Change’s Wake

It was not that the Imperial Han Family housed no dangerous individuals–on the contrary, even the state capital, Qinglong City, was already home to several dozen Initial Ascension Stage cultivators!

But this man was not one of them. He had been sent from the very centre of the Empire, the imperial capital–Longxin City. As one of the generals of the Imperial Guard, the only one qualified to order him around was the Emperor! Under normal circumstances, someone of his status should have never appeared in a backwater like this. Even Qinglong City barely sufficed to host him. The main reason for this was simple: The Energy concentration here was suffocatingly low.

Having reached the very peak of the Initial Ascension Stage ages ago, being exposed to areas like this would be harmful in the long term and would hinder his breakthrough to a higher stage. Yet, here he was in spite of that.

A monumental change had occurred in the Han Empire less than 24 hours ago. An entire state–in other words, a whole world–had been wiped from the map! It didn't take long to figure out what had happened, as the perpetrator of this didn't bother to hide their actions or tracks at all, even going so far as to publicly challenge the Emperor to a duel in one year's time!

The upper echelons of the Han Empire were aware of the Heavenly Succession, as they had two Heaven's Chosen amongst their descendants. That aside, one unlucky one had appeared in the middle of the Imperial Palace, pretty much instantly disqualifying him from continuing any further. Because of all of the knowledge which they had gathered about this event, they were aware that there was a slim but non-zero chance that a Dragon Family member might clash with them–and that many other Heaven's Chosen would be out for their blood.

Yet, considering how easily they had dealt with the one who they had come across–and how comparatively weak their own Heaven's Chosen were–they didn't bother to inform the state governments about this threat. This decision had been a massive mistake, one which they couldn't help but regret now.

Just as they had eagerly anticipated, a Dragon Family descendant had indeed appeared in one of their states, but contrary to their expectations, they had utterly overpowered all of the local powerhouses within less than a month after their arrival! Due to the deep hatred between their two families, the entire world which had turned into their battlefield held no survivors–other than the enemy Heaven's Chosen.

While their empire might have been able to battle against most of the competitors when they were still extremely weak, there were those amongst them who could grow far faster than others. This Dragon Family member in particular was one such figure. Originally, they might have chosen to bide their time, becoming stronger silently in the shadows–but when confronted with the Imperial Han Family, they chose a far more ruthless, but dangerous path.

After all, the real enemy was not this empire, but everyone else who participated in the Heavenly Succession!

To the Hans' dismay, the Teleportation Array that they used to travel to the state which had been taken over only allowed those at the Initial Ascension Stage or below to make use of it. As for the very few who had trod even further upon the path of cultivation, they were simply too strong for the relatively lacklustre Array to bear!

Infuriated at their inability to deal with their greatest and most prominent adversary, the court contemplated a few options for a while. After they had figured out a course of action, the Emperor chose to send his most trusted and capable experts to the various states to serve as protectors and early warning systems. Qinglong State had not been overlooked either.

So when a distress signal from Jingshan City arrived, before the local rulers could send out anyone of their own, Han Liangyun set off immediately. He knew that those who could deal with a peak Soul Sculpting Stage figure had to be dangerous–possibly to an extent that the weaklings here wouldn't be capable of dealing with.

Although it took him only a total of two microseconds to arrive in Jingshan City, by the time that he had made it there, the perpetrator of a city-wide slaughter had already escaped his range of perception, leaving behind no traces. In his mind, this further raised the danger which his opponent represented.

Outwardly complaining about having to deal with this, anything but happy about what would await him in the days to come, he gave the city a quick glance. That was when he discovered that all of the civilians and slaves had been left alive–only the Hans and their minions had been slaughtered like helpless livestock.

"How vile! Hmph."

Annoyed and angry at being unable to deal with the culprit, Han Liangyun flew further upwards and formed a more than one kilometre wide sphere of golden Energy, then tossed it straight into the middle of the city. Before it impacted the ground, it suddenly exploded, ripping apart the surrounding dozens of kilometres–along with a few small villages and towns which became part of the collateral damage.

Seconds later, what was left behind was a massive crater and nothing else. Not a single person or building scrap had survived the calamitous attack.

Evidently pleased by this, Han Liangyun nodded to himself, then returned to his residence in Qinglong City. Sooner or later, another alarm would ring. And that time, he would react faster!

Tens of thousands of kilometres away, in the middle of the wilderness, five figures had appeared out of thin air a few seconds ago. It took most of them a bit of time to come to their senses, as they had never expected to be suddenly brought far away without a warning. Only two of them did not show any surprise at all at this development.

"Let me guess: An Initial Ascension Stage expert?"

Walking up next to Theodore and sporting a somewhat cautious, but not overly terrified look, Vigdis shot him an inquisitive glance and made her best guess.

"Indeed. And a peak one, at that. From what I have gathered, there should be none of that calibre in this world, so they could only have come here from another. Were they just here by coincidence, or did someone make a big mess?"

Nodding his head, Theodore stated his thoughts aloud, an intrigued smirk on his lips now that he had escaped death by a hair's breadth. The momentary pain was already fading, and he knew that he was secure–at least for now.

"What, really!? That's way worse than I expected. If I had to guess, it's probably the latter. A coincidence is too unlikely."

Startled by the revelation of the enemy's true capabilities, Vigdis' eyes widened in shock, then she gave her Leader a grateful nod whilst bowing slightly. She was aware of how close she had come to her demise just now. If she had still been on her lonesome, then when she made a sufficiently large enough ruckus to startle this expert, she would have most definitely died! Yet again, she rejoiced at having joined Theodore–doing so had quite literally saved her life.

"... what do we do now?"

Looking at the seemingly endless mountain range which they found themselves in, Xie Mei furrowed her brows, clear hints of worry in her eyes. She was still coming to terms with what had just occurred, only understanding the gist of it after listening to Theodore's and Vigdis' exchange.

"For now, let's set up camp and sort through our gains. Once I've dealt with all of these notifications, there is one more place I'll have to check out before making any further plans. The instant when I needed to escape, coordinates near here appeared in my mind out of nowhere, so I'd like to check them out–but not without preparation, of course."

Although he was giving Xie Mei an encouraging smile, the look in his eyes was not completely relaxed yet. After all, there were far too many possible explanations regarding what had transpired earlier–only some of which would be beneficial to him.

"... alright, then focus on the Status Panel for now. We'll deal with the rest."

Understanding his worries a bit, Vigdis nodded, then she took the lead in clearing out an area for them and erecting their two tents. The other three were helping her as well, and after they were done, Li Shuying and Xie Mei began to cook a meal for their group. There were plenty of ingredients for them to work with within the Storage Ring.

Smiling a little at the delectable smell wafting in his direction, Theodore persisted in sorting through all of the notifications which had popped up. Due to having slain about half a million people, this was a lengthy process, despite every single window taking merely a singular thought to deal with.

Obviously, the overwhelming majority of all of them served to gift him Attribute Points, while only a few handsful provided him with Talents which he had not obtained yet. Unfortunately, none of them were noteworthy, with merely one being of Superior-grade.

However, on the other hand, his Attribute Point income was extremely great–22,524,483! Naturally, he added all of them to Endurance again, bringing it from 1,878,802 to 24,403,285! This was more or less around as much as a regular Initial Ascension Stage cultivator who had just entered its first realm would have. Even Named Family members at the 4th realm of the Soul Sculpting Stage would only have about this much.

Feeling his physical durability increase by more than ten times, the corners of his mouth rose with a hint of confidence. Although he had just been forced to flee, knowing that he was yet again one step closer to his goal of 400 billion Endurance was nonetheless a joyful experience. After all, the stronger that he got, the more quickly he would be able to gather Attribute Points.

'Still, I can't let this get to my head. I should exclusively target prefectural capitals for now. If I stock up on Array materials before starting the 'harvesting' every time, then I can quickly reap any and all cities which I come across. I'll flee as soon as a distress signal is triggered.'

Looking to the side and at the others, another thought came to his mind.

'While it will take me a significant amount of time to reach the limit that the prefectural capitals' Energy concentration can allow me to cultivate to, the three of them will eventually be held back. Heck, Vigdis already is. I'd best find them a provincial capital to settle down in. I'll use that as our base and simply teleport to my target prefectural capitals from there.'

If he obtained sufficiently sound information, it wouldn't be hard for him to get close enough to his goal to not have to worry about randomly appearing in a dangerous spot. Heck, at this point, even if he would arrive in objects or the ground, he wouldn't feel a thing.

'But first of all, I'll have to see what called me here.'

Walking over to the rest of the group and sitting down next to Xie Mei and Han Junqiao, who had prepared him a seat, he took a bite of the hearty meal which had just been made. He was deep in thought, yet excited about what was to come. Today's events–while partially a reminder to be cautious–also served to sever some of his restrictions. If the Hans already knew that the Heaven's Chosen were here, why would he need to restrain himself too much?

'To put it into that fossil's words: Imperial Han Family, you will rue this day–because you just accelerated your demise!'

Chuckling to himself, he finished his meal and rose to his feet, stretching comfortably. Everyone else–other than Li Shuying–had long since noticed the significant increase in their Endurance, so they knew that he was ready to leave.

"... be careful, husband. We'll wait here for you, alright?"

Grabbing his hand and plastering a quick peck on his lips, Xie Mei looked at him with strong worry written all over her face. Clearly, she had not yet recovered from the shock that was the sudden arrival of a powerful enemy–one which not even her thoughts would have been quick enough to keep up with.

"I'll be alright. See you later!"

Kissing both Xie Mei and Han Junqiao–who had been restraining herself as they were in public–in succession, Theodore waved at the four women. A thought later, he teleported to the exact coordinates which he had been given earlier, eager to find out what awaited him at his destination.