As Yun Jhin was recovering inside the medical tent, the twins reported Yun Jhin's story to the crown prince, the crown prince responded to them with these words:
"Sun Sisheng might still be useful, however, my younger brother enrolled him into the army, you have said he reached the 4th stage of the ki cultivating realm? If he shows his allegiance to me you can spare him, but if he says that he will still be under my brother.. you know what to do, get rid of him while he is still weak!"
The twin's nodded at each other as they responded into the communication stone:
"Yes your highness, we will see to it!"
The duo smiled at each other as they went directly to Yun Jhin without any other stops, they woke him up the same way as before but instead of looking at an arm like before he now saw a sword near his neck, one of the brothers said with a deep laugh:
"You trash, you now have 2 options, join the crown prince's party or die, we will let you think about your choice."
Yun Jhin immediately said nonchalantly:
"I will join."
The duo guffawed as they looked at Yun Jhin and said:
"So easy?"
The twins then immediately reported to the crown prince, the crown prince frowned as he looked at his communication stone and then gave out the order:
"I have a peculiar mission that he can do in the capital, send him back, and make sure that he is fully healed."
The duo gave out an affirmative response and then closed the link with the communication stone, afterward they took some herbs from their spatial bags and made Yun Jhin eat them, Yun Jhin complied and ate them, they were supposed to be poisonous but they wouldn't do anything to his undead body.
However he put on an act as his countenance paled, then the duo smiled as they weaved their hands in some strange hand seals and inserted their ki inside his body. It was a poisonous formation that Yun Jhin easily neutralized in such a way that the duo thought that it was still in effect.
Afterward, they chuckled as they told him:
"The crown prince just got a new dog, but you will have to work for us when the crown prince doesn't order you around you trash!"
Yun Jhin smiled at them when suddenly he disappeared from the bed and appeared behind the two of them, he poked both of them in the same meridian point at the neck freezing their bodies, they looked at Yun Jhin with terror in their eyes as they realized they provoke a calamity on themselves, but Yun Jhin just patted the duo on their shoulders and said slowly:
"You see, I don't really like being controlled, especially by two pieces of trash like you, you aren't even true imperials, I will only do what the crown prince says, and to make sure you don't say anything to him."
He returned them the favor by inserting a poisonous formation in both of their bodies, one trigger from him made the pain and certain death arrive on their heads slowly.
As they experienced the first taste of the formation they nodded with all of their might as Yun Jhin unfroze their bodies then they kowtowed to him and said:
"Lord Sisheng is strong and mighty, we will make sure the crown prince doesn't hear about this!"
Yun Jhin nodded at them and then asked:
"Do you have anything special for me to ride back to the capital?"
The duo nodded hastily as they guided him to one of their mounts, it was a giant lizard at the first stage of the heavenly realm, it was pretty tame and Yun Jhin immediately jumped on its saddle and made it move towards the capital.
The twins looked at each other as they smiled ruefully and said:
"We kicked a hornet's nest."
"Yeah."
"We are his slaves now."
"Yeah."
"Can you say anything besides yeah?"
"No."
While the duo was having their conversation Yun Jhin's surroundings were changing at an amazing speed as he was getting nearer and nearer to the capital. After a few hours of the lizard running at full speed, he got to the capital's gates!
There he met with a guard that immediately ushered him into the imperial palace, there inside a secret room he met with the crown prince and the left minister.
The crown prince was a tall man around 2 meters tall, he had a long blonde mane tied in a ponytail, he wore blue imperial robes with the characters of 'ruler' and 'crown prince' on them, he had an angular face and deep blue eyes, the minister of left wore official robes, he was a thin old man around 1,70 meters with braided white hair and a small mustache on his face.
He stood behind the prince as he waited for him to talk. The prince looked Yun Jhin up and down for a little while before he said:
"I do not believe that you have betrayed my brother, my mission to you is simple, go to the dragon eating sect and assassinate him, I want to see his head!"
Yun Jhin nodded his head slowly as he looked at the crown prince and said:
"I can do that but I have taken quite the hard injuries fighting for the country, If I assassinate him I would like to be able to cash all of my merits afterward."
A glint appeared in the crown prince's eyes as he looked at Yun Jhin and he laughed as he opened his mouth and said:
"Of course, of course, as a mighty general from the army how could I deny your merits? Do your job and you should be able to get your hands on anything on the treasury as long as you have enough merits."
Yun Jhin put his hands in his robe as he took out a list of materials and said:
"I need all of the herbs on this list."
The crown prince looked at the list and nodded his head, some of them were fairly rare but he could use his authority to get them if he didn't reward his subordinates the other ones might riot on him and that was the last thing he needed during the invasion of the Earth Kingdom and the Heavenly Turtle sect.
Yun Jhin left the palace in a hurry as he returned to the dragon eating sect grounds, he quickly decapitated the second prince's body and incinerated the remains, afterward he got back to the palace and showed the crown prince his brother's head!
The crown prince clapped slowly as he observed the head and made sure it wasn't a fake one, then he took it from Yun Jhin's hands and evaporated it with ki. His mouth curved upwards slowly as he said:
"Oh second brother, would you have ever thought that offending me to such a high degree would make even your subordinates betray you? Hahahahaha!"
As the prince was enjoying his familial victory, the minister of the left whispered something to a guard, the guard came later with a spatial bag that contained all of the herbs that Yun Jhin required, the crown prince took the spatial bag and weighted it as he looked at Yun Jhin and said:
"Here's a reward for a job well done, all your merits are now clean!"
Yun Jhin frowned as he caught the bag and looked inside of it, even though the herbs were quite rare they wouldn't be worth that much, it meant that he was charging him more for the herbs but he didn't say anything, in the end, they would all be the sheep that he would slaughter, he would just need to break through the king realm and get his hands on the dragon stone, and he would be the ruler of the Long empire!
He bowed his head as he left the imperial palace, princess Mumu wanted to catch up, but Yun Jhin slowly denied her advances and said he was injured and that he needed to recover, Mumu looked at him with love-filled eyes as she traced her finger on his chest and said:
"Of course, how silly of me, go and recover, I heard you had done many things for the empire."
Yun Jhin blew her a kiss as he left, making her blush deeply as she entered back into the palace, Yun Jhin frowned inside as he looked at the dumb woman that kept pestering him, he couldn't get rid of her near the palace, and she wouldn't leave the palace grounds much either, however, to him she was just a nuisance that he could ignore.
Yun Jhin went back to the dragon eating sect grounds and dismissed everyone there, as Yun Jhin was way stronger than before they all listened to him, especially the ones that saw him decapitate the second prince, in the main hall where the prince's throne was he met Susang.
He looked a bit better than before, it seemed his marriage bloomed, however, he had tears in his eyes as he looked at Yun Jhin and shouted:
"How could you have betrayed his highness? He took care of you and took you in his sect, he gave you opportunities and sent you in the army so you can gain merit! You are an animal!"
Yun Jhin shook his head as he looked at Susang and said slowly:
"It was either me or him Susang, you should understand that all people would look after their lives instead of others, you should understand, the crown prince had me at his mercy, it was either killing the second prince or dying myself, I have gone so far with my cultivation and I feel this isn't the end of my progress, you should feel it yourself."
Yun Jhin's aura engulfed Susang as he looked at him with cold eyes, Susang eyes widened in surprise and then into fear as they looked at Yun Jhin and said:
"You, you are a cultivating monster! You are already at the 4th stage of the ki cultivating realm? How many months has it been since you came to the capital?"
He moved backward in fear, as he stepped away from Yun Jhin, but Yun Jhin slowly walked towards him putting more and more pressure on his body, as Susang finally felt that he would die, all of the dark aurae returned to Yun Jhin, he walked ahead ignoring Susang as he went to his old room.
Susang gasped for air as he looked at Yun Jhin's back and he said:
"It seems you still have some humanity left in you, I can understand that the crown prince gave the order..."
But before he could say anything else his head flew up into the air, the head looked down at its body as his life disappeared from his eyes, they turned a dull grey as the last remaining words left his mouth:
"But I still consider you my friend..."
Yun Jhin shook his head as he said to himself:
"Friends? Why would I need that, friends can betray you, friends can hurt you, friends can steal from you, there is no such thing as friends in this cold cultivation world, it will always be an exchange of benefits between two parties, if one party doesn't benefit anymore from the second one, that party will get disposed of immediately!"
He walked inside his room as he left the body there, a 1st stage ki cultivating realm expert was of no use to him anymore, only those at his realm and above would give him enough nutrients and ki.
Just like Susang thought, his newly wedded wife became a widow, but not because he went to war and never came back, but because he was foolish enough to confront Yun Jhin after he killed the prince!