The ten years passed by with Raon and all the other core disciples in the same realm as him cultivating under seclusion with their masters.
After ten years, all the disciples along with their masters were gathered in the core region of the sect where even the Sect Master was present.
Suddenly, a discomforting pressure appeared on the shoulders of everyone present which seemed like an illusion as it vanished as soon as it appeared.
The disciples were shocked and looked at each other to confirm if what they felt was real or not, while the Elders were much more astonished as they knew what exactly happened... or was supposed to have happened.
"This..." Even the Sect Master wasn't left out of it as he was too unaware of the current scene as it had never happened before.
However, he received some kind of message as he hurriedly took out a talisman from his storage and brought it to his forehead.
The talisman burned out as a look of understanding appeared on his face after which he moved his head to look at the gathered crowd.
"It has been delayed is all I heard. They said we'll be informed before it begins though" said the Sect Master as he left right after.
All the Elders that had gathered quickly left with their disciples as they couldn't allow anything to happen to them till the delay was finished.
Unfortunately, no matter who asked, no one talked about anything related to that event, and the disciples forced to cultivate with their masters couldn't even ask anyone.
The only exception would be Raon, who left hearing about the delay as Junho said it'd take at least a decade and gave him a break.
His wife appeared as soon as Raon left the residence, looking in the direction he had just left.
"Why would you cover for him?" Si-Eun asked Junho.
"So? You want to trap him like the others too? You know all too well that it would be of no use to him." said Junho as he turned his face towards Si-Eun.
*Sigh* "Yeah, but it would be dangerous if something happened to him..." Si-Eun showed her concern but stopped as she slowly turned her head towards Junho.
"Oh-ho. Look who's worried" teased Junho with a soft smirk.
Feeling a chill on his back, Junho immediately looked away mumbling "How beautiful is the weather today..."
"Ahem... It's fine. Nothing will happen to him" said Junho, still averting his gaze.
"How can you be so... Wait, could it be...? No way. You?" said Si-Eun, totally surprised by his behavior.
Junho just smiled casually as the two enjoyed each other's presence amidst the silence unbothered by the absence of words as the two had spent many centuries together.
Meanwhile, Raon had already left for the Cloud Sea Empire again and this time his mission was to explore their Cloud Sea Sect Disciples' disappearance deep inside their territory.
It was a simple mission and he would be able to complete it in no time as well as get a few of their resources which was the reason he didn't mind helping them.
With this, he would help them but gain a lot on a personal level while they suffer a loss due to posting missions in Daiyu which will help him later on.
As Raon spent the next 3 years finishing the mission alongside several other small tasks to get more than the promised reward, his kingdoms were also doing the tasks assigned by him.
The two Empresses were taking care of their roles when they finally found some clue regarding the assassins they had been torturing for information.
These were the assassins who belonged to several different organizations as they had been captured for gathering information regarding Lia's death.
Of course, no one in the entire territory was aware of the reasons as his goal was to simply find all assassin guilds throughout their neighboring countries as well as their own territory.
They had found quite a lot of them throughout the centuries and with the help of the unification as an Empire, they started raiding all of them while capturing as many as possible.
The 3 years were the time that Raon took to finally arrive in his Empire after meeting Altair as she was nearing 4 years old now.
She'd be 4 years old after 375 years since Lia's death. She turned 1 year old around 80 years while it took 95 years for her second year due to the difference in time dilation.
The third and fourth took 100 years each as the time dilation had stayed at 100:1 ever since it reached this ratio due to abundant energy being made available by Raon.
The reason Raon was still at the initial stage was that he still used almost a third of his resources for the formation as well as Lia's throne and crown.
Not that anyone knew of it or would know of it to reprimand him as he was still fast with his cultivation if he did not purposely withhold his breakthroughs.
As soon as Raon appeared in his hidden meeting place, the previous queen's aunt, one of the Empresses, arrived to meet him.
She was the only one he met as she was much more focused on cultivation as well as taking care of the Empire more secretly and was better than her younger sister.
"What's the status, Mia?" Asked Raon.
"Everything is going according to plans, and we have finally raided and destroyed all assassin guilds while taking in prisoners as much as possible"
"We should be able to announce ourselves as an Empire officially in the coming century with the help of the other Empire shielding us without much resistance" said Mia calmly.
"Alright. Keep going with the plans but take me to the place where the captors are still alive" said Raon.
As Raon arrived in the underground torture rooms where the captors were being tortured, he didn't feel much seeing their conditions as he walked to the place where the sane ones would be gathered.
"These are the ones that can be used" said Mia as she left the room.
The people in the room were all assassins and had the keen judgment to be in this field, so they were very well aware that the one in front of them was the leader as well as the fact they had no chance against him at all even at their peak conditions, let alone now.
"I don't care about anything related to you. I don't want to waste my time, so sign this contract" said Raon as he took out a platinum soul contract.
All the assassins were dumbfounded but the sharp ones immediately went forward to sign it as they felt impending death if they didn't.
After 5 minutes and 131 of the assassins signing the contract, Raon took out a sword and destroyed the cultivation of the ones who didn't sign.
He took the 131 with him as he asked Mia to get information out of the ones who rejected his offer as well as keep working on this project.
As he took the 131 to an unknown place, he asked every one of them to display their best techniques as well as talk about their cultivation manuals.
These were top secrets of every cultivator, but they had already signed the contract they didn't know anything about, so what could they even say at this point other than following orders.
Raon took the next few months to understand and create better cultivation manuals for the 131 assassins as well as improve their weapon techniques by making them spar with each other.
He also gave them pills to cleanse their meridians, and impurities and at the same time heal all their hidden injuries to bolster their strength.
The 131 felt like they had made the right choice as getting stronger was what every cultivator wished for and they were getting it.
They were assassins, so they expected jobs like killing and infiltrations while Raon simply asked them to infiltrate throughout his Empire as well as the neighboring kingdoms to gain as much intel as possible.
However, this wasn't his main goal, as he asked them to train more assassins if possible and use orphans as no one would care about a few orphans going missing.
Revealing their identity or trying to betray would spell death and the rest was entirely left up to them.
Raon wasn't going to micro-manage them, so he made 1 of them in charge from behind the scenes as well as taking care of the logistics and information.
The one Raon chose was an average one that appeared the most crafty and had a lesser-than-average death aura around him making him stand out amongst all the 131 assassins.
He did this to prevent any rebellions in the future as he was well aware of a few who would for sure try to take over his Empire.
His Empire was taking shape when something that no one had expected happened which was Mia's niece getting poisoned.
Well, with Raon there, it was apparently known but he didn't have enough time to deal with everything, so he had already told Mia to deal with it of her own accord.
The culprits were the ones who wanted Mia's son to inherit it in the future against his wishes and tried killing his cousin sister to force him to inherit the throne.
It was not like it was their fault as they were unaware of the truth that Raon was the true leader, and they were just put up as puppet Empresses for his reasons.
Not many knew about Raon's existence except a few like Mia, her sister, and all the Kings as well as ancestors of the Kingdoms that they had annexed.