The Weakest Empire

Lily giggled, hearing Damien's sarcasm, "Well, he is the famed crown prince of the Lancaster Empire, Maxim Lancaster. I am not surprised you don't know him. You must have been too engrossed in alchemy that you didn't care about these things, hehe. Even though he is from another empire, his achievements, feats, and prowess have even reached the ears of our empire. It is said that whoever fought against him couldn't even see him let alone his sword. He's so strikingly fast that one wouldn't even know that they lost. His attainments in ethereal cultivation especially labeled him as a one in a thousand years genius."

Damien was inwardly slack-jawed hearing Lily's words. The way she said it sounded as if the Vanishing Sword Prince had a cultivation way higher than Lily or at least stronger than her.

Damien thought that Lily was gifted for achieving such high cultivation at the young age of eighteen. He wondered then how high would be the cultivation of this so-called one in a thousand years genius.

He knew that resources can play a huge part in one's cultivation and might even have been one of the reasons for Lily's current attainments in her cultivation. In general, the imperial family would obviously have access to the most precious resources in the empire.

But considering that even Rank 5 cultivation pills were not huge in number in the Rong Empire, Damien wondered if it's because the other empires could concoct the rare Rank 6 pills in plenty and probably even a legendary Rank 7 pill!

Damien had no knowledge about any Rank 6 pills since even the books from the imperial library didn't have many mentions of them. 

Also, he basically had no idea of the things happening in other empires or any idea of the empires' power distribution.

"But you are titled as the 'Celestial Princess', right? Other than your angelic beauty, I am sure there must be other extraordinary qualities you possess that make you deserving of that title." Damien said in a sincere tone.

Lily actually hated the title bestowed upon her. Still, she felt happy that Damien meant well when he complimented her beauty as 'angelic'. She had received an innumerable number of compliments, mostly about her beauty, but she felt nothing when she heard those empty compliments from their sugary and malicious mouths.

And when she heard Damien say that she might have other unique qualities and not just the beauty she was blessed with, she truly felt that Damien was the only one who could see her for who she is instead of looking at her as if she was a valuable tool.

For the past few days, she thought that the day she rescued Damien from that slave market was the best thing she had ever done in her life. She was grateful to the heavens for letting her meet Damien again and being able to rescue him from such a terrible situation.

Right now, she truly needed a friend she could be herself with; without keeping up a fake smile plastered on her face.

Lily wryly smiled as she shook her head, "You praise me too much, Damien. My cultivation is just at the ninth level of the Spirit Ethereal Realm. While I may be considered a genius in my own empire, I am just ordinary when compared with the other empires' geniuses. You may not know, but compared to other empires, our Rong Empire is too weak. Our resources, manpower wouldn't even come close to other empires. Do you know that Maxim Lancaster or the Vanishing Sword Prince was at the eighth level of the Earth Ethereal Realm the last time I saw his swordplay."

Damien couldn't believe what he just heard as he just stared at Lily with disbelief written over his face.

'That dude is almost a whole realm higher than her? Is it that the Rong Empire is not as progressive as I thought?'

"Is our Rong Empire that weak compared to even the other two empires, like the Gale Empire and Xeton Empire?" Damien was thinking about how the Rong Empire managed to not get annexed by the other three empires

.

It's not like the other three empires would just sit back with a very weak nation bordering them. They would obviously annex and plunder the land for whatever benefits they can get out from its land and people. It is the cultivation world, after all, where peace is even a luxury.

He wondered if he was a frog in a well as he didn't expect there to be such a huge difference in power between the Rong Empire and the other empires.

Lily sighed and looked down as she was ashamed that her empire does not even deserve to be on equal standing with the other three empires, "Yes, as I said, our Rong Empire cannot be compared with the other three empires."

She then looked at Damien and seemed to guess what he was thinking, "I know, you must be wondering why we were not annexed or something even worse right? Actually, it is all because of our revered Ancestor. He is the only one holding down the fort. Without his presence, this empire would have long ceased to exist and would have been forgotten in the history books soon enough as only the victors have the right to change history to their whims."

"Ancestor? You mean someone from your ancestry?" Damien questioned curiously.

"Yes, he was the Emperor of our empire 400 years ago," Lily said as a hint of reverence flashed in her eyes.

"400 years??" Damien's eyes almost bulged out.

But then he thought that it was only natural since he knew that as one's cultivation realm increases, one's lifespan also increases, just like how Lily can live up to 150 years with her Spirit Ethereal Realm cultivation.

But since Damien had never come upon or heard of someone so old, he was shocked for a moment as he was basically someone coming from Earth where people could barely live for more than a century.

Damien, with his Initial Ethereal Realm cultivation, can live up to 110 years comfortably. And if he breakthroughs to the Nascent Ethereal Realm, then he can live up to 120 years.

But then he wondered if her Ancestor was alive at least 400 years ago, then wouldn't his cultivation be at least at the...

Lily smiled, "I know what you are thinking. Our Ancestor's cultivation is at least at the fabled Heaven Ethereal Realm!" She said as her eyes sparkled.

But a question popped up in Damien's mind, "Then what would be the cultivation of the Ancestors of the other empire?"

Since he now knew that the Rong Empire's standing and power is poor compared to other empires…then wouldn't the Ancestors or the powerhouses from the other empires be at least stronger than the Rong Empire's Ancestor?

Lily understood why he asked that question as she said, "I am not sure about that since we aren't qualified enough to know that. Although our empire, in general, might be weaker, why do you think I said our Ancestor is the main reason we are still safe? It's because our Ancestor was considered a prodigy during his young days. He brought up our empire to prosperity within these 400 years. No one in our empire at that time could have compared to his cultivation at that time. After all, it was rumored that he naturally had 18 Ethereal core points active! The chances of even being born with that talent are really minuscule. Talent mainly depends on genes and only by some other odd factors could one be born with higher talent than they should possess."

"Then how did the Rong Empire survive the time before your Ancestor came into the picture?"

Damien was astonished that the Ancestor had 18 Ethereal core points active naturally. In this continent, the chances of being born with such talent were even less than one in a million.

Lily heaved a wistful sigh as she said," Actually, our empire was prosperous and had equal standing with the other empires at least till a few centuries ago. Then a disaster struck our empire, destroying most of our precious lands and even killing our guardians. That's what history says anyway. But now our Ancestor is dying because of some injury which seems to shorten his lifespan."

Damien did not have much idea about the history of the empire he was in.

He only cared about knowing more about alchemy which is why he requested Lily to give him books related to alchemy and some other books explaining the social system in the Rong Empire.

'Wew, so such a thing happened in this very empire. But how did it not strike the other countries when the Rong Empire borders all the three empires?'

Damien wondered what kind of disaster it was to specifically strike only the Rong Empire.

"If the Ancestor is nearing the end of his lifespan, how will our empire survive in the future?"

Damien couldn't help but feel that the imperial family wouldn't just sit back and do nothing when they are in danger of getting annexed anytime soon, just as the Ancestor passes away.

Lily's expression became rigid just as Damien asked the question. Her eyes darted sideways as if she didn't want to answer his question.

Damien was surprised to see her expression and wondered if he asked something wrong.

'Why does it seem like she did not want to answer my question? Is it because she reveres the Ancestor too much that she got angry at me?'

Damien wondered if she didn't want to answer his question since he basically hinted that the Ancestor would pass away soon.

But he thought it was only natural to think like that, and even Lily should have understood that.