Chapter 517: An Overnight Fortune

Once he finished looking over all twelve stelae, Zhang Lie headed toward the door studded with jewels while the members of Team Zenith remained in the room of gold.

The jewel-studded door blazed with color whenever a beam of light struck it, and it would surely fetch a high price at least with the rock spirits—though the rock spirits didn't have much money in their own right.

Zhang Lie again used his lockpicking technique—his fist—to break open the door. Within the vault was a pedestal. Zhang Lie walked closer to see a rainbow-colored scale on top of it, as beautiful as a gemstone in its own right.

It was evident that the scale had come from the disaster-grade lifeform that even the monarch of stars had been unable to take down. There were materials from quite a few more genetic lifeforms within the vault, and Zhang Lie even found a few caged soulbeasts—perhaps prototypes that the monarch of stars had been working on.

Zhang Lie had the members of Team Zenith come over and kill them all, but, unfortunately, no soulshards condensed.

The news of Renhuang's victory spread across the sura kingdoms before it reached the world federation.

Many of the sura had been paying attention to the conflict between the seven-kingdom coalition and the humans. They had expected that the tiny Renhuang would be crushed in a matter of moments, but they were dumbstruck to learn that Renhuang had actually defeated the coalition. Not only that, the empire of stars had even sent eighty percent of its forces toward Renhuang.

The sura couldn't help but become even more curious about this mysterious Renhuang. No sura kingdom would dare to cross a sura empire, and especially not the empire of stars—but a small human settlement had done so!

The more seriously the sura looked into the matter, the more shocked they became.

Was this really a human settlement? How could they even have offended a sura empire to begin with? They belonged to two entirely different realms of existences!

It was only with further research that the sura determined that Renhuang was a settlement composed of many races. Even so, its governor had to be crazy to offend a sura empire. Was he hoping for his city to be destroyed?

The sura were even more curious as to why the empire of stars had to send 80% of its forces out to deal with such a tiny city. Was there something unusual about it that required the monarch of stars to expend so much in terms of resources?

What secrets could be hidden within that tiny settlement?

Several of the sura empires dug deeper into the mystery of Renhuang and found out that it had managed to raid Xuechi.

The sura were alarmed. To have taken down the godson of the monarch of stars—no wonder the empire of stars was reacting so disproportionately!

Meanwhile, the forces of Renhuang had finished raiding the capital of the empire of stars, and they learned what it was like to become wealthy overnight.

Zhang Lie distributed the contents of the treasury according to each hunter's contribution in the battle.

Of course, those who truly contributed were the hunters of Team Zenith and the representatives of the four prime races, but everyone would receive something for their troubles. In Renhuang's moment of direst need, despite knowing that they might end up sacrificing their lives, reinforcements had nevertheless appeared. Zhang Lie would remember what they had done.

Many of Renhuang's forces decided that they would participate in the rest of Renhuang's wars and battles no matter what.

The empire of stars was simply too affluent a target to ignore. After defeating three sura empires, it possessed a treasury containing four sura empires' wealth.

Even after distributing the spoils of war, there were countless treasures remaining within the treasury—rewarding a hundred thousand fighters had only consumed about 5% of its accumulated wealth.

Zhang Lie mulled things over for a moment before deciding to bring the forces through the nearby cities of the empire of stars. After all, it wasn't every day that they managed to take down a sura empire, and they might as well ransack the nearby cities as well as the capital.

It was only then that the sura learned of the news of the empire of stars' defeat—the empire of stars, the strongest of the known sura empires!

Even three sura empires working in tandem had lost against the empire of stars! Who could believe that it had been destroyed by a puny human settlement?

Where had the monarch of stars gone? He was heralded as the sura closest to becoming an asura, and surely he wouldn't watch his own empire fall to ruins.

The sura began dispatching scouts everywhere, and it was only then that they learned of the Yeluo poison that Renhuang had employed.

A rare few fighters from the seven-kingdom coalition had made it out alive and escaped back to sura lands.

A few more survivors had appeared from the fight against the empire of stars. No matter how strong the poison, the hundred thousand troops of Renhuang couldn't expect to chase down all three million sura from the empire of stars. A rare few survivors had managed to escape, bringing news of destruction to the nearby sura kingdoms.

Upon learning of the terrible news, the sura were all enraged.

"We can't allow them to produce more of this poison!"

"No matter what, we have to destroy any trace of this poison."

"The sura can never rest easy with this poison around—Renhuang has to be eradicated at all costs!"

The sura's fear gave rise to anger; they worried that their position as the hegemons of the sura realm would be shaken.

Even the empire of stars had been destroyed by Renhuang because of this poison—and the empire of stars was the strongest known sura territory!

When the other sura empires learned of the news, they too fell silent. They knew far more of what the monarch of stars had done than did their ordinary citizens; the fall of the empire of stars might have been partially Renhuang's fault, but the monarch of stars had dealt it the killing blow himself.

Nevertheless, they had to treat Renhuang seriously. Despite what the monarch of stars had done, Renhuang had managed to defeat an army composed of 80% of the monarch of stars' forces.

In the end, the monarchs of each sura empire would convene, then begin a mass conscription of troops for war—but that was all to happen in the future.

Meanwhile, the forces of Renhuang headed back to Renhuang, their bellies full, their storage pouches filled to bursting, carrying wagons after wagons of treasure behind them. The rock spirits were the happiest among them all—the ores, minerals, gems, and jewels they had consumed over the past few days would last them for almost a decade.