1171 Empty Seat

Alex held 45 swords in the air, collectively. They moved as if they were all one sword, but they didn't feel like a single sword at all.

They were each their own thing that he had to hold with his Qi. They did not feel like they should if they were just an upgraded version of the 21 Sword Array.

This was not the technique he wanted to use.

"Qi, Pathway, and Intent, these 3 things need to be correct for a technique to work properly," Alex thought. "The Qi is fine since I'm upgrading the technique, and the Intent is there since I know what I want to do. So, the problem I am having really is just the pathway."

Alex took a deep breath and used the technique once more, this time pulling his Qi out from a slightly different pathway from before.

When the Qi flew out, it did nothing, like the previous hundreds of times. He couldn't help but sigh as he let the swords drop to the ground.

"I have millions of different path permutations to go through before I land on one that works," he thought to himself. That was going to take a very long time for certain.

He sensed someone walking into the backyard, so he quickly put away all the swords and turned around.

Qiu Jianhong walked up to him and bowed a little. "Your Majesty, the tests will be beginning at any time soon. Do you intend to watch it by any chance?" he asked.

"Oh, it's starting?" Alex asked with an excited look. "Yes, I've been looking forward to it. Who is hosting the tests?"

"I will be responsible for the Alchemy tests. Sister Liang will be responsible for the Talisman tests, and brother Huang will be responsible for the formation tests. There will be other experts that will help with the tests, but us 3 will be the main ones," Qiu Jianhong answered.

"I see," Alex said as he walked up to the elder. He brought out something from his storage ring and handed it to the old man.

"I will go change and be ready for the tests," he said. "Add this to the Alchemy tests prize."

"What… is this?" the old man asked.

"You can read it and see for yourself," Alex said and walked away. He didn't stay behind to see the look of shock that would appear on the old man's face not even a moment later.

Alex went to his father first and asked him if he wanted to see the tests.

"Sounds fun," Graham said. "I hear the entire city is looking forward to it. I will be watching it too."

Alex nodded. "I will have them prepare seats for you too then," he said and walked away. He went to his royal chambers, one that was larger than even the throne room. There was no one in the room as he didn't allow anyone to come in, so he was alone here.

He quickly changed into a robe that was laced with jade and gold. The elders called it a robe fit for the King. He didn't like wearing something this flashy, but as a King, he felt like he had no choice.

They were teaching him a bit about how to be a King, and one of the main lessons was that to be a King, you must first look the part.

If he didn't look like a King, no one would take him for a King at all.

After wearing the flashy robes, he walked out of the palace, along with a bunch of elders as he prepared to go over to the open grounds to the east of the city where the tests were being held.

"Is her Majesty not coming?" one of the elders asked him.

"No, Scarlet is busy fixing her cultivation base. She won't be coming out for a while," Alex said.

The elders said nothing and prepared a small ship with the colors of the Vermillion bird. Alex rode the ship, along with everyone else from the palace, and left.

They arrived at the test location, surrounded by thousands and thousands of people, all of whom started cheering the moment they saw him arrive.

'Time to get to work,' Alex thought and stood up. He put a giant smile on his face and waved at the many people that were all looking at him from below.

The elders saw him acting like a King and smiled. Their teachings were working.

"How long do I have to do this?" Alex asked without moving his lips.

"Just a little longer, your Majesty," the elders said, barely holding in their smiles.

The ship hovered next to where the seats were prepared for him, and Alex exited it, going straight over to where the seats were.

Alex sat down on his seat, his father seating close by too. The seat next to him was empty, however, and no one seemed to come to sit in it.

"You guys prepared a seat for Scarlet too?" he asked.

"Yes, your Majesty," one of the elders said.

"You shouldn't have bothered, but whatever," Alex said.

"We do have to prepare one, if only just for formality's sake," another elder said.

"I understand," Alex said. "Scarlet is still the real Ruler. She should have a seat prepared, even if she doesn't come."

"Ahem, it's not necessarily for her Majesty alone," another elder said.

Alex gave a confused look and turned towards the seat to his left. "If not for Scarlet, then who?" he asked.

"The Queen," the elders said.

Alex was taken aback for a second. "The… Queen? and you're not talking about Scarlet, right?" he asked.

"Are you planning on marrying her Majesty by any chance?" one of the elders asked.

"Of course not," Alex said. "I'm just bonded with her. Besides, she is a beast, I'm a human. It wouldn't work even if we wanted to."

The elders looked at each other. "Maybe not right now, but her Majesty can turn to a human when she reaches the Immortal realm," they said.

"Human? Ah! Right," Alex said. "I had forgotten that Immortals are capable of that. How do you guys know that?"

"We've seen her Majesty's human form a long time ago," one of the elders said.

"Oh, what does she look like?" he asked curiously.

"A fiery woman with a beautiful face and bright red hair that you can't keep your eyes off of. Honestly, once you see her, you will be smitten, your Majesty," the elders said.

"Is that so…" Alex thought. He imagined what she would look like as a human. Fiery personality, beautiful skin, and red… hair.

Alex's face changed from one full of imagination to one full of confusion. He quickly brought out something and looked into it.

It was the talisman that Zhu Shaofan had given him to misdirect him regarding the assassins that he would have to look out for.

One of those assassins, the red-haired one, looked exactly like Scarlet's description. Not only that, the one in the picture was even fighting with fire Qi.

'Ah, smitten huh?' he thought. 'Zhu Shaofan must've seen her face too then. He must've been so smitten by her beauty that he simply couldn't forget her and even dared put her in something like this.'

'Beauty,' Alex thought. If he was to talk about beauty, there was only one girl that he would consider truly beautiful. Everyone else, the best they could do was come second.

He didn't know who she was, or if she was alive either, but the woman in his memories, the one that had given the first Undying God the physique skill, that was the one woman that he considered truly beautiful.

No one else's beauty could compare in his eyes. 'I hope this doesn't end up becoming a problem when I do end up searching for a partner,' he thought.

After becoming someone with a very good understanding of the human body at a physical level and having dealt with a lot of women's bodies when he worked as a doctor, he already wasn't swayed by the female specimen.

Now that normal beauty couldn't affect him either, Alex wondered if he had to perhaps let himself fall to someone's charm to finally love someone.

'I hope I can find love normally,' he thought. Still, the thought of love and marriage was not something he had the luxury of thinking about right now. They were something he had to leave for the future him.

"Your Majesty, you should try and find a wife as soon as you can, so that the continent can have a Queen too. Not only that, you need to leave behind heirs so that if you had to stop being a King for some reason, there can be someone else to take your spot," one of the elders said.

Alex shook his head. "I'm not going to marry someone haphazardly just so I can leave behind an heir," he said. "What do you think is going to happen to me? I can only think of two things."

"I will either die, or I will ascend," he said. "If I die, Scarlet can choose to remove this position or choose another person as the new King."

"If I end up reaching the Immortal realm and ascend, do you really expect me to leave behind any children I would've had by then? No, I would take them all with me to the Immortal realm. In that case, you will once again have to rely on Scarlet."

He turned towards the elders. "What I'm saying is, don't bother me about finding a Queen."