258 Origin Soul (1/2)

After leaving the pill refining room, Leon intended to seek out his father but after spying on his father with divine sense, he changed his mind.

His father was in the middle of cultivation and interrupting a person's cultivation was potentially dangerous.

He left the Inner Palace and summoned a Shadowguard in the Great Hall.

With everything happening in the kingdom, the available manpower had been stretched thin, including the Shadowguards.

He had never checked the Shadowguards training ground under the palace where they train new recruits, but he was aware that the number of qualified Shadowguards in the palace had been reduced to the number of one's hand.

”How can I help you, Your Highness?”

Leon tapped the armrest repeatedly in thought while he was seated before he asked, ”Has there been any investigation progress on the whereabouts of my adoptive parents and little sister?”

The residual energy fluctuation from Leon was almost nonexistent after he converted everything into tempering his body, but when he posed the question, it was like a weighty mountain dropping on the Shadowguard's shoulders.

The Shadowguard sweated and dropped to his knees.

”I beg for your forgiveness for being incompetent, Your Highness. We've searched everywhere, but I could not find a single trace. It's like they had simply disappeared into thin air… However, I believe they should still be somewhere within the Capital.”

When Leon heard this, instead of feeling happy, he became gloomy.

This is because it was quite the baseless claim to say that his adoptive parents and Mia were still in the Capital when they do not have a single clue as to where they had disappeared off to.

Coupled with the recent confrontation with the Bloodfiend Sect, it was clear that the Capital had many hidden locations.

From this information, anyone could infer that the Illusory Butterfly Sect must also have their people hidden in the Capital.

He was grateful to the adoptive parents that raised him and did not want to suspect them, but the clues kept hinting that they share some sort of relationship with the Illusory Butterfly Sect.

The world seems to be playing a cruel joke on him.

When the first doubt festered in his mind, it was like a chain reaction that could not be stopped. Past interactions with his adoptive parents begun appearing one after the other.

He tried not to recall it as he had wanted to avoid thinking in that certain direction, but it still ended up resurfacing in his mind.

During the period of his past life memory awakening, his predominant past life mentality created dissonance with his present life and drew distance with his adoptive parents, they happen to get injured on the following day from a run-in with the gang members.

Leon found this very strange.

Although life in the Lower District was difficult, it was not to the point that they would have days without meals placed on the table.

Allowing the gang members to freeload from time to time made things harder for them, but never too far that it would push them to the end of their road. There was no need to antagonize the gang members and get hurt for it.

Getting hurt would only make surviving more difficult.

They should have known this, but it was like his adoptive parents purposely got hurt to play the sentimental card in order to win back his affection that had been alienated back then. At that time, he had yet to harmonize his dual personality of two lifetimes.

What to do…

While he started to suspect his adoptive parents, he also felt that their love was genuine. He was conflicted.

If they were really related to the Illusory Butterfly Sect, his birth mother would definitely not spare them.

Also, for what purpose would the Illusory Butterfly Sect have in raising him? To prepare a puppet for the throne while they control the kingdom from the dark? Or something else?

'Argh… I don't know!'

Leon wracked his head but could not come up with an answer for the unknown.

”Y-Your Highness…?” The Shadowguard gulped.

While Leon was lost in thought, the Shadowguard had been studying the prince's gradual deteriorating expression and felt great pressure.

This type of pressure was different from the pressure exerted by one's cultivation. Leon's energy fluctuation was faint and was incapable of this, but his true strength had grown much stronger than before.

It was a type of invisible pressure only the strong can exert on people who feel inferior. The pressure was crushing and unknowingly, the Shadowguard's black attire was already drenched with his cold sweat.

Leon closed his eyes and steadied his troubled mind. When his eyes reopened, there was only calm, and collectedness left.

”I have a task for the Shadowguards.” He said coolly.

”What are your orders, Your Highness.”