wave, she already started grunting from the pain with beads of sweat.

Her bones cracked and broke as Leon reformed them with a frown. The process required his absolute focus as he had underestimated the fragility of the bones. They were more fragile than he expected. He had to exert his Divine Will to prevent them from shattering into fragments.

Sweat oozed from Sara's forehead and tears formed at the corner of her eyes but she continued to endure without uttering a single scream. Leon secretly admired Lily's mother's endurance.

Outside the room, there were three pairs of curious eyes peeking inside from the window frames. There was no excruciating scream, nor any bloodied process taking place, but they were still given a great scare.

The excruciating look of pain on Lily's mother's face and the state of the body revealed after the removal of the casts was quite the frightening sight.

"How terrible. I knew Lily's mother had contracted some sort of terribly rare disease that left her bedridden, but I didn't think it would be this bad." Sherry whispered with shock and horror.

"Yeah… she looks like a…" Melody covered her mouth. She did not speak further but the trio all had similar thoughts.

Lily's mother's body below her neck was quite flat like a human pancake or a bag of grounded candies. They weren't sure if they would be able to endure living under such disabling conditions.

Back inside the room, Leon did notice the spying of the trio due to his great focus. He only noticed them half an hour later after he finished setting all of Sara's bones and organs back into place and waited for the healing effects to stabilize them.

At this point, Sara had already passed out.

"No need to peek from outside. You can all come in and help me." Leon said he wiped his sweat. Using Divine Will for so long was quite taxing.

The trio was embarrassed after being caught but they obediently walked inside in files. "How can we help you, Your Highness?"

"Remove the remain casts and clean Lily's mother up for me. It's inappropriate for me to do it. Also, be gentle. Her bones are still quite weak." Leon said.

"Yes, Your Highness."

While Ellie, Melody, and Sherry went to get Lily's mother's body cleaned with wet towels and changed into fresh clothes, Leon had gone outside and found himself an open spot to summon his pill cauldron.

The fire was soon lit, and spirit herbs were tossed inside as he began a round of pill refinement. Half an incense stick of time later, two new batches of pills were refined. They were Blood Nurturing Pills and Bone Reinforcement Pills used to aid the recovery of new blood and growth of bones.

They were all Tier-2 Spirit Pills. Due to it being quite a long time since he last refined these types of pills in his previous life, there were a few Mid-rank pills among the High-rank pills within the batch of nine pills he refined for each.

Leon kept a single of each pill and stored away the rest before returning inside the room to feed Lily's mother the two pills and helped her absorb its efficacy.

The painful process of reforming the bones had made her passed out several times, only to reawaken shortly due to the pain. By the end of the treatment, she had passed out again, having exhausted all her mental strength.

At this moment, she was awakened once more by Leon's subtle movements.

"How are you feeling?" Leon asked.

Sara studied her body carefully and said, "Better than ever. Thank you for your treatment, Divine Doctor. You have given this lady a chance to walk under the sun again. I'm not sure how we can repay you."

With such divine skill and medicine, Lily's mother figured that the cost would not come lightly. She was rather concerned that her daughter and she would not be able to afford the treatment fee.

However, the Divine Doctor had given her a new lease on life. This was a debt of gratitude she had to repay at all costs.

"There's no need for you to be concerned about that. It was just a small favor." Leon waved it off nonchalantly, but Ellie saw that there were still few beads of sweat on his forehead and took the opportunity to wipe it for him. "Err… Ahem, thank you."

"Well then, my job here is done. I still have other matters to attend to so I will be excusing myself first."

Ellie, Melody, and Sherry respectfully bid him farewell with a curtsy.

Seeing that Leon was unwilling to dwell on the matter, Lily's mother did not keep him as Leon left. The trio also left shortly after cleaning up the room a bit.

Lily continued to sleep with drool coming out from her mouth, while her mother sat upright in the other bed with a pondering look.

She was still clueless about Leon's identity as he had referred to himself as a divine doctor and she was not awake to hear the three maids address him as "Your Highness" either.

From the limited information she gathered in her mind, she concluded that the young divine doctor might be the new royal physician working in the palace.

If that was the case, there were plenty of chances for their mother and daughter to repay the divine doctor's good grace.

"Uuu."

At this moment, Lily was finally awoken from her two-hour deep sleep. She rubbed her eyes as she surveyed the familiar room. When her drowsy eyes landed on her mother, she was roused awake.

"Looks like my lovely little girl has finally woken up." Sara smiled.

"Mom?! Are you okay?! How are you sitting up?!" Lily was given a huge fright. She knew how bad her mother's condition was. It was impossible to sit up like this! She hurried over and inspected her mother anxiously with concern.

"It's alright. The divine doctor you found had already treated me." Sara said to her daughter with gentleness.

Her face was no longer pale and even have a rosy hue. She still feels a bit weak, but her pain was gone. She felt very comfortable. It was a blessing to be alive.

Lily was confused by her mother's words, but this confusion only lasted a moment as it was swept away by the overwhelming joy she felt for her mother's recovery. She could see the transformation. There were no casts supporting her mother's body.

"Mom! It's so great that you are well again!"

Lily rubbed her face in her mother's embrace affectionately with joy and tears as Sara rubbed her daughter's head lovingly with a bit of redness in her eyes. It had also not been easy for her daughter to take care of her all this time.

Life was hard, but they made it through. Tomorrow would be a new beginning chapter of their life.

"It's been hard on you."

Lily cried hard when she heard this and the two stuck together for some time before Lily finally calmed down.

"Why does my forehead feel so sore?" Lily suddenly frowned and rubbed her forehead. Before Sara could answer, Lily had already dashed in front of the mirror and came rushing back. She cried while pointing to her two big bumps, "Mom, this is bad! I think I accidentally caught your disease!"

Sara was briefly stunned, before she angrily chided, "Nonsense!"

Chapter 279 - Spiritual Replenishment Pill

Just like any other day in the Royal Palace, it was boring yet tiresome for the life of a shadowguard to be stationed here.

Rarely does anything ever happen to or in the Royal Palace, but despite that, the shadowguards are required to observe everything with alertness while keeping themselves hidden in plain sight.

At this moment, the shadowguard stationed to keep watch over the Outer Palace was yawning from the top of a building not far from Violet Plum Courtyard.

Suddenly, an invisible forced tugged at him and the shadowguard became alert once. There was no one on the building top except him.

"Who's there? Is it time to rotate shifts already? You better not be playing a prank on me." The shadowguard said to seemingly no one.

The invisible force came again, but stronger, causing the shadowguard's body to slide a bit towards the edge.

"Oi, oi, cut it out. This is not funny!"

A hint of nervousness was heard in the shadowguard's voice. The shadowguard could not tell where the person was pranking him came from.

If this was someone from their shadowguard group, it was impossible for him to not have heard of such a prodigy with this high level of stealth.

But, if it wasn't another shadowguard, then who or what was it? A ghost?

The invisible force came again, but this time stronger than ever and directly pull the shadowguard over the edge. The shadowguard was shocked and horrified as he grabbed onto the edge to stop his fall.

However, the invisible tugging force did not stop and continue to increase its force over time.

"Ah… S-Stop! I'm going to fall… Ahhhhh!"

The shadowguard plunged headfirst. At the bottom of the building, a young man was standing there while looking up at him. The young man was Leon.

Just when the shadowguard was about crash into the ground, his falling momentum suddenly came to a halt a few inches from the ground. His body soon slapped the ground with a soft landing afterward.

"Y-You need me for something, Your Highness?" The shadowguard asked after kneeling one knee, disheveled, and dismayed by what just happened.

Leon did not answer immediately as his mind was elsewhere. It was apparent to him that Divine Will had some limitations.

He had noticed this limitation when he was treating Lily's mother earlier, but it seems that the consumption of mental strength increased by twofold when he tries to control a living person of equal mass.

When the other party becomes resistant to his control, the consumption even increases exponentially.

'A clash of wills?' Leon thought.

He still had plenty of mental strength leftover, but it was not the sort of consumption rate he could keep up for long.

He concluded that it was extremely inefficient to be used directly for combat, but this type of crowd control ability could still be used at crucial moments to catch his opponents off guard.

It was a trump card that can decide the life and death of his opponents.

"Your Highness?"

Leon finally focused on the shadowguard and nodded. "How much are you aware of the bullying between the senior maids and new junior maids?"

"Forgive me, Your Highness. I did not know such a thing was taking place." The shadowguard apologized with surprise.

"You are tasked to watch over the palace, but you don't know such a thing had been going on for so long?" Leon's brows were furrowed.

"Most of the shadowguards have been dispatched to other cities and neighboring kingdoms to collect intel, Your Highness." The shadowguard lowered his head and continued, "Currently, it is just me and another person taking turns watching over the Outer Palace on a 6-hour rotation."

"I see. That was my oversight. You do not need to apologize." Leon nodded in understanding.

The palace was far too big for one person to watch over at any given time. It appeared he could not punish the other bullies immediately without evidence.

"From now on, I want you to investigate the palace maids and record every misdeed and form of bullying they commit and report back to me. The training camp should have a lot of recruits, yes? Take some people to assist you. I believe some actual field experience and direct teaching from a senior shadowguard on the job is more effective than training in the dark underground all the time."

"However, if the bullying is found to be excessive that it threatens the life of the junior maids, you must intervene and report to me immediately. Two junior maids nearly died today, if not for my direct intervention. I do not want a repeat of this, is that understood?"

"Yes, Your Highness! I hear and obey!"

The shadowguard complied submissively with an exaggerated salute. There was a certain majesty and something in the air the prince carried and the prince's words that compelled him to gladly demonstrate his loyalty.

Leon was surprised. He was not purposely using Divine Will but felt it could also empower his speech to give a more commanding and reverential presence.

"Go."

Leon waved.

After the shadowguard left to carry out the task with haste, Leon returned to his room and took out the box of paper and pen.

It was time to record some of his knowledge down and compile it into a book, then have it mass copied for the people of the kingdom to learn.

He did not have the energy to be transmitting his knowledge to every person. He would only do it a few more times on a few selected individuals and have them teach others with the help of the book he would soon compile.

This was the best method Leon could think of without delaying his cultivation too much. Of course, Princess Faelyn might be slightly disappointed. He did mention that the elven princess could attend language class, but he did not say that he would be the one teaching.

Once the people of the kingdom understand the ancient language, they can begin studying the relics and recovering the lost technology of the ancient civilization on their own.

Furthermore, the ancient language was a simplified version of the runic language. Once they master the ancient language, it will be easier to comprehend the runic language.

At that time, the kingdom is bound to experience a great technological advancement.

Leon began to practice writing on a piece of paper with his Divine Will. After he got the hang of writing with Divine Will, he increased his writing speed by double, writing on two pieces of paper at once with the additional ink pens.

This was something Leon could already do upon awakening his memory. It was a unique nature of possessing the dual personalities of two lifetimes. He was capable of two separate thoughts be dividing his consciousness.

However, with his current soul quality, Leon believes he could further divide his consciousness and achieve an even greater writing speed, although he was not exactly sure to what extent he could divide his consciousness until he tested it himself.

Slowly but surely, Leon increased to writing on three sheets of paper at once, then from three, he went to writing on four sheets of paper at once!

When Leon tried to push the number to five, problems began to occur. His thoughts became messy and incomprehensible scribbles began to appear on the fifth piece of paper like it was drawn by a 3-year old.

"So, four is my limit… for now." Leon mumbled.

To write on 4 separate pieces of paper at high speed, the consumption of mental strength was not little. Leon had expended a fair bit of his mental strength today already.

After pilling up 20 pages worth of Ancient-to-Gaian language definition and explanations, Leon took a break and entered the Archive to study some soul recovery pill recipes and knowledge.

He crosschecked on the ingredients required and became disappointed that the simplest Soul Replenishment Pill still missed a single key ingredient.

"It seems I would need to revisit Extreme Misty Forest in the near future to look for more rare herbs." Leon frowned. "What else can I do? Oh, I know."

Leon went back into the Archive and searched for pill recipes related to mental strength recovery. There was a difference between soul recovery pills and mental recovery pills.

Although both also recover mental strength, the effects contrast greatly. Soul recovery pills replenish his mental strength almost immediately, but mental recovery pills only boost his natural system's recovery rate of mental strength over time.

It was a difference between recovery amount and recovery speed. The superior one was clear.

Nevertheless, mental recovery pills would still save him some time, and the ingredients are most likely to be more common as it had more to do with stimulating the body, and less to do with the soul itself.

It was not wrong to say that the body nurtures the soul.

"A Tier-3 Spiritual Replenishment Pill can speed up the recovery of mental strength by 30%... If taken before sleep, the effects of the pill can further improve by 50%, making it 45% recovery speed, huh? That's almost half. Not bad. Do I have enough Tier-3 Spirit Herbs for this?" Leon spoke to himself.

There was a high chance he had all the ingredients, but he was not sure they were all been grown to Tier-3 Spirit Herbs.

After a quick look at the ingredient list for the Spiritual Replenishment Pill, Leon nodded pleasantly.

"Great! I have all the ingredients. I didn't expect one of the ingredients to be the Achromous Valerian Root though. It seems I can't gift away too much of these anymore until I grow more of them."

"My future in-laws really enjoyed the herbal tea though. I'm afraid they will call my stingy.." Leon smiled wryly and rubbed his chin. "Maybe it's time to introduce a different type of herbal tea to them?"

Chapter 280 - The Illusory Palace Within Extreme Misty Forest

Extreme Misty Forest.

At a hidden location with the eastern parts of the forest, two figures were seen approaching a white marbled gate in the distance. The whiteness of the gate blends well with the color of the mist. Without coming within a certain range, the white gate would not be visible to other people.

The two figures continued to approach the white gate guarded by two people in ordinary white attire, but with a unique blue butterfly pattern sewed on. They were disciples of Illusory Butterfly Sect.

"Halt your steps! State your identities and reason for visit! Beyond this gate is the territory of Illusory Butterfly Sect!"

"I am an outer disciple." One of the two figures showed the two guards his status plate with trembling hands as he cautious turned to the other figure. "And this… this person is…"

"Stop! Did you hear what I said?!"

The guard barked.

The Spider Queen did not stop when she was told. These lowly humans did not have the right to command her.

The lack of compliance did not anger the guards. Rather, their eyes lit with anticipation as they saw the peerless beauty of the Spider Queen.

They were given a reason to make things difficult for the other party and perhaps, take some liberties. Unbeknownst to them, they were walking down a dangerous path.

"It seems you do not put my words nor the Illusory Butterfly Sect in your eyes. I suspect you are a spy from another sect! I will arrest you and take you back for interrogation. If you don't want to make things harder for yourself, give up any form of resistance!"

The guard reached out his grubby hands with a lewd smile.

A trace of chilling light flickered across the Spider Queen's eyes and the grubby hands of the guard soon froze in its place.

The outer disciple continued to shiver in fear as he had already anticipated what would happen to the guards who act untoward the Spider Queen.

A soft wind blew past and the guard's body dropped to the ground, headless. The guard's head had been cleanly separated from this head and disappeared off to some unknown distance in an instance.

The other guard's smirk froze with trepidation and a looming sense of death. He did not know how the first guard died. Everything happened to quickly, but it was clear that it had something to do with the beautiful woman in front of him.

As the Spider Queen walked past, the second guard did not dare to move an inch. He even forgot to breathe. The outer disciple followed behind carefully with dread. He did not dare to run away.

The closed gate was blown apart from a kick as the Spider Queen stormed through in a domineering manner. Her home was left in shambles, so she came to trash their place!

However!

The Spider Queen stopped in her tracks when she laid her eyes on the majestic white marbled palace in the distance. It had an illusory and ethereal feeling when it is covered in mist.

"This Queen has changed her mind." Spider Queen Arachnia, or rather Arana said as she turned towards the outer disciple. "Go inside and tell everyone to get lost! This Queen has taken a liking to this place."

The outer disciple tremble as he listened. He was just an outer disciple. Who was going to listen to him? Forget about the elders and the Sect Master, even the inner disciple could kill him with a slap for his impudence if he told them all to get lost.

"I'm… I am just an outer disciple. I'm afraid they would kill me if I delivery them your message, your Excellency…"

"Then are you not afraid that this Queen will kill you right now if you don't go?" Arana said teasingly with her lips curved into a sly smile.

The outer disciple was drenched in cold sweat.

"I'll go now…"

The outer disciple ran as fast as he could. Getting the opportunity, he also wanted to get as far away from the Spider Queen as possible as he dashed towards the Illusory Palace of the Illusory Butterfly Sect.

At the same time, quite a few outer disciples and inner disciples were attracted by the booming noise of the busted gate and were drawn to it.

"Beautiful lady, do you not know whose gate you just kicked down? Do you know where you are right now?" An inner disciple reproached, but his eyes were sparkling as he checked the person out with a disrespectful gaze.

"Beautiful lady, if you promise to spend a night with me, I can plead leniency to the elders for you."

"Ptui! Beautiful lady, don't listen to him. Be my woman and I will guarantee your safety."

The male inner disciples approached the Spider Queen one by one with their own agendas and intention.

"What a bunch of blind and horny dogs. They don't even know how the word death is written!"

"Yeah! Do they think just anyone can kick down our gates like that?"

"We should alert the elders. Someone capable has come to cause trouble at our sect."

"En."

The female inner disciples were more level-headed and saw the situation more clearly, but at the same time, they were jealous someone was getting so much more attention than them.

The person who could bust down their gate and not run away when they are all alone had to be someone extremely confidant or an idiot. But even if the person was an idiot, it should be a powerful idiot.

"You all better scram. If you all continue to gaze at this Queen so disrespectfully and come within 30fts, be prepared to die." Arana said with chilling light, but she did not move an inch and continue to wait for the bigwigs to come out.

"Yo~ This lady is quite feisty."

"Hahaha, right? What if I want to come within 30fts of you, your royal Majesty?" The male inner disciple said sarcastically as he took a step within.

Poof!

Blood sprayed from the male inner disciple's headless body as soon as he did and died without every knowing how he died. The headless body fell and twitched a few times before it ultimately stopped forever.

The other approaching inner disciples widened their eyes and immediately paused their steps as beads of cold sweat trickled down the side of their foreheads.

"What just happened? Anyone saw how he died?"

"Holy mama…" A person fell back on his rear and peed his pants. "That person was Inner Disciple Greg…"

"Greg… A 5-Star Ranked Awakener died just like that… Who the hell is this person?"

"Transcendent… She's gotta be a Transcendent! Call the elders—No, call the Sect Master!"

…

Inside a certain meeting hall within Illusory Palace, a group of elders were discussing their next plan for overtaking the Crawford Kingdom with the Sect Master. There were also a few core disciples among the mix. There were all people who had achieved the strength of 7 stars and higher.

"How is the western expedition doing? Has anyone received news from the Grand Elder lately?"

"None. With the Grand Elder's strength, they should have reached the Capital and already started fighting by now. I willing to bet those rinky-dink Crawford Royalties didn't expect this one coming, haha! I believe it won't be long before we get to hear some good news."

"You're being too optimistic, Third Elder."

"Oh? Do you have some news, Fifth Elder? Or do you simply have a different opinion? Do you have something against me, Fifth Elder?"

"Something against you? You think too much, Third Elder." The Fifth Elder said coolly.

"News? I have some. I think everyone will be interested to hear what I found. According to my own sources, The Grand Elder of Bloodfiend Sect had fallen in battle and the main force was absorbed by the enemy."

When the Fifth Elder said this, the hall was completely silence as everyone gathered around the table fell into deep thoughts.

The Sect Master wore a grave look as leaned forward with his elbows rested on the table and fingers locked together.

After sweeping everyone a look, he spoke, "With the nature of the Bloodfiend Sect and our long-time rivalry, we can expect that the Grand Elder of Bloodfiend Sect spilled some vital information to the enemy to get even with us before he died."

"The lost of a Transcendent is enough to send waves through an entire kingdom. What the Sect Master said is most likely true. The Grand Elder of Bloodfiend Sect would not let us have the advantage and would have done something to take our Grand Elder down with him to even out the playing field."

"Those selfish bastards!" Another elder slammed the table in anger. "This might be why we haven't received any news from the Grand Elder."

The Sect Master looked at Fifth Elder and asked, "Did you find out how the Grand Elder of Bloodfiend Sect was killed in battle, Fifth Elder? Did the… Overseer intervened?"

The Sect Master was cautious when the Overseer was mentioned. The Overseer's origins were unclear but each one of them could summon the winds and rains in the Durham kingdom.

Fifth Elder shook his head and sighed despondently.

"We have miscalculated this time and stepped on the dragon's toe. The Grand Elder of Bloodfiend Sect was killed by the Queen of Crawford."

"That's impossible! Queen Elizabeth is just a newly ascended Transcendent! There's no way she would be a match for an experienced Transcendent like the Grand Elder of Bloodfiend Sect!" The Third Elder was quick to refute.

"What if the Queen was a Sword Master?"

"Then… Then…" Third Elder slumped back on his seat with a slightly pale look. "Who would have thought that… that stagnant place that focus on rubbish things like steam power could produce a Sword Master?"

"Not just any Sword Master, but a Sword Master that IS a Transcendent…"

"Sword Masters are known for their heaven-defying attack power. We are in deep shit this time. Fortunately, our sect is quite hidden."

The Sect Master sighed.

Chapter 281 - Illusory Butterfly Formation

"With such a strong person holding the fort, it won't be possible to take over the Crawford Kingdom now. We should have hit them with everything we had instead of being cautious of the Bloodfiend Sect playing tricks behind our backs."

"Everyone already knows that. Don't speak if you have nothing constructive to say."

"Y-You! You do have something against me, don't you?!" The Third Elder was angered, before slowly smirked, "Oh, I think I know why. Is it because I took away your favorite female disciple and played with her for a few days?"

The Fifth Elder's expression became solemnly dark.

"Enough! We should be discussing our next course of action!" Sixth Elder voiced his words, displeased, before suggesting, "Should we pull back all our disciples to avoid our disciples being captured and selling out our own sect's location?"

"That won't work. Even if we did that, there is still Second Elder and the disciples who followed him. The plan would be for naught if they decided to reveal themselves and sell out our sect's location." The Sect Master frowned.

"Have we found out where they are hiding yet? We need to get rid of this ticking time bomb before it bites us back." Fifth Elder said.

"It already 17 years ago. If not for that traitorous Second Elder's interference, we would have succeeded replacing the Crawford Royal family with our pawn and takeover the Crawford Kingdom. But not only did we failed, but the Overseer also came and taught us a lesson." Sixth Elder sighed.

"But if we didn't fail, we would not have learned the existence of Overseers and the people above them. But it was also true that if we had succeeded, then they would not have bothered with us either. After all, the dead cannot be revived."

"I still can't wrap my head around the existence of these people stepping on our heads. How can they be so powerful yet be such gullible idiots as to believe in a fortune teller's words? How is it possible for someone with the destiny to break humanity out of its cage that is the Human Domain, possibly born in that backward kingdom?" A Core Disciple spoke.

"I also find it nonsensical, but what's important isn't what we believe, but what THEY believe. We are too helplessly weak in front of absolute strength." The Third Elder said, before shifting topics.

"Anyway, we don't have to worry about Second Elder too much. He had been struck by my Poison Palm. He would have had no choice but to abolish his cultivation and start over. He can't become powerful and cause any big waves without the resource and the environment to cultivate."

"En, I've guessed that he should be hiding somewhere in the Capital." The Sect Master said, before asking, "Any news from the Blood Mountain? The Sect Master of Bloodfiend Sect had been quiet lately. We could look into—"

Bang!

"This is bad, Sect Master! I come bearing bad news!" The Sect Master was interrupted by an outer disciple barging into the hall unannounced.

"Outrageous! Is this the place a lowly outer disciple like you can enter as you want!?" The Third Elder jumped with the intention to kill the outer disciple with a single palm strike.

The outer disciple paled with pure terror. He did not intend to deliver the Spider Queen's words, but it did not stop him from being killed by the enraged elder.

"Stop it, Third Elder! I believe we should at least listen to what this outer disciple has to say first. I believe this disciple would not ignore sect rules and barge into the meeting hall without a proper reason for doing so." Fifth Elder stopped the Third Elder's attack promptly, before saying, "Isn't that right?"

The outer disciple nodded like a pecking duck.

"Dammit, Fifth Elder! You're bent on going against, aren't you?!"

"Enough, Third Elder. What Fifth Elder said was reasonable. Besides, Eldest Brother had not said anything yet. Don't you think you are acting out of line? Or do you think your authority supersedes Eldest Brother's authority as Sect Master, hmm?" Sixth Elder said.

Third Elder felt a significant amount of anger bottled up inside him. What Sixth Elder said was insidious and vicious, directing pitching him against the Sect Master.

Feeling the Sect Master's chilly gaze, the Third Elder had no choice but to back down and retract his hand.

"Of course not. I would never think as such. I just thought this outer disciple was extremely rude for disrupting the Sect Master's words." The Third Elder said with an appealing smile, but a bottomless pit of fire was raging on inside.

"What do you think, Eldest Brother?" Sixth Elder asked.

All the numbered elders and sect master were all fellow direct disciples of the same master, the previous sect master. Still, the way they address each other shows their relationship to one another.

The Sect Master nodded and spoke one word.

"Speak!"

The outer disciple sighed with relief and was about to explain when an inner disciple barged into the hall this time.

"This is bad, Sect Master!"

"What is it?"

The Sect Master said with a low tone. Having disciples from the sect barge in twice, the new must be important.

"An outsider is killing our disciples outside! I suspect the outsider is a Transcendent!"

"What about you, what did you want to report?" The Sect Master asked the outer disciple grimly.

"Exactly as the inner disciple had said, Sect Master!" The outer disciple trembled. What was his value if someone else also came to report it?

Instead of exploding with outrage from the news, the elders and core disciples around the table sunk into grim silence with a heavy feeling.

"Did the Overseer come to punish us?"

"This timing is too coincidental. It… should be the case."

The outer disciple opened his mouth, seemingly having something to say but weren't sure whether to say it.

While stuck in a dilemma, the Sect Master noticed this.

"Speak!"

"Y-Yes, Sect Master! I'm not sure who this Overseer the elders mentioned, but this Transcendent is a frightening woman. The Grand Elder, along with the other disciples and the 20,000-strong army was wiped out by this one person alone while we were traveling through to the western parts of Extreme Misty Forest."

The news did not make anyone feel better. It was equally bad as it showed that the Transcendent was powerful, possibly more potent than the Sect Master.

"And you brought this person here?" Third Elder asked impassively.

"Yes."

The outer disciple quickly answered before his expression warped in horror as he noticed the error in his words.

"I can kill him now, right?" Third Elder asked the Sect Master.

"Go right ahead."

Everyone gave the outer disciple an indifferent look. The outer disciple was pale as a sheet.

"Mercy, Sect Master! Merc—"

Bam!

The Third Elder slammed his palm down right on top of the outer disciple's head with great force and splattered the entire body, from head to toe, into a bloody mess in the ground. He had taken out all his anger on the outer disciple.

"Let's go see what the intention of this Transcendent is. Perhaps, there was a misunderstanding, and we can negotiate with her and maybe even bring her onto our side." The Sect Master said.

"If we can succeed in this, we will have another chance at winning the war."

Everyone's eyes lit up with hope as they followed the Sect Master outside.

Outside, a few headless corpses had already turned into dozens, while the survivors had long escaped.

Arana had become impatient and told people to get lost from her new home, but the disciples just retreated some distance away. They were all killed after receiving a second warning.

Seeing so many dead inner disciples, the elders and core disciples all knitted their brows as they shifted their gaze onto the lone figure in the center of all the corpses.

With her white web-woven dress stained red with blood, Arana was like a beautiful red rose filled with thorns. Although she was beautiful, no one had the heart admire the Spider Queen's beauty.

"Is there some sort of misunderstanding between us, your Excellency? Why must you kill so many of our disciples?" The Sect Master approached with a soft stance, but the Spider Queen was utterly unreasonable.

"No misunderstanding. This Queen had taken a liking to your place and want all of you to get lost. Have you not been informed as such by my messenger?" Arana beamed with a cold smile.

A few elders and core disciples sweated. Who was the messenger? That outer disciple? A few gazes gradually shifted to the Third Elder.

The Third Elder became angry at this and snapped, "What are your intentions by staring at me like this?!"

The Sect Master's brows deeply furrowed. The Illusory Palace was the foundation of their sect, holding over two centuries worth of heritage and resource. There was no way they could give it away.

"Illusory Palace is our sect's foundation. Is it possible to negotiate something else?"

"No negotiation. I wasn't asking, so get lost."

Arana immediately struck with a sweeping kick. The Sect Master was both startled and enraged, but he still guarded with both arms protected by a layer of reinforced yin energy.

However!

The Sect Master's eyes almost popped out of their sockets in the next instance as an immense force still broke both his layer of defense and his arms and sent him flying into a distant wall with a loud boom!

"Sect Master!"

Everyone cried.

Boom!

Almost immediately after crashing, a bloodied Sect Master jumped out of the rubbles of the ruined wall and roared, "Goddammit! Just because I was being nice, do you think you can just step all over me!?"

"Illusory Butterfly Formations! Now!"

The elders and core disciples reacted immediately and quickly surrounded the Spider Queen. Waves and waves of poison yin mist billowed out from their bodies and formed a giant cage with everyone inside.

Everyone's figures grew indistinct as mere shadowy figures within the poison mist cage as the Sect Master flew on top to control the sect's signature Illusory Butterfly Formation that required ten people working in tandem.

Chapter 282 - The Sect's Destruction

Within the Illusory Butterfly Formation, the Spider Queen stood at its center with a nonchalant look. Her vision was obscured and the poison yin mist filling the area seemed harmful to ordinary people, but she was not in a hurry to retaliate.

After waiting some time, she raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of garbage formation is this? It does absolutely nothing." Arana snickered.

"You're too arrogant! The longer you stay in our formation, the quicker you die! You should not have let us set up our formation, or even better, you should not have crossed me!"

The Sect Master's voice overlapped with the surrounding mist and came from every direction, making the Spider Queen unable to discern the correct direction of the source.

"Insignificant tricks. You can't even hide your shadow and movements."

The Spider Queen dashed towards a shadowy figure moving within the poison yin mist and made a swipe at it. The shadowy figure in the mist seemed to have detected the Spider Queen's attack and try to escape, but it was outmatched in speed.

"Nooo~!"

The shadowy figure seemed to have cried as the Spider Queen's attack landed.

However!

Arana froze in the next moment with confusion. No feeling was transmitted to her as the shadowy figure and mist disperse from her attack.

"What?"

The shadowy figure in the mist were scattered into countless shadowy butterflies and reformed into another shadowy figure elsewhere.

A jarring laugh soon followed the Spider Queen's failed attack, making her look foolish.

"Kekeke… Like I said, you are too arrogant! Did you think you can catch any of us in our own formation, miss Transcendent?! In this formation, the most unreliable thing to trust are your senses! Your arrogance will be the death of you! You may be powerful, but no matter how powerful you are, once trapped in this formation, you will still have to kneel!"

"You want to make this Queen kneel? You are not worthy. How dare you trick this Queen."

Arana's eyes were suffused with cold light as she felt humiliated. She lashed out at several more moving shadows in the mist, but like the first time, they all scattered into butterflies and reformed themselves.

"Kekeke… Oh, I think I felt that one. Keep trying. Maybe you will catch one of us next time."

Arana was mocked by the Sect Master. She was irritated but continuing to attack the shadowy figures in the mist will not produce any result.

"This Queen might have underestimated your formation a little, but if this Queen wants to leave, what can you do about it?"

"You can try." The Sect Master snickered.

"Hmph."

Arana dashed in a single direction. Her movements were quick, easily covering a few thousand yards in a short time.

It was then that she felt something wrong and halted her steps. With the distance she travelled, she should have easily left the vicinity of the Illusory Palace by now.

She did not run into the gate she broke down either. The world around her was still a dense poison yin mist.

"Cease your foolish actions. It is useless. You cannot escape once you are trapped. No one has ever succeeded. There is only one result for everyone that has been trapped by our Illusory Butterfly Formation, and that is death! I have already told you that your own senses cannot be trusted. That includes your sense of direction! Did you know you just look like an idiot running in circles? Hahaha!"

"You talk to much. Apart from meddling with my senses, your stupid formation has no other merits. Still a useless formation. I can wait all day, but how long can you keep the formation active? Once you are exhausted, I will just kill you all then."

"Big talk for someone who is about to die! The poison should have invaded your system any minute now!"

The Sect Master was smirking when he said this. As a sect specializing in poison arts, the combination of being able to trap and poison their opponents to death was the most fearsome aspect of their Illusory Butterfly Formation.

The Sect Master, elders and core disciples were confident that without taking further action, the Transcendent Beauty will simply succumb to their poison and die within the formation.

Arana simply smiled coldly. She was aware of the poison, but there was a transcendental flame burning inside her that reduces the poison down to level even her body's immunity system could handle.

"I could choose to wait for you to exhaust yourselves powering this stupid formation, but that would not be the style of this Queen. You have been far too impudent for this Queen to allow you all to live any longer. As such, you can all die now."

Suddenly, everyone's heart palpitated with a dangerous feeling. They were confused where the danger was coming from when the person was practically trapped in their formation.

In the next moment, they found out why.

Silky strands of web shot out from the Spider Queens fingers and lashed at the surrounding indiscriminately. It was an omnidirectional attack that would not care for its friend or foe.

Swoosh!

The attack summoned a torrential storm of its own as the surrounding was barraged in hundreds—no, thousands of whips from the ten silky thin strands of webs from the Spider Queen!

Except for the Sect Master who managed to react quickly, everyone else hidden in the formation was diced into hundreds of fleshly pieces. They could not be deader than dead.

Everything happened too quickly.

With no one left to supply power to the formation, the thick poison yin mist dispersed. The ground within a 200-yard radius were completely devastated with innumerable marks.

All tricks and schemes were nothing in the face of absolute strength.

"There you are. You ran pretty quickly."

Arana locked onto the Sect Master.

The Sect Master laid on the ground with a pale face just outside the marble gate. He had managed survive the onslaught of whip-like attacks, but only with half his life. He had lost his legs and one arm in the attack. He was basically crippled and unable to escape.

"I didn't expect for the tables to be turned so easily." The Sect Master chuckled bitterly.

If he knew the person was powerful to this extent, no matter how unwilling he was, he would have still conceded to the person's demand.

"Just who are you? The only person who would address themselves as 'this Queen' is the Queen of the Crawford Kingdom, but that person shouldn't be you."

"You don't need to know."

Arana did not waste further words on a dead person.

The Sect Master was killed by a thousand cuts, before Arana turned towards the beautiful white Illusory Palace.

"Now to claim by prize."

Her lips were curved up as she took her steps towards the white palace. Only a queen was fit to live in such a majestic building…

Creak…

The subtle sound caused Arana to suddenly freeze as her eyes opened widened. The creak and grinding sound became more evident as half of the Illusory Palace collapsed into countless diced rubbles.

Arana wore a dumfounded expression and stood on the same spot for a long time.

"At least there is still half a building left…" She comforted herself as she took another step towards her new home.

However…

The other half lost its structural integrity and shortly collapsed with a boom after. Arana was rooted on the spot blankly.

Something inside seemed to have also cracked.

…

While Leon was spending his time in the Capital, his mother, Elizabeth had returned to the temporary military camp in the Grassland Region with her army after taking a detour through a nearby town in the north.

"Congratulation on your victorious return, Your Majesty! May you ever be victorious in a thousand more!" The soldiers at the camp shouted while they saluted on one knee.

Elizabeth waved for them to be at ease helplessly as she shook her head and thought to herself, 'What victorious return? The enemy was already slaughtered when we got there and had to clean up the mess instead.'

"Report. What's the current situation on camp?"

"Yes, Your Majesty! All the wounded on camp has been healed and are all ready for battle, except for a few whose limbs we could not retrieve. The elite team of palace guards have also returned to the underground to collect relics." A commander faithfully answered.

Elizabeth nodded before she paused and asked, "Did you say healed? Not treated?"

"Yes, Your Majesty! Elder Evergreen and his people had lent their hand and healed all the wounded soldiers with their miraculous wood ability!"

Elizabeth was surprised to learn there was so many wood-users from that group of underground villagers. "That's great! I must express my gratitude to them! But before that, tell me the rest of the report. What's the situation in the south?"

"Eastfell City has been burned and destroyed. Many innocent residents had also been slaughtered by the enemy. Supposedly, members of the Bloodfiend Sect had given the order to slaughter the innocents and burn the city."

"Brigadier-General Rohan is currently guarding the Eastfell Region border, while some troops had been delegated to escort the surviving residents of Eastfell City to other cities to take temporary refuge."

Elizabeth's eyes glinted with a cold light while clenching her fist when she heard the news of the innocents being slaughter in Eastfell City. The people of the Bloodfiend Sect were not humans!

After giving the oversized army a sweeping look, she ordered, "Rally the soldiers. After I come back meeting Elder Evergreen, we will depart for the Valaran Kingdom!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The Commander shouted with an excited look.

Chapter 283 - Realm Of Spear Spirit

To some people, time would pass slowly, while others would feel it had passed quickly. Whatever the case was, the day still shifted forward. The sun settled and disappeared off the horizon, marking the arrival of the night. Along with it, the brilliance of the moon appeared as cascading light rained down upon the Capital.

In the past few hours after Leon had exhausted most of his mental strength, he had refined some Spiritual Replenishment Pills and ingested one.

Following that, he spent the rest of the time practicing some simple spear thrusts and swings to become more familiar with his black spear. His entire body was soaked in sweat as he was training topless.

His spear strikes might be simple, but each attack was full of explosive power and would kick up a gust of wind. They were not half-hearted attacks but attacks that he had put every fiber of his being into, resulting in him exhausting himself quickly.

Amidst the sweat and aching body screaming for him to stop, Leon's eyes were still full of spirit and drive. He did not find such physical training dull and tedious but rather quite enjoyable.

Each extra swing represents progress and a step closer to his goal, no matter how minuscule it may be.

To avenge his father and pull every Divine King involved in his father's death, down from their throne, he must work harder than anyone else, even the Divine Kings.

Which one of the Divine Kings hadn't have their fair share of sweat and blood to get to where they were now? If he wants to surpass that, he must work even harder and seek higher fortuitous encounters. Only then would he have a chance at avenging his father.

In the art of sword cultivation, to achieve the first realm of Sword Spirit and become a qualified Swordsman, a person must become one with the sword.

Becoming one with the sword was not something complicated. It simply means to become familiar enough with the sword that it would move like an extension of one's limbs.

Leon was applying the same logic in his practice to become one with his spear and achieve the realm of Spear Spirit.

This was something that usually took a lot of practice and had no shortcut, but a talented person could indeed cut down the required time and practice needed.

With Leon's level of comprehension, he felt he had already achieved primary mastery of the spear and reached the threshold needed.

Swoosh~!

Another powerful spear strike thrust out as the wind billowed against the courtyard's wall, but Leon could not help but frown.

"Not right. I'm not there yet. Something is still missing... but what could it be?"

Leon's frown deepened as he thought about all the Swordsmen, Sword Masters, and Sword Grandmasters he had met in his previous life. Also, his mother as well. She was a Swordsman. What did they all have in common with the sword?

"A Swordsman does not need to fight to be recognized…"

Leon recalled this saying in the Divine Realm.

"Does not need to fight to be recognized…"

"To be recognized…"

"How can a person recognize a Swordsman if they don't fight? Just by their sword?"

Leon shook his head.

Just because a person holds a sword, it did not mean they were qualified to be called a Swordsman. However, the Divine Realm indeed had numerous Swordsmen. Anyone with a sword was at least at the realm of Sword Spirit.

"Sword Spirit… Sword… Spirit?" Leon repeatedly mumbled as his eyes start to glow brightly. "I understand. It's the sharpness of one's spirit. A Swordsman can be recognized by sensing their sharp spirit. The spirit of a Swordsman must be sharp like the sword."

Leon thought about his mother.

Swordsman could hide their sharp spirit, but the only time his mother bothers to hide, or 'sheathe' her sharp spirit is when she is looking at him. At any other time, his mother's sharp spirit is always evident for others to sense.

With his mother's strength, status, coldness, and sharp spirit, it makes sense why people are always under enormous pressure and fear when all these aspects are put together.

"A sword-user must be sharp like the sword. The greater the attainment, the sharper the spirit." Leon nodded in understanding. He understood that his spear strikes were lacking a sort of spirit.

Swords had to be sharp, but what about a spear?

Each time he swung his weighted spear, it was heavy, strong, explosive, overpowering, and unstoppable. A heavy spirit? Can a spirit be heavy? Strong spirit? Explosive spirit? The hell is that? Might as well be dead. Overpowering spirit? Unstoppable spirit? Dafuq? Now that is just ridiculous.

A Spear Spirit had to contain all these aspects. Not one, not two or three, but all of them. A spear had to be… domineering!

Leon closed his eyes and envisioned himself as a general on a great battlefield in ancient times. A single swing of his spear would send dozens of enemy soldiers flying like broken kites. Yes… this is how a spear should be used.

Suddenly, Leon gripped the spear hard and snapped open his eyes before making a mighty swing! The wind blew explosively into the courtyard's wall again. This time, the power behind the spear strike was much stronger than all his previous attacks, about 30% stronger.

"Yes, a spear-user should have a domineering spirit. The weapon of an overlord must be domineering."

Leon glanced down at his trembling hands. That last blow had sapped all the remaining strength in his arms, but if he does not push himself at this point, how would he ever overcome his limits?

"I can probably push for one more swing… probably."

There are no clear indicators to assure a person when they achieve the Realm of Spear Spirit like divine cultivation does, but there was no need to second guess it. The 30% improvement in power was the best proof.

Gripping his spear, Leon could feel a sense of powerlessness. His grip was not firm. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and pushed it! One more swing!

Leon went through the motion of another horizontal sweep. At the same time, he saw a person's head popped around the corner of the courtyard's entrance, but it was too late for him to stop.

To make matters worse, the black spear slipped out of his grip and flew straight towards the person!

Princess Faelyn had gone to revisit the prince to make up earlier in the day, but after she turned into the courtyard's entrance, a black spear impaled itself in the courtyard's wall right next to her with a loud bang!

Her whole body froze with a start before turning her head mechanically to the side to look at it. Was that a warning strike?

"Err… sorry for bothering you, Your Highness. I'll… leave now."

"Ahem, Faelyn, wait. That was a mistake. My fingers slipped."

Faelyn turned back and looked at Leon with suspicion. Her soon eyes fell on his trembling hands. After that, they roamed back onto Leon's naked upper body, and a blush crept on her face.

While wiping away his sweat with a towel, Leon asked, "What brought you here again?"

"I… I still feel apologetic about what happened earlier today and wanted to invite you out for dinner to make up for it. I heard there's a really nice restaurant on Aurelia Mountain Road."

"There's no need to worry about that. However, I'll take you up on your offer." Leon said with a smile. He was a bit interested as he had never tried the food there due to their exorbitant prices. "Do you mind waiting a bit first?"

"Not at all." Faelyn happily said, seeing Leon agreed.

"Alright, wait for me," Leon said before he entered his room and closed the door.

After giving himself a quick wash in a big tub of warm water, he prepared himself, he dried his body and adorned a fresh new outfit before returning to Faelyn outside 10 minutes later.

"Did you wait long?"

"Nope!"

"Alright, let's go eat then," Leon said with a bit of anticipation. The food in the palace was not as good as the Steakhouse outside. He wondered how much better the food on Aurelia Mountain Road would be.

In the Divine Realm, there was a profession known as Spirit Chef. Spirit Chefs were known for being able to prepare extraordinarily delicious meals capable of also aiding one's cultivation. Each dish prepared by a Spirit Chef was always brimming with spirit energy.

The food in the palace and the Steakhouse were also like the food prepared by Spirit Chefs. They were able to retain the energy of the beast meat after cooking it.

If Leon compared the chef at the palace and the Steakhouse, then the chef at the Steakhouse was on a higher level. This explains his curiosity towards the food on Aurelia Mountain Road.

Seeing Faelyn not moving, Leon asks, "What's wrong? Why aren't we going?"

"I don't know where it is." Faelyn blushed and looked towards her two maids for help. They immediately waved their hands and said, "We also don't know where it is. We have never left the palace and had only heard stories about it."

Faelyn and the two maids soon directed their eyes back to Leon.

Taken aback, Leon scratched his head wryly and said, "I also don't know where it is."

"You don't?"

"Err, I know the general direction," Leon stated as he recalled the map in his father's study.. Lost Isle Alley was not far from there.