?A bunch of the lower-level soldiers that were gathered around looked at each other and at their superiors, trying to judge whether the words coming out of Alex were in any way true.

“He is currently on his way to the Azure Dragon’s secret realm, and you’re going to just let him?” Alex asked. “He and the Empress were responsible for the Azure Dragon’s death 70 years ago.”

“Don’t listen to him,” one of them said. “Do not listen to the enemy’s words. That is the first thing you should remember during the war.”

A bunch of discordant yeses came from the soldiers that were getting confused. Their look of confusion faded away and a look of determination filled them instead.

‘Shit!’ Alex thought. He was relying on some of the Eastern Continent’s army to turn against each other to hopefully win the war, but it seemed as though that was not happening.

At least, it wasn’t going to happen on a small scale like this.

Alex frowned fully as he thought of what he was going to do next. He had made the vow to not attack or run away for the next 4 or so minutes, so he was going to have to wait for that to pass.

* * * * * .𝒎

A young man trained in spear with a woman, constantly fighting her but never getting close to getting an upper hand at all.

They fought purely with spears, with neither side using any Qi, so the fight should’ve been mostly close, but the young man still failed to win against the woman.

The two of them trained in the gardens at the back of the Dragon Palace, the place that stretched for a few kilometers in all directions.

The entire garden was filled with soft grass underfoot and an array of flowers and fruit filling most of the area to the back.

The woman looked as though she was in her late 30s, and the young man looked no older than in his early 20s.

The woman stopped halfway through a stab and flung her spear upward, disarming the young man. She then quickly turned around and bowed.

“Your Majesty,” she said, speaking nothing further.

The Emperor strode past the massive back door of the palace, ignoring any of the servants who were bowing to him.

He walked into the garden, walking straight to where the two of them were training.

The young looked at the approaching Emperor as well and stopped reaching for his spear. He showed a flash of surprise to see the Emperor coming his way. .

“Father,” he asked, walking forward. “Is something wrong outside? Should I–”

“Move aside, boy. Don’t waste my time!”

The Emperor shoved the young man away, walking past him, not even looking back to see his fallen son on the ground.

He was a blur that soon vanished deep into the flower field and then disappeared in a burst of light.

The young man sat on the ground, looking toward where his father went, and felt dejected. He then turned toward the woman and felt anger bubbling in his heart to see that she was still bowing at the Emperor.

“Why do you keep doing this, Mother?” he asked. “He’s your husband. You are the Empress. You do not have to act like you’re his servant. Act like the damn wife you are.”

The woman said nothing and slowly looked back up. This woman had long since given up any hope of being the real Empress of the Eastern Continent.

There had once been a fire inside of her, once had the soul of a fighter and a leader, who wanted to do good for the empire. However, after being chosen to be nothing more than a puppet to be placed on the throne, only there to do nothing but fill the seat. She had long since lost her vigor.

She thumped her spear to the ground with a loud bang. “Pick up your spear. We continue training.”

* * * * * * *

The Emperor teleported into the Azure Dragon’s secret realm.

Everything that had happened since he gained the Ivory sword had been a blur in his mind. How had he entered the palace? How had he reached the teleportation formation? How had he arrived here?

Everything was a jumble of information his mind had put aside for the sheer burning glorious sun of anticipation that brightened his thoughts at the moment.

He could tell in the back of his mind that only one of the two main tasks that he needed to had been done. He knew there was another thing he had to do.

He had to kill the king so that his prophecy didn’t come true.

However, he could care little for that at the moment. The only thing he cared about was wondering what magnificent treasures there would be held in the Azure Dragon’s soul space.

If he could get even the weakest Immortal weapon, he could easily kill the King right away, not that he needed it or anything.

So long as the King did not run away, he could kill him. However, if he did get a particularly strong weapon, then he could maybe even be able to fly out into the other continent and contest against the other Immortals.

He walked through the peacefully haunting overgrown meadows of the Azure Dragon, never maintained after the battle so long ago, blossoming with innumerable flowers nourished by the blood of the Saints and the Immortal.

He had to leave the Azure Dragon’s body in the secret realm for the past 70 years as there was nowhere to keep it.

The body itself could most likely be held in another storage treasure, but the fact that the Azure Dragon had a Soul Space made it impossible for it to be put away somewhere.

From what he could understand, a space could not be put inside of another space. Had it not been the case, he would have long ago taken the body elsewhere.

Flying up to the lake, he arrived at the spot where he had put the Azure Dragon’s body inside of the lake itself.

Or rather… where it should have been.

The Azure Dragon’s corpse was no longer where it should have been.

* * * * *

Alex failed to hide the pain from his face. It had been a while and his mind hurt him more and more by the second. He couldn’t even eat a pill to heal it as it wouldn’t do much right now.

But that was nothing to worry about. The 5 minutes was coming to an end.

The 20 alchemists floated around Alex, waiting for something to happen. They weren’t sure as to what just yet, but they had been warned by Alex to prepare to be teleported.

Alex looked at the soldiers in the distance one last time as he stared at the Voidsand Hourglass in his Soul Space and counted the time.

“Does anyone here wish to defect the Dragon Emperor and fight by my side?” Alex asked the soldiers. “You have learned what I told you, so I will give you that chance.”

Everyone gave him weird looks, some even scoffed and ignored him.

Alex simply shook his head. He brought out a talisman to empower his voice to reach a distance that it wouldn’t have normally.

And then he spoke.

Updated from .𝘤𝘰