Emperor’s AbilitiesA cold wind passed through the silent forest, causing the snow on the trees to fall on the ground. Bruce held a round shield in his left hand, his right hand in a fist, his left knee bent slightly forward, his other leg supporting his stance.

  Opposite Bruce stood Aldric, a long sword in his right hand and his left hand behind his back, his waist slightly tucked to the left, his right leg bent forward, and his left leg bent down with just the toes on the ground ready to take off.

  Bruce looked at Aldric's posture. "Boy, if you want to beat me, you're far from reaching the required level." He prepared his shield and quickly jumped towards Aldric.

  Aldric looked at Bruce who was quickly approaching above him, he took a deep breath and a faint light appeared in Aldric's eyes, in his view the world slowed down and a ghost resembling Bruce appeared on his right side, this is one of the Emperor's wisdom abilities, the movement of the opposite person can be predicted, the closer the power level is, the easier it is to predict his next move.

  Aldric jumped to the right and smmed his right foot into Bruce's shield. He pulled his left hand out from behind his back and threw something at Bruce's face.

  Bruce was surprised by Aldric's surprise kick before he banced his body and fell backwards. He looked at Aldric, then saw something that looked like a ball hitting his face; he reacted and blocked it with his right hand. The moment he touched the ball, it exploded and a gray smoke came out quickly, spreading in a circle with a diameter of 10 meters.

  Bruce stood in the middle of the smoke. No normal human would see through this smoke. He prepared his armor and looked around. "Boy, you really surprise me."

  Aldric was lurking in the smoke, ready to pounce. He pulled a dagger from behind his back and threw it at Bruce's face as he jumped to Bruce's right side, ready to deliver a killing blow.

  Bruce saw something shining through the fog and blocked it with his right hand as he swung his shield to the right, blocking Aldric's attack, "Boy, there's a big gap between us." He took a deep breath, raised his right leg and fmes appeared wrapped around him, he hit the ground hard, the fmes exploded in a circle, dispersing the smoke and revealing Aldric's location.

  Aldric jumped back, avoiding the fmes, and for a moment there was a slight hint of greed as he looked at Bruce, but he shook his head and dropped his sword to the ground. “I surrender.”

  “You gave up so quickly, kid,” Bruce looked at Aldric with a smile, put his shield behind his back and walked towards Aldric, “It’s okay kid if your skill is weak, it will get stronger as your Aether level increases,”

  “Okay, let’s go anyway.” Aldric headed to the exit of the forest, turning his back to Bruce.

  After coming out of the forest, Bruce and Aldric entered the city and headed towards Bruce's house. Aldric looked at the passersby and tried using the Emperor's eyes. In his eyes, most of the surrounding people had a gray aura. He turned to Bruce and found a brown aura around him. "Bruce, how strong are you compared to ordinary people?”

  Bruce looked at the bystanders, “If we compare, you will need 100 strong men to defeat me without using the Aether.” He looked at his right hand, “If I use the Aether, I can kill the 100 of them in 5 seconds.”

  Aldric nodded, “So what level are you at now? I mean, does each path have its own levels, or do we have simir levels?” In Aldric’s eyes, when he uses the Emperor’s eyes, the levels are divided into 9 colors.

  Grey-Brown-Green-Yellow-Orange-Red-Purple-Blue-White.

  The more concentrated the color, the closer the person is to the next level. Currently, Bruce's level is a concentrated brown with some green streaks, which means he is close to the next level.

  "The warrior level is divided into 3 levels:

  Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced.

  I think this applies to contractors and sorcerers." By the time Bruce finished expining, they had reached the house.

  Aldric nodded as he entered the house, now he understood the levels of strength very well, now his level is Light brown, all he must do is meditate to absorb more Aether and increase his strength, he closed his eyes and looked at the neckce deep in his soul, time continued to decrease.

  9:11:29: 16:30:05

  Bruce, Aldric, Alice and Cara sat at the wood table in front of them. There was a toast with eggs on the side and a cup of hot tea.

  Bruce took a bite of toast, then a sip of tea. He looked at Aldric. “When are you going?” In his short vision, Aldric had a great talent, especially since he had awakened a powerful ability that enabled him to predict his opponent’s movements. Although the attack power was small, it had many applications on the battlefield.

  Aldric breathed a sigh of relief as he swallowed the st mouthful. “I’ll probably set off tomorrow. I want to go to the capital to look for that person in my father’s letter.” he was pnning to set off tomorrow and buy two horses and a carriage to travel today. There’s a long distance between Grilin City and the capital.

  “Good luck, so what are you going to do after you find your parents,” Bruce was a little curious, sometimes when he looked into Aldric’s eyes it felt like he was looking into an abyss, full of darkness, he originally wanted Cara to accompany them but he felt like something bad would happen to her so he gave up on that idea.

  “After finding them and taking revenge my goal is to become stronger,” Aldric looked at Bruce, he knew he doubted him so he hastened to leave, unfortunately he wanted to kill Bruce and steal his power but unfortunately, he is stronger than him, who knows what will happen if he risks fighting him.

  Aldric nodded, stood up, and walked out the door with the training sword in his hand. “I’m going out to buy the carriage, Alice. Follow me,”

  Alice nodded towards Bruce and Cara, grabbed the hem of her skirt, and ran to Aldric.

  Aldric looked at Alice behind him, then continued walking towards the city exit. After some time, he walked out of the city. “Follow me quickly,” he ignored Alice’s confused look and urged her to hurry.

  In the snowy forest, Aldric stood in front of Alice. “Take this sword and try to attack me,” ignoring the complete bewilderment on Alice’s face, he handed her his training sword.

  Alice had a look of confusion on her face. She looked at Aldric's face and saw those empty eyes looking back at her. She took a deep breath and stabbed Aldric in the stomach.

  Aldric's waist bent slightly to the left, dodging the sword. He took a step back, avoiding Alice's wave. This continued until Alice finally fell to the ground from exhaustion. Aldric approached her and took the sword that had fallen to the ground.

  Alice looked at the approaching Aldric in fear and helplessness, she realized how far apart they were, her eyes widened when she saw Aldric coming with the sword above her, the sound of the air being cut rang out, Alice closed her eyes and did not expect to die..., she opened her eyes in confusion and her face turned pale; the sword was above the pupil of her right eye, 0.5 inch above her eye.

  Aldric raised the sword and put it back in its sheath, he looked at Alice who was breathing heavily, and tried out the Emperor's Judgment skill, deep in Alice's soul a wisp of light appeared and disappeared, it was so fast that it seemed like an illusion.

  Aldric felt he had some kind of connection with Alice, if compared to that contract, it seemed like a thread connecting him and Alice, but the Emperor's Judgment was different, he felt as if Alice was in the palm of his hand, he could kill her with a thought, read and wipe out her memory, and if he ordered something, she will do it against her will.

  “Let's go,” Aldric ordered as he walked towards the city.

  The series of actions confused Alice. She thought he was going to kill her, but nothing happened. She looked deeply at Aldric's back and quickly followed him.

  Inside the city, Aldric was walking with Alice, he looked at the people around him wondering, if the power of the Emperor's Judgment can plunder a person's strength and power if he kills him, can it plunder ordinary people? Aldric no longer wondered but headed to a dark alley, inside the alley two men were talking.

  “Man, I can't wait to fight the Wolf Gang tonight,” said the man on the left.

  “Me too. Imagine how much money we would get,” the other smiled wickedly as he pyed with the dagger in his hand.

  “Can you tell me about this battle?” Aldric entered with a smile, his eyes fell on the two men. In his view, there was a grey aura around them.

  Alice followed behind him and looked at the two men curiously.

  The two men stood in surprise. The man on the left looked at the other man. “Was it easy to find treasure these days?”

  “Especially that girl behind him. What a toned body. You know I'll be the first, right?” He looked at his friend and expined with a serious face.

  “Damn, who do you think you are, anyway we will decide ter. Now don’t let them escape,” he spped the other’s head.

  Aldric watched with a faint smile. “Good luck. I wanted to see if the Aether had any effect on ordinary people.” He waved his hand towards the two thieves and an invisible aura came out. If someone hadn’t entered the Sea of nothingness, they wouldn’t have seen the Aether. The white aura wrapped around the two thieves and they suddenly stopped talking. The Aether restricted their bodies so they couldn’t speak or move.

  “Mmmmm…” The two thieves wanted to speak but failed, their faces filled with despair, and the sound of Aldric’s steps struck their hearts like a hammer.

  Aldric walked up to the man on the left and slowly grabbed his head, gradually increasing his strength. The man's head exploded, brain and bone fragments scattered all over the ground, but Aldric's hands and clothes were not soiled. Another use of this Aether would make things a lot easier, he thought as he walked towards the other man. "Alice, get out of the alley for a bit," then he continued walking

  The man's eyes widened in fear, tears welled up in his eyes. He remembered every inch of his life and was filled with regret. Who will take care of my grandmother when I die? Why am I unlucky? Why am I weak? Regretting all the bad choices, he looked at the monster. In his eyes, Aldric had turned into a bck shadow dressed in bck. Only those blue eyes stared at him with a ft gaze.

  Alice stood with a pale face outside the alley listening to the screams inside the alley, she trembled in fear, suddenly she felt that her life was dark, being a sve to a cold, unpredictable, brutal and bloodthirsty person, this did not seem like a good thing.

  In the alley, the man's body was on the ground with a hole in the middle. Aldric looked at the corpse with a ft expression, Emperor Judgement whispered lightly. A small grey aura emerged from the two bodies and entered Aldric's body, he closed his eyes in enjoyment, the feeling of gaining power is intoxicating, ever since he was young, Aldric loved the feeling of getting stronger and this forced him to train madly since he was young to where sometimes his body would colpse from training but thanks to his grandfather's medicine, he would survive every time.

  He knew from this man's mouth that tonight two gangs would fight, the Tiger Gang and the Wolf Gang, but he was his prey, he would be well beaten tonight. He looked at his body and saw that the brown color had become a little more concentrated, but not close.

  About 200 men would come tonight. When he thought of all these people he couldn't think about how much his strength had increased, a hint of madness appeared in his eyes but it disappeared as if it had drowned in a dark sea, this was the effect of the emperor's wisdom, at all times he would remain sensible and make the most logical choices.

  In fact, he didn't need this effect, because since he was young he found he differed from other children, he found that the so-called emotions did not affect him, if he felt angry he would get angry but this did not affect his decisions, if he felt happy he would feel happy but it did not affect his actions.

  He walked out of the alley and headed towards the store. He had to buy the cart before the sun went down.

  Alice followed him quickly, occasionally gncing into the alley behind her with a hint of curiosity.

  “Do you want to see what’s over there?” Aldric’s cold voice rang in Alice’s ears. She shivered and hurried to Aldric.

  Aldric bought a carriage and two horses for 10 gold coins, and they returned to Bruce's house.

  Bruce opened the door with a smile and strangely, he didn't smell blood on Aldric. Aldric nodded when he saw Bruce's reaction. He used the Aether to block the blood smell and other things.

  In the northern forest of Grilin City, a group of skeletons were walking aimlessly, in the middle of the forest, in an underground cave, there was a bck coffin, inside the coffin was a 3-meter-tall skeleton lying, suddenly a blue fire appeared in the hollows of the skeleton's eyes.

  the_old_narrator