Immortal Kingdoms

Chapter 249 The Return

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"Why the long faces?" Leonardo peeked from behind the flute master's back with a faint smile, the halberd piercing through the latter's body as its frame crackled with lightning. 

Blood trickled down the poor man's chin and on the black weapon, sizzling into vapor within a split second of touch. The flute master coughed, his complexion growing paler by the second as his eyes reflected a look that gave up on living. 

His aura grew chaotic and unstable as a sign of imminent self-destruction by detonating his star core. What does the detonation of a small star imply? Leonardo didn't want to find out nor did the other three. 

"Break some distance!" 

"Move away!" 

"Why bother?" Leonardo's voice joined the conversation as the halberd buzzed uncontrollably, and even with the man hung on its helm, Leonardo spun about and tossed it like a javelin. It was like a river of lightning stretching for miles while threatening to twist space from the velocity and power. 

Boom! The man's star core and his body with it exploded. 

A violent wind and musical notes, sharp as blades, and an unbearable heat swept the region. Even though everyone was miles away already, they had to cover up themselves to block some of the residual aftershocks lest they'd be blown away off balance. No one wanted to be tossed off balance in such a heated battle. 

When the dust settled once again, everyone learned their lesson about how sly and elusive Leonardo's movement technique was. If the domains were unstable, it would prove difficult to trace Leonardo's movements through the void, hence it was very prudent of the High Elders to maintain a concentrated domain within their immediate vicinity at all times. 

"Damn it!" The High Elder with a greatsword cursed, his voice rolling into the distance and shaking a few mountains. After the dust settled, Leonardo was nowhere to be found. 

"He ran away," spoke the woman, even as dense plumes of crimson smoke wrapped her surroundings tightly. Her face was pale, and her eyes were a glaring red as she stared dumbly in the direction of the detonation. Clearly, she had the best relationship with the flute master of the three. 

"This isn't the time to be worrying about Leonardo, we need to worry more about the consequences of this fight. Furthermore, the Commanding General was nearby yet didn't bother making a move to help us, I'm afraid something must have gone wrong." Interrupted the old man with a sand gourd, his face also pale. His domain and martial intent were stretched out the most as he had to monitor the entire battlefield, but he had to hastily retrieve them during the explosion, allowing Leonardo to escape unnoticed. 

"Our dealings with House Freya, House Xia, and House Levi won't be hidden for long, we better call back the disciples and try to maximize our damage control." 

"What for? The imperial family will have to worry about cleaning their own house before they come after us…" 

"Who said anything about the imperial family? You two should be worrying about the Divine Temple and its representatives in the Eight Mountains and Four Pavilions. Although our actions didn't outright breach the treaty between the secular faction and the martial faction, we did act against the Qing Sector indirectly." 

The old man's words brought dark clouds over the faces of the other two, as they had almost forgotten about this point. If their disciples keep on harnessing the Qing military, it would spell bad news. 

They can't use 'fighting for resources' as an excuse anymore, no one is oblivious to the petty open schemes of these disciples. 

The three High Elders shared concerned glances before shooting off in three different directions, urgently at that. 

… 

As for Leonardo, if he wanted to stealthily leave, these three couldn't hope to stop him. His first goal in coming here was to entice Sierra with benefits and draw the woman from her cooperative relationship with House Freya. However, she had to go and threaten Leonardo. 

What she failed to account for was that as long as the cities were under construction, no one would dare make big waves. Moreover, Rosaline's least of worries was fighting at a huge numbers disadvantage. 

Quite the opposite actually. The more enemies, the better. Especially now that she had overcome the fatal flaw of the Bloodthirsty Territory by replicating the Bloodthirsty Armament and obtaining the Lotus of Heaven and Earth inheritance. 

Only a 9th-tier can hope to suppress Rosaline as things stood, but which sect would dare to dispatch a 9th-tier to the secular world as things stood? 

The only reason Junior Brother, a 9th-tier cultivator could roam the world without a care was because Memento Mori lacked a solid base of operations to begin with. If not for the tight lockdown around the Lush Skirt Plains Province, many of Memento Mori's rebirth realm cultivators would have flocked over. 

Half a day later, Leonardo entered the Qing Sector and changed back to his 'Attendant Ye' appearance, walking out from the shadows of the flora near the entrance to the core region. 

"What are you guys doing here?" Leonardo asked Gal and Sivan who were walking in circles near the entrance to the sub-dimension. 

"Ah! Brother Ye! Don't scare me like that!" Sivan jumped in shock, but her expression quickly softened as she rushed like a gust of wind and started inspecting Leonardo from head to toe. 

Gal walked over as well, slapping Leonardo's shoulder without much force to speak of as he sighed in relief. "You disappeared for an entire night and the following day, we were scared witless that something might have happened to you, so we didn't dare enter the core region!" 

Leonardo stumbled forward a few steps from the friendly slap and laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I woke up and noticed that everyone was out of it, so I made a spin around the district to satiate my curiosity." 

"You should have told us so," Sivan mumbled unhappily. "Let's go inside, we have skipped almost two days of work, the Military Advisor prefers punctuality above all else." 

The two didn't allow Leonardo to put in any words and carried him into the formation of their domains. Feeling helpless, he allowed the two to carry him through without putting much resistance. 

The world suddenly twisted around as the scenery changed, and the familiar stretch of the empty landscape of hilly terrain greeted the three. 

Just as they prepared to dash forward, someone stepped out from the void to greet them. Sivan and Gal instantly froze, stuttering a greeting. 

"Military Advisor!" 

The two hurriedly bowed anxiously, but Leonardo remained standing as his status was no longer the same as before. As Emily's personal attendant, he couldn't bow to her subordinates whenever he greets them. 

Leonardo clasped his hands and greeted lightly, a faint smile on his face. "Military Advisor," 

The Military Advisor gave Leonardo a long and hard look, completely ignoring the other two. A moment later, his gray eyes smiled while he said, "Good thing you're back, Her Eminence is waiting for you." 

The Military Advisor didn't give the trio a chance to speak as he waved a hand, absorbing Leonardo into his domain without affecting Sivan and Gal, then the advisor and the attendant disappeared into thin air. 

Gal and Sivan exchanged a look, shock, and excitement in their eyes. Attendant Ye didn't even bow to the Military Advisor, the only 6th-tier powerhouse below the Commanding General! 

What did that imply? His status was on par if not a little bit higher than the Military Advisor! 

The more they thought about it, the more excited they became! However, neither of them said a word as who knows which powerhouse is listening or paying attention to the events here? 

As expected, space shuddered as three people walked out. One of them was a 5th-tier, and the other two were 4th-tier. A general and two of his lieutenants. 

"Follow me, you two," said the 5th-tier general, his tone a mask of calm indifference even as he warily observed the surroundings from the corner of his eye. 

Sivan and Gal were two 4th-tier servants, and they were at the bottom levels of the 4th-tier, so they didn't even attempt to delay for a time as they agreed and followed the group of three. 

A few moments later after the group disappeared, one silhouette after another showed up, scanning the entrance formation with their spiritual sense. Alas, they couldn't find anything, leaving them disappointed. 

… 

The Military Advisor brought Leonardo to the Commander's Pagoda, gave the young man a deeper look, and disappeared with a sigh. 

No one knew what this person had in his mind. 

Leonardo didn't care to investigate this person's unfathomable thoughts. After fixing up his looks, he stepped into the vast pagoda and made his way to the third floor. 

The fourth floor and above were Emily's private quarters, and seldom would she allow anyone in. Typically, she would greet her summons and converse with them through the staircase leading to the fourth layer of the pagoda. 

"Where have you been?" 

Emily's voice drifted over from the staircase, allowing Leonardo to look up, spotting a woman clad in white and a mask descending the staircase, a wooden sword in hand.