Mixed Blessing System

At the Stauss family headquarters...

At this instant, Fritz, level 12, was guiding the second prince of Leopoldine through his family's mansion, where this level 16 individual was to meet with the Stauss patriarch.

Lars Leopoldine had a serious expression as he walked through the halls of that estate, upset by the setbacks his faction had been facing in the Linn Province.

Leopoldine had ten provinces, and this prince had support in each of these areas. However, Linn Province was the 5th most powerful province in the empire. Because of this, the losses that Lars had recently been experiencing there were bothering him.

Not only had he failed to eliminate Daemon's son, but his plans to overthrow the Frost family had all failed, and now he had lost almost half of the families he had in that province.

Among them, the most important of all House Waldeaur, the ruler of those areas.

As such, this fellow had been having terrible days lately and could not be in a good mood.

"Your Highness, I am sorry for our failures in Linn Province, but I believe our family can serve you to regain dominance over that area." Fritz said while ashamed of his time in Peters City when he had failed in all his plans and even his subordinate, Kai, had perished.

But the prince there had already learned a hard lesson from this situation and would no longer use the help of these people to solve the problems related to Lothur.

If he wanted to solve it, he would have to act himself!

"Don't worry, young master Stauss. I will send some of my men to Peters City and end all this." He said to that fellow.

"That... Then everything will be settled." Fritz smiled bitterly. "But anyway, how is His Majesty? I hope he is doing well, Your Highness."

"My father?" Lars asked as he remembered the information he had recently received regarding the emperor. "He's not doing well, from what I've heard. He hasn't agreed to meet with any of us for a few weeks now and has been acting strangely...

Sigh!

I think my father is preparing for his departure."

Upon hearing that, Fritz felt a little bad since the emperor's death would undeniably weaken Leopoldine.

The emperor was the strongest person publicly in the state, who would act to keep the peace and scare off the powers within and without it.

As for the powerful in the shadows, these would rarely show themselves and usually prefer to see some chaos than act to interfere in situations that few would influence them.

So even though the death of the emperor would also serve the rise of the faction of the victorious prince and the powers connected to the victor, it also had its negative side.

It would mean temporary weakness for the whole empire. At the same time, the internal situation would become more agitated due to the rise of someone not supported or feared by all.

Amid this, Fritz couldn't help but think of Daemon. 'When the emperor dies, that wretch might show himself more and even act against the imperial family!

He just doesn't do that on His Majesty's account, but once the emperor meets his end...'

"Gulp!

That's terrible, Your Highness. I hope nothing bad happens to His Majesty, and he still lives long enough."

"Me too." The third prince said, not lying, but not being entirely sincere.

His father's death would benefit him. But it was undeniable that it would make him face challenges he had never had to deal with before. So he had mixed feelings about it.

...

On the other hand, in a remote part of that city, two individuals Lothur had seen before arrived at a secret post of the force they belonged to.

But as they arrived there to report to their leader, these individuals were surprised with an unexpected piece of information.

"What? Do you guys fail? How is that possible?" A level 17 cultivator looked at those two and questioned them incredulously.

"Unfortunately... So we are here to report our failures to our leader.

But why are you here in his place?" The woman asked.

That expert looked at the two Soul Core Transcendents before him and said. "Our supreme leader is in seclusion. After you left, he felt something different and left me here to take charge of the situation while trying to understand that feeling."

"Oh? Is that true?" The man asked while that woman had her eyes wide open.

"Is he close to a breakthrough? Maybe he can become a Saint..."

But that Nascent Soul Transcendent shook his head negatively. "Impossible.

If it were so simple to advance to the 4th stage, many Saints would exist in our state. But there are less than ten individuals at that stage in all of Leopoldine..."

There were Origin Saints in Leopoldine. These were the true masters of this state, who commanded from the shadows the largest organizations, including the imperial family itself.

In the distant past, the Leopoldine family had formed their state and become the dominant power in this area. But this did not come without a little help from an emerging power of that time.

This power had been created by an individual fleeing his home state and wanting to live in seclusion with his family. He then gave some help to the Leopoldine family leader of the time, facilitating the achievements that this family would later reach.

After that, this family settled in the new state called Leopoldine, staying behind the imperial family and rarely showing themselves to the world.

Time passed, and this family had given rise to four other organizations, a little weaker than their own, but also powers that lived in the shadows of this state.

One of these families was House Carstensen, from which Larissa came.

In addition to these houses, one more power had reached the 4th stage and also chose to live in the shadows to avoid the dangers of being known as 'rich.'

The best thing one could have was to have power, resources, and still the freedom to be able to roam the world with no one having any idea of the good things they had to wish harm or try to take away those things from them.

So as much as many would choose fame or even become the center of attention, there were not a few who thought like Lothur.

In this way, six families lived in Leopoldine's shadows, moving most of the local powers to their best interests when necessary.

But even these stronger powers of Leopoldine had no extra Saints. So the idea of reaching the 4th stage as something that could be easily achieved was a dream.

Knowing this, that level 17 man did not believe in the advancement of his leader!

"Don't get your hopes up... If he gets a new understanding, that will already be good. But a breakthrough now would be almost impossible."

After hearing that, those individuals sighed.

Meanwhile, Lothur's grandfather was silently meditating in the underground while the spiritual energy in that chamber he was in was condensing in the surroundings.

The place was so chaotic that the energy in the surroundings seemed to have taken the form of a whirlpool capable of destroying everything it touched.

Fortunately, this place had been built by 3-star professionals and could withstand even the cultivation of someone at the peak of level 18!