At Evening…..
Second floor...
Rex was sitting in the same dining room as during the afternoon when he talked with Sung Lee.
He rested his chin on his hand while looking at Aiden, Fred, Aeneas, Van sharing the table. Drag was in seclusion so he wasn't here.
At present, Rex was in his Ye Tian or base form….
"So what do you think?" Rex asked after a few minutes of silence.
"I think me going to Beast God Temple right now is wasting once in a lifetime opportunity, I will go after I am at least a Golden Core stage expert," Aiden said with a serious expression.
"He is right, I also want to wait until I reach the Golden Core stage," Fred nodded in agreement then said.
"I am the same," Van said with a smile.
"I will go there after reaching the Core Breaking stage," Aeneas said without any change in expression.
The three on the side looked at him in admiration, his goal was big. Reaching the Core Breaking stage from the Golden Core stage is very hard, there is a 45% chance that if the cultivator wasn't able to control the immense flow of energy in the body while breakthrough then they would die that's why many cultivators don't even dare to try to breakthrough their whole life for fear of death.
The reason for which the three wanted to go there after reaching the Golden Core stage was to gain something that can help them in preparing for their breakthrough to Core Breaking stage but from Aeneas words they could tell that he was preparing for the Sky Body Formation stage… such ambition was not something just anyone could have.
If they are compared to earthlings, it was just like when others were preparing for the high school entrance exam, there was a kid who was preparing for the college entrance exam. Well, compared to all four of them there was also a cheater like Rex who was preparing for the final exam of different branches of the university at the same time when he was still in middle school.
"It's your choice, if you want to wait then it's fine. Hmmm... by the way all the beastman were able to venture in the limited area around Frozen Flame, so you people should already have the idea where this city is," Rex said with a smile.
Last month, after he made sure that strong beasts don't dare come close to Frozen Flame because of Lerna's aura, he opened the city gates for beastman to venture in a limited range around the city. They were living beings Rex couldn't keep them locked inside the city all the time. Furthermore, after they were allowed to venture into a safe zone they can also collect resources for city development.
Although there was still a lot of beasts in the area who were far too weak to sense Lerna's aura and kept venturing around, but Combat Bots were enough to take care of such beasts and the beastman were already used to living in the jungle so as long as they were a little careful it was fine.
They looked at each other.
"Misty Maze Forest… It should be near the border between the outer zone and an inner zone of the forest," Aeneas said in a flat tone.
"Hehe… you are right about the city being in Misty Maze Forest but you should replace the outer zone in your sentence with inner zone and inner zone with core zone," Rex said with a smirk.
Aeneas's eyebrow slight twitch but he didn't speak.
Everyone stared at Rex, like they were waiting for him to laugh and say that it was a joke but his smirk only proved them wrong.
"Then… King Of Forest?" Van asked in a hesitant tone.
Rex was just about to open his mouth and say… it's not King but Queen Of Forest in a mysterious way, shocking them all then enjoy the funny looks on their faces but Aeneas spoke before him.
"Shadow Lord is… King Of Forest?" Aeneas said in a low tone.
After connecting all dots he reached the same conclusion as Sung Brothers.
Rex stared at him with an expressionless face but there was a storm going on inside his head.
'Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t x 3 dammit! why didn't I think of this? Zakiya doesn't care about this title, so what if I give it to Shadow Lord? Even if other's don't believe it, it will still give a lot of mental pressure to my enemies and increase the loyalty of my allies,' Rex thought with shining eyes.
"Hahaha… Aeneas you are sharper than I thought, now you understand why Frozen Flame doesn't care even a list bit about Azure Emperor? It's because he can do absolutely nothing to us," Rex said while laughing.
Van's mouth opened wide in an 'O' shape, she was finding it hard to digest this shocking news.
Aiden and Fred looked at each other then gave a doubtful look to Ye Tian/Rex, they were shocked too but they were having a hard time believing it. In their eyes Rex was Shadow Lord, they had seen Rex fighting, they had seen him finishing off his opponent in one move but they still couldn't say that he was at the level of the King Of Forest they knew.
In their eyes, the King Of Forest was a mighty existence who could kill his enemies without lifting a finger, he should obliviously be stronger than Rex.
People often tend to fear an unknown existence more compared to the unfathomable one they know about.
Rex saw the doubt in those two's eyes and ran the gears in his brain, he quickly designed a story on the spot. He mixed the story he told to Jiang Shuang, Zkiay's story, and his real one, then edited it a little to make out the masterpiece.
"Now let me tell you the story of Shadow Lord,…" Rex began narrating his story.
The starting was his real story, how Shadow Lord got abandoned from a clan of the higher realm then rose on his own and became a strong powerhouse overlooking the masses, then the story changed into the one he told to Jiang Shuang where his fellow brother betrayed him and they fought for 3000 rounds before he.. the Shadow Lord gloriously won.
There came the third edit, Zakiya's story, after winning Shadow Lord realized that his enemy poisoned him before death. The poison made his true strength decline so he hid his identity and traveled the world while searching for ingredients to make a cure after collecting all of them he chose Misty Maze Forest as his hiding place during seclusion.
And he finally overcame the poison he had lost most of his strength, so now he is slowly recovering his strength.
Aiden and Fred suddenly understood, no wonder he didn't look like the all mighty King Of Forest... it was because he had lost his strength and was recovering.
Aeneas got lost in thought after hearing the story then he suddenly asked.
"But why are you telling this to us now?" Aeneas asked.
Rex ran the gears again and thought of 10 different routes he could go on but before he could speak Aeneas' expression changed and he spoke again.
"So that's how it was, I understand," Aeneas muttered in a low voice, though it was still audible to all those that were present.
"Hehe... as I said before, you are quite sharp," Rex praised on the surface but inwardly thought…
'What the fukk did he understood?' (Rex)
Aeneas slightly nodded.
"Brother Aeneas, what do you understand?" Van curiously asked. After training together all this time, they all began to address each other differently than before Van was most easy-going directly calling him brother.
"It's easy, all the Guardians including Master Ye are highly loyal to Shadow Lord they won't reveal a story like that to us even if they trust us because from the story alone one could guess that Shadow Lord is recovering and is in a weakened state.
But Master Ye told us this story, which only means that Shadow Lord has… recovered," Aeneas said.
The second he said that all the other three looked at Rex.
"Indeed, although Shadow Lord is in seclusion he has recovered more than 90% of his strength that's why it doesn't matter much even if the information leaks. No one can do anything to him.
One more thing there is a reason Shadow Lord made this organization, last time he rose alone but this time he wanted to have a trustable force and achieve his aim from before.
You don't need to worry about his ambitions but just to be sure… What he hates the most is betrayal, if someone betrays him then it doesn't matter how meager the betrayal is, they will be chased down until they are dead… you understand right?" Rex said with a smile yet not a smile.
Aeneas nodded. The meaning was obvious - If you betray us then you are dead.
"Well, then we already talked about the important things I called you for and I have other things to do so…" Rex spoke as he stood up.
"Master Ye wait…" Aeneas suddenly spoke.
'Isn't this Aeneas talking too much today, usually, he remains quiet,' Rex thought but still stopped.
"What do you want now?" Rex asked.
"What are your… I mean Shadow Lord's thoughts about slavery of beastman?" Aeneas asked.
He didn't know what Race this Shadow Lord belonged to but he had seen that most of the residents of the city were beastman, so he believed that if he played his cards right then he can take the help of the Shadow Lord to achieve what he wanted all along.
"No one in the whole Frozen Flame likes slavery not just of beastman but anyone, being a servant is fine but the slave isn't, we are short on time or we had already taken over the territories of the nobles around and have freed the slaves they have, but it's not something one or two people could do in a day," Rex said with a serious face.
He knew that slavery existed in the current Golden Bird Continent, not just this one, many places and sects allowed this in their territory and no one would do anything to them. After all who would go and show their justice and righteous heart if the opponent is stronger than them and they couldn't make much profit from doing it.
But Rex hated it, not just simple slavery but also the legal jobs of girls in imperials place where they will be kicked out of if they are still virgin after serving the prince and VIPs there or the man that is forced to serve as eunuchs just so that an Emperor with thousands of partners don't get a green hat. According to him, on the surface, they would make it look right but it's just because those people at the bottom have no power to retort or they would be taken care of.
If possible, he wanted to change all of that.
Building harem and buying harem are too different things, he might like multiple women but won't go as far as to forcibly claim them.
"Then Master Ye how about it, why don't we do it... there are many beastman who wants to go out there and save the people imprisoned as slaves. Even if we now have a good place to live, when we think about our people that are living a life where they can't even die on their own accord how can our heart and mind be at peace," Aeneas said as his voice got louder and his eyes went bloodshot.
Rex wasn't surprised by his behavior, he knew why Aeneas was so angry because if not for the war he would be a crown with everything he could ask for but now even the people of his kingdom have turned into slaves.
Rex cast a look at the other three who were also staring at him with a serious face, he could guess that all four of them has discussed it before coming here.
"So you people want to go out and fight on your own? And what if my people get sacrificed because of your hot-blooded state? And you two idiots have a family waiting for you what if you do not come back," Rex said as he looked at Aiden then Fred.
"Master Ye more than half people in the village have lost their family, all those who lost their family were relying on us at that time. We weren't able to save them all but if we keep sitting in our comfort zone then the people who could have been saved would perish in their nightmare," Aiden said without any change in his expression.
"If you people have already decided then I won't stop you, I will ask others to make some things to help you but remember you can't depend on Combat Bots much, you can't force any beastman in battle only those who want to accompany you will go, and lastly if you let our people die then I will abort this operation immediately," Rex said.
Aeneas nodded in agreement.
Rex agreed because he knew, that they needed to go through the baptism of blood to grow into someone who could truly take a can of themselves on their own.