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"However…" The man hesitated, wanting to persuade further.
"It's fine. I will strike just once. The impact will be minimal. If this can help Yier grow stronger… Then this one strike is worth it!"
The middle-aged man finally sat up. When he had been lying down, he resembled a slumbering dragon. But the moment he rose, an overwhelming, kingly dragon's might erupted from his body, shaking the entire Palace Hall to its foundations. Below him, countless ministers quaked in terror.
"I, too, am curious… How is my son now? Has he overcome the first great trial?"
As a King, born with exceptional talent and a formidable foundation, the trials he would face were bound to be far more dangerous and frequent than anyone else's. His life would be filled with countless brushes with death. The most perilous of all was the beginning, the moment when he was weakest, most powerless.
When the man had left, he already knew what awaited his son. But a fledgling eagle can only grow stronger and soar higher after leaving the safety of the nest.
A king, too, must walk the path alone before he can grow into a sovereign, an emperor. A king who lives under another's shadow is no true king at all!
Sitting upon the dragon throne, the middle-aged man's aura shifted. A boundless majesty and tyrannical dominance surged forth, filling the vast, starry expanse of the Palace Hall with his presence.
"Buzz… buzz… buzz…"
The very air trembled, as though the fabric of space itself would shatter beneath the crushing weight of his kingly might.
Slowly, the man raised his right hand. The motion was agonizingly slow, his slender arm carrying a weight as if lifting a star.
Then, his index finger extended, and he gently tapped at the empty void ahead.
Chi! Chi! Chi!
In that instant, space itself split open. A crack appeared, swirling with iridescent colors that rippled and churned violently. From his fingertip surged an invisible torrent of King's Power, racing along the fissure, shooting into the farthest depths of the cosmos.
"Your Majesty!" Yi Tuo's voice trembled with worry.
That single strike left the man's eyes filled with exhaustion. It was as though that one finger had drained his strength, sapping his very spirit.
"How fares the conquest of the Ten Worlds?"
"To assault all Ten Worlds simultaneously… our empire has gained much, but our losses have been severe as well. To completely subjugate them, it will still take time."
Yi Tuo observed the man carefully, speaking softly, his tone laced with concern.
"Minimize our losses as much as possible."
The man's voice was calm but heavy. When he finished speaking, a cough wracked his body.
He bore grievous injuries; even speaking seemed to sap him of strength.
And yet, seated upon the dragon throne, he seemed like the supreme Spiritual God of this grand, boundless world, a sovereign who ruled over all creation.
At that moment, Yi Tuo's eyes flickered as he peered through the spatial crack. Beyond it, he glimpsed a desolate, void-like planet… and an enormous hand. A colossal Black Tortoise loomed beyond the void itself.
"Your Majesty, we've arrived!" His voice rang out in warning.
The moment the words left his mouth, the once-exhausted king's eyes snapped open, glinting with an icy, domineering light. A terrifying pressure swept forth, making the very fabric of the void quake.
"So, it's an Immortal Cultivator. How bold you are!"
The king's expression radiated a chilling majesty. He still held his finger poised in the same gesture, and the void before him rippled violently.
Beyond the starry skies of the Qin Empire, the Black Tortoise sneered, mocking the struggling ants below who desperately resisted him. He ridiculed their weakness with disdain.
Yet suddenly, ripples spread through the void before him.
And through that distortion, he saw a man seated upon a dragon throne, his gaze like ice, his presence terrifying and immeasurable, exuding the majesty of an emperor who ruled the heavens themselves.
"King!?"
Black Tortoise's face changed dramatically.
Someone capable of tearing through the void itself and descending directly, this man's cultivation level was beyond anything Black Tortoise could fathom.
"You dare destroy my son's world, force him into peril? For that, you shall die."
The middle-aged man's voice was calm, almost indifferent, but in his majestic eyes burned endless frost and apathy.
At his fingertip, King's Strength erupted like a roaring tide, a surge of crimson flame-like energy that blazed forth and closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye.
"The sunlight burns, crimson flames sweeping the heavens… you…!"
"You're actually…!!!"
Black Tortoise's entire body trembled violently with terror. The power in this man's fingertip alone was akin to the radiant heat of a star, capable of warming even this cold, infinite void of space!
"Szzzzz!"
That terrifying energy struck almost instantly, engulfing Black Tortoise in its blazing might. His screams echoed briefly, before the crimson flames of the King consumed his very being in only two heartbeats, erasing him so completely that not even the faintest trace of his existence remained in the starry void.
As Black Tortoise was annihilated, the colossal hand looming over Qin's Nation trembled violently and then vanished like smoke in the wind.
Far away, across endless time and space, the middle-aged man surveyed the scene with a single glance, instantly perceiving all that had transpired below.
"Three worlds already traversed?"
"Civilization has already stepped into the First Tier… at its very peak, ready to advance further at any moment."
His detached gaze pierced through layers of time and space, even spotting those hiding in the Naruto World.
"But my son… is not here."
He swept his gaze over the realm, finding no trace of Qin Yi. A soft, rare smile of warmth touched his face.
"To have progressed so far… My son has done well. He has worked hard."
The vertical pupils of the King suddenly sharpened, and his gaze fell upon the towering Realm Gate standing above Qin's Nation's capital.
"If I've come all this way, it would be a pity not to see him with my own eyes."
His vertical King's pupils narrowed, and a beam of light from his gaze pierced through the Myriad Realms themselves, surging toward the Pirate World.
Meanwhile, in the Pirate World, Qin Yi sat upon the throne of Qin's Nation. His eyes flew open.
A chilling, piercing gaze had locked onto him, carrying overwhelming majesty and an all-too-familiar aura of a King that sent shockwaves through his heart.
"My son!"
The words boomed like thunder. In the next instant, a middle-aged man seated upon a dragon throne, with a vast and majestic palace as his backdrop, manifested before Qin Yi's very eyes.
"You are…?!"
Qin Yi was utterly shaken.
The man's face and figure bore an uncanny resemblance to his own, as if they had been carved from the same mold.
After calling him "my son," the man's image abruptly distorted and vanished, leaving Qin Yi staring blankly, suspicion and shock swirling in his mind.
"That was… the father of my former life."
"No… not just my former life's father."
"He… is my father."
Memories of the man's face burned in Qin Yi's mind. His expression turned dazed, confused, because that middle-aged man looked exactly like his father back on Earth! The only thing missing was that overwhelming aura of the King's Way, the dominance that shook all existence.
"What is going on? Why did he descend here?"
A creeping sense of foreboding stirred in Qin Yi's heart.
King's World, Above Qin's Nation.
From within the rippling void, the middle-aged man sat upon his dragon throne, his mere glance restoring the shattered atmosphere, repairing the void itself so that cosmic dust and deadly radiation could no longer invade.
His cold gaze sharpened once more.
"Now… let me see clearly…"
"Who dares target my son."
His vertical pupils blazed with piercing light as he stared deeper into the abyss of the cosmos, his killing intent spreading across the Myriad Realms.
(End of Chapter)