Eleanor and the two kids were shocked silly by what happened. One moment, they were about to be ‘eaten’. But then, a person came flying out of nowhere, destroyed the formation and killed Prince Robert and Ronald.
It was nothing but a miracle for them.
“Um…hello!” Anna seemed to tremble as she greeted Wang Hao. Even though she was scared from an ominous aura that emanated from him, she tried her best to thank him. “Tha…th..thank you!” She and George bowed their heads towards Wang Hao.
Eleanor observed the man in front of her. He seemed to be around the same age as her. Even though he was fat, it can be seen that he had a handsome face. She also noticed that he had been wearing the Outer Disciple Robe of the Immortal God Sect.
“Many thanks, Sir?”
“It’s Wang Hao.”
“Well then Sir Wang Hao, we three are very grateful for you help.” Eleanor also bowed, and her dress slackened slightly, allowing Wang Hao a view of Eleanor’s snow bunnies. He swallowed as he looked away awkwardly.
“Aren’t you three suspicious of me? I just appeared here you know. And yet, you seem to be ok with me….”
“You do not need to worry about that.” Eleanor let out a dazzling smile. This smile dazed Wang Hao for a while. He shook his head as Eleanor continued speaking.
“When I was born, I was born with an ability to sense people’s emotions. Like an empath.” Eleanor looked sad as she continued.
“With this ability, I can roughly sense the emotions of anyone as long as they are within 5 meters around me. So, I can sense that you have no bad intent against us. I can only sense curiosity and…..” She blushed as she stopped her analysis.
She then took a deep breath as she said, ‘But this ability had its downside too. I had no ability to cultivate at all.”
“From what I see, you must come from a rich family. They did not do anything to help you?” Wang Hao was surprised from hearing this from Eleanor. From what he can see, she had clearly grown up inside a powerful family. Her elegance and poise even in this situation proves that.
“I have tried everything, but it seems like all the emotions of I have been sensing interferes with my sensing of the mortal qi. That is why I am not yet even at the Body Refinement Stage.” Eleanor looked frustrated as she pounded the ground.
“If I have been stronger, all of this could not have happened!” Suddenly, Eleanor paled as she remembered something she forgot to tell Wang Hao earlier.
“Sir Wang Hao, the mustached man earlier, he is still alive right?”
“Do not call me Sir, just call me Wang Hao.” Wang Hao then cupped his double chin as he pondered on what Eleanor asked. “Yeah, he is still alive. He ran away after seeing what happened.”
Eleanor looked aghast at Wang Hao’s confirmation. “That man was the guardian of Prince Robert! I am sure that he remembered how you look! You will be a wanted man for killing two of the Princes of the Tian Ji Empire!”
“Wait, these lumps of flesh are Princes of the Tian Ji Empire?” Wang Hao prodded one of the reddish-brown lump. It let out a ‘squelch’ sound. Eleanor winced as she heard this. “Then you three, are you related to the Empire too?”
“Yes, I am Princess Eleanor.” Eleanor stood up as she curtsied herself. “These two kids are Princess Anna and Prince George.” The two also curtsied in response. “You can say, that we are in a serious family conflict now….”
“Family conflict?” But before Wang Hao could inquire for more information, Eleanor hurriedly said, “Wang Hao, you must escape now! I am sure that the guardian have seen your Outer Disciple Robes. Coupled with your face and body, they can easily know your identity! You will be easily caught!”
“Oh cr*p!” Wang Hao cursed inwardly. He just arrived here, and yet he already stirred some trouble!
“In that case, I am just going to revert back to my original appearance.” White smoke rose out of his body as Wang Hao used the heat energy he stored to melt the fat that he had built up. The fat sizzled out of his skin as it let out a fragrant smell.
Anna and George uncontrollably gulped as Wang Hao started to smell like a roasted pig. But they stopped themselves from drooling, since they knew the smell was coming from Wang Hao.
After 5 minutes, when all the fat disappeared, the original Wang Hao made his appearance again.
This time, it was Eleanor who gulped audibly.
She saw Wang Hao’s handsome face that seemed incomparable to anyone she saw. The moonlight that landed on his face further amplified his features. She saw the contours of his perfect muscles from the wet robe that stuck to him.
“Um….” Eleanor found it hard to say a word upon seeing Wang Hao visibly transform.
“Oh, this is my original appearance!” Wang Hao knew that if he was going to be wanted, he had to forgo his Fatty persona. Only those who were close to him knew his original appearance. They surely will not arrest him. As for the three in front of him, they clearly have their own problems to deal with.
“Big Brother is so handsome!” Anna clapped her hands as she found Wang Hao now much better-looking. “Are you going to join us?”
“Anna!” Eleanor rebuked her sister as she looked towards Wang Hao apologetically. “I am sorry for my sister. We are just…. tired.”
“Can you tell me what happened with you three? Now that I accidentally killed these two, I am already implicated. Knowing everything now might be a great help to me.”
Eleanor then told Wang Hao everything he needed to know about the Tian Ji Royal Family.
The Tian Ji Royal Family cannot be really considered as one family. It was composed of 8 families tied together by blood ties and cooperation. The possible Emperor and Empress will come from any of these families.
The families’ names were the following:
Fireblood Family
Watercloud Family
Earthcore Family
Leafblade Family
Goldscar Family
Windhowl Family
Iceheart Family
Skydome Family
Each of these families practice Immortal Cultivation in accordance to their name. Those at the Watercloud family practice the ‘Dao’ related to water, and so on and so forth.
Each of these families control 1/8th of the territory of the Tian Ji Empire. The patriarchs of each family are the eligible candidates for the Emperor and Empress of the Tian Ji Empire. Once the current Emperor abdicates or dies, the Eight Patriarchs will then try to gain the favor of the Tian Ji Divine Spear.
The Tian Ji Divine Spear was the sacred artifact of the Tian Ji Empire. It was said that when a half-step Sixth Stage Cultivator attacked the Tian Ji Empire, the Tian Ji Divine Spear let out a brilliant light as it slashed toward the attacking invader.
The incredibly powerful half-step Sixth Stage Cultivator died with just a slash of the Divine Spear. This solidified the position of the Tian Ji Empire as one of the Three Empires.
But the Divine Spear does not only do that. The spear is also vital on the position on the next Emperor.
The spear itself has been embedded with eight Dvine Marks. Each of the patriarch of the 8 families has been bestowed with control of one Divine Mark.
In order to be recognized by the Divine Spear, a patriarch must gain control of all 8 Divine Marks. Once the winner gets all the marks, the Divine Spear will be under his/her control. This symbolical and literal acceptance of the spear will make the winner the Emperor.
With the Divine Spear under the Emperor’s control, his/her decisions will be followed by all the citizens of the Empire. This of course is a great temptation to each of the 8 families.
So, each time the current Emperor leaves their position, the Divine Marks will return to each family. This will then start the struggle to gain the other Divine Marks.
“Isn’t that going to be a bloody struggle?” Wang Hao knew that the temptation of power will be great to anyone who has the chance to acquire it. Moral and ethics can be thrown out of the window in face of unshakeable might.
“The Eight Families thought so too.” Eleanor replied. “That’s why they decided that instead of the families waging wars against each other, it will be only decided by a competition.”
“What competition? That competition better be good.”
“Well the competition will be a fight of the younger generation. They will choose the most powerful practitioner of the young generation for each family. They will then be given the control of the Divine Mark.”
“Wait, the Patriarch’s are not the one fighting?”
“Of course not! They are the foundation of each family, so it will be very difficult if they died. So they decided to put the matters on the shoulders of the younger generation.”
“So, what will the competition be like?”
‘Once the representatives had been chosen, each representative will choose 11 followers to join them. That accounts for 96 in total. They will then be transported into a hidden realm controlled by the Tian Ji Empire.”
“A hidden realm huh? This Empire is really powerful.”
Hidden realms are places that are hidden spatially and temporally. Discovering them is difficult, but once it was controlled, the benefits inside could be easily monopolized.
“So inside this realm, the goal of each representative was to gain all the 8 Divine Marks. They can do anything inside the realm to gain each Divine Mark. The selection will end once someone with the 8 Divine Marks exits the hidden realm.”
“Hmm… that will be really bloody.”
“The Divine Marks will then be given to the Patriarch of the representative’s family. The patriarch will then approach the Divine Spear to offer the Divine Marks .The Divine Spear will detect it, and that Patriarch will be the new Emperor.”
“That’s really neat” Wang Hao praised as he heard this. “So, was that related to what was happening to you three right now?”
“We actually do not know.” Eleanor replied. “The current Emperor has no reason to lose his position yet. But suddenly, our Watercloud Family had been attacked this morning.” She bit her lips, trying to suppress her tears.
“Of course, the Watercloud family was able to to repel that attack. But my father, who was the brother of our patriarch, was killed. That includes our mother too.” Eleanor then gritted her teeth in anger.
“But what made me really angry was that during the time of the attack, me and my siblings were wandering outside. We only heard the news of the attack from a divine sense message that our parents sent to us before they died. Our family did not even bother to help us! If not for our parent’s warning, we could have been dead now!”
Wang Hao looked towards the raging Eleanor and the sad kids. He then asked with a businessman-like voice,
“So do you want to join me in my dragon-slaying quest?”
