Unsealing Emptiness

386 Street Brawl.

Ozul descended to the ground in a discrete location near the Palace grounds.

As he was now on the ground, he could see that while there was indeed a barrier protecting the entire area, it did not hide the power of those people inside.

So the fact that he did not feel so much aura from inside the Palace probably meant that not even two peak Origin Realm cultivators resided inside.

‘Or they might just be using Spiritual Tools to hide their aura...’

Sighing, Ozul shook his head in dismay. Even with his heightened senses and newly improved abilities, he couldn’t be so arrogant as to assume that he could bypass every Spiritual Tool.

But he soon diverted his attention to the task at hand. He couldn’t be bothered with how many peak Origin Realm experts were inside the palace when he hadn’t yet even fought someone at the initial stage with full power to test his strength.

‘I should quickly go back and absorb the Spiritual Cores,’ he made a reminder to himself after he remembered he had thrown the Cores to Raven for safekeeping.

Having given up on the Palace, Ozul roamed the busy streets to get a gist of the situation.

Although the streets were wide, there was still only a narrow space in the middle for carts and wagons to pass by. The rest of the space was mostly occupied by the crowd and the vendors.

.....

What made Ozul suspicious of the situation around the Capital was the fact that he had noticed a little too many cultivators along the way and now even in the busy market.

Ordinary folks were visibly on edge around these ruffians who were seemingly the majority on the streets.

Gauging their emotions at once was a difficult task, but he had slowly started getting used to it.

Based on their emotions and feelings directed towards these sell-swords, he was now sure of the fact the appearance of these people wasn’t commonplace in the Capital.

A man without a trace of Spiritual Essence going around and asking questions would surely garner attention, so he decided to simply roam the Capital first.

Though there was no rain, the weather was still as pleasant as it could be.

As he strolled through the place aimlessly, his focus remained on the idle talks of the people.

Sometimes, he focused on the talk of these cultivators while other times he heard the whispers of the common folk.

“Where is the place...”

“Leader lied to us!... He...”

“Get me...sword father!...”

For a while, he didn’t hear anything useful even though it was becoming difficult to continue listening to so many voices and feeling so many emotions at once. Still, he continued to stroll aimlessly in hopes of learning something of value.

“It has been... week since...here...!”

“How much...those apples?...”

Suddenly Ozul’s feet halted as he registered the previous conversation in his mind.

Looking around, he saw a group of four people. Two of them were men while the other two were women.

“Don’t you see all these people here?” smacking the back of a man’s head, one of the women pointed towards some rough-looking guys far away, “The recruitment is surely not false if so many people are roaming the Capital, you idiot!”

Ozul focused on the word ‘recruitment’ as he positioned himself on the side of the road. The pedestrians ignored the commotion, but he was interested. Standing in the middle with so many people passing by didn’t seem convenient.

“So what? They could have all been fooled.”

“Yeah? And who would play such a trick on hundreds of people?”

“It is just that the Imperial Prince hasn’t returned that. I saw him personally when his men declared the enrollment in his army!”

‘Ah...’

It seemed that one of the peak Origin Realm experts was recruiting people in his army.

No wonder so many cultivators were present in the capital. It seemed all of them hoped to become a soldier under the Imperial Prince, the King’s younger brother.

‘So many people in the Nascent Soul Realm no less...’

Frankly, he had thought that getting Raven, Blaze, and Zier to the initial stage of the Nascent Soul Realm would allow them to be unmatched in most cases in this kingdom.

However, he seemed to have underestimated the strength of the Blue Lion Kingdom.

While most of these cultivators wishing to join the Imperial Prince’s army were at the Core Formation, those at the Nascent Soul weren’t too rare.

Even those people arguing in the middle of the street; one of the men who kept his quiet was at the initial stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Even the rough-looking men that the woman had previously pointed towards had a man in the same Realm.

‘uhh... Well this is interesting,’ thought Ozul as he watched the man who had been pointed at, grunt and cleave through the crowd toward the woman.

Reading the emotions of that man was easy enough. He was not only drunk, but the woman was also pretty. Anyone with a bit of sense could see where it was going.

And as anyone would expect, the burly man haggard a little as his ‘brothers’ behind him laughed while whistling.

“Where do you think your finger is pointing at, lil lady?” the man caressed the woman’s hand while the latter shirked back in disgust.

The Nascent Soul Realm guy in their group shouted as he gripped the other man’s hand, “Watch your filthy hand!”

The hold of someone at the Nascent Soul Realm seemed to have been too much for the burly man as he cried for help, “AHH! Leave my hand!!” Before that man could leave his hand, however, another one of the burly men lunged at him with full power.

“Akh!”

He was thrown back when his back hit the shop, destroying it in the process.

By this point, the crowd had separated and everyone was murmuring about what was going on. Some seemingly wise common folk saw the situation and hurriedly took their leave. It wasn’t safe when cultivators were caught in a brawl.

While the crowd all scurried away, Ozul stood in the corner, spectating waves and waves of Spiritual Essence trying to overpower the other. They shouted curses at each other while making flashy moves. Although he did not doubt the strength behind their Spiritual Arts, it was plainly lacking when compared to the ones he had seen until now.

One might ask why he bothered to even stay and spectate a pointless brawl between random nobodies. They would be right to raise this question, but their doubt wouldn’t remain for long as the sound of horses galloping in their direction started reverberating.

Two majestic flags as high as a roof were carried by the foremost two horses.

The face of a Lion with an azure mane was etched on the silk cloth of the flags.

This is what Ozul was waiting for.

This place was dangerously close to the Royal Palace.

A fight between cultivators involving two Nascent Soul Realm experts surely wouldn’t go unnoticed by the guards.

He was waiting for their reaction. To see if he could learn something about them through this little commotion.

What he didn’t expect was the burning aura when it started making its way toward them.

‘Someone at the Origin Realm!’ Ozul’s eyes scanned the guards who started pouring in around the place to look for the source of this suffocating pressure.

‘This...’

He soon realized something. These people didn’t come from the direction of the Palace but from the opposite side.

These were surely the soldiers of the Blue Lion Kingdom’s Royal Palace, but the problem was also with their numbers.

‘...aren’t they a little too much?’

There were so many of these soldiers that they couldn’t even surround the place!

Tens of them, all on horses, had to stay at the back as they parted way for another horse to make its way forward.

‘That man...’

He was clad in silver armor, leaving only his head without any protection. His hair were of a darker shade of azure than those of Blaze. Just from his posture, you could tell that he was someone important.

Seeing such a grand entrance of the soldiers, the two fighting parties immediately stopped and started sweating buckets.

Sweeping a cold gaze over them, the man who obviously held all the authority spoke, contrary to his visage, in a soft voice, “Arrest these people. Charge them compensation for the destruction they caused and jail them for a week. If they so as whimper a sound of complaint, bring them to me.”

Although he spoke lightly, the deathly silence his arrival had brought helped transmit his voice to everyone gathered around the scene.

One of the burly men was about to shout a word of complaint, but when he heard the last sentence, he immediately shut his mouth, despair surfacing on his face.

Seeing justice immediately brought to his footsteps, the man whose shop was destroyed shouted in joy, “Hail the Imperial Prince!”

As if a heard of sheep, the city folk all started cheering and praising the man.

‘He is the Imperial Prince...’ Ozul measured the man from his head to the feet. There was no doubt that he was special.

The sheer pressure he brought with him was only felt by him for some reason. If these common folks could feel it, he was sure that they wouldn’t be able to breathe.

Smiling brightly at the praises, the Imperial Prince continued his march towards the Palace.

Ozul watched the man pass by him in silence.

He knew one thing for a fact. Even if he was to try and sneak an attack on him, it wouldn’t work.

There was this unusual certainty of his defeat against him in his heart.

The Imperial Prince in question, however, suddenly turned his head to look towards him.

Their eyes met as Ozul’s non-existent heart skipped a beat.

‘Why is he smirking...’

.....