Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon had his back against luscious greens as the gentle mother of the blue sky peeked from hollow clouds to bask his face. The fragrance from the nearby flower beds danced inside his nostrils as his heartbeat beat slower than it used to. His hair slightly fluttered and his ears picked up chirping birds as they stroked the sky.

He put his palm against the sun and saw the light narrowing between his fingers— particularly his two thin wedding rings stacked on top of one another.

“Selena, Cecile, and then Maria,” he muttered before burying his fingers against his palm as if he was trying to collect the blazing fire of the sun itself. “Hah~” he sighed before joining his hand back together behind his head.

(This world seemed to be more complicated than I thought it would be, I thought that I would have a demon lord to slay or something, but it seems like, I’m in a part of something greater than I thought it would be)

(Three worlds, Heaven, Hell, and then The Mortal World. Heaven has seven layers and so does Hell, the Mortal World, however, has multiple worlds—or continents. Three types of energy, Anti-Mana, Mana, and one source originated from the Mortal World. It seems like Mortal World’s original energy worked on both Mana and Anti-Mana cultivators, wait doesn’t that make it more powerful than both of them?)

“Crap!” Lyon got up to a sitting position before crossing his legs, “Why didn’t the old me use the energy from the Mortal World instead?! I can’t believe he blundered this! Err… I mean I, wait, no… ah forget it!” he laid back once more without even rustling his hair, not even once.

“What are you worrying about?” asked Bapho who was sitting by his side and had his eyes over Sun and Shen bullying each other on the flower bed.

“I’m not worried, I’m just full of questions,” Lyon sighed. “There are so many things in this world that I don’t understand grandpa.”

“Hahaha, there is no need to rush things out, the more you see it as a whole, the more complicated your problems become, just narrow it down to ant-size and start from there,” said Bapho. “It might not be as enjoyable as sweeping all of them at once, but it’s certainly better than zero effort.”

“You’re so wise,” Lyon grinned.

“Being wise is useful but, being wise only in thought is useless.”

“Alright grandpa, let’s stop there.”

“Hahaha, though I can tell you a thing or two if you do so wishes.”

“Hm?” Lyon snapped his eyes open before he pushed his upper body with his hands against the ground, and looked at the Calamity Goat, “Are you serious?”

“I said I can— know what I mean?”

“You will only answer certain questions,” Lyon rolled his eyes.

“Smart,” Bapho smiled.

Lyon opened his mouth but it stuck there. His eyes shifted to more confusion as he blinked. There were so many questions bottling up that he didn’t even know where to start. He sighed.

“Oh? Are you not going to ask something?”

Lyon laid back, “There are so many things that I want to know, yet some part of me doesn’t want to find out.”

“Is it really because you don’t want to find out, or are you afraid of finding out something that you shouldn’t?”

“Both, I guess,” Lyon turned to the other side.

“Either way, we are free to choose our course of action, it is our lives after all.”

“What do you think I should do?”

“That is the question that you have the answer for. I don’t have the answer nor will I be, even when the future comes.”

Lyon sighed before facing the sky once more. “Everything seems so, overwhelming sometimes.”

“Well yes,” Bapho chuckled. “After all, you are made for great things.”

“I doubt that, how great can I be if I was once dead before.”

“I mean you live now, tell me anyone else that has reached your level of mastery and be reborn?”

“Well if you put it that way,” Lyon sighed. “I wonder how great I was in the past, nobody seemed to remember me, not even myself.”

“Is that what’s holding you from cultivating?”

“Nah, I’m just lazy.”

“Hahaha, you say that, but I watched you grow, Lyon. You went from crawling to running with brother Sagi the Undying Horse, in less than ten years.”

“Huh?!” Lyon immediately pulled his upper body up as he gulped. “Sagi the Undying Horse? Is he…”

“He is the first teacher you have, and you always complained how harsh your training was and how it was technically abusing a child.”

Lyon gulped. “He sounds really ominous from your words.”

“Hahaha, but without his initial training, you wouldn’t even be able to contend with the other’s teaching.”

“Eh, are you sure?”

“En, I’m pretty sure. After all, he was the first one to accept you.”

Lyon felt a cold chill crawling up his spine as his eyes widened. “He… was the first?”

Bapho darted straight against Lyon’s dark galaxy eyes and nodded, “That’s right. He was the first one to accept you, trained you when we all didn’t know what to do with you when you first arrived there.”

Lyon’s mouth quivered before he furrowed his brows. He gritted his teeth but no matter how much he tried to force his mind to remember his past life, it only made the veins in his temple bulge.

“There is no need to force it,” Bapho shook his head. “You will remember when the time comes.”

Lyon made a harsh swallow before he let out a slow and controlled heavy breathing. “Thank you, grandfather, for sharing this with me.”

“Your welcome.”

Lyon crossed his legs. “That’s all I needed to hear.” his eyelids slammed shut.

“Huh?” Sun was in the middle of smacking Shen’s face before he noticed his grandson. “Is he—”

“Opening!” Shen whipped his tail against the unsuspecting Devil Ape before letting out a short burst of laughter. “Hahaha—Oh?” he too noticed what Lyon was doing.

“Damn catfish!” Sun muttered as he rubbed his cheek before darting against his grandson.

Bapho frowned looking at his grandson. His breathing grew exponentially calmer than before, and not a single muscle from his body seemed to be moving. His hair slightly fluttered against the wind before Mana of the purest form creased out from his ring.

The Seven-horned Calamty Goat nodded as he backstepped a few times whilst locking his glance against his grandson.

“He is about to gain access to Ascending God at last,” Shen muttered.

“Hmm, I think it’s a bad idea to have his breakthrough here,” said Bapho.

“It’s too late now, he is in the zone,” said Sun as he grinned, “Do it! Lyon!”

“Heh,” a smirk occurred to their surprise before the mana inside his ring burst out.

Under the ambiance of the bustling market, Assid was found haggling a price with the locales.

“That price is a little bit too much, how ab—?!” Assid furrowed his brows before he looked at the great mansion.

“Sir, please don’t lower it further, I will sell at a deficit here. Please, sir, I beg of you, I need to eat,” said the merchant.

“Hmph, today is your lucky day,” said Assid before he put a single bead on the table his hands swerved and caught the bag on the table.

“Eh? Sir this is too little! Sir!” the merchant sighed before he slumped down under his arms. “The powerful are always pressing the weak.” He picked up the bead, “A single bead of—?! I-Imperial Bead?!”

*Thump!

A loud thump was heard before the bustling city paused and looked over a single focal point, the mansion that Garuda lived in.

“W-What’s going on?”

“You hear that too?”

“Yeah, it was pretty loud.”

…

“Hmm,” Cecile opened her eyes before her smirk could be seen from the reflection of the warm water beneath her chin. “About time, dearest.” she stood up from the bath and let the water drops to the ground before reaching for a towel.

“Oof, look’s like we have to isolate the place again,” Kesya muttered before she saw her empress walk past her.

“Pretty much, after all, he would surely trigger the highest Heaven’s Tribulation just like mine.”

“Graham is on standby.”

“Good, aid him and keep the city intact,” said Cecile as she wore her usual garment.

…

Graham was seen standing in the garden with his arms crossed as he looked at his master smirking his way through the cultivation. (In all my life, only you could breakthrough with such confidence master!).

“Lyon…” Luna muttered as he looked at the man that changed her world ascending to a different height.

“It’s better if you keep your distance,” said Lumina by the side. “That guy must have tremendous tribulation waiting to bit a chunk of his meridian.”

“E-En,” Luna nodded nervously before both of them retreated from the garden.