King Tian's royal robes and hair began to flutter without wind as he began to leak a mysteriously profound aura of some sort;

"Unh?"

"7 Star Qi Sea Stage!?"

Elder Yun and The Left Grand Elder were stunned by this revelation, because the last time they were here, King Tian was only on the verge of breaking into the 6 Star Qi Sea Stage, and that was four months ago…

But in that same time frame, not only did he enter the 6 Star Qi Sea stage and stabilize his cultivation there, he also managed to progress into the 7 Stars and from what they were currently sensing, he seemed to have also stabilize his current cultivation…

"Congratulations on your breakthrough your highness!"

"Congratulations Your Highness, may your efforts continue to yield such good fortune for you and the Kingdom as a whole…" 

The Left Grand Elder and Elder Yun both bowed and said nothing else as King Tian found himself being unable to keep up with the abrupt change in conversation, and as a result, his billowing aura lurched a bit before dispersing altogether…

Understanding that the duo in front of him had intentionally done this to deflate his rising fury, King Tian released a huge sigh before frowning and commanding;

"Continue!"

Knowing that their lives had at least been spared momentarily, Left and Elder Yun also released a sigh of their own, but they still knew the King intended to punish them which was why he hadn't responded to their compliments;

But they also knew whatever punishment they would get now can never be compared to what would have happened if the King's fury had been allowed to soar…

"It is just as you have determined your highness, we haven't been able to locate the rest of the Obuns as well as the two elders and it is because they had taken too long that I have decided to bring this to your attention…"

"Then why have you come, Left…" The king turned to his left hand man and asked with a frown;

"I have come for the same reason your highness…."

"Then are you both trying to tell me that you're both here for the same reason whilst all our Qi Stone Farms in the entire Dark Lands are not under supervision!?" King Tian raged once again; 

"Uh…Erm…Um…"

The Elder Yun duo realized at this point that the situation they wanted to avoid was now unavoidable, and it might spell more than an ordinary discomfort for them…

Naturally, once reports on the Qi Stone Farms were to be given to the King, Left was supposed to get his reports on Qi Stone Farms where he was assigned to supervise and give it to Elder Yun who was simply in charge of ensuring the relative safety and secrecy of these Qi Stone Farms within both the Dark Lands and those in the Grey Lands being supervised by the Right Grand Elder [or simply Right]…

It is Elder Yun who would then receive these two reports, reorganize them and come report to the King himself, but because the Left Grand Elder felt that the roles between him and Elder Yun was meant to be the direct opposite, he was always looking for a way to cause trouble for Elder Yun, so that the King can find fault with him and remove him from that position…

Elder Yun on the other hand knew the reason why the Left Grand Elder was doing all these was because of sheer greed;

He had noticed that Left wants to be stealing Qi Stones from the Kingdom by taking little quantities of Qi Stones from every batch the Farms send back to the Kingdom every six months, but since the production numbers had to be run by Elder Yun, there was no way the Left Grand Elder could steal the amount of Qi Stones he wants to steal…

This doesn't mean the Left Grand Elder couldn't steal some for his cultivation, but Left was simply too greedy and was looking to amass enormous wealth from it, and Elder Yun was a giant obstruction to him…

But King Tian knew that if their roles were swapped, he would simply be opening the door of his henhouse at night whilst going to bed, because once the Qi Stones from both the Dark and Grey Lands have been gathered, Left would just remove his chunk away from the total and send the rest to the Kingdom since he was the one taking the overall records…

Furthermore, King Tian had realized that giving this role to one of his Grand Elders might cause a friction with the other, thus he gave it to none of them, and whilst the Right Grand Elder was extremely loyal and Elder Yun was a freak for developing the Kingdom;

[because he claimed he wanted to takeover the entire planet by just developing the kingdom to such an extent that the entire wealth of the planet has to pass through Shangri La];

it was a no brainer to put such a person as Elder Yun in charge of the overall development of the kingdom which also includes the Qi Stone Farm…

Thus, King Tian had known that Left only came here to use the situation of the missing and dead Obuns to come and deface Elder Yun in front of him, and that is why he was furious; because the Left Grand Elder was simply neglecting his duties to cause chaos…

But he was also furious with Elder Yun because Elder Yun was wiser than Left, but he had also put himself in a mess which he allowed to fester so long that even Left caught wind of it, thus he had to be a little aggressive with them so that they can take their important and sensitive jobs very seriously;

"Scribe!" King Tian called out;

"Your words are the laws of Shangri La, Your Highness… State your command!"

The voice of an old man resounded from somewhere within the Throne Hall that no one except the King himself knows;

"Have the royal accountant convert the monthly incomes of the Left Grand Elder and Elder Yun into hourly wages, and for every Qi Stone that misses from those farms, one hour worth of income should be deducted from their monthly salaries…" King Tian bellowed;

This is the way he gave his judgement; it was always public for everyone to hear, whilst the scribe from a hidden room within the Throne Hall jots his command down, and it was always enforced if it is a new law or any punishment…

The Elder Yun duo blanched in fear whilst King Tian simply smirked internally;

'Causing trouble for me every now and then, this would at least keep the two of you serious… Hmph!'

He added a mental snort before dismissing them with a fake raging expression and a wave of his hand…

The duo rushed out of the Throne Hall, and after confirming that they have left, the old man's voice resounded once again, but a lot quieter this time;

"Your Highness, do you truly want me to enforce this Law?" He asked;

"You are a wise one, Scribe… Thanks, there won't be a new decree today…"

King Tian replied with a smirk; He had known this old man since he was a young captain of a small army, and the man had always been his advisor in everything he had done and achieved up till the point of stripping the control of the Shangri La from the previous tribe…

The people and tribes of the Land of Light had always claimed him to be a 'Political Genius', and it was all because he was being directed by this old man, and even till date, no one knows the old man…

Even when he eventually took over the Kingdom of Shangri La, the old man had slipped into the palace under the guise of being appointed as a butler within the palace, and since then he had never stepped out of the island…

When he came in everyone within the palace including the King's family and the Elders paid him no shred of attention, since he was going to be a simple butler, and thus they easily forgot his face, this made it easy for the Old Man to assume two personalities;

He would be the unknown, mysterious Scribe during the King's working hours [which is when everyone usually brought matters to the King], and every other time, he would be a simple elder of the academy on the island, but only himself and King Tian understands themselves…

King Tian knew within himself that, though he was the one who wanted to keep going on conquests, it was the Scribe that was the brains behind his achievements, and this was how true politics works…

A good, stable and successful Kingdom would have a powerful warrior or expert as its ruler, loyal subjects, and finally an old, experienced and wise advisor; these are the three main qualities that makes a good Kingdom or Government… 

But whilst all that was said and done, Dara was currently heading towards one of the Qi Farms within the Dark Zone that was closest to the tribe…

"It took us one solid hour before to arrive here, and I am sure we might take a little longer due to the amount of load we might be returning with…"

"This means we only have 30 to 45 minutes give or take, to invade this cave and gather everything we can…" Dara liaised with the First Obun Elder who nodded twice to confirm his speculations;

"Alright, but we can't simply jump into the cave without knowing how many guards are there, so how do we do this?"

Dara racked every shred of intelligence he had as well as the ones he obtained from Sam's soul and that of the Evil Expert, mashed them all together before formulating a master plan;

"Here is how we are going to do it…"

"I will reduce my heartbeat and make myself look convincingly unconscious, then you will take me in and hand me over like I am just another meat sac for Qi Stones…"

"Five minutes of acting and then we will begin to scout the area; if I am nearer to the Qi Stone storage, I will scout that area, whilst you go cause a distraction to draw the guards away, but if it happens the other way around, you will scout the Qi Stone storage whilst I cause a massive commotion to distract the guards…"

"Then you will tell your men that if we are not out in twenty minutes after we go in, then that means we have cleared the farm and they can all move in to start gathering the stones..."

"But if we rush out of the Farm before the twenty minute mark, then everyone should scatter in different direction and rendezvous at the tribe gate…" Dara explained;

"Whatever we do, we must not spend more than 25 minutes dealing with the enemy troop, the remaining 5 to 15 minutes would be foe gathering as much Qi Stones as we can and the remaining time would be for our journey back to the tribe…"

The First Obun Leader instantly went to explain the plan to the rest, and after confirming that the now understood what the plan was, he returned to Dara who settle his mind before slowing down his heart rate completely as he fell limp on the First Elder's arms; he had a muscle meridian, thus, controlling his heart rate was a piece of cake…