Chapter 66
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.
“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?”