Razor wanted to curse but showed an expressionless face instead. "No, of course not! It's just that it was newly discovered just as the war began. We didn't even have time to scout it out."

He sent angry gazes Gerald's way, and if looks could harm, Gerald would be probably beaten up to a pulp.

'Ops. Seems like that was supposed to be a secret,' Gerald helplessly shrugged in return.

"I don't know, Razor, it's not like you to be hiding things like that from us. At least you should have announced the discovery to His Majesty," Ulrich Aust chimed in, acting emotionally hurt.

"Damn it, it's not like that! We only discovered it last month, and then the beasts attacked. I completely forgot about it for a moment!" Razor shamelessly lied. There went his plans of monopolizing a new Spirit Lake!

Now he even had to act magnanimously with the other three Guardians judging him with their eyes. As for the King, of course, the man knew about the Spirit Lake! He was still loyal to the Crown, damn it!

"Alright gentlemen, let's leave this discussion for another time," King Robart said, lowering the tension in the room. Since he didn't seem too concerned with a new Spirit Lake popping up on his land, the other three Guardians couldn't say much either.

"Now, where was I? Oh yes, the Lay Lines…" the man began. "You have probably read about a thing called the Void Stone, correct?"

"That's right."

"Well, the Ley Lines is where that stuff comes from. Though, to call it Void Stone is a bit much. It's more like Void Stone ore. It has to be first refined and purified to get the nice blue stone out of it, and despite it being quite expensive and labor-intensive, it's more than worth it." Robart explained, seemingly even happy to spill the secrets to an outsider.

Gerald didn't complain.

"I assume it has an important role to play in Cultivation?" he asked.

"That's right! Underneath the Palace, in the middle of the Spirit Lake, is a Void Chamber. The walls are entirely lined with bricks made out of Void Stone, which is constantly pumping Mana inside." Robart said, but then his expression turned sour.

"Unfortunately, it's impossible to keep it completely sealed so a lot of Mana is escaping out," he explained. "But it's not the end of the world, after all, it is still capable of holding Mana concentrations hundreds of times higher than normal."

"Wow, that's pretty clever," Gerald was genuinely impressed. It was basically a natural compressor for Mana. Something like that had to be priceless for a Cultivator!

This was all well and good, but there was still an important part he had to confirm before beginning with the Cultivation itself. "Final question, for now. How long does it take to advance these Realms?"

"A difficult question," King Robart frowned. "It greatly depends on the talent of a person, effort, and of course, the environment. I can tell you how long it took me to do these things…"

"Please do," Gerald gestured for him to continue.

"Alright! So, I started Cultivating at 16, but I wasn't being serious back then. I did it on and off for about two years without much progress. You have to know that in Cultivation you have to be moving forward constantly, otherwise it slowly starts to deteriorate…"

"Anyway, I seriously began Cultivating at 19, and it took me five years to reach the peak of Foundation Establishment Realm. I stepped into Spirit Accumulation Realm at the young age of 24. It was actually just after my birthday," the King began reminiscing about his past.

"Five years?!" Gerald exclaimed in horror. What kind of power did he gain for it to take five freaking years?! Then he looked at the King again, "Ugh…" He suddenly had a bad feeling about this entire thing.

"I also took about five years," Tabbris suddenly chimed in and beamed a bright smile. "Actually, I started at the age of 16 as well, and I have just reached Spirit Accumulation Realm, Rank 5!" He seemed genuinely proud of himself which gave Gerald something to think about.

"Wow, already?" Even the King seemed impressed. "Razor, you should have told me you had such a talented son! Just a few more years and he will overtake you, haha!"

Then general Razor had to pretend to be humble and reject the praise, despite wanting to boast loudly about his good offspring. He was definitely going to be his heir, no doubt about that.

"Wait," Gerald interrupted their awfully cringy exchange of pleasantries, "How many Ranks does a Realm have?"

"Oh, that's simple!" Robart answered. "There are ten steps between Realms or nine plus a step where you accumulate for a breakthrough to a Higher Realm. You can think about it however you want, it makes no difference."

"Nine Ranks and a pause…" Gerald murmured. Then his wandering eyes zeroed in on the King, "So… What Realm are you at?"

King Robart III proudly pushed out his chest as he announced his Cultivation status. "I have reached Rank 1 of the Nascent Soul not too long ago," he beamed. "And it has only taken me 25 years since the beginning! Well, 22 if you don't count those first few years… Hehe."

"Wow, I never knew Your Majesty was so talented," Razor said to nobody in particular. "I never knew you have started later than is the norm either…"

"Well," Robart scratched his head awkwardly, "You know how it is, I was young and adventurous… I guess I should have listened to my father though, may he rest in peace."

As the important people chatted, reliving old memories and shit, Gerald stood there like a stone pillar, pale and stiff.

"Twenty… Twenty…five…years…" he murmured barely audibly. His head leaned to one side as he stared at the most important man in the Kingdom that was laying in front of him. "25 years… For THAT?!" he suddenly exploded.

The room was immediately plunged into silence.

"Twenty-five fucking years, for THAT?!" he repeated, his body shaking from boiling emotions. "No fucking way I'm wasting my life for THAT! You were hiding this bullshit for so long just to tell me this?! Are you fucking kidding me?!"

Gerald's Aura suddenly rose exponentially as he failed to keep it contained as his emotions went haywire.

His sharp words stung a lot, especially for the King who took great pride in his hard work over the years. But he didn't react much, both because he couldn't and because he didn't want to. In truth, he was afraid. He was afraid of Gerald since the day he realized the man was hiding a dark secret.

"I'm sorry, okay?" he even apologized, though it wasn't really received that way. "Not everybody is a freak of nature that can grow his Soul like you! In just a few short months, even without Cultivation, your Soul grew hundreds of times! It might seem easy for you, but it takes a lot of time, effort, and determination for us to achieve this!" the King shouted, expressing his true feelings and frustrations.

At the outburst between the two, the four Guardians, as well as the Shadow Guards, became tense, worrying a fight might break out at any moment.

If that truly happened, they weren't confident in being able to protect their weak King. They prepared for the worst.

"Whatever," Gerald scoffed, too blinded by disappointment and anger to think straight. "Fuck this! I'll find another way on my own!"

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the guards gripping their weapons, ready to strike him down.

"Out of my way!" he shouted and waved his hand, producing a powerful gale, tossing the soldiers aside like dry leaves in the autumn wind. He then rose into the air and flew out of the window, quickly accelerating and disappearing into the distance.

The room was plunged into silence once more. The three youngsters exchanged glances, unsure as to how to proceed. The atmosphere was tense.

"Now what?" Ewat Holt said after a moment, this time in an uncharacteristically calm voice. He didn't exactly like Gerald from the beginning, but that was more just to be different. However, now that the guy demonstrated his powers, he became genuinely concerned.

It was unwise having someone so powerful on the loose, especially since they couldn't control him. He glanced at the King, only to see the man calmly continue eating his meal that was interrupted by the prior conversation.

"Your Majesty?" Razor Northendark raised his concerns, "Should we do something about him?"

"Do you think you can do something?" was the reply, with the emphasis on "can".

Razor nodded at first, but then quickly shook his head as he wasn't confident, and in the end, he simply shrugged.

"Sigh, just let it be…" King Robart said and shook his head helplessly. "By the time we recover, who knows what will happen? It's quite possible the Empire will attack us now that we are weak. That should be our main concern for now. Repair and recover. Let's just hope their spies aren't that good…"

He did what he decided to do, now it was out of his control. Whether Gerald decided to be an ally or not, that wasn't in their hands anymore. They could only hope for the best.