Xia Ye's eyes flickered. Back then, they were only giving promise and not swearing on their name when they chose to follow Lin Xiao. It was more like a promise of a child's play rather than anything else.

It was only afterwards that they grew closer and realized Lin Xiao's identity as a prince.

"I have a request. Aside from finishing my revenge, I'll follow you in whatever you choose to do."

Revenge?

Lin Xiao always knew that Xia Ye had some grudge to the person sitting on the throne. He didn't know the detail and had no intention to ask what was not his business. "I promise that I won't stop you from achieving your revenge."

"Will you help me?"

"I can't promise you that I'll help you to achieve your revenge, but I can promise you that I'll help you to grow stronger just like how I provide you with the resources." Lin Xiao pointed to the lake where he was in.

Xia Ye nodded. It was enough for him. He didn't have any other goal aside from revenge in this life, so if Lin Xiao wanted to use him, he would accept it. He took a deep breath and then silently uttered his vow with a deep voice.

"I, Xia Ye, pledge to stay loyal to Lin Xiao shall help him to become the Emperor. I will follow his words, if he asks me to go to the north, I'll never go to the south. Lin Xiao will help me to achieve my revenge while my life will be his until the end of my life. Should I break this oath, may the Heaven kill me."

Lu Jian and Han Jiang both turned to look at the little twerp as they were utterly surprised. One person could only make such oath or pledge once in their entire life and they would have to follow their words until the end of their life.

If they broke it, they would have to face Heaven's punishment.

The three of them decided to follow Lin Xiao because they saw him chose to stand on his own and refused the blatant treatment that the teacher showed to those who were from weaker background.

But they never expected this to happen.

That one of them would eventually chose to pledge an oath on his own to follow Lin Xiao. They all knew that Lin Xiao was a prince because of the necklace but the fight for the successor was still ongoing.

It would not be easy to determine who would win.

"Are you so sure that Lin Xiao will become the emperor?" Han Jiang couldn't help but blurt out.

Xia Ye retracted his gaze and looked at the other two. His gaze was clear and clearly reflected that he understood very well the repercussion of his action. 

"I'll make sure he becomes the emperor. If he didn't become one in the end, wouldn't it mean that I'm such a useless person?" Xia Ye countered back.

His words stunned both Han Jiang and Lu Jian.

On the other hand, Fan Ling started to laugh out loudly. She grinned and waved her fan. "That's the way it is. I'm also interested to see how those people will look like when the one who become the emperor is someone from the countryside and not their prized princes."

The others: "…" you just want to join in the fun, don't you?

"It's your decision." Lu Jian raised his hand, not wanting to participate. He would support Lin Xiao, but it didn't mean that he was willing to trade his life for the other party.

Han Jiang also nodded, not showing any intention to get close at all.

Lin Xiao didn't mind. He knew that obtaining the truly loyal people would take time and even though he was in a hurry, he would not force other people to follow him if they didn't want to.

"Hmm?"

They all almost instantaneously turned their head to the entrance. They sensed tremendous pressure coming and naturally became aware of it. What they saw surprised them greatly.

Prince Lin Yan was standing there. Draped in black robe, he looked very different from his usual regal self, but they all were certain that he was Prince Lin Yan based on his face and also the aura that he released.

"Not bad." Prince Lin Yan nodded. "You fail to notice when I'm already standing here for a long time but when I leaked out a bit of my presence, you all noticed."

Prince Lin San was a bit stunned when he saw his older brother there. He then looked at Xia Ye then took out a scroll. "Read it when you're alone."

"Ok." Xia Ye clenched the scroll and took a deep breath. A ruthless glint appeared on his eyes.

Lin Xiao looked at Xia Ye for a moment then contacted Lin Hu. "is it possible for me to help him grow stronger?"

"You can help him to get more Qi but you're only allowed to use one word." Lin Hu thought for a while before coming to a decision. His dragon eyes were looking at Lin Xiao as he added gravely, "If you use too much of your power, it'll be detrimental to you."

"I understand."

Lin Xiao wanted to help others but obviously it would not at the cost of his own cultivation. What a joke, he didn't want to end up becoming a cripple because of trying to get his people grew stronger.

Prince Lin Yan looked at the scroll and nodded. "You're going to come with me. Choose a few of them to come while the rest stay here."

"Where are you going, Brother?" Prince Lin San asked.

"Hua Lan Kingdom."

Hua Lan Kingdom?

The others looked at one another in surprise. They didn't expect that Lin Xiao was planning to head over to Hua Lan Kingdom when they were in the middle of the missions like this.

Lin Xiao looked at the others. "How much point do we lack now?"