What happened to Zuko was just 1 of the many possibilities that he foresaw. He hadn't bothered to peer into the history of the sea creatures' life just to reach a perfect prediction, but even without doing so he was able to make pretty accurate predictions.
Zuko being so cautious that he ended up being found by the local Sea Emperor was amongst the most likely of his predictions. But even a mortal could have predicted that. It's not hard to understand that most sea dwellers are fearful of the unknown, which could make them wait for a long time before they became settled, and once you look at the innocently approaching Sea Emperor, anyone could imagine the incoming comical scene.
Even before Eridel had created the fruit, he had known this could happen. So had made many plans to make his plans a success. He had even briefly considered making the fruit self-destruct if everything went wrong and the wrong target ate it, but then he had decided that if such a creature was even able to slip out of his web of plans and reach that point, then eating the fruit was fully deserved.
As for the fight that had occurred, he'd pretty much predicted everything that happened there as well. Zuko throwing metal spikes and having them rebound towards him might have been shocking to most people, but those with knowledge would be able to deduce that the potent electricity that the metal had been conducting was enough for Bilibu to obtain control of it.
On the same level, a Metal user could usually beat a Lightning user, but if the Lightning user had the advantage of cultivation and control over energy, then any Metal user would be played like a puppet. On the other hand, if the Metal user had greater cultivation, a Lightning user would not be able to cause a single lick of damage.
It was pretty much on the level of fire vs water. Literally.
Zuko deciding to run to initiate the evolution was the only thing he could do if he wanted to survive, and Eridel had factored that into his plans, which is why the Lunar fruit had looked like it was created for the purpose of making Tribulations easier. It was.
Thankfully, this didn't count as Eridel helping since all he did was create a fruit. Zuko decided to eat it and as all magical resources did, he obtained benefits. On top of that and most importantly, all of this took place before the Tribulation even began.
It would simply be crazy if anyone who handed out a resource to help someone reach the 4th Realm would be forced into the Tribulation as well. Still, just the thought of what would occur if he was categorised as a helper was enough to make him be careful. The result would have been catastrophic, to say the least.
Now that may have been avoided, but Zuko's troubles were not over yet.
The most important directive of the Lunar fruit had been to greatly increase the quality of Zuko's brain and mental, followed by the directive to increase his affinity with the Moon and grace him the comprehension of its laws, followed by influencing his next evolution, increasing the strength of his body, increasing the quality of his Mana, and so forth.
But funnily enough, the feeling of his brain improving had occurred just as he had begun to sling curses at the Sea Emperor, causing him to pursue the feeling with the only way his limited knowledge knew how. Which was to throw more curses.
And as if to encourage him, his improving brain and mental capabilities had granted him with newer, more insidious ways to insult his opponent. Something like this was like enlightenment and was peerlessly joyful.
So he continued to spit out toxic words as if he were a demonic priest in prayer, becoming louder and more feverish with passion as his joy rushed out of control.
Even Eridel himself had burst out with laughter at the abnormal event.
But unfortunately for Zuko, not everybody was laughing. There was no Sea Emperor alive that could hear those words and not make him the KOS target number 1. It may have looked like Zuko had escaped the situation when Bilibu left, but in actuality, things had become much more critical. Fatal even.
Zuko was in big, big trouble.
…
It wasn't rare for the usually silent depths of the Sea to randomly become disturbed by the turbulence of violence or just about any chaos, and most people minded their own business if they couldn't gain a benefit from the situation. But what was taking place here was definitely drawing eyes.
Moving their way through the sea was an apocalyptic-looking army of varying giant Sea Beasts and Sea Monsters that possessed all kinds of cultivation strengths that would make most people avoid them at all costs, and at their front was a gigantic multi-colored jellyfish that was shrouded in ominously slow-moving lightning.
It was the local Sea Emperor, Bilibu, and his army.
The menace and killing intent they exuded as they swam with goal-minded focus was like a dark, haunting cloud. Nobody dared to get close, but at the same time, they wanted to know what was going on.
It was way too rare for a Sea Emperor's army to move out like this. Because not only did it leave their territory open to assault, but it also became something that would alarm the neighbouring Sea Emperors. In any ordinary situation, there was no way they could ignore something like this, and these times were even more tense.
At a time like this where the Kaiser battle could kick off at any moment, what Bilibu was doing would be heard by more than just the neighbouring Sea Emperors. Every Sea Emperor at this section of the Sea, from top to bottom, would be paying attention to him, hoping or dreading that he would be the one to kick off the Kaiser battle.
So as Bilibu made his way through the Sea, there were some who fled at the sight, but there were more who decided to follow along from a distance, creating an awe-inspiring scene filled with countless Beasts and Monsters of all colours.
This was the dignity of an Emperor, and its target was Zuko.
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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
I've recently resumed working on the game for this book (It's on ROBLOX), and I'll be doing a public test on the 9th of February 2024. There isn't much as of now, but it'll be nice if you can take the time to join in.
Atm, you can start with 1 of 5 randomised Elements with equal rarity: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth or Lightning. You can also cultivate either Essence Cultivation or Anatomy Cultivation or both if you have the will. Soul Cultivation will come much later if I decide to add it.
You can also start with one of 4 races: Human, Elf, Beastkin and Blood Fiend. And they all have their own benefits.
Humans: Well, their speciality hasn't been written in the book yet so it won't be in the game for the test either, and it would be a spoiler if I told you so can't do that. But I can promise you that when I do implement the Human race benefit, they won't be inferior to other races at all.
Elves: They have 4 subraces: 1.Pure (Normal), 2.Fae, 3.[SPOILER], 4.Royal. They of course have different benefits and rarities.
Beastkin: They have 5 subraces: 1.WolfKin, 2.DeerKin, 3.RhinoKin, 4.DragonKin (rare), 5.PhoenixKin (rare). First 3 are of equal rarity but the last 2 are quite rare. These all come with animal features like wolf ears, dragon horns or phoenix wings.
Blood Fiends: They can drink the blood of fallen foes to syphon their cultivation. Yes, the victim will actually lose cultivation progress (but not a lot).
Can't promise that all of the racial specs will be in the game at the time of the test, but I'm working on it. It isn't easy working on both the game and the book, on top of being in university 4 days a week, all without any help, but I'm Monarch still and I'll do my thing.
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/T6KXHyKyyF
P.S: There will be a small few people running with their own customs, including me. 1 of them is a pink fucker that can go in and out of the **Spoiler**. Don't provoke him because even if I can beat him, I can't save you if he's adamant on killing you. After all, the bastard can just hop into the **Spoiler**, and leave whenever he wants. What's crazier is that it's a parallel **Spoiler**, so he can be right next to you and you will never know.
Someone else won a competition for a custom element and obtained Darkness Element, and my point for me telling you this is that there will be more competitions to come, don't miss out.
Yours truly,
SolitaryMonarch.