Immortal Kingdoms



Sierra put on a mask of calm after isolating the region of their conversation. Then, she accompanied Leonardo to take a seat on the clouds with her sword resting horizontally on her lap. 

She asked half-heartedly. "What do you wish to talk about?" 

Leonardo acted as though he hadn't noticed the peculiarities as he said casually, "I'm going to attack the hidden sects in the uncharted wilderness under your jurisdiction, I hope you won't interfere in the grudge between my Memento Mori and those sects" 

"You're telling me to stand aside and watch my allies get smashed to pieces?" Sierra narrowed her beautiful eyes, the glint of ivory within sparkling dangerously. "I have an envoy from the hidden sects in my mansion as we speak; discussing a long-term alliance." 

Leonardo smiled. "I'll be done before your discussions come to an end. By then, you won't be discussing an alliance but a pact of protection… I am quite positive that the hidden sects would pay you handsomely for protection fees." 

Sierra tapped away on the scabbard of her sword, somewhat tempted by the offer. This was a woman who pursued profits above all else, her loyalty didn't particularly line with either the secular or martial worlds per se. 

She hesitated… 

Leonardo wanted to speak some persuasive words to the woman but he wasn't about to expose the extent of his information about the families, dynasties, and hidden sects. He was certain that Sierra was tossing around the idea and potential gains at this moment. 

Sierra thought to herself that if these hidden sects started relying on her family for protection, the extra tax revenue would flow into her personal pocket. 

That was a lot of money. 

Furthermore, as Leonardo pointed out, the discussions weren't over yet— these things tend to take some time. However, what worried her most was the chance of Leonardo striking later, and by that time when the envoy made it back to his sect and shared the idea of hunting Leonardo's woman in teams, this conspiracy would find its way to the young man's ears. 

Thus, after weighing her options, she said, "You have less than a day to act; I can't block the passage of information, albeit I can delay it for half a day." 

She was saying that in half a day, regardless of the outcome, she would have to dispatch troops to offer help— symbolically even. 

"Half a day?" Leonardo muttered to himself and asked. "Where is the closest hidden sect, then? I should be able to wreak havoc in one or two sects in half a day." 

Sierra's eyes twitched a little, not understanding why he would expect her to give out that information. 

"You can treat it as returning me a favor," as though seeing through her thoughts, Leonardo hurried to express. 

"What favor? Don't get ahead of yourself… Now that you've mentioned it, I'm doing you a favor by not reporting directly to the Interstellar Supreme Court. Don't tell me that I'm saving my own skin; as long as my rebirth realm cultivators are safe, I can always gather up any number of soldiers as I wish. Furthermore, the Interstellar Supreme Court pays handsomely for any clues regarding your whereabouts…" 

Sierra instantly flipped the scale. 

She added, "Everyone thinks you're in seclusion in the Evernight Capital, hence the stable situation in Blackrain City, Heaven's Remedy City, Pill City, and Violet Mountain City. By stable, I mean some minor conflicts here and there, but you and I both know that each faction is holding to its own as they race to industrialize their respective cities… When they have enough time on their hands, they will start to feel out for their Lord Evernight, but that lord happens to be here." 

Sierra was rather confident that Leonardo didn't wish to blow up his cover as it would surely draw chaos to his Evernight Capital, the Obsidian Castle, and the vast mountain range that was akin to a massive metropolis framework at this point in time. 

Leonardo kept to his silence for a bit as a hint of coldness surfaced in his eyes. Then, he let out a sigh and shook his head. 

Sierra grasped this as a hint of her victory at grasping his weakness, smiling as she said, "That's right. You owe me a favor, not the other way around… Hey, what are you doing?" 

Halfway through her speech, Sierra noticed that Leonardo was in the motion of getting up on his feet. She felt something was wrong and thus, she hurried to ask with a hint of anxiousness in her voice. 

"Just go ahead and report my whereabouts if you want, it seems like our small chat has come to an unpleasant end." 

Leonardo waved her off impatiently, intending to leave. 

"You want to leave that easily?" Sierra's eyes sharpened, her aura erupting to clamp down this region of space together with her domain, superimposed by the presence of the sub-dimension. 

"As I said; no one can stop me from leaving, and you do owe me a favor." 

Just as Sierra was about to strike at Leonardo with the shackles of the sub-dimension and her domain, Leonardo's four martial intents exploded with one domain after another. 

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! 

Four domains of supreme laws superimposed, blasting a crack into Sierra's domain as their combined volume of power was beyond the woman's expectations. With a crack, she was blasted a few miles away due to the sudden outburst of power, her expression ugly. 

Roar! 

Leonardo's domains twisted and compressed into an intangible form of three claws as an extension of his right arm, its mere presence twisting the fragile space of the sub-dimension all around. A reverberating growl not unlike that of a dragon echoed in the sky like a clap of thunder, drawing everyone's attention to a nerve-wracking scene. 

They saw a man dressed in casual white clothes and a silver mask strike at the void with a hand, tearing it open as though a torrent of water had split into multiple tributaries, revealing the sky beyond the sky. 

Just as Sierra was dumbfounded, Leonardo's voice echoed in the sub-dimension crisp and clear, "As agreed, I won't touch a single solider of your Levi Sector, but the hidden sects will suffer!" 

Bang! 

The sub-dimension automatically recovered and sealed itself, drawing on the energy from the formations to stabilize the space. Tearing open the space of the Core Mainland may be difficult, but a sub-dimension was different. This was a private pocket space operating under the maintenance of mankind and not the laws of heaven and earth. 

"Damn it!" 

Sierra cursed, realizing that she was set up and besmirched with suspicions there and then. Even as she contemplated the situation, an explosion blasted her mansion apart in the distance as she heard one of her close aides yelling, "You dare blaspheme Her Eminence?!" 

Bang! 

"The hell?!" 

The 5th-tier cultivator who was as confused as everyone else, while distracted by observing the 6th-tier envoy and lieutenant, was suddenly attacked by one of the 5th-tier soldiers in the room. 

He didn't even remember opening his mouth, let alone bad mouth Commanding General Sierra— why was he attacked all of a sudden? 

Even as he thought so while blasting through one mansion after the next, the envoy from the hidden sects thought differently. He was a man of many schemes and plots who had risen from the lowest position in his sect to his current status through trails of blood and fire; he immediately figured that this was a plot targeting his hidden sects, orchestrated by the Levi Secor! 

The 5th-tier soldier didn't know why he suddenly acted, but he was sure he heard the cultivator mention something about having the grand elders of the sect press down that bitch Sierra and teach her how to respect true power. All he could see was red, and he immediately struck the dazed cultivator where it hurt with full power, almost blasting the latter into a mist of blood. 

"Cowards!" 

The envoy's aura also erupted, feeling like he was in a crisis of life and death, immediately striking at the man right across the table. Sierra saw all of this happen, but her concerns were about something else entirely as she gritted her teeth and left the sub-dimension. 

She was positive that no matter what, things won't escalate to a matter of life and death between those five. Thus, without thinking about it much, she decided to chase after Leonardo and incarcerate the young man lest things spiral out of control. 

Little did she know that since things have already fallen apart, Leonardo wouldn't settle with a simple skirmish, not with a ticking time bomb resting within the 5th-tier soldier's sea of consciousness. 

… 

With a cold smile underneath his mask and black lightning crackling about his body, Leonardo blasted his way through one protective array after the next. These arrays were resilient against incoming threats, but they were barely capable of holding someone down from rushing outside. 

Even as he approached the uncharted wilderness by shuttling through the void with his movement technique in conjecture with his speed as a 6th-tier cultivator, Leonardo felt like he wasn't fast enough. 

The moment Sierra rushed out of the Levi Sector, all she could spot was a black bolt of lightning fading in and out of the void as it headed deeper into the uncharted wilderness. Her heart sank.