The next morning, Dyon's eyes had lost some of their sharpness. It was one thing for a martial warrior to not sleep, but it was entirely different if they didn't sleep and were constantly grinding away at their mental energy.
Dyon had spent all night sensing patterns and marking them in his mind. The most troublesome part was that he wanted to leave the actual village as a trump card, so he wanted to force the main battle to be a certain distance away. This would allow them to slowly whittle down the army until they unleashed their final struggle.
However, Dyon didn't have the time to rest now. He forcefully circulated the last bits of the aurora flame stone hanging from his neck to replenish him from this fatigue.
Interestingly, aurora flame stones were separated into tiers much like soul strength was. The stone with Dyon now was the equivalent to about a peak Blossom stage soul.
The truth was that using the stones were highly dangerous. If Dyon's capacity wasn't far higher than the stone, he would likely hurt himself. The more Dyon learned about this flame, the more he admired his grand teacher for managing to find a way to subdue it.
That aside, because of the dangers, Dyon decided to start on the weaker end so that he could slowly become accustomed to using the stones. Luckily, since he had a saint body, he should be able to forcefully withstand aurora flame stones comparable to the Saint stage.
Dyon suspected that the origin of these stones had to do with the spiritual vein beneath their Angel Clan lands. It couldn't a coincidence that an extinct and rare stone appeared in such abundance in this small clan.
Thinking to this point, an errant thought crossed Dyon's mind. Afterward, determination flashed in his eyes. He added yet another necessary treasure to the building of his kingdom. The only question was whether he'd be able to find such a high-level vein in the modern world.
**
The sun was still barely peaking over the mountain range as Dyon made his way into the palace, heading toward the Imperial Harem.
One might wonder how a king like him could move so freely. Much of the reason was because cultivation made it easier to avoid guards, and he disguised himself when he went out. As for why he was headed to the Imperial Harem now, it was, unfortunately, not for fun. He needed to continue repairing relationships between his royal family and the nobles of the Angel Clan. So, he thought taking Amphorae around with him would help with this.
Unfortunately for Dyon, the "Royal Family" of his was nearly non-existent. He, of course, had brothers and sisters, since his dad had to follow the very same rules as him and marry multiple concubines. However, Dyon was the only one born to his mother, the Queen.
As tradition dictated, those born to concubines would then become the leaders of those respective families. Because of this, Amphorae's father was technically related to him. That said, Amphorae's father was a dao formation expert, and as such, was birthed hundreds of thousands of years ago. Considering the life span of martial warriors, he was actually the son of Dyon's great grandfather, which made him Dyon's grand uncle.
This was why, technically speaking, the "Royal Family" was currently only Dyon and Luna. The concubines could also be counted as partial family members. However, this also explains why Dyon also felt so alone, his family was gone and dealing with other matters of their own families.
For obvious reason, Dyon didn't have a very great relationship with his grand uncle. But, that was to be expected. Dyon had disrespected Amphorae much too much, effectively ruining her future. What father wouldn't be angry?
Although Dyon found it weird that Amphorae was technically his second cousin, since they shared a great grandparent, he managed to ignore this. After all, this wasn't really his family and this wasn't really his body. That said, he'd be lying to himself if he said it would make a difference. The trial had burned his feelings for Amphorae into his heart.
Soon, Dyon made it to the gates. The eyes of the concubines lit up when they saw Dyon. To many of them, yesterday seemed like a dream and they thought their King might relapse to his old ways at any time. But, seeing him come here today made the warmth in their hearts increase.
Dyon noticed that Amphorae wasn't in the common area, but, he decided to spend some time speaking with the other women. After all Amphorae wasn't the only relationship he needed to repair.
He was actually surprised that so many of them were out and about so early. It seemed they were much too excited and eager in completing their tasks to rest at all. Dyon could see the fatigue in their eyes as they too invested a lot of mental energy. He couldn't help but praise these women from the bottom of his heart.
"Royal Husband, when did you become such a pill expert? Your formulas are so profound! And your instructions are so simple and straight forward, I even managed to create a pill with 80% purity!" A concubine named Jadeer practically bounced up and down in excitement. From the vision amplifying treasure that swung from her neck, she was clearly immersed in her craft.
Dyon wasn't surprised that cultivators needed vision amplifiers. They usually came the form of glasses or monocle form. Dyon didn't need them because he was capable of using his overwhelming soul to monitor the progress of his pills while also creating the pill. But, not everyone had the talent or soul stamina to do such a thing. So, they handed the task to their eyes. Although Martial Artists had impeccable vision, the microscopic level they needed to see in was still too much.
Seeing their excitement, Dyon smiled, happily teaching and giving tips. He, himself, even learned quite a few things.
Honestly speaking, to Dyon, even if he failed this trial, the benefits he accrued by learning such ancient knowledge was enough reward.
