Volume 1-Chapter 6- Reunion

The next day Maxwell was ready with a spatial ring with spare clothes, food and other essentials he would need. He fed Arion some level 1 spiritual fruits and herbs that Arion enjoyed. He then attached a saddle made from a Level 3 Winged Boar hide, it was durable and could withstand wind. The saddle already had arrays for defense and to hide their presence. Maxwell's father came out in a long cloak made from one of his best spoils, a level 4 Frost Wolf pack leader. Both father and son were dressed in red shirts with black pants.

"Both of them look so alike." His mother spoke to herself while watching them depart.

'I hope Maxwell does not cause trouble.'

Maxwell while sitting on the saddle was planning out what he was going to do in the Imperial capital. Before leaving he had already contacted Leonidas and asked him to give the best VIP card of the treasure pavilion to him so that he could look around freely inside.

They felt no wind because of the formations but the scenery turned into a blur as Arion flew at speeds above 1000 km/h. Both Maxwell and his father had to close their eyes to not feel nauseous. They could not cultivate since they did not have a Qi gathering formation and they were travelling too fast to gather qi. The only way to cultivate currently was to use spirit stones.

Maxwell brought out a few spirit stones and directly absorbed the qi with his right hand since he had unblocked one of his meridians that was in his right arm. Pure qi flowed through his meridians and entered his dantian and added a few drops of qi to his pool of qi that was now filled his dantian that was slightly larger than his fist.

'I will run out of spirit stones by the time I breakthrough to stage 2 of Foundation Establishment. That tomb was rather poor for an expert's tomb, well he was a lone cultivator.' He sighed thinking about the spirit stones he wasted over 10 years making various formation and spatial rings. 'I should earn a fortune if I sell the lotuses I got in an auction. Speaking of the tomb, I should practice those spatial techniques.'

After 5 hours of flying Arion finally stopped to rest. Both father and son stumbled dizzily before sitting down. Maxwell then brought out a meal from his spatial ring since they were terrible at cooking, they would usually end up burning the ingredients and even if they did not, they would end up with vile tasting items that couldn't be called food.

Maxwell brought out 3 roast boars that were cooked earlier in the morning and beautifully seasoned. He offered one to Arion who ate it very fast. The 3 boars were eaten in mere minutes and since they were all hungry, especially Arion he got out 6 more and gave 4 to Arion and he and his father ate the rest. After a satisfactory meal of delicious boar meat, they got back on Arion and closed their eyes in preparation.

Arion zoomed across the sky and towards the end of the 10th hour of the journey he slowed down, and they saw a giant city with 100 foot high walls that protected the capital. Around the walls on 2 sides was a tall mountain range with peaks that were above the clouds. These mountains were dotted with mines of rich ores that contributed greatly to the richness of the capital. Whenever a rare ore was found there would be a scramble by major powers to acquire it for their use and it usually would end with skirmishes before the Imperial Family intervened.

From the sky they could see the grand palace that was built out of marble and limestone, it was not made of any ordinary limestone or marble, they were all rank 5 materials, making the palace very durable against soul transformation realm attacks. The palace walls were layered with protective formations in case of stronger attacks. The king had a token to control a giant defensive formation that protected the whole city during an invasion.

The Palace was circular in shape with 8 equidistant towers all connected by rows of rooms. These rooms were used for various purposes, each wing had their own purpose, some contained certain officials who managed finance, some were for guests to stay at and some had cauldrons for alchemy.

In the center of the ring was the main building of the palace where the royal family stayed. It also housed the throne room and the treasury. It was patrolled by the most elite of guards. It also housed a huge kitchen that would prepare food for the royals and their banquets.

'Woah, the capital is beautiful and grand.'

Arion landed a kilometer away from the towering walls and then trotted towards the giant gates. There were many roads leading to the gate and most were lined with carriages drawn by magical beasts. An airship flew above the walls toward the airship hangars where it would be stored safely.

The road Arion took was deserted and run down since it came from far away and few people would choose to come to the capital from there. They merged with a busy road and they were stopped at the gate by guards.

"State your business." A muscular guard with brown hair stated while holding a polearm.

"We are here to meet old friends and my son is here to participate in the selection." Maxwell's father responded.

"Friends?" The guard looked skeptically at the two.

'He has a high cultivation base, he must be reclusive expert. I can't judge him by his attire quality.'

"You can enter." The guard said while noting down their appearance on a small scroll before handing it to another guard.

Maxwell's father then placed a jade token engraved with a symbol in his hands. The guard angrily looked at him and said, 'I don't accept bribes, if you insist I will lock you up."

"It's not a bribe, look at it first."

"What! A token to enter the best cultivation room for the army for a day." The guard stared at the token with amazement.

"Only generals can issue it to their subordinates and it is illegal for an ordinary person to have possession of it. Then… you are a general?" He then noticed a small symbol at the bottom.

He then knelt and said, "Welcome to capital General."

All around people started whispering.

"General?"

"I have seen all the generals except one, is he that one?"

Maxwell's father sighed at the attention and said, "Get up. What's your name? You have good potential, you can one day become a general. You should stop delaying the entries."

The guard realized he was delaying his work, so he returned to his duty after telling. "General, my name is Leonard. You probably won't remember but you saved me as a child."

"Another Leo." Maxwell sighed.

"Dad, why don't you have a cool nickname?"

"There was never one that stuck."

The streets were bustling with life and Arion barely had space to move. They went to a mansion close to the palace that was empty but was well cared. Maxwell's father told him that this was one of his rewards for his accomplishments and he had not stayed in it much. At the gate an old butler waited with four maids behind him. As soon as they entered they were greeted with a bow.

The butler then greeted them, "Welcome back General and young master."

"Aldrin show Max around, I will go meet some old friends." Arthur said the word friends with scorn before quickly changing into a black suit and heading straight for the palace in a carriage that was already waiting.

Max looked around and saw a lot of low ranked herbs grown. There was a beautiful garden with many flower beds that were all bloomed.

"Woah this is a nice garden."

"I am glad you like it, young master."

'This old man is a strong cultivator. I can't sense him at all.'

Maxwell explored the mansion. It had 16 rooms with a lot missing furniture. The rooms in use had paintings depicting his father and his exploits and various spoils from Magical beasts. Maxwell chose to use a room that contained his father's war medals and awards since he was interested in his father's exploits.

After choosing his room and taking a tour of the whole area he let Arion eat whatever Spiritual herbs he liked from the storage. Arion was delighted at the assortment and quantity of the meal and devoured it with glee while speaking to Maxwell.

"This city is very fortified and the security is tight. My presence is probably discovered by now. It's best you look around without me."

"Okay, you have a good meal."

"I will have a good meal, tell your beautiful maids to take well care of my beautiful fur. All that flying has made it terrible."

"Fine."

Maxwell left after instructing the maids and told the butler, Aldrin to not follow him. Aldrin agreed but handed Maxwell a token that showed his identity. Maxwell first left for the market area where vendors sold wares. Maxwell tried different kinds of snacks but did not find any items that he liked.

'Nothing useful or interesting here, maybe in the commercial or industrial areas there will be good items.'

Maxwell went to the commercial areas and bought some formation items at bulk before heading towards a jewelry store.

'I should buy something beautiful for Lily to use, maybe a pair of earrings.'

"Stop, you can't enter."

Maxwell looked towards the store clerk who was giving him a look of disgust because of his clothes.

"If you think that I can't afford to buy anything it's your loss."

Maxwell walked away and went to a different Jeweler that was slightly smaller. As he pushed open the door a small bell rang. A sweet scent drifted into his nose.

'Hmm? I smell plums.'

He saw two girls slightly older than him who both had black hair arguing with each other. To their side stood someone with pink hair.

The pink haired girl turned around to the door on hearing the bell, her hair whipping around. She was dressed in a long green dress that went well with her hair. She was well endowed and overall stunning.

Maxwell was enamored by her for a second and forgot to breathe before the girl called out to him.

"Maxwell?"

'Huh?'

"Orphelia is that you?"

"Yes, it is." Orphelia replied while hugging Maxwell, to his embarrassment.

The two girls stopped arguing after witnessing the situation.

"Oh right, I didn't send you a letter yet."

Maxwell then explained quickly before Orphelia introduced him to the two girls.

"Laura, Alexia this is Maxwell, he is my fiancé."

"Maxwell, these are my friends."

"This is the fiancé you were telling us about?"

"The one who made your bracelet into a spatial storage?"

"What happened to him being unable to cultivate? He is at Foundation Establishment realm stage 2."

Orphelia was bombarded with questions before she could answer any.

Maxwell explained how he could cultivate for the past two weeks. Orphelia looked like a lot of weight had been lifted off her shoulder after she heard that he could cultivate once more.

"Now that you're here, help us decide if Orphelia should get the diamond earrings or the ones inlaid with ice spiritual stones."

"How about both?"

All 3 of them looked at him appalled.

"Have you seen the price?" They all asked him

"Price does not matter to me."

"You shouldn't showoff when you're wearing such clothes."

"Now that you mention it, I should get new clothes."

They looked at him horrified.

"That's not what we meant."

"Manager, how much for these both earrings and the pair over there with the pink diamonds."

"50 Earth Grade Spirit Stones."

"Ummm…"

"Max, it's fine, you don't have to buy them."

"It's not that I can't buy it, I don't have spirit stones. How about a rank 5 herb?"

'I'm not short on money at all, I head the treasure pavilion.'

Maxwell brought out a rank 5 Flaming Spider Lily and offered it.

"Deal, since this herb is high grade, you can choose one more item."

After careful deliberation Maxwell picked out a necklace with a giant Water element infused Diamond. Maxwell then gave it to Orphelia along with the other two earrings.

"Here, it matches your beautiful eyes."

Orphelia blushed at his compliment.

"You have become an excellent sweet talker in the 9 years I haven't seen you."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

The two girls made excuses and left, not wanting to interrupt their reunion. Orphelia did not want to get such expensive gifts from Maxwell without giving him anything and dragged him to a boutique.