The queen looked upset, though she desparately tried to maintain a calm exterior.

  The emperor was far better in this regard, merely expressing some slight happiness at this news.

  "How is he then? When will he wake up?" The queen asked urgently and Grant nodded.

  "Great! Then when will he wake up?"

  "Oh, you know, about 30 years." Grant said calmly, and the queen nodded along for a moment.

  "That's great, that's great, just 30 years... 30 YEARS!" She froze in realization before screeching and even the emperor had a unkindly expression on his face.

  "What do you mean by that? You said that it is a benign thing, beneficial even." The emperor questioned, and Grant nodded, before explaining.

  "Indeed, and I meant that sincerely. But this benefit is a bit big for a child to eat. It's not something so easily digested, especially without adequate training.

  30 years from now, he will emerge a demigod. Naturally, for such a thing, a mere 30 years is small potatoes."

  The emperor did not comment on that.

  Grant was correct. If his child did ascend to demigod status, then of course it was a worthwhile trade.

  Elves are envied for their longevity, and demigods will also end up living for a thousand years, with the guildmaster right next to him serving as an example.

  Demigods lived long, were strong, and had great potential, good seedlings all around.

  The problem was that he was just a boy. Had the prince been say 20 years old, the emperor would not mind so much. And judging by the adventurer's words, the process would be quicker at an older age.

  But he was a child now, at the prime of his life. He was the first child of the empress. Naturally she was distraught.

  The emperor was also unwilling to waste all these years in vain. So he asked.

  "What is it that is within my son's stomach exactly?" he asked.

  "The thing inside his stomach is extremely precious. You're lucky that no one's discovered what it is so far. The stone inside the boy's stomach is known as the Lazarus stone.

  It's a stone famously known for bringing back the dead, even if they've already reincarnated. The adverse effect of a situation is that naturally the new body dies but that's small beans to most.

  Frankly however, using such a stone to merely resurrect the dead is a waste of such a quality stone. It's merely known as the lazarus stone because of its most miraculous and common use.

  Its real purpose is..." Even when he was acting cold, Grant could not help himself as he instinctively lowered his voice for dramatic effect.

  "Conferment of authority." Naturally the emperor knew some things.

  Authority was the core of the power of the gods.

  ANd this was the cause behind this stone's special features.

  The lazarus stone contains fragments of authority within. It's the consumption of these piecemeal authorities that allows people to come back from the dead.

  Frankly, it's a rather wasteful way to do so when there are countless ways to revive someone from the dead, but it is a use.

  It's also why your son is ascending to demigod status. The reason why demigods are demigods is because they receive fragments of their godly parent's authority. Fragments.

  If I had to guess, your son ingested a small lazarus stone. If it were a larger one, the authority has a higher chance of being completed. Had he swallowed such a complete authority, he likely could've ascended to godhood in one step." Grant said it all calmly, yet each word made the emperor surprised, but also more anxious and worried.

  After all, such a valuable stone, capable of granting divinity. Wouldn't there be a chance that the man before him may be tempted? What if he did something now? No matter how secure the palace was, no matter how close other 5th level beings were, if the masked man were to simply put his hand through his son's stomach, yanked the stone out and fled, it'd be too late to regret.

  Thankfully, "Grant" seemed completely uninterested.

  "Then is there anyway to accelerate the process?" he asked cautiously, quietly praying to the God Jorvus to keep closer eye on this area.

  "Well, it depends on what you want to do with the lazarus stone. These things have a high value. There are many alternative ways to make use of it." Grant said calmly, yet these words made the emperor relieved.

  Here it comes. The fact that he suggested "alternative" methods either meant he was about to make an offer, which meant that he was unwilling to grab and run, or that he was being sincere in his advice, which showed his good intentions and lack of desire.

  "And what ways do you mean?" The emperor said, playing dumb and playing along.

  "Well the obvious one is to simply accelerate the process. I can do that, no problem.

  The second choice is to surgically remove it and then sell them in return for the service of a higher being. A small stone can get you a one time trump card from a 6th level being, and a large piece of stone might even get you accepted by a 6th level being as a disciple. Unfortunately, the one in your son's body is a small one, so at best it can be traded in for one life saving card,

  Or an acceptance as a disciple by a fifth level being but honestly, it isn't worth it. Especially with your connections? You may as well just let that magician take over as master.

  And the final one is my suggestion.

  Do you know where lazarus stones come from?" Grant asked and the emperor shook his head. Of course not. If he knew, then this problem would've been identified far earlier.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Grant smiled, showing the wicked smile only a teacher could have.

  "Gods. They come from gods. More specifically, when a god dies."

  Hearing this, the emperor looked shocked. And truly he was.

  This man had mentioned The special nature and wide utility of such a thing. And it came from gods? No wonder it was so valuable. If such a thing only arises when gods die then surely it is a rare and valuable thing.

  Grant continued. "Gods are rarely born with innate authority. Usually, relying on faith, they are conferred authority over certain things. Should they lose faith, they lose this authority, unlike demigods who are born with such a thing, unable to lose their natural born authority.

  Gods can lose their authority if they lose their faith. But if a god dies during his tenure as God, then his authority is never withdrawn. Normally, this authority will simply dissipate or be absorbed by all nearby living things, returning to nature.

  But under special circumstances, small fragments of their authority will fossilize, transforming into the so-called "lazarus stones"

  And that's the keyword. Fragment. Most of them are fragments, and thus when used to produce demigods, the authority you'll get is a bit of a gamble.

  And what you'll get is fragmented.

  Like if your son has a water type affinity, then he will likely gain authority related to water, like eels or weeds or even floods. It's a gamble, related to what authorities the god held in life.

  I should mention that those who find lazarus stones by chance tend to complement the authority contained within to some degree. How else could they be so lucky to find such a treasure? Besides being rare, it's hard to detect and usually grabbed because of affinity and chance. Hence its scarcity. After all, many gods have died over the ages, yet so few have yielded lazarus stones.

  If your son digests it now, he will be a demigod, make no mistake.

  But there are high and lows amongst demigods. The authorities he'll hold will be flawed and random. He might get lucky and get some strong authorities, like floods, tsunamis and abundance. Or he might receive small authorities like the tides, seaweeds and carps.

  And even if he gets the stronger ones, they'll be limited to what's left in the stone.

  So the suggestion I make is to condense the stone. I'm willing to make an oath if you don't trust me. Essentially, by condensing it, I'll melt all the authorities to sublimate into a single, stronger more complete authority.

  I can't guarantee it'll be the stronger ones. Maybe it'll be carps. But it'll allow greater control over carps. And if you get a stronger one, like floods, then your control over floods will be greater.

  It's a gamble honestly, but it's my recommendation."

  The emperor stared at Grant intently for a moment before asking." Why go this far to help me?"

  The emperor wasn't stupid. In spite of Grant's cold exterior, the emperor could easily sense Grant's desire to help.

  Taking an oath is no small claim. Even professionals will not dare to easily make an oath, yet Grant was willing to easily make such an oath.

  There were no such profits here. Honestly no rewards had truly been promised as of yet.

  So naturally he had other purposes.

  Grant was blunt as well, as he stated his purposes. "I hadn't noticed it before, but as I studied your son's body, I discovered your son had a master-disciple fate with me.

  Naturally, he does not have to accept this fate, and should he not want it, I am perfectly willing to cut this fate." Grant said calmly, yet this calmness was not present on the emperor's face.

  "Are you perhaps one of those Taoists?" the emperor asked with hesitancy. As the emperor, he had access to the library of former emperors, and naturally he was well aware of their neighbor, the Qing dynasty's history.

  Unlike the romana empire, which had managed to maintain its stability for thousands of years thanks to the machinations of Jorvus Mars, the lands of china relied on the change of dynasties, the ebb and flow. The country remained, while the family changed. While not intentional, the process allowed for innovation in a unique, albeit rather bloody process.

  Before the current dynasty, the Romana empire had actually been on good terms with the previous Tang dynasty, and the dynasty before that.

  Despite the presence of a pantheon, the 33 heavens under the Jade emperor had no conflict of interest with the current Romana empire. Incense? Frankly the lands of China had twice the population of the romana empire and most of their gods were practitioners who did their roles in heaven mostly as a reflection of their tao hearts, and to maintain order.

  The gods of Olympus had no interest in producing new enemies. It already had plenty of smaller states to deal with and spread their religion to.

  Respectively, the lands of china were more concerned with the barbarians of Mongolia and their other enemies.

  The two empires didn't like one another, but they didn't hate one another.

  But with the recent change in dynasty, the Qing dynasty had a hostile status to the gods, and drove them back into the 33 heavens, with the Jade emperor locking the door.

  Taoists all over closed the doors, and the main core of Buddhism picked Lingshan up and headed to the middle east to contend with Indra and his pantheon instead. The current Buddhists in Qing are considered cultivators instead of Buddhists.

  The reason why the Qing and the Romana empire were hostile now was due to the cultivators. Unlike the previous taoists, who existed in small numbers and consumed little, everyone could be a cultivator and cultivation consumed huge amounts of resources.

  Shepherds do not allow their sheep to graze in one are for too long, for fear of destroying the roots and preventing regrowth due to overconsumption of land. But where could they go?

  The land of the barbarians was desolate in their eyes, lacking in resources.

  The americas? Too far away.

  Africa? Too far away and desolate.

  The sakura and two lands state and india may be smaller than the Qing, but they still had their gods, who were more than willing to cooperate with their people to drive away such locusts.

  The desolate lands of russia housed the demon clan, lead by the demon kings, a people comparable to the wu clan in strength and hardheaded nature.

  In the end, the romana empire and the Qing empire became bitter enemies.

  Why did he think taoists? Because taoists and buddhists were the ones who most depended on fate and the man before him did not dress like a buddhist. If he was bald, the emperor could not tell.

  Grant shook his head. "No, I merely happen to know some of their methods." Taoist? No! Goodness no, many of them hated him too. It would be appropriate to say that as long as you lived in china, Grant was a divisive figure for sure. While good friends with the likes of Pangu, sun wukong, Yang Jian, Nezha and other unruly figures, those who advocated order like Yuanshi Tianzun or Haotian disliked him.

  Didn't help that he snuck in one time to raid Taishang Laojun's room to steal all the pills one time.

  In his old world, the taoists and cultivators had reached a delicate balance, into the modern age, with both giving way to martial arts which was more effective and cheaper for the masses, far more sustainable.

  Yet in this world, the taoists simply decided to close the door and let the locusts starve themselves.

  Grant's answer didn't matter much. What mattered was that he felt an obligation to their son, explaining his willingness to cooperate and eased their hearts.

  While there was fate between them, Grant was easily capable of severing fate. It was more his fondness of children that made him willing to go this far.

  Had it been the emperor on this bed, fate or not, he would've simply cured him and left.

  Hearing this assured the emperor to a certain extent.

  This didn't stop him from still asking for the oath on the river styx, one he was fine with swearing.

  As for the choice? He chose to go with the final one.

  It wasn't just because Grant recommended it, but also because of the points he brought up.

  While it didn't really matter, as the boy would be emperor first, warrior second, a wide variety of authorities as a warrior wasn't necessarily a good thing, as a wide variety meant a wide range of things he would need to do.

  Granted, consolidating it into this one single authority may not necessarily be a good thing, as it takes away his son's choices.

  But if he had to choose, then he would just end up focusing on something, with incomplete authorities, affecting his practice.

  At that point, why not consolidate them into one, singular, strong and expansive authority.

  So what if it was limited to something silly like ducks or candy. If it was expanded upon, any form of magic could be dangerous.

  As for choosing this man as his son's master?

  He would have to discuss that with Jorvus Mars. Though helpful, he was uncomfortable with how little his spies had managed to dig up on the man