Dalin was stunned… Be his subjects?
Dalin shook his head "You occupied this world long before I arrived, that much is obvious from what little I've seen. There's no need to submit to me." Dalin responded. If he was still a general working for the USA he would definitely accept such an offer, but he wasn't. Furthermore, he'd rather have a friendly relationship with them rather than a relationship of king and subject.
They looked at him and realized he wasn't tricking them or anything and breathed a sigh of relief. They resumed normal posture a moment later.
"Thank you… " The Phoenix Empress thanked and Dalin nodded.
He got off his chair and walked up to Sarah.
"Come on, let's get you home, I can tell it's been well over 4 hours since I entered, your family is definitely getting worried."
She quivered… "I… I don't want to go back…"
Dalin frowned "Why?"
"When the woman of the Hidden Palace become 16… they get sterilized thus becoming infertile…" She explained.
Dalin's frown turned deeper.
"Why would they do such a thing… becoming infertile is permanent, right?"
She shook her head "It can be removed. It's only a seal anyways, and they do it with good intentions, in order to prevent accidental pregnancies, even rape, etc. However, there's an extensive process of tests, etc, for the man that the woman wants to marry unless there is already a member of the hidden palace. But… I want to be able to choose who I love without mother, father, and my aunts and uncles practically interrogating him…"
"Wait, how does it prevent rape? It's only infertility, right?"
She shook her head and blushed "No… The seal has 2 stages, the 1st blocks off the… passage… and it can be deactivated willingly. The 2nd cant be deactivated and makes us infertile."
Dalin understood now… Although it was done with good intentions, it has probably prevented a lot of women in the hidden palace from getting true partners and starting a family.
Dalin thought for a moment. "So what should I do? What do you want me to do? Cause I can't just leave the cave after disappearing for 6 hours without you by my side."
She thought with her cheeks slowly returning to normal color "I want you to pretend to kidnap me then…"
Dalin was stunned. Piss off what's probably a major power? Hell no!
Dalin shook his head "I'm only a bronze rank, although my energy is much denser than the typical bronze rank I'm still too weak to go against your hidden palace. Besides… I was thinking of getting on good terms with them, that's why I came looking for you."
Sarah frowned, she realized she had put Dalin in quite the bind.
"We could fake her death." The Phoenix Empress proposed.
Dalin was stunned… "That might work…"
He looked at Sarah "Does your hidden palace have any enemies that might kill?"
She nodded "2 of them, one of them is the Ye clan, they specialize in stealth and assassinations… Although they don't actively target our hidden palace they sometimes kill members of ours upon sight."
Dalin frowned… The hidden palace has such an enemy, it wasn't an enemy in front that's the most terrifying, it's an enemy with a dagger in the dark waiting for you to slip up that's the most terrifying.
Dalin sighed.
He looked at the phoenix empress "Can you replicate her body and make it seem like she died by their hands?"
She nodded she turned to Sarah and asked a myriad of questions like "Do they use any special poisons?", etc.
Dalin devised a plan in his head while they talked.
This plan was risky, but if pulled off correctly he could get some reputation with the Hidden Palace, and he can keep Sarah happy.
The reason he didn't try to talk with the Hidden Palace on this matter is for 2 reasons. 1, he's an outsider, nobody likes random people coming along and telling them how to run things.
2, given how the Hidden Palace treats each of its members like family, almost to an extreme, it was unlikely for them to listen to him or her. They would just dismiss it as him wanting to secretly marry her, and that might cause a whole slew of implications. As for her, they might make the excuse of her being far too young to understand true love so theirs no need to be able to have kids, furthermore there's the issue of her being emotionally manipulated.
They could even go as far as to say they're doing her a huge favor by even allowing her to even be capable of copulation in the future. Overall, there were a number of excuses they could make to dismiss both of their concerns and ignore their wishes.
So talking this out was far too risky and potentially pointless if not harmful to his interests.
He had had time to absorb about 15% of the knowledge the Empyrean Flame gave him, amongst the neatly organized information, was a list of some of its abilities. One of its abilities is to temporarily seal his memory and the other is to temporarily overlap a memory over said sealed memory… If he used these, he wouldn't have to act, he would genuinely believe she died while talking to the members of the hidden palace. That was his whole plan.
If he wanted to take it a step further it could copy the relevant memories before actually wiping them from his memory and restore them after a set time period or when certain conditions are met.
Dalin decided to give a set of instructions to the Empyrean Flame, it listened attentively and began preparations a moment later.
Finally, an hour later the phoenix empress returned with a dead body, it looked almost, no it does actually look like a dead Sarah, it even felt the same from the flesh, etc.
There was a cut on the throat of it where blood seeped out of it, it didn't go all the way through and chop the head off though.
Dalin was stunned he looked at the dead Sarah replica and then looked at the real Sarah in shock.
He looked at the phoenix empress a moment later "Remind me not to piss you off…"
She chuckled. She knew why he said that, all she had to do was create fake corpses of his friends, acquaintances, and loved ones and he would be none the wiser!
Actually… This could be used strategically in many ways… It could cause internal chaos in a force.
Just think about it. You secretly deliver a dead body to the front gate of a force, that dead body looks exactly like one of their elders and after all sorts of tests, it's proved authentic… Then who's the person who's alive and looks exactly like that elder? It would be even more suspicious if that person left the force's territory and only returned recently…
Or even worse, the sect, pavilion, or palace master of that force! Just thinking about it sends shivers down Dalin's spine.
With that, he informed The Phoenix Empress and Sarah of his plan. They were stunned, this plan was really well thought out.
Dalin decided to inspect the fake body one last time. He was surprised it even had the aura of death, which is created when one is on the verge of death, and even death essence which is created when one is actually dead.
Dalin looked at the phoenix empress with a raised eyebrow. She put her fair hand to her mouth and chuckled. "Us phoenixes embody rebirth, death is a part of rebirth so naturally I've mastered it to an extremely high degree. I'm afraid not even a half-earth lord realm existence would be able to discern this body is a fake." She explained.
Dalin was stunned. A half earth lord! What did that represent? Someone who was half a step into the first realm of the Earth Order of cultivation! They are simply unparalleled existences with terrifying foundations in this world where the mortal order is the limit.
Dalin nodded once he snapped out of his surprise, and with that, he began putting his plan into play.
The Phoenix Empress brought out a dagger and precisely cut at Dalin cutting up his clothes, etc. She also covered him in dirt, etc, in short Dalin look like a mess. Meanwhile, Dalin only grunted from the pain on occasion. Such pain tolerance surprised the phoenix empress.
Once she was done, she knocked Dalin out, upon being knocked out, the Empyrean Flame executed the instructions Dalin gave it.
Dalin's entire mind was restructured, reorganized, and optimized neatly which would allow for better memory recall, recognition, and more streamlined thinking.
If before his mind was a cluttered mountain of books, now it was a neatly organized library.
A great, tough battle, was implanted in Dalin's while the actual events were sealed away. Furthermore, the memories were moved back, to better explain it, if they were to be unsealed right now Dalin would think he entered the Yin Yang Empyrean Heaven over 12 years ago. This was done to make it more difficult to locate them in case someone searched his memories. Many other contingencies were put in place, and many other memories were sealed and altered, including the empyrean flames' existence.
Instead, it was changed to be described as a natural elemental flame treasure that had pledged itself to the leading youth and future patriarch of Dalin's 'clan' with each generation. It didn't end there, but that's the gist of it.
Dalin's altered memories would stay altered for a day, the empyrean flame would also extend this as necessary in case he was invited into the Hidden Palace, or something else came up.
After all this, the Yin Yang Empyrean Heaven sent him out of the gate complying with the orders he also gave it. With this… Dalin's first major plan in this world was set into motion!
The multiverses first Flame Empyrean of War, had made his first move!
This sent ripples throughout the oceans of fate and destiny in the multiverse… Moira, the Empyrean Dragon of fate smiled somewhere in the multiverse while darkness covered most of her face.
It wasn't just her who noticed this, though most of them only noticed a disturbance in fate or destiny and couldn't find the source.
Why? Because true Empyreans such as the Flame Empyrean do not conform to fate or destiny… They make it! They can make destiny and fate what they want it to be! That's what it means to be an Empyrean! To stand at the peak of heaven above even space, time, fate, and destiny!
An hour passed and Dalin woke up. The gate to Yin Yang Empyrean heaven was nowhere to be found, furthermore, a few moments after he left with Sarah's fake body, the Empyrean Flame madly surged out of his body creating a massive explosion that scorched the cave, per his instructions.
He groggily woke up and stumbled around. "W-where's Sarah?" He muttered looking around before his heart skipped a beat as he saw her dead corpse.
Everything in the cave was burnt to cinders, only her corpse remained untouched.
Dalin had a heavy heart… He failed… He failed his rescue attempt. He deeply sighed…
He was lucky the Violet Quintessence Flame, his family treasure managed to activate its last resort and fill the cave in flames burning the assassin to ashes before almost killing him.
Dalin was swaying slightly from his injuries.
He looked at Sarah's body and tears welled up in his eyes… He wiped his tears and cleared his head.
"Ye clan… I'll make you pay…" Dalin spoke coldly. He grabbed Sarah's 'corpse' with one hand under her knees and one on her back and began walking out of the cave slowly.
Emotions rampaged through Dalin's heart as he remembered the 'battle'. His killing aura grew thick.
When he managed to walk out of the cave he brought out a communication talisman that an elder from the Hidden Palace gave him and crushed it, its contents were simple.
[I found her… She's dead. W- I'm by the mountain in sector K5]
Dalin sat down next to the cave entrance and looked around, everything within 25 meters of the cave entrance was scorched black.
He began circulating his internal energy and began recovering his energy. Actually, the Empyrean Flame exhausted that energy intentionally, once again, per Dalin's plan.
A minute passed and a woman in black robes appeared like a ghost.
She had teary eyes as she stared at Sarah's 'corpse.'
She walked over unsteadily and plopped down on the ground.
"My child…" She muttered in despair.
"Who did this…" She asked coldly a moment later.
"Who?!?" She yelled.
"It was an assassin… I think I saw him use a signature Ye clan technique…" Dalin explained softly.