Chapter 682 - The Situation on the Surface Part II
One day later,
In the Divine Kingdom, a person stood tall in the highest balcony of the castle.
He was an old man with purple hair. There was a scar on his eyebrows, making him appear to be a person with many stories to tell. The red mantle had been too heavy for him recently. Of course, it was a different kind of heavy. As a cultivator, he didn"t feel the weight of this mantle. The heaviness came from his heart.
"Your Majesty… No, Grandfather. Please come back to the hall. The shaking has stopped, so we should convene a meeting to discuss what we will do." The person appearing behind him was a blonde male with a mask covering his right eyes.
"Haiz… Julius. Stay here with me first. I want to talk." The old man sighed.
"What is it, Grandfather? I mean, we should do it fast because…" Julius didn"t continue, but his eyes were staring at the town around their castle. Many famous buildings weren"t destroyed, but middle size houses or lower have been destroyed by the Earthquake. They needed to discuss the restoration.
"The town needs to be recovered, and there must be a huge change of landscape and the potential of a big wave coming… This mantle is already heavy on my shoulders." The old man sighed.
"Grandfather!" Julius"s body shook as he quickly cupped his hands and bowed. "I"m still not prepared to take the throne, Grandfather."
"Haiz… I have been holding the throne for two generations. I think it"s time for you to take the mantle. At first, your father will take the throne and be responsible for pa.s.sing the mantle to you, but he has pa.s.sed away. You are my child, and very talented. You are already a 2-Star Martial Saint while your mindset is good to be a ruler…" The old man sighed.
"Grandfather… It"s not like Julius doesn"t want to wear the mantle, but I have promised Father to wear it only after reaching 5-Star Martial Saint. I can"t annul my promise."
"And there are still your Brothers and Sisters who are aiming at the throne… I know that you have suppressed them with overwhelming strength, you still need to be careful. I"m sure they will use this disaster for their own personal gain."
"I am aware. That"s why I will do my best in the restoration process and ask for Marshall Fudi to accompany me the whole time. I don"t wish to trouble Grandfather for this." Julius sighed, recalling his own brothers and sisters.
"Well… I will hold this mantle for a little longer, I guess." He sighed before turning around and leaving the balcony. "Let"s go to the hall. It"s time to discuss with our ministers."
"Yes."
…
A few minutes later, the duo came to the throne room as the old man sat on the golden throne while Julius stood beside him.
"I need the damage report. Speculation is enough." The old man demanded fifty people in front of him.
Suddenly, a middle-aged man stepped forward while looking at the paper in his hand. "There should be deaths, but it won"t be that much, considering we have too many Martial Masters. They will be fine even if they are buried under the pile of rubles. The problem will be how much it will cost us to restore the land."
"You forget something." The king stopped him before recalling a few matters in the past. "There must be some aftershocks after this and a ma.s.sive wave in the sh.o.r.e. It will surely bring many monsters…"
"I have read this in the Imperial Record. May I know about the details, Your Majesty?" Julius asked his grandfather politely.
"Let me remember… This is a story of one thousand years ago. Back then, the kingdom was shaken by this incident once… Albeit, the power was weaker than this. At that time, we need around three hundred thousand Spirit Crystals to restore the entire kingdom."
"Three hundred thousand Spirit Crystals? Three hundred million Spirit Gems?" The people gasped. Julius stepped forward and asked another question. "That would devastate our treasury, Your Majesty. Not to mention that you said the power was weaker than this one."
"I am not finished yet." The king shook his head and stopped them from talking. "Back then, a huge wave traversed toward this place, bringing a few hundred thousand monsters in the coast, south to our kingdom."
"!!!"
"This will be terrible."
"We need to inform the army."
"Enough!" The king shouted while releasing his Spiritual Energy. He could relate to why those ministers panicked, but he could see a few staying silent like they had experienced it before. "Firstly, we won"t get that much loss because we will hunt those monsters and sell them to the Blackwade Clan.
"This will have the economy start running, and our cost should be covered with this. After all, these monsters will be perfect ingredients for Alchemists and other things while the normal cultivators and other people will buy the end products. That"s why we will utilize our army and have them head to the South Coast to farm the monsters and sell them."
"That…" Julius was astonished and bowed his head. "Your Majesty is wise. We can monopolize this opportunity."
"There is no way we can do that." He shook his head. "Back then, the wave carried six hundred thousand monsters, and this might bring one million sea monsters. If I remember correctly, around fifty percent of them were Martial Monarchs or above."
"!!!" The people were utterly shocked once again. The number was insane, but considering the fact that the sea was never explored this whole time, there might be hundreds of thousands of Martial Monarchs inside the sea.
Unfortunately, they didn"t know the exact reason why a large number of sea monsters decided to go to the surface. How could they think that the Underwater Eruption was the one that forced them to the surface because of that smell?
"Anyway, send fifty thousand soldiers and five thousand Martial Monarchs with a hundred Martial Saints. Have them go to that place and start hunting the monsters. I want them to be as careful as possible, so we won"t lose too much." The king ordered.
"Yes. Your Majesty."
"For now, we can open our coffer first to proceed with the restoration of our kingdom. Although it will be costly, the economy will go like usual if we fix this mess sooner."
"We will take care of it, Your Majesty."
"And lastly, inform the other influences to partic.i.p.ate in this hunt. I don"t know how much environmental impact we get, but I want you to have the other influences to partic.i.p.ate. It"s not because I want to let them become rich like us. We are simply not matched against those many monsters."
"I will take care of the invitation, Your Majesty." Julius finally stepped forward.
"Good. If you have any questions about this, just ask the old ministers. They should know what to do. I will leave now." The king stood up and left the room.
Julius looked at his back and took a deep breath before doing his own job.
…
Meanwhile, In the Fire G.o.d Clan,
They were in the same state as any other influence. Many buildings were destroyed, and panic spread around, so the elders and their patriarch held a big meeting.
"I am sure you have been notified of what happened yesterday. We talked about it yesterday, but I will just remind you first. We need to proceed with the restoration of our land, especially our mines. At the same time, we need to a.s.semble our attack forces and have them head toward the southern area near the Divine Kingdom.
"We don"t need to wait for the invitation from the Divine Kingdom since their message will arrive sooner or later." Leo, the patriarch, announced.
"Patriarch… May I say something?" An elder stepped forward.
"Tell me!"
"I think Spirit Nest will appear on this occasion… I"m afraid that they will use a situation like this to strike at our influences."
"!!!" All people in the room gasped as they looked at this elder for a while before the Patriarch broke his silence. "Why didn"t you tell me yesterday?"
"I… I just thought about it last night."
Leo smashed his chair as he stood up with solemn expression. "There might be hundreds of thousand monsters on this occasion… We must grab this opportunity to acquire some wealth, but it"s really risky because the Spirit Nest might ignore this incident as a whole and strike at us.
"With those many monsters, they only need for us to exhaust ourselves before finis.h.i.+ng us…" Leo looked down, weighing something in his mind. "Should I partic.i.p.ate or have the whole family go? This will be reckless since the Blackwade Clan might attack us at a time like this."
"Patriarch… If I may suggest, we can just send our disciples to do this. Of course, we don"t need important disciples, and the number doesn"t need to be that high. Although the profit we can reap is lower, we won"t be bothered too much if we lose them." Another elder stepped forward, suggesting the solution.
Leo didn"t immediately give him the confirmation and still thought for the best solution. "It is true that by doing it, we can minimize our loss in case we are attacked by Spirit Nest. At the same time, we will know that the Spirit Nest is hiding around the Divine Kingdom. Meanwhile, I need to think about the profit… No. Screw profit. If our family can"t destroy this Spirit Nest, we might even get destroyed in the future, looking at the speed of their progress."
After a few minutes of silence, Leo finalized his order. "Send the disciples out. I will also instruct our spies to watch them closely and try to investigate the Spirit Nest if they truly attack us. If we did not send anyone, but we will become a laughing stock in the Seven Influences Banquet next year.
"Hence, we will brace ourselves in this matter and have some useless disciples go there to get us some face and materials. On the other hand, I want the disciples and elders to start taking this matter more seriously as the matter might concern the fate of our entire clan. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Patriarch." The elders cupped their hands and bowed.
…
The other influences were also discussing the same topic as these two influences. They never thought that another phenomenon occurred with this timing. There is already a storm brewing on the Heavenly Continent, and this matter just makes it worse. They kept complaining about Alex and Fire G.o.d Clan.
Inside the Drunken Pavilion, Evelyn opened the window and looked outside. "Big Brother Alex… Evelyn has reached the 2-Star Martial Monarch right now… If not because Big Brother Alex refined my potential, I won"t have a burst of potential when I realize my fire talent… I am truly grateful to you. Evelyn can"t pay you back this whole time because I"m too weak… But now Evelyn has the strength and backing to help Big Brother. Just you wait, Fire G.o.d Clan, you won"t fight only the Spirit Nest, but you will also fight me and the Drunken Pavilion!"
As Evelyn kept saying her resolve, Letizia didn"t have that much of a chance. She was locked inside a prison. Her cultivation might not be sealed, but she couldn"t do anything because she was chained on the wall as it would destroy her wrists if she struggled. However, she still couldn"t do anything other than waiting for the right time to escape.
"Mother… I am sorry for being a useless daughter and can"t visit you this whole time." She couldn"t help but recall her memory after the Earthquake. "I hope that you are alright over there. Letizia will surely come back home…"
Her voice only contained disappointment to herself. She once hoped to be a peerless cultivator, but she felt useless right now. Her determination was gradually destroyed as time pa.s.sed.
She could still increase her cultivation, but it would be over when those people decided to kill her later or even used her as a sacrifice…
Whether it was her loyalty or something deep inside her heart, she uttered a single name that influenced her life greatly.
"Master… Help me."