Chapter 258: Walnut Town
With that, he had gained at least some ability to protect himself.
Later, he followed the army north to subjugate a kingdom. By chance, he and his comrades discovered one of the thirty six Imperial Relics inside a treasury.
Body Swap Doll.
Body Swap Doll had no offensive power at all, but it allowed its user to completely exchange appearance, voice, and even bloodline with another person.
The moment Javier found it, he realized how valuable the Imperial Relic was.
He killed his comrades without hesitation, took Body Swap Doll, and returned to the Empire.
After waiting for the right opportunity, he successfully exchanged appearance, voice, and bloodline with a member of the Imperial royal family.
Once the swap was complete, he killed that royal and replaced him.
Only a little more than three months had passed since he descended into the world of Legend of the Empire.
After becoming royalty, Javier began using the power of the royal family and the Empire with everything he had. Once he learned of the Divine Relics, he immediately inserted himself into the search.
In secret, he recruited experts and ordered his subordinates to attack one of the Empire’s military branches. From there, they took away an old woman with prophetic ability.
With the old woman’s help, and with the resources of Imperial royalty behind him, Javier soon found the whereabouts of one Divine Relic.
Azure Diamond.
Now that Azure Diamond was in his hands, Javier possessed the strongest body in the world.
For a moment, he sank into that overwhelming power.
"This world is already in my grasp."
Anyone who held such power would likely feel the same illusion.
Javier soon woke from that intoxication and pressed down his arrogance.
He walked out of the ruin.
A subordinate came forward to report.
"Your Highness, that old woman from the Wind Whisperer tribe refuses to help us search for the other Divine Relics, no matter what we do."
Javier thought for a moment.
"Did we not find out she has a granddaughter? Use that to threaten her."
"Our people went to Oasis Town, but they did not find anyone. There is still no trace of her granddaughter."
"Tch."
Javier spoke with irritation.
"That old woman keeps making trouble for me."
The Wind Whisperer tribe was famously difficult to catch.
Their prophets were even worse. If one of them was determined to hide from you, almost no one could find them.
If the old woman had not been locked inside a military branch, taking her would never have been easy.
As they spoke, the old woman approached with a cane.
Her back was bent, her hair completely white. She looked as though she might reach the end of her life at any moment.
"Your Highness, you should stop while there is still time. Is the power of one Divine Relic not enough to satisfy your ambition?"
Javier answered with a question.
"What do you think?"
The old woman said nothing.
Human ambition and desire had no end. They could never be truly satisfied.
Javier wanted to rule this world and kill every hostile player.
The power of one Divine Relic was obviously not enough.
Time flowed like water.
In June of Imperial Year 1246, two full years had passed since Caelum arrived in the world of Legend of the Empire.
Half a year had passed since the Hot Spring Island Incident.
By now, Caelum’s title as the World’s Strongest Sword Master had resounded throughout the Empire.
The Empire’s upper ranks no longer discussed the matter. Nor did they issue any more notices about hunting Caelum down and sending him to the execution platform.
The extermination of the Saliver family simply ended without resolution.
That same year, under Knox’s direction, the Empire’s financial system underwent a major reform.
Blood Moon Bank, established by AXN, began spreading across the country.
Blood Moon Bank bought back gold, silver, and copper coins without limit, then issued new paper currency throughout the Empire.
From then on, paper money became the Empire’s common currency.
The new paper currency was called Sobi.
The purchasing power of the smallest denomination, 1 Sobi, was equal to 1 copper coin.
The largest denomination was 10000 Sobi, equal to 10 gold coins under the old currency.
Because of this, the Empire’s economic condition improved.
The convenience of paper money greatly promoted commercial transactions. Faster circulation of goods brought some change and a little prosperity to the lives of common people.
On the other side, the News Gazette used the Hot Spring Island Incident to truly make its name.
Its distribution gradually covered the south and continued expanding north.
There were more and more news birds.
People slowly grew used to this way of life, and they began to understand the Empire’s overall situation and current events to a considerable degree.
Information was no longer as sealed off as before.
Sito’s News Gazette grew larger and larger.
Also in June of that year, Cerys officially turned sixteen.
With a heart full of heat and excitement, she left the sword training hall in Hartstead.
She stepped onto the road of chasing Caelum’s swordsmanship.
Brilliant sunlight fell, stretching Cerys’s shadow long across the ground.
She walked through the canyon Caelum had cut open. Even standing within it now, she still felt its immensity pressing over her.
Compared with nature, people were as small as ants.
And yet this grand sight had been created by a single swing of Caelum’s blade.
It had changed the terrain here almost permanently.
Cerys looked up toward the edge of the canyon, her chest full.
"One day, my swordsmanship will reach this level too."
She knew the road might be long.
But she had never been someone willing to admit defeat.
With the World’s Strongest Sword Master as her goal, her path of swordsmanship had only truly begun now.
At this time, Caelum was spending his days leisurely in a certain town.
For an entire year, he had been searching for Dusk Island, yet still had nothing to show for it.
Passing through this place, he had casually decided to stay for a while and rest.
The town was called Walnut Town.
It was rich in walnuts, with a population close to 3000. Among nearby towns, it was the largest, so it was relatively developed in every respect.
The reason Walnut Town could reach this scale was that a military training base stood inside the town.
The base was filled with talented youths.
There, they would temper their bodies in advance and learn the combat techniques of the Six Forms, serving as reserves for the Empire’s high level combat power and future officer candidates.
The officer in charge of the training base came from Walnut Town.
He was also a person of upright and kind character.
Because of his management, Walnut Town was peaceful and orderly.
The youths taught by someone like him naturally tended to have fairly decent characters as well. They were clearly different from those Imperial soldiers who committed every evil and acted without restraint.
After half a year, Caelum’s swordsmanship proficiency and three forms of Haki proficiency had once again grown by a noticeable amount.
Swordsmanship Proficiency: 7100000
Observation Haki Proficiency: 1440000
Armament Haki Proficiency: 1440000
Conqueror Haki Proficiency: 1440000
His swordsmanship was still 3 million proficiency away from entering the next Realm.
The overall strength of his three forms of Haki had increased by fourteen times, several times stronger than half a year ago.
Observation Haki at this intensity allowed Caelum to see 144 seconds into the future.
His perception radius had expanded to 43 km.