Everyone was shocked upon seeing a muscular young man with a chiseled jaw standing in the arena with his chest thrust out. The way he was standing in a dauntless manner with an arrogant smirk on his face while looking at Godnim made everyone think that his arrogance was not unwarranted.
His age was twenty-five as per the experts, and still, to achieve the staggering cultivation of the first level of the Heaven Ethereal Realm was truly a shocker to everyone, even more than what Godnim displayed so far.
It was said that even an average genius can progress to the Sky Ethereal Realm at a considerably fast pace. But from then on, each level would require at least twice the effort they had put in so far. And the effort required only increases with each level, and thus reaching the Heaven Ethereal Realm within the age of 25 was considered to be impossible.
This was no different than someone reaching the Profound Ethereal Realm within the age of 100. It was just absolutely impossible, according to the experts. Otherwise, why would there be so few Profound Ethereal Realm experts? Each one reached that realm only after a few centuries at least. And even after reaching it, progressing to the next level was as hard as ascending the tallest mountain without using hands.
So this was why everyone could hardly believe this young man's cultivation and wondered from which noble house he was coming from since they had never seen him before.
However, if they knew Lily or Reva's true cultivation, they would be even more shocked, especially considering how young they were. At that point, they would feel so inferior that they would rather accept that they were nothing but babies when it came to comprehending the Ethereal Way.
"Curious to know who I am?" The young man asked with a smug smirk before shaking his head, "Well, I was not supposed to be revealing myself early, but I am actually the eldest prince of the great Xeton Imperial Family, Soran Xeton," Soran proudly announced as everyone gasped since what they just heard sent tremors through their hearts.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Wasn't Arthur Xeton supposed to be the eldest prince? Where the hell did this guy come from, and how come nobody knew anything?
Even Arthur, who was emptily staring at the arena, suddenly had his pupils quiver upon hearing his announcement and then looked at his father, who didn't seem to have any change in his expression and wasn't even refuting what Soran announced.
'No..it can't be…' Arthur felt like his chest was sinking in and didn't want to believe what he had just heard, 'Was Uncle Sven right all along?'
Not only Arthur but everyone had turned to look at the Xeton Emperor to see if he would punish this young man for spouting preposterous claims, but he only had a calm smile on his face, making everyone realize that Soran was telling the truth!
Some of the old and shrewd ones among the crowd quickly guessed what was going on. They thought that Soran was actually born from one of the Xeton Emperor's concubines and was nurtured in secret to be used as a trump card later on when necessary.
They were familiar with such methods because they themselves had done this kind of planning to surprise their rivals. Otherwise, if their enemies were aware of a powerful genius growing up in their rival's family, they might try to either bring that genius down in whatever way they could because of feeling threatened.
This was why some were able to understand why Ruthren kept Soran's existence a secret. But the downside to taking such measures was that it could cause instability within the family, and sometimes, even internal conflicts can occur.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})However, in this case, since Soran was the son of the strongest emperor, they had no doubt that the Xeton Emperor probably had everything in control.
Ruthren indeed was not planning to reveal Soran's existence since he needed him for something else. But right now, he couldn't help but feel a sense of unease the more he looked at Godnim. For some reason, he felt that he had to cripple this genius right here and now before he became a cause for trouble in the future.
His mannerisms and his attitude seemed to tick him off even though he had seen countless arrogant and cocky people in his life. He would never feel bothered by a junior who was as weak as an ant to him. And this only made him even more irritated, wondering why he was feeling so.
Damien frowned slightly as he talked to Luna, "Why does his aura seem so…dirty and vile? I don't know if these people can feel it or not, but his aura is damn repulsive."
"Hmph, he didn't reach this level of cultivation through natural means. It seems like Ruthren used some taboo methods on this muscle idiot to boost his cultivation by using the blood essence of the dead. That is why only you are able to sense the irregularity in his aura since you already comprehended a very, very minute level of Death Laws. If I have to guess, Yohr must have been the one to pass down such a method to Ruthren. Otherwise, there is no way these mortal idiots can come up with a method that won't kill them right away," Luna said with a scoff.
"Wait, if such a method exists, why didn't Ruthren use it on his army? Could there be side effects?"
"Of course, there is. These shady and dumb methods always come with a heavy price, and this idiot in front of you wouldn't even live past 30, and he doesn't even know it. Great power at the cost of a very short life span. Only idiots would want to cultivate such a low-grade technique or unless they are suicidal," Luna said with a head shake.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Hey! Why so silent? If you are so scared, let me have the girl unless you don't want to return in one piece, hehe…" Soran laughed with a shifty smile.
A/N: Uncle Sven is none other than the supreme elder of the Xeton Empire and also the brother of Arthur's late mother.
