The Ranking of Masters

"In three hours, my brother Andrew is going to lead the legions towards the southern regions. Alexander, what do you think about the upcoming war?" The Elder Princess was suddenly feeling a little down after Fei only smiled at her. She wanted to draw this young king to her party, but she somehow changed the topic as the words were about to be said.

"[Zenit's God of War] his highness is invincible. He would definitely kill all the Spartax invaders!" Fei said.

"Really? You really think that? Don't you think it is a little fishy that the Spartax troops suddenly broke through the defense line at Razor City? Before that, they couldn't get through it for 15 days."

Fei was really surprised.

"So this princess mean... there are secrets behind this big loss that were intentionally covered?"

As Fei wanted to ask more questions, a team of cavaliers rushed by. The cavalier that got off of the horse first was Romain. After he greeted Fei politely, he whispered something into the Elder Princess' ear.

"The reinforcement troops are about to have the pre-war ritual. I need to leave. Oh, right. I miss Angela. If there is time, please let Angela hang out with me at St. Petersburg. I think we have a special connection."

The Elder Princess got up and said farewells to Fei. After she got on her magic carriage, she left for the ritual hosted by the [Zenit's God of War] Arshavin. She was guarded by the girl Ziene, Romain, and Romain's cavalry team.

Fei rubbed his chin as he watched her leave.

What the Elder Princess said pointed to something huge and terrifying.

Fei was actually thinking about that as well. Zenit had a lot of soldiers on the border, and so did Spartax. The two empires had similar numbers of soldiers. In addition, the general at Razor City was Bolun Zhang, a famous elder general. Even though he wasn't aggressive and good at attacking as Arshavin, he was better at defending and guarding. Since both empires had frictions with each other, they knew each other's bottom-line pretty well. Razor City was a great place for defense since it was really hard to conquer, that made the one-night collapse of Zenit's troops shocking.

Unless... Spartax Empire doubled the number of soldiers it had on the border, or there were criminals who committed treason within the city and opened the gate to the enemies.

Neither of these explanations was good for Zenit.

Now, Fei realized that his idea of constructing Chambord's own intelligence network by using Zolasc's and Modric's talent was an extraordinary idea. Although the power of this network was still weak and couldn't help Fei out at the moment, it could grow rapidly. One day, it would give Fei information that others won't have. He would be no longer relying on other people's words to make estimations and judgments. He needed the best information to figure out the truth.

Compared with truth, even the most accurate judgment was inferior.

Fei thought about all of that as the Elder Princess and her people merged into the huge group of people in the ritual ceremony.

When he turned around, he saw Paris who was in her usual white dress; she was standing 10 meters away. She was looking at Fei with a weird expression.

"What? Your majesty, are you switching side now since Arshavin got a stronger advantage? Is that why you are showing such generosity to the Elder Princess?" Paris walked toward Fei as the usual coquettish smile appeared on the face that made numerous man fell in love. Although she was smiling, her tone was a little hostile. It was obvious that she saw Fei gifting potions to the Elder Princess.

Fei pointed at the char beside him and signaled this demonic woman to take a seat. He then laughed and said: "You are mistaking. The empire is in a critical time, and everyone has to support the empire. I'm just doing what an affiliated king should do. You know once if St. Petersburg falls, none of us can be safe and secure.

"I'm not going to sit on the seat that Tanasha sat on!" Paris stared at Fei as she pulled the chair Fei was sitting on. After she sat down on that chair, she pointed at another chair further away and said: "You also can't sit on the chair she sat on."

Fei curled his lips as he moved to the chair Paris was pointing at. He looked at the girl who was throwing a child-like tantrum and shook his head; he was a little scared of this intelligent yet playful woman. "Who said the Elder Prince is at an advantage? Maybe a lot of people are supporting him right now, but these people can't ultimately determine who the throne is going to go to. Dominguez his highness is still loved by Yassin his majesty. Hehehe, maybe when the Elder Prince gets the victory and comes back, the person sitting on the throne is the Second Prince."

These types of situations happened too frequent in ancient Chinese history. For example, the Elder Prince of Qing First Emperor (The First Emperor of the First Dynasty, Qing, of Ancient China.) was supported by the majority of the officials and nobles, and the prince had the control of more than a million soldiers. However, such a heroic figure got the throne robbed from him by his useless brother via schemes and tricks. That just went to prove that the battle of the throne happened on the political level and not on the battleground.

After hearing Fei's word, Paris smiled and got very lovely. She leaned her body forward and looked at Fei with her big and shiny eyes. "So you favor Dominguez his highness?" She asked softly.

Fei's eyes slid down Paris' face and peak at her cleavage sub-consciously. After that, he quickly laid back in his chair and laughed: "Does it matter who I favor?"

"Yes, it is really important." Paris detected what Fei did, and she laughed proudly. She laid back in her chair and switched back to a serious face. "From the military order, the 244 affiliated kingdoms would need to come together and create a new legion, and the number one master in the kingdom ranking matches would be the commanding general of this legion. Alexander, you are one strong candidate for that position, and you might be the one who gets that power. Do you think that is not an important role?"

"Haha, yeah, I'm pretty important once you put it like that."

Fei responded. As the sudden situations occurred, his status in the empire had changed dramatically. Before, he was an individual who only battled and fought with his own strength, and now he was like a major force at Zenit that had an effect on the highest level.

"Hehehe, you sure are not low-key about that. You should first try to see how you can become the number one warrior. There are too many young and talented warriors who made appearances in the competition thus far. They are all candidates for that number one position; your opponent isn't just [One Sword]."

"If I want to become the number one, the rest of them can only watch!" Fei's words expressed his absolute confidence in himself. This confidence came from Fei's powerful individual strength.

"Yeah, but it is not wrong to be more careful." Paris was shocked by the confidence that this young king had. A strange light flashed through her eyes, and she reminded Fei as she threw a thin booklet to Fei. The booklet was made with top-quality paper and craftsmanship.

"Look it through, it might be of help." She said.

"The Estimated Rankings and Power Level – Masters from the five battle regions?"

Fei flipped through the booklet and saw detailed records of all 50 masters that made into the final round of matches including names, estimated power levels, break down of the combat techniques, battle styles, and habits. Fei saw his name first, then followed by [One Sword] and Princess Cindy of Bulan. Huerk and Kanort the [Fire and Wind Dual Warriors], [Bloody Duel Blade], and [Silver Armored Vicious Sword] who all had the chance facing Fei were all high-up on the list.

Constantine, the king of Byzantine, was ranked 33 on the list. Except for Fei, the highest-ranking master from Chambord was [Destructive Finger] Peter-Cech who was ranked 13, and the lowest-ranking master from Chambord was [Deadly Assassin of Shadow] Philip-Inzagi who was ranked 41.

Just from the ranking of these people alone, Fei was sure that the information recorded in the booklet had a lot of truth to it.

After Fe read through everything, he saw a line of fine print on the last page – "Zenit's Number One Traveling Poet Matt Razi's production. Limited to 100 copies. Selling Price: 10,000 gold coins."

"Damn, this guy again.:

Matt Razi's figure appeared in Fei's head. "That guy must be a lover of money. No wonder his robe is flashy, and even his wine cup is made from gold. He sure knows how to make money the most efficient way."

However, despite the greed, Matt Razi's judgment was very accurate, and Fei believed 80% of what was in the booklet.

At this moment, a deep and loud bugle noise sounded.

Fei and Paris both look in the direction of the noise, and they found that the pre-war ritual just finished. Captain Romain was named the Herald, and he led 3,000 cavaliers as the first group of reinforcement to the south. The thunder-like clattering horse-hoof noises resonated in the area as the 3000 cavaliers rushed out of the ceremonial field and disappeared very fast.