Chapter 13: The Heavy Treasure
"Prince Shak, thank you for saving us. Let's part ways here." Loey said with a smile.
Shak immediately put on a stern face and said discontentedly, "What's the rush, Prince Loey? The surrounding area is now swarming with magical beasts, and there are only seven of you. If you encounter more beasts on the road, it will be dangerous. Travel with us. With so many of us together, it will be much safer."
Prince Loey quickly said, "Prince Shak, no..."
"Don't refuse, or I'll get angry." Shak said with a frown, feigning displeasure.
Prince Loey's expression was somewhat awkward, but inwardly he was filled with anger. He, Prince Loey, was no fool. The way his men had just collected and gathered the packs of their fallen comrades had already aroused the other party's suspicion.
Yes.
Inside his men's packs were the heavy treasures of the Hanmu royal family. The Hanmu royal family had held high positions for over a thousand years. Although not as long-established as the Finley royal family, their wealth and treasures were still astonishing. It was just that their royal family didn't have any space rings and could only carry things in packs.
At this chaotic time, many large families of the Finley Kingdom and the Hanmu Kingdom were using packs to carry their family treasures or magic crystal cards and beginning to flee. How many people on the entire Yulan continent actually had space rings? Even an organization like the Prux Club only had one, owned by the head curator.
"This Shak has ill intentions." Loey was extremely anxious in his heart.
He wanted to refuse, but he was worried that Shak would really burn bridges.
The knight beside Prince Loey gently tugged at him. This knight was Prince Loey's master. He stepped forward and said, "Since Prince Shak is so sincere, let's set out together with Prince Shak. We'll just be troubling Prince Shak."
"No trouble at all, haha, let's go together." Shak let out a hearty laugh.
Just by looking at Shak's appearance—over two meters tall, with a back as broad as a tiger's and a waist as thick as a bear's—he absolutely looked like a rough man. But having grown up within the royal family, how could Shak really be that simple-minded? He also guessed what the other party was thinking, but he wasn't worried.
******
The two teams set out together, heading north all the way.
"Boss, the atmosphere is really weird." Bebe said to Linley through a mental transmission.
Linley chuckled inwardly. Prince Loey didn't dare to offend Shak too much, but he also had to be careful that Shak wouldn't attack them. Naturally, there was something off about his words and actions. Linley, who had been watching from the side, had a clear view of the situation between the two sides.
Prince Loey talked with Shak for a while, and then the two separated.
Shak rode his horse to be side by side with Linley again and said in a low voice, "Lord Linley, did you see that?"
"See what?" Linley looked at Shak.
Shak glanced at the people on Prince Loey's side. Seeing that no one was approaching, he lowered his voice and said, "The Hanmu royal family must have brought the heavy treasures accumulated over a thousand years during this escape. I think the packs on those knights' shoulders contain those heavy treasures."
Linley knew that because of the Four Empires Bank, magic crystal cards were very popular.
Even large families and royal families used magic crystal cards. For those families with wealth exceeding a hundred million gold coins, ordinary treasures were nothing. For example, a Blueheart Grass worth nearly a hundred thousand gold coins—during an escape, those families and royal families wouldn't bother bringing it.
What they brought were the most important things, heavy treasures worth over a million gold coins.
Such as the magic cores of rank 9 magical beasts, Saint-level magic cores, precious treasures from other planes, divine artifacts...
"Lord Linley, if you help out, you'll get a share of these heavy treasures. No, two shares, how about it? I think those heavy treasures are worth at least several million gold coins." Shak said in a low voice.
Shak was very clear about the astonishing wealth of a royal family, because the five magic crystal cards he carried in his bosom were worth five hundred million gold coins.
The Hanmu Kingdom was no worse than the Finley Kingdom, and its wealth was probably not too different. The heavy treasures they brought couldn't be bad.
"Alright." Linley nodded. "Let me know when you're going to make a move."
Shak was overjoyed to hear this.
During an escape, a magician might be a burden, but in a real fight, the power of a magician was astonishing. Linley, a rank 7 dual-element magician, could probably kill half of the enemy party if they were unprepared.
Linley carefully observed the seven people on Prince Loey's side. Each of them now carried four or five packs on their shoulders. Especially...
"Hmm?"
Linley suddenly noticed that the horse ridden by a middle-aged man had very heavy hoofbeats, and that horse was much more tired than the horses ridden by the others. Most importantly, this middle-aged man also led another horse beside him—he had two horses for himself.
Clearly, this middle-aged man had to change horses frequently.
"These horses are all carefully selected good horses. Even carrying three or four people, they can run like the wind. But why does this middle-aged man make his horse so tired that he has to change horses frequently?" Linley immediately thought of the reason—
This middle-aged man was very heavy.
Or rather, this middle-aged man was carrying something very heavy.
"But this middle-aged man only has a short sword. Could it be in the packs..." Linley could only assume that one of the four packs on this middle-aged man's back contained something extremely heavy.
******
At night, the cold wind howled.
Prince Loey's group and Prince Shak's group both camped for the night. No matter how strong a person was, they still needed to rest. Prince Loey's seven people gathered together, while Prince Shak's people were divided into four or five groups. The two sides were separated.
"Master, when do we leave?" Prince Loey said softly. The other five were all pretending to sleep.
"Wait a little longer. When they're all sound asleep, we'll just ride away." The middle-aged man said in a low voice.
Running away in the dark of night was very common, but the reason it was common was that many people used it, and many people used it because it was effective!
Prince Shak's side, over thirty people, were also pretending to sleep. None of them were actually asleep. Everyone knew there would be a fight tonight.
"Lord Linley." Prince Shak said softly beside Linley.
"Hmm?" Linley looked at Prince Shak.
Prince Shak continued, "Lord Linley, you secretly cast a spell in a moment. Catch them off guard and seriously injure their entire group. Then we'll charge in and kill them. Lord Linley, it's up to you."
"Alright." Linley nodded.
Casting a spell suddenly in the dark of night—the other party really wouldn't be able to predict it.
Linley's lips began to move slightly as he silently chanted a magic incantation. Prince Shak could only wait anxiously beside him. Poor Prince Loey and his seven people wanted to wait a little longer for Shak and his men to fall asleep before they ran away.
"Puchi!" "Puchi!" "Puchi!"...
Within a ten-meter radius, dozens of sharp earth spikes emerged from the ground without any warning. "Ah!" Screams immediately rang out. The sharp earth spikes ruthlessly pierced through the warriors' bodies from their buttocks, even skewering one person alive. The pitiful Prince Loey was also stabbed to death on the spot. He was the weakest among them.
The dense array of earth spikes sent a chill down everyone's spine.
Earth rank 7 magic—Earth Spike Array.
Four of Prince Loey's seven people were pierced through and died on the spot. The remaining three rank 8 warriors were also severely injured because they were unprepared.
"Kill!"
The nearly thirty members of the Thunderbolt Squad had been pretending to sleep with their eyes closed. But upon hearing the screams, everyone, as if receiving an order, charged forward simultaneously. They directly attacked the three remaining injured rank 8 warriors. Nearly thirty against three.
The numbers were completely disproportionate. Moreover, the Thunderbolt Squad had over ten rank 8 warriors on their side.
"Pu." "Pu."
The three injured rank 8 warriors were easily slaughtered by the group, unable to resist at all.
"Second Prince, all of them are dead." The squad leader of the Thunderbolt Squad, a sturdy middle-aged man with short golden hair, reported.
Shak was overjoyed: "Haha, good! Quickly gather all those packs. For this alone, I'll reward each of you with a hundred thousand gold coins. Once we reunite with my father, the rewards will be distributed directly." Shak was extremely excited.
The nearly thirty members of the Thunderbolt Squad—a hundred thousand gold coins each added up to nearly three million gold coins. But the wealth in those dozens of packs was definitely worth over a hundred million gold coins.
"Lord Linley, come, you pick two first." Shak said generously to Linley at this moment.
The role of a magician in group battles was fully demonstrated. Linley's magical ambush this time had killed four and severely injured three. If Shak's men had gone in, they would probably have lost quite a few people.
Linley walked directly to the side of that middle-aged man, Prince Loey's master. He directly weighed the four packs on his body. With this weighing, Linley indeed noticed something strange. Three of the packs were very light and ordinary.
But the last pack, when held in his hand, contained an object only the size of a palm. Yet its weight... was over a thousand jin.
"An object the size of a palm, weighing over a thousand jin?"
Linley was truly shocked.
He had never heard of any substance being so heavy. Even gold or diamonds were much lighter than this unknown substance. The size of a palm, yet over a thousand jin.
"Lord Linley?" Shak walked over. "Have you chosen?"
"No need to pick carefully. I'll take these two." Linley took the heavy pack and one of the other three at random, then slung them over his back.
Seeing this, Shak was very pleased. What he feared most was that Linley would open every pack and look through them all before choosing. That would have been frustrating. But Linley had only casually weighed a few on one person and taken two packs.
Afterward, Shak ordered his men to each carry a pack.
"Let's move out." Shak was now in high spirits.
Linley also sat on his horse. But as he mounted, he cast a "Floating Technique" on himself. With Linley's strength as a rank 7 magician, casting a rank 5 spell was a piece of cake. Linley controlled the buoyancy of the "Floating Technique" to exactly offset the gravity of the mysterious substance.
This allowed the horse beneath him to still run easily.
"Grandpa Doehring." Linley urged immediately. "Take a look. What's inside the two new packs I got?"
"Oh, you got a treasure?" Doehring Cowart, who had probably been asleep inside the Coiling Dragon Ring, perked up. He immediately extended his mental energy, which directly penetrated the two packs Linley had just obtained.
"The first pack contains a brocade box wrapped in several layers. Inside the brocade box is a pair of crystal jades, very beautiful crystal jades, and they're a pair. They should have some history, but I don't know their origin." Doehring Cowart said.
"The second pack, ah!"
Doehring Cowart exclaimed in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Linley's heart tightened. He knew that the object the size of a palm and weighing over a thousand jin was in the second pack, because the inside of the second pack wasn't a square brocade box.
"Blackstone, Blackstone! I can't believe I've seen a palm-sized piece of Blackstone on the Yulan continent. This, this is too astonishing." Doehring Cowart exclaimed.
Upon hearing the name "Blackstone," Linley's heart also gave a violent leap.
Blackstone—this substance didn't exist on the material plane of the mortal world. It came from another plane. Its hardness was such that even ordinary gods would find it difficult to destroy. In the Radiant Church, the chains that were only mixed with a small amount of Blackstone were hard for even Saint-level experts to destroy. From this, one could imagine the hardness of Blackstone.
"This palm-sized piece of Blackstone... this is even more precious than a Saint-level magical beast's magic core. How could there be such a large piece?" Doehring Cowart found it hard to believe.
"Palm-sized, and you call it large?" Linley asked in confusion.