This surprised Leyvi greatly, causing him to dash backward in haste and retreat deeper into the ancient palace. He feared he might be under another surprise attack.
He had only caught a faint glimmer of reflection from the dim light he carried, but he was certain they were human eyes. And based on their location, which was beyond the edge of the tree structure, they had to have been hovering in the air.
After putting some distance between himself and the spot, Leyvi made his light slightly brighter, enough to see farther, and directed it toward where the eyes had been. But there was no one there now. He searched the area carefully but found nothing suspicious.
"Am I hallucinating? I am sure those were a pair of eyes just now," Leyvi muttered. He stopped searching and extinguished the light.
He decided to stay hidden for now, trying to sense any movement or presence in the surrounding darkness.
---
Meanwhile, Princess Waniwani, who was in disguise, flew higher up the colossal tree in a panic.
Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it might burst. She had never expected to meet another person while flying up the tree. It was the biggest jump scare of her life, and she had almost screamed out loud just now.
Thankfully, she had managed to hold it back. Otherwise, her entire plan might have been disrupted.
How is this possible? How can someone else climb the tree?
Her mind began to process the situation as she calmed down. Her ascending flight became steadier and slower.
Wait. That face. I recognize him from the report I recently read. He is called Leyvi. He is the new man the Pink Enchantress brought with her. And apparently, while in disguise, she seemed to act very differently around him, as if deeply in love.
Princess Waniwani recalled. As someone who dealt with many people on a daily basis, she naturally remembered faces with ease.
I see... It makes sense now. So the Pink Enchantress obtained her information about the portals not being up there from this individual. She would not tell me how she got the information previously, but now I know. Still, that does not change anything for me. He could be lying to her for some reason. So I still need to confirm the truth myself.
She continued her ascent while turning her thoughts back to Leyvi, mainly wondering how he was not affected by the tree's restriction.
She thought that he might have a similar Unique Heavenly Body as hers, or maybe even the exact same one. The chance was incredibly low, but not impossible.
---
After some time hiding in complete darkness and silence, Leyvi confirmed that there was no one else around. This made him wonder if he had truly been seeing things.
"Is it a ghost or something? Don't tell me people here are being influenced by some strange spirit? Is that why they want to stay?" he speculated.
Leyvi contemplated whether he should continue or not. In the end, he decided to proceed. If it were some ghostly entity, he was not afraid of it.
So he stopped hiding and made his way to the next ancient palace again, guided by his dim ball of light. This time, he was much more alert to his surroundings, but he did not see those eyes again.
Once he arrived at the next palace, Leyvi put the matter aside and focused on looting the place. The treasures he found here were more or less the same as in the previous palace, with only a few exceptions.
One ancient palace after another, Leyvi looted as many as he could. Some secret treasure vaults he found quickly, while others took more time.
He was still getting familiar with using his spiritual sense to discern differences in the density of objects or materials as his sense passed through them. The difficulty increased further as the scale of what he tried to detect became smaller and more intricate.
And if there were too many different things within his spiritual sense at once, he could not process them all, because he was sensing too many variables simultaneously. At least, not yet.
This sensing method was actually a top-tier of spiritual sense, one that would eventually allow him to "see" things in the dark, or more accurately, to feel and map his surroundings purely through spiritual awareness upon reaching complete mastery.
The principle was simple. Spiritual sense traveled at different speeds through different densities. By sensing the subtle variations in speed as it passed through materials, he could map out silhouettes, and from those silhouettes and densities, he could identify objects. It sounded straightforward, but it was extremely difficult to execute in practice.
Of course, to achieve complete mastery of this method, he would require a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience before he could instinctively discern and visualize everything within his spiritual sense without actually seeing it.
Once Leyvi mastered this, not only would he be able to see in the dark, but nothing invisible to the naked eye would be able to hide from him anymore, unless it could alter its very composition to fool his spiritual perception.
However, that day would not come anytime soon, because he was only just getting started.
---
Colossal tree's shade, west region.
Royal Guard Captain Logan exited Prince Charles's room and closed the door quietly behind him.
He wore a deeply confused expression on his face.
He had just informed the prince about the new rumors concerning the portals, but Prince Charles had not seemed worried at all. He had simply behaved in his usual, almost childish manner.
"Does His Highness truly have a way to return?" Logan muttered under his breath, doubt creeping into his voice.
He walked out of the mansion, his mind turning over the matter again and again.
Previously, when Mental Lord Vincent first revealed the existence of the portals high above the tree, many people had grown anxious about being unable to return home due to the impassable restriction. Back then, Prince Charles had calmly told his followers not to worry.
He had said confidently that they would be able to go home. Logan had assumed the prince possessed some secret method to bypass the tree's restriction.
But just now, after informing him about the new rumor that Mental Lord Vincent had lied and the portals were not there at all, Prince Charles had simply repeated the same assurance. He told Logan again not to worry, stating with the same confidence that they would return home.
Logan did not understand where this unshakable confidence came from.
This time, the problem was not that the portals were kept out of reach by a restriction. The issue was that the portals might not exist here at all. No one knew where they were. How could the prince remain so certain they would go home?
Logan truly could not understand Prince Charles. Aside from his childlike behavior, he was the most mysterious among all the princes in their kingdom.
He could never figure out what the prince was truly thinking. For example, more than a month ago, he still did not understand why the prince had rejected the eight hundred people left behind by Captain Shino's faction.
Their faction could have gained much more manpower if they had absorbed those cultivators. Instead, the other factions received them and had grown in numbers, while they had not.
Meanwhile, inside Prince Charles's room.
The childish prince was playing with a wooden puppet, controlling its jerky movements with thin strands of Qi attached to its limbs. The puppet danced randomly without any clear choreography.
"So they have found out about the portals. Interesting." A faint, knowing smile formed on his youthful face.
"I wonder how the Pink Enchantress discovered this lie. Did Mental Lord Vincent fall into her hands? Or was it actually Princess Waniwani who told her? Has she finally visited the top of the trunk herself?"
"This has happened much quicker than I expected. Now people might start leaving the colossal tree's shade to search for the portals."
"Hmm, hmm... We can't have that happen again. I don't want more people leaving like that boring Captain Shino. Nope. I want all of them to stay right here. This place will be our playground for the next few years. Hehehe!"
"Laugh with me, puppet. Hehehe!" He manipulated the puppet to mimic a laughing motion.
Suddenly, the puppet dropped to the floor, lifeless and still.
Prince Charles retrieved the Qi strings, letting them dissolve into the air.
"I guess I have to use a real one now," he said, his tone shifting from playful to thoughtful.
A crystal orb materialized in his palm. Inside the orb, a twisting purple slit seemed to pulse and distort constantly.
"Hehe. Now then…" Prince Charles tilted his head, eyes gleaming. "Where should I drop this portal?"
He closed his fingers around the orb.
"Alright. Let me do some divinations first and decide after that. It has been a while since the last one. My information cannot lag behind."