Chapter 236 - Men's Tribulation In Life
With the appearance of the World Tree, the main road that leads to Azure Verdant Plains had been disconnected and a new road was required to be built around it in the future.
This empty grassland region the World Tree was found in, used to be the fiefdom of an old Baron. Just twenty miles southwest of the World Tree was a town by the name of Grasscrest Town with a moderate population of 5000 people.
Leon and his group of palace guards did not stop by this town. After finding their general direction, they made a straight line for the Capital. However, they had underestimated the distance between them.
The Capital was not situated in the center of its vast territory but relatively closer to the Great Wall in the west.
A great distance had to be covered to reach the Capital from the eastern borders.
Given that Leon had limitless energy to burn to fly at his greatest speed, it would just be a matter of hours to reach the Capital.
However, he was traveling by foot and with a group of slow palace guards. A matter of hours had been stretched a few days.
A steam-powered vehicle running at full throttle would still be quicker at this point because machines do not tire as they do.
At this moment, Leon and the palace guards were taking a break by the main road, hoping for a random vehicle to pass them by so they could hitch a ride. Oh, how they had fallen.
Leon was not tired and could keep going, but he had to consider the state of his palace guards, who ran in full suits of armor.
The memory of the prince pulling pill bottles out of thin air still lingered on their minds, but Leon made no comment when the question was raised. In the end, it was not their place to dig into the secrets of royalty.
While the palace guards quietly cultivated during the rest, Leon did the same.
Pseudo-Grandmist energy was refined and used to temper his meridians, one strand at a time.
Learning from his past mistakes, he did not attempt to temper his meridians with multiple strands at once.
Not only would it put him into shock with his eyes rolling back from the pain again, but he would also be giving the palace guards all a heart attack.
After two repetitions, Leon sighed and stopped.
'It's too slow!'
If he wants to make great progress in Body Forging, the pain was something he needed to get used to.
Leon adjusted his plans and decided to gather whatever dry branches he could find in the surrounding.
Where there are trees, there are bound to be branches.
The grassland was vast and fertile, but it was not completely flat and empty. Occasional trees and shrubs can be seen growing in various parts of it.
While picking up the dry branches by the foot of a tree, Leon thought that it was quite appropriate to use the undeveloped grassland for farming. Crops and medicinal herbs would grow well near the World Tree.
Leon was naturally prepared to resort to primitive means to start a fire for pill refining.
"Leon!"
Leon pricked his ears as he heard his name being faintly called in the distance by two familiar voices. He turned with suspicions, but his eyes glowered with pleasant surprises right after.
"What are you both doing here? Shouldn't you both be in the Capital?"
The nearby palace guards looked at each other confusion. The prince didn't know? Through their slight interaction with the logistics group, they were made aware of the situation in the eastern borders.
"Did no one report the news to his Highness that her Majesty and both Miss Aria and Miss Lynne were at the eastern borders?"
One of the palace guards awkwardly scratched his head and said, "The prince said to absolutely not disturb him unless it is urgent back then."
The palace guard did not mention that he had forgotten about it after.
The rest was speechless. It is not urgent, but it is pretty damn important, no? If the Queen is not important then they do not know what is, not to mention the war that started.
Aria and Lynne were ready to dive into his arms the moment they found him, but they awkwardly froze when they realize that they were not alone in the wild. There was a group of palace guards nearby watching them.
At the end of the day, they were both ladies with a certain amount of reservations. They did not dare to display public affections wantonly. Despite that, it did not hide the longing and affections they had in their eyes.
"Alright, I know you both have missed me. I missed you both too. Come, my darlings."
Leon had dropped the bunch of dry branches, dusted his hands and spread his arms wide open to embrace them, but despite doing all this, none of the two ladies moved.
The two had heard him but they did not dare as their faces began to flush red with embarrassment.
Leon retracted his arms after it was awkwardly left hanging. He scratched the back of his head with a wryly smile, wondering if secluded cultivation had turned them both meek.
It was not the first time they showed affections for another and they been through much further.
He also did not forget that they were all 17 years of age. Despite having his mental age breaking the hundred years after the inheritance induction, he did not feel any mental burden that he was too old for them.
In the cultivation world, age was just a number once they all reach adulthood. If both parties were willing, why would it matter?
However, he did silently rejoice that the inheritance induction only contained the raw knowledge Arden had comprehended throughout his life and not the full package of his private life as well.
Otherwise, it would not have been as simple as several decades, but several hundreds of years spent in the dreamscape time chamber.
By then, forget the fact that his mental age would have reached the level of being their founding ancestor, his body would have died. It was quite the close shave with death.
In any case, it did not change the fact that he was mentally over a hundred years old, enough to be their great grandpas. Perhaps it was true what they say that a thick skin grows with age.
Seeing that the two ladies remained motionless, he took the initiative to step forward and wrapped his arms around both them, and pulled them into his embrace.
Lynne, who had always been the more energetic and bolder one of the two, found her courage after Leon's arm wrapped around her.
She wrapped her own arms around him and hugged him even tighter.
On the other hand, Aria was more quiet and timid. It was like the confidence she had worked up to no longer hide her beauty under her hair was drained away.
Her face turned bright as a tomato and softly muttered, "Don't… there are people watching…"
Her voice grew softer by the moment until she finally burrowed her head in his chest as his hand audaciously and teasingly roamed her back.
At the same time, Leon flashed the palace guards a warning gaze that silently implied, "Had you looked enough?"
The palace guards choked on their own spit and averted their eyes awkwardly. It would be a lie if they said they were not interested in Leon's messy love life.
Each of them either had a single wife or a single girlfriend, but never two. They had enough troubles that come with one partner. They cannot imagine what kind of shit storm that comes with two or more partners.
Puppy love was the most intense and shallow in romantic attachment. In this stage, women were the most forgiving and loving. They can even be considered angels.
They do not have many expectations and do not mind the little fuckups you do, and would be able to smile through it all.
The following stage was what the palace guards were all looking forward to seeing. That is when they turn into the devil and start fighting over the littlest of things you do that irks them.
Every one of the palace guards that has been in a relationship had been through this and still is.
They would take their helmets off to Leon if he can make it past this stage because when the storm comes calling, there is no use fighting back. They can only endure it and admit their wrongs.
For every excuse men come up with, women would bring up ten more faults to add from their list of bottomless depths.
Men can never win an argument against women. Even if they were right, they would still wrong. It is frustrating enough to bring a man to tears.
If the tribulation of life had three types of heaven, earth, and human, then heaven would be the tribulation that comes from cultivation, while earth would be the tribulation that comes from the dangers the world throws at you.
As for humans, the palace guards would all undoubtedly agree that women were the human tribulation of life for men. Those palace maids were all too feisty.
They can be dragons among men and sons of heaven outside all they want, but when they are home with their partners, even if they were proud lions, they can only be meek cats.
Leon had no idea what sorts of ridiculous thoughts the palace guards were having, but if he knew, he would have simply laughed it off. He was no expert in women, but problems usually arise from forgetting small details.
With the small boost in memory retention that comes from divine cultivation, if they still experience these problems between couples, then he could only say that they were either incompetent or their partners simply weighed that little of importance in their hearts.
He brought the two ladies to the foot of a shady tree seated each of them on his laps. After giving them both a peck on the cheeks that caused them to blush with a rosy color, they began to catch up.
"How was your secluded cultivation? What happened to the Capital in these past two weeks?" Leon asked.
It was only then that the two ladies noticed something wrong with Leon and paled with concern.
"Your cultivation…"