Chapter 2232: Gifts
"I wish you good health, Grandfather."
"It makes me happy to see you sitting up again, Grandfather."
"I’ve always wanted to meet you, Grandfather!"
Robin found enough strength within himself to maintain his smile. Genuine happiness filled his heart, and the scene before him seemed to sweep away the lingering fog that had clouded his thoughts ever since he woke up. For the first time in months, he was not thinking about the Void, the battle, the Executioner, or the countless problems waiting beyond the walls of this house. Instead, he found himself surrounded by family, and that simple fact carried a warmth no Law, treasure, or victory could replicate.
Peon’s children, grandchildren, and descendants stood in a line, the youngest at the front and the oldest at the back. One by one they stepped forward, kissed Robin’s hand where it rested peacefully upon his knee, offered a few kind words so he could hear their voices, and then stepped aside to make room for the next person. Some spoke confidently, some stuttered, some rehearsed their words beforehand only to forget half of them upon reaching him, and a few became so nervous that they practically bowed and fled before realizing they had forgotten to introduce themselves.
Normally, Robin would have pulled his hand away.
Throughout his life, he had never allowed anyone to kiss his hand or his feet. His allies and followers were expected only to bow, not even kneel, and he had never ordered such gestures from enemies, rulers, or powerful cultivators regardless of their status.
Yet he did not refuse today.
This was not submission.
Nor was it humiliation.
It was simply a family greeting.
A gesture of affection.
A way for children and grandchildren to express gratitude toward the person whose decisions had shaped their lives long before they were born.
That much was obvious from the excitement shining in their eyes and the sincere smiles spread across their faces.
Or perhaps they were excited about the gift?
Robin nearly laughed at the thought, but his body refused to cooperate.
"Grandfather!"
When the turn of the last of Robin’s direct grandchildren arrived, she opened her arms and stepped forward, gently wrapping them around his neck before kissing his cheek and then his hand.
"I’m Rufina, your eldest granddaughter!"
"Hmm... a good girl." Robin’s smile widened slightly. "You have your Aunt Zara’s enthusiasm."
Rufina immediately beamed with pride.
"Alright, move away from your grandfather, you little troublemaker. Can’t you see he’s tired?" Peon stepped forward and lightly smacked Rufina on the back of the head, causing her to retreat with a grin and return to the line.
Then Peon turned back toward Robin with a broad smile.
"So, Father, what do you think of your descendants? Did I do well?"
"Heh, heh..." Robin managed to force out a weak laugh. "I doubt you played a direct role in raising most of them. We should probably thank your wife more than you for this."
"Ahh~ I won’t argue with that." Peon scratched his head and laughed. "Even I know who deserves the credit there."
Several descendants immediately nodded.
A few others laughed.
One of them even pointed at Peon and muttered something that caused the surrounding group to snicker.
"Hmm..." Robin slowly swept his gaze across his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the generations beyond. The more he looked, the more difficult it became to believe how much time had passed. Some shared Pion’s facial features, some resembled their mothers, and others looked so different that he never would have guessed they belonged to the same bloodline, yet there were still similarities here and there that tied them together.
"Unfortunately, I didn’t prepare anything for this meeting. Otherwise, perhaps I would have crafted some merged law techniques or something similar for you. But from what I can see, most of you already possess decent Laws and hold respectable positions, so there’s no real need for that anyway."
Robin slowly released a thread of soul force into his surroundings until he located his spatial ring. He carefully inserted his soul sense into it as though pushing a finger into a hole filled with thorns, causing his brows to twitch briefly from discomfort before he finally located what he wanted.
Then he smiled.
"Hold out your hands."
Whoosh Whoosh
A number of spatial rings flew out of his own ring, each one floating gently through the room before landing with perfect accuracy in the hand of a young man or woman.
Naturally, everyone immediately inspected their gift.
"This...?"
Expressions of shock and disbelief spread across nearly fifty faces.
Several checked the contents once.
Then twice.
Then a third time.
A few even glanced toward their neighbors to verify that they had not somehow misread the numbers.
"I didn’t prepare anything specifically for you, and I don’t know your personalities, your preferences, or your ambitions," Robin said with a smile. "So I gave each of you something no one would disagree about."
Then he casually added:
"One billion Pearls each."
The room became completely silent.
Even the descendants who had been whispering among themselves stopped.
Several mouths hung open.
One young man nearly dropped his ring.
Another visibly turned pale.
After all, for Robin this amount might no longer seem extraordinary.
For them...
It was a fortune.
A fortune large enough to alter the trajectory of entire lives.
Robin continued speaking as though he had merely distributed snacks.
"With that amount, you could purchase fourth-level planetary equipment. You could retire from everything, get married, raise children, and spend your days managing businesses in your spare time. You could buy coordinates to valuable planets and try your luck searching for opportunities there. You could establish your own forces, fund your cultivation for centuries, support your descendants, purchase territories, or waste the entire amount within a few years if you’re sufficiently talented at making poor decisions."
Nervous laughter spread through the room.
Then Robin’s eyes settled upon Rufina.
"This is a great deal of money for people your age. What you choose to do with it will influence your futures, and it will tell me quite a bit about who you are as individuals. Wealth amplifies character more often than it changes it, so the choices you make from this point onward will reveal things about yourselves that even you may not realize yet."
His voice remained gentle, but his words carried considerable weight.
"Use it wisely."
The younger descendants immediately straightened their backs.
The gift itself was astonishing.
Yet the realization that Robin intended to judge their character based on what they did with it somehow made it feel even heavier.
Many of them had arrived thinking they would simply meet a legendary grandfather.
Now it felt more like they had unknowingly received their first examination.
"Hmm, good speech." Caesar nodded with approval. "It makes the gift sound meaningful, even though you only thought of it just now."
"Thank you!" Robin replied immediately.
And he had absolutely no intention of arguing with that assessment, Trying to hide something from Caesar is nothing but a dream.
As for Theo, he smiled and said, "Only Lord Human could hand out fifty billion Pearls as gifts while completely unprepared."
"What are you all waiting for? Go on and thank your grandfather!" Peon shouted, snapping his little clan out of their daze.
"Th-thank you, Grandfather!!"
The fifty officers, generals, and officials bowed deeply in unison.
Their minds were barely present.
They had already drifted far away, imagining all the things they could do with a billion Pearls.
Their special status granted them unlimited training resources and educational opportunities, but those resources were tied to necessity. If one of them required a particular plant to improve affinity with a Law, headquarters would acquire the finest specimen in the universe for them. If they needed a technique, equipment, or guidance, the Empire would provide it. But when it came to actual spending money, they still relied on salaries and rewards like everyone else. Most of them had never personally possessed this amount of wealth before, and the realization that such a fortune now belonged exclusively to them made their hearts pound wildly.
"Father, this isn’t fair." Zara puffed her lips slightly. "You never gave us this much money."
"Pfft." Caesar looked away. "Tell your future husband to earn it for you." Then he glanced toward Robin. "I’ve heard that old girl has quite a few dreamers chasing after her."
"Who are you calling old?!" Zara pointed at Caesar indignantly.
"Heh... hehe..." Robin finally managed a difficult laugh. "Thank you, kids... I needed this..."
Then he sent a particularly grateful look toward Peon.
He knew perfectly well that gathering descendants, showing them off, and organizing family celebrations ranked among the very last things a quiet, goal-less man like Peon would naturally care about.
The man had clearly put effort into arranging this little performance, gathering his descendants from all over the Empire simply to cheer Robin up and drag him out of the foul mood that accompanied sickness and weakness. Judging by the expressions on the descendants’ faces, some of them had probably traveled for days or even weeks after receiving the summons, uncertain why they had suddenly been called together, only to discover that the purpose of the gathering was to lift the spirits of a recovering grandfather they had only heard about in stories.
For that, Robin was genuinely thankful.
"Alright, now." Robin narrowed his eyes slightly, maintaining a gentle smile. "I’m feeling a little better." Then his expression gradually became more serious. "Tell me what happened after I lost consciousness."
He slowly turned his head, looking around the room.
"And where are Morgana, Althera, and Blokan? Did something happen to them?" Then he raised an eyebrow. "For that matter, where is Holak? He went to bring all of you here."
"...."
Caesar and the others exchanged glances.
A strange silence settled over the room.
The cheerful atmosphere that had existed only moments ago seemed to weaken slightly, and even some of the descendants sensed the subtle change despite not understanding the reason behind it.
Finally, Caesar looked back at Robin with unusual seriousness.
"It’s better if you see it for yourself. Words won’t explain the situation properly."
"...?"
Robin immediately became uneasy.
His heart seemed to stop for a brief moment.
Could something major have happened while he was unconscious?
The reaction of his children did not resemble the reaction of people discussing a simple battle report.
No.
Something else was going on.
"Fowler, help your grandfather outside." Peon pointed toward one of his sons before clapping his hands. "Come on, everyone. We’ll head out first."
"Yes, Father!"
One of Pion’s descendants stepped forward toward Robin. After giving a respectful bow, he said, "Excuse me," then raised his hands and released a stream of purple soul force that gently wrapped itself around Robin’s body, slowly lifting him from the bed before carefully guiding him toward the door.
Robin remained distracted by an entirely different thought.
His great-grandson was a Royal Soul Master.
The thought amused him more than it probably should have.
As he floated forward, surrounded by children, grandchildren, and descendants stretching across multiple generations, Robin felt an unusual sense of peace. Safety. Warmth. Contentment. For all his life he had chased power, fought wars, built armies, negotiated with monsters, and walked paths that constantly placed his life at risk. Yet moments like this felt strangely valuable. He was surrounded by people he loved, surrounded by people who loved him, surrounded by living proof that everything he had sacrificed and built over the centuries had not been meaningless.
For a brief moment, Robin felt satisfied.
Truly satisfied.
But those satisfied expressions did not last long.
The instant he passed through the doorway of the glass house, he began hearing noises that had been completely hidden by the surrounding arrays.
At first they were faint.
Then they rapidly grew louder.
The distant sounds of battle.
Explosions.
Roars.
The clash of weapons.
The vibration of large-scale techniques detonating somewhere beyond the horizon.
The endless rumble of warfare.
Then he saw the scene that the illusion arrays had concealed from him.
And his face slowly froze.
The mountain was no longer a peaceful sanctuary.
It was no longer the quiet retreat he remembered.
The skies above were stained by flashes of energy. Vast shockwaves rolled across the horizon. Pillars of fire and smoke rose from distant battlefields. Defensive arrays illuminated entire sections of the surrounding region like artificial suns, while countless figures moved through the air and across the sea below in an endless cycle of attack, defense, reinforcement, retreat, and return. Even from this distance Robin could sense the exhaustion hanging over the battlefield, the kind of exhaustion born only after months of uninterrupted war.
At this very moment, the entire mountain was surrounded by death and fire.
