Couple of days after the breakthrough and adjusting to his increase in the soul stat, Lucien found out that the Darkness manual towards Rank 2 was worth 10 000 existence points, which was the price for direct promotion to Rank 1, and 1/10 of the price for promoting to Rank 2 directly.
He stood there thinking that with his current progress, at about 3 existence points per day and around 1000 per year, just to get the manual it would be 10 years, and to get his soul to 100 it would be another 10 000 existence points or in other words another 10 years, not to mention keeping a balanced build, and the time it would take to finish the actual promotion once he is at the peak. At Rank 1 his lifespan was around 200 years, but he had no intention wasting 1/4 of it to promote to Rank 2 in a single Path.
To get the Rank 1 to Rank 2 part of the Darkness manual from his father, he would need to show his Rank 1, and that was unfavorable, it was not sure how is father would react, he might even be tempted to dig his secret. Advancing to Rank 1 at 8 was after all almost impossible. And even then that manual was a grade below the best version of All Existence.
'It's time I reveal some cards, roping him in gently, without pushing him over.'
He was not about to rely on his status as a son too much, if there was a chance for immortality, his father could do the unthinkable, after all with endless life, he could have as many sons as he wishes.
Lucien left the part of the palace that was deemed forbidden zone, and was his living space. He was familiar with the structure of the palace, and used the shadows which were now like his new home, to sneak around and avoid as many eyes as possible.
It took him a bit longer, but he made sure nobody saw him. He was in front of his fathers chambers, there were no guards, after all he was assumed to be Rank 4, who was qualified enough to guard him.
Gently knocking on the door, Lucien remained silent, he was pretty sure his father already knew he was here, and was just being polite.
Slowly creaking, the door opened and his father came out and looked deeply into the eyes of Lucien.
"Good evening, Father."
Henry was shocked by his son, the presence he was giving off was completely different from the naive little boy.
"May we speak inside, even the walls might have ears here."
Henry was now numbed, this was an 8 year old child, but he talked like a veteran politician.
He just walked in and sat on a chair in the room, motioning for Lucien to follow in.
The door was closed by itself after Lucien walked in, but nobody paid attention to these small details at this point.
"Son, tell your father what is on your mind then."
The emperor already recovered his composure and was seemingly connecting some dots in his mind. He was after all an emperor, give him a clue and he can make out the whole story.
"I was hiding a lot father, to make sure there is no strife between me and my brothers, and to keep the internal situation of the empire at peace."
Seeing that Henry was listening, Lucien got straight to the point, not wasting time avoiding the matter.
"Then tell me, what were you hiding, and who gave you the idea, that there could be strife, if you were outstanding."
Henry clearly knew from the maids that his son liked to read a lot, and was really intelligent, but at this point, even he was stupefied at the monstrosity of a son he had.
"I read in books, how empires fell from internal strife, how dynasties perished in battles between family members. I was afraid that might happen, should you have to more than one genius son."
"Ohh, so my little boy, you are a genius now, aren't you?"
Lucien looked at his father solemnly, and released peak Rank 0 aura from his body, it was demonstrating that his Soul was already at 10.00.
The emperor was completely stunned when he felt the aura, his eldest son was now 16 years old, and he was still a bit off on his promotion to Rank 1, and that was already considered a once in a 100 year genius. He was 12 when he reached the peak of Rank 0, but Lucien was only 8, and he was already there.
'The what bloody genius should this boy be, once in a 10 000 years or even more.'
'That aura at birth, he was born to rule.'
Looking at his father, Lucien was sure he didn't push him too far, it was still within his fathers bounds of what a genius could be and what is an earth shattering secret, that was worth a son or 2.
After a while, Lucien stopped projecting his aura and that snapped Henry out of his thoughts, looking at the monster sitting across of him.
"You seem much smarter and calculative, than what you were showing in the past."
"Was all you did, slipping away or getting intentionally beat by those kids on purpose?"
"Slipping away was to explore the city a bit without those annoying guards, it was not even that hard. The beggars part, was because I knew how important was reputation and decided it was worth it, I wouldn't even consider acting that naive otherwise."
"As for the beating, I was borrowing a knife to find who sent them, and it was me beating myself, they didn't even touch the corner of my clothes. But nobody would believe them anyway."
Listening to his son, Henry showed an fondness and adoration towards this son of his, his methods were brilliant and who wouldn't want a brilliant son like this.
All of a sudden, it was not his first that was his favorite, but his third son. He didn't show any suspicion towards the explanations, after all he was sure his son was telling him all this, because he wanted something from him, and as a Rank 4 he could detect to some extend if someone was telling him a lie.
All this while, Lucien was making sure to tell only truths, because he had an hunch after seeing the abrupt increase of soul and clarity after that, the possibilities were limitless. He just skipped over parts that were sensitive and made sure to tell only the realistic parts, thus not drawing any suspicion from his father.
Surprisingly, Henry didn't even ask about his experienced during practice or how did he improve so fast. He probably wrote it off as attitude towards the path and speculated that when practicing the Darkness particles were much more gently and easy to control for Lucien.
Lucien obviously wouldn't shoot himself in the foot and tell his father, about how he cheated and used All Existence to improve his Soul. He was relieved about the missing question.