Contrary to Michael's expectation, the man didn't sit on the throne but took the lavish chair beside the throne.
"Lord Ashton" the maids who came carrying a tray with Michael's lemon added hot water, they immediately bowed towards the man when they saw him.
"Leave" Lord Ashton flicked his wrist as the two glasses flew right into the hands of Gaya and Michael.
Even when facing a Fusion stage cultivator, Michael didn't show any signs of worry on his face. He remained calm, pretending that he didn't know the man's cultivation level.
"You're too young to be the number one Alchemist of Elon and Ozer"
"Both a blessing and a curse, Lord Ashton. But I'm planning to extract only the blessing, " Michael said slowly, taking a sip from the glass.
"How are you gonna do that? By getting the Kane family's backing?"
"That's the plan, Lord Ashton" Michael slightly smiled,
"Hahaha, I like you kid. I've seen many talented youngsters getting themselves killed because they run around making enemies out of powerful people left and right. Even recently I heard someone piss off Aragoth, good thing that kid had the backing of Guardians. What was his name?" Ashton rubbed his handlebar mustache trying to remember the name.
"Noah" Gaya reminded Ashton as the light of realization appeared on Ashton's face.
"Yeah that's him. You two are friends with him?" Ashton's face turned serious.
"Hell no, we dont touch him with a ten-foot pole" Gaya frantically shook her head.
"Good for you. If you were anything like that Noah, you wouldn't be here. Speaking of which, do you know why you're here?" Ashton looked at the both of them for a few moments,
"You got one thing correct. This world is a bad bad place, especially for a kid with your talents. You're a cub and you want a grown-up lion to protect you. The question is how far will you go to get the lion's protection?" Ashton's lips curved upwards revealing a fox-like smile. Michael was glad that Ashton finally came to the point.
"What do you want me to do Lord Ashton?"
"Kill Alex Fisher"
What Ashton just said truly surprised both of them.
"How do you want him to die?" Gaya's eyes and mouth opened wide. She was startled to see how quickly Michael agreed to kill Alex who is a prodigy of House Fisher.
Ashton grinned, "just like that. You're not gonna even ask why?"
He had seen many youngsters over the years but there was something different about the youngster before him. Behind the young man's calm smiling face, Ashton could see the cold killer. There was no hesitation in his eyes.
"I only need your word that Kane Family will back me up after I kill Alex Fisher, Lord Ashton"
"Kill him during the tournament in front of everyone and Adam will announce you're his best man at his wedding. That will make you practically family. You have my word"
"And that's good enough for me Lord Ashton" Michael nodded,
"Great, my people will make sure you and Alex get to fight. You make sure he dies' ' Elder Ashton closed his eyes, mumbling something under his breath for a moment as a blue smoke surrounded him. In a blink of an eye, the smoke faded into thin air along with Ashton.
After spending some time alone in the throne hall, Michael was just about to stand up to leave the hall when he saw Elder Walter hastying towards them.
"Did you agree to it?"
"Agree to what?"
"Agree to kill Alex" Elder Walter seemed like he just heard from someone that Elder Ashton asked him to kill Alex Fisher. Michael just made sure that Elder Walter didn't hear anything about killing Alex Fisher from him first.
"Elder Ashton just informed us about the plan. This is big" Elder Walter was pale in shock. Michael should have been the one to get startled yet it was Elder Walter who was terrified of Ashton's plan.
"He wants you to know the importance of this task" Elder Walter handed over a space ring to Michael. He looked into the space ring to see stacks of gold coins, almost 50million in gold coins.
"Let's walk and talk" Michael handed over the space ring to Gaya. Just like him, she was also stunned by what's inside.
"You know about House Oswen?" while walking out of the throne hall, Elder Walter asked Michael.
"Yeah met a couple of them back on Kethen, at the annual auction"
Gaya controlled her urge to laugh thinking about the time she roasted the House Oswen elders when they tried to buy the demon soul stone.
"FOr more than a hundred years, both House Kane was trying to establish an alliance with House Oswen through marriage. But we were unable to due to various reasons until now. Our house head wants Adam to marry Ariana of House Oswen. If this marriage happened, House Kane and House Oswen will be lifelong allies, we'll be stronger than all the other houses in Royal Land"
"I assume things are not going in your way," Gaya asked the Elder as he sighed,
"No. There are rumors that House Fisher is making moves to marry Alex to Ariana"
Gaya knew by rumors he meant House Kane's informants in House Fisher.
"I thought he was gonna marry Celina"
"He is. That little bastard trying to knock down two birds with one stone"
Michael often forgot that marrying more than one girl is normal in this world.
Alex would probably be planning to marry Celina for love and Ariana for political reasons.
"If he were to marry Ariana, everything we planned to get would become House Fisher's. That's where you come in" they walked out of the throne hall. The three of them started at the golden paddy fields under the glistening moonlight.
"You think you can survive the tournament until you match up with Alex? The tournament is a warzone. Every noble family and powerful person uses it to take a shot at their competitor. Killing young talents is one of the efficient ways to cripple a noble house in the long run"
Michael didn't answer Walter quickly. He would rather let his actions speak than explain his abilities to the Elder.
"Is Adam participating in the tournament?" Gaya asked while Michael was remaining silent.
"No. Like I said, killing young talents is one of the efficient ways to cripple a noble house in the long run. If we're planning to get rid of Alex, they might be planning to do the same to Adam. They won't anticipate you to kill Alex"
"It will be done, Elder Walter"
Although Michael agreed to kill Alex, he didn't completely trust them enough to leave the castle without assurance. If they tried to screw them by not backing him up after killing Alex, the entire kingdom would see Elder Ashton's conversation with him. The moment he stepped onto the castle, he let out his Spyders to record everything for insurance.
It was a risk to let the Spyders spy on a Fusion stage cultivator, yet Michael took the risk for his safety. If House Kane was to enter into an alliance with House Oswen, not only the two families but also Michael would benefit from their alliance. The stronger the Kane family, the less he needed to worry about someone messing with him.
"Wait here" Elder Walter walked back into the castle.
"Fuck 50 million coins, these guys really want Alex dead. I have a feeling this tournament is going to be one hell of a ride" she elbowed him in the hand playfully. Both of them were confident in their ability to win the competition. Gaya would participate in the championship tournaments for Body Strengthening stage cultivators with Michael's help to hide her cultivation from the committee while Michael planned to kick as in the main championship tournament for the Core Formation cultivators.
"Lord Lucifer" suddenly Michael heard Azazel's voice in his head,
"What is it?" Michael asked telepathically.
"There's figure running around River town, painting your logo on the walls"
Michael let Azazel monitor the Spyder camera he put all around the kingdom so if something interesting happens like this, he would know as soon as possible.
"Keep an eye on him. We're on our way"
"As you wish, Lord Lucifer"
Gaya knew something was up looking at his face.
"Something's up?"
"Yes," Michael nodded. He looked around to locate Elder Walter. Luckily for them, they saw Elder Walter walking out of the castle.
"Take this gift"
They were handing out space rings as candies. It really showed their wealth. Since Michael was in a hurry, he didn't look into the space ring as he put it into the system storage to check out later.
"Well Elder, it's time for us to leave. We have much to prepare"
"Yes. I'll keep you no longer"
Michael took a few steps forward before he heard the Elder call him again. He turned back to see Elder Walter,
"And Ghost, if you get into the good side of Elder Ashton, you'll get more than the backing of House Kane. Remember that"
Anyone with a brain would not dare to get into the bad side of a Fusion Stage cultivator. If it wasn't for the system, Michael would have been killed by Laila inside the Treacherous ocean.
At this moment, Michael had no idea he's going to meet Laila sooner than he wanted to. After parting ways with Elder Walter, they flew for an hour to put a good distance between them and the Kane family manor.
************************************
"Lord Lucifer, Dark Queen" Azazel greeted them with a bow when they appeared in the room before him. Gaya put the sleeping Nightmare and Vedora gently on the bed before covering them with the bedsheet.
Shen then came to join back with Michael to watch the mirrors.
"There he is," Azazel pointed his ethereal fingers at one of the mirrors. In the mirror, they saw a figure draped in full black robes running frantically through the dark alleys in the river town, painting the letter 'L' on the walls.
In addition to most of the people in River town being commoners, this was the middle of the night, so there was not a single person to catch the black-clothed figure.
"Who are you?" Michael couldn't help asking the question.. But he planned to know the answer in a few moments.