"After we get into the island, you all have to go your separate ways. This island is a trial," the king, Qi Huan's father, instructed the others. As it was an important journey, he was the one to lead the group.

"Uncle, do you mean that we have to travel to this dangerous island by ourselves?" a young man in teenage age asked. He had brown silvery hair and looked only slightly older than Qi Huan.

The king nodded his head. "To gain the inheritance, I'm not allowed to help you any further. You may select the guards that I have allowed to get out, but only for protection. They're not allowed to fight for you if you're not in grave danger. I'll be waiting for you inside."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Yes, Father."

"We understand, Uncle."

The king used his Eon Energy and dashed into the forest, leaving the others unable to follow after him. As an Eon Energy Master rank 4, he had more than enough qualification to decide things by himself. He didn't want to hinder the young generation to gain the inheritance should it be their fate no matter who it was.

Qi Huan looked at the young man who talked just now. "Cousin Qi Mang, do you want to select the guards first or should I?"

Even though the king said that they had to travel on their own, he let the guards stay in that place. There were a lot of them because they were tasked to protect the princes if they were unable to withstand the attack of the beasts. After all, some of them were still Eon Energy Master rank 2 while the others were Eon Energy Master rank 3.

Qi Mang looked over to Qi Huan. He sneered. "Even if you pick first, do you think the guards are going to be willing to follow after you? With your talent, you'll surely leave this kingdom and might never return again."

It was the truth that the most talented one would be sent away and more than 99% would never be able to return back. Not just talking about pa.s.sing the trial, even in the midst of the test, there were high chances that they would die out of carelessness or because of the attack from other people.

No one would care for them.

"If that's so, I don't really mind picking the last one," Qi Huan said calmly. He had known this truth from a long time ago. The only possibility for him to stay in this kingdom would be if he failed his test and didn't get killed on the way back. There would be no guard who would protect him anymore.

This has been the fate of those who were the most talented one in this kingdom. Unless their talent was so heaven defying, no one would pay attention to them. And unfortunately, an A talent like him was not uncommon in the other places. There were at least several of them in each kingdom.

Only those at Ye Jiao's level would be extremely rare as one only might appear out of millions of places.

Qi Mang laughed. "I'll be going first, then, Cousin Qi Huan."

Qi Huan stayed quiet as his cousins picked the guards first. They selected those who had the most ability out of the guards available, leaving him with those weakest one. Even the strongest one that he could see was only at rank 2.

Even though he felt dissatisfied, Qi Huan didn't show any of that in his face. All they could see was just a calm and unperturbed expression of a young prince.

"Your Highness, can we just stay here?" a guard asked worriedly. He was selected to follow after the princes, but he was too afraid. It would be better for him to stay on the s.h.i.+p and guard it.

Qi Huan waved his hand. "Those who want to stay here might stay."

As soon as he said that, more than half of the guards who left turned around and returned back to the s.h.i.+p. It would be ridiculous if they tried to follow Qi Huan as no one knew what future this prince held.

Seeing the number of guards around him lowered to six, Qi Huan shook his head internally. These six were only people who wished to gain the treasure for themselves and would surely leave him in times of danger.

"Let's get going."

Qi Huan didn't speak anything more as he walked into the forest. The humidity of the area was similar to that of a rainforest, but it was easy to see that there was not much water inside. Even though the island submerged into the water most of the time, not even a single bit of sea water left.

'It's truly fascinating how much Eon Energy could do.'

There was no need for a genius to understand that the mechanism of this island was something that people in Four Kingdoms would never be able to achieve. It was extremely obvious that the difference in power was really great.

At what rank would one be able to control an entire island?

Rank 4? It didn't seem likely, more probably five of even higher. After all, Qi Huan had seen his father's power with his own eyes, and he understood that it was not to the point of being able to control an entire island to this level. It was fascinating yet at the same time scary.

The difference in power between ranks was so large.

As they traveled, Qi Huan paid close attention to the surroundings. He could sense that there were a lot of traces of the beast around him. It made him wary because the atmosphere seemed to be telling him that they were at least rank 3.

"Are you going to follow after me or not?" Qi Huan asked in a cold tone as he looked to the guards behind him. They started to walk slower and scattered around. Even though he would never rely on them, it was annoying to see them like this.

"Yes, yes."

"We're sorry, Your Highness."

Their tone has started to change and Qi Huan could see it clearly. The respect they had for the imperial family had disappeared as they only used a relaxed tone. His eyes narrowed as he realized that their number had decreased by one.

"Where's the other one?"

"Ah, he…"

RUMBLE!

Before the man could answer, Qi Huan could feel the earth shook. He turned his head to the side and saw a man run in their direction at high speed. Behind that man, a large beast was chasing after him. From the aura the beast emanated, Qi Huan estimated that it was at the peak of rank 3.

"Block it!" the man yelled. "We have to stop the beast!"

"Don't! Run!"

STOMP!

The man who ran was trampled by the beast as it continued to charge like a bull. Qi Huan utilized his Eon Energy in a split second and moved away from his position to several meters away. In the next second, he climbed the tree. As an a.s.sa.s.sin, it was easy for him to move quickly because he had trained for a long time.

"Your Highness, you…eh?" one of the men turned to look in the direction where Qi Huan stood before. He was startled when he noticed that there was no one in that place. Before he could move, the beast had stomped him with legs, smas.h.i.+ng him straight to the ground as blood splattered all across the area. 

"Your Highness! Come and help us!" another one noticed that Qi Huan had moved to the tree and yelled.

The beast has an appearance like a bull and it truly acted like one. He charged to the next man and stomped on him, making painful screams that filled the entire area. Blood spilled on the ground as the flesh was flattened to the ground. Intestines and other things scattered on the ground as the beast moved to the next man.

Swis.h.!.+ Stomp!

"Your Highness! Help us!"

Qi Huan watched everything unfold before him with a cold expression. He didn't even have any reaction when the man pleaded at him. There was only a hint of dullness within his eyes.

"You're the one who lured the beast here too. How do you expect me to help you out?" Qi Huan asked in a nonchalant tone.

When they traveled, he had noticed their weird movements. They wanted to discard him on this island and searched for the treasure by themselves. However, they didn't want to be found, so they resorted to using this tactic, which was using the advantage this island gave them as beasts were numerous.

The man despaired as he saw his comrade got stomped. He looked at Qi Huan and pleaded once again. "But if you let it kill all of us, how do you expect to get away from it? You can't possibly defeat a beast at peak rank 3 with only being at rank 2!"

"Yeah, it's true I can't defeat it alone," Qi Huan knew that he was not that powerful to be able to defeat a rank 3 beast alone.

"Then…"

"But even with all of you collaborating together, it's impossible to defeat it," Qi Huan said as a matter of fact. If it was Lu Wan and Ye Jiao, there was no problem for him to defeat a rank 3 together because they had much more power compared to ordinary people.

"You-!" the man yelled as the beast pounced at him. He rolled on the ground as he could feel a hole was made inside his stomach as his viscera was crushed. "You…ll die…."

Qi Huan summoned out his sword, the dark bluish sword that he usually used for his mission. "There's no need for you to worry so much about me. I have my own teammate."