Xia Fei turned around and saw Bai Ye and Li Mo approaching from a distance. Bai Ye’s gaze at Xia Fei was full of hatred. He had started treating him as his mortal enemy ever since he claimed that Moon Song was his, so Bai Ye was hoping that his elder cousin would make Xia Fei suffer by using his extraordinary background.
The truth was, Xia Fei did not have any feelings for Moon Song. The two were close friends at most. He had only said it to provoke Bai Ye. The angrier Bai Ye was, the happier Xia Fei felt.
“Are you two my enemies, too?” asked Constantine coldly.
“Enemies? You are not worthy to be my enemy,” said Li Mo disdainfully.
The first button on Constantine’s white shirt suddenly burst open, revealing a huge crimson-red birthmark on his neck as if it was covered in fresh blood. It was quite scary to look at. No wonder he was dressed like this on such a hot day. He was trying to cover his defects.
Constantine seemed very angry. His pale face had darkened slightly. He felt greatly humiliated by Li Mo’s disdainful attitude. Avril subconsciously screamed when she saw the terrifying birthmark on Constantine’s neck, placing her hands on her chest.
Constantine glared at Li Mo and Bai Ye before smiling at Avril. “Dear lady, the defects of my body don’t affect my soul as a warrior. I’m willing to die for you at any second without the slightest complaint.”
“Dying for a woman? Bai Ye, did you hear him? Another clueless idiot.” Li Mo scoffed. “A wise man will use his power and capabilities to claim everything he seeks. Only idiots will behave recklessly for a woman.”
Li Mo was not done yet. He added, “I’m sorry; I forgot that you both are suffering from poverty. You can’t offer anything else apart from your lives.”
Bai Ye and Li Mo burst out laughing. Blue veins surfaced on Constantine’s forehead as he snarled, “You dared to humiliate me and the woman I love. I shall sacrifice your fresh blood to the omnipotent Dietrich. I now challenge you to a duel.”
Constantine rolled up his sleeves. His arms were covered in the shocking birthmarks, too. Many people were born with birthmarks, yet it was unusual for anyone to be fully covered in blood-red birthmarks like Constantine.
“A duel?” Li Mo wore a disdainful grin. “Are you from a primitive society? We are at the capital planet, a place with laws. It’s not the mountain you came from. Besides, how many rounds do you think you can last with your feeble appearance?”
Constantine was skinny, and his appearance was a little gloomy, too, yet he had a rare temperament. He had a strong lust for battle like a ferocious beast that lusted for blood.
A fierce, murderous aura burst forth from Constantine’s body and surged rapidly across the place. He revealed a pair of bloodshot eyes after taking off his glasses while his long hair drifted wildly in the wind.
“Come at me!” Constatine yelled.
Li Mo was shocked, yet he retained his disdainful grin while waving his hand. “He’s really a savage. You asked for it.”
Following it, a huge web with blue lightning flickers descended from the sky and encapsulated Constantine. A few plain-clothed officers suddenly showed up from both sides and pinned the young man to the ground.
Constantine let out a fierce growl while glaring at Li Mo. His muscles were twitching. The lightning web was inflicting great pain on him, yet he managed to stay conscious with his outstanding determination, which was a clear indication of his unyielding spirit.
The officers had no choice but to increase the voltage. It took them great effort to subdue the man. They summoned a hovercar, threw Constantine into it, and left.
They were currently at the venue of the Golden Finger Cup. The place was extremely crowded, so there were quite a few officers nearby who kept the place under control. The police had arrested Constantine for obstructing law and order when he was just about to go berserk.
Xia Fei was bored. He headed to the exit with Avril. Li Mo harrumphed coldly and went in the opposite direction with Bai Ye.
…
Xia Fei was intrigued by Constantine after the farce in the morning. The man behaved like a medieval knight. He wondered where the man had come from to acquire such strange behaviors.
They ate at a restaurant before going back to his living quarters. Avril had diligently cheered for Xia Fei the entire morning; thus, she was feeling a little tired. She decided to take a nap during the resting period at noon.
Xia Fei turned on the microcomputer and searched Constantine’s name.
A few results soon appeared on the screen. However, the interplanetary internet did not have much information about the man. Most of them had only appeared recently. It seemed that the man had kept a low profile and had not become known to anyone until recently.
Xia Fei leaned against the chair with his legs crossed. He was thinking of smoking a cigarette but decided against it when he saw Avril curling up on his bed in a deep sleep like a kitten.
“I didn’t expect Constantine to be a prince. I thought he’s an otaku judging from his unkempt appearance,” Xia Fei said.
Phantom nodded. “Yeah, he has a delicate appearance, yet one should never judge a book by its cover. It’s better not to underestimate him.”
“The Blood Candle Kingdom, the name sounds a little familiar,” Phantom murmured. “Xia Fei, why don’t you look for information about the Blood Candle Kingdom? I recall it being an unusual place, but I can’t remember the details.”
Xia Fei inputted the name Blood Candle Kingdom and clicked search. There were not many results about the territory too, only a few hundred pages in total. It was surprisingly little for a sovereign territory.
Xia Fei and Phantom read the information carefully, and a cursed kingdom gradually appeared formed in Xia Fei’s mind as he kept reading.
The location of the Blood Candle Kingdom was not unfamiliar to Xia Fei. It was at the boundary of the Death Trio Star Region. Xia Fei had only been to the Black Abyss out of those three regions and had not visited Terminus or Evil Gulfstream, so he was clueless about the existence of the Blood Candle Kingdom, which was located in the Terminus Star Region.
To be precise, the three planets under the rule of the Blood Candle Kingdom did not belong to the Death Trio Star Region, since it was at least two warps away from the closest Terminus, around twenty thousand lightyears away.
Twenty thousand lightyears was not a huge distance in the massive universe. The problem was, the distance of two warps was only valid when measured in a straight line, but there was a meteor field between Terminus Star Region and the Blood Candle Kingdom. Dazzling meteors were constantly sweeping past the pitch-black sky like a highway with endless traffic at night.
Even the strongest warship could not withstand the blow of a meteor, so those from the Blood Candle Kingdom would have to travel around forty thousand light years to avoid the meteor field. The inconvenient location of that kingdom was the reason the place was unheard of to many people.
There was once a period in the past when ancient humans had agreed to abolishing the death sentence at the request of many humanitarians who claimed that all lives were equal, but the number of crimes did not drop after the abolishment of the death sentence and kept rising, instead.
As such, the ancient humans came up with a way to deal with those criminals: exile.
Rumors claimed that the Blood Candle Kingdom was the place where the criminals had been banished to in the ancient times. Thousands of criminals were sent to the Blood Candle Kingdom on armed warships, then they simply left these defenseless criminals on the deserted planet without caring about their well-being.
Humans had always had a strong will to survive. The toughest people among the criminals managed to survive with nothing. They even established their territory: the Blood Candle Kingdom.
Xia Fei smiled after reading about the origin of the kingdom. “I was wondering why Constantine behaves so strangely. He’s a thug in nature despite his gentle appearance. Turns out that his ancestors used to be the toughest of crooks, or else they wouldn’t be ruling over a country fully consisted of criminals.”
Phantom said, “Exactly, that Constatine greeted Avril by adhering to ancient etiquettes and speaking in a genteel manner, but he still has the blood of thugs flowing in him. Everything he did was just a cover-up.”
Xia Fei nodded. He kept reading the information. The Blood Candle Kingdom was also known as the cursed kingdom. The newborns in the kingdom only had a survival rate of fifty percent. Even those who lived would have some kind of defects. The minor ones included scars or missing segments of body parts, while the serious kinds included being blind, deaf, and mental disorders. There had never been any exceptions.
The rumors on the interplanetary internet suggested that the Blood Candle Kingdom had such a cruel fate because their ancestors were murderers, so the future generations must pay for the sins which their ancestors had committed. Others said that the terrible geographical conditions of the kingdom were the cause of the defects.
Some even claimed the people of that kingdom were fierce in nature and their physical attributes had a greater chance of activating the seventh brain region, so their goddess Dietrich would take away a part of their health to be fair.
Either way, there were all kinds of rumors about the Blood Candle Kingdom. It would make for a poorly designed myth if they were all combined together. However, it was true that the people of that kingdom were tougher and stronger. Apparently, it was rare for a person from that kingdom not to awaken the seventh brain region. It was also unlikely for them to acquire ability related mathematics and geometry. Almost ninety-nine percent of them ended up with combat abilities, and their average strength was unusually high, too.
The people of that kingdom would develop the seventh brain region before the age of five on average, reaching primary Star Domain rank upon stepping into adulthood, and the intermediate Star River rank around the age of thirty.
These were only the average level of their cultivation, yet a warrior with such achievements was considered a miracle in the Alliance.
However, the people of the Blood Candle Kingdom had extremely short lifespans. Their average lifespan was only thirty-five years, so there was never a super high level warrior from that kingdom.
It was soon time for the afternoon’s event. Xia Fei had to turn off the screen even though he was interested in reading more about the Blood Candle Kingdom. It was like an interesting book that he was unwilling to put down.
“It’s a very interesting place; I shall continue the read tonight.” Xia Fei smiled.
Phantom said after some thoughts. “I wonder what happened to Constantine after the officers took him away?”
Xia Fei said, “He’s going to be fine. After all, he’s still a prince. He’s considered a noble in the Alliance. The police will release him once they learn his identity. Besides, no one will want to mess with the Blood Candle Kingdom if they know how fierce its people are.”
Phantom nodded in silence. The timer on Avril’s wrist started beeping. She had set an alarm beforehand just so she would not miss Xia Fei’s event.
Avril panically woke up and looked for her shoes on the ground, murmuring, “It’s almost time for the event. I must go now.”
Xia Fei hugged her and said with a smile. “No hurry; there’s still time left. You can sleep a bit longer if you are tired.”
There was no way that Avril would go back to sleep. She put on her shoes and went to the bathroom to wash her face before dragging Xia Fei out of the room. Pang Xing and a few bodyguards were waiting outside. They let out a relieved sigh when they saw Xia Fei and Avril. They could not help but have wild and fancy thoughts when a man and a woman were alone in the room. Luckily, Pang Xing was constantly eavesdropping on them to check what they were doing. He believed that it was necessary to talk to Xia Fei about it. He must not let Xia Fei ruin Avril’s reputation.
The event in the afternoon was at the same venue. Xia Fei, who was already familiar with the directions, walked to the venue with Avril. They heard a familiar voice before entering the place.
“Dear lady, I’ve fallen in love with you at first sight. Please accept my deep affection; I’m willing to sacrifice my short life for you.”
Xia Fei and Avril looked in the direction of the voice. The person speaking was none other than Prince Constantine. He was currently pulling the sleeve of a plump, fair-skinned young lady while confessing to her.
Xia Fei was quite speechless. He did not expect Prince Constantine to be that kind of a person. Xia Fei looked at Avril, who was looking back at him. They both covered their mouth and giggled.
The young woman was horrified. She kept pulling the hand of the middle-aged man beside her while trying to avoid Constantine.
The middle-aged man was enraged. He shoved Constantine away and yelled, “Piss off, you lunatic!”
Constantine snarled, “How dare you ask me to piss off! You have humiliated me. The sacred goddess Dietrich has told us that we can only wash our disgrace with fresh blood. Fine, I’m challenging you to a duel of life and death!”
Constantine entered his battle stance while unleashing his aura thoroughly. The man did not learn from his mistake at all as if he had forgotten that he was currently in the capital with tight security. Anyone who used violence would be invited to enjoy some tea at the police station.
The middle-aged man and the young woman were only ordinary people. They were intimidated by Constantine’s aura. The man kept backing away and the young woman was terrified. She hugged the middle-aged man’s waist and cried, “Father, let’s go; I don’t want to watch the tournament anymore.”
The crowd was displeased by Constantine’s actions. Not only was he trying to steal someone’s daughter, he even threatened to beat the father up. It was totally unacceptable.
Constantine did not expect the two to be father and daughter. The girl was more mature than her actual age, so he assumed that they were a couple. The truth was, even if they were a couple, Constantine had no right to intervene with their relationship, either. He was acting no different from a thug.
Constantine immediately wore a smile and reached his hand out. “Sir, please forgive me; I mean no harm. I was deeply attracted to your daughter. I just want to date her. Please give me the permission to do so.”
Constantine bent forward and bowed at the middle-aged man sincerely.
Unfortunately, the man was already cursing Constantine multiple times in his heart. He strongly despised Constantine for his unreasonable behavior. No father would want a misbehaving son-in-law like Constantine. That being said, they simply had no idea about Constantine’s identity. If his forehead was written with the word prince, it would attract many covetous young women and fathers.
“Lunatic, you are out of your mind!” The middle-aged man stomped on the ground and left with his daughter. He was cursing Constantine under his breath as he left.
Constantine was overwhelmed by grief. He stood still with a blank face, staring at the woman as she disappeared into the distance, as if he was struggling to accept the outcome.
Xia Fei started clapping and said with a smile, “Prince Constantine, you should pursue further studies in a drama school. Why do you bother taking part in a machinery tournament? You can easily entertain thousands of spectators with your talents.”
Constantine raised his finger and asked Xia Fei to be quiet with a gesture. He quickly looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to them.
“How did you know my identity?” Constantine asked nervously.
Xia Fei smiled. “There’s a thing called the interplanetary internet in this world. I believe the Blood Candle Kingdom has it, too.”
Constantine twisted his lips and said, “Hmph, we can only connect to the interplanetary internet once every few years. That shitty thing is as good as nonexistent.”
Avril felt a little awkward. After all, the interplanetary internet was her family’s product. She would definitely feel ashamed if someone was talking bad about it. Pang Xing was frowning too as he was displeased with the remark.
It was extremely difficult to extend the coverage of the interplanetary internet to the Death Trio Star Region, let alone the Blood Candle Kingdom. They had to overcome so many obstacles just to implement it, so the interplanetary internet in the Blood Candle Kingdom was merely a decoration.
Constantine glanced at the young woman and said discontentedly with a heavy sigh, “My beloved woman has left me once again. It seems that I’m doomed to be alone for my life.”
Xia Fei almost burst out laughing. It would be weird if a woman did not feel awkward when a stranger they had met for the first time confessed to them.
Xia Fei said after a brief ponder, “I know what you’re thinking, but I think you’ve neglected other people’s feelings. It might be why those women didn’t fancy you back.”
Constantine was very confused. Xia Fei said, “Let me tell you a story.
“Once, there’s a gentleman who fell in love with a lady. He boldly went to the lady’s house and confessed to her. The lady was very beautiful, like a lotus rising from the water. She stood on the balcony and said, ‘Sir, if you are willing to wait in front of my house for a hundred days, I promise to marry you.’
“The gentleman was very emotional and a man of his word; he stood in front of the woman’s house and waited. It began to rain. The woman looked outside the window and saw the gentleman standing there under the heavy rain. When the sun was out, the man stood under it and was soaked in sweat.
“Time gradually passed. The gentleman stuck to his promise and waited in front of the lady’s place. The lady would lean against the window and observe her admirer. She thought proudly, ‘The gentleman is being so kind to me. If he really waits a hundred days for me regardless of the weather conditions, I shall marry him.’
“The lady eventually fell in love with the unyielding gentleman. She couldn’t help but imagine the time the two would spend after a hundred days. The ninety-ninth day arrived within the blink of an eye. The lady looked at the gentleman under the moonlight with great anticipation before going to bed.
“On the hundredth morning, the day which the lady made a deal with the gentleman, the lady rushed out of her balcony excitedly. She was joyful and embarrassed. The two of them could finally be together after a hundred days.
” However, she was shocked when she noticed the gentleman who had been waiting for her despite the wind and the rain was, leaving only a letter behind.”
“Why? They were about to live happily ever after. Why did the man leave after ninety-nine days? Why didn’t he wait for another day? He would succeed if he waited for one more day,” Avril kept asking as she was completely engrossed by the story.
