A few hours later, Prince Charles was completely covered in blood inside his room, naked and trembling. Blood poured from every pore in his body, and his eyes were bloodshot and unfocused.
With great difficulty, he produced an elixir and swallowed it before collapsing weakly onto the floor, lying in the growing pool of his own blood.
Several minutes passed before he stirred again. Slowly, laboriously, he pushed himself up and began the methodical task of cleaning his room.
Sometime later, all the blood had been wiped away, and everything was spotless once more. The room was filled once again with the pleasant fragrance he preferred. The prince had also washed himself thoroughly and changed back into his usual elegant outfit. His neatly combed blonde hair shone under the soft light.
Prince Charles sat down on his comfortable sofa and let out a long, weary breath.
"Fuuuhhhh..."
"That was rougher than usual. I almost died this time. Something interesting caught my attention, and I ended up biting off more than I could chew," he said quietly to himself.
Every time he used his divination technique to uncover secrets, he had to pay a price for disturbing the natural flow of the countless event threads recorded by the universe.
By pulling those threads toward himself, he could glimpse events that had already occurred, allowing him to spy on people's secrets and hidden actions.
His current range was slightly larger than the colossal tree's shade, and he could peer into events up to about a month in the past. That was one of the main reasons he wanted everyone to remain here, within his observational reach.
The cost of performing his divination art was either his lifespan or the destruction of his flesh and blood. He could either pay painlessly in years of his life or endure unimaginable physical agony.
To him, only a fool would choose to shorten their life when the alternative was merely enduring temporary pain. What was the point of harboring grand ambitions if you died early?
Was the divination worth the pain? Absolutely yes. Enduring some agony was always worthwhile if it meant he held information that kept him one step ahead of everyone else.
It is said that one could even predict the future once the divination technique reached a high enough mastery. Theoretically, if someone could see all the countless event threads at once and possessed enough mental computing power, they could reconstruct and simulate those events to determine what would happen next.
But of course, this was just a theory. He himself understood how difficult it was merely to pull a few threads and glimpse into events, especially those that had long passed.
Not even a Dao Manifestation Realm powerhouse could accomplish such a feat. Perhaps only a god could do something like that, though he was not even sure if gods truly existed.
The crystal orb reappeared in his palm.
"Mental Lord Vincent has already died, huh? Such a shame he was careless and got killed by a nobody. He was quite an interesting character to have in the faction game," Prince Charles muttered to himself.
Then, a faint smile formed as he thought of someone else.
"I was wondering where you went. I thought you had died somewhere random already. But it turns out you are alive and well, and pretty close to my territory."
His smile widened.
"You even broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm. What an interesting choice you made, Dastan Fin Howler. Hehe."
He paused his monologue after the soft chuckle, his fingers brushing the surface of the orb.
"Now I have two big targets for my assassination game again. Prince Ozan has been pretty outstanding. He survived every attempt made on him. But what about you, Crown Prince Dastan? I wonder how you will perform."
A hint of mockery crept into his voice.
"Your Royal Guards have been disappointing. Killed so easily, you know."
He tapped the orb lightly, thinking.
"I suppose... it will be hard for the leftover assassins to kill him. He might have a weak reputation as a prince, probably the weakest among us, but a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator will still be a bit too much for them to handle. Not to mention the most capable ones already died under Prince Ozan's hand."
Suddenly, he stood up.
"But this is exactly why I am still doing this! It is time to wrap up the assassin game so I can focus on my faction game. Dastan Fin Howler, show me how you deal with them. I heard you like to bully the weak the most. Bully those weak assassins, then. I am sending them to their deaths. Hehehe!"
Prince Charles began dancing around the room, the crystal orb held aloft in his hand.
"And you, Mr. Portal... let me see how much chaos you can cause in Formation Prodigy Bellion's territory. I want to see if his formations can handle all the turmoil. Hehehe. This is so much fun!"
Prince Charles hopped around happily like a child.
"But first…" His movements slowed, eyes narrowing slightly. "I need to tamper with this portal a little."
"They'll have to wait much longer before it fully stabilizes. Meaning, more time for chaos! Hehe!"
---
A week later, Leyvi finally returned to the brothel. There were still many ancient palaces on this side of the colossal trunk that he had not yet looted, but he had other priorities to attend to now. Perhaps he would return in the future when time allowed.
In any case, his current harvest was already astronomical. The long-gone civilization had truly been an incredibly prosperous one, its riches preserved across the ages.
With everything he had gathered, Sawi back home would have a vast and varied array of materials to experiment with later. But of course, he needed to return home first, which remained the most pressing and uncertain problem at the moment.
"Darling," Rose began, still happily hugging his arm as she delivered her report. "From what we have been able to uncover, half of all the Royal Guards who entered the Mystic Realm have vanished. They have not been seen for over a year already, including all of Crown Prince Dastan's personal Royal Guards. Their deaths are now considered highly likely."
"Half?" Leyvi blinked, taken aback. "But aren't they all incredibly powerful cultivators?"
"That is true in terms of direct combat strength," Rose explained gently. "But in an environment like this, with so much darkness, isolation, and unpredictable terrain, the advantage shifts strongly toward assassins and ambush specialists."
"I suppose you are right," Leyvi sighed softly. "That clown prince... I wonder if he will be sad when he learns that all of his men are gone." He felt a genuine pang of sympathy for Dastan.
All this time, he had been trying to teach Dastan to treat his subordinates with more respect and consideration. But now it seemed Dastan might not even get the chance to apply those lessons.
Rose blinked, picking up on his tone. Clown Prince? Darling calls him that so casually... they must be quite close. And now Darling even looks a little sad.
"What about the other princes?" Leyvi asked, shifting the subject. "Are they just hiding somewhere?"
Rose shook her head slowly. "They are most likely dead as well. They have been missing even longer than the Royal Guards. So at this point, only Prince Charles, Prince Ozan, and Crown Prince Dastan are confirmed to still be here. We also learned that Prince Ozan has survived many assassination attempts already, and he dealt with every one of them entirely on his own."
Leyvi's eyebrows rose in surprise. "He is that strong?"
He recalled that even Dastan, who had already reached the Nascent Soul Realm, was still deeply apprehensive about facing assassination attempts. Yet this Prince Ozan had dealt with them alone?
Rose nodded. "That is right. He is much older than most people here, and his cultivation could be considered slow by the standards of our continent. Right now, he is still in the Core Formation Realm despite being in his seventies."
Slow? Leyvi chuckled inwardly. From where he came from, even reaching the Nascent Soul Realm was a rare and remarkable achievement. But to them, it seemed like just a matter of time and resources.
"But that is because he is cultivating in all three systems: Qi, Body, and Spirit," Rose continued explaining. "His overall progress might be slow because of this, but his actual combat power is extremely terrifying. Even his own Royal Guards together could not defeat him in a spar."
"Amazing. No wonder he could handle the assassins alone. His Royal Guards must have felt somewhat useless. Hahaha!" Leyvi laughed, genuinely impressed.
As Leyvi and Rose were in the middle of their discussion, the commerce plaza outside suddenly erupted into commotion. A piece of shocking news had broken out and spread like wildfire.
A portal had begun forming right in the middle of Formation Prodigy Bellion's city, the very territory he now occupied.
Rose received a message almost instantly, her eyes widening in shock. She immediately showed it to Leyvi beside her.
"A portal! Hahaha! Finally, it is here! We don't have to worry about going home anymore!"
Leyvi jumped to his feet in celebration, a wide smile spreading across his face.
"It is time to go back to our cave mansion and then head straight to Bellion's territory!" he decided right away.