Chapter 400: Seething Anger
Chapter 400: Seething Anger
During the peak hours to eat breakfast, Jian Chen had taken the tiger cub and the five Imperial Advisors from the Qinhuang Kingdom into the best restaurant in a city. The six men crowded around a table and began to enjoy the best meals the place had to offer.
The tiger cub on the other hand, was voraciously eating a special plate of delicious smelling barbequed beef. With a content purr, it continued to swallow the pieces of meat one after another while the rest of the inn gave the table a strange look.
Jian Chen sat at the table and listened around for the nearby chatter without eating a bite.
The Qiangan Kingdom was especially close to the Gesun Kingdom so Jian Chen was able to make discreet inquiries about the current state of the Gesun Kingdom. As for information that was spread by mercenaries, the information they told would be both fast in spreading and reliable in truth.
“The Gesun Kingdom is done for. The four kingdoms combined have well over two million people at the moment while the Gesun Kingdom has only several hundred thousands men. How could they stop that?”
“The Gesun Kingdom has the most fertile territory out of every kingdom nearby, so the other kingdoms have long since been eyeing it like candy.”
“Right now, the Gesun Kingdom is relying on the strongholds to buy them some time, but their army will break down after some time. I heard that the Gesun Kingdom had originally six million people, but now they were below a million. By now, the kingdom surely must be recruiting soldiers in a frenzy.”
“There’s only two hundred Middle Tier Magical Crystal Cannons supporting them, but their supply of monster cores are already at an all time low. Even the national treasury is nearly empty so the major and minor powers of the kingdom are supplying the monster cores.”
“Half a month ago ten of the cannons had exploded after being used too frequently. I heard they had blown up one stronghold and caused thousands to die.”
“The difference between the Gesun Kingdom and the four allied kingdoms is far too much. Even if they were to convene all the soldiers and employ mercenaries, their fighting power wouldn’t exceed three million. The four allied kingdoms have well over triple that amount if they wanted to. Furthermore, the Gesun Kingdom doesn’t have half the amount of experts the other side has, this time, the Gesun Kingdom will fall.”
“I’ve heard that two Heaven Saint Masters from the Gesun Kingdom have already died and another three sustained serious injuries. The four allied kingdoms on the other hand, have a single Heaven Saint Master on the verge of dying. But rumors say a Radiant Saint Master brought him back to full health and healed the others, that means they suffered virtually no damages.”
After hearing these bits of information, Jian Chen grew even more pale in the face. Although things had not yet reached the worst case scenario, the situation was looking bleak for the entire kingdom with the difference in military might.
“You guys won’t know this but three days ago, I came back from the Yanyan Kingdom. From there, I heard rumors about a terrifying Heaven Saint Master from the Gesun Kingdom. Going against six other Heaven Saint Masters by himself and sustaining serious injuries, he used some sort of supernatural Heaven Tier Battle Skill to kill two of the Heaven Saint Masters and heavily injuring another three. The remaining survivors lost their courage and fled from him!”
“Ah, I heard about that too. People say that even among the Gesun Kingdom, he was a Heaven Saint Master that was extremely low profiled. Not being counted in the top ten experts and with even fewer people knowing his existence, it is only know that people have started to notice him. I think his name is…Chang Wuji?”
Then, another one of the travel weary mercenaries spoke out to the previous person that spoke, “So what? That Chang Wuji must be an expert at the very pinnacle of his realm, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to employ such a strength. Let me tell you an even more shocking piece of information. From the battle three days ago, an Earth Saint Master was able to severely injure one of the Heaven Saint Masters from the Blue Wind Kingdom.”
“Impossible, just how could an Earth Saint Master be a match for a Heaven Saint Master?”
“I don’t believe it, why don’t you go and trick a demon before trying us?”
The entire inn began to burst into chatter without anyone believing what the mercenary had said.
“Ha, I wouldn’t lie. They say that the Earth Saint Master used some sort of Heaven Tier Battle Skill and heavily injured the Heaven Saint Master. If not for the intervention of another Heaven Saint Master, the Earth Saint Master would have killed the Heaven Saint Master. Tsk tsk, that battlefield was a spectacular sight. When a Heaven Tier Battle Skill was used, the sky would turn a different color and black clouds would roll in. With the sands and stones flying through the air, it would be difficult to see anything and hear nothing but the Earth Saint Master using his Heaven Tier Battle Skill. Each time he did, the earth shook, including the Gesun Kingdom’s stronghold. At that point, everyone had been scared witless.”
“No wonder I felt something was amiss three days ago, but could this really be true? That’d be terrifying! The Gesun Kingdom’s stronghold is only a thousand kilometers away from this place, that’s not far away at all.”
“For the tremors caused by a Heaven Tier Battle Skill to be felt here? That’s impossible.”
The man continued to speak, “That’s not all. People say that this Earth Saint Master was a wind attributed Saint Force user with an impeccably fast speed. Even after contending with the Heaven Saint Master for half the day, the two Heaven Saint Masters did not manage to chase him down and kill him.”
“That’s pretty amazing, is he even an Earth Saint Master?”
Several people from the inn began to murmur in surprise at this supposed Earth Saint Master’s strength.
Hearing this, Jian Chen had a slight smile on his face, he had already guessed that this speed could only belong to the Heaven Tier Battle Skill wielder Ming Dong who was also an Earth Saint Master.
But the man hadn’t finished saying all that he knew on the subject. “The fall of two Heaven Saint Masters hadn’t gone unnoticed by the four allied kingdoms. Two days later, the four kingdoms employed two million soldiers to the northern stronghold to engage in a day and night battle. The sounds of the war had deafened the ears of everyone and the blood of the fallen dyed the ground a permanent red with the bodies stacked up on top of a mountain. By that point, the northern stronghold of the Gesun Kingdom could not longer keep up with the battle. Even the reinforced tempered steel gate had been broken down with both sides nursing heavy losses. I heard a Heaven Saint Master from the Pingyang Kingdom had even captured a high ranking officer. Cutting off both arms and legs, the Pingyang Kingdom then had him strung up on top of the walls of the Pingyang Kingdom’s stronghold.”
“How savage! Did the Pingyang Kingdom have some sort of intense grudge with that officer? Even with the advantage they had, did they have to act in such a manner?”
“For both his arms and legs to be severed, that person must be an illustrious general then.”
The inn started to chatter once more with this new piece of information with an interested fervor.
Smiling, the man shook his head, “You guess wrongly. That person was no illustrious general, he was just some nobody called Changyang Hu, I believe. He was merely just a frontline commander.”
Seated from not too far away, Jian Chen’s entire body froze up as his face suddenly turned pale to a terrifying degree. In an instant, he had disappeared and reappeared right in front of the man who spoke. Both of his hands grabbed onto the clothes of the speaker and lifted him straight out of his stool as Jian Chen thundered, “What did you just say? Who was the person that had their limbs amputated and strung up on the walls?” Jian Chen’s eyes grew extremely red and a killing intent could be felt from him.
“Bastard, are you trying to die?!” The elder exploded in rage as he grabbed at Jian Chen’s neck with his own hands.
“Speak!” Jian Chen roared like how a furious lion would. His voice had caused the entire inn to shake as his eyes grew even colder. The spark in his eyes was almost like a sharp sword that could pierce into the man’s own eyes, terrifying him so much he couldn’t look at Jian Chen directly.
At the same time, an extremely formidable amount of killing intent exuded from Jian Chen’s body, causing everyone in the inn to feel like they had been dropped into a vat of icy cold water, chilling them down to their very bones.
The previously noisy inn had instantly turned quiet. Everyone’s eyes turned toward the furious Jian Chen with their bodies trembling in fear. Not a single one of them had dared to move since from the youngster’s aura, they could all feel a terrifying amount of power within him.
Even the man that Jian Chen had grabbed hold of had been stunned into silence. Without another outburst, his face had turned pale and his entire body began to tremble fiercely. Jian Chen’s entire killing aura had covered the place, but it had affected him the most. With the aura, the man felt himself unable to breathe and slowly suffocating to death.
“D… don’t… don’t kill me. Wh… what di… did you want to know? I… I… I’ve… I’ve already said everything… I know…” The man stuttered in fear. By now, he had begun to treat Jian Chen as a terrifying death god that caused even his soul to quake.
Jian Chen’s eyes grew in ferocity as he stared at the man with unconcealed bloodlust. “Who had his arms and legs amputated before being strung up on the wall? You better not lie to me, or I’ll let you die a pauper’s death.” With his last sentence, Jian Chen’s words had already devolved into a primal growl that combined scarily with his bloodshot eyes.
“I… I said… tha… that person was… Changyang… Changyang Hu. He… he was captured by a Heaven… Heaven Saint Master in the Pingyang Kingdom. Al… All four limbs were cut… cut off… and then… and then strung up on the wall… for an entire da… day.” The man stammered.