112 Chapter 112. Making it to the Opal Kingdom

A week passes and the group trotted onto a long plain that marked the entrance to the Opal Kingdom. The king led Leo and Eupheme as he was the only person who knew the route well.

"Eupheme, how much of a chance do you think I'll have in the competition?" Leo asked curiously.

"Well, I don't know how strong you've gotten but I can say that the top batch cultivators in that even will have cultivation at peak origin while the lowers will have cultivation at early Origin realm," Eupheme replied.

"Oh..." Leo replied as he heard it, "If I want first place, who would I most likely face off against?"

"Why are you asking me this?" Eupheme asked, feeling that Leo had asked him too much.

"Well, knowing that you travel a lot, I'm sure you would have a lot of information regarding this," Leo answered lecherously.

"Sigh... If you are aiming for first place in the single battles then you are probably going to face off against early Pure energy realms," Eupheme replied.

"Whoah..." Leo spoke as a sparkle of excitement appeared in his eyes.

"What's wrong? Afraid?" Eupheme asked as he coldly smiled.

"Not really. I think this competition will be more fun than I thought," Leo spoke with a smile but suddenly his smiled disappeared and he looked to Eupheme and spoke, "Is there a punishment if a participant is killed?"

Hearing this, Eupheme's brain suddenly began blaring sirens as he cautiously asked, "Why are you asking me this? You're not thinking of actually killing someone, are you?"

"No..." Leo spoke with a sigh, "Nevermind. Forget it, I'll just leave it as a secret."

"Hmm..." hearing Leo suddenly back off, Eupheme's mind grew cautious.

"Say, is there any chance of Aurora coming?" Leo asked.

"I don't think she will. She is going to make her first appearance at the new year's celebration so she will be preparing for that," Eupheme replied.

"Oh..." Leo spoke with disappointment.

"Looks like we will have to move a few steps faster then," Leo spoke with a smile as he rushed his horse forward to catch up with the king.

"Your highness, I wanted to ask you. Why did you come with us?" Leo asked and Eupheme also turned his head to the king after hearing Leo say this as he was also interested.

The king a heavy sigh before giving a light smile, "No need for formalities. From now on, please call me Edric."

Once he said this, the tone of his voice turned solemn and somewhat depressed as he spoke, "I feel safer here with you two than if I was with my guards."

"What do you mean?" Eupheme asked, not understanding why he would say that.

"You see, I am suffering from a disease that I receive as a byproduct of a harsh injury many years ago and because of that, my lifespan is closing to its end," the king explained.

Leo and Eupheme kept silent as they listened keenly to Edric's story while trodding along happily.

"And as you know, if I die then my son will take the throne but he is still underaged and too young to take the throne. Knowing this, many of my closest ministers are plotting against me and right now, I can't trust even my guards," the king spoke.

"So you want us to protect you through this trip?" Leo asked.

Hearing this, the king suddenly stopped his horse and turned and faced Leo.

"I want to ask if you can act as my son's guardian. He is older than you but you have enough strength to rival the top powers of this kingdom. I'm afraid that if I let my son study under someone else they may corrupt him," the king requested.

But before he could get an answer, an arrow suddenly shot out from the trees that were bordering the roads and Leo immediately dashed in front of the king and grabbed the arrow.

However, as Leo grabbed it, his surprised expression appeared on his face as the arrow suddenly exploded, destroying the road that they were just on.

As the dust and smoke slowly cleared up, Leo and Edric were seen unharmed, a meter from where they originally stood, even the horses were not hurt at all. Eupheme was standing in front of them and a yellow see-through shield of energy was hovering in front of him, blocking the attack.

"Thanks for the Eupheme," Leo spoke with a smile as he brought the king back to his horse, "Edric, please go back to your horse."

"What about you guys?" Edric asked.

"It seems, my answer will have to wait for a bit," Leo replied with a smile before walking to Eupheme.

"Come out!" Eupheme coldly spoke as he looked towards where the arrow came out from.

A short rustle sounded and seven assassins walked out with the one in the center carrying a bow in his hand.

"Impressive... I didn't think that the king would hire such a good bodyguard," the man carrying the bow spoke.

"We're not his bodyguards. We're just us. He just happened to be traveling with us," Leo spoke as he turned to Eupheme, "Why don't you deal with these guys?"

"Haha! How shameless. You're just going to leave your mate to deal with all of us?" the man ridiculed.

Hearing this, a slight smile appeared on Leo's face as he reached inside his pouch in his thigh and pulled out a bunch of short knives, "I'm not letting him deal with all of you. I need to help out too you know?"

After saying this, Leo's hands suddenly moved and flew out in a different direction opposite of the men, leaving the king and Eupheme confused. What was he planning?

But after seeing where each of Leo's knives flew, a series of pained cries sounded and the face of the man carrying the bow turned extremely ugly as he spoke in shock, "How did you know?"

"I can't be bothered to tell you," Leo spoke with a smile before returning to his horse.

The man and his assassins immediately charged forward but they were stopped by Eupheme who had an extremely calm expression on his face.

"He's done his part. Now it's my turn," Eupheme spoke and he brought back his fist and tensed all his muscles.

"You're not going to use energy," the man asked after realizing that Eupheme had no intention of using his energy to finish them off.

"I don't need to. Take this," Eupheme spoke and he suddenly disappeared from where he was and appeared again right in front of the man and struck out a heavy punch straight to his abdomen, sending him flying a few meters back and crashing loudly into a tree. His eyes immediately dilated and grew lifeless as he died there with his body firmly lodged into the tree.

"This..." immediately fearful expression appeared on the rest of the assassins.

"Who sent you?" Leo's voice rang out as he looked condescendingly to the men.

"It was the head minister, Bard," one of the assassins immediately replied, hoping that saying so would allow him to keep his life.

"Thanks to you, your whole crew can live. Go and tell Bard that if he is going to take another step towards taking the king's life then his family may be in danger," Leo spoke with a cold smile and he tapped on Eupheme's shoulder, "Let's go."