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Chapter 176 Lunch Meet At The Imperial Palace (Part-1)
Chapter 176 Lunch Meet At The Imperial Palace (Part-1)
Around 8 o'clock in the evening, Genesis Store;
? <strong>*Ding! You successfully created a 9mm bullet</strong>
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<strong>*Ding! You successfully created a 9mm bullet</strong>
With no customers in the store, Mark was preoccupied with creating bullets for Feng Wu's order.
A familiar eunuch entered the store with a scroll in his hand. Every time he arrives, it will turn out to be an important matter. So, Mark stopped his work and responded to his greetings with a question.
"So, what order you have brought from the Emperor, this time?" he asked.
Chief Eunuch handed the scroll to him, "Owner Lu, this is from His Majesty."
Mark opened it and read everything. His facial expression changed from curious to that of a frown, "A lunch meeting with Ji Clan to resolve our differences? Is the Emperor trying to become a mediator? But, I don't have any personal enmity with them though. It's the Emperor that I need to take revenge on.
And I could understand if he is inviting Tishanan too but why Baltrow? Didn't he already guess its realm? If anything, he should keep it as far as possible. Well, let's go and see what they are cooking up."
After making his decision, Mark raised his to look at the eunuch who was waiting for his reply, "Return and tell the Emperor that I will come but not alone. Both of my siblings will come with me too and I expect the treatment towards them is no less than what I will receive."
"Understood," The chief Eunuch nodded firmly.
After the eunuch left the store to return to the palace, Mark returned to his work.
The next day morning, at around 5 o'clock, Allen kept a board outside of the store in which it was written that the store will be closed for the whole day. As Chang Bo was also informed before, he stayed at home.
Since he had to accompany Mark to the Imperial palace, the latter ordered him to complete his sparring session with Lin Xue early in the morning.
Meanwhile, at the living room of the first-floor residence, Mark piled up a heap of ether crystals and is busy with absorbing one after another. Since he doesn't know what might happen at the palace, he decided to focus on strengthening himself as much as he can.
Previously, when his ether quality is at low, it used to take at least 10 seconds to absorb all the energy from ether crystal but now, after upgrading it two times, it was only taking barely three seconds. His absorption rate has also increased a lot.
<strong>*Ding! You absorbed low-quality ether crystal (10 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 5 points.</strong>
<strong>*Ding! You absorbed low-quality ether crystal (10 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 5 points.</strong>
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<strong>*Ding! You absorbed low-quality ether crystal (10 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 5 points.</strong>
It took him only five hours to absorb all the remaining 4085 low-quality ether crystals in his inventory, thereby, increasing it by 20425 ether points. But still, he knew that he is far away from reaching his maximum limit.
So, he took out the remaining 154 mid-quality ether crystals and 36 high-quality ether crystals and started absorbing them too. Fortunately, the high-quality ones were bigger than the usual 10-carat crystals and are in irregular shapes. So, he acquired more ether points than he expected.
<strong>*Ding! You absorbed mid-quality ether crystal (10 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 50 points.</strong>
<strong>*Ding! You absorbed mid-quality ether crystal (10 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 50 points.</strong>
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<strong>*Ding! You absorbed mid-quality ether crystal (10 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 50 points.</strong>
<strong>*Ding! You absorbed high-quality ether crystal (17 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 850 points.</strong>
<strong>*Ding! You absorbed high-quality ether crystal (26 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 1300 points.</strong>
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<strong>*Ding! You absorbed high-quality ether crystal (22 carats). Ether energy has been increased by 1100 points.</strong>
By the end of consuming all the ether crystals, Mark's overall ether points were totaled to 66435.
"Okay, good." Mark nodded to himself. "Now that everything is set, it's time to shower… Oh… I guess there's still time."
Seeing that it was only 11 o'clock, Mark went back to sleep for a whole hour and then started to get ready.
By 12:30 P.M., about 90 minutes before the appointed time of the lunch meeting, Mark got downstairs. There Alina was ready with a double horse carriage (large-sized), which she rented while her master was busy with increasing his ether energy.
"Baltrow, after you," Mark was carrying the sleeping kitten in his arms as he stepped outside of the store after the rank-8 beast king. Because of its less loyalty, he could only speak politely towards the manticore until it gets more than 50.
As Allen shut the shutter and locked it, Mark walked towards the horse carriage, which looks larger than a normal one. Since they were more passengers this time, he asked Alina and she did it but he didn't expect that Alina would sit in the coachman's seat at the front. He realized that he forgot to mention to rent a coachman along with the horse carriage.
Walking towards the carriage, Mark couldn't help but take a second glance at her.
Even from far away, in luxurious silk-made hanfu, Alina looked like a princess from a fairy tale.
Staring at her, Mark mumbled, "I should have bought a matching veil with this dress, back then. I made a mistake. Now, I wonder which foolish guy will offend me. If it is the Emperor or a prince, then, it will give me a strong reason to declare war on Western Yarn and later, at Phoenix Empire."
Soon, Allen replaced her upon Mark's order for the latter doesn't want the passersby to think badly of him, letting her drive. Of course, in normal cases, it wouldn't be an issue but currently, he appeared to have some reputation to hold.
Mark felt pity for Allen in doing this but until the butler robot learns how to drive a horse carriage, he can only depend on either outsider or Allen, at least when traveling inside the Imperial City.
After an hour of travel, the horse carriage reached the palace. The soldiers stopped the carriage at the palace gates as Allen was a stranger to them.
Even if he dressed like a noble, here, the gatekeepers don't care unless they were sure that they can't offend the guest. The last time, Mark came in a battle tank. So, they didn't stop him because it was public knowledge that only he possessed it. But, the current situation is different.
"Stop, who are you? Do you have any permission document to go inside?" The captain asked.
"Permission document?" Allen never thought of it. He shook his head right away, thinking that they were asking him.
The captain pulled out his broadsword right away and pointed at him, "Then, you can return where you came from."
Allen opened the tiny window at the front of the carriage and informed his master.
Mark furrowed his brows. He got an urge to order the Android to attack but he managed to refrain himself from making such foolish acts and said, "tell them that Lu Zhen is here."
When the matter was solved right away and the carriage started moving forward, he shook his head, "what a lax of security. Shouldn't they at least confirm whether it is the real Lu Zhen or some imposter?"
Alina stared at him in silence. She didn't understand what was wrong with her master. Was he alright? Did consuming a large number of ether crystals affect his brain or something?
First, he felt angry for stopping his carriage but now, he was complaining that they aren't properly checking his identity.
There's nothing wrong with Mark's brain. He just hates his parents. So, he was automatically looking for faults without knowing.
As the carriage slowly moved forward, a soldier rushed towards the palace and informed of the arrival of Lu Zhen to his superior.
By the time the carriage stopped, Chief Eunuch was already waiting to welcome them. He was all smiles until Allen got down from his seat and opened the door.
However, the first thing he never expected to welcome is the manticore, which stepped down from the carriage before everyone else.
"What is this strange beast?" Chief Eunuch furrowed his brows when he sensed nothing from it. He initially thought it was a normal wild beast and looked at the door to welcome Lu Zhen but, in the next moment, his facial expression changed when the manticore stopped suppressing its realm as it felt like this man is looking down at it.