Chapter 4048: Swap

Hearing Havira’s request, Hick remembered something. "I don’t mind waiting a few days either. However, isn’t Rean and Kentucky part of the Riquicious Empire’s entourage? Havira, are you truly expecting to go against these freaks?"

"Eh?!" Havira looked at Rean and Kentucky. Indeed, why did they come to Zentian? For the same reason as her!

"Hahaha!" Rean and Kentucky laughed in response, though. "Don’t worry, none of us is taking part in this thing as Riquiciou’s Princess’s advisors. The Riquicious Empire just needed someone to show they had potential Celestial Realm candidates so they could enter this selection with their princess. Our princess, if we could even say ours, is pairing with two other Divinity Realm Experts from Riquicious."

"I see..." Havira sighed in relief. She hasn’t seen the twins’ group fighting, but she heard the whole tale. Hick himself said that there is probably no other Divinity as strong as those four in existence.

Roan saw they had nothing else to talk about. "Since that’s the case, I’m going back to the Dimensional Realm. You guys do whatever you want."

"I’m going with you," Celis quickly joined him.

After that, Rean and Kentucky talked a little more with Havira before bidding farewell and leaving. It’s just that Hick went out with them. "Why are you following us?"

Hick shrugged. "I have nothing better to do, so I might as well stick to you."

"Do you want to go into our dimensional realm?" Kentucky asked with a smile.

"And let you beat me to release all your built-up anger from the last thousands of years? No, thank you." Hick did not fall for that.

"Tch..." And yes, Kentucky wanted to do precisely that. "Rean, where are you going?"

"Where else? To our own residence here in the palace. We need to check on our little princess and her two brothers."

It didn’t take long for them to arrive by flight. Naturally, their IDs allowed their entrance through the formation, and they let Hick come in together.

Xixie was working with her brothers, checking the list of participants and trying to find as much information about them as possible. When she saw Rean and Kentucky returning, she nodded slightly at them and continued. "Welcome back, seniors. There are two rooms open for you on the back."

But then, she noticed Hick following right behind. Only then did she stop looking at her CD, and so did her brothers. "And this is...?"

Rean and Kentucky patted Hick’s shoulder. "Someone we intend to kill later, as long as a chance appears."

Hick felt like crying. "Is that how you introduce your friends?"

"Friends? Whose friends?" The two looked at him. "You are just a liar and a fugitive who left us for dead back then. Be happy we haven’t attacked you already."

"I already told you it was for your own good!" Hick complained.

Rean, Kentucky, and Hick’s interactions looked strange. Yet Derfiu wasn’t going to just stay there and listen to their voices. "Did you come here to argue? If that’s the case, go somewhere else. We are trying to prepare for the wife selection."

Rean stopped. "Could it be you found out what the prince is going to ask from the candidates?"

"No. That prince hasn’t left a single word out, so everyone is in the dark." Derfiu shook his head. "That’s why we are looking into the information of the other princesses. As centerpieces of much bigger powers than our Riquicious Empire, most of them have big public lives. You can find quite a bit about them in the Werdlem Network."

Xixie quickly pointed at herself. "Derfiu, I also made a lot of appearances and participated in many events in the name of our Riquicious Empire, you know? Pretty much all my abilities are out there in the network as well."

Hoblio was the one to laugh. "Little sister, there is a huge difference between you and them. Sure, you probably made as many public appearances as they did, but none of them will care about you. They don’t see our Zentian Empire as an enemy at all."

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" Xixie couldn’t help but sigh.

Rean and the others laughed a little before leaving. "Seems like you are doing fine by yourselves. Well, good luck with your studies. Kentucky and I will bring our friend to our room so we can discuss a few things. Let us know when the time comes. We want to watch it from afar."

Rean and Kentucky left with Hick, leaving the others alone.

---

Five days truly wasn’t much for cultivators of their level. Soon, the wife selection arrived, and one of the workers in the residence went to call Rean and Kentucky. "Seniors, please proceed to the main hall of the palace. Your friends have just left and asked me to tell you."

Arriving there, they took a seat on the sides, staying away from the various princesses in the center of that hall. They easily found Xixie with her brothers near the back of that group, as if they were trying to hide their presence. ’Using the fact that no one cares about you and even hiding to make sure it stays that way. Seems like they know how to use their own shortcomings as advantages.’

Taking his eyes away, Rean noticed Havira somewhere at the front of the central group. By her side, the Astral Wisp also waited. That was obviously Lufua, Havira’s princess. She was in her humanoid form, with quite colorful hair and even irises. This was a normal trait of Astral Wisps, a race that was pretty good with all five mainstream elements. Their Starlight Energy cultivation also fitted that trait well.

There were many more princesses. The majority were part of the humanoid races. But there were a good number of demon beasts too. The spirits had the fewest, which was normal, as there weren’t many spirit races capable of assuming humanoid forms.

Yet, the thing that caught most of Rean and Kentucky’s attention was the advisors. Around 30% of them were obviously Semi-Celestials. There were even three Celestial Realm Experts, although all three were in the Initial Stage. Lufua, too, had a Semi-Celestial Advisor by her side. Every princess had two advisors, it seemed.

Suddenly, the entrance to the main hall began to close, and the lights inside concentrated on the main stage at the back. A man with a gentle appearance walked up, and the lights followed him. So far, Rean hadn’t even bothered looking into who this prince was, so it was his first time seeing the guy.

’Initial Stage Elemental Space Realm, uh? From what I can see with my Divine Sense, he is probably around the same age as Xixie. Yet, his cultivation is so much higher. I guess that’s what you could expect from a heir of a power like the Zentian Empire.’

The young man began his speech. "Welcome! I’m Zanbril Zentian, and I’m honored to receive so many potential candidates to become my wife. Some of you are probably wondering why I decided to use such a method to select a wife, especially since I have never seen the majority of the candidates. There are even a few who are not part of the humanoid races, like the Demon Beasts and Spirits."

"My friends, I won’t waste time trying to fool you. I don’t care much about love or such things. All I want is someone strong who can stand side by side with me. There’s no need for kids either, so the race doesn’t matter. Since that was the case, why limit my scope to the Zentian Empire alone? There are obviously a few candidates from my Werdlem Empire taking part in this, but most are outsiders. Besides, it would also be a good chance to forge new alliances, so it is a win-win situation."

"Of course, do not expect to one day become the empress. I’m indeed one of the heirs, but I’m very, very far down the line compared to my brothers and sisters. There would need to be a miracle within a miracle for someone like me to have a chance at all. Well, all of you already know about this, so it isn’t a problem. It is also because I’m so far away from the throne that I’m allowed to use such a method."

Zanbril continued. "Alright, with the annoying parts out of the way, does anyone here wish to give up? I said you probably know about all of it, but some of you might not have been aware. If you want to step out of this selection, feel free to do so. I will wait a minute for you to leave the center."

Rean couldn’t detect any lies from the young man, smiling in response. ’He is pretty straightforward. If what Havira said about Lufua is right, this guy is likely a good match for her. He probably didn’t even want to marry anyone, but the Empire’s rules likely forced his hand. He is a great choice for someone who wants to focus on their training.’

A minute passed, and sure enough, no one left. Everyone had looked into this issue before coming here, so nothing Zanbril said changed their minds.

"Good!" Zanbril was happy to see that no one gave up. "Let’s start. As mentioned in the invitations, each princess has to have two advisors who will help her with my tests. I can see everyone did as requested, which is good. Now, each princess will have to select one of their two advisors... and swap them with anyone else in this room!"

That... no one expected!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.