Days Later…
A discussion that Julius promised that afternoon proceeded after a big lunch. He gathered everyone in the main hall. The senators convened, and the vacant open spaces were free for the public to sit. Chairs or not, Julius doesn’t care as long as they could listen.
How the people back home believed the outcome was a tragedy and failure of the events at The Lake of Towering Greens was up to their opinion. Julius didn’t mind the conversations and opinions while the press reopened their operations. However, one thing didn’t stick with Julius. He didn’t win that day; it was a mixed debate between various families and groups. Some shared the same sentiment: Solomon, Empress Cai, and Feng.
The three had different reasons that led to the same verdict. Empress Cai for the sake of wanting to train Julius. As of today, she hasn’t reached a full one hundred percent but is back in shape to instruct him about everything needed to have a successful reign. Nobody, not even Julius himself, understood her intentions for this. Daiyu came at the last minute, joining with the three’s opinions. She stated that victory can only be true if they weren’t holding back. Solomon was more from a critical perspective. He witnessed Julius during the battle against the Purple-masked cultivator and was well aware of his weakness of tending to hold back for a lengthy battle in a one-to-one confrontation. Ironically, in large clusters, it was the opposite. Feng was more personal, and that she would not state to the rest, but she nodded at the latter’s comment.
The rest felt more blindly supported. Julius thought it that way. They didn’t give at least a sentence’s worth of their reasoning other than a yes or no answer. Of course, having an enormous support was great. But with a blindfold isn't his cup of tea. He will try to articulate where they could be more expressive rather than being too docile.
After all the citizens entered to fill the main hall along with the senators present, Julius began. “World War Humanity Championships Campaign…I know some of you were waiting to hear what this is about. Especially the people. So, today…I’ll add various points and key objectives for us to discuss,” he stated, then directed to Feng. “The Secretary of State shall begin the details.”
Feng replied with a hand gesture and spoke through her microphone. “Thank you, Emperor. Now, as my leader has said, the World War Humanity Championships Campaign was a direct result of the catastrophic event that occurred at the Lake of Towering Greens. There was a festival that took place along with an annual battle arena tournament. Yes, it is ground zero with nothing other than rubble in every footstep. Somehow, this year was disorganized, and a total shock to the fans who were there. The innocent casualties were detrimental. That’s not the only reason this campaign was considered. The main reason was the Four Dragon Masks' arrival.”
The crowd looked at each other and concerningly muttered. The senators appeared baffled by it. One of them raised their hands up high. Feng glared at Julius, where he gave them the go.
“Senator thirty-two was recognized. Go ahead,” Feng said.
“Madam Secretary and Emperor, was there any proof of their presence? I’m sure the announcement of their recent appearance shocked many of us. However, it has been many years since the last, and they have been silent since. So why now?”
Beneath his podium, Julius grabbed the purple dragon mask. He grabbed it with both of his arms, revealed it to the hall, and raised it high for them all to see. “She was my opponent. Empress Cai, Secretary Solomon, Secretary Feng, and Senator Kang fought against them, too. In the end, we all defeated them and put them in our custody. As of this session, Senator thirty-two, we haven’t received answers from them at this time,” he answered. “Secretary Feng, you may continue.” Julius sat down as she resumed.
Feng nodded and announced the written words on her paper's few pages. “Our intention of participating in the Lake of Towering Greens was a strategic tactic intended to unite and bring in new alliances from various territorial families throughout these lands beyond the capital or government control. However, our emperor had an altercation before the match started, leading to an uncontrollable attack. As a result, the battles began earlier than the preferred time. Adding more issues to it, many casualties happened because of unexpected differences in power, causing a complete disaster…I hate to say that we lost at least an estimate of thirty thousand at the minimum.”
Julius silently breathed, despite his podium not having a mic. Before the meeting, he wanted to hide what had happened in the distorted room. Feng fabricated it into a more neutral approach since there was an altercation. There were no official witnesses, so they brought this statement.
Feng would continue for another minute before concluding the statement in the paper reports. Julius announced an intermission, leaving the senators and the people to chat.
Empress Cai, who sat beside him, leaned right to his ear. “Did you do all of this?”
“Do what? The whole thing here?”
“Yeah, the senators and this setup.”
“Me, Daiyu, and others here on this platform. Also, the Kang Family assisted. Together, we managed a functioning senate in less than a day.”
“Just be careful not to rely on them too much. My time dealing with the officials was evident.”
“I’ll keep myself noted,” Julius muttered.
The two then watched with their backs leaning to their seats. As he was about to reconvene, a scuffle broke out from within the audience. What are they arguing about? Julius raised his eyebrows before standing up from his chair. He summoned his greatsword, Licht, behind the podium. And therefore, Empress Cai stood too. She leaned halfway from behind, curious about the matter.
The scuffle was getting hot as fire. The audience broke away, giving the conflict some space. Julius sensed qi involved. He then saw the two raise their fists. In response, he raised his greatsword and launched a small qi crescent attack and flew right at the center of the conflict when the two were still angered and got themselves back up. They were going at it since they were not undistracted from their surroundings, appearing to nullify the pain. Julius dropped the greatsword and went for hard fists, punching both of their rocky jaws. One tooth dropped to the floor.
The conflict settled, and Julius ordered them to be escorted out of the hall for initiating reckless behavior. He then demanded an explanation later of what caused the confrontation. He went back to his podium, and the session continued for the next hour.
----------------------------------------
Sometime later…
Julius slumped on the couch in his residence’s living room, piecing out all the important parts of the gathering that came upon the floor. He was indeed the only one who entered the Merit Universe and survived to level one. The realization that he wasn’t supposed to be there alone. He made it out because of luck. Upon acknowledging the fact, the thought of inviting many citizens or non-cultivators who have the foundation of qi hidden inside of them to the Merit Universe as a training site. However, many don’t trust the creations of Chun. His reputation was so dreaded that his execution ordered by Empress Cai received much praise. That got Julius thinking how so far “the engineers” he met through this journey were all dead. They were found malicious or had hidden intentions. They might be good people, but their fates have ended in death. It’s true for David and Chun. Julius doesn’t believe that Chun created the Merit Universe but built an access bridge to enter its premises.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The citizens could trust Julius if he suggested certain ideas. But following his belief, he would rather have them construct one and wait for the definitive answer after a differentiable time had passed. He was going to talk to Hu soon as another update on the time distortions was needed to confirm. The last time was when she said that she could bring it down to an hour difference. That was during the maintenance process. It’s been days since that time, so he hoped she had finished.
Empress Cai sat beside him, feeling nostalgic about the residence. A little annoyed at some of the changed placement of the furniture. When she learned she had a room, that eased her. Daiyu, on the other hand, was in the kitchen doing culinary improvements. All of Julius’s key advisors were in the living room, relaxing their backs on the couch’s firm and soothing cushions. Feng was tired from her statements, rather than having physical action than sedentary activities in a vast crowd for more than an hour. Solomon was reading up pages' worth of comments and finding out if there was anything concerning technology or innovations. Hence, he was busy organizing into two stacks, one that required his attention, and the other was not.
The rest of the Skolritters were in a separate room in the residence, hanging out and resting. They aren’t interested in national politics or such duties as where they reject any offer of a role. Julius doesn’t mind their choice.
Julius sighed, rubbing his head. “I’m moving forward with inviting people to train in the Merit Universe,” he said and took a sip of green tea.
“What was it like there?” Empress Cai asked.
“It was awkward for my first experience, and I found out it was supposed to be for at least a minimum of three people to participate in a fight against such bosses. I got lucky and made it out because of my darkness.”
Empress Cai grimaced with her widened eyes. “Your darkness? Let me feel your qi,” she demanded before placing her palm directly on Julius’s chest.
Swoosh!
A whiff of black qi flashed in a blink at a strength that pushed Empress Cai’s hand away. That prompted her to ask more questions. “Have you used it?”
“Yes…more than once.”
“Good god of Yinhai,” she mumbled as if it was bad.
“It saved me when I was almost about to die on the first level,” Julius proclaimed.
“But the cost could have been severe if you weren’t careful. Not every historical cultivator succeeded and managed the darkness attribute.”
“You meant the inability to control it?”
She nodded, confirming it as the major disadvantage of the darkness attribute. She is right. Julius thought. The couple of times he used it was not entirely in his control. His mind was there, but not entirely. He felt like a semi-passenger, which could explain why he could still talk. In a way, it was in between. But he won every time he was under its influence, so that was the positive. Adding Empress Cai’s comment only pushed his silent desire to take full ownership. The only way to progress with it was definitely the Merit Universe.
For the past couple of days, he had wanted to train again after the humiliating battle. To not make others deal with the same mistake he made, he willed to bring a committed crowd as of today.
Immediately after a thought, a sense of qi reached the residence’s entrance. Julius leaned up from the couch and voiced to the entrance guards outside to open the door. The slammed vibration from the two guards’ arms opened the door, revealing the female silhouette underneath her ragged black robe standing at the entrance. Julius sighed and his mood soured. It went down even lower when he heard a second pair of foot thumps from the sole of the boots behind the silhouette. The outline of the cowboy hat vividly appeared from behind and his back succumbed to the couch. Empress Cai’s neutral face was hilarious. He could read her body language, that she wanted nothing to do with her. He grabbed a handkerchief from his overcoat’s inner pockets and wiped the back of her soaked neck filled with cold sweat, distracting him several times.
“You’re here,” Julius said after wiping off Empress Cai’s cold sweat. He didn’t think the Purple-Masked Dragon cultivator would come with Qiang, who was behind her. “Thanks for going through the entrance rather than barging in through the walls.”
“You think I’m barbaric?” the cultivator asked as she entered the residence, revealing her unmasked appearance.
Julius had seen her unmasked once before today when he briefly witnessed her interrogation without her mask before he left, as he was busy. It left him with an impression that freaked him out while leaving the military base. She had the same almond eyes as Annia, the doctor. Long brunette, shallow but dark eyebrows, natural red and thin lips, and oval-shaped face with a prominent jawline. Even her lip movement and the hidden smile were exact. A true doppelgänger. A little deeper voice and concealed aggression behind the facial doppelgänger saved the confusion, adding to the physique differences. The colossal-sized height, broad shoulders, and wide legs were the distinctions that separated her from Dr. Annia.
“No Zhou, but you don’t realize…” Julius stood from the couch and shoved his handkerchief back into his overcoat’s left inner pocket. “I was looking at a perspective of potential revenge attacks that could happen at any moment since the day at the Lake of Towering Greens screwed many. A lot have died and going through that humiliating defeat, I was cautious for the past few days without a break.”
“Are you really that concerned?” Zhou asked while feeling disheartened. “Did Empress Cai put me in a negative light in your head?”
Julius shook his head with a slight grin. “No, no. I don’t even know anything about you yet other than knowing you and her have an awkward history. However, that wasn’t my problem. It was my battle with you, and I’m humiliated by you.”
That took Zhou to heart when her face turned into a bombshell. “I did what I had to do,” she combatively responded. Qiang slowly cocked her head and walked to her seat, not wanting to get involved in a heat buildup.
“Do you love fights? Because I do…Because I do, and I think that fight was an embarrassment to where I wished it never existed. Eventually, one day we have to settle the score. Days ago, was a draw. No win…Only jokes. Everything there at the arena was a joke.”
Zhou sighed. She then shrugged, revealing her sluggish face. “That’s the first thing I could agree with,” she said, grabbing a spare bottle of baijiu from the coffee table. She chugged at least half of the bottle, which was nuts, and enjoyed it going down her throat. Everyone else stood and stared at her until she finished refreshing herself. Once she was done, the bottle was empty, and she dropped it on the table, surprisingly not shattering when the bottom hit the table.
“That was a little unnecessary, Zhou Bingbing,” Empress Cai muttered.
Zhou grimaced, taking offense when she said her full name. “I don’t need to hear from you, Empress. In fact, how are you here when he is our ruling monarch? You are not the one in charge!” she angrily replied and directly pointed at Empress Cai.
The latter stood from her couch, prompting Julius to go right in between the two. His mouthplate is closed in case he gets punched right in the face. “Now, now; we might have our differences, but this is damn not okay,” he said and summoned Licht in his grip. Empress Cai’s stabbing eyes clashed with Zhou’s electrifying purple, and Julius felt the sensation slightly rubbing the side of his face. “Are we gonna have a talk as a team, or do you two have to be dismissed?”
Licht was the only barrier that separated the two from engaging in a physical fight. Julius knew if he let it go, it would turn into a chaotic mess. A twist when a glimpse of dark smoke exited from its blade. Oh no. He looked at it, and before anything else, he knocked the two out of their confrontation stance, sending them immediately to the couch. Afterward, he flicked off the greatsword’s blade of the dark qi. Luckily, it receded, and no more action needed to be taken. Phew, that was close. He unsummoned Licht and sat back down at his spot on the couch. “Can we please at least talk about the plans in a more fashioned manner instead of fighting?” he said as his mouthplate opened. Everyone at the spot nodded, and it proceeded from there.