Invitation

Five months passed while the youths who were selected to enter the secret passageway cultivated steadily.

During these five months, instead of cultivating, Davis wholeheartedly trained in Alchemy. He learnt to use soul flame, which helped him in making pills without using a burnable material like coal.

Soul flame could be only created with people who had an affinity with fire. This stringent requirement made many people give up on learning high-level alchemy because as the level increases, it'll get difficult to control the fire manually without using the soul to control the flames.

Besides, using the soul flame to create a pill has its advantages, like being easily able to control the intensity of the heat as long as one has high control over their soul energy.

During the first month, Davis had difficulty with controlling his soul energy to manipulate his soul flame, which caused him to ruin many materials and cauldrons.

During the second month, he was able to control the soul flame proficiently.

During the third month, he was able to create Earth Rank pills.

During the fourth month, he consolidated his pill making skill and practised diligently.

And during the last month, he finally succeeded in creating a Low-Level Sky Rank Pill.

Alchemist Highwood was totally astonished by his speed and couldn't help but admit that this lad will surpass him in a year.

Most importantly, Davis didn't forget his promise with Evelynn, but instead of going to see her, he explained his circumstance by sending her letters.

Evelynn understood his plight and warmly replied to him. After that, they communicated by sending letters once a week, telling each other about what they did that week.

To Davis, it made him smile as he had never experienced these kinds of emotions before. Heck, he had no experience in doing this kind of actions either.

Furthermore, they could have communicated using transmission crystals but didn't do so for some reason. It was like they avoided meeting or talking to each other for some awkward reason.

Both had an inkling of what they wanted to tell each other but refrained from it.

...

"This is truly frustrating..." Davis muttered under his breath.

He sat at the table as he massaged his forehead while thinking about a certain problem.

Davis was now eleven years old. His height grew, making him exactly five feet tall. His face started to portray some masculine features, combined with the black imperial robes he wore, he looked absolutely handsome.

"What's frustrating?" A cute voice echoed behind him.

He looked behind to see Ellia seated in a lotus position.

She looked mesmerizing with her beautifully shaped almond eyes, perfectly shaped small nose and dainty lips. Her height seemingly increased to four feet, five inches tall while her long silky black hair reached chest length. She wore dark blue clothes which looked expensive and elegant.

She opened her eyes and looked at him with a curious gaze.

"This..." Davis thought for a moment before he explained to her.

It turns out that he had received an official letter from Emperor Ashton. The letter indicated that Princess Shirley Ashton would be celebrating her birthday in a month's time and it seems that he was cordially invited along with his fiancee to attend the birthday celebration.

"What's so frustrating about that?" Ellia had a confused expression on her face. She couldn't understand what kind of a matter was there to fret about.

Davis sighed, "I get why they are inviting me, but I don't understand why they're inviting Evelynn. It's like adding insult to the injury for them."

"Adding insult to the injury? What do you mean?"

"You still don't understand because you're still small."

Ellia rolled her eyes on hearing his statement.

"Emperor Ashton was originally dissatisfied with the dismissal of the marriage engagement of me and Shirley, so he would in no way invite Evelynn over to Shirley's birthday celebration. From my guess, this letter must be the work of Shirley. If I had to speculate on why she had to do this, then..." Davis contemplated for a moment before he continued, "Her Royal Father is still dissatisfied with her and pressured her into inviting me by taking advantage of this upcoming birthday celebration. Then she had no choice but to do it, so she sent me an invitation, but instead changed the details of the invitation so I could bring Evelynn with me, giving her a reason to tactfully decline her father's wishes."

Ellia stayed silent, her face had a weird expression as if she were looking at an idiot.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Davis got uncomfortable and questioned her.

With a slight grin on her face, she replied, "I'd most likely say it was Emperor Ashton who sent you the invitation."

Davis looked at her and laughed, "Huh!? Why the heck would you say that?"

"Emperor Ashton is trying to use the jealousy in Shirley's heart to make her marry you."

Davis got dumbfounded on hearing her speculation, "Using jealousy? You mean he somehow plans to have Evelynn and me induce jealousy in her?"

"Yes, more or less." Rolling her eyes, she answered.

Davis chuckled, "Haha, you have quite the imagination. Besides, getting jealous because of me? You sure like to raise my worth!"

Ellia suddenly looked at him with a displeased gaze, "Why do you always humble yourself normally? You're the Crown Prince of the Loret Empire, the disciple of the mysterious senior. In this world, I don't think anyone has a status higher than you excluding your master."

He spread his hands wide, "... I don't know that myself, guess I just feel myself to be retarded when acting arrogantly for no reason."

"..." Ellia was speechless but she couldn't help but accept on what he said had a point.

Pointing up her finger at him, she said, "Firstly, you are the strongest genius alive in this continent. Secondly, your prestige is so high that all single women in this continent would not decline your advances." Her gaze avoided him as she thought, 'Including me.'

Returning her gaze on him, she questioned with a dissatisfied gaze, "What exactly makes you think you're not worthy of getting jealous?"

Davis slightly laughed, "You say that no one would refuse me? Then tell me this, why did Evelynn refuse the engagement until I managed to convince her?"

"At that time, she was older than you, and you were still a kid. The age gap must've been quite awkward as well. Ultimately, she must have had some misgivings until she met you. Even now, many women admire you and want you to notice them. I dare you to court a single woman after you've turned sixteen years old. Let me see if anyone dares to refuse your advances by then."

Hearing that kind of speech from her, he was quite ticked off, but at the same time, he looked at her with a dumbfounded gaze. He slowly blinked as he thought about the words that had escaped from her mouth.

'I did teach her to be bold, but not this bold! Especially for her age!' Shouting in his mind, he berated himself for teaching her things he shouldn't have had taught.