The Almighty Ring

The death toll was not catastrophic but it wasn’t something that one could afford to ignore. That being said, the great Theon had made his presence known to save his disciple.

What else could the emperor do? Even if he wanted to blame Jiang Fei for killing his Highlord Advisor, could he really stand against Theon?

Being an emperor required having a great tolerance for many things. One also had to be able to forgive and forget. Theon had stopped the short archbishop and even let him go free. With that out of the way, Emperor Alistair had no other choice but to let this go. In his own words, “peace be with us all.”

Jiang Fei himself had nothing to add to the table. Technically speaking, he had not consciously killed anyone. In fact, this entire matter had nothing to do with him. If there was someone to be blamed for all this, it would be Umbral Jiang Fei, although technically Umbral Jiang Fei was still Jiang Fei after all.

That being said, Jiang Fei walked out of this entire mess scot-free. Even after crashing a wedding, slapping the groom, killing an important official, disrespecting the emperor, and kidnapping the empire’s most ‘valued’ lady.

Aurelia was no longer fixated on Jiang Fei’s weakness. In fact, she now had nothing but admiration for him. This prince of hers was not only strong, but also had such a powerful master.

Aurelia had never admired those who utilized their masters to get out of committing petty crimes, but in Jiang Fei’s case, his master was one of the infamous Hidden Ones. Compared to the rest of the universe, anyone who was part of the League of the Hidden Ones were like gods.

With such a great master to guide him, Jiang Fei’s future would be as certain as the rising sun. Such a promise, such an expectation, was truly exciting.

Theon sighed and softly said, “Let’s go back.”

To be honest, he was not keen on stepping into his disciple’s mess. Jiang Fei had been such a good student, never doing anything that would cause trouble for Theon.

However, this entire fiasco only started because Jiang Fei turned into his Umbral form. If Theon hadn’t been observing him, he would have let Jiang Fei die by the hands of the archbishops.

Theon had his own reasons for saving Jiang Fei, one of which was the fact that Jiang Fei was the only other person in the entire known universe who also had an Energy Core within him.

It was already rare for someone to absorb an Energy Core to begin with, and to find one with the same kind would be rarer. Not to mention, the probability of finding someone with a fused Energy Core was astronomical.

That was why Theon paid so much attention to Jiang Fei. He would do anything to protect his precious disciple.

Back during the fight between Jiang Fei and Bargh, if the former had been killed while the latter walked out alive, the ever-peaceful Theon would have hunted down every single Bjornian alive and killed them all.

“Did you leave anything behind?” asked Theon.

“Nope!”

“Alright then.”

Theon merely lifted his hands, and the three of them—Jiang Fei, Theon, and Aurelia—vanished in a flash of silver light. Since security measures had been placed all around the palace grounds, no one should have been able to teleport out, but someone like Theon would not be troubled by anything, unless he was stopped by someone equally strong as him.

By the time Jiang Fei and Aurelia came to, they were both on the back of an extra-large Ultralisk.

Aurelia gasped. “What in tarnation…”

Recognizing the energy signature, she knew that she was sitting on top of an extremely powerful Ultralisk. Her eyes widened in disbelief and her jaw dropped in shock, leaving her lost for words.

“Fret not, this is my master’s personal ride,” Jiang Fei explained.

“This is… unbelievable… This senior must be incredibly strong to tame such a beast,” said Aurelia, immediately giving Theon the respect he was due.

Theon smiled. “You’re giving me too much praise there. I was just lucky!” He turned to Jiang Fei, glaring at him with a frown and sulking slightly. “Did you seriously cause this mess just because of this woman?”

Jiang Fei blinked profusely and could not answer. He had no idea what this woman was to him in the first place. All he knew was that his alter ego had done something for him, and in return, he wanted Jiang Fei to rescue her.

0541 chimed in too, “Captain, I think you should instead start thinking about how to explain this matter to Miss Isabella.”

Jiang Fei dropped to his knees, feeling defeated. “Oh f*ck me. He’s done f*cked me inside out and upside down!”

Jiang Fei had unknowingly left the ship without even informing the girls. They must have been worried sick about his sudden disappearance. Now he was returning with a new woman, and an extremely beautiful one at that.

How was he going to explain his way out of this? Should he tell the truth? Like so: “My alter ego took control of my body and saved this girl.”

Just thinking about it gave Jiang Fei goosebumps. He could practically see Isabella’s rage-filled reaction, while the others would surely be offended to a certain degree.

“I have no business butting into places that I shouldn’t. I’ll leave you to handle your ‘young people’ problems yourself. That aside, I can now see your problem regarding the black malice you mentioned before…” said Theon.

When Theon appeared on Alderaan, he’d done a thorough check on Jiang Fei’s body, yet he could not find any sort of trace of the black malice. That being said, he had personally observed how the black malice came to be and how it affected other people around him.

That was the evidence he needed to spare Jiang Fei. He was not himself when the black malice appeared, as Jiang Fei himself had no mind-controlling abilities nor a combat level of more than nine million.

With a speed that not even Theon could reach, the Ultralisk zoomed across the universe faster than even the military-issued shuttle craft. Just one and half a days later, Jiang Fei was back in the Domini System.

“Master, would you like to rest at my place?” asked Jiang Fei as he disembarked from ‘little’ Marshmallow, Theon’s Ultralisk.

“Thank you but I have something else to do. I am now going to Alpha Sector to investigate our little friend,” replied Theon.

He had acquired enough information about Alpha Sector but not detailed enough to be satisfied.

“Be careful, master. Be wary of the golden barrier. By all means, do not touch it!” said Jiang Fei.

Theon may be powerful but even he could still be harmed. Jiang Fei didn’t want anything to happen to his precious support. In fact, Theon was the central pillar to everything currently Jiang Fei was. If Theon was to fall, so would Jiang Fei.

Theon scoffed. “I’ll be fine on my own.” He teleported both Jiang Fei and Aurelia to the surface of Turandot.

“GAH! It’s good to be back!” Jiang Fei howled as he stretched his body.

Turandot was his temporary base while waiting for the base on Planet C195 to be completed. The mining facility had already gathered and processed lots of resources for Jiang Fei to start manufacturing his ‘antique’ weapons.

If he had not been ‘busy’ leaving for Alderaan and crashing a wedding, he would have already manufactured a few Namekian-made spaceships to be sold to the richest of the Trade Federation’s merchants.

“This is Commander Jiang Fei calling for TFC-1145 Mingsk. I am on Turandot, coordinates XXX, XXX, requesting immediate teleportation.”

As Jiang Fei ended the call to his commanding ship, he was still wondering how to explain Aurelia’s situation to the girls. Luckily, they were still at Turandot’s training grounds, giving him plenty of time to figure out what excuse to make. It had been too long since he had paid them a visit, and they might not even know that he had been gone.

A few seconds later, Jiang Fei and Aurelia appeared onboard the ship’s teleportation pad.

“My master! You’re finally here!” Kaa’lna cried as she threw herself at Jiang Fei.

He had worried her by acting extremely unlike himself a few days ago and leaving without an explanation for his behavior.