Immortal Kingdoms

When the final cell's transformation finished, a mysterious diagram took form within his body and mind, and a formless pressure exploded from the depths of his being, blasting his white robes to bits much like the brittle dry crystals all around, flattening them into something incomparable to dust and sand.

As his long silver hair fluttered about, an absolute domain of abyssal coldness, bloodlust, desolation, and streaks of black lightning that seemed to swim in between the fabric of space-time like a roving dragon descended on the cultivation chamber.

Leonardo slowly opened his eyes to reveal pitch-black midnight darkness without a hint of warmth, it was the darkness within darkness. In that darkness, there wasn't even a hint of a pupil, let alone an iris. However, there seemed to be three shallow spheres revolving in a circular pattern around the area where a pupil should have existed.

A few seconds later, Leonardo's eyes began to ooze out black blood, forcing him to close them tightly as the pressure of the absolute domain faded as though it was an illusion.

"As expected, it isn't as simple of a matter as a fourfold increase…" Leonardo whispered to himself as his chaotically gradually calmed down, descending to cascade his back like a gentle river…

…

After a moment of composing himself, Leonardo sighed.

Looking around at the brittle powder that was the only indication of the fact that an ocean of essence energy crystals ever existed, his expression was extremely bitter.

"This is even the reason why I should get my hands on that energy ore mine."

A sinister smile crept on Leonardo's face, "Anyway, since it was you guys who started playing foul first, don't blame me for being ruthless. However, I need to get used to the sudden drop in my cultivation, especially since it happened so abruptly that I didn't even have the chance to consolidate my control over the previous realm before it dropped."

Thinking that he had plenty of time to toy Lexus and his House Erudite to death in the following months, Leonardo wasn't in any more of a rush.

For the following three days and three nights, countless explosions and rumbling resounded from the closed-off cultivation chamber. Then, Leonardo left the room with a satisfied flat smile, dressed in a long white coat embroidered in black and gold, underneath it a tight white vest and smooth leather pants.

After ascending through a spiraling staircase, he gave the stretch of darkness behind him a look before he flung his coat and went to look for Ingrid in her private courtyard.

…

Ingrid's hazel green eyes flashed with a bit of doubt and concern, quickly placed down her brush that was wet in paint.

"Your cultivation seems to have dropped considerably, what happened?" The last time they met, Leonardo's cultivation was at level 61, but now it dropped dramatically to level 51, confusing and alarming her.

Leonardo waved the matter off with a faint smile, "My foundation was actually quite unstable. Hence, fixing it came at this low price, but I would rather pay this bit of cultivation now instead of suffering in the future due to my negligence."

"Is that so? Then that's good, my lord," Ingrid let out a sigh of relief, and only now did she remember to bow respectfully before asking, "My agents have already confirmed the money laundering operations carried secretly by the church, how do you plan to counter them?"

"What do you mean to counter them?" Leonardo gave Ingrid a weird look, approaching this beautiful woman who returned to her seat and was about to paint once again. Gently holding her pointed chin, he flashed a sinister smile, "There are too many fish in this sea, and the church is doing a great job at spreading and pulling the net. Then, all we have to do is play the role of the sharks."

"We obviously won't take the money of the poor. While they contribute their faith to Arcadia, gold, and silver to the church, we'll leave the faith and intercept the gold and silver to ourselves; gods don't need these material benefits after all."

After speaking, Leonardo flicked this powerful cultivator who could kill him with a single finger on the forehead, turning around to leave the room, leaving a stunned Ingrid with a pounding heart behind.

Ingrid wasn't a little girl and obviously wouldn't feel flustered over this bit of skinship. However, this kind of a thing, if exposed…

"Let me get this straight… You want my agents to play the role of bandits?" Ingrid snapped out of her daze, softly kneading her forehead with a helpless expression.

"Tsk tsk," Leonardo clicked his tongue softly, "Putting it like that makes us look like the villains here. Where I come from, there is that fictional character; Robin Hood. An honest and upright person who steals from the rich to feed the poor, and history recorded his name as a hero of the people."

"That's what we are, heroes to the people." Leonardo chuckled, understanding the source of her concerns as he added, "I'll dispatch Pandora with your people, no one would be able to detect their presence or catch a wind of their movements by then."

Ingrid watched her lord's fading back and released a bitter chuckle, curiously pinching her chin as her hazel eyes swirled with a touch of darkness. "Weird, although his cultivation obviously dropped, he gave off the feeling of becoming even sharper and stronger than before."

…

Leonardo didn't want to roam the streets of Valdmor in such a luxurious getup, but he had no choice since he already ran out of casual clothing like white shirts, and he didn't feel like asking Ingrid for new clothes either. However, everyone with a bit of power and influence in Valdmor was now aware of whom they could and couldn't afford to offend.

Hence, even if Leonardo was now walking around these streets without the company of that beautiful elf protector or the frightening, petite assassin that their identities were brought up as the former Winter Sold and White Specter, everyone now realized that this harmless young man was precisely the business devil who flipped the entire domain into chaos overnight two years ago.

This harmless young man who looked nineteen or twenty years old was precisely the rumored Foreign Prince Leonardo, making everyone from small gangs to big families entrenched in Valdmor to shudder while anticipating the inevitable chaos to come.

Although they were oblivious to the undercurrents of the Human Domain and Elven Domain that were currently concentrated toward the Forbidden Domain, these local snakes have already developed an inhuman intuition that allowed them to smell the smoke gunpowder behind the curtains of mystery. Thus, Valdmor was already undergoing some subtle yet silent changes, and these minor changes were now itched deep within Leonardo's observations as he aimlessly wandered around Valdmor for half a day.

Then, he made a silent detour back to the inn situated in the outer regions of this ancient town, his behavior incomprehensible to the onlookers from the shadows.

Nonetheless, whether he had any hidden agenda or he was simply stretching his feet, only a few people could guess, and even fewer people cared. However, for those who didn't care, Jeffery was definitely one of them, as his spirited and confident self entered a secret gathering between the energy ore mine shareholders, dropping one piece of bombshell information to them.

House Sylvia sold their shares to House Grace's Leonardo.

That news instantly set the calm undercurrent into yet another bout of restless disorder, the most prominent and logical conclusion in these calculating minds was that House Sylvia and Tesla's were using Leonardo as a bridge to establish relations between the two behemoths.

Those who didn't know some things were confused, but those who did know were even more confused, feeling a wave of invisible pressure descending on the Forbidden Domain.