《Refining the Heavens》B3, Chapter 86: Assassins (Part 1)
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The gates open with a smooth, oiled sliding and they rode through a huge courtyard. One that could allow a large army to gather. They head towards the main building — the very same that looked like a summer palace from far.
At close-up, it was even more beautiful, splashed with vibrant aquamarine and gold, yet it turns out elegant and majestic.
Besides the largest compound where Vouno is staying, there are also many smaller buildings, each supplemented with a tall tower. They serve as the guild quarters as well as to function as a gigantic array.
In their initial building plans, they wanted to set up the Starfire array using these towers for the expansion, but Kairos didn’t expect his father to carry it out so quickly.
As long as they connect the formation points with beast blood and place proper energy sources in each tower, a powerful runic defence will activate when needed.
Vouno looked at him smiling, and he returned with a nod. It was perfectly made!
The Snowdrifts can move into his manor… castle… anytime now. Although, because most of the members were students of the academy, only his fifteen disciples are running the place.
Nevertheless, he wasn’t open to recruiting people that he had not met and work with. He may open up the guild to invite all kinds of people in the school, but it was because they are within eyeshot and he could easily filter out the snakes from the rest.
Other than confirming that the defensive array was properly set up, Kairos had another reason for coming home. He went directly into the training chambers, much to Vouno’s surprise.
“Cultivating the moment you come home?”
His father thought that he would be exploring the place a little, but in fact, he had underestimated the Soul Perception ability his son.
Most Soul Perception could not cover such a wide area, but Kairos simply stretched it as long as he could in a straight line, then quickly turn it in a circle like the needles of a clock and the map of the entire place appeared in his mind.
After a short hour, Kairos stepped out of the chambers and excitedly asked his father to give it a try.
“You’ll be surprised. Hehe!”
Vouno looked at his son with a raised eyebrow, then stepped through the door.
The moment he entered, it was as though he had gone to another world. The Heavenly Energies in this place was extremely pure, as though there was no need for him to refine it, and more important, it was ten times thicker than outside!
At the corner of the cultivation room, he saw eight different runes, they are colour coded and each with a place to put spirit stone.
Without hesitating, he placed a spirit stone into one of the slots, and immediately a strong, fiery element flooded the room.
“T…this energy! I don’t have to destroy artefacts to absorb their energies anymore?”
Unlike Kairos and the others, Vouno does not need to resist the powerful raw attributes with his flesh, since he could directly absorb them anyway.
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But with such purity, it would be far more effective than his previous training methods.
Laughing loudly, he ran back out of the room and grasped Kairos’ shoulders with both his hands, “My son, thank you! Your father is blessed by the heavens to have you. You little brat! WAHAHAHA!”
Kairos’ mouth twitched, then he said, “There’s no need to say thanks, dad.”
Before his father, he can remain as a child and even if he doesn’t want to think so, Vouno would continue to see him as one.
“Well, if you had upgraded these chambers earlier, then we could’ve saved some treasures,” his father frowned, then summoned a heap of broken artefacts, so many that they reached the ceiling.
“Dad!!! You had been taking all the gifts that others sent, haven’t you?!”
He rolled his eyes. It was no wonder his father could reach Mid C rank in such a short time. Vouno did not lack treasures, cultivation pills, spirit stones, and a powerful cultivation method. Not only so, he did not need to take any classes, so he spent all his time in the cultivation chambers.
Even if his training talent was poorer than Kairos’, his speed is still somewhat faster.
Besides the exhausted artefacts, Kairos noticed that his father had purchased quite a fair bit of things in the home. Most of them looked precious, but with a scan of his Veritable sight, he recognised that they were all show. None of them had a strand of spiritual energy.
When a person suddenly becomes rich, they might behave like Kairos, to use the funds they never had and build the future.
Or… get scammed into purchasing useless stuff like Kairos’ father.
The young Earl rolled his eyes and said, “Aunt Xuan Xian would be able to help with the house’s finances,” then like an afterthought he added, “Let’s get Ling’er and Relestia over too!”
“Aha!! Getting Relestia to move in… that’s your motive eh? As expected of my son, you have a bright future. BWAHAHAHAHA!”
Kairos blushed and didn’t continue the conversation. It is a guaranteed defeat no matter what he said next.
A little while later, after resting up and having a scrumptious dinner, Kairos went through the secret door hidden in his room and descended a spiral of stairs towards a treasure room.
In this place, he dropped off several precious artefacts. Nothing in this room is crucial to him, but they will serve as a perfect cover. He felt an overcoming wave of boredom as he made his way to an unassuming corner right next to the most expensive treasure in the room.
He ignored the sparkling artefact, and instead pushed the pedestal it was on to the side. If anyone touched the treasure on top, the platform remains immobile, and an alarm talisman will ring throughout the castle.
The thing slid over roughly, as though it was a normal stone base, but he knew that the pedestal was a key. He continued pushing it until it was stuck, then he pressed down and rotated the entire platform.
A trapdoor appeared, revealing the secret compartment behind this secret compartment.
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All at once, a flood of divine power rushed towards him, and he breathed it in with a joyous smile.
When he descended another level, a magnificent sight greeted him.
Nearly, half a thousand dragonlings flew over, greeting their creator. They licked at his face or tangled around his arms and legs. These celestial creatures are still tiny, despite nearly eating Kairos bankrupt. Their stomachs are like a bottomless pit. No matter how much he fed them, it wasn’t enough, and what’s worse was that they are picky eaters.
They had been feasting on high ranked beasts thus far, and as they grow, the higher ranked of food they require.
Until now, even the ones he tried feeding Peak Triple S rank beast meat had not reached the adolescent stage.
“Just what did the Devilheart Family feed the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon to make it that big? EX rank beasts?”
Amongst them, there were fifteen larger dragonlings, all Contract Beasts of his disciples.
“Looks like they had been taking extra care of you… The rest are still so tiny.”
He sighed, then took out a quarter of a mountain-sized beast, the largest size the dragons’ lair could contain.
This is the only EX ranked beast meat he managed to get. A rare one with draconic bloodlines that he spent a lot of resources and used up several favours to acquire and in the end he only took three-quarters of the thing. The hunters that slain the beast kept the last part. Hopefully, with this amount, the dragonlings could grow a little bigger, although the cost of feeding them will only continue to increase as they mature.
He grumbled a little to himself, not knowing where to find better food for them in the Mortal Realms.
“Looks like I need to finish my business and head towards where Jones is quickly. I’m still too weak. The knowledge I’ve researched and gained so far are great, but in the end, power is still the mainstream route to success.”
The food quickly disappeared in the mouths of these hunger little fellows, and he summoned the second and third parts.
It was only when they nibbled through a tenth of the third slab of meat that they finally stopped. Kairos left it there for the future dragonlings that would join the lair since beasts corpses would not decay and rot after attaining spiritual sentience.
The dragonlings played around him for a while, until he heard a loud crash upstairs.
At the same time, the fifteen larger dragonlings that belonged to Ah Pui and the others flew upwards hurriedly and disappeared through the tiny air vents in the ceiling.
The whole place had been rigged with many of such portholes to regulate the temperature, but the structure served a dual purpose of providing the dragonlings with a way to travel around.
Of course, the sizes of the tunnels were made to be unsuitable for humans to access. Otherwise, the entire place will be defenceless. If the dragonlings grew too big, Aisa could teach them how to alter their size and shapes and wouldn’t have a problem.
He discarded these frivolous thoughts and immediately exited the lair.
When he reached his room, he found Ah Pui, the leader of the fifteen disciples, awaiting him.
“Young master! There was a huge commotion in the Emperor’s palace! I’ve received news that assassins are targeting our emperor!”
“I’ll return at once! Are the warp arrays completed?”
“No, young master, it was too hard to find Time-space Stratagem Masters to lay the foundation.”
“I’ll lay the array! Go gather the guys, and, look for my father too.”
“Yes, young master.”
After replying, Ah Pui melded into the shadow and disappeared.
At the same time, Kairos ran down the stairs and went to a room opposite the entrance where they planned to put the teleportation ward.
Wordlessly, he took out his brush, beast blood, spirit stones, and a few Time-space elemental treasures and started drawing.
He had not learned the formation before, but having seen and travelled through the Warp arrays a few times, he could replicate it perfectly from his photographic memory.
However, he knew that a replica is useless, since the runes would reflect the current location as well as pinpoint the destination, if he followed their settings it will fail.
He calculated the coordinates in his mind as his hands moved. An intricate and enchanting formation began to appear. His eyes were glowing extremely brightly, while his memories scanned through the books that he had read in the runic library and the astral formations he had seen during his Selfless Cultivation state.
The pieces of knowledge that he required, automatically fell into place as he worked tirelessly. His ideas and innovation filled up the gaps. Time is of the essence if he wants to save his old friend, the Emperor.
In a moment, the fifteen had gathered by the door together with his father. They waited for fifteen minutes before Kairos stood back up, and turned to face them.
“It’s done. I’ve connected this place to the city,” Kairos pointed to a circle at the side of the runic array that has a strange symbol drawn within.
They noticed that there were similar circles all around the formation, except that they are empty. Those spaces were for the coordinates of other travel destinations in the future.
At the four corners of the room, there were podiums for spirit stones to activate the warp portal. The group quickly took their place in the middle of the travel chamber, then in a bright flash of light, they disappeared.
The scene they saw next drove fear into their hearts.
The whole of Saint City was in ruins. Buildings were cracked open and on fire. People were wailing and fleeing to underground shelters. The city guards were everywhere, guiding the masses to safety.
Above the palace in the sky, Emperor Galahad was surrounded by four Triple S rankers. But what drove them to panic was that the Gilded Snow were also attacked.
A golden light flickered across Kairos’ eyes as he recognised the perils.
“The princess is in danger!”
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