looking around, every person that walked into this street were martial artists or accompanied by one, as mortals wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure of these beasts. levi remembered the strength of both the raven and giant snake, they were not weak at all, but these people were still strong enough to catch them, for the most part, unharmed. 'demon saint, how strong are these people?' levi asked as he walked into the street calmly. an almost transparent wave of golden mental energy emanated from his body. "hmm?" some martial artists looked around, as if searching for levi, while others ignored the mental energy, not caring about it in the least. 'most of the people here are in the mind opening realm late stages, but some could be hiding their true levels.' the demon saint replied.

"hmmm..." he walked through the street, looking at the different mutated beasts, in deep contemplation. this went on for a while, before he walked up to a certain cage and stopped. "what is this?" he asked. the young martial artist looked up and smiled slightly. "this is a builder ant." he said, as he watched levi's expression. "a builder ant?" levi's face was as cold as ever. "they eat all kinds of different materials, before spitting out a liquid comprised of those materials to build nests." he said with a smile. 'avesta, what is this thing?' levi asked. [it is as this person said. this is a builder ant, carrying the bloodline of the ancient conqueror ant. though, this one seems slightly different.] avesta said after a slight pause. levi looked down at the silver ant that was about the size of an adult's foot.

"how much." levi looked up. "10,000 gold coins." the 20 something year old martial artist narrowed his eyes as he watched levi's expression. levi silently stretched out his hand. "hmm? what?" the martial artist's eyes darkened as he looked at levi's outstretched hand. "i have nothing to put the money in." levi said coldly. "oh....huh?" the martial artist looked at levi strangely before taking out a leather pouch. levi took the pouch and walked away, throwing off the martial artist once again. 'the price was too high so he stole my pouch? d.a.m.n, these young masters are getting fierce. i thought that those rich fools would buy anything for ridiculous prices as long as they liked them, i guess i was wrong, tch!' he thought.

after about 5 minutes, levi walked back with an overstuffed leather pouch, gold coins peeking out. levi put the pouch into the dazed martial artist's hands, before opening the cage and killing the ant, shoving it into the spatial ring afterwards. of course, what the martial artist saw was levi killing the ant before shoving it into his coat. pulling the snake skin hood over his head once again, levi started to look around once more, leaving the the martial artist rooted to his spot.

...

in a large slightly dark room, a man dressed elegantly dressed sat on a large throne, looking at the person kneeling before him as if he were an ant. "please, father! please allow me to marry her!" the person bellowed, his voice echoing through the room. the man sitting on the throne silently looked at his son. this son of his was no good. out of his three sons, this one, his last son, was trash. as his brothers cultivations soared, his stagnated. as they mastered different high level techniques, he was out drinking and fooling around. he was the most powerful person in the cloud continent, in both strength and status, yet he produced a failure of a son. yes, this man was the king of the entire cloud continent!

".....for these past few days, everyday, you came here..." the king opened his mouth as an oppressive voice flowed out, causing one to feel like they were inferior, like they were born only to prostrate themselves before him. "you should know the state of the imperial city, given that you are still one of the candidates for the throne..." he continued. "so why do you insist on marrying this girl?" the king asked as he looked at his failure of a son. "i....i want to marry her because...." the third prince paused. "because i love her!" as he said this, he looked up to meet his fathers eyes. the king looked into his son's eyes, seeing a fiery resolve. "you can go." the king waved his hand, signaling for the prince to leave. the third prince got up slowly from his kneeling position and left the throne room. "why don't you just let him marry her?" suddenly, a clear and gentle voice rang out. "Anastasia..." the king looked to the side.

"you know that is not possible." the king said with a sigh. if it was possible, he wouldn't have wasted any time. although his third son was trash, and although he often fooled around, he knew better than anyone how hard working that son of his was. he would cultivate in places where people couldn't find him, practice techniques even after multiple failures, and worst of all, he would cry alone while wondering why he was different from his two brothers. the king viewed his third son as trash, but his third son was also the one he liked the most.

" isn't that a result of your actions? are you going to make him suffer even more because of your selfishness?" the girl asked gently, as the king kept silent. " also, why don't you let berum inherit the throne? he is your oldest son after all." Anastasia said. "Anastasia, you already know that whoever succeeds me must have both physical strength and strong willpower. if they can't even handle fighting among themselves then...." the king paused. "yes, i know, father. but i also know that i raised them after our mother died. and that, if anyone means to harm them, even if it's you, i will kill them without fail!" as she said this, the gentle expression faded from her face, leaving only coldness. a terrifying qi erupted from her body, causing the whole palace to quake. after saying that, she left.

"sigh. she is just as forceful as her mother was, also as overprotective." the king sighed. if it was anyone else, he would have dealt with them accordingly. but he could do nothing to her for two reasons, reason one being, his first daughter was the mirror image of her mother, they looked exactly the same, making unwilling to punish her in any way. the second being, she was a genius who had reached close to his level of strength at only the age of 26, and even if he wanted to punish her in some way, he didn't have the ability to do so. he sat quietly in the throne room, his eyes closed.