Chapter 196: Why Did All Of My Evil Wives Come?
Chapter 196: Why Did All Of My Evil Wives Come?
Whoosh—BOOM!
The distinct, thundering roar of a specialized magical engine cut through the air, vibrating deep within the chest. A massive, looming shadow swept across the airfield, blotting out the midday sun as the Ice Palace’s premier flying vessel, the Blue Luan, officially breached the airspace of the Western Kingdom.
Queen Xia Bing had arrived.
I stood up from my seat, smoothing down the crisp lines of my heavy, formal royal attire. Stepping toward the entrance of the lavish pavilion tent, I watched the massive vessel descend. These were the three women I had been waiting for, yet my heart hammered against my ribs for an entirely different reason.
Under the alias of Hao Hun, I had been exchanging letters with Lin Xue in my spare time. I knew she was traveling on this very boat alongside Xue Wuxia and Xia Bing. The catch? That breathtaking woman only knew me as the mysterious Hao Hun. She had no idea I was actually Loki Sky, let alone that I was currently occupying the throne of this kingdom under the identity of Owen Balder.
Damn it all, I thought, a sudden wave of exhaustion hitting me. When did I even start juggling this multiple-identity bullshit?
As the flying boat touched down, the wind whipped violently around its hull. Standing proudly at the bow was Xue Wuxia, the elegant and ethereal Palace Master of the Ice Phoenix Sect. Her striking heterochromia was impossible to miss—her right eye a brilliant, piercing blue, while her left eye glowed with a faint, mystical gold capable of peering directly into the human soul. Her long, silky black hair cascaded over an athletic, perfectly curved C-cup figure.
The moment her gaze swept over the airfield, her eyes locked onto me. She knew instantly. Not only could her golden eye read my soul beneath the disguise, but the profound Summoner link pulsing between our minds left no room for doubt.
Standing right beside her was Hao Hun's new fiancée, the Holy Maiden Lin Xue. She stood exceptionally tall, her proud, voluptuous G-cup figure commanding attention even beneath her flowing robes. Long midnight-black hair framed her face, and her crimson eyes stared coldly over the edge of her delicate silk veil, scanning the western crowds with aloof detachment.
Then there was the third woman—my actual Summons, my lover, and ironically, the official Queen to my current persona of King Owen. My ice-cold Xia Bing. As a Corpse Lord Summons, she possessed the classic, jaw-dropping beauty of the Snow Women, standing at an average eastern height with long, snow-white hair and a heavy, soft E-cup bosom that she inherited from her mother’s blessed lineage. Her eyes were a pale, crystalline blue, contrasting beautifully with her twin sister, Gu Xia, whose eyes were a sharp grey-blue.
But as the gangplank began to lower and my eyes scanned further down the deck, my jaw nearly hit the pavilion floor. Four more women stepped into view. I wanted to curse silently, but my chaotic, unfiltered mouth completely overrode my brain.
"Motherfucker," I muttered under my breath, my knuckles turning white. "Who the hell invited them?!"
There stepped Su Mei, the seductive Sect Master of the Bloodshed Sect. She was a Half-Succubus, a concubine, and the default Empress to the Eastern Emperor—not to mention the very woman I had once forced to take my shape. Her heavy, intoxicating charm practically rolled off the deck in waves.
Right behind her was her daughter, Su Ruyan, the invisible assassin and Holy Maiden. There wasn't much to say about her other than her shoulder-length brown hair, sharp green eyes, and the fact that I barely knew her. But she was a rare, lethal female aura user, making her a ghost on any battlefield.
Next came Xia Sha, the formidable Sect Master and the mother of both Xia Bing and Gu Xia. She was my other first wife, a breathtaking, black-haired Snow Woman with a matching, voluptuous E-cup figure. And, oops... she was currently pregnant with my twins. Despite the headache she often caused, I still held a massive soft spot for her.
And right next to her stood the bane of my sanity: Xia Bing's twin sister, Gu Xia.
A heavy silence descended upon the airfield. Because King Owen had officially gone missing from the public eye, the sudden arrival of this massive assortment of high-tier Eastern powerhouses felt like a ticking time bomb. I frowned deeply, a terrible, sinking feeling settling in my gut.
Swoosh!
Breaking the tension, Xia Bing stepped onto her Snowflake Jian, the flying sword gliding effortlessly through the air as she became the sole representative leaving the vessel to greet the King. Even through her veil, I could see her eyes locked entirely onto me. They shone with an intense, burning excitement. She had flown across the world expecting to meet her stiff, ex-husband Owen, but finding her true lover and master standing in his place made her dead, slowly-beating heart race with a sudden, violent burst of passion.
Unfortunately, Feng Balder—Owen's son—was standing right next to me, waiting stiffly to greet his supposedly estranged mother.
Whoosh!
Xia Bing didn't care. The moment her feet touched the ground, she leapt straight into my arms. I caught her swiftly, her soft, heavy E-cup chest pressing firmly against my royal attire. In one fluid motion, she tore her veil away, wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, and pulled me down into a deep, ravenous, and fiercely passionate kiss. Her tongue parted my lips instantly, tasting me with a desperate hunger born of long separation. To the onlookers of the Balder Kingdom, this display of raw affection from Owen’s Queen wasn't entirely abnormal, but out on the ship, one person looked ready to spit blood.
Gu Xia choked on her own breath, her grey-blue eyes widening to the size of saucers. She almost screamed aloud at the sight of her sister shamelessly kissing that bastard Owen. But then, a sudden memory flashed through her mind—the smug, infuriating face of a certain face-changing rogue she knew all too well. She blinked in sheer disbelief, her mouth dropping wide open in shock behind her veil as the puzzle pieces slammed together in a split second.
A few paces behind them, Xia Sha watched the Corpse Puppet's uncharacteristic display of passion. She felt a twinge of oddity, but ultimately brushed it off, assuming this was simply how her daughter chose to act whenever she returned to the Western continent.
I finally parted from the kiss, catching my breath as I looked down at the flushed, radiant face of my summons. "Welcome back, Bing'er," I murmured softly, making sure my voice carried just enough warmth. "I missed you very much."
To our side, young Feng stood completely stupefied. His jaw was slack as he stared at his mother, who was currently smiling so... warmly? He had never seen her look so alive.
While Xia Bing turned to offer Feng a brief, polite greeting, I snapped my gaze back up to the edge of the flying boat. My single blue eye locked tightly onto the three Eastern Sect Masters. The time for games was over; I needed to assert King Owen's dominance before they compromised my position.
With a sharp mental command, the Neptune's Trident materialized in my right hand.
The transformation was instantaneous and terrifying. The large, heavy weapon was forged of a brilliant, deep-sea blue metal, its thick outer prongs crackling violently with arcs of bright yellow tribulation electricity. The moment the trident cleaved the air, a physical shockwave rippled outward, rewriting the local laws of nature. The atmospheric pressure over a ten-mile radius centered directly on me plummeted. The temperature crashed into a freezing chill, and the air turned so thick with sudden humidity that it became hard to breathe.
With a mere thought, the bright midday sun was utterly smothered. Heavy, churning storm clouds blacker than night began to rapidly coalesce across the sky, swiftly blotting out the horizon and plunging the entire eastern region of the Albion capital into an ominous, twilight darkness. The sheer density of the elemental mana was suffocating.
Crackle—BOOM!
The deafening, localized roar of thunder shook the very foundations of the airfield, jagged streaks of visual lightning dancing wildly inside the dark clouds above like coiled serpents.
Suddenly, the ground beneath my royal boots erupted with a deafening CRASH. A massive geyser of pressurized water, thick as a castle tower, blasted upward from the dry airfield, lifting me thirty feet high into the air. I stood perfectly balanced atop the column of churning, raging blue water, looking down at the Eastern forces like a vengeful god of the deep sea. The water pressure alone hummed with enough force to obliterate an armored battalion.
"Greetings, Sect Masters Xue Wuxia, Su Mei, and Xia Sha," I bellowed, my voice magically projected and amplified by the storm, booming across the sky like rolling thunder. "I, as the King of Balder, greet you. You had not informed me of your sudden arrival in my western kingdom, so I apologize for being a terrible host. I welcome all three of you to stay for the upcoming festivities and then part peacefully, but..."
I leveled the glowing tips of Neptune's Trident directly at the Blue Luan.
Crackle—BOOM!
To punctuate the threat, a blinding bolt of Tribulation Lightning as thick as a house struck the earth far off in the distance, instantly vaporizing a massive stone hill into a cloud of molten slag and ash. Simultaneously, the roiling clouds parted, and a colossal, 300-foot-wide Sky King dropped from the heavens like a descending meteor. Its massive, armored form crackled with blinding white energy as arcs of wild lightning flowed harmlessly over its body, its massive eyes glaring down at the vessel.
My voice dropped, turning dangerously cold, cutting straight through the howling wind. "If you lot came here on Emperor Nuo Fu's orders to cause my kingdom problems, I do not mind showing you the true, devastating powers of King Neptune. I will sink your fleet and bury your souls beneath the tide."
The display of absolute, world-bending elemental mastery left the Eastern experts rigid. The sheer volume of raw, oceanic power and heavenly lightning concentrated in a single man was a terrifying deterrent.
Flap! Flap!
Suddenly, a dark blur streaked into the sky off to my side, breaking the frozen silence. Camila Dark hovered in the air, her massive, leathery Vampire wings flapping powerfully as she glared down at the easterners, her fangs bared in a lethal smile.
"The Dark Vampire clan holds a sacred treaty to fight alongside the Balder Kingdom against any and all outsiders," Camila stated proudly, her voice carrying a razor-sharp edge. "So remember that I am here... Matriarch Camila Dark. You Easterners should know of my name, correct?"
Up on the deck of the ship, Xue Wuxia felt the sheer gravity of my warning bleeding through our mental link. She realized instantly that something incredibly dangerous was brewing behind the scenes in the West, and that their sudden arrival was simply a case of terrible timing.
Before the situation could escalate into a full-blown international incident, someone stepped in to defuse the bomb.
Swoosh!
Xia Bing soared up to the top of the water column, wrapping her arms gently around my waist. She upturned her beautiful pale-blue eyes to meet mine, putting on a flawless performance for the crowd below.
"Husband Owen, please, quell your anger," she pleaded softly, her voice carrying across the wind to soothe the panicked onlookers. "They are not here to cause problems for the Balder Kingdom. After the Summer Court Session concludes, we are all scheduled to travel as one unified group back to our Empire's capital for a major event. They only came early because our shared new Holy Son was set to meet us here in a month to escort us."
I looked down at Xia Bing, offering her a warm, reassured smile as I internally praised her quick thinking. With a grand wave of my trident, I unsummoned the massive Sky King and willed the churning storm clouds to disperse, allowing the warm sunlight to break through the gloom once more.
"Bing'er, you really should have told me that first instead of worrying me," I laughed heartily, the sound echoing across the airfield. "Here I thought the Emperor actually dared to step foot inside my capital, haha!"
My laughter cut off sharply as the column of water slowly lowered the pair of us back to the solid ground. The water evaporated into a fine mist the moment our boots touched the earth, and the magnificent trident dissolved into a streak of pure light, flying straight back into my heart.
Turning my gaze toward the ship one last time, my eyes narrowed. "I'm looking right at you, Bloodshed Sect... Try running around my kingdom with your fancy invisibility tricks and sneaking into places you don't belong, and I will enforce a zero-tolerance policy. No second warnings. That's right... I know all about you, Holy Maiden Su Ruyan. Be a good girl."
Up on the deck, Su Ruyan felt as if a physical bolt of lightning had just pierced her chest. Her breath hitched. She always kept an incredibly low profile, hiding her presence flawlessly. How on earth had the King of Balder targeted her so accurately when she was easily the lowest-key person on the entire vessel?
Satisfied that I had thoroughly terrified my chaotic Eastern women into behaving, I turned and gave a casual wave to my guards and queens. "All the Queens have arrived, so it is time to return home... Thank you, Queen Dark, for your unwavering commitment to my Kingdom."
Camila offered a crisp nod, her wings snapping shut as she prepared to leave, though she left me with one parting, curious glance. "I will definitely have to learn more about this King Neptune... he is quite interesting."
As the crowd began to disperse, I quickly sent a barrage of mental instructions to Xia Bing through our link, telling her to meet me secretly at the castle tomorrow. Right now, I had a much more urgent, personal matter to attend to—a birth I had to rush home for.
The Easterners chose to remain on their flying ship for the time being, deliberately letting their massive presence be seen by the Balder Kingdom's officials to signal peace and diplomacy. Meanwhile, the rest of our inner circle split up, heading toward our respective destinations.
Inside the luxurious, heavily enchanted King's carriage, the heavy royal facade instantly dropped. I let out a massive, exhausting sigh that seemed to drag from the very depths of my soul.
Stripping off the heavy, suffocating royal robes, I let my illusions unravel. The face of Owen Balder melted away, replaced by my familiar, messy red hair and sharp green eyes. I pulled on my favorite, comfortable black cultivator robes, finally feeling like myself again—the real Loki Sky.
Sitting across from me, Leandra watched the entire transformation with a soft, melodic giggle. She leaned forward, propping her chin on her hand as a teasing smirk played on her lips. "Did you just realize you changed completely naked right in front of your Queen?"
I paused mid-motion, momentarily stunned as I looked down at my half-buttoned robes. Then, a slow smirk crept onto my face, and I leaned in closer, teasing her right back. "Yeah, but weren't you technically my wife for the first half of that little strip show? Honestly, after spending so much time in the Mermaid Kingdom, I've just gotten used to being naked. My bad."
Leandra leaned back into the plush leather cushion of her chair, shaking her head with an amused sigh. "No need to apologize. We Elves are not easily bothered by simple nudity. Though, I must admit... I didn't know exactly how blessed you were down there. I honestly thought my Lana was just exaggerating, haha."
Her laughter subsided, turning into a softer, more serious expression. "Anyway, things are getting complicated. You might have to step in and play the part of King Owen during the Summer Gathering a few more times. Sorry to dump that on you."
I offered her a reassuring nod, fastening the belt of my black robes. "Just send me a message whenever you need me, Leandra. I'll be there for you."
"Good..." A brilliant, glowing magic circle began to form beneath my feet, humming with immense spatial energy. Leandra flashed me one last, beautiful smile. "Let me send you off with my One-Way Portal then... my part-time husband."
We exchanged a few more quick, playful words before she finally initiated the spell, leaving me with a few stern warnings about keeping my head down.
Buzz!
The world warped in a flash of blinding white light. A sudden, violent spatial shove shunted me straight out of the single-direction portal. My boots slammed down onto the paved stone path, and I blinked, realizing I was standing directly in front of the grand, towering gates of my newly expanded Sky mansion.
Steeling my resolve, I rushed past the front gates, giving a hurried wave to the startled guards as I sprinted toward the main building. I had to find my wife, Sylvia Sky, immediately—she was in labor, and I wasn't about to miss the birth of my child.