Armentia continent

Shortly after Empress Una returned to Haven city, she immediately summoned all the faction executives for a meeting.

The location of their meeting was none other than the Ashura Group’s main headquarters.

In the U-shape style conference room, Empress Una sat in the chairman’s seat and watched her core subordinates enter one by one for a total of twelve members, divided between eight men and four women.

They were all accomplished martial art masters in the Innate Realm who could quickly enter the top of the A-rank Hunter list.

“What urgent news do you have for you to summon all of us, Your Majesty? Did something go wrong on the trip to the World Tree?” inquired Dominic Trick, the eldest member of the Ashura Group after the four generals.

“It didn’t just go wrong. It went terribly wrong—In fact, it couldn’t have gone any worse,” Empress Una replied with an ugly look.

Becoming a blood slave was not a good feeling.

Even now, she couldn’t tell whether she was being watched or not. But the thought that everything she did could be monitored was unpleasant, like a fishbone stuck in her throat.

Although she had never heard of the Blood Enslavement Technique, it didn’t seem like the Dark Emperor would lie to her.

After all, the Dark Emperor was a person with many means.

“What happened, Your Majesty?” Yohan Fulton asked.

“The Dark Emperor found me and used a special technique to make me a blood slave, whom he can monitor at any time instead of killing me outright. That means I will be relying on all of you to carry out my will as my own movements will be heavily limited from now on.”

The core members were immediately startled by Empress Una’s words.

“Of course, I will also give you the chance to leave the group now if you wish to return to the Dark Emperor’s side. However, I can’t promise he will accept you nor whether your position will be any better than the past,” Empress Una added.

She expected a few to leave after saying such, but to her surprise, none of them were leaving—or at the very least, none of them were in a hurry to leave.

“What do you plan to do from now on, Your Majesty?” Dominic Trick inquired with an unhurried tone.

He could only make the best choice after getting a clear understanding of the situation.

At the same time, the other core members silently expressed their intentions to wait for Empress Una’s answer.

“I’m not interested in becoming a stepping stone for someone else’s growth. As such, I plan to leave this world behind and take everything with me instead of waiting for death,” Empress Una stated.

She cannot beat the Dark Emperor, so she can only choose to run—run to a place where he cannot reach her.

“Of course, I am not simply just running to hide from the Dark Emperor. No, I’m leaving to look for opportunities and grow—grow to the point of reaching the heavens.”

Empress Una’s eyes glinted with resolution.

Shortly after sweeping a glance at her core members’ expressions before she continued, “As you all know, the Dark Emperor monopolized the world’s precious resources, making it difficult for anyone else to achieve something significant in cultivation.”

“However, the other worlds are still rich in spiritual energy and resources, not to mention they have advanced cultivation knowledge that the Dark Emperor never shared with us. If we had those things, we wouldn’t have too many difficulties in our cultivation.”

Therefore, I will leave to seek knowledge and resources and embark on the path of heaven that the Dark Emperor abandoned. What say you? Who is willing to follow me?”

“I will, Your Majesty. I also wish to embark on the path of heaven and see the realm of immortals with my own eyes.”

Regina Phelps, one of the four female core members, was the first to answer.

Shortly after, Dominic Trick and the other ten core members also voiced their intention to join Empress Una’s cause.

From their experience, they had seen that although the Dark Emperor was extremely capable, he was also too selfish to help them grow much.

On the other hand, Empress Una had offered them more significant benefits than the Dark Emperor ever since she assumed power despite not being as capable.

She was a much better leader than the Dark Emperor was.

“We will follow your will to the end, Your Majesty.”

After receiving the collective consent of her core subordinates, Empress Una clapped her hands together in an excellent mood.

“Great! Then I shall be issuing you new orders right now. Half of you will extract information from the elves we captured, and the other half will search for portals leading to the other worlds. You can decide among yourselves which of the two tasks you want to partake,” Empress Una stated.

Although a batch of 200 elves had been lost to the Dark Emperor, there were still another 1800 elves that were successfully brought back beforehand.

To avoid the Dark Emperor from finding out, she had not checked on the elves even once ever since she returned to headquarters.

After the core members decided their roles, Dominic Trick inquired, “What should we do about the Dark Emperor’s subordinates, Your Majesty?”

“There’s no need to be concerned about them for the time being,” Empress Una said after some thought, “The Dark Emperor’s new base of operation in the Asiana continent. Emperor Kasin’s faction in the Europa continent should be higher on their list of priorities.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

…

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Meanwhile, Albion and Fenriri sat on Pompom’s big head as it flew offshore on their way back to Silvercove city.

After learning about Pompom’s situation, Albion chuckled.

Although the Scruxs desired Pompom’s enormous body due to the sheer amount of flesh and blood they could obtain from it, they made the critical mistake of trying to drown a water dragon with their numbers after failing to kill it through other means.

Albion shook his head with amusement before patting Pompom’s big head and preparing to ask it to pick up the pace.

However, he suddenly paused after sensing something from the east.

“Hm?”