Chapter 77: Alienation
“What?” Patelocke’s words surprised Su Chen.
“Yes, your ears are not deceiving you. The Origin Light Castle is about to collapse,” Patelocke repeated.
“How did that come about?”
“Nothing in particular. Actually, this situation is quite normal. Its time limit is up…… the floating castle has been around for too long.”
The Origin Light Castle was the Harpies’ first castle. It was constructed in the 7400th year of the Chaos Era, and it was now already the 27th millennium of the Chaos Era.
That was almost twenty thousand years.
Earth-shattering changes could occur in such a long period of time. Time could turn an immortal into a pile of rot, it could bring a person who could not die into eternal rest, and it could certainly bring a floating castle crras.h.i.+ng to the ground.
Su Chen understood what was happening once Patelocke explained it roughly to him.
Unfortunately, the Origin Light Castle had reached the end of its lifespan. On the other hand, Sky City, which had been around for even longer, was a long ways off from reaching the end of its lifespan. It was so powerful that its lifespan was definitely many times longer than most of the other floating castles. Perhaps some day all the other floating castles would be grounded, but this one would remain afloat.
“No wonder Eternal Night is so frantic to find the broodmother. They not only want to create a new floating castle, but they also need to exchange the old for the new,” Su Chen sighed.
“That is indeed the case.”
“But how did you find out about this?” Su Chen asked.
“It’s this Holly Keen guy. The reason he’s here is because his clan already knows that the Origin Light Castle is going to be destroyed. They want to sell off all of their businesses here before that happens, but they were afraid of being discovered by the other Harpies and letting the matter leak out, so they basically decided to send this Holly Keen guy over. With him here, the decline of the Holly Clan’s businesses is a great excuse. Surprisingly, holly Keen isn’t dumb and managed to find out about this matter as well. This is why he insists on making a commotion like the end of the world is coming. So you want me to be your s.h.i.+eld? Then I’ll stir up as much trouble as I can for you. We’ll see who gets the last laugh.”
“......” Su Chen was taken aback.
No wonder this guy had so aggressively insisted on taking his puppet. It seemed that there was another reason behind his actions.
If he had chosen to retaliate that day, Holly Keen probably would have made an even bigger stink.
“Interesting,” Su Chen couldn’t help but laugh.
“Do you not have any thoughts on the matter?” Patelocke asked.
“Thoughts?” Su Chen chuckled. “All I’m thinking about is how to ensure that the broodmother stays safe. Anything else is secondary. Since the Origin Light Castle is about to collapse, they can do as they please. We don’t need to do anything.”
“That’s a good point.” Patelocke could only give up on his idea when he saw that Su Chen wasn’t particularly interested.
“So how are you planning on getting me out of here?”
“Well……” Su Chen tilted his head and thought for a moment. “Since he likes to start trouble, then why not find him an even bigger target?”
As he spoke, he began to head in the Holly Clan’s direction. With Patelocke there, Su Chen was easily able to make his way over.
Upon entering the Holly Clan, Su Chen directly a.s.sumed Si Li’s appearance and snuck in.
The Holly Clan had withdrawn most of their powerful experts, so sneaking in was a piece of cake for Su Chen given his strength. He followed a twisting and winding path until he came to where Patelocke was being kept. It was only then that he noticed quite the collection of valuables there.
“It seems like this guy was planning on keeping you here as a collector’s item,” Su Chen laughed when he saw Patelocke.
“I would have left on my own if you hadn’t come here. Kicking it with a bunch of collectibles is boring,” Patelocke replied.
“Well, you might have to keep them company for a bit longer. Since we are here, we cannot possibly leave a treasure mountain empty-handed, can we?” Su Chen began to gather all of the items in the storehouse as he spoke. Harpies had a lot of appreciation for the fine arts, and their collections were usually quite tastefully put together.
“I knew you wouldn’t spare them,” Patelocke, who understood Su Chen quite well, said. Even though Su Chen had almost a billion Origin Stones, this kind of habit was how he would maintain this stash of riches.
As for whether or not this kind of habit was a good one, people had differing opinions on the matter.
In any case, Su Chen swept up all of the collectibles at once before leading Patelocke out the door.
“How are we going to leave?” Patelocke asked.
“By charging out the front door,” Su Chen replied. He rubbed his hand over his face, a.s.suming Si Li’s appearance before turning and charging out the door.
“Okay, I didn’t expect that one,” Patelocke said as he shrugged his four arms.
He could guess what kind of person Su Chen had turned into.
Patelocke walked out calmly behind him. Outside, the sounds of angry yells and curses could already be heard.
Very quickly, Su Chen’s figure flew back. He grabbed Patelocke and said, “Let’s go.” This time, they really did leave in a hurry, breaking through the lock on the Holly Clan’s front door and leaving their territory.
After making a few turns here and there, Su Chen pulled out Si Li’s corpse and tossed him to the side, saying, “Sorry, I originally wanted to bury you, but it seems that I have another use for you now.”
As he spoke, he dragged Patelocke away.
“Are you not planning on staying here to watch the situation unfold?” Patelocke asked.
“I don’t need to stay here to do that,” Su Chen said meaningfully.
“What? Si Li died?” Li Daohong was taken aback.
He had sensed Si Li’s death as soon as it happened. After all, he was the one who had turned Si Li into a Sacrificial Warrior.
Even though Sacrificial Warriors were meant to die, they needed to die in a worthy way.
How had he lost his life fighting a lowly servant?
Even Li Daohong, with his incredibly smart mind, couldn’t understand.
“Go and try to find out what happened!” Li Daohong immediately commanded.
Yet another Sacrificial Warrior was sent out.
After only half an hour, Li Daohong discovered that his second Sacrificial Warrior had died.
There was something wrong with the situation.
Li Daohong recognized that something wasn’t right. Just as he was about to go and take a look personally, the Holly Clan had already come knocking on his front door.
Boom!
With a loud explosion, the front door shattered open, and a large group of Harpies charged in angrily.
What was going on?
Everyone was taken aback.
A Harpy tossed out two corpses onto the ground. “Are these your people?”
“Yes,” someone replied in a daze.
That was exactly what the Harpies were waiting for.
What need was there to delay any longer?
“Attack!” one of the Harpies yelled.
Thankfully, they were still a bit restrained in their actions given that they had said they would attack, not kill. Even so, the scene of a ma.s.sive wave of Harpies attacking a group of human merchants was still quite shocking.
Li Daohong was infuriated.
He knew that Si Li’s death indicated something was wrong. How could he not know, given his intelligence, that there was possibly a misunderstanding or something else taking place. The best course of action would have been to quickly defuse the situation and clarify everything.
But what kind of a person was Li Daohong?
He was a prince of Liaoye Country, the nightmare of the capital! There wasn’t a single person amongst the n.o.bility in Liaoye Country that didn’t feel a headache coming on when they looked at him.
Ever since the day that he regained his soberness, he had vowed that only he could bully others. No one could bully him!
Now, a group of Harpies actually dared to use force to bully him? Did they think he, Li Daohong, was easy to push around?
So what if someone was setting them up or it was just a misunderstanding? These Harpies were wrong to just come knocking on his door without even asking, so he was totally unafraid of killing them all first.
So…...
He might as well enjoy himself first!
As soon as this idea surfaced in his heart, he sprang into action.
As one of the princess of Liaoye Country, he possessed a Desolate Beast bloodline, so he was not weak. He also had quite a few experts by his side. When they retaliated, the intensity of the battle was clearly taken up a notch. Those Harpies with cultivation bases at the Third-Ring or lower died immediately, and even Fourth-Ring Harpies were forced to band together in order to defend against his attacks. Li Daohong also had many subordinates with them, quite a few of them extremely powerful.
These Harpies, who had come knocking on Li Daohong’s front door, were beaten into a state of disarray.
The problem had ma.s.sively escalated now.
After discovering that the person who had taken away his puppet was a human, Holly Keen had considered the possibility that the thief was the same person that he had extorted the puppet from in the first place. Upon finding that the corpse was not the same person, he had sent his subordinates to ask around. He had thought that something was fishy, as he hadn’t noticed that Li Daohong had a subordinate like that around him at the time. This was why he decided to send his men over to clarify with Li Daohong what exactly had happened.
However, he was always incredibly casual, lacking the refined att.i.tude most Harpies had, so his instructions to his subordinates had been unclear. His subordinates had similar personalities to him, so since their master had given them an order, they were obviously there to teach someone a lesson. This was why they had barged in so arrogantly.
They never expected the tables to turn on them like that.
In any case, Li Daohong had held back slightly. More than thirty Harpies had come, but only six or seven were killed, seventeen or so were badly injured, and the remaining were able to escape.
This time, Holly Keen was infuriated.
After all, he had the power to do as he pleased within the Holly Clan, but now he had run into someone who was even more harsh and unreasonable than he was. Yes, your status as a prince of Liaoye Country is impressive and outranks me slightly, but you are still in Harpy territory! You dare treat me this way in the Origin Light Castle?
In an instant, Holly Keen began to make trouble for the Harpies - even the most shameful second generation would have their fair share of scoundrel friends.
A large group of Harpies began to fly through the air, heading right for the human commerce group.
The relations.h.i.+p between the Harpies and the humans was bad in the first place. Just because a few different trade groups were allowed pa.s.sage didn’t mean that the two races were on friendly terms. All it meant was that both parties needed something that only the other party had, so they would make allowances in order to trade these necessities.
Everyone who saw this group of Harpies was immediately interested and followed.
Actually, the Harpies were incredibly talented at following the crowd.
Because they could fly!
They could soar into their skies with a flap of their wings. Who would be able to hide from them?
The ability to pursue someone in three dimensions gave them an innate advantage, even if there was a gap in cultivation base.
In the blink of an eye, Li Daohong and his merchant group were surrounded by thousands of Harpies.
Most of them weren’t planning on doing anything. They just wanted to see if the Li Clan’s chaos-causing fiend or the Holly Clan’s idiot would be more overbearing.
However, with an audience surrounding them, Holly Keen and Li Daohong found themselves in an awkward situation.
When faced with the ma.s.sive spectator pressure due to the audience surrounding them, Holly Keen originally wanted to say something like, “Were you the one who stole my puppet?” However, that sounded too weak to him, so he changed his words to, “You dare kill my men? How bold. Men, charge!”
Yes, they started fighting almost immediately.
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