Chapter 512: Descendants of the Blood Emperor
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Stepping through the gates of the royal palace, Hobert, who was supporting Christian, felt a sudden discomfort, realizing he had entered the area of influence of a Sealed Artifact.
Hobert saw guards at the entrance requesting everyone to temporarily deposit their weapons for safekeeping. A nobleman surrendered his weapon, but was stopped again by a guard. The nobleman had no choice but to hand over his mystical items as well.
Clearly, within the range of this Sealed Artifact, the guards had a way of detecting the mystical items hidden on the attendees.
However, the mystical items Hobert carried were sealed within the "Crystal of Order." Unless the rank of the Sealed Artifact exceeded that of a "Sephirot," it would be impossible to detect his mystical items.
At this moment, the Alhambra Palace was bustling with activity. Those who could enter the palace for the banquet were nobles, parliamentarians, high-ranking officials, and members of the royal family.
In Founder's Square, there was an even grander celebration, mainly attended by merchants and commoners. It was said that in previous years, the celebration was presided over by the King, but this year it was the Crown Prince.
When the court earl announced "The King's Special Decree," the surrounding nobles and parliamentarians all heard it. For a time, some were envious, and some were jealous.
Hobert thought to himself: Ferdinand II is a professional king. He has given Christian favor and honor, but also isolated him again, forcing Christian to rely solely on the crown.
The court earl led the father and son through a side door to a relatively secluded side hall.
The court earl was very thoughtful, arranging for two male servants to attend to Christian. After chatting and laughing for a few moments, the court earl politely took his leave.
Christian seemed exhausted. He sat in a chair to rest for a while, checked his pocket watch, and took out a small incense burner from his pocket, handing it to Hobert: "This is a medicinal incense bestowed by the King. It has a pain-relieving effect. Light it."
The two court servants were about to come over to help Hobert light the incense, but Hobert, accepting the incense burner, smiled and said, "I can light it myself."
He opened the incense burner and saw only a brown, egg-sized fruit inside, with no "medicinal incense" at all.
Hobert confirmed Christian's intention, turned his back to the two servants, took the fruit out of the incense burner, and infused it with spirituality.
As Hobert expected, the incense burner was actually a vessel for sealing the fruit, and also a means of avoiding detection by the Sealed Artifact that enveloped the entire palace.
The moment he held the fruit in his hand, he felt an extraordinary power.
The instant spirituality was injected, the fruit levitated, its skin peeled away, and inside was a pure black flower bud.
The flower bloomed rapidly, and black light instantly covered the entire side hall, a sense of tranquility filling the heart, as if the place had suddenly entered night.
The two servants, seeing this scene, were about to run out, but were intimidated by the majesty emanating from Christian. With a "thud," they knelt on the ground together.
Before they could beg for mercy, Christian twisted off the handle of the chair, broke it in half in his hand, and threw it seemingly casually, but accurately hitting the heads of the two servants.
As if struck by a blunt instrument, a large hole was smashed into each of their heads, and they fell to the ground, quickly losing their breath.
Christian changed his previous languid demeanor, stood up from the chair and unbuttoned his shirt. There were indeed bandages on his chest, but there were no wounds inside the bandages. Instead, a small bottle, a pen, and a small box were hidden in the bandages.
The inner layer of the bandages was coated with a thick black liquid, which could obviously also shield against the Sealed Artifact's ability.
The small bottle contained a starlight-emitting, silvery-white liquid. Each time it was shaken, it was like starlight twinkling.
Christian slowly put on his clothes: "It's not easy to deceive Ferdinand II."
Hobert glanced at the flower that continued to emit black light: "So, last night's events..."
"Of course, it was all staged by me," Christian said with a smile. "A few spies, how could they hurt me?"
He opened the small bottle, and starlight filled the air, echoing the white light of the flower.
Christian dipped the pen into the liquid in the small bottle and came to the center of the side hall, drawing a magic circle as he said: "That flower is a Sealed Artifact that can create a small, hidden space."
"Even angels will find it difficult to discover us. We can speak freely in here."
Hobert stood aside and asked, "So, what's the big event happening today?"
"Castilla, the angel we saw when we were ennobled," Christian said with a smile, "He is preparing to try to accommodate the uniqueness of the 'Arbiter' pathway today, on National Day, amidst the people's remembrance of him."
"Well, I believe I don't need to explain to you what uniqueness means, right?"
Hobert nodded: "The people's remembrance, is that the ritual he needs?"
"No, it will make his state very stable, creating good conditions for accommodating the uniqueness," Christian explained. "Of course, the people's support for him is also crucial to him."
Hobert nodded: The people participating in the celebration will act as anchors, and everyone's support for Castilla should be related to the godhood ritual, or simply be part of the ritual. In such an atmosphere, his success rate in accommodating the uniqueness may be higher.
He then asked: "Then your treason..."
"About a year ago, the military obtained a secret intelligence from a high-ranking Feysac Empire spy," Christian explained the whole story in detail:
"This intelligence indicated that the Church of the God of War was going to hand over something very important to the Feynapotter royal family."
"After our investigation, we finally determined that the Church of the God of Combat was actually preparing to give the 'Trunsoest Bronze Book' to Castilla."
"After I learned of this intelligence, I realized that the opportunity I had been waiting for had come. So I risked seeing the King, and George III hesitated for a few seconds before agreeing to my plan."
"Before defecting, although I was mostly acting for the Feynapotter Kingdom's ambassador, some things were not acting, such as the royal family's suppression of me."
"I knew that because of the Rex incident, if there was no opportunity, I would have no hope of using the Loen royal family to advance to demigod in this lifetime. So I suggested that the royal family's suppression might as well be more obvious."
"In addition, the Beyonder ingredients for advancing to demigod were indeed obtained by myself. This is enough to show my ability, and it is also the reason why George III is willing to cooperate with me."
He changed direction and continued to draw the magic circle: "The royal family's increasing suppression of me naturally attracted the attention of the Feynapotter ambassador. Recruiting officials or officers is also one of their important tasks."
"Ambassador Tim quickly approached me. The subsequent events were logical. My secret contact with people from the Feynapotter embassy was reported, and then I had to defect."
"In order to attract the attention of the Feynapotter royal family, I 'exposed' the fact that I had advanced to demigod during this process. After arriving in Feynapotter, I showed my talent, and then captured a batch of Loen spies, showing my hatred for Loen spies."
"Then you also know that I was highly valued by Ferdinand II and gradually gained his trust."
"All of this is for today. I can have enough space and time to build this magic circle within the range of that Grade 0 Sealed Artifact."
"This is very crucial. If this magic circle is outside the range of the Sealed Artifact, our raid will be noticed by the Castilla family from the beginning, and my plan will have almost no chance of success."
At this time, the magic circle had been drawn, and the starlight liquid had just been used up. Christian threw the pen and bottle aside and stretched comfortably.
Hobert asked, "In other words, our treason is just part of the plan?"
"That's right."
"But we have already killed a prince. If we return to Loen, George III..."
Christian smiled and said, "When I told him that I had to kill a prince to gain the trust of the Feynapotter royal family, he agreed without hesitation."
"Afterwards, we can push this matter to the Feynapotter people. I can even catch a Sequence 5 hiding in the Feynapotter embassy to 'close the case'."
Only then did Hobert remember that George III did not care about the life or death of his children.
He pointed to the magic circle again and asked, "Then what is this magic circle for?"
Christian glanced at his pocket watch again. Perhaps it was not yet time, so he put the pocket watch back in his pocket: "In a while, Loen's 'Protector' William Augustus and Duke of Southville Dlink Augustus will use this magic circle to come here. There may also be a few royal demigods."
"One of the abilities of the Sealed Artifact that surrounds the Alhambra Palace is to prevent the entire palace from establishing normal connections with the spirit world, so abilities such as 'Teleportation,' 'Travel,' and 'Underworld Gate' cannot be used here at all."
"But it cannot prevent descents from the astral world. After I build this magic circle, they can first enter the astral world and then descend here accurately."
Hobert thought to himself: Fortunately, it's just going to the astral world. If it were transiting through the cosmos, then... then that seems very dangerous.
Because the relevant memories were sealed by himself, Hobert only knew at this time that the cosmos was very dangerous.
The astral world is the location of the gods' kingdoms, which is still within the protection range of the barrier.
In Hobert's concept, the astral world is probably the distance from the outer layer of the atmosphere to low Earth orbit, while the cosmos is outer space beyond low Earth orbit.
Hobert asked again: "What is your purpose in doing this?"
Christian smiled and said, "I said before when I left Backlund: What the Loen royal family owes me, I will always take back."
Hobert was slightly stunned. He remembered that the sentence that followed was: retrieve it in a way you wouldn't expect.
Sure enough, it was unexpected!
"If the plan succeeds, when I return to Backlund, I will be a duke, with a hereditary seat in the Upper House, and a 'Chaos Hunter' Beyonder characteristic waiting for me." Christian smiled:
"The 'Arbiter' pathway is too tightly controlled by the two royal families. It took me more than ten years to get the opportunity to advance to a demigod, but from what I know, this may be the highest sequence I can reach without any special opportunities.
"If I want to continue to advance, the only way I can think of is to kill a Sequence 3 member of the royal family, or kill the head of the Tudor family.
"But I am not confident in either case, so I have been staying in the Loen military, looking for opportunities."
Hobert vaguely saw a hint of excitement and madness in Christian's eyes. He suddenly realized: This is a descendant of the Tudor family. Usually, they appear steady, resourceful, and have excellent emotional control. But when the opportunity comes, they will gamble everything like gamblers, with the courage to burn their boats. Such people are the type who plan to kill the person in front of them tomorrow, but can still call them brothers today. But deep down, they are sentimental people. As long as they recognize someone as a friend, they will show their very reliable side.
He felt that Christian in front of him was a replica of the "Blood Emperor". At this moment, his temperament was very similar to the impression of the "Blood Emperor" in Hobert's mind.
In the end, Hobert couldn't help but admire Christian's perseverance and his bold plan.
He took a deep breath: "What do you need me to do in a moment?"
"This array only allows entry, not return. After we begin the action to destroy Castiya's containment of the uniqueness, it will definitely attract most of the attention within the royal palace to us. At this time, you go and find the sealed artifact that protects the royal palace." Christian said:
"I only secured the title of viscount for you, but if you can hand over that sealed artifact to the royal family, you will definitely get the title of earl.
"Of course, that Grade 0 Sealed Artifact is worth much more than an earldom. You can also choose not to hand it over, but you will have to leave the Northern Continent with the sealed artifact and be careful of the pursuit from the Loen and Feynapotter royal families.
"You can choose for yourself regarding this.
"If you successfully control the sealed artifact, ignore us and immediately use 'Travel' to leave here, so that everyone can evacuate quickly.
"If you feel it's too difficult, then find your own way to leave the royal palace and ignore us as well."
Hobert nodded: "I understand."
Today, he also had to go crazy with Christian to have a chance to get the title of earl.
Christian pointed to the black flower and said, "Remember to take it with you when you leave. The incantation to put it away is 'Secrecy'. It can make it easier for you to get rid of the pursuit of demigods."
Hobert nodded. Christian, as always, had thought of a way out for him.
Although today's action is quite risky, there are still ways to escape.
Christian looked at his pocket watch again: "Get ready, it's almost time."
He took the small wooden box that he had just hidden in the bandage. Inside was a dazzling small crystal ball, and countless insects seemed to be crawling inside the crystal ball.
Christian smiled and said, "This is an Beyonder characteristic of a 'Secrets Sorcerer'. The royal family is really going all out this time! If those adults don't pick it up later, remember to take it away."
Hobert nodded vigorously. It would be great if he could earn a demigod-level Beyonder characteristic!
Christian placed the Beyonder characteristic in the center of the array, then touched the ground with both hands and injected his spirituality into the array. The array immediately emitted a starlight-like brilliance, and the entire side hall became magical.
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