Secrets of the Universe

The moment they entered the hall, they were greeted with a large spectacle.

The hall was filled with multiple nobles wearing various luxurious dresses. At the front of the hall was a large stage with various nobles loitering on it.

Amidst the nobles was one particular man. The burly man had a crown on his head, and wore a golden robe, with a large wolf imprinted all over it.

It was the King!

The moment people spotted the appearance of the King, they quietened as they didn't want to embarrass themselves in front of the King.

Behind the King were his family members, the royal family. His brother and his wife stood beside him, while both their children were behind them.

Examining the royal family, Jake noticed that they were missing one crucial member. There was no royal queen, the wife of the King.

In fact, the royal family was quite small. They consisted of only eight individuals; the King, the Royal duke(King's brother), Royal duchess, two princes, and three princesses.

Baffled, as it was a norm for there to be a Queen, he was about to ask Gavin, who was nearby, but he was beaten to it by Nico.

"Gavin, where is the Queen?" quietly asked Nico.

"She died in a battle fighting the Netherans," whispered Gavin.

Noticing something, Jake scrutinized, 'Netherans, huh.'

While he was not familiar with the word, he had heard it before. They were often mentioned when people talked about Zombies.

Jake moved closer to Gavin as he asked him, "What are Netherans? What are their relations with Zombies?"

As he looked at the King, Gavin replied, "Don't worry. Listen to the King."

He indicated that Jake would receive his answer through the King's speech.

After ten minutes of crowd noise, the other royal nobles had left the stage, only the King was left on the stage.

He smiled as he viewed his subjects.

Opening his mouth, he gave a terrifyingly loud shout, "Attention!"

Jake could have sworn that he saw the King's mouth glow green before he shouted.

The shout managed to reach the ears of everyone in the hall. They looked back at the King as they expected the King to begin his speech.

The King, in his deep voice, began, "Two hundred years ago, a group of people, living on this previously barren land, came together to pool their minds and resources. On that specific day, the Aztec Kingdom was born...."

The King's hand glowed with an extremely bright green energy. The green [spirit essence] turned into smoke. Figures appeared in the smoke, the about-twenty figures came together.

They built a small building. After that, they built two small buildings.

After that, they built five small buildings. They kept building and building until they got themselves a city. Then from a city to multiple cities, from multiple cities to a small region, and finally, from small regions to a Kingdom!

The green smoke illustrated everything the King said. It displayed it for the crowd to see, giving it a sense of authenticity.

In the minds of the crowds, they wondered how far the King's cultivation was for him to produce such a feat.

The king educated, ".....Throughout history, our Kingdom has been intricately tied to a group of beings, the Netherans. They are the vermins of the world, invaders whose true aim is to infect!

Once in a while, they reappear, causing the factions of the world to unite. Most races would put aside their ideologies and differences to stand a united front.

It is funny because it was recorded that before the first emergence of the Netherans, the world was in a chaotic state, and full of injustice. Ironically, their emergence brought every part of the world together.

Now, there is an assembly, consisting of the most powerful factions of the world, and their main goal is to permanently thwart any emergence of the Netherans."

Being the observant type, Jake noticed that the reactions of some of the nobles were normal as if they had heard the speech before.

He thought it was normal, as the King had probably said a similar thing in his previous celebration.

The king paused for a moment then continued, "One may think what is the relation between the Netherans and our Kingdom. Let me give you a history lesson.

As previously stated, the Netherans emerge occasionally, and any emergence causes a huge war, called the Nether War. A war capable of affecting all sides of the world.

The Southern Kingdoms, including Aztec, were built by men who fought in the war and retired here.

The Netherans emerge through what is called a Rift. The Rift is the pathway between the Netherans' world and our world. They are random and can open anytime.

We all know that the rifts are divided into different grades, due to their sizes and the types of Netherans that spill out of them. The grades are from E to A, and above A-grade is a cataclysmic rift, which has only happened thrice in history, leading to the three Greatest Wars called Nether Wars.

Of course, these wars occurred thousands of years ago, but they led to a huge amount of damage that has not been repaired even over the long course of time. Our ancestors, who lived in the last war, recorded that over 90% of lives were lost in the third Nether War…..."

The King kept talking and Jake listened attentively. The information he was hearing could allow him to understand this world better.

Based on what the King was saying, the Southern Continent, or possibly the planet, was one of the battlegrounds of the last Nether war.

In each of the Southern Kingdoms was a D-grade Rift, which was enough to destroy a kingdom. In the last war, the ancestors had sweat, blood, and tears to seal the rift. However, every ten years the rift leaks and spills out some Netherans. So the kingdoms have to take care of their respective rifts.

They have to suppress all the Netherans that escape from the rift. That was their mission!

In a solemn tone, the King had said that the leak wasn't harmless. In fact, it was always difficult for them to suppress the leaks. It had taken a lot of lives including the current Queen, who died to protect the King from a Netheran.

The crowd took on a sad atmosphere as they were reminded of the cost of their peace.

Looking at the effects of his words, the King cheered, "I want you to know that every man and woman who died to the leak wasn't sad. In fact, they thought of their close ones and smiled before dying. They died knowing that you would be safe and they definitely didn't want you to be hungover their deaths.

So, today, we remember and thank all our lost ones by celebrating!

Everyone, grab a plate, a cup, and eat to your satisfaction. Today, the food's on me!"

His words were accompanied by claps of the audience. They were definitely cheered. Some of them, including Nico, took five plates of food and stuffed their stomachs.

The celebration quickly moved to the next stage, the greeting stage, where nobles would come on the stage and present their gift to the king on the stage.

Jake watched the event as he drank a cup of wine. While he might not be of legal age to drink, who cared about laws in a cultivation world?!

Plus, the wine was really good. It had a sharp fruit taste that was extremely addictive to the mouth. Drinking it, one's tongue would get a sting, and the moment the sting cools down, a wave of pleasure overwhelms the mouth.

The drink was made in such a way that one could not accurately guess the ingredients used.

Jake saw various nobles come up to the stage and present their exquisite gifts to the King. Most noble houses would send their young ones to present in a bid to catch the eye of the King. It was quite known that the King treasured talented youngsters.

One of them walked up to the stage and presented his gift, Buxurim diamond, a very expensive diamond.

As he was young, he could not hide his cultivation from the King and also Jake, who had the Akashic Eye.

Jake had noticed that he was at Stage 6 of [Realm 1], also known as the Morning Dew Realm.

He was stronger than Jake!

Examining him, the King smiled and pointed his finger at a particular table, where a fierce man sat at.

The King instructed, "Go to my brother. He would enlist you into the army."

The boy was absolutely joyous as the army was the dream of all young men, but it was extremely hard to enter. He walked up to the fierce man and introduced himself.

Nothing could be heard from their conversations, but the boy was sure to have a guaranteed entry into the army.