"You want me to call my daughter and yet you won't even say who you are?" the Emperor asked. "Despite who you are, I am still an Emperor. You will respect me as such."
From what Alex could tell, the Emperor was already showing signs of fear around Shen Jing, but he was still keeping his cool.
"Ohh," Shen Jing gave a smile. "Very well, I will tell you who I am."
Shen Jing then turned to the rest of them and said, "Leave!"
The different court officials and guards looked confused for a second. After all, following the orders of someone else in front of the Emperor they swore to follow and serve was unacceptable.
Shen Jing sighed when he saw that. He simply flicked his fingers and suddenly every single one of the people in the room, including the shadow guards hiding in the ceiling and walls was thrown out of the room.
Alex was astounded when he saw them all get thrown out, but he was sure they would be alright. After all, they were all cultivators, to begin with.
"You should leave for a while too," Shen Jing said to Alex.
Alex nodded and left the room. After he was gone, Shen Jing turned around to the young emperor.
"Who exactly are you, senior?" the Emperor asked with a timid face. He could already tell that Shen Jing was stronger than him. So, all he could hope for was that he wasn't an enemy.
As he waited, Shen Jing spoke up and said something to him. The Emperor's eyes widened in horror when he heard the words.
"No way…" he said.
Then, the young Emperor's face lost all color when he saw something else. Only then did he vividly remember the thing his father had told him about.
The truth that every Emperor should know about before they take the throne. That truth was here in front of him today.
* * * * * *
Alex waited for a bit outside while the many court officials and guards tried to open the door. However, the door was covered with a golden barrier that they couldn't break through it.
Many of them also looked at Alex as if they were going to hurt him, but the threat of who was inside kept them from doing so.
As Alex waited, he suddenly heard a different set of commotion coming from the other side of the crowd.
He turned around to see the servants, guards, and court officials part to give way to a young woman who walked through.
The young woman wore light-purple robes and a hair braided full of gems and ribbons. A purple veil covered her face, but even then one could see that she was beautiful.
There was a certain elegance in her steps that only came from rigorous training. Besides her, there was two purple-robed male, both very strong.
From what Alex could tell, they were both in the saint realm. As for the young woman herself, she was in the upper realms of True King.
'Is she the princess?' he wondered.
"What are you all doing out here?" the woman asked the group.
One of the court officials walked forward and explained everything that had happened.
The woman's eyes went wide. "And you let my father be with such an individual?" she asked, worry filling her voice.
She quickly walked off and stood in front of the golden wall before striking it with a blue-colored attack.
'Water Qi?' Alex thought when he saw that.
The attack landed on the barrier and suddenly the barrier disappeared.
"Woah!" people started shouting in surprise.
"When did the princess get so strong?" they asked.
However, the door opened and Shen Jing's voice came from inside.
"Little Yu, come in. Bring the young lady too," he said.
Alex walked forward and stood next to the princess. "Princess, please," he said as he led the way.
The princess didn't understand what was happening, but she had been called here by her father, so she walked in without even Alex prompting her to.
The two guards of hers tried to walk in as well, but a force stopped them from entering.
Once both Alex and the princess were inside, the door closed on its own.
"Father, what's going on?" the princess asked as she ran up to her father, barely giving a glance to Shen Jing.
The Emperor had gotten back his composure, but he seemed a little afraid of Shen Jing still, and Alex could see that.
'What did he do?' he wondered.
"Xumei, did you bring the crystal, as I asked?" the Emperor asked.
"Yes, father," the Princess said and brought out a staff. The blue staff had intricate details along the side of the shaft, and at the top of it was a half-sphere transparent crystal that shined a very light shade of blue.
"Is that the healing crystal?" Shen Jing asked.
"Yes, Senior," the Emperor said before the princess could say anything. The princess looked at her father with a weird look on her face. She had never heard him call someone so young senior before.
"Come here, little girl," Shen Jing called.
The princess looked at her father who nodded to her. Only then did the princess walk over to Shen Jing.
Shen Jing stepped to the side and said, "heal his arm for me."
The princess nodded and looked at Alex, who quickly pulled up his long sleeve and proceeded to remove his fake arm.
"Wait, he isn't wounded," the princess said. "That's an amputated limb. I can only heal, not regrow."
As soon as Alex heard those words, disappointment filled every corner of his very being.
"Are you sure?" Shen Jing asked.
"Yes, senior," she said. "I have tried before, but I can only heal wounds and poisons, but I can do nothing for something that isn't already there."
"Hmm… still, try it for me," he said.
The princess nodded and grabbed her staff by the sphere, rather than the shaft, and placed another palm on Alex's now bare stump.
She took a deep breath and started doing something and slowly Alex could feel the energy enter his body.
The ends of his stump felt stimulated, but other than that, nothing else happened.
The princess gave up. "See, it doesn't work," she said.
"Why did you hold your staff so weird?" Shen Jing asked.
"Oh, that's because it's the crystal that's the source of the power and I have to touch it in order to heal others," she said. "The rest of the staff is just there for decoration or a bit of convenience because of the shape of the crystal making it hard to hold."
"Oh, what shape could that be?" Shen Jing asked as his spiritual sense went into the staff and checked it thoroughly. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed when he noticed something.
"It's in the shape of a—" before she could finish Shen Jing grabbed the staff and took it away from her.
"Senior?" The Emperor spoke but Shen Jing gave him no heed. Even Alex was weirded out by what was happening.
"Brother Shen?" he called out, but Shen Jing was focused on the crystal.
He grabbed the edge of the metal that cupped the crystal and tore it away like it was made up of paper. After tearing it away from each side, he brought out the crystal.
Alex finally saw the crystal in full.
The transparent crystal with the blue hue was mostly spherical, except for one side where it looked like someone pinched it and pulled it until it was pointed.
Without any warning, Shen Jing pulled back his arm and punched the crystal as hard as he could.
"No!" the princess cried out in horror, but it was too late.
BANG!
Alex suddenly felt a shockwave in the air as it pushed him back towards the door where he struck it and fell to the ground.
He felt his brain rattle and his interior organs shuffle around for a bit. He felt like vomiting out everything in his body, but he stopped himself.
The Emperor put up a barrier to protect himself and his daughter, but even then they were scared.
"Senior?" the Emperor asked.
Shen Jing's smile was no more and instead, he had an irritated, but the concerned face on him.
"Where'd you find this?" Shen Jing asked, bringing Alex's attention back to the crystal that was perfectly fine.
"The crystal?" the Emperor asked. "That is something that had been passed down in my family for generations."
"Every single princess that can take the crystal and use it to heal our family and our warriors," the Emperor said. "That's how it has been for a thousand years."
"I didn't ask you that," Shen Jing said.
"Ac-According to the records, this crystal came down in the meteor shower over a thousand years ago, senior," The Emperor finally answered his question.
Shen Jing's face changed. "The meteor shower?" he asked. "God damn it!"
"Is something wrong, senior?" the Emperor asked.
"Yes, there is," Shen Jing said. "But you won't understand."
"Damn it!" Shen Jing said before rubbing his chin as he thought of something.
"This artifact is far too dangerous to be kept with you," he said. "I will be taking it away today."
"Senior?!"
"No, you can't!"
Both father and daughter spoke up at once as they put on aghast expressions on their face.
"I'm not trying to steal from you, little girl. I'm trying to protect you," Shen Jing said.
"You have no idea the amount of trouble you will get from keeping the Ocean God's Teardrop with you."
