Imperial Crown.

Chapter 595 I Cultivate Immortality in a Fantasy World?
Raven stood in front of the mirror, repeatedly touching the white hair on his head. His eyes were filled with disbelief.

"How long have I been unconscious?" "What happened before I lost consciousness?"

Raven couldn't remember anything that happened before he fell into a coma. It was as if he had suffered from amnesia.

Eric supported him, his voice heavy with sorrow, "Master, you've been unconscious for over half a month! Before you fell unconscious, you shouted 'Nancy' three times. Then you coughed up a huge mouthful of blood."

"I even vomited blood?" Raven looked at Eric suspiciously.

“Yes, sir,” the hyena corroborated from the side. Link also spoke up, “That’s right, patriarch.”

"call--"

Raven exhaled a long breath, slowly straightening his spine, trying to regain some of his former strength. A crackling sound, like soybeans being popped in the pan, immediately filled his body, accompanied by intense pain, as if thousands of steel needles were piercing him simultaneously. "Ahhh!" Raven groaned loudly in pain, but gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and stubbornly continued his struggle.

"Patriarch!" "Raven!"

Eric and Denise shouted simultaneously. Denise supported Raven from the other side, her eyes filled with extreme heartache. Her eyes were already brimming with tears.

Only when his spine straightened again did Raven open his eyes, gazing resolutely at his reflection in the mirror, his hair now completely white. A strange feeling, both familiar and unfamiliar, welled up from the depths of his heart.

"Notify the Knight of Conchi in the territory of Teda. I need him now."

This was the first order Raven gave after waking up.

“Yes.” Eric quickly wrote it down.

Then Raven turned around, his gaze sweeping over and pausing on everyone in the room, including Lingling and Hu Xia in the corner. After making eye contact with each of them, he said in a deep voice, "Pack up and prepare to leave."

"Hmm." "......ah??"

Everyone in the room stared at Raven in utter astonishment upon hearing this, thinking they had misheard.

"The tide has turned." "Just follow my instructions." Raven didn't want to say more. He walked to the window, opened it, and took a few breaths of cold air to clear his head.

"Then...then should we take the serfs with us?" "How much preparation time do we have?" Denise asked hurriedly. "And...where are they going?"

"The soldiers must take them." "There's a lot to move, and some of the serfs will definitely have to go too." Raven frowned as he said, "As for the others, those who want to go can come along, those who don't can forget about it." In truth, Raven knew that only a minority would be willing to go. The vast majority of free citizens, merchants, and the lower classes... they sided with whoever won. They'd be happy to be rich, but not to share hardship. That's human nature, no matter where you are. "As for the time?" "About one or two months."

"I understand!" "Patriarch!" "Are we moving to Bloodstone Territory?!"

"Hyena shouted. After all, he had heard Raven mention before that Bloodstone Territory was their escape route."

"No! It's Slave Bay!"

Raven turned around and said in a calm tone.

"Slave Bay???"

The crowd grew increasingly puzzled and astonished. When did the Marquis acquire territory in Slave Bay?

Raven clearly had no intention of explaining further, waving everyone out. He then looked down at the note that read "Help!" His brow furrowed. No one, not even Denise, knew that the letter was actually from Veston. Only he would write such a letter to him. He never expected that less than six months later, before receiving news of Ferdinand's family, he would receive Veston's plea for help. It seemed his identity in the capital had been completely exposed! This was also why Raven had decided to migrate to Slaver's Bay.

So much happened during the two weeks I was in a coma.

The second generation and the dragons perished. Dalton was massacred. Eivor's plans were thwarted. He was also extorted heavily by the King of Podomichrie. Now even Vesdon has been exposed… Besides… the external environment is becoming increasingly dire—Tyron has 10 soldiers under his command, and Ferdinand has 20… The Pope of the Holy See has personally arrived… and if we also consider the possibility of the Hand of Death secretly cursing him…

It could be said that Raven had completely fallen into his darkest hour. This was also the first Waterloo of his life. This would inevitably be a truly unsolvable dead end. Raven was practically fighting the entire Middles Continent single-handedly with his "mortal body"! "Hoo—" Raven let out a long breath, his eyes dark and gloomy as he gazed into the distance. His gaze gradually turned into a look of madness, and he whispered, "Habs, you forced me to do this!" A flash of light appeared on the ring on his hand, and several objects suddenly appeared in front of Raven—three Netherworld Silk Flowers emitting a holy white light and a dumbbell-shaped compass full of cracks.

The 'Netherworld Silk Flower' was given to him by Tang San's mother, Luvita, who was originally meant to pass it on to Tang San. However, Tang San is still young, so his uncle can only keep it for him. The compass, on the other hand, was given to him by the dwarf Jirida in exchange for an 'Elf Bone Orchid'.

The compass was clearly damaged and essentially worthless, but its most precious aspect was the law it contained—the Law of Space. Weapons possessing such laws are what are known as "World-Suppressing Divine Weapons"! These are the "enchanted creations" used by Ferdinand, Adjani, K the Clown, and others. This was why Raven had hesitated to confront his opponent directly—he truly couldn't win! But now, Raven couldn't care less. He was prepared to forcibly devour the Law of Space!
Sitting cross-legged, Raven closed his eyes, carefully recalling every detail of his last absorption of the "Eternal Freeze" law. Raven had a vague feeling, but wasn't sure if it was right or wrong. That so-called "Fighting Demon Primordial Qi" was actually "Spiritual Power"! Why did he have this feeling? Because when he absorbed the law last time, he discovered that the so-called "laws" were actually rules inscribed in Chinese characters. If this spatial law was the same, then Raven was 80% certain that this was basically the truth of cultivation. No wonder the Westerners on the Middles Continent couldn't continue their cultivation in the end. Because they simply couldn't understand the meaning and essence of Chinese characters.

Raven opened his eyes, rubbing his chin. If the truth really was "cultivation of immortality," Raven would be laughing his head off. The secret the elven saintess had sought for millennia, remaining elusive, was actually within his grasp. Was he cultivating immortality in a fantasy world? Or was he the only living true god on the continent of Middlesbrough?!
After indulging in fantasies for a while, Raven snapped out of his reverie. Last time, when he absorbed the 'Eternal Freeze Law,' he directly integrated it into his magic spell 'Primordial Wildfire.' This time, Raven planned to change his target. His own body? Combat techniques? Or perhaps the Eye of Truth? His thoughts were frantic and chaotic, unable to make a decision for the time being. Although he had a vague idea, he was troubled by the lack of a concrete cultivation method. Every step required his own practice. If it didn't work, the consequences would be unimaginable. This reminded Raven of the first time he tested the Eye of Truth. Those chickens, rabbits, pigs… all mutated into magical beasts, ultimately exploding and dying.

His own body and the Eye of Truth were both too risky, so he ruled them out first. And combat techniques couldn't be summoned directly like magic spells. "Tsk," Raven frowned, deep in thought, somewhat stumped. Could it be that this time he had to inscribe the laws into the mark of a magic spell again?! Regardless of the truth of cultivation... Raven preferred to try more things rather than blindly following the steps. After all, Raven couldn't distinguish whether the Chinese characters he saw last time were simply the Eye of Truth transforming the laws into Chinese characters he could understand, or whether the laws themselves were written and inscribed in Chinese characters. These questions remained unanswered.

"Eh?"

After pondering for a long time, Raven suddenly had an idea and thought of a more suitable object. Since battle qi cannot be engraved in combat techniques, could it be engraved in martial souls? After all, martial souls are also products of battle qi cultivation.

hum...

"Action speaks louder than words." Raven immediately summoned his martial soul. The void before him rippled, and a scarlet eye appeared, its edges writhing with countless long, bloody tentacles. It looked extremely sinister and terrifying. Not to mention others, even Raven felt a chill run down his spine after staring at it for a while.

boom--

The next moment, Raven's eyes flashed with golden light. The world before his eyes suddenly changed, revealing the pure and surging energy within the Netherworld Silk Flower and the dark golden power of law within the Cracked Compass. However, Raven first carefully examined his body, similar to "inner vision" in cultivation. After confirming that there was nothing seriously wrong with his body and that the spiderweb-like blood curse was indeed gone, he finally relaxed. But one thing caught Raven's attention: the blood-red halo on his right index finger. It seemed to be the ring he had obtained from Blood Eye. The Ring of Blood and Curse! Ernada had said it was something called "Blood Soul Armor," a kind of enchanted artifact with a bloodline contract. But Raven hadn't used it much. At most, it had only made his cultivation of battle qi faster. And the reason why his battle qi level was almost catching up with his magic level was also inseparable from this ring. However, usually, this ring was hidden in his body as a dark red floral tattoo, and Raven had almost forgotten about it.

After confirming there were no hidden dangers within his body, Raven retrieved several fourth-tier magic cores from his spatial ring. Before absorbing spatial laws, Raven needed to make some preparations. This was Raven's consistent principle of "caution." After all, he was now about to forcibly devour these three fifth-tier magic plants. Logically, these magic plants should be combined with other cultivation resources to refine into potions. This would be the safest approach, similar to how various spiritual plants are combined to refine pills in immortal cultivation. However, given Raven's current situation, he simply couldn't obtain fifth-tier cultivation resources. Nor did he have a high-level alchemist by his side. With Bucky and Patty's pitiful alchemy abilities, they would likely only waste these fifth-tier magic plants. In the Keynes Empire, the most famous fifth-tier alchemist was—Old Immortal Modi. However, Modi obviously wouldn't help Raven refine potions at this critical juncture.

bang bang bang-

As the magic cores before him exploded one by one, Raven continuously absorbed the pure elemental energy within them using his Eye of Truth, beginning to strengthen his physical body. He also channeled the corrupted soul essence within the magic cores into the crystal bottle beside him. However, the effects of fourth-tier magic cores on Raven were now negligible. Frankly, Raven was merely giving himself a pitiful psychological comfort before attempting to devour the laws of absorption and forcibly consume fifth-tier magic plants. As the magic core elements entered his body, Raven could clearly feel his physique being slightly strengthened once again. The term "slightly" meant there was a possibility of improvement, but not necessarily. However, as a tiny amount of black impurities were secreted from his skin, the pain in Raven's body noticeably disappeared.

bang bang bang-

After finishing the enhancement, Raven once again took out all the remaining magic cores from his ring—fourth-tier, third-tier, second-tier, and even first-tier ones. He crushed these cores again, absorbing their magic elemental energy and converting it into his own battle qi. Previously, when his cultivation level was low, he only regretted the limit to the amount of magic core power he could absorb. Now that his cultivation level was higher, that limitation was gone, but he couldn't obtain high-tier magic cores anymore. To cultivate using these cores, he would probably need at least a thousand fourth-tier magic cores to have a chance of breaking through to the fifth-tier transcendent realm. A single fourth-tier magic core typically costs between 2 and 6000 gold coins. 1000 cores, at the very least, would cost over 200 million gold coins. Who could afford that?! And that was just a chance of breaking through; if he needed even more, Raven would probably have to sell his entire territory to keep up. “Uncle Donald, I understand you a little better now.” Raven suddenly remembered his cheap uncle Donald’s actions of selling Goldshire and Thousand Needle Forest. Oh no, it was renting, not selling.

After feeling the long-dormant battle qi within his body slowly increase by a trace, Raven turned to look at the compass.

"Come"

As Raven's mental energy rapidly depleted, with a "boom," the dark golden laws hidden within the compass were instantly drawn out, transforming into countless Chinese characters that surged towards him. Raven, relying on his Eye of Truth, channeled them all into his Martial Soul, the "Void Extreme Divine Eye"! "Hah!!" Raven roared, sweat beading on his forehead as his mental energy rapidly and massively depleted. This was akin to having to read a 50-word instruction manual in a very short time. The workload was immense, and it severely tested his memory. Fortunately, with the Eye of Truth, he didn't need to memorize and then understand like others; he could simply absorb the information quickly and force it.

Even so, it was by no means easy. If Raven hadn't already broken through to become a fifth-tier mage, his mental power would definitely not have been enough! As the spatial laws transformed into "Chinese character pythons" and continuously surged into his martial soul, the entire space within the room began to tremble violently. Spatial rifts appeared from time to time; some were pitch black, some were starlight-filled like another world, and some showed mirages that flashed by and then disappeared... Meanwhile, Raven's understanding of the 'essence of space' was constantly increasing.

After an unknown amount of time, the laws finally ceased. Raven's mental energy was nearly depleted. If mental energy were a lake, it had dried up to the point where only a handful of water remained.

"Hoo," Raven let out a long breath, relaxing slightly. He hadn't wanted to take such a risk, but the thought of Heyaz and the others made him unable to calm down. "Let me see your power!" Ignoring the pain in his mental energy, Raven used his mental energy and battle qi to probe into his martial soul.

"Ha!" "Indeed."

A slight smile curved Raven's lips. If the Void Divine Eye could only "see" and "speak" at first, then after he combined battle qi and magic power to create Battle Demon Qi, the Void Divine Eye underwent its first evolution—it could unleash combat techniques. And now, the Void Divine Eye has clearly undergone a second evolution—it can transform its martial soul into itself.

In other words, wherever the Void God Eye appears, Raven can instantly transform his spirit into himself, granting him the ability to traverse space! However, limited by the Void God Eye, Raven can only appear beside those he has seen before. For example, with Viston, if Raven activates the Void God Eye now, he can appear beside him. Or with Margaret, if Raven finds her with the Void God Eye, he can directly transform his spirit into himself and go to her side!
Meanwhile, Raven, who had been unable to fully grasp the essence of the battle technique—the Desolate Fall Imprisoning Heaven Palm—was inexplicably filled with many insights. It turned out that the reason Raven hadn't been able to unleash the full power of this technique before was simply because he hadn't absorbed any laws within his transcendent realm. After all, Silver Mane was a sixth-tier cultivator and had already absorbed enough fragments of laws! The Eternal Freeze Law that Raven had previously absorbed was merely inscribed within his magical realm.

Next... Raven's gaze shifted to the three fifth-tier magical plants, Netherworld Silk Flowers, lying quietly in front of him.

……

(End of this chapter)