Hail the King

The chilly wind of the winter roared, and it pulled on thousands of long flags in the air. These long flags were like dragons that were about to break free and fly away.

The arrival of Emperor Yassin didn’t mean that the sacrificial ceremony would start right away.

The bishop of the branch of Holy Church in Zenit wasn’t there yet.

This ceremony felt very strange from the beginning.

From the tradition, the bishop should have arrived before the emperor to show respect and good faith. After all, although the Holy Church was overbearing on the continent, they were really rigid in terms of keeping the traditions and etiquettes. However, the bishop had broken this unspoken rule today unexpectedly by not showing up on time.

The silence of the long wait was unbearable.

The chilling winter made some of the weaker warriors shiver in the cold.

“Start!”

As everyone thought that the wait was going to continue, a light voice sounded from the ninth-floor of the stage.

The voice sounded majestic and unyielding. Although it was full of power, Fei could feel the tiredness and loneliness. Also, there was a slight aging tone in the voice, and that made Fei a little sad.

Whoosh!

A fist mark dashed out of the throne as the emperor said that.

The white bulls that were lying on the white blankets comfortably were cut in half. They didn’t get the chance to scream, and none of the blood was spilled. The hearts were also cut in half; although heat came off of them as they continued to pump, they soon froze!

“Rest of …… you two can take care of it.” The voice sounded again on the throne.

“Yes, as you wish!” The two princes on the eighth-floor of the stage kneeled down and replied.

In the next moment, the golden throne suddenly soared into the sky.

The dragon beast that was flying in the sky sensed it and dashed down. An intense pressure came down from the sky, and the dragon beast perfectly caught the throne. Then, the four six-star royal mages flew up and guarded the beast as well as the emperor. Just like how they came, they left in the same manner. Like dashes of light, they soon disappeared into the Royal Palace that was far inside St. Petersburg.

Emperor Yassin left like that?

No one expected this.

This was something that had never happened before!

A ton of chatters and murmured sounded among the formations of soldiers. However, they soon disappeared.

The reason was that the two princes had already started to proceed with the rest of the sacrificial ceremony and the competition.

Fei, on the other hand, lost all interests in continue watching. He was completely focused on the image of Emperor Yassin. What did the invincible emperor who dominated the empires around Zenit look like now?

From all of the strange things that had happened, it seemed like the emperor was really in a bad condition. He stayed less than ten minutes. Perhaps his body wasn’t able to take it, and he had to leave quickly to rest.

Fei was more powerful than the people around him, and he vaguely heard a few light coughs followed by a series of light fast-breathings.

That sounded like a patient who was struggling to stay alive.

Was the pillar of the empire going to collapse?

……

……

After three hours, the sacrificial ceremony finished under the hosting of the two princes. The first round of ranking matches was going to take place in the afternoon.

There were fifty Sword Testing Stages, and there were five regions. Each of the battle regions received ten stages.

The first round of the matches was going to take place soon.

Chambord got its first opponent in a randomized draw – the Gude Kingdom who had the number of 42.

The Gude Kingdom was also located in the northern region of Zenit; it was a level 3 affiliated kingdom. Since the two kingdoms weren’t adjacent to each other, there weren’t any relationships between them. This Gude Kingdom was a top-tier level 3 affiliated kingdom. Its prince Drenthe was one of the [Seven Wolves] named [Black Wolf]. He had a good individual strength, and the power level of the kingdom was good as well with three hundred elite soldiers.

Many people thought that the Gude Kingdom had a chance to advance to a level 2 affiliated kingdom in this competition; no one expected them to face Chambord so early on. Now, their outlook wasn’t as bright.

Sword Testing Stage No.44.

Numerous people surrounding the stage. Popular stages where kingdoms such as Chambord would fight on were all crowded. Except for the two resting areas of the two kingdoms as well as a VIP viewing area, everywhere else was packed. All of the crowd were looking up and waiting for the individual ranking matches between Chambord and Gude.

“Hehe, I think this Gude Kingdom can just surrender after seeing the king of Chambord. As long as they save their strength, they might have a better chance of going through the losers’ bracket and getting a good ranking. If they fight with Chambord, they would lose and suffer casualties.”

“Eh, from the look of it, surrendering is the best alternative. Facing a tough opponent like Chambord, no one would laugh at them for doing so.”

“Huh? Someone got on the stage…… Look, Gude sent someone up……”

“They chose to battle Chambord? Could it be that they have some trump cards as well?”

Most of the people in the crowd were here to witness the battles. Some of them were warriors who wanted to see the fights between master warriors and better themselves, some of them were mercenaries, and some of them were scouts from other kingdoms…… merchants who wanted to sell stuff, gamblers who wanted to win bets, traveling poets who wanted inspirations for their stories…… there were all kinds of people.

There were people who thought that the Gude Kingdom would surrender, but they were surprised by the first warrior from the Gude Kingdom who jumped onto the stage from the resting area. The crowd started to chatter.

The first Gude Warrior was a tough-looking bearded man who was bulky and wearing a black chain armor. He was also wearing a bone helmet and held a pair of huge clubs with iron spikes on them.

After he jumped onto the stage, he swung his clubs and created a series of terrifying air-piercing noise.

Boom! He smashed his clubs against the floor of the stage, and sparks appeared and loud noises sounded. This ignited the excitement of the crowd. The crowd cheered on as the man patted his chest, showed off his muscular body, and provoked at Chambord.

“Provocation? Who is going to take care of him for us?” Fei sat on the tallest stone throne in the resting area as he asked.

“Your majesty, let me go!” Fatty Oleg grinned. He walked up and volunteered as his fat wiggled on his body.

“Let me go instead. I will go first!” Other master warriors of Chambord stood up and all wanted to go.

Finally, Fei’s eyes landed on Peter-Cech.

The strength of this commander couldn’t be ignored. However, this general had been working hard and taking care of everything at the military. That was the reason why the king could live such a chaos-free life.

The commander didn’t get the chance to show off his power all this time. On Azeroth Continent, it would be hard for a commander to control a force if he or she couldn’t convince his or her subordinates using his or her strength.

Fei decided to give this opportunity to this low-key commander.

“Remember! Be clean, but don’t kill.” Fei reminded the commander; he didn’t want to create a lot of new enemies from this competition.

“Glory represents my life!” Cech understood Fei’s intent for letting him go first. He kneeled down to thank the king, and then he stood up and appeared on the 44th Sword Testing Stage.

Such a fast moving technique!

All of the cheerings for the warrior of Gude paused. This simple way that Cech used to get onto the stage showed the crowd what he was capable of. The crowd knew that Chambord also sent a powerful warrior.

In the same time, the warrior from Gude who was showing off and provoking stopped as well; he observed Cech with his vicious eyes.

“Battle! Battle! Battle! Battle! Battle! Battle! Battle!!!”

The crowd started to cheer again. Everyone was shouting with their hands in the air, and they were waiting for hyped battles to occur. The fight between these two master warriors was about to occur! A light blue sphere covered the stage; it meant that the protective magic array around the stage got activated! The battle began!

“Haha, take this! Tiny Chambordian!”

A light yellow warrior energy flame appeared on this bearded Gude warrior. This warrior had an earth-elemental warrior energy, and it represented a ton of defense as well as strength. This man with the black chain armor charged at Cech ferociously like a demon beast.

Woooooo!

Two huge clubs that were about six to seven hundred pounds each smashed down at Cech’s head viciously one after another. They were being swung so fast that they looked like two dark clouds.