Chapter 536 – Purcell Family’s Tragedy
The Prairie Wolves weren’t wealthy, so now that an opportunity has arrived, they certainly wouldn’t let it go. At this time, they were actually feeling regretful. They regretted that they turned down the prior 1 billion jin of Bread Fruit that Zhao Hai intended to give them. When they heard that they were about to head to war, they kept the 300 million jin and declined the remaining amount. If they knew that this situation would happen, they wouldn’t have declined the 1 billion jin.
But it was always too late to regret, they can only settle on their gains this time. On the other hand, the one who gained greatly was Ah Tai. Not only did he establish a relations.h.i.+p with the Bali Tigers, he also managed to promote the Bread Fruit. In the future, the fruit would certainly become popular in the Prairie.
Zhao Hai also knew about this development. Although he had countless amounts of Bread Fruit in the s.p.a.ce, he wasn’t planning to take those out right now. If he gave them the Bread Fruit, the Beastmen would stop attacking the Human territories. Zhao Hai wanted the Beastmen to wage war right now.
It wasn’t because Zhao Hai hated them, it was because he doesn’t want to wipe the b.u.t.tocks of the Radiant Church. This incident was caused by the Radiant Church, so even if a lot of civilians were to die, Zhao Hai wanted the Radiant Church to remember this lesson for a long time.
The Radiant Church was his enemy, and Zhao Hai wasn’t a saint either, so he certainly wouldn’t help the Radiant Church. This war, for him, was a very good thing.
Since there weren’t any problems with the Beastmen, Zhao Hai s.h.i.+fted his attention to the Purcell Duchy. It wasn’t only the Purcell Family that he was looking at, he also focused on the other people in the Duchy. He wanted to see what the Radiant Church would do. And he also wanted to see which ones were the spies of the Radiant Church.
The s.p.a.ce’s functions were now quite formidable. Since he already had the map of the entire continent, it was natural that he also had the map of the entire Purcell Duchy. Because of this, it was very easy for him to monitor the Duchy.
After two days of surveillance, Zhao Hai finally found some people of the Church. These people were experts, but they weren’t 9th ranks. 9th rank experts aren’t cabbages that can just be plucked, the Radiant Church had painstakingly trained them for years, so they cannot just send casually send them.
Among the people that were sent, there were some 8th ranks mixed in. The majority of them were 7th and 6th ranks, which numbered around 2 thousand. The 8th ranks, on the other hand, only amounted to about 500. One could see the Radiant Church’s strength just from this exhibition.
Besides these people, there were also armies of the families surrounding the Purcell Duchy. As soon as the Purcell Family falls, they would immediately come and occupy the Duchy.
Seeing this situation, Zhao Hai understood that the Aksu Empire definitely wouldn’t let the Purcell Family off. The family would have to be sacrificed to the Beastmen, completely eliminating the Purcell surname from the continent.
After thinking about this point, Zhao Hai cannot help but have a taunting smile on his face. His ridicule was of course meant for the elders of the Purcell Family. For a meagre benefit, they took their entire family to its demise.
Fortunately for the Purcell Family, they had two smart members. At the very least, Evan and Ruyen’s minds were in the right place. Zhao Hai also knew that these elders might have not acted out all for the sake of benefits. They might have also thought about the Purcell Family. However, they didn’t really understand the Radiant Church, therefore they managed to make this mistake.
The Purcell Family elders might be selfish, but they weren’t fools. They knew that they only had their current power because of the Purcell Family. If the Purcell Family were to vanish, then they would become nothing.
The reason why they rejected the idea of moving to Golden Island was because they received some promises and benefits from the Radiant Church. At the same time, they were also afraid of losing their current status.
If the Purcell Family were to move to Golden Island, the place was the Buda Clan’s domain and wasn’t the Purcell Family’s. When they arrive there, they wouldn’t be able to have the influence that they had in the Purcell Duchy. Because of this, they went all out in opposing to move to Golden Island. They had held into the hope that the Purcell Family might be able to keep the Purcell Duchy.
Another two days later, Zhao Hai saw that Ruyen and the others have prepared themselves. So he immediately left the s.p.a.ce and flashed to the Purcell Duchy. There were now a lot of commoners who had left and some were still on the process of leaving. The Purcell Duchy were now having food problems, if they didn’t leave, they would die of starvation.
But these commoners didn’t have any resentment towards the Purcell Family. The family had always been good to them, the prices in the Duchy weren’t high, the taxes were kept low, and most importantly, cases of them bullying the commoners were very rare. Also, their schools were cheap as well, there were commoners who had their children attend these schools. This made the Purcell Family very popular among the commoners.
Although these commoners didn’t know about high-level affairs, they can still roughly guess that the Aksu Empire had already given up on the Purcell Duchy. Which made the commoners even more dissatisfied towards the Empire.
The reason for that was Zhao Hai’s continual propaganda. He let the people of the Aksu Empire know that the Beastman’s attack to the the human lands this time was caused by the Radiant Church.
Now that the Beastmen were coming, the Aksu Empire actually didn’t send any troops to support the Purcell Duchy, this made the commoners very discontented of the Empire.
Then there was another news that came to the Purcell Duchy. It stated that the Radiant Church had become honored guests in the Royal Capital. The n.o.bles were respectful to them, even the Emperor was very polite when interacting with them.
This information was just like a blasting fuse, making all of the Purcell Duchy commoners furious towards the Aksu Empire’s Royal Clan. It was already known that the Beastman attack was caused by the church, but they actually didn’t do anything about it. Instead, they even accepted the church as honored guests. They didn’t even send some reinforcements to the Duchy, stating their neglectful stance towards the commoners.
At this time, the Purcell Family had also taken action. They sent some people from the family and organized the commoners in leaving the Duchy. This was because the Duchy would soon become a battlefield.
These commoners weren’t willing to leave, however, the Purcell Family urged them to. The Purcell Family knew that they don’t have the ability to keep these commoners safe. They couldn’t even guarantee the safety of their own family, so how could they guarantee the safety of these commoners.
The commoners understood as well that the Purcell Family won’t provide any help even if they stayed. Some of them had friends and families in other places, so they chose to go there. For those who didn’t have both friends and families, they still needed to leave the Duchy.
When Zhao Hai arrived at Casa City, there weren’t a lot of people left inside. Zhao Hai didn’t care about any of these and just took his carriage towards the Grand Duke’s Mansion.
Zhao Hai already expected the commoners to leave, but he still paid attention to them. When the commoners were leaving, the Radiant Church didn’t act too hard on them. This may be because the Church knew that their current actions were already excessive. If they were to act hard on these commoners, the other commoners of the Aksu Empire might feel discontented with them.
Seeing that these commoners were safe, Zhao Hai felt relieved. Although he wanted these commoners to go to the Black Wasteland, he understood that this situation wasn’t realistic.
When Zhao Hai’s carriage entered the back gates of the Mansion, he saw Evan already waiting for him there. Even was now used to the mysterious appearance and disappearance of Zhao Hai.
He had sent people in Casa City to look for Zhao Hai, only to know that Zhao Hai wasn’t inside the city. But when Zhao Hai’s carriage heads to the mansion, the guards at the city gates were always not aware of his arrival, this fact made Evan very confused.
Most importantly, Zhao Hai always came at the right time. With a slightest bit of trouble, Zhao Hai would appear. Like this time, they had just finished preparing and haven’t informed Zhao Hai yet, but he actually came to the mansion.
After inviting Zhao Hai to sit down, Evan looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Little Hai, since you came, I think you already know that we are ready.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “I do, but not only that. I also must tell you that the Radiant Church had sent 2000 thousand experts as well as 500 8th ranks. At the same time, there were also armies on the surrounding borders of the Purcell Duchy. All of them are waiting for the Purcell Family to fall before they charge and secure the territory.”
Evan made a ridiculing smiled and said, “I’ve already guessed this for a long time. Those guys surely wouldn’t let us go. It is a pity that the people in our family are still living in their fantasies. But fortunately for us, Elder Sword Saint agreed to my opinion. He will be bringing Ruyen and the others to follow you. Later on, I’ll have to depend on you to look after Ruyen.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “Rest a.s.sured, I shall looked after them. If there’s an opportunity later on, I shall help them regain the Purcell Family’s status.”
Evan let out a long breath and then said, “I’ll be depending on you. If you think that they’re worth helping, then help them. If they’re not, then as long as you let them live a happy life, I would be able to rest a.s.sured.”
Zhao Hai looked at Evan and then said, “Uncle Evan, you should come as well. If you’re present, I believe that the Purcell Family would reappear much more beautifully.”
Evan shook his head and said, “That’s a bad idea. Everybody can leave, but not me. I am the Purcell Family’s Patriarch. If I leave, then the Purcell Family would certainly come to its end. I’d rather die in battle here. I will not leave.”
Zhao Hai sighed, he knew that any more urging would be useless, Evan was adamant on staying.