(MC's POV)
'Never trust a person with a perpetual smile on his face.'
Those were the exact words that a certain wise old Taoist once told me.
Before he attached me to a pole and ran away to have me fend off his debtors.
Since then, I have developed a profound sense of distrust towards them.
"S-second prince Lin Xan is planning a rebellion."
The mob cultivator beneath my sword stuttered fearfully as he looked at my face.
That smiling maniac huh.
I see.
I nodded as I slashed my sword downward.
I may be angry, but I had not lost all my sense of reasoning.
The reason why I killed those guards was to take revenge for what happened to Lily and because they were devil cultivators who had accumulated heavy bloodlust.
However, the reason why I fought against this mid-stage Spiritual Arrival expert was because of the weapons on the wagon.
Weapons of this quantity was meant for war.
Since he had no qualms about disrupting lives of the innocent for his own benefit by collaborating with devil cultivators, I saw no reason to spare him either.
That said, the problem seems to be more complicated than I thought.
Lin Xan.
That name itself is a headache for a person like me who wants to laze around.
He is the current second prince of Rein Kingdom as well as someone who will end up being its King.
In my past life, he even managed to become the adviser of Qing Shan Empire before I ascended.
Wealth, fame, looks, background.
He has it all.
That bastard is a Riajuu.
The type that we seek to explode.
(个_个)
Damn.
What is so good about that flowery boy anyways?
He is just a bit more handsome than me.
A tiny bit.
Okay, a bit more than tiny.
Still, looks are not everything you know.
I consoled myself as I made my way to the new (temporary) carriage/home.
And then I remembered.
'Didn't that bastard have an air carriage which could fly?'
Fuck.
( ・ᴗ・̥̥̥ )
Frickin Riajuu.
...…..
(Random POV, kinda like SS of mortal plane's antagonist)
The candles placed atop a bronze antique at the left of a long dining table carved from oak illumined the room with a hazy yellow light.
The light was meant for the two figures who sat at the extreme opposites of the table.
On one side was a young man who seemed to be no more than in his mid-twenties smiling lightly as he swirled the wine cup on his hand.
On the other side was an old man who was currently looking at the young man with an indignant expression. Numerous scars covered his face which seemed to represent his vast experience with fighting deadly beasts.
The young man shook his head lightly and said while gazing at the old man.
"Commander-in-chief Leo, I gave you five minutes before your death to resolve any of your last wishes. Angrily looking at me won't change anything and neither will it cleanse your body of the poison."
The old man whom the young man called Leo looked at him with a mocking smile and said.
"If my last words were 'go fuck yourself', would you register it?"
Still maintaining his smile, the second prince said while sipping the wine in his hand.
"Many people wish to do so. Although, I have not given anybody the opportunity, despite public opinion regarding the matter."
Leo gazed into the eyes of second prince Lin Xan and asked seriously.
"Why are you colluding with the devil cults? You should know about them more than anybody. After all, you-"
"It is precisely because I know. They are my tools as I am theirs."
"Just for the sake of throne, you would dare to sell your country."
The old man roared angrily with a sense of helplessness. His body was steadily failing with each passing second.
"Throne? Don't make me laugh. As if I would want to have anything related to that man if I could help it."
Second prince Lin Xan said with a rare expression of detest.
"Then why?"
The old man asked with a sense of confusion.
"Throne is merely a tool. Just as devil cults, my reputation or even my expression."
Gazing deeply into the ripples of wine in his wine cup, he continued.
"My intention is to separate the influence of all other upper planes from the mortal plane."
"To be precise, I want to decrease the influence of the four great sects. Many people have died for their whims already."
With a slight chuck filled with scorn, he said.
"They meddle in mortal affairs but when the need of people arises, they claim they are aloof."
"Each year, numerous mortals take a walk towards the gate of four sects despite great risks to beg for a pill that could save their kin's life. A pill which could be easily created by a normal cultivator if they had a furnace. Yet they ignore them."
"Each year, talented people who were once citizens of our nation leave to take the yearly assessment of four sects. Each of these times, we lose our talent."
"They claim to contribute in the fight against Church of Blood. However, wasn't the Church of Blood almost extinct about thirty thousand years ago before the arrival of four great sects. Who allowed them to grow?"
With each of his words, his grip on the wine cup strengthened until the cup shattered into numerous glassy pieces.
Wine spilt across the woody table as it dripped down to the stony floor.
"Oops, I forgot to mind my behavior."
Smiling shyly, second prince Lin Xan waved his hand to remove all wetness from the floor and his clothes using qi.
He then turned to look at the figure sitting in his front.
The old man had long turned cold with his eyes wide open.
Standing up from his seat, second prince Lin Xan walked towards the now deceased commander-in-chief Leo and closed his eyes.
"If only you did not notice my ties to the church of blood, we could continue to spar as we did in the past."
Chuckling sentimentally as he lightly closed Leo's eyes, second prince Lin Xan continued.
"You were the only father figure I had after all."