Close Combat Mage
chapter-159

The two lovers that had been deeply engrossed with each other finally remembered Suo Jia’s existence. Unfortunately, by the time they had finally decided to go outside the palace, Suo Jia had long since left. He didn’t have the patience to wait for them there; the Angelic Six Winged Phoenixes would return in a few days. There were still many things that he needed to tell them, so he didn’t have the time to dilly-dally around in the palace.

As for what happened to Imperial Concubine Hua, nothing really needs to be said. She hadn’t seen the Emperor for three consecutive days. Imperial Concubine Hua…oh, wait, she was actually no longer an imperial concubine, but a mere female slave. Yet despite her low position, she still blocked the Emperor’s path, throwing a childish tantrum at him. However…the Emperor was currently in an extremely intimate relationship with Empress An Rong, so how could he possibly pay any mind to Hua?

Oftentimes, women blame men for being merciless and heartless. But really, if a woman captured a man’s attention with her body, once he became tired of her body, why would he ever be reluctant to leave her side? There are no actual feelings between them.

Of course, like the saying went, ‘the first couple gets 100 days of grace’, the Emperor couldn’t treat Hua too badly either. He had made the Empress move back to the Eastern Palace, and allowed Hua to live in An Rong’s old, run-down room for a few days. After experiencing a taste of An Rong, the Emperor no longer had any interest in Hua.

With the combination of her affection, appearance, good looks, personality, elegance, and body, as well as the feeling of her **, An Rong had long since cast off Hua to the side. Hua, who only knew how to bewitch the Emperor with **, had lost her only advantage, so being abandoned was inevitable. Nobody pitied her, because events like this had occurred often since ancient times. Moreover, these types of things would continue to occur in the future.

On the other side, Suo Jia returned to Holy Light City. Although he had left for a few days, he felt that the place hadn’t changed at all. The Angelic Six Winged Phoenixes hadn’t yet returned. Helpless, Suo Jia could only begin training once more.

The next few days passed without incident. Finally…three days after Suo Jia’s return, a letter arrived. Suo Jia’s contributions had been immense this time; uncovering Imperial Concubine Hua’s evil schemes and making them no more had allowed Suo Jia to be promoted to the special rank, a Knight!

Afterwards, Suo Jia had helped the Empress many times to re-establish her relationship with the Emperor so that they were just as affectionate as before. This contribution was also extremely great, and granted Suo Jia the special promotion to being an Advanced Knight!

Finally, because Suo Jia had saved the Empress and showed loyalty and bravery, as well as having not requested any return for his meritorious deeds, his behavior was so excellent that he was promoted to the highest Knight rank. He had even been granted a piece of land!

“Holy crap!” Seeing the thick grant, Suo Jia gaped at it in a daze. He had really hit the jackpot this time. In reality, Suo Jia had already gained quite a few things this time. Just the Great Frost Wyrm crystal core alone, which was said to be its Nei Dan, was already a priceless treasure. Now, he had even been promoted 3 noble ranks, and been granted a piece of land. This was like inheriting a city! Such grants of land normally had a city as their core.

Without question, the Emperor had honored his promise. He was indeed extremely generous. However, Suo Jia knew that the Empress definitely had played a large role in these awards. Without the Empress’s pillowtalk, Suo Jia would’ve never been able to even imagine gaining so many benefits from this. Aside from the last reason among the official three reasons for Suo Jia’s rank promotion mentioned earlier, the other two reasons were really pushing it. How could those be considered as meritorious deeds? They were a bit too simple.

Since the Empress was so generous, Suo Jia wouldn’t be petty either. After pondering for a while, Suo Jia picked up a pen and wrote a letter of reply to the Empress. Within the letter, Suo Jia mentioned several suggestions.

The first was that the Empress could only sleep with the Emperor once a month, and never surpass twice a month. As a man, the Emperor needed to rest for at least a week in between, as his energy had limits. That’s why the Empress had to pursue quality over quantity. Even if the Emperor begged for more, the Empress would have to push him towards his concubines. Moreover, this could be beautifully claimed as being for the sake of maintaining the peace and stability within the harem and the family.

That way, after tasting the Empress’s “goods”, it would be hard to go back to the “tasting” of the concubines. After a while, the Emperor would gradually distance himself from all other women, and only want the Empress. That way, hehe…who would dare to oppose the Empress? And wouldn’t the Emperor definitely love her then?

After receiving Suo Jia’s reply, the Empress’s level of admiration towards Suo Jia really deepened. These things may have seemed simple, but who else would’ve thought of them? Typically speaking, concubines hated spending too little time with the Emperor, since they were afraid of being forgotten. However, Suo Jia had used reverse psychology. If one craved something, but wasn’t allowed to eat it, wouldn’t showing sympathy to that person make them so grateful that they’d end up crying tears of emotion?

Besides, what was good? And what was bad? Everything was comparative; there was no ‘bad’, so how could something be ‘good’? And if there was no ‘good’, how could something be ‘bad’? Suo Jia had already mastered the art of understanding people’s hearts.

The Empress knew that Suo Jia had helped her way too much. If it weren’t for Suo Jia, she probably would’ve actually committed suicide. But now, she’d not only regained everything, but her life had even improved for the better. She had reached the impossible realm of her dreams. The Empress knew that if she wanted to maintain this realm, Suo Jia had to continue helping her. Without him, the Empress would quickly age, which would make staying by the Emperor’s side difficult once more.

However, although the Empress really wanted to properly thank Suo Jia…the rewards this time were really too much. He not only got threefold the rewards, he’d even had an exception made for him and received a grant of land. That was normally an opportunity that only those that had achieved exemplary military service could obtain.

Helpless, the Empress could only go to the treasury once more, and choose some Legendary ranked water elemental equipment to send over to Suo Jia. As for Epic ranked equipment, the treasury still had some, but no matter how powerful the Empress was, she couldn’t just empty out all of the country’s treasury. She had to keep some of the treasures to display the imperial family’s power. Nobody could ever have too many Epic ranked sets; these things couldn’t be carelessly given away. Moreover, they weren’t things Suo Jia could use anyways.

After receiving a few of these equipments, Suo Jia’s mood naturally became a hundred times happier. However…these equipments clashed with Suo Jia, and so he couldn’t use them. Unable to do anything about it, Suo Jia gifted the magic equipments to Aimi and Aila instead, greatly boosting their strengths and level of training.

Ever since Aimi and Aila had become his personal attendants, they had been working very hard. If they weren’t meditating, they were training in the Ice and Snow Pact every day. And if not doing that, they’d be practicing their magic activation. Aside from training in the Ice and Snow Pact, they’d also walk around outside. They would spend half of their time every day in the underwater training area, so it was monotonous and tedious.

It had to be admitted that these two girls were talented, and had much more power than Suo Jia. Moreover, they were those peak-level talents that appeared only once a century. Their training speeds were much faster than Suo Jia’s. If he didn’t have the aid of his magic equipment, Suo Jia would’ve surely been tossed aside by the girls in a distant place, completely forgotten.

This world was just like that. There were always people luckier than others. Some spent their lives eating with gold spoons, or had superior talents that were acute and ingenious, and could understand three different things after learning only one. However, some people were naturally stupid. Their bodies were weak, and they’d learn things three times before actually mastering one, only relying on diligent practice to make up for everything

It was a good thing that, although Suo Jia couldn’t qualify as a superior talent, he was at least a well known figure among the geniuses. It could even be said that he was lacking when compared to those above him, and was far superior when compared to those below him. With the addition of Epic ranked equipment, as well as a few Legendary ranked equipment, his training speed was quite fast. It couldn’t be said to be one of the fastest in history, but the only ones that would’ve possibly been faster than him were the Epic ranked Heroes.

Originally, according to Suo Jia’s current level of training, it wasn’t supposed to be long before he would’ve far surpassed his two classmates. However, after receiving the gifts from the Empress, he’d linked them to the girls, making them into abnormally strong talents. Although their training speeds were still slower than Suo Jia’s, they weren’t far behind. In reality, once they reached the later stages, the focus of magic wouldn’t be the training of magic and spirit powers, but rather one’s magic comprehension!

The gifts from the Empress included a female crown, a bracelet, a ring, a necklace, and a pair of earrings. Originally…the Empress had thought of them as things for Suo Jia to use when pursuing girls. However, she hadn’t imagined that he would’ve directly given this whole set of jewelry to Aimi and Aila.

The things that the Empress had chosen were based off of her own tastes, so they were all for females. Moreover, she knew that Suo Jia had the water attribute, so it was perfect for the girls to wear. Since Suo Jia wasn’t willing to use items designed for girls, he could only give them away. After all…if they grew stronger, they’d be a major help to Suo Jia.

A few days later, the franchise fees for selling Life Potions were received. Suo Jia used this cash to buy items without restraint. He visited various commerce unions, as well as auctions, to gather items that would help increase the girls’ training speeds. As for himself, Suo Jia didn’t bother obtaining many items, since Legendary ranked and Epic ranked equipments interfered with each other when they were used at the same time.

After the two girls put on the entire set of Legendary ranked equipment, their training speeds had already reached, and even surpassed, Suo Jia’s. Combined with their special talents, it wouldn’t be long before their mights were above Suo Jia’s.

Sitting upright within the secret room, Suo Jia pondered the matter to himself. At the moment, his power group had already been established; the 36 fire wind warriors, in addition to the water mages, Aimi and Aila, would become his assets that he’d use to wander around the Greater Trade Routes in the future!