The Spider Queen

Chapter 5: House Peterlor

The Peterlor house can trace its lineage all the way to the early years of the Earth Federation.

The family had their own private territory which was an entire moon called Luna-137 which orbited around the planet Jupiter.

The later generations of the family settled down in Gaia as members of the senate. Political power, wealth and influence danced around the fingertips of this noble house.

This would not last forever….

The lack of high tier cultivators spelled the direct decline of the house and many enemies began to eye their territories with hunger.

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Of course, with the vast amount of wealth accumulated over the years it was no problem to hire mercenaries to protect their assets but this was only a temporary solution and when the highest tier cultivator in the family is only at the void stage it still leaves you vulnerable.

Every other major dukedom had at least three god stage cultivators and the gap between the god stage and void was like the difference between heaven and earth.

It was not just a difference between tiers but a qualitative change in the phase of life.

Sophie’s grandfather was the man who almost led his house into complete ruin, known as a no-good second generation and womaniser he would spend his days drinking wine and seducing women despite being married to lady Beterica of the Serpentinesa house.

This displeased and offended house Serpentinesa and caused the relationship between the two houses to disintegrate almost overnight.

Being a wastrel would not be a devasting blow in and of itself as many houses had gone through periods were the head was a person with less than ideal qualifications.

But it was upon his death that Sophie’s grandfather shattered the entire family.

He died prematurely at the age of thirty-five under suspicious circumstances in a pleasure bar on the outskirts of the capitol city of Titania.

He had two children by his wife, a twin pair of two dragons from lady Beterica and numerous bastards roaming around the city.

It was beneath lady Beterica to hunt down these children as illegitimate children would hold no claim to the family.

She would come to regret this act of mercy…

It was soon discovered that her husband had written up a will that legitimised every one of his outside children.

The contents of the will had sent up a stir throughout the capitol as no head of house had ever done something like this before.

He also failed to name an heir to the household so suddenly there were over fifty candidates to lead house Peterlor.

The other noble houses could hardly sit idly by as a potential slice of meat had fallen into their hands, and each house picked a bastard to support and gave them aid and men secretly.

It unleashed a proxy war in the federation that lead to the deaths of most of the main branch of the Peterlor household.

The issue became so out of control, that the royal family had no choice but to step in and quell the fighting. They announced that a tournament would be held among all surviving members of the potential successors and the person who won would be qualified to lead the house.

Rare herbs, gene serums and cultivation techniques were given by the houses to those that they supported secretly with almost no limit in a bid to raise their cultivation level as quickly as possible.

This led to issues with the foundation of qi building and many children suffered from deviation and backlash.

The tournament begun and was broadcast to the upper nobility of Gaia, bets were placed on one child over another, but no one dared to say who would come out on top in the end.

It was a brutal tournament with fights often lasting to the death or severe injuries, the royal family could not set guidelines of mercy as the wars over succession have traditionally followed the mantra of ‘the strong rules.’

When the dust settled after a week of fighting, the noble houses were shocked to discover the winner was an unknown bastard son called Rokan.

This child was not supported by any major houses as he was only ten years old and seen as a useless prospect.

But his talent in cultivation was the likes of which the federation had almost never seen as without the use of herbs or gene serum, he could still quickly raise himself to qi spirit stage five before the tournament. He defeated many opponents often older and with higher cultivation levels than himself.

Even lady Beterica’s children were felled by his hand which caused her house to raise an uproar.

Unfortunately for them, the royal family had already claimed that the winner of the tournament would be the head of the Peterlor house so there was nothing they could do to stop the young boy’s rise to power.

Lady Beterica left Gaia to return to her family’s territory in the Andromeda system and cut all ties with the Peterlor house. Numerous other merchants and houses followed suit and Rokan inherited a dukedom on the verge of collapse.

All the family assets were taken away by bankers reclaiming the debts from the wayward father of his who took out loan after loan to pay for his lifestyle.

Everyone expected the house of the fall into ruin and disappear from history but despite all their expectations, the boy survived. He joined one of the four great universities and then became a commander in the imperial army.

His talent was praised by all his teachers and by the age of twenty-four, he was one of the youngest void stage cultivators within the last centuries.

Joining the Imperial fleet was a smart decision as it prevented many would be assassins sent by noble houses who felt threatened by his rise.

It was one thing to kill a noble with no other power and backing but it was quite another matter to kill an officer of the royal family. The penalty could mean the execution of their entire family line.

There were still those willing to take the risk by using lesser nobles as scapegoats, but all assassination attempts were thwarted by Rokan’s extremely higher combat sense.

Unlike his father he was a man known for his duty and dedication to the army and had not sired a single offspring.

At the age of forty, he stepped into the domain of god stage cultivators and the other houses could no longer ignore his power.

All the bankers and merchants who had abandoned his house all those years ago were now flocking to his side.

Wealth, Power, Strength

He single-handely rebuilt the entire Peterlor house from the ground up.

Many noblewomen eagerly sought him out for companionship, but he refused all offers. No matter how beautiful or seductive they were, there was seemingly no woman who could catch his eye.

Until he met her…