Yun Jhin started his charge while being fully covered by a transparent four colored armor, Lu Shen's eyes narrowed as he saw Yun Jhin's sloppy form of attacking, it looked like it came from an amateur but he didn't counter-attack as he sat there.
Suddenly when Yun Jhin was 2 meters away from him he moved his hands and pushed them forward, a left hook zoomed towards Yun Jhin's head at an extremely quick speed, Yun Jhin smiled as the left hook hit something solid and the man backed away then looked at his fist which was burned, frozen, and lacerated then his wound was infested with earth ki poison.
Lu Shen shook his hand as the laceration closed off, his frostbite disappeared along with his burnt skin, and the earth ki poison was removed into a dark green ball which he threw away, it landed on the earth of the sparring area and it created a deep hole inside it that recovered itself after a short while.
While Lu Shen shook his hand Yun Jhin entered his personal space and tried to plant a kick into his stomach, when his kick reached the man's abdomen he realized that his stomach wasn't there!
Lu Shen sucked in his stomach then he launched his kick hitting Yun Jhin's leg and trying to break it.
Yun Jhin retreated two steps by jumping on one leg then put the one that stood up down, the kick created a crater on the earth as Yun Jhin used the momentum to dash forward to Lu Shen, Lu Shen dashed forward as well as a smile appeared on his face.
Yun Jhin punched him in the chest but Lu Shen blocked it with his forearm then tried to hit Yun Jhin in the head, however, the invisible 'wall' from before appeared and stopped his attack before it could land on Yun Jhin's forehead by around 5 centimeters.
Lu Shen frowned as he backed away and shook his hand again, but he realized that it got harder to heal his hand and remove the earth ki poison, Yun Jhin was improving in real-time in his fight against him!
Lu Shen didn't know what to say, after all, he didn't meet such geniuses even in his travels, there weren't many people who could improve while fighting someone.
Yun Jhin wasn't improving while fighting him, he was just rusty as he didn't use this technique in a long while, so he was just recovering his previous experience.
Lu Shen disappeared as he transformed into a ray of light that shot itself at Yun Jhin, the ray of light was extremely sharp and if it hit Yun Jhin in a vital point there was a high chance of death for him, but Lu Shen wasn't that bold to try and attack mortally with Kong Luo viewing, so he went for Yun Jhin's right arm.
Yun Jhin didn't want to use formations in this fight, after all, it wasn't a life or death fight and he wanted to see how much his cultivation improved, so the invisible armor that covered his body started to become visible as he turned it on at full capacity.
The armor had four colors, in each color, there was the character of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water in the respective colors, black, silver, red, and blue.
Lu Shen eyes widened as he looked at the armor and questioned:
"This technique... it needs the four elemental jewels to be executed, you are at the 2nd stage how can you do this?"
Yun Jhin smiled but he didn't respond, Lu Shen knew everyone had their secrets, especially in such a world where one fortuitous encounter could change a man's/woman's fate, no one would want to share their secrets.
Yun Jhin armor made him invincible to those below the 9th stage in defense, that meant he could run away but not beat them, as he fought Lu Shen increased his cultivation base slowly but he realized that he couldn't penetrate through Yun Jhin's armor, it defended all of his weak spots like it was alive.
The armor was partially alive considering Yun Jhin used a lot of the souls he refined from the first jewel to construct this one, even though the souls disappeared that didn't mean they got their rest, they were recycled. Yun Jhin would never waste some good souls.
Lu Shen frowned as his aura finally reached the peak of the 8th stage and he said:
"If this attack still can't break through your defenses it will be my defeat younger brother Yun Jhin, you can even have the official title of vice-general, I came back to the capital because I will soon break through the Emperor realm and I will get a division of my own."
Kong Luo wasn't surprised by his words, Lu Shen was a talented man who worked it up the ranks with grit and tenacity along with his natural talent in cultivation, Kong Luo would miss him as a subordinate but it could also be good to have an ally that would talk for him in the court later down the road.
Yun Jhin braced himself for Lu Shen's ultimate attack, he was sure that it wouldn't be able to do much to his armor but he didn't want to have any surprises.
Lu Shen started giving out a strange aura as all of his ki started to go inward, his aura started to slowly disappear seemingly as if he turned into a mortal man without any cultivation, then he opened his mouth and a giant wave of energy came out of his mouth which traveled quickly towards Yun Jhin.
Yun Jhin didn't have enough time to dodge the wave of energy as it's speed was very quick, maybe if he was atleast at the 5th to 6th stage he would have been able to dodge it but since he was at the 2nd there was no way he could with his current physical body, but he could tank it!
The wave of energy hit him head-on, but a gigantic projection of his armor appeared in front of him and took the brunt of the energy wave, the projection started to crack after a short while and broke but the armor on his body was still intact without any scratches, the remainder of the attack struck his armored body and then it was reflected into the sky where it disappeared.
Lu Shen started to breathe heavily as this technique took a lot out of him, but he recovered quickly since he didn't use his ultimate technique at its full potential due to the self-limitations of his cultivation base.
Lu Shen gave out a weak smile as he said:
"This is a technique I derived from my ultimate jewel skill, it seems in the future the Empire will have another Sage Realm expert at the least, with your potential and youth you could surely reach that realm."
Yun Jhin bowed slowly as he said:
"You flatter me elder brother Lu Shen, thank you for the spar."
Lu Shen continued to smile as he reciprocated the gesture, it was nice to find such a young person who was both talented and humble, most people his age would have their nose so up in the sky that they couldn't see their feet if they had the same amount of talent he had, he saw countless such 'young masters' and 'young mistresses' in his travels outside the Empire.
Lu Shen took his leave as he talked a bit with Kong Luo, most of the army was present besides those outside that went on missions, they saw Yun Jhin's might all of them started to respect him, after all, might make right in this world, the stronger you are the more respect and fear you would garner from the people around you.
Kong Luo clapped for a little bit before he congratulated Yun Jhin on his breakthrough again, Yun Jhin gave him a small smile then left, he knew where he sat with his normal battle power right now, even if he couldn't fight a 9th stage King Realm practitioner head-on, he could survive him if he didn't use his true ultimate skill, and even if he did use his ultimate skill he could run away using formations.
Yun Jhin returned to his room only to be interrupted by Black Blood who said that the Emperor sent for him, Yun Jhin couldn't refuse so he followed Black Blood to the throne room.
The Emperor sat on his throne as he said:
"You have been in closed-door cultivations for almost 5 to 6 months, the first princess Sophia is pregnant and she is going to expect your child in a few months, no this isn't the reason why I called you here, I have some good news and bad news."
The Emperor sighed as he took a letter out of his chest pocket and read it there weren't many words but all of them were heavy:
"Our firstborn daughter Zula, of the Muzan household, has been violated by someone from your Empire and we demand satisfaction!"
Yun Jhin knew this was going to happen sooner or later, it seems it happened sooner, the Emperor asked him what this was about and Yun Jhin agreed that he was the one who did the deed, after all, the letter also had his portrait below the message, there was no reason to lie to the Emperor.
The Emperor sighed as he burned the letter to cinders and then he said:
"Well you took the opportunity when you could, you healed yourself and you even took the herb that was needed to the pill that you wanted to concoct, I can't say that you have done is wrong as I would have done the same in your shoes, fortunately, you haven't killed any of them and this dispute can be easily resolved."
The Emperor looked straight into Yun Jhin's eyes as he said:
"You will either marry her or get strong enough to defeat the head of her house, these are the conditions that the Zipher household had put forth, let me give you a hint, the head of her house is a half-god expert."
Yun Jhin shook his head as he responded:
"So I guess I could only marry her then, after all, how could I defeat the head of the house as I'm right now?"
The Emperor nodded at him and said:
"It's good that you understand the bigger picture, Zula is quite a beauty, and having a marriage with one of the ten top houses of the Bumi Empire isn't a bad thing, even though the Luo and Bumi Empire don't see face to face they aren't irreconcilable enemies either, they said that the wedding must be done as soon as possible because you already took her vital yin."
Yun Jhin didn't mind it one bit, he didn't care much about Zula or her opinion, having a political marriage like this would get him some benefits in the form of a dowry, he just wasn't sure what he would get.
Since Yun Jhin accepted extremely easily the Emperor immediately sent word using a communication formation and he got a response in the same moment that said:
"We will come to the Sumo Empire in ten days and we will marry them in the same day of the arrival, be ready!"
In such a patriarchal society like the cultivation one, marrying off a daughter wasn't of high importance, but who she was married off too was important.
Having a political alliance with the Sumo Empire would be a good thing for the least ranked family as they would get some support from the Emperor, having a backer in the form of a god realm expert would make sure that they didn't fall from the top 10 even if their head of the house died, it seemed there was a high chance the head of the house would try to break through the God Realm and he wanted insurance that his house wouldn't fall if he died.
Yun Jhin left the throne room and returned to his room where he sat cross-legged on his bed.
His were closed as he meditated, all he could do right now was continued refining his four elemental jewel while he waited for his wife, father, and mother in law to arrive.
Fortunately to a cultivator time would fly by extremely fast and he was summoned to the throne room exactly ten days later as the message stated.
Black Blood came to take him and helped him choose a red wedding suit then took him to the throne room.
There Zula stood near the Emperor, she had a red wedding dress on her body and a red veil was covering her face.
The Emperor stood up a few meters away just like a priest while a middle-aged man and woman stood near Zula, both of them were glaring at Yun Jhin, Yun Jhin found it strange that both of them weren't the head of the house, it seemed Zula was just talented and her parents weren't of high standing so the head of the house must have adopted her.
Yun Jhin slowly walked towards Zula, he had a small smile on his face as he stood in front of her, the veil couldn't stop the glare that was filled with both hatred and poison but there was nothing she could do as she took his hand in hers and waited for the Emperor to start talking. She was forced to marry the man that defiled her but there was nothing she could say against her adoptive father's wishes, and if her biological parents spoke up there was a high chance of both of them being executed.
All she could do was grith her teeth and curse herself for not being strong enough.
Finally, after both Yun Jhin and Zula stood in front of the Emperor, he opened his mouth to start the ceremony, everything became quiet until the Empress arrived with a pregnant Sophia in tow.