Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Pursuit

“Little one, why don’t you want the account and password for the inheritance crystal ball?” The old man with the white beard looked at Luoyuan with a hint of meaning in his gaze.

“Heh, you know the answer already. Let’s talk about it when we’re out and safe,” Luoyuan replied with a smile.

“Hahaha, what an interesting boy. It seems you really do know something. Could it be some sort of precognitive power? No, that’s unlikely—even the immortal strong aren’t guaranteed to have such an ability. This is getting more and more intriguing.” The old man laughed excitedly, almost manically. Luoyuan couldn’t help but wonder if this intelligent lifeform had gone mad after being trapped here for millions of years.

Ignoring the old man, Luoyuan stepped outside.

As soon as he emerged from the castle, Luo Feng, Hong, Thunder God, and the others hurried over.

“We’ve got the treasure. Quick, while no one’s paying attention to us, let’s get out of this sub-world!” Luoyuan urged.

Luo Feng, Hong, Thunder God, and the others nodded, then quickly followed Luoyuan toward the exit of the sub-world. To avoid drawing attention, they pretended to still be searching for thunderstones, but gradually distanced themselves from the other teams.

On their way, they encountered a vast army of ninth-level star-class adventurers who had come in to seek treasure. The mass of them flew overhead, a sight as overwhelming as a tidal wave, but these troops were too focused on rushing to the core area to pay any attention to Luoyuan’s small group of a dozen or so.

...

Virtual Universe, Black Dragon Mountain Island.

This was a massive city, filled with palaces stretching as far as the eye could see. Among them stood a modest, unremarkable purple palace, its entrance guarded by two sentinels.

Suddenly, a fair-skinned, handsome young man appeared on the throne inside the palace—none other than His Highness the Ninth Prince of the Black Dragon Mountain Empire, Brolin.

He wore the black-and-gold attire of the royal family, and, seated high upon the throne, Brolin immediately initiated a communication request with one of his nine personal bodyguards.

All nine of his bodyguards were his slaves, utterly loyal to him. Of course, one had already perished while opening the castle gates—this sub-world was vast and full of restrictions, so they communicated directly via the virtual universe.

With a flash, a figure appeared in the great hall, dressed in black guard’s uniform, his hair blazing upward like green fire.

“Your Highness,” the guard said, kneeling respectfully on one knee.

“Katulo.”

Brolin sat above, looking down at the guard, his gaze intense. “How is the collection of thunderstones progressing?”

“Reporting, Your Highness, we have collected over ten million thunderstones,” Katulo replied deferentially.

“Good. Speed it up. That top-ranked spatial secret technique must not fall into anyone else’s hands!” said Brolin.

“By the way, Your Highness, I’ve heard that every treasure from second to over fiftieth place in the castle has already been exchanged,” Katulo added.

“What? So quickly? How is that possible? Do you know who made the exchanges?” Brolin asked urgently.

“This ancient castle sees a steady stream of entrants, and almost everyone wears a masked helmet. No one knows who has exchanged treasures and who hasn’t, so I have no way of knowing,” Katulo replied nervously.

“Useless!” Brolin snapped, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

“I deserve to die, Your Highness, but I did learn that after the white-bearded old man announced the exchange rules, there was a team of fourteen who didn’t leave immediately and lingered in the castle for a while. Afterward, their whereabouts became unknown. We have marked and are keeping special watch on this team,” Katulo hastily added, kneeling again.

“Hmph, so this team of fourteen is suspicious. But how could they have known the exchange rules in advance? That’s impossible. No matter—better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one slip by. Notify the nearest team via the virtual universe network to follow and search them. If it’s confirmed they did it, eliminate them on the spot and bring the treasures back!” Brolin ordered coldly.

At present, Ninth Prince Brolin commanded an army of over 220,000 men, divided into seven battalions of 30,000 each. Each “team” was actually a thousand-strong unit! Patrols and guards were also organized in teams of a thousand, taking shifts. All these soldiers were ninth-level star-class warriors—each one, on an ordinary planet, would be invincible.

Katulo accepted his orders with a bow and hurried from the hall to notify the team nearest Luoyuan and his group.

As Katulo left, another man entered, knelt on one knee, and respectfully said, “Your Highness, the Sixth Battalion has killed six teams today—a total of about five thousand adventurers. They have acquired approximately 2.59 million thunderstones.” He then respectfully presented a space ring.

“Very good. The Sixth Battalion has done well,” Brolin said, a rare smile appearing on his face. “Tell the others to work hard and seize as many thunderstones as possible while there’s still time.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The man withdrew.

In the main tent, Brolin weighed the space ring in his hand, a look of supreme confidence on his face. “Soon, we’ll have another ten million thunderstones! That should be enough to obtain the second-level password. But thunderstones everywhere have almost been mined out—now comes the phase of fighting and plundering from each other.”

For the exalted Ninth Prince Brolin, even if his two hundred thousand star-class soldiers all perished, it wouldn’t matter to him.

He was born of the royal family.

And on his mother’s side, he had immense power. He had witnessed too much of the universe’s law of the jungle—with a single order, tens of planets’ entire populations could be enslaved. To him, killing those teams to seize thunderstones was only natural. Sending people to kill Luoyuan and the others didn’t even register as a concern.

That team of fourteen—Brolin saw them as no more than ants; a word from him, and someone would be sent to crush them.

...

In the wild night wind, Luoyuan and his fourteen companions soared into the sky, flying away from the coalition camp.

Behind them, a thousand-man team also took to the air in pursuit.

“Don’t attack yet. We’re close to the coalition camp—if they make it back inside, we won’t be able to touch them.”

“Just follow for now. We’ll strike after we’ve flown a safe distance,” the pursuing team’s captain instructed his men in a low voice.

...

“Damn, how did they spot us so quickly? Or are they just suspicious? Is our disguise too recognizable?” Luoyuan was using his mental probe, so the moment the thousand-man team acted suspiciously, he noticed.

“Everyone, be careful. There’s a thousand-strong team following us—they’re all ninth-level star-class warriors,” Luoyuan warned Luo Feng, Hong, Thunder God, and the rest via mental transmission.

“So there is,” Thunder God frowned.

“Are they tracking us, or just heading out to compete for thunderstones and happen to be on the same path?” Hong wondered.

“Let’s speed up and change course,” Luoyuan transmitted.

Immediately, the team of fourteen arced through the air, accelerating sharply and veering left in fourteen streaks of light.

ps: Dear readers, please subscribe, reward, vote, and bookmark. Many thanks!