Yang Yeung, her brothers and Blood Guardians arrived in Greenwood City. They were received by the city Commander Yang Xian. The Yang clan Heirs, was shocked at the density of the crowd in the city. They arrived in this city, number of times in the past, but the crowd wasn't even 10% at that time. As they started to move forward, Yang Zhu started to observe the soldiers, the city walls and the City Lord palace in the distance.
"Elder sister and brothers, something definitely serious is going around in this city. With every step, we take, it's like we are stepping in a quagmire"- Yang Zhu
Unlike Yang Zhu, his siblings are only paying attention to the crowd and thinking of their training program with Lord Kuro. Only when Yang Zhu spoke up, did they turned towards him, who is in a rare serious mode.
"What did you find out, Kiddo?"- Yang Yeung
"All the Empire soldiers uniforms are marked with the Royal clan symbol, War Fan, on their right shoulders. While the left side, can be used to mark, their clan symbols, if they are from any of the major noble clans. But right now, the War Fan symbol, on all the soldiers is covered temporarily with all kinds of clothes, handkerchiefs and bands.
Even the Flags on the city walls and City Lord Palace are placed under illusion barriers. It's like, they are hiding the Royal symbol, purposefully from others."- Yang Zhu
Only now did the remaining 3 noticed, what their younger brother is talking about. All the soldiers are indeed hiding the symbol, but still maintaining their place and discipline at their posts.
"Don't tell me, there is a rebellion going on against the Empress?"- Yang Yeung
Yang Xiu and Yang Ren also partially agreed, with their elder sister, as they didn't find any other reason, for these actions. But Yang Zhu, looked at all 3 them, as if looking at fools.
"Elder sister and brothers, you are all muscle, but no brains. That's why father insists, for you all to spend more time on reading."- Yang Zhu
"Studying gives me headache, I can barely turn 5 pages, before falling asleep"- Yang Yeung
"Are you calling us idiots?" Yang Xiu and Yang Ren
"Yes. You all are idiots. You see, according to the books, I read in the family library, Empress soul sense can cover the entire Vanguard zone and we don't even know, if that is her limit.
So, we can safely assume, she can cover this entire Empire too. Nothing major incidents in the Empire, will escape her notice. If, I had to take a guess, she may be observing all of us right now."-Yang Zhu
"Wow, I never knew, her highness is so strong. I can barely cover this entire city."- Yang Yeung
"So, what is your point in telling us this, Zhu er"- Yang Xiu
"Sigh. It means, whatever is happening here is under the instructions of the Empress. Or do you think, anyone is brave enough to stage a rebellion against the Empress, so openly in this city, with Lord Kuro's presence."- Yang Zhu
"That's, what I thought too, but you spoke my thoughts before me"- Yang Yeung
"..." all 3 brothers. ' sister, you will be last person on this world, whom we expect to use some brain"
"So Kiddo, why do you think, Empress ordered for the royal symbol to be covered?"- Yang Yeung
"Empress is playing a game and because of our father, we also became pawns in her game. That's the only thing, I can tell at this moment.
All I want to say is, stay close to father or Lord Kuro, as we may get involved in something dangerous"- Yang Zhu
All 3 nodded at him and moved towards the city Lord Palace.
Ten Days Later, Shisui, Itachi and Kin, came out from the Greenwood forest and are now moving towards Greenwood city. On their way, they came across, a huge encampment, guarded by beastman race. They, don't want to involve with any of them, before knowing the complete situation in this world. But, the beastman race guards at the entrance called for a immediate halt, after spotting them.
From, what little info, Kin gathered, he was able to tell, that these guards are from Werewolves race, who are known for their ferociousness and loyalty. One of the soldiers appeared before them in a flash.
"Brothers, are you heading towards Greenwood city?"- Soldier 1
Shisui and the others were hesitant at first, but still nodded yes.
"Good. Brothers, can all of you, please follow me into the camp. Our Lord, want to know about few things"- Soldier 1
Shisui, Itachi and Kin, knew nothing about this world. So despite, their refusal, they were still dragged into the Encampment.
Luke Lionheart is the 73rd Emperor of the beastmen race. He is a very powerful cultivator and very good ruler of his people. But, just like any other beastmen, he also hated the Human race for their treatment and abuse of his people.
Large number of beastmen people were either kidnapped and killed during the past 6 trillion years. Those who were caught alive were either sold as slaves or are forced to fight in arenas against monsters, to entertain the crowd. Since, there was no Emperor for the Human race, he and his ancestors could only appeal to various clan heads and Pope of the Silverstone family, to stop these atrocities.
Many times, he wanted to invade the Human lands and lay complete waste to it. But had to hold his anger, because of their ancestors oath to not hurt each other Empires. So he could only hire a large number of assassins and mercenaries to retrieve the kidnapped people and kill anyone who crossed their paths. Still the relation between the two races only worsened, because of their greed to own the beastmen people as pets.
During his missions to hire mercenaries, he also came to know that, a large number of Elven race are also kidnapped by these slavers. He brought this topic with the Royal family of the Elves, but he was totally disappointed at their response. The Elves, that were kidnapped, were citizens who were banished from the Empire, for various reasons. He really hated their cold hearted attitude. No matter whether they are banished or not, they are still of the same race.
After that, he completely banned humans from entering his Empire. There are a large number of traders and merchants among these banned people. He knew, his Empire will suffer without a proper Economic growth, but he still, steeled his heart for the safety of his people.
Luckily, the beastmen Empire was rich in various agricultural products, spiritual herbs,high quality ores, large number of domesticated animals and meat products. He spent a lot of time and forged good trade relations with Gnome, Dwarf and Dragonoid races. Soon, his Empire was able to recover from it's previous loss and prospered a lot. It is at this time, huge changes occured with the human race.
Ichika Uchiha, was chosen as the Empress of the Human Empire. As soon as she became the Empress, she sent a delegation Party under former Pope Jean Silverstone. He was under 2 minds, whether to receive them or not. But decided against it and meet the Pope at the borders only.
But what happened at the meeting really shocked him. Pope Jean, handed him a personal letter written by Empress Ichika herself. It was a simple but heartfelt apology from the Empress, for the actions of the human race towards the beastmen, for the past trillions of years.
Jean also handed him the Great Battle Axe, of his ancestor, the first Emperor Grey LionHeart. It may not be a powerful weapon, but it meant a lot to the entire beastmen as a spiritual icon. After that, large number of treasures were presented as a gift from the Empress, hoping to renew the relations between the two races. Luke, didn't give an immediate answer, but wanted to wait for some time, until he got a clear picture of the character of Ichika.
But what happened the next few weeks, shook the entire world. More than 3000 slave trading organisations were completely destroyed by Empress Ichika. Close to 200 million people were rescued from these organisations. Ichika, issued a open warning to all the previous buyers, to return all the people they brought from these slave traders in a months time. At the end of the month, the number of rescued people reached a staggering 2 billion people.
It took more than 3 years effort to find the parents or relatives of these people. Those who are lucky went with their parents and relatives. As for others, they were given a choice to stay under the protection of the Empress. Luke also volunteered and took with him all the abandoned beastmen citizens to his Empire.
Two years later, an official decree was released from the Empress, that those who involve in slave trading, those who encourage them or those who have any types of connections with them are completely banned from the Empire.
This was followed by similar decree from Dragonid race Emperor Tianlong, Demon Emperor and Mayor of Avalon city. Luke also followed this movement. Most banks also banned various accounts of slave traders associated with their banks and people who are associated with these slave traders. Soon, it spread out in a chain like reaction, where all the Empires and representatives from Minor races, signed a unanimous treaty against slavery.
After that, the relations between Human and Beastmen race improved every year with each exchange between them. Ichika and Luke also further joined hands in creating a massive water channel on the Ganges ocean connecting both Beastmen and Human lands. This increased a lot of trade on the mortal side.
As the Event time is getting closer, he along with his eldest daughter Gia Lionheart, his Sworn sister Lilly Rivera, his friend Wolfgang and his elite guards entered the human lands. But they are currently in the middle of nowhere. They would have easily reached the other cities, by using the teleportation portals, but Gia suggested on experiencing the human lands. So they went from one place to other by taking directions from the locals.
But it became problem for them, when they wanted to reach the nearest place, Greenwood city. He could have easily solved this problem, by using his soul sense. But for some reason, he can't stretch his soul sense for more than 10000 Km.
Lilly also tried to use her soul sense, but experienced the same feeling. As an elite formation specialist, she soon discovered the reason. It looks like, there was a huge formation laid out around the surrounding areas of the Greenwood city, to block all kinds of soul sense.
It was definitely not done by the Empire soldiers and looks like, they found themselves in the middle of a huge conspiracy. With the development of teleportation portals, cultivators rarely use the road ways to travel from one place to another. So no one noticed, this huge formation laid around the Greenwood city. They only stumbled upon this because of his daughter enthusiasm to tour the human lands.
If it was before, he would have easily ignored this conspiracy and returned to his homeland. But now, he is an ally of this Empire and Empress Ichika. He need to make sure, that this news reached the ears of the Greenwood city officials.
So he ordered his soldiers to set the camp at a suitable place and watch out for any locals moving towards Greenwood city, while he sent a small group, to trace their path backwards to the previous city and teleport to Greenwood city.
They were already here for one whole day, without any luck. Lilly just involved herself, in figuring out the formation details. While he was becoming impatient, he heard from one of his soldiers, that they found 3 local cultivators moving towards Greenwood city.
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Author's Note: Special thanks to readers srVlad and animelie for suggesting the names and background characters of Wolfgang and Lilly Rivera. Because the chapter size already increased a lot, I decided to give their character details in the future chapters.
I still need a lot of names. So please free to suggest them. Huge thanks to all of my readers supporting my story.
Enjoy the read. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please try to vote if possible.