Cultivation Pet Shop

However, the decree reader hadn't finished reading the decree yet.

When his words rang out again after the pause, everyone immediately turned their attention back to him.

"Of course, this does not mean that it will be a contest of personal strength. That is not a proper measure of one's ability to rule."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief when they heard this.

As long as it wasn't a direct contest of strength, the princes had confidence in taking on the second prince.

After all, all of them had influence, subordinates, and wealth. As long as they were allowed to use that, they would be able to close the gap between them and the second prince, though not by much since the second prince had his own influence, subordinates, and wealth.

The decree reader continued, "The contest of strength will be a measure of all that makes a king worthy of ruling. The future crown prince will be tested based on his own strength, his influence, and his ability to use his subordinates."

All of the princes revealed relieved looks when they heard this.

"The succession right will be determined through a tournament that will be known as the Tournament of Power!"

Everyone revealed confused looks when they heard this. They had never heard of anything like this before.

Even when the current Mu Stellar King took the throne, he had never done anything like this.

For his succession test, all the princes had to do was find a special flower on a world dominated by the Beast Race. Naturally this wasn't an easy task, but at least the instructions were clear.

The decree reader saw this and continued his reading to relieve their doubts, "The Tournament of Power will be a tournament held for all of the princes. You will be placed into a bracket and pitted against each other in different contests of strength, intelligence, and luck. Of course, it will not be the princes themselves that will be taking part in this tournament because the safety of the princes is of the utmost importance. Instead, all of the princes will choose five champions to represent them in this tournament."

Everyone couldn't help giving a gasp and then looking at the second prince after hearing the rules.

That was because they all felt that these rules were specifically made to target the second prince.

Everyone knew that the second prince only had his own cultivation and intelligence to support him. His weakness was that he didn't have that much influence and that many powerful subordinates.

In a tournament like this where one was only allowed to use their subordinates to represent them, this was a large disadvantage to the second prince.

When the first and fourth prince heard this, they couldn't help revealing wide smiles.

It seemed like even their royal father was trying to suppress the second prince. This would surely give them a large advantage when it came to this succession race.

As they thought this, they couldn't help wondering why their royal father would suddenly do something like this.

It could only be because of that "incident"…Ever since that "incident", the relationship between their royal father and their second brother had never been the same.

But no matter what, this was a great advantage for them.

Even though these rules were clearly targeting him, the second prince still had a calm look on his face as if he wasn't bothered by this at all. But in his eyes, there were a few sparkles as if he was thinking about something.

The rest of the decree was filled with unimportant stuff like the dates for the contests and the format of the bracket. The only thing that wasn't mentioned was what kind of contests would be given to the representatives of the princes.

Once the decree reader finished reading the decree, he rolled it up and handed it back to the master of ceremonies.

The master of ceremonies said, "Now that the announcement has been made, we will have a few words from his majesty for the princes."

Everyone was once again shocked to hear this.

They had thought that with the attitude that he had displayed, his majesty would be silent this entire time, but that didn't seem to be the case.

No matter what his majesty said, it would certainly be important for the princes because it would show how he felt about this. It would even show which prince he favoured since he would most likely direct his words to the prince that he cared about the most.

So all of the princes anxiously waited for the Mu Stellar King to speak.

The Mu Stellar King opened his eyes for the first time since the ceremony started and stood up, which caused everyone else to stand up as well. After all, not a single person dared to sit while the Mu Stellar King was standing.

The Mu Stellar King's piercing green eyes swept over the crowd before finally landing on the second prince to everyone's surprise.

Staring right at the second prince, the Mu Stellar King said, "I wish all my children luck in this tournament, but of course, I give my greatest wishes to my most promising son."

Then without saying anything else, he turned and headed back into the castle without looking back even once.

All that he left behind him was a stunned crowd.

No one could understand what his words meant just now. It wasn't that they couldn't understand his words, but rather they couldn't understand why his words had been directed at the second prince.

Based on the rules of the tournament, the second prince should be the least favoured prince…So why were these words of encouragement directed at the second prince?

Could it be that there was something that they didn't know about?

As these thoughts passed through the minds of the princes, they all couldn't help feeling anxious.

If these thoughts were true and there was something that they didn't know about, then it wasn't the first or fourth prince that was their greatest rival, but rather the second prince…

Even the first and fourth prince thought the same and they couldn't help exchanging a look.

If there really was something going on in the background, perhaps they might really need to work together to take down the second prince…

Only the second prince knew the truth of this matter.

It was a feint.

The Mu Stellar King was doing all he could to target the second prince and with just a few simple words, he had thrown a large target on the back of the second prince. This would make his chances even lower as his opponents would coordinate even more with each other to ensure that he didn't win.

"It seems like that old fool really is going all out to deal with me…" The second prince thought to himself. However, his smile became wider as he also thought, "It seems like he still doesn't know about my plans yet."

Underneath the surface, there were many plots that were currently forming that no one knew about just yet.

…

Back in the store, Lin Fan's group was also watching this being broadcast on the TV.

This was a large event that would affect all of their lives, so all the staff members were interested in this. Not to mention that there wasn't any business and all of the customers were also watching the same event with them. 𝑓𝘳ℯ𝒆w𝘦𝘣𝙣𝘰ѵ𝘦𝚕.c𝗼𝓶

After Lin Fan saw what the Mu Stellar King said to the second prince, he couldn't help knitting his brows.

That was because he could see through the Mu Stellar King's intentions unlike the rest of the people watching.

He could tell with a single glance that the Mu Stellar King's words were to put a target on the back of the second prince.

That was because the Mu Stellar King was similar to a person in his past life…

His own father.

His father was someone who only cared about his business and didn't care about his son, so he did anything and everything he could to let his business grow. That even included selling out his own son, which he had done on several occasions.

Lin Fan could see that there was a strained relationship between the Mu Stellar King and the second prince, but he didn't know what the origin of this strained relationship was.

After the ceremony was over, everyone headed off to do their own thing, but naturally no one was interested in getting their pets trained when such an important event was happening.

So it was quite quiet in Lin Fan's store…

That was until an unexpected customer arrived.

That person had covered himself up and used his laws to prevent others from recognizing him. That was until he came up to the counter and asked, "Are you still accepting pets to be trained today?"

Lin Fan had been looking at something on his watch when he heard this and he was about to casually respond until he suddenly realized something. This was a voice that he recognized.

He looked up slowly to find that it was indeed a person that he recognized.

It was a person that he had just seen on TV today and someone that should have been very busy, but for some reason, this person had come to his store to get a pet trained.

It was the second prince!

Lin Fan slightly narrowed his eyes to look at the second prince before saying with a smile and a joking tone, "You're lucky today, there's still a few slots left."

The second prince also revealed a smile and said, "It really is my lucky day then."

But even though they had smiles, the smiles didn't really reach their eyes.