Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon grabbed two Returning Jade Stones and one pouch for the horns to be stored in.

"This is not what I have in mind when he said pouch."

The size was smaller than his thumb and it didn't have anything unusual on it. The red string on its neck was the only thing holding the content inside it.

"It will enlarge, big brother," said Zet with a chuckle.

"Lyon you will pay for what you did!" said Altre with his threatening tone.

"Ptui!" Felicia spat on the ground before both siblings crushed their respective returning jade stones.

The two of them took off and went into the sky. The two lights of jade were heading in the same direction.

"You are bold, perhaps too bold."

Lyon raised one of his eyebrows, "What? Who are you?"

"My name is Folcre, I will be the one winning this tournament," said Folcre.

"Then I will apologize in advance," said Lyon with his arms crossed, "You will have no chance."

"Heh, you are so full of yourself, mortal cultivator. But I'm not the kind of man that destroys one's dream. Keep dreaming, mortal cultivator. Though, I doubt that Godhood cultivation level is even worth a bat of my eye, hahaha!"

"Talk about ironic, huh. I'm so full of myself? Mind you, I don't even know what I will win when I rank first, I don't even care, the whole point of me partaking in this tournament was just because."

"Heh, I can see you are ignorant," said Folcre.

"Why are you even antagonizing me out of nowhere? I don't even know you," said Lyon as he shrugged his shoulder.

'He is being trained by Raul.'

His eyebrows slightly rose before he took a quick glance at Princess Hilde, whom the latter nodded.

"Raul, is this guy the result of your tutelage?" said Lyon as he smirked against the said man.

*Smack!

Princess Hilde palmed her face (What the hell is he thinking!).

"What? He is calling him without his honorific."

"That's a blatant offense."

"Do you think a mad man would care about honorific?"

The crowd shook their heads. There was only a handful of people that dared to call Raul without his honorific, namely his parents and fellow princes or princess. However, not even the commoner of Heaven cultivator dare to call him like that but now, a mortal cultivator did.

"How dare you call his name without his honorific?!" shouted Folcre.

Raul stepped forward as Hilde tightened her grasp on her spear.

"Don't do it, Raul!" warned Hilde as she quickly stood between them.

His glare was adamant and ferocious. "Stay out of this Hilde!"

"I will not, if you are going to pursue this matter, do it after the tournament, then I will not interfere," said Hilde with a hint of sweat on her temple.

Raul furrowed his eyebrows before his eyes softened a little as he saw the ominous golden spear. "Fine, I will take your word, Hilde."

"And you, I don't know how what Cecile sees in you, but, heh..." Raul smirked before he turned around and walked away.

"I want to know that answer as well, I guess I will wait for Cecile to come here," said Rupert.

"Tch!" Folcre scowled before he crushed his Returning Jade Stone and went away.

Porealus had a wry smile before he spoke, "Things aren't going smooth for you. big brother."

Lyon crossed his arms as he smirked, "This is fine."

He then approached the princess that had just made a sigh of relief. "Thank you once again, Princess Hilde."

"Not only do we have a nice lunch together, but you also protect me from those brutes, hahaha!"

Hilde opened her eyes wide.

"Lunch together?"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"W-Wait a minute, suddenly that explained her odd behavior."

"No way, no way!"

The princess could hear their chatters before she looked at Lyon with a glare.

"Okay," Lyon crushed the Returning Jade Stone, fearing the princess would claw his face.

"Ly—" she could only mutter half of his name before the latter pierced the sky.

"That's our cue," said Porealus before he crushed his own.

"It's just day one and he already had lunch with a princess, damn!" Zet laughed as he crushed his stone.

Ivy made no comment as she crushed her own.

Hilde's father, the king of Bolg Kingdom snorted. "That young man is quite a teaser."

The queen nodded, "I've never seen such a wild cultivator. His every move is folly but unpredictable. Then the matter with Hezar."

"Indeed, he showed up right beside him, I could have never foreseen that kind of move."

"Unpredictable, but not only that, his prowess showed that he could very well kill the infamous."

"However, it's not really the best choice, isn't it? If he has that kind of power, he could wait and just kill him when the moment was right. Now, Hezar will be more vigilant than ever."

"We still know as far as our daughter knows, so we don't have a say in the matter."

Hilde was flustered as she saw the crowd make their own speculations about their relationship. However, she knew it would be a futile attempt to straighten things out. In the end, she sighed before returning to her seat, at the side of her father.

She huffed as she saw the remaining contenders fly one by one under the jade light. However, her eyes turned sharp when she looked at Hezar.

The king, her father, suddenly said, "What's wrong, my dear."

"Nothing, father."

"I see," the father didn't pursue the matter. "Pala has grown exponentially these few years. They are active recruiting powerful heroes and heroines here and there."

"I know," said Hilde. "It's sad for me to say this but Gae Bolg won't be enough to contend with them."

"The unbalance will bring trouble sooner or later," muttered the king.

---

A jade light came crashing down in the middle of an untouched luscious forest where trees had grown exponentially large.

"Well," said Lyon as he arrived at the site. "The air is definitely nice here."

He raised one of his eyebrows as he felt the glare of an unknown being hidden behind the bushes nearby.