Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 205: Gamble with the treasure

Just as the first ray of light appeared, the three of them prepared to leave the place and head towards the final portal to the outside world.

"We are coming with you"

The tigress and the cubs came to them while the cubs bounced in joy and jumped into Arrora's hands.

"I thought you were going to stay here"

Knight said with a smile as the tigress rolled her eyes

"Really?"

"Do you need more time to gather your things? Or look for someone?"

Don knew that the tigress's brother as well as the father of the cubs were living in this realm and although they didn't have time to go look for him, he chose to ask whether she wanted to find him or not.

"He's the last person I want to find in this world, let's go"

"Good"

Knight didnt feel bad about leaving him behind because Knight hated that tiger for leaving his family and sons behind for another tigress. Knight considered Don and his friends at Everlight as his family and he would never leave them behind for a sweetheart.

"Who's coming to my home? Who wants to play with me all the time? You are"

Arrora nudged their little heads with her nose and played with the cubs as the cubs laughed in joy and excitement.

"How did you make those three like you this much?"

Arrora was showering the cubs with kisses and the cubs returned the favor by licking her face. The cubs of fearsome bloodline became cute kittens in Arrora's hands.

"Wait till we get home, our chef will give you delicious food every day"

Arrora knew that Amaryll would go crazy when she meets these cute little cubs and the cubs would be very busy playing with the girls in Everlight and it would be very hard for Knight to take them away to train them.

Hearing Arrora, the tigress wanted to ask some questions about the outside world and their kingdom. But before she could open her mouth Knight stopped her

"I know you have questions but keep it until we get outside because there would be trouble if we revealed anything that could identify us"

"Something tells me that life never gets bored with you two"

Knight laughed as Arrora nodded.

"has your strength returned? "

Knight casually asked Arrora and the tigress.

"I'm still feeling a little weak but it's not as bad as yesterday, I guess I'll regain my strength in a few hours"

"Me too"

"oh?"

Knight was surprised because he and Don were still pretty weak and the black aura inside them was still preventing the battle energy from circulating inside their bodies. It was worse for Don compared to Knight and fortunately, they could feel the black aura fading away from their body.

"Are you two okay?"

"Yeah, just feeling a little weak like you"

Knight didn't want to worry Arrora about their current state during their journey.

Because of their weak state, Don chose a relatively safe path through the edge of the forest to the portal.

After they traveled for a while, they saw the light beam to the next level appear on the distance.

"Aren't we really not going?"

Arrora still couldn't believe that they are not going to the next level to loot but she was glad that they aren't going to the next level after surviving the events that happened in the underground. 

When they reached as close as they could to the portal without being detected by the contestants, they saw only a couple of contestants walking towards the light beam as the only familiar face that they could recognize was Audrey and her maid.

"Let's go"

Don didn't want to spend time looking at the contestants who were going to the next level.

Along their way, Arrora collected some seeds and saplings that looked either pretty or exotic.

"Dont"

While she was collecting them, she saw a plant with a beautiful five-petaled flower. On the center of the flower, there was something like a green shiny gem and when she went to pick the plant, the tigress stopped her.

"Stay away from that plant, it's dangerous and poisonous"

Arrora quickly took her hands back as Don and Knight stopped walking to take a closer look at the plant.

"How dangerous?"

Knight's interest was piqued when he saw the tigress looking at the flower with a slight fear on her face.

"If you want to feel a horrible pain that couldn't be described in words in every inch of your body, go one and take a whiff of that Death's dust"

"Is there a safe way we can pluck it from here and plant it in our kingdom?"

Don became interested in the plant after he heard the tigress and wanted to try this Death's dust on someone.

"You can't pluck a fully grown Death's dust, however, if you really want to plant it in your kingdom, you can take those red seeds and grow it there but I will recommend you to keep it away from anyone who doesn't have an idea about this flower"

Hearing the tigress, Arrora searched for the red pearl-like seeds and collected them while staying away from the fully grown plant.

Eventually, Don decided to make a camp and rest for a few hours before continuing their journey. 

"Seven hours remaining"

Don looked at the timer and reminded everyone.

While Arrora was making camp, she saw Knight and Don seriously discussing something.

"Do you really want to do this?"

Knight asked Don as he nodded.

"Yes I know it's a gamble but if we can pull it off, we don't need to fear anybody during the water spirit ritual"

"But we only have three of those"

"And I'm only talking about giving one, they don't need to know that we have three"

"Can I join you?"

Arrora finished setting up the camp and came to them 

"Yeah, we should get a second opinion about your plan"

"Happy to help"

Arrora sat beside them and looked at Don

"I'm planning to put one of the purple restoration pills in the space ring we got from the board, so if or when they search through our rings, they may or may not want us to give them the pill"

She would be lying if she said that she's not shocked when she heard Don but she wanted to hear him why he wants to do that

"Why do you want to do that?"

"He wants to trade the pill for their protection when we root the water spirit, but what if they want to take the pill and the water spirit? Or what if they didn't want to make a deal at all but took the pill forcefully?"

Knight was not very happy about him wanting to gamble with the pill as Arrora thought about Don's plan for a few moments before speaking her mind

"It might work, look, water spirit and the pill are indeed very valuable treasures but if you compare the water spirit with the pill, most of them would take the pill because the water spirit is not as useful as the pill for a typical cultivator, or a sect, in your case "

Don nodded hearing Arrora as she continued

"Your plan might not work if you take the pill to a king or an emperor because the water spirit will change their fortune and put the kingdom in a speedy growing path "

The water spirit would form rivers, lakes, nourish the lands and change the barren lands into fertile lands. More fertile lands and water sources meant more agricultural productivity that could attract the merchants and create trade opportunities for the kingdom. However, as Arrora said, the water spirit was little to no use to an individual cultivator or for a sect, unlike the pill that could make them reach the grandmaster realm without any difficulty of facing a bottleneck.

"But what if they don't make a deal?"

Knight asked the both of them as Arrora shook her head

"It's very unlikely because most sects would pay a fortune to get their hands on a purple pill and since you are going to just ask for their protection, any sect would be happy to take that deal rather than trying to steal it from you and take a risk of making an enemy in the process, besides, even though the sects are greedy bastards, they tend to keep their word. So if you could make them give their word to protect the kingdom during the ritual, they would as they said "

"I know it's a gamble but I have to take my chances because we certainly can't protect the water spirit during the ritual alone, even if we did, it wouldn't be without many casualties on our side"

With their current power, Don and Knight couldn't even protect their kingdom from a group of peak level masters or great masters, let alone protect the kingdom from grandmasters.

Hearing Don and Arrora, Knight let out a long breath of sigh

"Alright, since we are not alone anymore, we need the water spirit rooted more than the pill, we'll take this gamble"