T-T-Tim?

Egon opened his eyes with a start. He looked around frantically trying to come to terms with the fact that he had been abducted. He found himself in an unfamiliar place tied to a chair.

For reasons unknown, he felt like he had been in this situation before. It was strange for him to think that way since he had never left his Imperial Residence before. Unease crept up into his heart as he saw the darkened atmosphere outside the window. It didn't take long for him to guess where he was. If what he read was true then only the south of the forest outside the Capital city had those particular trees with heart-shaped yellow leaves.

"Help!...someone help," he tried to call for help which soon turned into a desperate cry when the wooden walls of the shack he was in, glowed with runic inscriptions. They were sound barrier runes, Egon belatedly realised.

"...are you done? Or do you still want to keep screaming?"

A hoarse voice whispered from behind him. It sounded so eerie that goosebumps appeared on Egon's skin. He tried moving his head, straining to take a look at the thing that was behind him. Yes! Egon would not call it anything closely related to humans. Because that's what he felt from the aura emanating from its body. It was anything but human. His Phoenix senses were tingling in trepidation just by being in this thing's presence.

"You! Who are you? Do you know who my father is?"

Egon tried to move his mana, but it was being completely suppressed by this thing's aura. He had no choice but to resort to using his father's name and try to deter the thing that had kidnapped him.

"I know who your father is!" The voice sounded right next to his ears this time.

"I have known him before you were even born!"

'Damn! Have I been abducted by some weird old man?'

Egon had a strange thought. He had read all about the stories where weird old men who usually practised evil sorcery, would abduct young and talented cultivators to use them as a catalyst for improving their own cultivation. Egon knew how talented he was. He had already reached the realm of Martial Sage at the tender age of 28.

Cough! It wasn't anything compared to his freakish sister who had managed to surpass him in just a few years after she started cultivating. He hated comparing himself with his sister and hated it even more when others compared him with her. That was also the reason why he holed himself up in the library and barely left his residence.

'Goddammit! Why am I thinking about her in this situation?'

His mind was really something else! Instead of trying to cook up a plan to escape from this place it was replaying all those humiliating instances where he was compared to his genius sister Scarlett.

"Y-you! What do you want? If..if it's money you're after then I have plenty saved up, I- I will give it to you if you let me go!" Egon tried to entice this horrendous entity behind him with money.

"Keke~ if money was what I really wanted then I would be swimming in the sea of gold by now! Only a fool would desire something as superficial as money…I want power! The real power that cannot be bought with money!"

The entity slowly and quietly hovered on the ground and arrived before Egon, who had his head dipped low in fear. But seeing the thick miasma-like thing near his feet he looked up. He wanted to use his hands to pick up his jaw that was touching the ground if they weren't tied to a chair. Because that's how scared and surprised he was to see the familiar face of Tim in front of him.

"T-T-Tim!..."

"Say my name properly! It's not titty Tim!"

-Gulp!

Egon swallowed aloud, hearing the thunderous voice of his father's Imperial Guardian. All of this felt so surreal to him, he almost believed he was dreaming.

"Why are you doing this? This is treason!" Egon felt really indignant and frustrated at the moment. Was he really that unlucky? To be abducted on his first time travelling out of the Capital. And to top it off, he was abducted by someone who was supposed to be the emperor's most trusted aide and guardian.

Whatever the schemes and plots were being planned by this guy, Egon didn't want to have any part in it. He just wanted to lock himself up in the library and read for the rest of his life. Was that too much to ask?

"Oh! Why would you call it treason? I am just doing what I should have done a long time ago."

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm, how should I put this? Let's see… yeah! What if you were forced to work for someone who is weaker than you? You know, where you have to obey every order he has given, like your life depended on it!" Tim, who now had suppressed the miasma around him, looked like a normal middle aged man, albeit a bit more handsome than average folks, asked softly:

"Wouldn't you feel like shit?"

Egon reluctantly nodded. Looking from Tim's perspective it did feel like he was right.

'Fucking hell! What am I thinking?'

Egon didn't know where he got the courage from but he shouted out in fury.

"You ungrateful bastard! The Imperial Family picked you up from the streets and groomed you to become a Martial Emperor! Is that how you repay us?!"

Tim squatted down, coming to eye level with Egon.

"Tsk, tsk, you don't understand at all! I am very grateful to your grandfather who saved me from my abusive parents and brought me to the Palace." His voice grew softer as he spoke about the previous emperor. Shaking his head to get rid of those images of an old man teaching him how to wield mana, he continued in a sombre voice:

"I would have died like a dog with no one to bury me if it weren't for him. That's why I waited till he was gone. Now I don't owe your family anything! Your father is a weak little man who can't function properly without his wife nearby him! How can you expect me to follow him?

"I am just as strong if not stronger than him! It's about time I use this strength for myself and become my own person."

Egon was sweating buckets by this point. His mere presence was making it difficult to breathe and now that Tim was speaking with his emotions high, Egon struggled to keep his bladder from bursting.

"No! You can't do this! You have clearly lost your mind!" Egon couldn't hold it anymore and screamed in Tim's face, with his bladder relaxing.

Tom scowled, smelling the stench of urine, and moved away from Egon.

But Egon seemed to be completely unaware of this fact as he continued to scream:

"The Imperial Family will never forgive you! We will bring in the Lord Protector if you try to usurp us!"

Remembering the Lord Protector, Egon's confidence surged. That's right! Even if his father was not able to contend with Tim, they had Lord Protector as a backup.

He was the most powerful person in their Continent. All the factions, major and minor, spread throughout the continent had to pay him yearly tributes, and in return, they would have his protection.

He was the person responsible for keeping the apple cart steady and maintaining the status quo. He was also the deterring factor that prevented the neighbouring Continent from invading theirs for resources.

"Keke~ Do you think I have not thought about that? Why do you think I have brought you here, eh? I am going to use you little Phoenix chicks as nourishment for my cultivation!"

Tim rubbed his hands excitedly.

"By the time anyone realises my involvement, I will have grown stronger than your so-called Lord Protector! Hahahaha!"

Egon cringed hearing the hoarse laugh of Tim. He was right, he really was abducted to be used as a catalyst for cultivation.

"No! D-don't do anything to me! Ta-take my sister instead! Yeah, she is more talented than me!" Egon desperately tried to save himself. "Look at me I am sickly and thin, I don't taste good at all!"

Egon was skinny and had a deathly pale skin complexion due to staying in the dark library all his life. He rarely talked with anyone and as such had no familial ties with his siblings. He didn't even hesitate to take his sister's name to save himself.

"Hahahaha! Don't worry, I do plan to use her but not now! She is too precious to use as just a medicine for injuries." Tim cackled like a madman. "Let her reach the realm of Martial King, she will have her bloodline fully awakened by then!"

Dark miasma covered the entire shack as his evil laugh intensified.

"Let's cook, shall we!"

"Nooo! Don't kill me!"

"Oh! Shut up! I am not going to kill you right away. Let me make some healing medicines with your blood first!"

"Nooo—"

-Thud!

Egon's head lolled around loosely as he fell unconscious with a chop to his head from Tim.