Thunder Lotus
Inside the Stellae castle, every servant and worker was summoned to the meeting hall. Jennifer, Logan, and Elizabeth stood above everyone.
"As you all know, my grandson Bruce was assassinated earlier this month. Though his trip to Imperial Academy is well known, the exact time in which the escort party leaves remain secret only to the Stellae family."
Jennifer spoke with a chilling glare and cold tone. Everyone in the room felt immense pressure coming from the Ice Empress.
"However, if one were to be in the Stellae family and watched every move carefully, one could deduce when my grandson left the castle and inform the enemies of his whereabouts."
As Jennifer continued, the spies from the Hopkins family dredged in a cold sweat as death was glooming around them. They wanted to leave the Stellae family immediately after the event, but it would look too suspicious. Hence, they remained in the Stellae family until the storm weathers out. Unfortunately, their decisions were wrong.
"Now, I will give all of you who are spies one chance to come out and obtain a judgment from me. If you don't come out right now and I find out you're a spy, I'll kill anyone related to you"
All the servants and workers in the Stellae began to panic, even the ones who were innocent. After all, Jennifer could just kill everyone here to ensure that the spies in the family are dead.
A few moments later. Several maids and servants of the family came out and admitted they were spies. It was futile to lie to a divine emperor expert as they can turn you into vegetables after peeking into your soul and seeking your memory.
"Very good. Who were you guys spying for?"
"Madam. I was forced to spy for the …..."
"AHHHHHHH"
The servant fell into excruciating pain as he tried to tell Jennifer who he was spying for.
"Tsk. It seems like whoever asked him to spy on us placed a seal on his soul. Should he betray his employer, the seal would activate and prevent him from doing so."
"Mother, could you remove the seal from his soul and find out who's been spying on us" Elizabeth looked at the servant screaming in pain on the floor. She had no pity for the servant since he contributed to her son's departure.
"It's not possible for me as only divine emperors can plant soul seals onto someone. It'd take a great emperor to remove the soul seals." Jennifer shook her head in regret.
"What about you guys? Who are you spying for?" Jennifer looked at the remaining people who came out to confess. As expected, most of them fell to the floor screaming in pain after trying to tell Jennifer the names of their employers.
"It appears that the people who planted spies in our home have a Divine Emperor background" Logan finally spoke as he evaluated the situation. His son was right once again. Even if he arrives at the imperial academy safely, these dark forces with divine emperor background would not let him live.
Things didn't turn out too badly as the maid who worked for the Hopkins family stepped out.
"I'm sorry master and mistress, but I betrayed you all. I worked for the Hopkins family. Please kill me and leave my family out of it"
Jennifer looked at the maid and nodded. Then, she turned her into an ice statue. After a few moments, the statue shattered, and the maid was forever gone from the world. As for the rest of the people who didn't confess, Jennifer inspected their memory and found no spies among them.
"Since the Hopkins had a hand in this, why don't I destroy them once and for all" In the family meeting room, there were only Jennifer, Logan, and Elizabeth left.
"Mother-in-law, we can destroy them anytime. I have full confidence that I can defeat their ancestor in a battle. However, I think we should leave them be for now" Logan didn't feel it was the right time to annihilate the Hopkins family just yet.
"Why is that? We have proof that they collaborated with the dark forces, and it'll be justifiable for us to crush them" Jennifer thought that it was wise to eliminate the family's enemy as quickly as possible.
"I have received news that their so-called prodigy, Jonathan Hopkins, has been revitalized and they plan to enroll him in Imperial Academy"
"Knowing our little devil, he'd make sure to make use of Jonathan in the academy so it's best to leave the Hopkins family be for now. I'm sure Bruce will destroy them himself when he returns"
Logan can already imagine the pain and suffering Jonathan will have to go through in the future.
"Is that so? I didn't think you'd think that far. It seems like you are a bit related to Bruce" Jennifer smiled at Logan after hearing his thoughts.
"What do you mean he's a bit related to me? I'm his father! You people have too high expectations for men like me after seeing what our little devil is capable of" Logan huffed in anger since everyone's been looking down on his intelligence lately. He's a ruler of a country!
"I hope Bruce's journey to the academy goes well. He must be having a lot of fun being by himself right now." Jennifer stared at the sky longingly as she remembered her son's mischievous deeds.
Meanwhile, at the lair of the azure wolf.
"Goddam it! Stop shocking me you stupid flower" Bruce spent an hour trying to figure out what to do with the thunder lotus because he couldn't just put it in his storage ring as it would die eventually after a few days without a special container and he can't sell it without attracting massive attention to himself.
Looking through Ike and Simon's storage rings, he found nothing to contain this plant for a long period of time. It seemed that Ike wanted to get the plant and move it back to his family as soon as possible.
The worst part about this situation is that the plant somehow knew what Bruce was up to and decided to attack him to signal him to stay the hell away from it.
"Look here you little shit, if I pick you up, you will die. If I leave you alone, some other beast or human will come here, and you will die." Bruce had it with the thunder lotus and started to yell at it like a lunatic.
"Zapzzzz" The thunder lotus did not care for Bruce's explanation and zapped him anyway.
"OUCH! Alright, that is it. I'll eat you myself" Bruce felt so much anger with the plant that he hardened his body with elemental energy and picked up the plant. He then chomped down on the plant like it was the most delicious food in the world.
"Mmmh, yummy. Revenge is the best dish after all" As soon as Bruce swallowed the plant, destructive energy broke out inside his body.
"Oh shit, the plant is trying to kill me before it dies" Bruce tried his best to suppress the destructive energy inside his body with his own energy. However, the destructive energy was too powerful that it overpowered his own energy.
"Heavenly Stars, Open!"
Bruce's eyes shined brightly as the stars in the sky and the energy from the stars started to come to him. He revolved around the heavenly stars technique and used the energy from the stars and his own body to suppress the destructive energy of the thunder lotus. The combined energy completely obliterated the destructive energy and everything finally calmed down.
'Worthy of the thunder lotus, it provided me with so much energy that I broke through to High Stage Elemental Profound.'
Furthermore, Bruce can now use the lightning element, something that he wasn't able to do before since lightning cultivation manuals are extremely rare in this world.
Lightning is the most destructive element in the world and the rarest element to have an affinity for. In the history of the Valrok continent, every Great Emperor who had lightning attribute ruled over the land.
Bruce summoned Light Piercer to test out his new lightning power. He converted his energy into lightning energy and infused it into Light Piercer. Then he aimed Light Piercer at the lair of the azure wolf.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The Light Piercer shot out a condensed beam that traveled at supersonic speed and destroyed the lair.
'Good grief, it actually destroyed the entire lair with one shot. Hmm, what would happen if I infused the other elements with lightning?'
Bruce chuckled as he imagined the possibilities.