Chapter 50 - A Treasure Worth a Kingdom (2)

Finally, the crown prince appeared at the old cemetery just four blocks away from the auction house. With a halberd in hand, he rushed toward them, using his Snake Specter Art. He killed two of the guards before the crown prince noticed him. He couldn't use a spear, as people might recognize his fighting style when he used poison practitioner arts.

"Who would dare attack me?" the prince roared, his personal guards at the peak Element Adept Stage. They numbered fifty in total and took a defensive formation before the prince. "You! You must be the crazy trash who bid against me. Men, capture him so I can personally castrate him and make him my father's latest eunuch!"

"Yes, Your Highness," the guards said, ten staying by him while the rest rushed forward. They drew their swords and charged, but Lance kept them back with the reach of his halberd. A halberd was the weapon of a general, meant to take on multiple enemies at once.

"What are you doing? Kill him!" the crown prince roared as Lance beheaded three guards. It seemed the prince's own father expected little from him, not assigning even the weakest of palace guards and sending a platoon of city guards instead. The slave girl and magical beast watched as Lance fought the city guards. They were excited, as they obviously did not want to be enslaved to a pig prince.

"I cannot use any unique practitioner arts," Lance muttered as he broke three swords with the side of the halberd's blade before smashing the face of one of the guards with the butt of the halberd.

He constantly teleported around among the guards, taking off limbs and even heads. A solid formation was necessary for large groups, but such organization becomes chaotic if the weakness of the formation is discovered. In a formation, people tended to guard the heart of the formation. They were the first of Lance's victims before he switched to the ordinary guards.

"So you killed my guards. Courting death!" the crown prince roared as Lance killed all fifty of the guards. The ten guarding the prince were no match for Lance's cultivation and spear mastery. "We may be isolated here, but my father gave me this!"

"Some kind of apple," Lance muttered as he saw a gold and black-skinned apple taken from a small bag from the crown prince's storage ring. The apple alone emanated vast spirit energy.

"Should I meet my slayer, my father said to eat this. I will temporarily increase by a whole cultivation tier. I will become a late Meteor Vessel practitioner. No cultivation for a month is worth killing you. Be grateful," the crown prince screamed as he bit into the fruit. A black and gold aura enveloped the fat prince as large amounts of spirit energy converged on him. "Other than an Earth Mortal, no one can face me!"

"There must be more in that bag," Lance muttered as he saw the prince put it back inside his storage ring while taking out a golden blade.

"Die!" the crown prince roared as he ran forward, the sword raised high. Lance spun around, using his momentum and hips to swing the halberd down low at a faster speed than the crown prince. The crown prince howled as Lance's halberd pierced an inch in but no further.

"Even his muscles are reinforced, albeit very poorly," Lance muttered. After all, it was not the prince's real cultivation, so there was no way to use such vast spirit energy very efficiently. The whites of the prince's eyes turned red, tears of blood streaming down from his eyes, mouth, ears, and nose. A fruit enabling one to temporarily increase their cultivation by an entire tier would place a monumental strain on the body. With the imperial family's vast resources, only a month of recovery was indeed possible. Furthermore, the crown prince was weaker. If Lance ate the fruit, the danger and penalty would be even greater.

Lance twisted his hips to the left as he made a rising slash with his halberd while the crown prince delivered a downward slash. The two blades collided, and Lance was pushed back three steps, coughing blood once. Lance blocked a sudden quick attack with the shaft of his halberd, only to be pushed back before the woman and magical beast. Lance narrowed his eyes and cut off the collars on both.

"You will serve," Lance said to the magical beast, the panther sensing his deep spirit energy. It knew it was no match for Lance and bowed its head. The contract was made, and Lance removed the slave rune on the panther's forehead with a thought. Lance then turned to the crown prince, letting the sword stab into his chest slightly as he bit the crown prince on the neck.

"Fiend!" the prince roared as he pushed Lance back, Lance grinning to reveal blood and flesh between his teeth. Lance turned to the woman and used the spirit energy within the crown prince's flesh to smear the slave mark off her.

"I'm free?" the young woman gasped, looking at Lance in shock as he spat the flesh out. "How? It should not be possible."

"I used his spirit energy to wipe it off. Due to that strange apple, his flesh contains too much spirit energy," Lance grinned, the prince outraged. "Loot the bodies of the guards and wear this white cloak and emerald mask. Follow me if you want to live free."

"Yes," the woman said, and she and the panther went to work on the bodies.

"Who do you think you are to do this?" the crown prince said, Lance frowning as the prince tapped the medal on his luxurious white tiger robe.

"The second prince sends his regards," Lance said as he rushed forward, the prince howling as he heard the name of his hated rival and ambitious little brother.

"That son of a whore! That fuck will never get what's mine by birth!" the crown prince screamed as he dodged a strike and smashed Lance's face with the side of the blade. Lance shook his head as the butt of the halberd smashed the crown prince's ankle. The crown prince jerked to his right, widening his eyes as he saw a leather shoe before his face before it smashed into his face.

"A broken nose for a slap," Lance spat, the crown prince wiping the blood from above his mouth as Lance tossed a storage bag from his ring to the woman and panther as he whispered to them. "Put the items inside and get out through the south gate. Buy the fastest horses you can and meet up with the merchant caravan. There should be a girl named Mei. Hide with them for now. Let no one follow you."

"Yes," the woman said, the panther growling at the crown prince before it left its master.

"The royal guards closest to the city will come. They will be at the initial Meteor Vessel Stage. You cannot escape!" the crown prince said, mocking Lance.

"And that little thing on your robe recorded every sound we made," Lance said, stunning the crown prince. "You can die now and give me your storage ring!"

Lance used his Mirror Mirage Art and vanished before the prince's very eyes. The prince hastily turned around but saw nothing. He coughed blood and looked down in shock as a blade covered in jade, acidic poison burst from his chest. The spirit energy in the crown prince's body disappeared rapidly as the prince gasped for breath.

"Im-impossible," the crown prince coughed.

"Funny how useful invisibility really is. I never teleported. I just charged and ran your body through with the halberd. Don't worry. There won't be a body to find," Lance said as the prince's body began to melt.

"I... didn't record anything. It... was... all... all sent to my father," the crown prince said as Lance crushed the medal on the prince's robe, leaving the halberd in him as the prince fell to his knees.

"Hmph. I know. You were meant to transmit those words," Lance said as his hand was covered in a spike of earth through his Stone Breaker Art.

"You... are helping a... dif... different prince," the crown prince realized with despair. His killer had him wrapped around his finger. Everything he did was futile. All for naught.

As Lance severed the finger wearing the storage ring and emptied it, he smiled as he punched the crown prince in the face with the spike. "Thank you for your patronage. You have served your purpose."

The prince's body shuddered as the head was pierced through by the massive spike of earth that shattered and exploded what remained of it.

"Your Majesty!" four men cried as they appeared in the distance, seeing Lance. "Kill the traitor! Kill!"

"Send word to the gates. Seal up the city!" another cried, a third shouting to secure the crown prince's body as the fourth ran off in a different direction. The remaining two palace guards were indeed at the initial Meteor Vessel Stage.

"Tch," Lance said as he discarded the bloodied robe and used his Mirror Mirage Art to disappear. He grit his teeth in anger as the palace guards, with their vast experience, realized he had become invisible and still tracked him by following the compression in the grass and dirt as Lance ran out of the cemetery.