Nine Astra Skies

The remaining few Heaven-Earth Pouches contained many more items, which included tens of thousands of Chi-amassing Pills and hundreds of Chi Deposition Pills. There were also some ancient books and records, letters as well as title deeds for land. Ye Chen could not be bothered to calculate how many items there were in total, so he said nothing more and simply collected all of these Heaven-Earth Pouches before rising to his feet and walking out of the main hall.

As the overwhelming force that had been holding him in place finally dispersed, Liu Zhen fell to the ground and struggled to open his eyes. When he saw Ye Chen calmly exiting the main hall, he felt confused and wondered why Ye Chen did not kill him. Could it be that Ye Chen did not consider him as a threat at all?! Liu Zhen’s eyes were filled with hatred as he thought, ‘I, Liu Zhen, will get my payback for what you’ve done to me today. I’m going to kill everyone from the House of Ye!’

While Liu Zhen was immersed in his thoughts, he felt a strong bout of Fire-type Celestial Chi surging toward him and then noticed a Vermillion Spirit Condor appearing at the entrance of the main hall. Liu Zhen watched with fright as the Vermillion Spirit Condor puffed a huge fireball that engulfed him in a booming sound.

Ye Chen exhaled deeply after walking out of the main hall. He felt reluctant to personally deal with someone like Liu Zhen as he did not want to dirty his hands with such a distasteful deed!

There was an inexplicable feeling in his heart. Based on his personality, Ye Chen would not wish to see so much bloodshed happening around him. However, there were also times when people would not have any other choice but to do something they did not want to do.

“Squeak, squeak.” Little Tanuki waved its paw around and then ran toward another part of the Second-Prince’s Palace.

Where was Little Tanuki trying to lead him to? Ye Chen quickly ran after it and arrived in front of a building after a while. There was a giant lock on the thick and heavy iron door while the guards who were supposed to defend the building had all been killed by the Zephyr White Ape.

Could this building be the treasury of the Second-Prince’s Palace?

Ye Chen struck the iron door with his palm and it fell apart with a thunderous noise. He had not used much force but easily managed to break this five-inch thick iron door as though it was a dead tree branch. This showed how mighty and powerful a Tenth Level combatant was!

Ye Chen peeked in and found that this was indeed the treasury of the Second-Prince’s Palace. Numerous large boxes had been stacked up in piles in the building, which was around tens of square meters in area. There were at least twenty to thirty boxes in total. When Ye Chen went in and opened up one of the boxes, he found that it was filled with shining silver bars. There were also a few boxes of gold.

In this world, silver and gold were also commonly used currencies. Although many martial arts families often used Chi-amassing Pills in their transactions, silver and gold were quite useful to them too and could be used to buy ordinary goods and material. A Chi-amassing Pill was equivalent to fifty taels of silver, which in turn was equivalent to one tael of gold.

Judging by the number of boxes here, there should be millions of taels of silver and tens of thousands of gold!

Ye Chen pondered for a moment. If the Ye Clan had no choice but to be on the run later, their lives would not be too miserable with these silver and gold. There should be sufficient space in the armguard to hold all of these things. Ye Chen moved all of these boxes filled with silver and gold into the space in his armguard. Then, he turned to a weapon rack arranged with five to six hundred sets of armor and weapons, all of which were made of expensive metals such as Dark Xuan-iron and Gold Xuan-iron, so each set was worth at least thousands of taels of silver. Although these things could hardly compare with the items he had obtained in the Sunken Jade Tower, having these things was better than having nothing at all. Thus, Ye Chen stuffed all of these armors and weapons into the space in his armguard as well. When he found other ordinary objects like some luminous pearls, he gladly kept them too.

With that, Ye Chen had emptied the entire treasury all at once. There were a few large warehouses next to the treasury containing plenty of grains and fabrics that piled up like a mountain. It would be impossible to fit all of these goods into the space in his armguard.

Ye Chen frowned slightly. How should he take care of these things then? The number of grains here was enough to keep hundreds of thousands of people well-fed for an entire year!

Indeed, while the rich were flaunting their wealth, the poor were left to starve on the streets. Previously, Ye Chen heard from his clan members that the common people in Donglin County lived miserable and desolate lives. Every year, the Second-rank Prince of Donglin would impose severe taxes on them and would put further pressure on anyone who gave the slightest resistance. At least tens of people would starve to death every day in the slums of Donglin City alone. During famine periods, the number of deaths would probably go up to five to six hundred people per day.

For martial arts families like the House of Ye, their clan members had also been living in extreme poverty in previous years. They had to go hunting in Lianyun Mountains quite regularly so that they would have enough to eat since food prices in the city had always remained high. If they bought a large number of food supplies, then they would not be able to afford Chi-amassing Pills, which were needed by the cultivators in their clan. A martial arts family was already struggling to get by, let alone ordinary households.

This Second-rank Prince of Donglin, Liu Xun, was a truly inhumane person for refusing to provide relief despite having seen so many people die of starvation!

Ye Chen thought about this further. ‘Let’s just gain some good karma by helping the people in Donglin City today. Anyway, I’m simply being generous at someone else’s expense since all of these things belong to the Second-Prince’s Palace. It wouldn’t make much of a difference for me to give it away to others. The House of Ye might have to start going on the run a few days later.’

“Watch over these warehouses. Don’t let anyone near them!” Ye Chen glanced at the Zephyr White Ape beside him.

The Zephyr White Ape responded with a low grunt and stood guard in front of those warehouses like a divine guardian.

After leaping onto the Raven Hawk’s back, the Raven Hawk carried Ye Chen and soared into the skies above Donglin City while Ye Chen circulated his Celestial Chi. There was a slightly child-like quality to his firm voice as it resounded through Donglin City. “I’m Chief Ye Chen from the House of Ye in Donglin County. The Second-rank Prince of Donglin, Liu Xun, has led the Dark Troopers to lay siege to the Ye Castle along with his father, Liu Kan, and his son, Liu Zhen. Now, I’ve executed all of these men and seized control of the Second-Prince’s Palace. I hereby announce to all the people of Donglin City. Whoever dares to bully the House of Ye again after this, I’ll certainly put them to death!”

As a Tenth Level powerhouse, Ye Chen used his Celestial Chi to amplify his voice to the greatest extent, so his voice sounded like thunder rumbling the entire Donglin City. This gave rise to much commotion since the millions of citizens and all the big clans in the city had heard Ye Chen’s words.

The Second-rank Prince of Donglin, Liu Xun, had been executed? At first, the people thought that their ears were playing tricks on them but on second thought, if this person had the nerve to make such an announcement in Donglin City, this news should not be fake! After all, if the Second-rank Prince was still alive, he would never allow anyone to behave so atrociously in his territory.

The Second-rank Prince of Donglin was dead!

Most of the civilians were stunned into silence for a while. Then, they began raising their hands in the air to celebrate and rejoice while letting out deafening cheers.

As for the people from various clans who had been sent to manage their stores in the city, they hurriedly released their messenger hawks to notify their respective clans after hearing this piece of news. It was said that Liu Xun’s father, Liu Kan, was the Minister of War and was a mid-Tenth Level combatant. Could it be that the House of Ye also had a Tenth Level combatant of their own? The House of Ye fell under the scrutiny of all the large clans in Donglin County once again. Since several clans from the Thirteen Counties of Lingnan had set up shops in Donglin City as well, they soon received news about this too.

“Where exactly is the House of Ye’s location? What kind of a clan are they?” The common people of Donglin City were filled with uncertainty.

“The House of Ye is one of the Eighteen Houses of Lianyun. We’ve all heard a lot about the House of Yun but none of us know much about the House of Ye. I heard the House of Ye has produced a genius and has recently wiped out the House of Yun. I can’t believe they’ve even managed to defeat the Second-Prince’s Palace. It seems like the House of Ye has become the most powerful force in Donglin County now.” Many of them recalled those few Tenth Level mystical beasts they had seen earlier. Could it be that the House of Ye had been keeping all those Tenth Level beasts as pets?

“The House of Ye is unbelievably powerful. However, this Second-rank Prince of Donglin, Liu Xun, was still a high-ranking officer of the imperial court! I’m afraid the House of Ye is going to suffer for this soon!”

All kinds of opinions began to spread while many civilians cried tears of joy. Indeed, the Second-rank Prince of Donglin had certainly been a nightmare to them.