Wudang: Legends Of Qi Earth 129 Birthday Banquet IX : Hidden Thorns

Silence, there wasn't much to be said and no one could even make the move to go save Erasmus who even though he was still alive and had all his blood returned into his body, was so full of holes that he would probably bleed out in a few minutes. This was the power of a spirit king, his spirits as long as they can gain a single advantage over you; it didn't matter what stage of cultivation you were in, the Crux of the matter is that you would still fall to their power.

The shocks being felt from Alex's display hit closer to home than most, especially for the sect master of the Wudang sect, after all he was there the day the power of the blood dragon was born in Alex, and never would he have imagined that a plot to kill a threat would leave him with a power that threatened even himself.

The Emperor got up from his seat as he walked towards Alex, he waved his hands and a strip of energy seemed that cover Erasmus, slowly healing him and stopping him from bleeding out.

The emperor came to a stop in front of Alex and waved his hands, a green, robe with White and gold highlights appeared in his hands. The robe had a good and it was of an exquisite design, there was yin-yang symbol on the back, specially designed to look like the swirling of wind.

"Listen to the decree of this Emperor!" the booking voice of the emperor shook the entire hall, as everyone bowed their heads down, Alex included.

"Two months from now on the night of this young man's birthday! The Imperial Lu clan and the Wudang Sect Zhang clan would be joined in an alliance of matrimony as I hand over my beloved daughter Lu Victoria to the capable hands of this young man. Three years hence on his 18th birthday, I shall specially host a wedding ceremony for him and my daughter, and his first betrothed Anya! He shall become the royal son in-law of the empire of heaven!

As rewards for his brave actions in Macau, fighting to save lives and buying the empire time to strike a decisive blow against the demon invasion, he has been granted command of; 1000 imperial soldiers at the peak of the mortal gate, 100 commander's within the earth gate, and 10 generals at the peak of the earth gate. Also the empire will grant him special admission into the Earth Alliance Defense Academy in the kingdom of Australia to further his education and grow stronger! And finally the rights to explore and colonize a recently discovered new Dimension in the name of the empire! We expect great things from you.....Zhang Xiao Feng...Alexander! Do not let us down."

Alex still had his head bowed when he felt the robe placed on his bare shoulders, it was a lighter than he expected, but somehow it still felt heavy to Alex. He cupped his hands and said to the Emperor.

"I accept all of this gift with the deepest honor, your subject will try his best not to disappoint."

The emperor nodded his head and moved back to his seat, Alex did the same his face a blank look as the festivities resumed. He caught his mother's eye from where she was standing with Red Dragon acting the part of a dutiful wife and wearing fake smiles with Lu Wan hanging on to her dress like some overcompensated mommy's boy. She blinked, and Alex couldn't help but smile, his heart was heavy but there wasn't much to be done or said about their current situation, they did not have the power necessary to challenge the emperor, the two most promising descendants of the Zhang clan had been roped into his circle by a sham of a marriage, mother and son experiencing the same thing.

It wasn't fair, but that's life, this was life. Alex knew the Emperor had no other choice but to give Alex extra rewards than what he had promised back at the Wudang sect, because Alex had gone behind his expectations, and had in one way or another gave the emperor a resounding smack on the face by brutally defeating Erasmus. But whatever game it was that the Emperor was playing, he couldn't make any moves at will, not with Zhang Sanfeng ready to rain thunder and fire for the sake of his family, so he crafted more and more shackles around Alex, the Academy, the pioneering of a newly discovered Dimension, the imperial soldiers and finally the marriage to the princess, they were layers upon layers of traps and cages the emperor had craftily put in place to control Alex and his growth. An elaborate death trap in the form of gifts.

(You should be careful of the Cloak Alex, there's a spell on it; which if you ask me is quite smart. You're a practitioner of Qi not Mana, so it would have been incredibly hard for you to discover the spell or even more so know what it was doing. It's mapping your entire meridian and Qi channels, and doing so it would know how your power works and leave tiny triggers behind that can be used to detonate them, or serve as beacons to any other tool that could be used to countering your power and making you weak.....this fucking Emperor must really hate your guts, because the longer this triggers are in your body, they'll turn into a poison, slowly corroding your talent until you're nothing more than a normal human being.

Now don't worry too much, the Mantle can keep it at bay, but to completely eliminate it's effects you have to complete either the fire mask or the blood mask and also get another mask spirit, two would be nice as it would increase your spirit power and rank, there should be a cleansing of your entire body and energy once you get to the Lord rank. But for now, we can hold it at bay while you get stronger, but not forever so get to it.)

To say Alex didn't expect such a move would have been a lie, but then again he didn't expect it like this. The emperor didn't even waste a bit of time and was already putting things in motion to put an end to Alex, he was efficient Alex would give him that. But he's also cruel, there was just too much potential and danger in the name Zhang, and Alex bore it, in fact you could say he was the future of that name. Now it made complete sense why his father had been so reluctant about letting his son cultivate, because it meant that no matter what he did, innocent or not, the most feared man in the world would be after his life, and his mother wouldn't be enough to keep him safe, all he had to rely on was himself.

Alex gave the Emperor his best wishes and then excuse himself, he would be returning to the Wudang sect with the others first thing this night, which was good, he didn't want to be here when the destruction to the mortuary was discovered. Louis, Yun Fao and triplets followed behind, Kimiko was already outside waiting to take them home. As Alex and the others were about to embark on the ship a voice called out behind them, or rather two voices. It was the ninth princess and a man that was just so handsome or rather beautiful that Alex spent a good while staring at his face.

"Lady Anya! Please isn't there a way that I can convince you to stay a bit longer, I'm starved for your company and it will give me great pleasure if you could at least accompany for thirty minutes, it would be a dream come...…"

"No!" surprisingly it was not Alex or Anya who had said no and brought the second Prince's charade to a stop, it was the ninth princess herself.

"Excuse me? Ninth senior sister, what's the meaning of this?" He asked with his eyebrows twitching an nearly undisguised rage.

"It is as you've heard younger brother, I said…..No! Stay away from Anya or I'll kill you and your fucking alien mother! Now get the fuck out of my sight before I break something unfixable!"

Everyone watching was gob smacked and shocked by how crass the princess was, and even more so from the threat and the way she addressed and Imperial concubine, even going so far as to say she would kill both her brother the second prince and his mother, who was an Imperial concubine. Khan was the only one who seemed unaffected as he laughed without restraint, sitting back on his haunches as he pointed his right fore paw at the prince, laughing even harder at the ugly look on his face.

"I'm pretty sure there's nothing more you can say here little brother, don't you have wives to look after, get to it." This was pure undisguised humiliation, obviously the princess didn't care one bit about the ninth prince and his elven mother, so much so that every speck of the decorum and regality she was known for had disappeared and all that was left was pure disgust.

The prince stood there shocked as the princess turned to face Alex, he shifted his gaze back to hers and he couldn't tell exactly what was going through her mind, and even more she couldn't tell what was going on through his own mind. After all it has been quite an eventful night for the both of them, she raised a hand to Alex in a handshake and said.

"Can we talk? All three of us....but first let's start over. My name Is Lu Victoria Albion, but my friends call me Tori. Walk with me..... please."

Alex and Anya both took her outstretched hands, shaking her too as she led them away from the Airship into the night, all for a conversation that will change the course of history and be the first spark that brought down not just the empire of heaven...…but also the empire of heaven and the powers behind them, a revolution across a thousand worlds! A spirit King and his future Queens.

Chapter end