Things were getting interesting at this point.
Not long after the Belan stopped the duel between Adolf and Luan, they departed for the meet-up point, Aethelgard.
On the way, Belan explained the news that had come from the Imperial Palace.
This time, there would be foreign representatives from the other powerhouses of the Human Realm, and also representatives from the myriad races the empire was fighting against.
Luan's previous notion about the Emperor of Darke having made deals with the other powers was true.
This was the first time in history that they were letting foreigners enter Aethelgard. How could such an innovation come about so easily?
But there was a catch to this.
The Emperor allowed these foreigners to get tokens that would allow them into the grotto. However, their rights to enter could still be challenged by anyone.
In other words, whoever has a token can be challenged by another who doesn't have one. Those with a token cannot do the challenging, and if they refuse, they will have to forfeit their token automatically.
However, those in higher cultivation realms cannot challenge the weaker ones. One can only challenge those above them or a person in the same realm.
It was a brutal way of eliminating the weak among everyone.
But could that just be it?
The Khans cruised on a boat that soared through the air. It was a flying treasure powered by qi stones. On the boat was Luan, Belan, Baldeen, Sully, and Adolf.
They already had a goal in mind, and they didn't want to attract too much attention, so they left with as few people as they could.
After Belan revealed all of this, Luan finally understood why they had tried to get him to stay back.
Now that the danger had been amplified, they didn't have certainty in his strength.
A smile played on his lips; somehow, he got excited by the thought of being challenged.
The family has played the weakling way too much. It wouldn't hurt to let a few people be cautious. He thought.
"Second Grandpa, how many access token to Aethelgard exists?" Luan asked.
"Three thousand,"
"And how has it been distributed this time?"
"Well," Belan began.
"Usually, the Imperial Palace distributes 750 to the empire to use, and then the remaining has always been for their usage. They allocate the rest to the high ranking nobles of the capital and the Imperial Academy."
The Imperial Academy, the school for snot-nosed arrogant children. Luan recalled meeting one of them in his younger days.
"However, this time, it's different, the twenty-seven regions of the empire was only given 500 tokens to compete for. And then the imperial capital has 500 too. According to the news passed around, the Ashen Throne Empire was given 400 tokens and the Onyx Empire has 350."
"Isn't that a lot?" Sully voiced out.
"Normally, yes. But his majesty seems to have struck a deal with the superpowers of the Human Realm." Baldeen replied, not going any deeper into what this deal could be.
But Sully could infer a bit of what it could be. Giving other super powers the chance to enter Aethelgard was them sharing a part of their core resources. Even crazier, three races from the myriad races were given tokens too.
Belan continued. "The Sky Sword sect has 180 tokens, Alchemy Union Sect has 170. Verdant Dragon sect, Crimson Asura, Jade Puppet, Corpse Refining, and the Illusory Mirage Pavilion, have 150, 140, 130, 120 and 110 tokens, respectively."
"How did they decide to share the tokens? I imagine that those sects wouldn't let the other out class them? Aren't they very competitive?" Adolf wondered.
Luan chuckled and answered. "If the old man is planning to breakthrough, then he might have sought assistance from these sects. Whoever promised to show more support would be treated well."
This was just his theory, there was no solid reason to say that it was factual.
Nonetheless, it made sense when one thought about it.
Once a person reaches the level of cultivation that these people possess, just wanting to break through to the next stage could incur many enemies in the Human Realm.
Unless one is willing to venture into the Void Battlefield to make this breakthrough.
But even that option is an extreme one.
The Void Battlefield is an unpredictable place, moreover, one would be vulnerable to attacks from powerhouses of the Myriad Races.
There was also the option breaking through in another world within the Sylvan Weave. But how suicidal would one need to be to choose this option.
Everyone on the flying boat stared at Luan, they were worried for him. He had just openly addressed the emperor the wrong way. What is some powerful loyalist of the emperor was hiding in the void and heard him, wouldn't he be courting death then?
Luan acted as if he had done nothing and looked at Belan, gesturing for him to continue.
With a shake of his head, he resumed; "The two Bloodline hegemons were both given 90 tokens each and the one Ancient, 60. As for the non-human participants, the Red Stone Dolphin race has 100 token, the same with Golden Roc and Iron-Bull.
"The chance to get more tokens will come from them." Belan turned to Adolf. "You'll have to challenge a Foundation Building beast with a token and win if you're to enter Aethelgard. Will you be able to do that?"
Adolf replied with a firm nod.
"It seems like the old man wants us to help him pull the rug under the myriad races' feet. He's trying to use us to reduce the number he allocated to them… smart, but also double edged sword." Luan muttered.
Once again, he had called the emperor an old man so casually.
"Luan, you have to stop—" Baldeen started, but Luan interrupted.
"Wait, Second Grandpa, you said that there's 3000 tokens, from the allocated tokens you've mentioned, it totals 2890, what about the remaining 110 tokens?" Luan questioned.
"No one knows for sure, 109 are missing, or have been destroyed. They are known as the command tokens for the Secret Grotto. His majesty has one of them with him, that's why he is confident in being able to distribute these valuable tokens to outsiders. One it's time to leave the grotto, after being teleported out, your tokens will automatically teleport back to his majesty…"
Their journey lasted for hours, only arriving at a mountain range known as the Celestial Peak.
It was rumored that Celestial Peak itself is what housed Aethelgard. A mountain that stretched into the clouds and radiated an imposing pressure on everything beneath it. The Celestial Peak didn't just touch the clouds; it speared them, as if it wanted to hold the sky.
An ancient, drowsing power radiated from it, it was so thick that it made the air itself feel thick.
Hundreds of people gathered at the base of this mountain.
As the flying treasure of the Khans came closer, they saw that these crowds were isolated, each with their own ally.
At the far end corner, stood 3 groups that were obviously not humans.
A group of humanoid bulls with dark skins and horns on their heads—the Iron-bull race.
By the side was a group of gigantic birds, even bigger than the flying treasure of the Khans.
And finally, beings that resembled humans, and if it wasn't for the webbed fingers, red skin, and gills on their necks, they would have passed as one.
The crowd looked at the Khans as they arrived, scrutinizing them with their gazes.
Everyone here had been accessing and checking every other party here out. They were all wary.
Compared to the entourage that every other party came with, the Khan's group was the smallest.
No one said anything.
"You all should be careful. It might not seem like it, but we have enemies from other empires that dislike our clan very much." Belan transmitted to all of them.
The three youngsters were shocked to hear this. They couldn't particularly recall their family having any scruples with people from other Empires.
The Khans walked towards a more familiar crowd, a place where the people of Donglin had gathered, but they still kept their distance, stopping a distance away from the crowd.
It wasn't long before a gigantic flying treasure appeared over the crowd. This flying treasure was like a floating palace. Following that was another flying treasure that was no less than the first.
And this kept on happening until there were thirteen flying treasures floating around Celestial Peak.
Each of these Palaces arrived with powerful auras that pressed down on the people below, making everyone uncomfortable. Each of them shattered the air as their palaces came to abrupt stops.
Making it sound like rapid successions of thunder clapping.
The force from their stop was oppressive on its own, almost making the knees of the crowd buckle underneath it.
Luan frowned.
This pressure wasn't only physical, it was psychological. He felt as if he was being attacked from all sides.
Not only that, even his sword qi was finding it hard to freely circulate in his body. And he wasn't the only one feeling this way.