Chapter 145: 12 Imperial knights

Within the blue space, Lucien forgot his main reason for coming here and began pondering on how to recruit capable mages into his fold. His clan may be on the rise but compared to the main goals in the empire, he is way behind in terms of resources and connections. A clan should possess secret martial techniques that can be passed down to their spirit realm masters, yet he has none. A clan should have its army and so much more but Lucien has nothing, it may seem like his clan is doing fine but the truth is that he is way behind.

In Lucien's opinion, his clan is no different from a normal village where there are no cultivators or powers. Thinking about this, Lucien sighed and leaned back again, and shut his eyes. His sea of consciousness was withdrawn from the storage ring and when he returned to the real world, he realized Alice was already sitting at the other end of the large dining table, gazing at him intently.

"You are here?" Lucien said, awkwardly. He didn't know how to explain, how he was able to move his consciousness from one point to another.

"You don't have to be nervous… I am not ignorant of the sea of consciousness formed by experts who attain a martial technique…. The fact you have one, makes it only natural you possess a sea of consciousness" Alice said calmly but even then she refused to make eye contact with Lucien.

It was clear she still felt shy since her tone lacked any form of superiority. This made Lucien wonder if he found a way to make this girl fall for him without even doing anything. Unknown to him, his recent heroic actions left the young lady's heart enchanted.

"I am sure you know much about martial techniques… what do you think about mine?" Lucien asked as he stuffed a piece of steak in his mouth

"You shouldn't talk while you chew" Alice ignored his question and said that instead, leaving Lucien stunned since that was not the reply he was waiting for.

"What?" Lucien responded with a question and a confused look on his face.

"I said, you shouldn't speak when you chew… do you wanna get choked?" Alice said worriedly causing Lucien to laugh out loud.

In his opinion, this can be considered the most ridiculous thing he has heard in a long time. How can a cultivator choke? Even beast-men without talent for magic can't choke over a piece of meat, not to talk of a person at his current level.

"Like seriously?" Lucien laughed madly without restraint, annoying Alice even more.

She only told him this out of worry, yet he laughed at her without giving her face or anything. With a reddened face due to embarrassment, Alice ignored him and started eating grumpily. It took another minute before Lucien could control himself and watch Alice eat. As much as he wanted to deny it, he has been living a very boring life and he found it annoying. Maybe he has isolated himself from people so much that it has affected him somehow. He once again told himself he needs to expand his family and make the Rakuzen clan formidable.

[If you wish to expand, I suggest you drag one of the Empire's old monsters over to your side… While you have me as your master, the others have no one to meet if they reach a bottleneck in their cultivation… by the way people feel safer if they can see the immovable figure representing them... You should focus on getting an old monster before recruiting the younger people] Rakuzen explained.

Hearing this, Lucien nodded in agreement and said nothing else. Apart from getting an old monster, he needs to improve the overall strength of his clan. Every noble family has its fighting force, an army of its own just like the Zhao clan that easily mobilized a small number of hundred warrior and mortal realm masters in mere minutes. The only problem preventing Lucien from turning everyone in his territory into a powerhouse is the laws guiding the empire. All cultivators must go through the Fotia academy and get registered, that way the empire can keep tabs on the fighting force of each empire.

"I guess I will have to make a special request when next I meet the emperor" Lucien muttered as he leaned back.

"Did you say something?" Alice quickly asked the moment she heard Lucien mumble some words.

Even though she was annoyed at Lucien, she still wanted to speak to him but she didn't know how to start a conversation! Hearing her speak, Lucien smiled and spoke up.

"Thank you" He said calmly.

"For what?" Alice's face turned red with embarrassment, so she couldn't help but ask that question.

"For making me smile" Lucien answered calmly as he continued eating.

Hearing this, Alice blushed uncontrollably and buried her face on the table, causing Lucien to laugh lightly.

"It is boring staying here all alone… My life has been boring lately… You made this morning more interesting than ever… " Lucien said casually but for Alice, it meant a lot.

It's hard to explain such feelings for her since this is the first time she has ever felt this way. Was she enchanted by his strength? Or is it his looks? Or maybe it should be his overbearing nature? Or just the way he does things?

Gazing at Lucien she couldn't tell why she felt this way about him, all she knew was that the feelings popped up without giving her the chance to reject.

"I will be honored to work with the Lightborn family… The Rakuzen clan agrees to your offer but at one condition" Lucien said those words with a straight face to show he is taking this seriously.

"What?" Alice asked with an anxious look on her face. She was deeply overjoyed that Lucien agreed to work with their clan but having him ask for a condition made her anxious. What if he asked for something outrageous?

"You will be my adviser…" Lucien answered quickly.

Hearing this, Alice felt like she heard wrong. How can someone from one clan, act as an adviser for someone from a different clan?

"I lack knowledge of basically everything apart from methods of vanquishing my enemies… I don't know how empire politics work and how to run a noble family… I need someone who can guide me until I feel I can do it on my own" Lucien explained slowly.

"And you think I am the right person?" Alice's voice trailed off while she asked that question.

"Yea… I enjoy having you around and I strongly believe you are the only one I can trust" Lucien said casually before throwing another piece of steak into his mouth and chewing silently while waiting for Alice to respond.

"You know doing this means you have to expose a lot of clan secrets to me… I have to know your strengths and weaknesses if you want me to advise you properly" Alice said sternly.

"I have no weaknesses anyone in this empire can exploit, you don't have to worry about that" Lucien's words would sound extremely rude to many bit it made Alice blush.

Could it be the bad boy vibes that she found attractive?

Bam!

At that moment the doors swung open and the elderly chieftain of the town led men dressed in special golden and red armor stormed in. They all wore helmets of various shapes and designs giving them a fierce look. The old men who let them in were trembling and even Alice was stunned by their presence.

"The twelve pillars of the imperial knights!" Alice exclaimed as she hurriedly bowed respectfully to these twelve peerless experts bit Lucien remained seated with his legs crossed and he kept eating without care.

"You can leave now old man… Try to calm down as well… At this rate, you will definitely have a heart attack" Lucien joked as he threw in another piece of Stake in his mouth.

His pitch-black eyes soon shifted to the twelve knights and a grin appeared on his face.

"You guys finally showed up… I was wondering when the imperial knights will appear after the event of yesterday…. After waiting for so long, I began considering a possibility that you guys were too scared to show your faces!" Lucien chuckled lightly as he spoke.

Hearing this Alice's heart skipped a heat and before she could try to rebuke Lucien or apologize on his behalf, one of the golden armored men with a bull helmet took a step forward and his red aura exploded! It spread widely within the room, shooting towards Lucien at an incredible speed.

"You dare act restlessly in my domain? Tell Me, how do you wish to do?!" Lucien growled as his aura exploded and his silver aura surged forward, clashing with that of the knight.

No matter how much the knight tried to release his full strength, he always ended up getting suppressed by an unknown force.

"What the hell is this?" The knight said coldly while gazing at Lucien.