78 PARTICIPATION

After revealing she is the Empress, Ichika kept telling them about her adventures on monster world. How she arrived on this world, her training, collecting resources in the monster lands, her encounters with the 5 bosses of the Blood ocean, stepping into the vanguard zone, saving Princess Astarte, becoming the Empress of human race to fulfill the prophecy, how she used her own money to completely reconstruct the entire Human Empire lands from ruins, how she noticed the arrival of all 3 of them.

Even though, Ichika described her adventures in simple words, it still was a shocking news to them. They never expected Ichika and Zetsu to completely plunder all the spirit stones and herbs from the monster lands up to 5th zone. Ichika even put the boss of the 5th zone to sleep and took all his treasures. She did all of this, when she didn't even reach Paragon level.

Well, after plundering the monster lands, they didn't escape from there. Instead they choose to continue their training there amidst the monster lands. It it was any other cultivator, they would have long escaped the monster lands.

Then, again cheating all the 5 bosses of Blood Ocean and completely stealing their treasures, in the name of the Dragon race. Luckily the Dragon race were only restricted to the 7th zone and most of them don't know their identities or it would have surely invited the wrath from the Dragon race. They could only applaud her in their hearts for her bravery and making use of the idiocy of the monsters.

Completely erasing the Mighty Bears slave trading organisation, the very first month she stepped into the Vanguard zone. What's this about prophecy? It was too much of a coincidence, like it was prepared for her in advance. To be able to do this trillions of year ago, the cultivator must be a very powerful individual.

Itachi and Shisui completely accepted the fate of being toys for Ichika this whole time, but Kin started to pout and refused to talk to Ichika, during the entire time in the chamber room. When it was time, Zetsu reminded them about Dinner and they all started to move towards the dining hall.

"Kin, are you still not going to talk to your mother?"- Ichika

"....." Kin didn't respond to her and just followed the remaining members to the dining hall.

"Sigh. Look like you are really angry with me. Well, I thought of preparing all of your favorite dishes tomorrow with my own hands, but it looks like we have to wait till your anger subside"- Ichika

At the mention of Ichika personal cooking Itachi, Shisui and Zetsu all started to plead Kin with their eyes. Even Kin didn't expect this underhanded move from his mother. It is completely against the rules to play with someone's stomach.

"I… I .. am not angry at you. I am embarrassed at my own behavior,while shopping earlier. I spoke harshly to all the merchants to properly sell all of their items and pay taxes to the treasury."- Kin

"Oh, did that happen? Did you feel like you did the wrong thing then? Did any of the merchants voice their complaints at your behavior?"- Ichika

"Mother stop teasing me. I know you are clearly keeping tabs on us with your soul sense. So you clearly know about the incident with the merchants and yet you are asking me, as if you don't know a thing.

But I didn't feel wrong voicing my thoughts, It's what you taught me in the first place. You always made me read those thick piles of Economic, Trade and Tax related books in the University. So as a good citizen, I lectured them a bit.

As for the merchants, they were completely happy when I paid them the full price listed on the items. "- Kin

Ichika felt a bit embarrassed as Kin easily caught her ruse. But as his mother, she will behave as if he didn't mention anything about her spying.

"Kin, I am glad you did the right thing. But you, yourself don't know how much confidence did you instill in the merchants of the capital.

It is not an easy thing for merchants to establish their foothold in the busiest commercial streets of the capital city. If they want to settle here, then they must be either from prominent clans, large merchant organisations, famous and powerful cultivators or must have deep relations with the officials and ministers of the Empire.

Then what about those merchants, who have not met any of the above criteria. If they are given an opportunity, they will never let go of any chance at forming relations with powerful individuals of the Empire. So they will resort to all kinds of bribery and gifts. What do you think will happen next?

In order to make up for the money they lost, they will either resort to increase in the prices of the items or by tax evasion.

There are also some members of influential families, who will try to use their family name in order to buy Items at reduced price or at times completely taking the items for free.

So, what do you think will happen, if the merchants in the capital and Empire, will come to know, that Prince Kin, himself paid full price for all the items he purchased?

These merchants without any backup will pick up our name from now on. Their favorite phrase will be 'So, what if you are a member of a prominent family or someone famous, when the Royal family themselves purchases the items at actual price.'"- Ichika

Zetsu was calm after listening to all of these info, as he heard similar stories of many young masters/mistress, abusing these merchants with their family influence. Even after implementing harsh rules, these merchants will rather prefer to reduce their losses, than angering someone they don't want to. Since there will be no official complaint from these merchants, they royal family will also not make a move.

As for kin, his face became beet red, when Ichika called him Prince Kin.

"Mother, then why didn't you stop this abuse with your power? It would have made the situation much better for these merchants, with your help"-Kin

" Given my seniority and status, you don't expect me to bully some youngsters right? I was also busy spending most of my time in cultivation. We also passed many rules in favor of these merchants, but it is them who are afraid to make a move. No matter how much I help, it is them who should learn to stand up for themselves first.

The only thing I can do is, to order the intelligence division to spy and gather full concrete evidences of all these actions. The problem is, after passing harsh rules, these young masters/mistresses started to send their servants or aides in their place.

But, because of your actions today, I am sure these merchants will start to Stand up."- Ichika

While Ichika and Kin were having their conversation, Itachi and Shisui were also having a complete different conversation using soul sense.

"Cousin Shisui, why do I feel like we are walking right into another trap of Ichika?"- Itachi

"So you noticed it. But you can relax your guard. This trap was only aimed at Kin. Ichika want to test Kin, on how he will solve this problem"- Shisui

"I will only be a fool, if I believe Ichika can't solve these problems regarding the merchants. So why waste time testing Kin and dragging this problem for so many years?"- Itachi

"Sigh. Itachi we are no longer on the world of mortals. This is a world of cultivators and Ichika is ruling a Empire filled with them. She was no longer the simple Governor of Naha state, but one of the powerful Empress on this world.

She may be a powerful cultivator, but you don't expect her to solve even personal problems right? An Empire of this vast size, will only survive, if the people will learn to stand up for themselves and coordinate with the government officials.

She is planning to groom Kin as the next ruler and providing him with opportunities to gain fame and recognition with the citizens of the Empire. So they will have another person to rely on, after Ichika ascends to the next world."- Shisui

So, that's how it is then. Everytime there is a power transition from one Emperor to another Emperor, it is always followed by a lot of internal court battles and external warfare against enemies. Ichika has to make sure that Kin has capabilities to deal with both inside and outside matters of the Empire. So it will make the power transfer easier for Kin after Ichika ascends. As the future successor, he can only gain these capabilities by personally experiencing and solving more problems.

The chef's in the imperial kitchen were quite busy today, as you can see them running here and there, to make sure that all the dishes are prepared and are in order.

Ichika never dined in the imperial palace as only Zetsu and her stayed here. Being a cultivator, she rarely eats. Even then she personally cooks her dishes.

During her free time, she personally trained all the chef's. But these chef's are only used to prepare dishes 3 times a week, when the court is held. At that time, they will have their hands full by preparing snacks, tea and lunch for the officials. But today for the first time, they were specifically ordered to prepare dishes for the newly arrived royal family members. They are sure, they are still far away from Ichika standards of cooking, but they gave their all in preparing best quality dishes possible.

Soon Ichika and the others arrived at the dining hall and took their seats. While beautiful maids in red robes started to carry dishes after dishes and started to place them on the table, while all the chef's stood at the side of the table waiting for their order.

With just a order from Ichika, they started to serve the dishes to all 5 of them. Ichika and Zetsu took their time eating, while Kin, Itachi and Shisui swept up the table at an incredible pace.

"Ah, it's been a long time since we had such tasty dishes. Even the dishes we had in Greenwood city, will pale in comparison"- Shisui

"Uncle Shisui, did you notice, all these dishes are what Mother used to make back home, even though the taste is not as good as mother's, they are much better than the one's we ate before in Greenwood city"- Kin

The chef's who were holding their breaths at the side, immediately relaxed after hearing that their dishes satisfied these royal members.

"Mother can you tell me the number of stages in the Event?may be we will also participate in it"- Kin

At kin's question, Itachi and Shisui also showed interest. While the maids and chefs were surprised at him.

"The event is held in 3 stages. First stage is the selection. This stage will take over 1000 years to weed out the weak ones."- Ichika

What the hell? Selection stage is held for 1000 years? Just how long is the event then?

Ichika could clearly understand the thoughts of her family members.

"The event is held every 10 million years. Numerous cultivators from within and outside the Empire will like to participate in the event. Most of the Empires will already finish their selection process of candidates before coming here. But still millions of rogue cultivators from all these Empires and Vanguard zone, will show up to test their luck.

This is also the only event on this world, where most of the cultivators come out from their seclusion. For them, who can live millions of years, 1000 years is just another number. So we will give all these cultivators a chance to participate.

Last year close to 72 million cultivators participated in the event. This year we expect at least 110 million cultivators.

There are 10 testing arenas in the capital and more than 15 fights are held per arena daily, totalling 150 fights per day.

This first stage of selection will also give most of the cultivators to gather information on strong opponents, while merchants and clans will set up gambling houses. This time is also used to take advantage of the numerous cultivators in the city, increasing commerce in the capital. With repeated fights in the arena for the next 1000 years, it will also build up enough momentum for the second and third stage. Those who were selected during the first stage can also use this time to improve as much as they can."- Ichika

Itachi, Shisui and Kin clearly understood that Ichika took this concept from the chunin exams on Kaguya world. But what is scary is, just imagine, the amount of money that will flow into the state treasury, because of the large density of cultivators in the capital city during the event time.

"Second stage is Tower of will, which I personally created with all of my knowledge. There will be 10 floors on this tower. All the cultivators will be given 10 years of time to scale the tower. 64 cultivators who will reach the highest floors of this tower will be selected for the third stage. But if there is a tie between cultivators during this second stage, then we will decide the spot by knockout between those cultivators

But every move and actions of all these cultivators will be broadcasted to the viewers through monitor crystals

Third stage is complete knockout competition between the last 64 cultivators.This last stage will be finished in 3 weeks time. There will be a 3 days recovery period given to all the cultivators after every knockout battle."- Ichika

The second stage may sound simple, but it the most cruel stage of all. More than 50 million cultivators who reach the second stage will be reduced to just 64 members. No doubt that the competition will be fierce during the second stage.

"Mother, isn't this competition too easy for someone powerful like paragons. They can easily breeze through the second and third rounds"- Kin

"Nope. All the participants in the competition will restrict their strength according to their opponents. That's the reason for so many cultivators participation. Saints, Gods, High Gods and Paragons can all participate in this event, as long as they follow the rules."- Ichika

Shisui, Itachi and Kin discussed for a while and came to a decision.

"Sister, we also want to participate in this event"- Itachi

All the maids and chef's were surprised after hearing Itachi words. My lords, what's there for you guys to gain by participating in the event?

"Oh, Interesting. If you 3 participate in this event, it will add more attraction to the crowd. Zetsu, do you also want to participate?"- Ichika

Zetsu was with Ichika for more than 130 million years, so he can understand a bit on what's going through her head. So he immediately denied his participation.

"Since you 3 are participating in the event, I will offer additional gifts to the one's defeating you 3. It will surely increasing most of the cultivators motivation. Hohoho, your fights will be fun to watch"- Ichika

All 3 of them understood why did Zetsu refused to participate in the event. Then they turned towards each other asking,' did we make the right decision?'. Also what do you mean by additional gifts, for those who defeat us? You clearly want us to struggle right?

"Hmm Mother, suddenly I feel sick, I think I will not recover enough to participate in the event."- Kin

"Did you forgot who your mother is Kin? There is no disease that I can't heal. I will make sure, you are perfectly healthy before the event."- Ichika

Kin started to curse himself for his stupidity, how could he forget that his mother is a doctor? Why didn't he come up with a proper reason

"Hmm cousin, I think we are not strong and experienced enough to participate in the event"- Shisui

"Oh, Is that it? Then I will personally train you all, this will solve your problem right?"- Ichika

The 3 of them clearly understood now, that they don't have any choice but to participate in the event. They were also terrified of their future training sessions with her.

"Zetsu, inform the reporters, I will announce the rewards in advance. Let's make this event memorable for Shisui, Itachi and kin"- Ichika

Zetsu calmly nodded at Ichika, before leaving the dining room and counting his lucky stars for his wise decision.

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Author's Note: A 3000 word long chapter to make up for the short chapter yesterday. Also this is the only chapter for today. I did write another chapter, but i was not satisfied with the draft. But I will release this extra chapter tomorrow morning. So we will have 2 chapters tomorrow.