Chapter 655: Long Haochen’s choice (III)
“For the sake of reaching the ninth step as early as possible to take Fulo as my wife, as well as to bring an even greater honor and glory to the empire, I took this training trip. But never did I expect that because of the great gains in this trip, the incoming period of my life would become a total nightmare.”
At this point, Elux’s face became gradually more and more sinister, filled with anger. Alongside his fury, his intense soul fluctuations caused repeated shakes of the Tower of Eternity.
“After leaving the empire, I roamed through the whole continent. With my cultivation reaching the eighth step, I encountered almost no challenges.
“During two whole years, I wandered through almost all cities of the three great empires, discovering all the local conditions and customs and experiencing the joys and the sorrows of the world. The scope of my world and my cultivation all made considerable progress. And, maybe because I was the one chosen by the Goddess of Light, I had a lot of happy encounters in these two years, and acquired a martial technique of incredible might.
“When I returned to the empire, my cultivation had already reached the peak of the eighth step. Upon seeing Fulo again, I couldn’t help but take her in my arms while sobbing from extreme joy. I could feel that I was nearing the edge of the ninth step, only at one step from breaking through, and believed that I would be able to marry my most beloved Fulo in the near future, as well as to inevitably become the future greatest powerhouse of the empire.
“At that time, I had almost no notion of schemes, and told Fulo about all my various adventures during these two years of training, to share the feelings I had during these moving encounters with her. However, something slightly displeasing happened to me later: the son of the Supreme Pontiff unexpectedly joined the Imperial Magic Academy to study. At that time, I found it very strange: why he would come there? Compared to our Pombo Empire, the Glorious Church should have reached even deeper levels of magic researches, so he had no need at all to come here to pursue his studies!
“However, I didn’t give it much thought because of my joy from being on the verge of marrying Fulo. After I told Fulo everything about my trip, she held a great interest toward that martial technique I gained in my encounters, hoping that I could hand it over for her to learn, but I rejected her. That martial technique was certainly miraculous, but it could by no means be learned or used, because it came at a too great cost, and I feared she would get wounded in the process.
“Do you know what kind of martial technique that was? Even now, I still find it to be really miraculous. Although it was just a move, it required a perfect harmonization with the owner’s soul to be executed. It seemed to come from an ancient tribe from another world. A type of Martial Soul Technique, this technique had a very strange name: it was called Tortoiseshell Technique.
“When I had just obtained it, I still took it to be just a defensive martial art, but after deep researches, I found out that it had almost no relations with defense, but was an ability of prediction. Back then, the Glorious Church was the only other entity in the whole continent to have a prophet. I also have some understanding of it: all they can predict is the future. As for that martial technique, its use would execute a kind of divination, with a really overbearing aspect: its unconditionality. Launching the Tortoiseshell Technique would act on all living creatures in its scope, the user being no exception. And even if a god is in the area of effect, he will have no immunity either, being just as affected by its absolute control. It’s such a fearful technique! But at the same time, as it has absolute effects, it brings certain danger. This technique has a great indeterminacy: after using it, the user will have no control over its effects. In other words, the effects may be positive just as they may be negative. But no matter what, the user will have to bear some burden, so using it could very possibly offer the user as a sacrifice for the Tortoiseshell technique after a few uses if they are unlucky. How could I be willing to learn such a martial technique? Or even give it to Fulo?”
At this point, Elux had an extremely bitter look, “But Fulo didn’t understand my painstaking effort. She thought I wanted to keep it for myself, and thus refused to transmit it to another. Its absolute effects and efficiency against even a god was just too alluring, making her completely unable to treat it lightly. Why didn’t she consider that if I really wanted to keep it for myself, then I’d simply not tell her about it.
“At first, I was thinking that she was just temporarily letting her emotions affect her decisions and didn’t think about it too much: it would likely calm down after two days. As expected, when I went to look for her two days later, she seemed to have entirely recovered, only looking as though she still had some worries. But her attitude to me was the same as before, and the matter of that day was not mentioned again. Never did I expect her to be such a snake-hearted girl, who had already executed her schemes against me.”
Elux gritted his teeth as his whole body shook, clearly because the experience he had at that time was simply far too painful.
“Then on a bright day with good weather, with the blue sky stretching continuously over the horizon, and the sunshine was especially abundant… The intense light essence brought an indescribable sense of harmony to me as the Scion of Light: this sunshine was really ideal. Fulo had invited me to go for an outing, to which I naturally agreed gladly, and even told her that I would seclude myself to aim for the ninth step after that excursion, to ask His Majesty for her hand after I succeed in accomplishing this breakthrough. At that time, I believed His Majesty would at least offer me the level of nobility of a viscount, as well as a title of court mage.
“We exited the empire, to head for the outskirts, and right when we were out for a scenic tour, I suddenly discovered that we were surrounded, a large amount of black-clad men sealing off every one of our routes of escape. These people were masked head-to-toe, making not even the slightest shred of their skins visible. Upon appearance, they launched a frantic attack at us. At that time, Fulo was in a daze, seemingly having even forgotten about the use of magic despite her cultivation reaching the eighth step. As a man, protecting my own woman seemed like common sense in my eyes, especially with how conceited I was at that time. Relying on my cultivation reaching the peak of the eighth step, I made use of the various magics I had researched painstakingly.”
“Those black clad men were extremely strong, but a lot of them were killed at my hands.
“However, they were only growing more and more numerous, each of them reaching at least the seventh step. I found it very strange at that time: if this many powerhouses from the other two great empires were really infiltrated, how could the powerhouses from our empire disregard them to such an extent? If this kept up, I was afraid Fulo and I wouldn’t ever get away, so I made the prompt decision of bringing out Fulo to immediately break out from the siege.
“At this time, Fulo seemed to have recovered her senses, immediately using various summoning spells to assist me, and we rode her summoned beast to flee back to the empire.
“As we thought the enemies would already no longer catch up to us, we rushed out at full speed, and the distant walls of the empire even came into sight. But suddenly, a slight chill permeated in my heart, and when I lowered my head, I found a pitch-black dagger piercing deeply through my chest, its handle being held in Fulo’s hand.”
At this point, Long Haochen and Cai’er couldn’t help but cry out in alarm. Never did they expect this princess Fulo to actually betray Elux: they were lovers who had sworn the pledge of eternal love!
“At that instant, her look was completely filled with malevolence.” Deep tears of sadness flowed out from Elux’s eyes, “She even murmured, ‘Why, just why didn’t you hand the Tortoiseshell over to me? Why? I hadn’t planned to go so far at first.’
“My heart was in pain, even more in pain than my wound. My cold chest gradually got numbed, and I could feel my vital force gush out through that dagger. Even at that time, I was still unable to believe that my beloved Fulo was the culprit of that act against me. I just loved her that much! For the sake of marrying her, I trained night and day. All for the sake of sharing happiness alongside her in the future. But she stabbed a dagger full of poison in my left chest, aimed at the spot which should correspond with an ordinary person’s heart. This stab inflicted complete despair in me. She should have been clearly aware that I had no suspicions at all toward her, and moreover, her stab was timed the instant my vigilance was the most loose.
“This instant, even more black clad men came from in front of us. They seemed to have been lying in wait since long ago, and expected all of this to happen long since. The previous ambush was just a start, but Fulo’s stab was the true critical point in the move against me.
“A familiar-sounding cold voice spread; that man told Fulo: ‘Kill him.’
“That instant, I finally came to a realization. The desire for survival caused me to push Fulo away, jumping off from her mount. That instant, Fulo seemed quite in a daze, seemingly having had a change of heart due to this stab, which stopped her from immediately finishing me off. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I took out a scroll, which was forged by a great master for me, and used that Escape Scroll, teleporting me instantly six kilometers away. They clearly didn’t expect me to have such a thing in store, which is how I managed to get away. The instant the Escape Scroll took effect, I still remember clearly that the sobered Fulo hastily commanded her summoned beast to attack me. That instant, her eyes were only filled with cold killing intent, without any of the former tender sentiments.”
Long Haochen and Cai’er were already completely immersed in Elux’s story, to the extent of forgetting the whole situation they were in. Perceiving the deep sadness coming out from Elux, they were totally able to imagine the kind of feelings he had back at that time.
For a moment, the two of them were completely speechless. So there was after all a basis for the Scion of Light’s betrayals to his duties! He was in the end betrayed, but how could that mere fact cause him to become the Slumbering Calamity?
