"His Majesty will see you now," a thick and deep voice said. The man easily stood at the level of Chad and Atid Daishin, which was to be expected of someone who served as a personal bodyguard to the Emperor.
And so the gate opened, and everyone entered the Emperor's court.
As for the Emperor himself, he was smaller than the seer had imagined. The throne was obviously too big for him.
It was a large, generic throne room. Jade pillars, red silk drapes, golden dragons, and decorated walls with many expensive paintings—nothing of much note.
"Hey, Shoa Shen, how are you doing, buddy?" The seer jumped ahead of others with open arms.
Calling an Emperor by his name was a sin worthy of death. Everyone knew that. Yet, the seer did so rather casually, even though they had never met before. This was a blatant disrespect. To dare to do so when all the members of the court and guards were in attendance was a death wish. All were utterly stunned.
But, quite the contrary, the Emperor's face lit up with happiness.
To the seer, it was just another blatant cliché that he recognized quite easily. The Emperor was a kid, and kids liked to hear stories. And the seer had done so much that he was simply confident that to the Emperor, he was nothing less than a hero and a character out of a story.
"I have been great. I heard the baddies beat you up. What about you?" the kid asked, slightly concerned. He was just delighted to hear the seer call him his buddy.
"I'm great! You should have seen all those other guys," the seer replied.
"Is he really casually chatting with the Emperor?" Cao Tang said, his soul halfway out of his body.
And it wasn't just him; even Liu and Lin Hua were horrified.
The rest of the court, however, had recovered from the shock and were either boiling with rage or jealousy. The seer saw it coming.
"Why don't you come closer here, little homie?" the seer spoke once again.
By the time the entire court's eyes shifted back toward the Emperor, he was already halfway down the stairs.
"No, Your Majesty..." The two attendants beside the throne put their hands forth and tried to stop him but to no avail.
The Emperor had already reached the seer, and the seer bent down to receive him.
"Don't touch the Emperor!" one voice yelled, but it was too late. The seer had already picked him up, and the Emperor was now in the seer's arms.
This sparked many nerves, and none could do anything.
"How dare he!"
"You ate chocolate, little buddy?" the seer asked.
The Emperor nodded no and looked at the seer with wonder.
"Well, lucky you're here," the seer gave him a chocolate.
"No, Your Majesty, you must not. It could be poisoned!"
"Don't dare feed the Majesty!"
The minister jumped out to prevent it.
"Oi, oi! He is the freakin' Emperor. He can do whatever he wants," the seer stared the minister into submission.
The Emperor was around 10 or 11 years old at most. Of course, he liked chocolate.
The seer could feel the bloodlust of the entire hall upon him.
"How dare you!"
"Get away from His Majesty!"
"Get filthy hands off!"
But the seer was not one to be intimidated. The entire hall just stood and suffered in agony. They would effectively be going against the Emperor's will.
"Your Majesty, he is disrespecting you. Please, get away from him," one of the ministers said.
"Well, you also said that chocolate might be poisoned, but it wasn't," the kid replied with a sharp, needle-like glare.
"Put the Majesty down!" The people of the court were biting cloth and crushing cups in their hands.
In response to all the bickering, the seer raised the Emperor up to his level and ran his eyes down the court one more time as he very slowly brought the Emperor closer to his lips.
"No, you don't dare!"
But the seer did. He planted a kiss on the Emperor's cute, chubby cheeks, and the court could only watch with eyes crying blood.
"That bastard courting death!"
"He is clearly disrespecting us!"
"Aww, you are so cute," the seer said, rubbing his cheeks against the Emperor. The Emperor did not mind the affection. He, in fact, welcomed it. After all, he was an orphan with no friends, as is usually the case.
"So, what kind of stuff do you like outside of beating up immortals?" the kid asked with curiosity.
"All sorts of things, like fine food. I even cook myself. I will make you something sometime," the seer replied.
"Wow, what else? What else?" the kid was bouncing up and down in the seer's arms.
The Emperor quickly turned towards the attendants. Only one glance was needed for the kid to convey his orders. "I want to eat fine food and arrange for these people to stay." The hesitant servants got to work.
The seer and his team spent quite a while there in the royal palace. Liu and Cao Tang went into training in the royal isolation chambers, and Lin Hua went back to management work. Zhihao returned to the alliance headquarters, and the seer, who had nothing to do, spent all his time mainly playing with the tiny Emperor.
But when he wasn't, he would spend a lot of time ordering men around and having them run errands for him or perform some other menial labor.
The seer also spent a lot of time in the library and with the royal assassins. Li Mei now worked for the royal assassins, of whom not even the Emperor knew existed, just like his father before him.
The royal assassins were a deadly force. Being on good terms with them meant a lot of subtle benefits and such. And one of Neon's companions was now a part of this group.
After a few days, it was time for the tournament. Liu and Tang finished their isolation training. It was time.
All grudges would be settled, and many more new grudges made. Many would die, and one would win in the epic showdown of families, sects, and provinces.