Chapter 217: Envoy (2/2)
One of them is a man who is in his early thirties and with a cultivation of Nascent stage.
The other person is a young man who is around eighteen with a cultivation stage of middle stage great realm.
After the greetings, the emperor led them to a specially arranged room for them. It is not for the rest, but a meeting room with a large table and chairs. There are all types of scrolls containing information.
On the table there are blue coloured crystals in a cylindrical shape with names labelled on them.
The crystal will perfectly fit in a person's palm.
Each of the crystal is labelled with the name of the candidates who ranked top ten.
The man in Nascent stage sat down without saying anything and took the crystal labelled Sam into his hand and infused the neutral spiritual energy.
A translucent screen popped up with Sam's image and all kinds of information in it.
It is like a profile of a person. There are all kinds of details about Sam, from the place of origin, his elemental details, his battle records, his business and military achievements and even his professional titles are named there. There was a golden star mark on the top right corner of the profile.
The man changed the amount of spiritual energy and looked at a video it is the battle video of the Sam causing a mayhem in the capital and his duels with the candidates in the ranking match.
After looking at the whole video, he reverted the screen back to the original profile and added three more golden stars on the top right corner.
The young Great realm expert who came with the man looked stunned and said.
”Senior Brother Moriya, don't you think it is excessive? Why does he get four golden stars? Doesn't that make him a seeded candidate even among the temple disciples?”
”Yes, it does.” Moriya answered nonchalantly.
”But why does he get that privilege, he is just a peasant.”
The young man seemed unconvinced.
Moriya didn't answer immediately. His gaze turned cold and said.
”Ben, since when was it your place to question my judgement? Do remember that you are only here because of your influential father, you came here on excuse to see the candidates from here and you do just that, do not interfere in my work.”
The young man named Ben closed his mouth shut. But his expression was still unconvinced. He looked at Sam's image and tried to engrave in his mind.
Both the envoys are in displeasure with other's attitude, but the person who is beside them, the emperor was pleased. He thought that he got the opportunity for his revenge.
Moriya continued his evaluation; he was clearly focussed in his work and he did so with heavy responsibility. This is not the first time he did this.
He is responsible for evaluating the candidates from the empire and selecting the seeded candidates with special talents when necessary.
Until now, he only got four such candidates and Sam is first one in the list.
Sam's guess is right, there is someone who is evaluating their progress in the competition and they are giving orders for those candidates' safety.
After the evaluation is done, Moriya stood up and said to emperor.
”Assemble the candidates tomorrow morning. We will be leaving to the thunder god temple tomorrow itself.
The actual ceremony will be taking place in a week. If you want to, you can attend the ceremony with a guest.” With that he gave an invitation card to the emperor which the latter took with reverence.
”If there is nothing else, I would be taking my leave, I will send someone to serve a meal for the envoys. Please do tell that servant if you need anything.”
The emperor excused himself with that, he knew about Moriya because of his previous visits, he like solitude. So, he cleverly came out without outstaying his welcome.
Even though, that person is of lower strength their statuses are different.
His emperor title is nothing but a joke for them, maybe even lesser than a joke.
Before leaving though, emperor looked at Ben one last time, the young man is still looking gloomy and angry. Emperor smiled to himself and left the place.
He went to Nathan's room.
Nathan is an extremely pathetic state, the emperor sat beside his son and started talking to him.
The next morning.
Sam and the remaining candidates assembled at the entrance of the imperial palace.
After everyone is here, an attendant led them to the desolate building where space gate is. But they didn't enter it.
Moriya and Ben are waiting for them inside the building. While the emperor started loading the formations with the spirit stones.
”Senior brother Moriya, the candidates seem to have comeback, let me test them out a bit.”
He didn't wait for Moriya's approval and left the place immediately. Moriya furrowed his brows and walked out.
By the time he was out, he saw Moriya confronting Sam.
”So, you are the first ranker. I hope that you remember one thing, all of you guys no matter what rank you are all still peasants, so when you reach the thunder god temple, know your place.”
He looked at Sam with condescension and waited for a rebuke, but when he was greeted with nonchalance and disregard, his anger grew and said as he pointed his finger at Sam, almost touching his nose.
”What is with that attitude? Do you not know how to show respect?”
Sam furrowed his brows and before he could speak,Nathan said.
”So, it is senior ben from thunder god temple, it is an honour.” He even bowed and surprising the rest of the candidates followed, at least except Sam's trio.
Ben was completely satisfied with this and also made his anger grow more. He looked at Sam coldly and made his move.
He conjured a ball of lightning on his fist and threw it straight to Sam's face.
But he didn't feel the expected impact, rather, he felt his body weirdly floating and the world rotating upside down, before he could make sense, he felt a strong kick to his guts which made him puke blood in gut wrenching pain and sent him flying.
When he came to back to his senses, he was already crashed to the ground and was near the feet of Moriya looking at him in pain and confusion.