Chapter 412: Pillaging the Treasury
Without any rush, Jian Chen formed a bright blade of Sword Qi on his finger and completely massacred all of the Great Saint Masters. From this group, there were only three Earth Saint Masters that were fortunate enough to survive the initial attack.
“Your Majesty, please escape! We will hold him off!” The three Earth Saint Masters were by no means cowards. They were willing to throw away their lives in order to try and stop Jian Chen from attacking their king.
But the king only looked at the three soldiers willing to die for him with remorse. He had no intentions of running since he knew that escaping now was futile and would only expend energy needlessly.
“Stop!” The king suddenly called out to the three soldiers powerlessly. Looking to Jian Chen with a grieved look, he spoke, “This king has already been forced into a state where I cannot run away. If you could please tell me just who you are, then I will be content to die.”
Jian Chen stared passively at the king for a moment before speaking, “Who I am is not important. Just know that I am from the Gesun Kingdom.”
“As I expected, you really are from the Gesun Kingdom.” The king sighed before looking back to Jian Chen. “It seems this king’s decision on joining the other three kingdoms to attack the Gesun Kingdom was the wrong choice to make. I had been 90% sure that the Gesun Kingdom wouldn’t have such a hidden talent who could storm my Pingyang Kingdom’s imperial palace and cause me to be end up like this. Ai~~~” The king looked even more ragged than before as if he had spontaneously aged.
“This king has already fallen, do as you seem fit as punishment, whether that is to kill or torture me. This king can only humbly request that you forgive these soldiers; they are innocent of my crimes.” The king pleaded humbly.
“Your Majesty! This servant’s only mission in life is to protect your wellbeing! We three do not fear death!” The three soldiers immediately protested, kneeling in front of him and Jian Chen without concern for their life.
The king shook his head, “This war is a sin that I must bear alone. The decision of going to war does not fall upon your shoulders. Furthermore, you have your own family to take care of.”
Upon being reminded of their families, the three soldiers immediately stiffened with their eyes filling up with tears.
The look in Jian Chen’s eyes grew dark for a moment. When the king had mentioned family, Jian Chen couldn’t help but think to his own family.
The king pleaded to Jian Chen once more, “Everything is the mistake of this king. I will call my armies back immediately, so please spare my three guards.”
Jian Chen looked to the pale three soldiers kneeling nearby. They had already been injured by his initial attacks, so Jian Chen hesitated for a moment. “I will forgive them, but if they dare try to exploit the Gesun Kingdom in any way, I will not be so kind then.”
The king let out a sigh in relief. Each one of the three guards had been with him for twenty years at the very least and had protected him without question. Although he was their king and they were his servants, they had a deep friendship with each other. Thus, the king had naturally tried his best to insure that the three guards would not die with him. The king knew that Jian Chen was a Heaven Saint Master, so sending these three Earth Saint Masters would accomplish nothing but their deaths.
Instead of killing the king, Jian Chen grabbed him by the shoulders and took him away, leaving behind the three guards still kneeling with miserable looks.
“Your Majesty!” The three guards began to tear up as they watched their king get dragged further and further away. Although they wished to go with him, they lacked the power to do so.
Jian Chen quickly left the underground palace with the king, re-emerging into the palace hall. By now, there were many armored men of high status along with other officials gathered nearby.
Seeing Jian Chen walk out, the palace grew tense with anxiety as several men took out their Saint Weapons. Even if it cost them their lives, they wanted to stop Jian Chen since they knew that soon, the army attacking the border would return.
But when a certain purple and gold robed elder came walking out, everyone was stunned. It didn’t take much to tell that the king had been captured by Jian Chen.
Seeing all of the gathered high ranking officials here, the captured king could only sigh before quickly ordering them to stand down. Then, without needing to be ordered to by Jian Chen, the king immediately issued out an imperial edict to bring back all of the soldiers stationed by the Gesun Kingdom’s northern stronghold.
After the edict, the king turned to Jian Chen, “What do you wish for this old king to do now?” Jian Chen’s strength had already caused the king to give up any chance of escaping. He knew that if he didn’t cooperate, his entire army would suffer. The palace would be washed with the blood of his people; an event like this was common enough within the continent.
“Take me to the treasury!” Jian Chen spoke.
At this, everyone’s face blanched before a blunt elder spoke, “Impossible! The treasury is where the root of our kingdom’s finances lie, if it is robbed, then our kingdom would…”
“Pcht!”
The elder immediately grew silent as Jian Chen’s azure and violet Sword Qi shot out and struck through his head, killing him instantly.
“Prime minister…!”
Countless of people began to mourn out for the death of this person while others glared furiously at Jian Chen.
“Grandfather!” A few young military officers cried out in grief. Then pulling out their Saint Weapons, they cried out in a righteous fury, “Fight me to your death!” And with that, they charged straight toward Jian Chen.
“No! Retreat, all of you!” The king barked, but unfortunately he had spoke far too late. Jian Chen instantly moved into action, shooting his Sword Qi straight through their throats and splashing the halls with their blood.
“Get back, everyone get back! He is not someone you can face against!” The king spoke. These people within the kingdom were all the highest ranking spot holders of the kingdom. Without their existence, then the Pingyang Kingdom truly would be gone in all but name. With renewed fear, he turned to Jian Chen before the rest of the people would be killed, “This king will take you to the treasury! Everyone, stand down or be beheaded!”
Afterward, the king of the Pingyang Kingdom guided Jian Chen to the kingdom’s treasury. Right behind them, the entire crowd of officials and soldiers followed with anxious faces.
Quickly, Jian Chen and the king arrived at the treasury. By the order of the king, the soldiers immediately opened the gates and allowed them entry.
The treasury was situated underground in the middle of the palace and was split into several different areas where items of every shape and size could be seen.
Jian Chen had the king first show him where the monster cores were being held. It was an expansive area with several different boxes laid out. There was a strange energy that could be seen flowing from the boxes, and when opened, several dozen Space Belts could be seen arranged inside.
Sweeping past them, he disregarded the boxes that contained the Class 1 and Class 2 Monster Cores since there were far too many to be counted.
Arriving at the later boxes, Jian Chen picked up a Space Belt. Each one of these Space Belts had several words written on them denoting just how many monster cores there were in each one.
“500 Class 3 Monster Cores.”
“621 Class 3 Monster Cores.”
“1000 Class 3 Monster Cores.”
“600 Class 4 Monster Cores.”
“530 Class 4 Monster Cores.”
……
Each one of the Space Belts had been categorized between Class 3, Class 4, and Class 5 Monster Cores with at least five hundred cores within them. There was at the very least, sixty or seventy thousand Class 3 Monster Cores, ten thousand Class 4 Monster Cores, and around four hundred Class 5 Monster Cores.
Looking at the numbers written on the Space Belts, even Jian Chen couldn’t help but sigh at the extraordinary amount. The amount here had far exceeded what he had anticipated and had left him tongue-tied.
However, when he thought about how the Pingyang Kingdom had well over 700 million people, he began to calm down a bit. This was the treasury of the entire kingdom, and if he were to take out several piles of monster cores, it would cause no big ripple among the kingdom. Perhaps this depository of monster cores was the result of dozens of years of collection.
Jian Chen decided to take every Space Belt into his Space Ring; even the Class 1 and Class 2 Monster Cores had not been spared. Since he had several Space Rings with sufficient space, there was no harm in taking them all.
Seeing how Jian Chen was taking every single Monster Core, the king had a look of absolute anger, but even if he wanted to cry in grief, he wouldn’t be capable of shedding a tear. With a mental sigh, he knew from this moment on; if the Pingyang Kingdom did not collapse, then it would most certainly fall in power for a very long time.
Afterward, Jian Chen arrived at the area of the treasury where the money was contained. After cleaning up the entire place, Jian Chen now had a large sum of purple coins. If he calculated the sum, there would probably be well over a hundred million purple coins in total since this was the liquidated assets of the entire kingdom.