Immortal Kingdoms

After so much time, the original name of the beast claw's sect mountain range was forgotten, replaced by the simple name of the beast claw mountains, inductive of the former sect.

Now, this mountain range lay in the backdrop of the under-construction Blackrain City as per Leonardo's instructions and the blueprint he submitted to the Magistrate Manor of Greenheart City days before he disappeared from public sight.

Under the supervision of the eight maidens when excluding Madeline who remained behind to look after Elizabeth and Merlin while they continued their extensive studies about incorporating magic theory and runic inscriptions into magical scrolls.

For the last few years, the two accomplished a few experiments and prototypes of magic scrolls. These prototypes could be considered half successful as they have yet to fix the problem of storing energy in the scrolls in a way where the energy isn't passively circulating.

Runic inscriptions will automatically activate once injected with worldly energy— they don't conform with any affixed levels of energy reservation, while the concept behind magic scrolls is to conserve an active spell inside the runes with the possibility of triggering the spell with the injection of someone's focus.

Even regular humans have a bit of psychic fluctuations that could be directed or projected with enough focus, no matter how little their effects are.

This is the difference between runic inscriptions and magic scrolls, as the former relies on worldly energy rendering it useless to the general population, while the latter relies on brainwaves and physics fluctuations, but the key lies in finding a method of preserving the energy in the runes themselves.

Without an understanding of laws, it is nigh-impossible to accomplish this task, restricting the bare minimum of creating these magic scrolls to a superficial understanding of magic theory and a grasp of the law in question.

Both of these criteria are things neither Elizabeth nor Merlin could circumvent, frustrating the two into long nights of extensive and desperate studies— not even noticing the years fly by.

As for Madeline, she was fusing the law essence fragment into her sub-dimension, blending the laws of life and death contained within the law fragment while reinforcing the laws of smoke and the five basic elements of her dimension.

The law essence fragment was birthed from the natural world and contained a sliver of its five elements as secondary laws while the main law was that of smoke, helping Madeline establish her foundation for the future moulding and singularity realms of rebirth, hence she wasn't at all impatient to move out of the Shi Manor either.

The butlers from the Faithful Servant Association were of course sent back with sufficient rumination to their services, especially since they were sent back while their contract was yet to meet its due time.

…

Leonardo didn't know much about the arrangements of his people be it in the Shi Manor or the beast claw mountain range— now within the territory of Blackrain County.

He just knew that it was about time for the public declaration of the establishment of Blackrain County on the provincial map as an independent Monarchy, but the public announcement was carried out using Leonardo's real name and not the alias.

The alias was just a measure of protection to prevent the Jin Dynasty from politically suppressing Leonardo as he was trying to blend into the court affairs of the Luan Dynasty.

However, since that cover was blown up already due to many reasons, concealing Leonardo's presence in this region of the dynasty would prove redundant.

"Do you think Leonardo is the same guy who crossed paths with us that day? I mean, the timing clicks if you ask me," while patting the snake in her bosom, this woman in a dark red uniform asked the swordsman beside her.

Apparently, this woman's name is Reia, and the swordsman to her side was called Damian.

Although Frederick was positive of his conjectures, he didn't bother explaining his thoughts to his underlings and thus, these two could only judge based on their own discretion.

"I don't know and honestly, I don't care," Damian sat nearby in the shade of a military tent while observing the guards come and go, constructing underground tunnels and setting up escape routes, smuggling channels, and even some secure halls and a massive building. He continued, "Our job is to coordinate the black market with the people from Blackrain, everything else can wait."

He then looked around at the hundreds of divinities already shuttling through the designated area for Blackrain City, even though it was a city the size of an ordinary district for now, the number of interested divinities and saints would be mind-boggling once everything was prepared.

"You're no fun at all! Hm, I guess we will find out in no time— especially since it wouldn't be that smooth to occupy such a large piece of land if you don't have the power to protect it from the greedy bastards." With a smile, Reia stroked the bald head of her little snake, eliciting a hiss from the little guy.

What Reia meant to say was obvious, even though no one would want to destroy this place, they could still pressure Leonardo into sharing profits with them and establish some kind of a council or a group of upper echelons.

"As I said, all we have to care about is the black market, nothing more or less." Damian knew her character— if she took a liking to that Leonardo, she would go off-beat and do things she shouldn't.

"I don't think we need to wait for that long," said Reia as she looked into the distance and across the vast clearance of clear land.

To establish a city, obviously, they had to clear up the trees and level the majority of the hills and rocky terrain, hence why Reia could immediately spot three people coming from the distance, though she wasn't the only one who noticed.

A lot of people did.

By now, Leonardo's features weren't a secret due to the announcement, and the eyesight of divinities is very potent. Thus, when Leonardo, Rosaline, and Victory appeared from the distance, they were greeted by the sight of hundreds of divinities running around like mortals.

As long as the formation wasn't erected to simulate the environment of a planet or a stellar world, divinities can't fly yet.

After Rosaline refined the hidden dimension and underwent her rebirth tribulation inside it, the vampire clan people had no choice but to leave the and reside within the natural formation much like an ordinarily hidden sect.

However, she left behind the blood essence lake and pools as she didn't need them, and Siegfried could temper his bloodline and derive the laws within in order to progress with his cultivation as well.

All in all, Leonardo could be said to have an entire race under his command when the need arises, and hopefully, it wouldn't be soon.

"These people have ill intent, master," Victoria said as she furrowed her brows, feeling the malicious gazes from everyone around.

She knew that as long as no rebirth realm cultivator made a move, her master would be invincible, especially since she found out he already became a high divinity.

Still, that didn't mean she enjoyed it when people gave her master such looks, and she desperately wanted to prove she was no lesser than Madeline.

Woosh!

The wind blew past as three groups of divinities rushed to block Leonardo's path, each of them having varying expressions foretelling their stances.