My Endless Life.

Chapter 615 Requirements and Beginning

Inside the temporary palace atop the floating city.

Li Qi arrived here led by a palace attendant.

After the attendant brought Li Qi here, he turned and left, leaving Li Qi alone in the empty palace.

Looking around, Li Qi scanned left and right, but did not find the Empress.

All he could see was a magnificent hall with gold as the main color and red as the secondary color.

Even though it's just a temporary palace, it still exudes the extravagance of an imperial family. The seemingly simple decorations are made of materials that are rare to find in the universe.

Even if they could dismantle the materials here for their own use, it might allow some low-level mech pilots and mechanics to advance in rank.

However, these things are useless to Li Qi now. With his consciousness power transformed into soul power, anything that can enhance his consciousness power will only have limited help to him.

Da da.

The sound of crisp footsteps came from ahead.

Li Qi looked in the direction of the footsteps and saw a woman with dazzling golden hair and wearing a gold and red crown walk out from behind the palace and onto the high platform with the throne.

The moment Li Qi saw her, he lowered his head and bowed in a noble manner, carefully observing her appearance without being impolite.

The Empress is also a ninth-tier powerhouse. Although it is unknown whether she is a mecha pilot or a mechanic, her ninth-tier cultivation level alone is enough to allow her to instantly ascend to the throne.

However, she deliberately revealed her footsteps to Li Qi, allowing him to notice her presence, instead of appearing directly here to display her imperial authority.

This is a matter of politeness, and therefore Li Qi should maintain the same politeness.

“Rich? Lift your head up.”

Seeing Li Qi lower his head, the Empress chuckled and said.

Li Qi then slightly raised his head to look at the Empress. When he saw her face, even though Li Qi had already raised his threshold because of his own appearance, he couldn't help but show a little amazement in his eyes.

If Li Qi's appearance was changed by love, then the Empress's appearance was truly 'natural,' unaffected by anything.

Li Qi couldn't find any adjectives to describe the Empress's appearance; the only word he could think of that was close to her appearance was...

sacred.

Like a god, like a saint.

If religion still exists in the empire, then the Empress would undoubtedly be the saint!
Because of her existence, it seems that she represents 'light'.

However, thanks to Li Qi's frequent mirror viewing, he had developed a certain immunity to such appearances, and thus quickly regained his composure and bowed to the Empress again:
"Your Majesty, this humble subject pays respects."

Although Li Qi did not hold a specific official position, as a nobleman and the son of a duke, his status was higher than that of ordinary officials, even if he did nothing.

There was no problem with submitting to the Empress.

"No need for formalities. It's just the two of us here. If you don't mind, you can call me 'Empress Mother'."

The Empress's eyes were filled with tenderness as she smiled gently at Li Qi.

Anyway, they'll soon be family, so it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with Li Qi addressing the Empress that way.

However, unsure of the Empress's true intentions, Li Qi didn't dare to do so. Instead, he looked up and asked:

"Your Majesty, may I ask what business you have with me?"

"You're such a boring child. I was hoping to hear you call me 'Your Majesty the Queen'..." The Queen sighed softly, her words surprisingly devoid of any airs.

After sighing, she pointed to the seat next to her and said to Li Qi:
"Come up first, let's sit down and talk."

This time, Li Qi did as he was told and sat down next to the Empress.

The Queen looked at him with a smile before saying, "I called you here today for two reasons: first, I wanted to see what you looked like; second... I also wanted to apologize to you and Sophie."

Why is Your Majesty apologizing?

"You should have guessed it by now." The Queen stared at Li Qi, then smiled and said, "Because your wedding this time will probably not go very smoothly, which will affect both you and Sophie, so I have to apologize to you."

"Does Your Majesty intend to do something at the wedding?"

“It’s not that I want to do anything, it’s that some people want to do something… but that’s not something you and Sophie need to care about. I just want to ask you, what kind of compensation do you want? As long as it’s within my power, just name your price.”

The Queen said very generously.

Because this wedding will not be peaceful, and may not even end smoothly, and may be held again in the future, the Queen summoned Li Qi to compensate him.

Li Qi didn't know if the Queen had spoken with Sophie, but he also knew he had no right to refuse.

Since the Queen has said so, it means that all the 'actors' are in place and just waiting for their turn to enter.

Even if Li Qi had objections, he was powerless to do anything about it, so he might as well take the opportunity to ask for some benefits.

"...Your Majesty, I wish to visit the other seven realms. What do you think of this request?"

After a moment's thought, Li Qi came up with his own requirements.

"You want to go to other primordial realms?" The Empress asked in surprise at first, then pondered and said, "It's not that it's impossible, but other primordial realms are different from this one. Outsiders will be suppressed by the local rules there... Simply put, you will be in danger if you go. Are you sure you want to go?"

"Yes, I want to see the cultivation systems of other worlds."

Li Qi answered truthfully.

The knowledge gained from Xinlian is only a small part of their respective original worlds, not the entirety of those original worlds.

Li Qi wanted to see more of the world and more cultivation methods in order to enrich his current original ability, namely alchemy, which was not subject to the suppression of rules.

After all, alchemy needs Li Qi's own knowledge to enrich it. The more knowledge he has, the more and stronger the items that alchemy can transform.

Therefore, he needs to see more things and enrich his knowledge base.

The empress, who resembled a saint, glanced at Li Qi a few times before finally smiling.
"Very well, the emperor's words will not be taken back. If this is your request, then I grant it."

……

The wedding is progressing steadily.

At the lower levels of the empire, weddings didn't have any particularly special rules. They would meet each other's parents, exchange tokens of love in the hall, kiss in front of the priest and the statue of the empire's founding emperor, and then become husband and wife.

Of course, you must get a marriage certificate first. Without a marriage certificate, even if you hold a wedding ceremony, it will not have any legal effect.

However, if one has a noble status, the higher the noble rank, the more complicated and cumbersome the wedding process becomes.

For people of the same status and position as the Ninth Princess and Li Qi, their weddings were all the more grand.

The specific process is not worth going into detail about, but in short, when everything was finished and we entered the auditorium to begin the final steps, the time had changed from morning to afternoon, and it was almost evening.

Li Qi and Sophiuna stood in front of the chapel, looking at each other next to the priest.

It was supposed to be their wedding, but neither of them showed any joy. On the contrary, Sophiuna's eyes were somewhat bitter, and she felt an unspeakable apology towards Li Qi.

"Cheer up, or they'll notice something's wrong."

Li Qi gave Sophie instructions via telepathy.

Sophie responded in the same way: "...I'm sorry, I didn't expect it to turn out this way."

"We should have guessed it when the Queen showed up at our wedding."

"...Mother Queen...she may indeed be angry with me."

Sophiuna bit her lower lip lightly.

Perhaps it was because she had done many willful things by taking advantage of the Empress's favor that the Empress chose to 'declare war' on all the rebels at her wedding.

But Li Qi had a different opinion: "If Her Majesty the Empress were really angry with you, she wouldn't have shown up today, let alone compensated us."

"..."

"Perhaps the Queen had no choice but to do this today."

Li Qi continued immediately.

After all, even if we disregard the Empress, the wedding was attended by the Imperial Chancellor Zelia, as well as some ministers from Zelia's faction and some ministers who supported the Ninth Princess.

Even without the Queen's presence, Sophiuna's wedding was not necessarily going to be smooth sailing.

Even if everything goes smoothly, the fact that Zelia is not in the palace means that the Queen's guards are at their weakest, and the schemers hiding in the shadows will not let this opportunity pass.

Therefore, Sophie has no need to blame herself. Her marriage to Richard was a big deal, and no one would want to see the two of them get together smoothly.

So the ones who are really wrong are those with ulterior motives, not Sophie.

“Rich…” Seeing her fiancé still comforting her in this situation, Sophiuna was speechless for a moment.

She had previously thought that Li Qi didn't like her because he hadn't responded to her attempts to please him.

So Sophie was always worried about what would happen if Li Qi didn't like her. Even if they got married, would that be a good thing for Li Qi?
But now, seeing the gentleness in Li Qi's eyes, Sophiuna's worries vanished instantly.

Li Qi loves her, he just doesn't show it.

Thinking this, Sophiuna went forward to hug Li Qi.

Even if they haven't reached the stage of embracing each other yet.

Just then, a piercing alarm suddenly blared through the air.
Woo——!
The alarm, sounding like the roar of a beast, resounded throughout the entire imperial planet in an instant.

The crowd attending the ceremony was slightly thrown into disarray. Sophie didn't care about anything else and immediately stepped forward to hug Li Qi, looking warily towards the entrance of the auditorium.

boom!
The hall doors were smashed open, and a pure white figure walked in from outside. It was Elena, the former successor to the head of the Xel'Nak family.

With a feigned elegant smile on her face, she strolled into the auditorium, followed by a swarm of mech pilots who surrounded her.

Elena's gaze then swept across the hall, finally settling on Li Qi, who was being protected in Sophiuna's arms, and a malicious smile appeared on her face:
"I'm sorry, gentlemen, the wedding is over. From now on... you're all under my control. I hope you'll behave yourselves."

Elena stood at the doorway and said this, her scarlet pupils gleaming with a dangerous light like that of a wild beast.

(End of this chapter)