Simon was trembling in front of the Lightning Emperor. He couldn’t even lift his face.

The Lightning Emperor gritted his teeth, never thinking that the situation had gone this bad.

"So, tell me... Have you ordered an assassination?" The Lightning Emperor asked. His voice was cold and filled with anger.

Simon didn’t say anything. He just looked down without saying a word.

The Lightning Emperor became even more furious. Not denying was the same as admitting it.

"Are you crazy?" The Lightning Emperor shouted in anger. "Have I taught you to do something like that?

"I have investigated this matter. You lost to that guy a month ago. That alone should motivate you to grow stronger.

"I believed you when you joined the Phoenix and Dragon Society, because I knew you would surpass him sooner or later. At that time, defeating him in return as revenge would be excellent.

"Yet, you actually lost to Eric Dabood. You had all those advantages, yet you failed to secure a victory?

"That was embarrassing, not just to you, but also to me. However, this embarrassment could serve as a foundation for you to work even harder.

"Yet, what did you do? You ordered an assassination? There were many ways you could solve your own problems, but for this problem, assassination was not one of them."

The Lightning Emperor gritted his teeth. He might be powerful, and his Lightning Dojo was one of the most powerful organizations in the city.

He was probably among the strongest people in the city.

However, it didn’t mean that he could do everything in this world. In the past, Ellia had warned him. He might be able to ignore Ellia and kill Auric. After all, Ellia wouldn’t care about a dead genius, would she?

The problem was Auric’s teacher, Maya Relesha. Maya’s strength alone was comparable to his.

The biggest problem would be the Relesha family. The Relesha family never took kindly to anyone harming their kin.

If they put their minds into it, there would be a river of blood flowing in this dojo overnight.

Another big problem would be Eric. Eric and the two teachers might not be much of a problem, but the fact that he could defeat Simon in that match was huge for his future.

This would put Eric in the spotlight as one of the brightest students after Auric. A lot of people were watching him.

Simon was the one challenging him, so his loss would be equivalent to a slap to the Lightning Emperor.

People would start to think that the Lightning Emperor was incapable of teaching his own student not only his combat skills but also his manners.

When that happened, the people might start to think that the Lightning Dojo was not that good, and they would send their children elsewhere. The Lightning Dojo would start to decline.

That was why the Lightning Emperor was annoyed. Simon couldn’t actually see all that.

He taught not only combat techniques but also political awareness. He could ignore his arrogance because talented people tended to be arrogant. As long as it didn’t exceed the limit, he wouldn’t rebuke him for it.

And arrogance wasn’t really the problem. Arrogance wouldn’t become a reason for someone to order an assassination.

Instead, the Lightning Emperor might have missed the most important thing that he had to consider in people.

’I might have been so blinded by his talent that I had failed to see this tendency. I should have shaped his character first...’

This was one of the reasons Ellia dared to storm into the Lightning Dojo. Despite everything being Simon’s fault, the Lightning Emperor was the instructor here.

He couldn’t help but acknowledge his own mistake, which made him slightly defensive.

The Lightning Emperor let out a long sigh. "You are now under house arrest. Depending on your progress, you may end up dropping out of college."

Simon clenched his fists as his body trembled.

"Butler!" The Lightning Emperor called the butler, telling him to bring Simon back to his room.

By placing him under house arrest, the Lightning Emperor would be able to protect him.

After all, the investigation would be hard to carry out in the Lightning Dojo. At the same time, it could be seen as him administering the punishment himself.

And without Simon confirming it directly, people could only point a finger at him indirectly.

"Now, how should I clean this up?" The Lightning Emperor let out a long sigh. The target’s identity was just too much of a mess.

Last time, he offered monetary compensation, but it was just a small clash before. This time, it was a matter of life and death.

If the assassination had succeeded, there would be no more Auric. So, even if he had to pay compensation, it wouldn’t be a small price to pay. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

...

Meanwhile, Auric was facing a huge problem because of the house arrest.

"Hmm..." Auric’s eyebrows twitched. "I didn’t expect it to be house arrest."

Lindwurm paused to think. "I guess the Lightning Emperor is trying to protect him. This is quite bad for you, isn’t it?"

"Yes. If he stays there, I can’t get my chance for revenge." Auric crossed his arms.

"But this is not as bad as you think. The Phoenix and Dragon Society or that Abel wouldn’t be able to do anything either. He must be planning to involve the Lightning Emperor, so putting Simon under house arrest means the Lightning Emperor won’t get dragged into this chaos."

Auric sighed. "Are we going to give up now?"

"Why are you asking such a dumb question? As if you are the type of person who will give up."

Auric shrugged. "I guess we will have to find another opportunity."

"Yeah. Rather than Simon, I am more interested in the Sun Store."

After almost a week, Auric had sold a total of 14 books.

Lindwurm couldn’t help but say, "The promotion is crazy. Once people realize this is a functional method, they will surely buy the books to try it. Unfortunately for them, there’s no way they can make a copy of it."

"Yeah. Unless they’re able to understand the flow of energy, imitating it will just cause the energy to keep leaking." Auric nodded while looking at the phone. "Still no reviews, though. Why are they not giving me any review?"

"I don’t know. Maybe you should chat with them and thank them for buying before asking for a like, follow, and review." Lindwurm chuckled.

"...It’s not my pleasure to ask the customers to trouble themselves." Auric sighed. "Well, I will just wait. I will get one eventually. At least, these people will surely spread it to those around them, and it will gradually become popular, not just in their circle but in the entire city. Once it has reached that point, more and more cities will find out about this. I believe one or two months should be enough."

Auric believed his creation had that much charm. By the time it becomes popular, he would have evolved and begun to bring out books for juvenile-form avatars.

To his surprise, his phone vibrated. The notification showed a customer asking for a chat.

[AT777: Hey, I’ve bought your books, but do you mind answering a few questions that confuse me? Won’t this book cause the evolution masters to lose their jobs? Are you planning to release books for higher-level avatars? Do you have a store somewhere so that we can have a more in-depth discussion?]

Auric smiled wryly and muttered the words that he typed, "Thanks for buying my books. No, it won’t cause the evolution masters to lose their jobs, but these books can be an alternative.

"You can use this book as a set of early training so that students or people who have just awakened could raise their element to a certain level. It lacks the speed that the evolution masters offer as an evolution alternative. For higher-grade affinities, sure it may take you a few days to a few weeks to fill the remaining energy, but why not just consume a material and get the help of an evolution master?

"Yes, I’m planning to release the books for higher-level avatars in a few months. The schedule hasn’t been fixed yet, so I can’t give you the exact details. If you would like to be notified, please follow the store page.

"And no for the last question. If you have any further questions, you may chat here directly."

When Lindwurm saw the message, he couldn’t help but glance at Auric. "So, you’re still asking the customer to follow your store page."

"..." Auric acted as if he didn’t hear him. "In any case, this should be enough. I don’t care if they slander me. If they copy my technique and fail, or they produce a technique but do not use mine as a reference when it’s clear the two are connected, I’m going to sue them."

"But you have to reveal yourself."

"I have my teacher." Auric stuck out his tongue.

Lindwurm’s eyebrows twitched. He couldn’t deny this idea. It might be the reason Auric revealed the gathering techniques to his teacher before. He wanted to use her connections to make sure that even if he sued them, they wouldn’t know who the real person behind the store was.

The only ones who knew would be the Relesha family, but he doubted the Relesha family would reveal his identity. Since Auric and Maya were student and teacher, it was enough as a justification for the Relesha family to make their move.

"Well, in the worst-case scenario, I will just get an independent lawyer and hide or use another identity to conceal my identity." Auric shrugged.

"Yeah, but people will still know. Even if you can forge a new identity, you can only ask your teacher or Ellia, no? They’re the only ones with enough influence to do it."

"That’s why you tell only a part of it to one person and another part to the other. You do that so that a single person doesn’t know everything." Auric shrugged. "It’s a usual way for a corporation to hide its secrets."

Lindwurm rolled his eyes. "Anyway, do whatever you want."

"Speaking of the devil." Auric raised his phone, showing a message from Maya. "It looks like my teacher wants to see me."

"For what? It’s already Friday."

"Who knows?" Auric immediately headed to her office to see what was going on.

She was alone inside her office, so Auric was a bit confused. He had thought about what they would talk about on the way, but nothing came to his mind. "Teacher? Do you want to see me?"

"Oh, yeah. Come here." Maya waved her hand, gesturing for him to come in. "I’ve got a message that the Lightning Emperor would like to see you."

"!!!" Auric raised his eyebrows, not expecting the Lightning Emperor to make his move so suddenly. "The Lightning Emperor?"

"Don’t worry. I will be with you. In fact, this is good for your situation." Maya smiled.

"Good? How so?" Auric tilted his head in confusion.

"I will explain it later. Take a seat. He’s about to come." Maya patted the spot beside her, asking him to sit there so that she could protect him.

Auric was a bit confused, but he sat next to her regardless.

"There are also two things that I want to show you. A small target that you should achieve."

Auric became even more confused, but there was no time to dispel his confusion as someone knocked on the door.

It looked like Maya had sensed the Lightning Emperor’s presence all this time.

"Come in."

A huge, muscular man entered the office. He wore a tight suit that barely contained his muscles.

His eyes were fierce and sharp, and there was an aura that made people cower when looking at him.

Auric’s expression turned solemn. He knew this person was the Lightning Emperor. It looked like the Lightning Emperor was trying to protect his disciple by settling this matter privately.

Auric wondered if accepting this offer was beneficial to him. Would anything the Lightning Emperor offered be enough to compensate for the attempt on his life?