NOVPUB
Chapter 262: Consumed by His Own Negative Feelings
"Hahahaha."
Everyone there was stunned by the sudden laughter and the swift change in character. They had never seen Lewis laugh like that—no, they had never seen him laugh at all.
"Lewis?" Imperial Consort Veronica wanted to ask what had happened, but she felt cold as she looked into Lewis’s eyes, which were fixed on Aldrian. It was a gaze filled with killing intent. She had never seen such an expression on Lewis before.
"I see, all of this is because of you. You are the one causing this mess—our years of effort have gone down the drain because of you!" said Lewis.
Hearing Lewis’s words, everyone present knew that what Aldrian had said was indeed true. Emperor Durand’s face darkened as he looked at his son, his own burning rage barely contained. Empress Claudia frowned, staring at the change in Lewis. Was this the same Lewis they had known for so long? Hector and Alderia could only look on in shock, unable to believe their eyes. This was their timid, weak little brother.
"Already taken off your mask, I see. So, are you finally confessing your guilt?" Aldrian said.
"Well, what can I do? It seems there’s no way out of this situation. Sooner or later, I would have been found out anyway," Lewis replied with a laid-back expression. There was none of the nervousness he had shown earlier.
"Why?" came the small voice of Imperial Consort Veronica from the side.
"Why, Lewis?! Why did you choose this path?! Knowing it will lead to your own destruction—you can’t turn back from this! Why would you do this?!" she shouted in desperation. At that moment, she felt a sense of betrayal unlike anything she had ever experienced. Her heart felt torn apart, and she struggled to breathe, a tightness gripping her chest. Tears had already begun to fall from her eyes before she even realized it.
Lewis’s face contorted at his mother’s sudden outburst.
"Why? Why do you ask? Since I was a child, I’ve always been different from my brothers! Many people treat them like treasures, but me?! I’m nothing but mud—I have no worth! I have no talent! No potential! Even though many people wear polite smiles in front of me, behind my back, they mock me! They never thought I deserved to be here! They never acknowledged me!"
Lewis shouted, stunning Imperial Consort Veronica. She wanted to retort, but Lewis wasn’t done.
"My fate was sealed the moment I was born with a premature dantian. But I wanted to be powerful. I wanted the glory of strength! I wanted to show those bastards that I, too, could crush them with my power. That’s when the devils came to offer me power, and I accepted it! They were the ones who gave me hope! They were the ones who understood my feelings and desires! What have the people here given me all this time? Nothing but mockery and pitiful, contemptuous glares. If I hadn’t taken the devils’ offer then, maybe I’d already be dead from the weight of my desperation!" Lewis said furiously.
His anger was clear for all to see, and it made everyone understand just how much rage he had been holding in all this time. Imperial Consort Veronica couldn’t retort. She remained silent, tears flowing freely. She wanted to hug her son, to calm him, but his words pierced her heart deeply as his mother. She knew that being born into the imperial family with a defective dantian meant he was fated to experience such pain.
Even if she protected Lewis and kept him away from others, he would still face countless opinions. His talented elder brothers didn’t help his situation either, as they were constantly compared to him. She could only lament the pitiful fate of her son, born into the imperial family with an imperfect dantian.
Aldrian’s calm face remained unchanged after the outburst. He closed his eyes, sighed, and shook his head.
"That’s why you were taken advantage of by the devils. To be honest, although your reasons sound pitiful and have some points, the devils are not the answer. You may gain great power, but you’ll lose something far more important. You’ve focused too much on empty words and the opinions of others, instead of on your own family who tried to protect you. You’ve paid more attention to their negative comments than to your family’s patience and affection toward you," Aldrian said, his eyes turning sharp.
"If your father, your mother, your brothers shared the same opinion as those nobodies and didn’t love you, they would have already shunned you and been done with it. They wouldn’t have given you countless pills to support your cultivation, and they wouldn’t have looked for a way to fix your condition." Aldrian knew the effort of the imperial family through his conversations with the three grandmasters of the Alchemist Association.
After hearing about the third prince from Hector, Aldrian became curious about his condition and asked about it when he visited the Alchemist Association earlier. The imperial family had already tasked the association with finding a way to fix Lewis’s problem. Lewis’s condition was a special case, and while the imperial family had already tried several methods to resolve it, none had been successful so far.
"You are too obsessed with your own negativity, unable to see the positive side that is close to you. You said you wanted power to crush those who underestimate you? Too bad, you won’t achieve anything. The way of fate is not something someone like you can predict. The moment you stepped onto the devils’ path and met me, your fate was sealed."
Aldrian said while exuding his pressure throughout the room. Emperor Durand and the others could feel Aldrian’s pressure, weighing down on their bodies while making their souls feel a sense of worship. However, it suddenly vanished.
"That’s usually how it goes when I meet with the devils. However, lucky for you, you have someone with greater authority to judge you. They are the ones who have already done everything for you, so it’s only right that they decide how you should be treated from here on."
Emperor Durand sighed in relief upon hearing Aldrian’s words. He had felt Aldrian’s intimidating aura for the first time, and he had to admit that things would have turned ugly if Aldrian had decided to end things his way.
Imperial Consort Veronica also felt a sense of relief, though she seemed lost, unsure of what to do next. She didn’t know how to treat her son or how to decide his fate. The betrayal he committed was not only against their family but also considered a betrayal to the empire, and even to the entire continent.
As for Empress Claudia, she also felt betrayed by Lewis. But on the other hand, Lewis might be the main suspect in Hector’s poisoning assassination. She could only remain silent and watch what would happen next.
Hector and Alderia didn’t know what to do anymore. They felt pity for their little brother, but that was all. They had never mocked him or shunned him—they considered him close family, after all. Yet, they also felt the weight of his betrayal, and even more so for Hector, who had almost died not long ago.
Lewis, hearing Aldrian’s speech, did not change his expression, but inwardly, he felt terrible from the pressure that had concentrated on his body. His soul was shaken, and the blue eyes of Aldrian, which seemed to know everything about him, irritated him greatly. But he calmed his mind, deciding to end all of this.
"Well, since I don’t have any choice, then I will—"
"Do you want to depend on those explosive powders you buried in many parts of the palace?"
Hearing Aldrian, the others were shocked.
"How did you know?" Lewis asked in astonishment. He had buried the explosives carefully without telling anyone. It was his failsafe, prepared long ago in case he ever needed it under certain circumstances like this.
"LEWIS, how low have you degraded?!" Emperor Durand shouted, his aura blasting through the entire palace. His roar and the overwhelming aura made the very space tremble, yet Lewis, feeling the pressure, only grinned.
"Well, father, I don’t want to do this either, but I have to if I want to survive. So you must choose: all those lives you can save, or letting me leave from here?"
The explosive powders he had placed in many parts of the imperial palace were enough to destroy some of the structures within the palace, along with the cultivators inside. Not everyone within the palace was a strong cultivator; many were still below the Baron stage, so the explosions could easily kill them if they were caught in the blast.
The expression on Emperor Durand’s face could be described as one of pure fury, as if he wanted to swallow Lewis whole. The others, too, were in disbelief, unable to fathom that Lewis could do something like this.
Seeing a glimmer of hope for survival, Lewis grinned in victory. He knew that these people—especially his father—would have no heart to abandon their own people, so he was confident he could escape from this situation. He then looked at Aldrian, but was stunned to find that Aldrian’s expression was not one of panic or frustration, but instead...
Disappointment.
Aldrian shook his head with a sigh and looked at Lewis.
"Are you stupid?"
