Ch-20:Vanished

While the poisoning incident ended with failure due to the fact Mia was already made aware of it, her son relinquished his right to inherit the throne making his cousin sister the sole inheritor.

Though it looked like that on the surface, Mia, her sister, and her niece all were aware of Raon as she was the current Queen of her Queendom when Raon went to talk with her.

The only one caught unaware and forced to relinquish his rights was Mia's son, Agis, who had to do that to protect the people who trusted him from the death penalty that would have been given to them for plotting against the throne.

Things went smoothly from there until a year later he was called forth by his mother, Mia, and taken to an unknown place where he realized the truth regarding the throne.

Raon had been keeping an eye on Agis especially using his shadow assassins because he felt like he would be useful and that he proved to be correct.

He decided to assign Agis the military due to his nature and decisiveness from what Raon observed in the past year as well as the information gathered regarding Agis before that period.

Things went according to plan as Raon finally had made his Empire take shape properly with the shadows working to weed out the unnecessary underground organizations.

He was well aware that any Power without them wouldn't last for long so he allowed his shadows to take over them by force or threat or any means necessary.

Some of the people did sign contracts with him while a lot had to be removed and changed by the ones who were ready to be directly under him.

He created a system where he was a Monarch and all were his direct subjects but he didn't intervene in their lives as long as they fulfilled the tasks given to them directly.

It would take a long time for his structure to take form completely as it is on a very grand scale and just around the time he was thinking of his next steps, he heard something interesting.

He called Mia to meet him as she was the only one who he felt wasn't that bad to talk to since he could see that she carried only gratitude for him while the others had greed, jealousy, hatred, and various other negative emotions.

As soon as Mia entered the room, she felt that the temperature was a bit too low, and even with her cultivation, she felt the chill in the surroundings and the foreboding feeling of impending doom.

"Mia, I ordered to burn down all the cities from which those assassins originated from. So why is it not done yet?" said Raon as his frosty voice made Mia shiver in fright.

"M-My Lord, this... I will get it done" answered Mia, feeling true fear from Raon for the first time.

"Answer. My. Question." Raon said with an even colder tone as his eyes turned bloodshot red and even his sclera turned black.

"The cultivators denied doing it because we had not even tried to ally with their kingdoms..." Mia fell to the ground frozen stiff unable to complete her sentence due to the pressure on her increasing manifold with her every word.

"I. Don't. Care. Get. It. Done." Said Raon word by word as he threw Mia outside by enveloping her in his energy.

No one was allowed near this area as it was very well hidden so no one saw the spectacle except Mia's sister, Melisa.

As Melisa took Mia away with her and asked about the details, Mia didn't answer and just passed the orders to raze 17 cities with a total population of a few million to be razed to the ground.

The order didn't make sense to anyone but they had no option as the next orders arrived stating that they'll be annexing the 14 Kingdoms where those cities belong rather than trying an alliance.

The orders were quite contradictory to their previous approach of allying and only if they got rejected then they would attack to take over the kingdoms.

Raon didn't care about it as he was preoccupied with the news regarding Melisa planning to take over him in the future but how could things be this simple?

The Empire that was in a hidden alliance was not because of Raon but his supposed Master who had tasked him to do all of the things he was doing.

The fact that Raon's current strength was enough to destroy the said Empire single-handedly scared them even more of the mysterious master of Raon.

Unfortunately, Mia was yet again called to meet Raon but this time she didn't feel any pressure, strength, chill, death, or fear from Raon.

On the contrary, she felt that Raon was a mortal without any cultivation but her sixth sense was warning her that if she tried something, she'd be dead in the next second.

"Do you know why I talk to you and not your sister or the six kings that I forced to work for me at the start?" Asked Raon out of the blue startling Mia.

"I know you don't know. The reason is simple. I don't see greed like others or feel vile emotions from you"

"You're focused on cultivation most of the time yet you manage to discuss things with that sister and niece of yours"

"You followed my orders after that little warning unlike others who need to know about me being still alive"

"I just want to tell you that the only reason I haven't wiped out your entire family is you, so you better take care of it before I return"

As Raon said that, he let her see his cultivation realm along with his weapon techniques realm to make sure she prevents any stupid moves from not only her family but also those kingdoms.

Mia seeing such cultivation for the first time didn't even know what realm it was called and the sharp weapon aura only made her realize that the person in front of her was far stronger than he let on till now.

She was also smart enough to understand the hidden meaning that he didn't need to be here to take care of the rebellions but wanted Mia to deal with it on her own accord as it was her family matter.

She didn't know the reason though and it would be better if she didn't because if she knew it was because he simply found it annoying then she'd probably kill herself from sheer embarrassment.

Raon had spent more than six years by now as he had also been teaching strategies, weapon techniques as well as cultivation to Agis and a few others that had a knack for those subjects.

He also knew that whatever he had given here should have been known by the spies from different powers and the Unranked Empire as well as the fact that his shadows were doing a good job keeping it from leaking.

Raon reached Daiyu and directly entered his Master's abode as he was supposed to be cultivating with him and the only one there except the two were his master's wife.

Raon had already given some talismans to his shadows to allow them to contact him for any emergency where they were unable to decide the next steps.

Raon was then forced to cultivate with his Master Junho as well as his wife Si-Eun who both ostensibly used swords and were surprised to see Raon's sword technique improvement.

Unknowingly, Raon forgot to limit himself and used his full strength to spar with them which surprised them a bit but that was all as the two knew every cultivator kept some cards hidden.

Well, the two were a little too old to be fooled by Raon's gimmicks so they were aware from the first day that he was hiding his prowess but the two had not considered it to exceed their expectations.

Another decade passed since the delay as everyone was gathered again and checked for their age to be below 500 to prevent any mishaps.

Raon was nearing 400 years of age if one ignores the time dilation he went through but even that won't make him more than a decade younger as of now.

Everyone was gathered and waiting in the same manner as the last time and the same feeling of being pressured poured over all of them.

They were still oblivious to what was happening as none of the disciples got any clues from their masters about the events and this current phenomenon.

Luckily, they didn't have to wait much as the sky above them cracked as they felt their life being threatened but then abruptly 3 people emerged from that breaking space.

The young couple was in the front bearing arrogant and disdainful expressions on their faces as the third one was an old man bearing a stoic face but glancing down.

As soon as the three appeared, the Sect Leader as well as all the Elders or the disciples' Masters bowed down to greet them without speaking.

The young man and woman merely took out two seats and sat in the air as the old man arrived forward and eventually glanced around.

"Good, all of them seem to satisfy the prerequisites."

As he said that, he moved his hands as all the disciples disappeared and so did all the Elders in the room including the couple and after taking a look around to be certain that he hadn't overlooked anyone, he vanished as well.