I was resting in my room. It had been hard dealing with one of the many things the Astrologer had done to me. I had underestimated the man. He would still die for thinking himself above me, taking responsibility for what he had done.
There were still residual effects I had yet to find. I could almost sense what he had done, but it remained beyond my grasp. While it was frustrating not earning crystals myself, my Empire toiled away to increased my strength while I spent nearly every moment trying to fix the damage left behind.
I was confident that the answer lay in adjusting my energy. I had already gone through my entire body. Checking each portion. Controlling the flow, inspecting the flow. I had then repeated the process a second time before one of the things the Astrologer had left behind, crippled me.
I had managed to recover, but he was not an enemy I could take lightly. Reports kept coming in about rebels, but they didn’t matter. I only had to make the occasional trip to wipe out a city personally and put fear back into the people’s hearts.
Their screams were one of the few things that brought me comfort. I rose from my meditation. I was making no progress today. I would do some research myself and inspect how other people’s energy flowed within their body.
It would be a better use of my time after the struggle I had experienced so far. If I stumbled at a critical moment, a monster could kill me. That was something the Astrologer would do. Set a trigger up for me to fall in front of danger and be killed. Even if I delivered a counter strike, it would not matter. He was a snake. Only slightly better than a dog. Since he had great cunning.
The time was coming for me to face a level 5 monster regardless. I could not afford to fall behind no matter what.
I felt something. Danger, death, from every direction. I moved, but there was no explosion. No assassination attempt. I quickly made my way through the roof to check the surroundings.
Only a single second had passed since I had felt the threat. I saw it with my energy sense. A great wave of energy. There was no escape and would be on me in seconds. I quickly pushed energy outside of my body to shield myself from contamination from another energy type.
A trick that the Master Fleshcrafter had worked out. The wave of energy passed. I did not recognize it. It was chaotic, violent, if I had to put a word to it.
What did not escape my notice was that it had come from the East. “Summon my Envoy to me,” I told a soldier who was getting to his feet after collapsing.
“Yes, Divine Empress,” he replied and rushed away. I made my way to my throne room and sat down. Something had happened and I wanted to know what.
My Envoy appeared and quickly kow-towed before the Throne of Tortured souls. Listening to all those assassins scream amused me.
“You felt that my Envoy?” I asked him.
“Yes, Divine Empress.”
“Find out the source,” I told him. He got up and gave an acknowledgement of my command before rushing away.
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I waited on my throne contemplating and thinking about what had just happened. My Lord General brought in reports how some people collapsed, but there was no serious damage through my Empire as confirmations came through that my Lords were still alive.
So not an attack directed at me. Perhaps the UCS had done something stupid again. There last foray into experimentation had decapitated their entire leadership.
My forces did not mobilize. I was not ready to fight the Astrologer just yet and would wait to see what news my Envoy brought me.
It took five days for him to return. He appeared worn and tired. As he moved to kowtow before me I waved my hand. “Speak, I wish to hear what has occurred,” I commanded.
He paused and then straightened up. “Divine Empress. The UCS is gone. I checked two cities and they reset. I moved to locate the epicenter of the event, but the Astrologer appeared before me and warned me off. There were no Valkyries with him.”
“I returned here to bring word,” he said.
“Reset, everyone. All their technology? All their buildings?” I asked.
“Everything. There were only new arrivals and the stores are all level 1. The entire UCS has disappeared.” I frowned at that.
“All except one and we don’t know about their tributary cities or the rest of their core cities,” I said calmly and my Envoy stilled since he had misspoke. But that did not concern me at the moment. This was an opportunity. I turned my head to look at my Lord General.
“Mobilize all our forces. We shall push East and take their cities into my Empire,” I commanded.
“Yes, Divine Empress,” my Lord General replied. “And the Astrologer, Divine Empress?” he asked. I frowned at this question.
“We shall pressure him and see how he responds. For too long have we stood idle. My soldiers grow fat and useless. Let them die for my glory against our hated enemy. If the Astrologer arrives personally, then I shall confront him myself.”
I was not sure anything of his remained behind. While I would prefer to fully purify myself, we needed to act. To seize the initiative and strike first. The time for vengeance was finally at hand and I would not be denied.
Still, there was a worry that snuck its way into my heart. What had happened to kill everyone? Multiple cities? The disaster of the last large-scale event had taken out a city and killed those responsible. But a region wide disaster was not something to take lightly.
While I had no doubt that I would live if the Astrologer had lived. The loss of my Empire would set me back. My subordinates had learned to properly motivate themselves to my desires. Training new ones would be exhausting.
I had far more important things to focus on. Such as my Kung-fu. It was lacking. While I had distained skills before, the Astrologer had taught me an important lesson. I would leave no source of power untapped or untaken.
Very slowly I had been testing out various skills and their effectiveness. They would add to my Kung-fu and not take away from it. This would allow me to push my fighting style to new heights. Already I knew several things that I needed to fix.
I briefly considered upgrading the Forbidden City, my capital. But I hesitated. While I had easily killed the level 4 sky worms that had attacked last time, several level 5 monsters would be a challenge for even me. I still had not killed my first one and was unsure to their true strength.
The path forward was truly unknown. Before there had been knowledge and information. But level 5 monsters were something I would have to figure out entirely by myself.
The sense of danger was thrilling, and I was never one to shy away from a challenge. I would be ready to face the Astrologer again and whatever this new threat was.
I returned to my personal chambers and slowly went through the katas I had developed for Dragon’s Talon. Each hand movement. Each twist of my foot. Everything needed to be perfectly aligned. My Kung-fu was truly the only thing that was important, and I needed sharpen myself.
I could not afford any missteps or errors in the fight to come. I would strike, without mercy, and win in one decisive blow. I smiled slightly as I thought how I would bypass the Astrologer’s exploding sword technique, sword of stars. It wasn’t a skill, but a technique he had created on his own.
Just like Dragon’s Talon. He truly was worthy of being my equal. And while I hated him and he would die, I also respected him. Just like the hunter respected the tiger. So too, did I respect the Astrologer. It was clear why the Heavens had bestowed their blessings upon him.