Chapter 164: Golden Opportunity!

In the following weeks, Theo established a steady routine: cultivating, lecturing, and executing his Investment.

The Imperial Pavilion grew crowded with operatives, even attracting Imperial Senators below the Supreme tier to his seminars.

Though brief, his teachings were profound, each word a masterclass in Aetheric manipulation. Over two months, the female operatives’ gazes toward him grew increasingly bright.

But the male knights noticed something off. They were relegated to the back of the plaza during seminars and were never chosen for questions. Even when exceptional male operatives volunteered to pledge loyalty to Princess Aurelia’s faction, none were selected. The Sovereign was openly discriminating against them!

Their political discontent festered. They gathered in private, grumbling that Theo only had eyes for women and would meet his end on their account. Some accused him of using the Imperial Capital to build a personal harem, just as he was rumored to run his Syndicate. Others speculated he was sowing discord between the genders to fracture the Senate’s military strength.

The female operatives, overhearing this, fiercely rebuked them. To them, Theo vastly surpassed Prince Aurelius. A harem? If that were true, their only thought was: *Such a golden opportunity! Sign me up first!*

***

One day, two months later, deep within the Pavilion’s inner sanctum, Aurelia opened her eyes. The psychic domain expanding behind her glowed brighter than ever, now wreathed in chaotic Primeval Aether. She radiated an ethereal, sovereign aura, like a true Empress of the Old Dynasty. Her fundamental limits had broken and reformed at a higher peak.

A smile curved her lips as she glanced aside, only to frown. Theo was gone? Had he grown bored and left? Her joy dimmed.

But when she extended her spirit sense, her brow furrowed further. The Pavilion’s outer courtyard, once serene and quiet, was teeming with thousands of Aetheric signatures. Theo’s aura flared among them. Her heart tightened. Had he done something to provoke the Senate’s anger? Even Supreme-tier Senators were present.

Without hesitation, she flew out. If Theo had clashed with the Imperial Court and was in danger, she would stand by him without question.

Yet, upon reaching the bustling courtyard, confusion clouded her beautiful eyes. The scene was not what she had imagined. Over ten thousand Imperial knights were gathered, including familiar Senators, seated respectfully among the lower ranks. Theo hovered in the air, his voice resonating with pure authority. Listening briefly, Aurelia realized he was giving an Aetheric seminar—each word profound, accessible, and piercing the essence of the universe’s laws. Even she was drawn in.

But the lecture ended quickly, leaving her momentarily frustrated as he cut it short. As Theo began selecting operatives for questions, a soft smile touched Aurelia’s stunning features.

She had overthought it. Theo was not at odds with her Court—he was building rapport, earning the political favor of the military and the Senate alike.

*All for me,* she thought. Before entering seclusion to refine the fragment, she had asked him not to clash with the Capital for her sake. Clearly, Theo, who loved her deeply, had poured immense effort into building her faction so the Senate would not oppose their union.

But soon, her icy phoenix eyes narrowed.

Theo was choosing only female operatives to answer—each one strikingly beautiful. One was tall and graceful, one fiery, another brimming with mature allure. Was he deliberately guiding the pretty ones?

Aurelia had intended to fly down immediately but held back, watching from the clouds, lightly biting her lip in thought. Soon, the one-on-one session ended. The operatives and Senators outside the Pavilion bowed respectfully, chorusing, "Thank you, Sovereign, for your teachings!" before dispersing.

Aurelia felt dazed. Two months in seclusion, yet it seemed like a lifetime. The Abyssal Sovereign, once a name reviled in the Capital, now seemed revered as its savior—more respected than Prince Aurelius ever was. The chill in her eyes melted, replaced by warmth.

But as the crowd thinned, over twenty female operatives and several female Senators lingered, flocking closely to Theo’s side.

"Sovereign, I heard you prefer sweet wine. This is fermented from spirit-fruit I picked in the royal gardens. Try it!"

"Sovereign, with the Princess in seclusion, do you not feel lonely?"

"Sovereign, my quarters in the lower barracks feel eerie, with strange Aetheric fluctuations at night. I am scared. You are so powerful—could you inspect my room tonight?"

"Sovereign, I am stuck on a cultivation bottleneck. If you could visit and guide me privately, I am sure it would be resolved entirely."

Hearing their words, Aurelia’s gentle gaze turned glacial, her teeth grinding together.

She had been in seclusion, and Theo had recruited followers for her faction?

Kind intentions, perhaps, but why only women?

All of them beautiful, curvaceous, or delicate—each a sight to behold. Even the Senators were among the Court’s renowned beauties.

Was this Princess Aurelia’s political vanguard, or the Abyssal Sovereign’s personal harem?

Down in the courtyard, Theo was preparing to give his standard post-seminar "guidance." But suddenly, he sensed a chilling stare. His spirit sense swept upward, and a system prompt sounded in his mind alerting him to Aurelia’s active psychic signature.

His smiling, accommodating demeanor toward the female operatives turned instantly stern.

"Why are you not cultivating?!" Theo snapped, his voice ringing with righteous authority. "What are you all doing lingering here? I have said this before: I am not that kind of man! My heart belongs only to Aurelia! I am going to the inner sanctum to accompany her. If you keep this up, I will expel you all from the faction!"

His sudden seriousness startled the flirtatious women. He rushed toward the peak’s summit as if a single second’s delay from Aurelia would break him.

The operatives were stunned. Just yesterday, he had spent three hours tracing their Aetheric meridians by hand to predict their combat paths until nightfall. Why the sudden shift?

Then, one of the Senators glanced up, spotting Princess Aurelia’s icy expression in the clouds.

Dead silence fell over the courtyard.

The Princess had emerged from seclusion. Panic surged—they felt like mistresses caught by the Empress.

Aurelia glared down at the female operatives, suppressing the urge to draw her sword and expel them all, and drifted back to her inner sanctum.

She had only been in seclusion, not dead!