While in a celebration, Julius had ordered a few of his men to call back the villagers, as the space was safe for them to return. It was a couple miles up north, hidden from the primary route that led from Longyue down to South Cai Fishing Village. A secret detour to a natural enclosed space was planned by Feng, and Julius approved it. The cost wasn’t significant, only around two thousand Thalers, barely anything from the budget.
They all arrived back in ten minutes. The cloaked lady who Julius promised was the first to step back into the territory. By then, she had already brought down her hoodie, revealing her face. Julius watched her and the villagers react in horror to find their home all gone. Not a single trace of buildings was left. Only his men stood on a war-wrecked ground.
“It’s all gone,” the cloaked lady said. Her strength of voice rapidly decreased by the end. “Our home. There’s nothing left.”
“They wasted all their men on the fishes. My men are still counting the bodies.”
The lady wasn’t thrilled at their casualties, still focusing on her residence. “My home. Everything is gone. You promised!” she pointed her finger at Julius and some within gathering around him. The villagers who were with her grew louder.
Julius’s voice rose in response, and he lifted his greatsword, Licht, pointing at them. “I said I promised to take back the village from these damn Renos. Adding on, I would also train you and the villagers after we succeeded. Thus, we did. I want to bring y’all back here so all of us can talk about the business of rebuilding this village. It’s a win-win for both of us…Okay?!”
“Yeah, that was all part of the plan,” Solomon said, supporting his point.
“He was the one that worked with me to draft all these routes to get you guys to safety so no innocent lives can be taken,” Feng said, joining in his defense. “I advise you all to calm down and that we are not doing this for personal selfishness.”
“Then why are you here? The royals wouldn’t care for us,” One villager said.
Feng let out a grunt. Julius could see her grimace. “Hang on. You thought I wasn’t serious when we had a new emperor. Have you not told them, Hong?!”
The cloaked lady shook her head. “I did—not.”
All of this miscommunication, for God's sake. Julius thought, silently fuming over the response in decline. He paced around momentarily while his ears remained at attention to Feng and the villagers arguing.
“Are you nuts? Why the hell did you not say anything to them before we came back?!” Feng yelled.
“You better watch your tone,” Hong said, pointing her finger at Feng.
“I’m sure my tone is fine! My problem is you all not being cooperative. And don’t call Julius royalty. He wasn’t born wealthy; instead, he has the heart of a laborer. He has no allegiance to the royals. Most of them died weeks ago. Have you heard of that? Never mind, you didn’t. All of you are disconnected, like everyone else!”
Hong grew furious and immediately went right up to Feng’s face. “You don’t talk about my community like that!”
Julius stopped pacing around, facing right at the two. Oh no, this isn’t good. He perceived and knew this would not end well. Hence, he switched weapons and held a grip on his miao dao sword. His hand breezed out through the spaces between his fingers of cold air, freezing his hand and the hilt.
“Stand down, Hong!” Feng ordered, about to exert her bloody red qi from her boots. “We are not playing games!”
Not this time. Julius thought, then flash stepped right between Feng and Hong. He stomped on both of their feet by the heel of his boot and thrust his miao dao sword right in their faces. The two groaned from his boot, pressuring at their weak points.
“Can you two not cause a damn fuss?” Julius asked, then turned to Hong. “One more argument and this promise deal is broken. Do you understand me, mam?”
Immediately she nodded while expressing dreaded sounds, signaling him to let off. Julius’s mask was all closed up, so she could only see his eyes. When he looked at her again, he was flashing a glowing blue light, reflecting a blue glare from his perspective. Hong went into deep silence and only looked down to stare away from his piercing stare. That was when Julius finally lifted his foot off of her and Feng, who knew her limits and the wrath inside of her would be unbearable if let go.
Julius’s right hand slowly defrosted as the two distanced themselves, leaving him standing with his personal space regained.
“Now if all of you are silenced, I guess I’ll make things clear one more time,” Julius said with heavy hoarseness through his mouthplate. “I said twice now that I will get this village out of Renos’ hands. We did. Then, I want to talk with y’all about how we can proceed to rebuilding this village. There’s definitely a lot of work to be done, so this won’t happen again. But you guys were uncooperative only a minute ago and put the blame on me and were about to bring a fight right at Feng, who could kill you in a second. End this damn charade because you guys, like many other states in West Cai, were disconnected from the current events.
“I’m here trying to fix the damn past failures caused by the unfortunate historical royals that did some terrible deeds to its people. I’m forgiving you all because you don’t know about the recent events. However, if this negativity happens one more time, you will get deported. Am I making that clear?!”
They complied, and Father Kang stepped into proximity. Julius ordered him to take them to the rubble site of the village and do the process there. He had one thing to do and turned his focus on the remains of the flagship. Its hull remained with the lower layers torn while the keel was left alone, drowning in the sea’s depths.
Julius began sprinting freely to the hull. The water remnants can be seen leaking out of the interior, creating a massive puddle. What followed next were a couple of bodies and a lot of wooden furniture laid out on the grass next to the hull’s opening. Julius noticed they were chests. With Feng, Celeste, and many others following behind him, he announced that he would check the right side once they got inside through the opening. Quickly, they naturally divided themselves into duties. Celeste, Empress Cai, and a couple of cultivators followed Julius while the rest took the left. Hence, the two lines of sprinters went inside fast and square, immediately detoured by taking a heavy turn.
After taking a right with a couple of reps sprinting, Julius stopped. He and a few that came along were surrounded by cabinets. Tall, to be specific. Two dual swinging doors with a handle that shaped like a doorknob. A peculiar setup. Julius thought, raising his hand to one of them. As his hand was about to touch them, no stimuli were picking up any danger. He then told others to give him some space and hocked it open, breaking the handle, to his surprise.
Bunch of more locked chests inside. The abrupt opening of the cabinet caused them to fall out of the shelves, taking the platform with it. Julius immediately dodged away as the top row of chests landed headfirst, shattering the lid’s frame. Chips of the hardwood splattered everywhere, striking the walls like arrows. He went to one of the chests and flipped it over for all the contents inside to fall out. A bunch of yellow metal clattered as it ran along the floor.
“Gold?” Empress Cai said, staring down at a pile.
--
Analyzing…
$45,520 Thalers.
--
“About forty-five thousand and a half,” Julius said. “That’s a lot of money worth in gold for one person.
Empress Cai went to the chest and lifted it to pour the rest of the gold coins out. “Adding up to seventy thousand, holy shit, that’s a lot,” she said with a treble voice. “We could do something with all of this.” Her head then turned to the few cultivator soldiers, and she ordered them to pull the other chests to an empty spot and open them.
When the chests fell from the cabinet, there were four that came from the top shelf. The chests on the bottom shelf remained inside. After the three were counted, Julius and Empress Cai stared at it, letting Skoltor's systems do the counting.
“I got two hundred and ten,” Julius said, looking at Empress Cai for confirmation.
She nodded with a thumbs up.
--
$70,000 x 4 Chests = $280,000
Put in Virtual Inventory?
--
“Do you want me to keep it in my inventory, or do you want to?” Julius asked.
“No, I leave it to you. I don’t want mine to be filled with money everywhere.” Empress Cai said, throwing the heavy chests out of the way.
Because the hull was significantly weakened during the siege, one chest she threw caused it to break through a part of the wall, creating another wide opening. Then it was followed by a loud thump outside.
“This is about to become a garbage site,” Celeste commented as she walked up to the cabinet, lifting one chest out of the bottom shelf. “Who’s going to clean it up?”
Julius went for the second chest and placed it next to Celeste’s. “We could always burn it…Once everyone is done scavenging this ship.”
“Well, put it in the far depths of the sea but near to the shores,” Celeste said, suggesting it is far from civilization. “The fishes won’t mind it. They love more shallow regions that are deep enough to swim around.”
“Like the humongous one that landed on the stern…”
“Yeah, exactly. The Vortex Salmon as they called it. All lived in the gulf and can only be found there…” Celeste opened her chest, revealing a pile of gold coins. “…Yinhai, there’s so much yellow money.” She briefly turned back to the two remaining chests left in the cabinet’s bottom shelf and next, turned to the cultivator soldiers. “Take those two out and place them next to me, please.”
Julius opened his chest, revealing more gold coins. He noticed it was much more than the lift of the lid and a pile had already poured out, landing on his feet. Quickly, he has the chest counted. “A hundred thousand…even more than the prior four chests. Holy shit.” He then opened his virtual inventory and put them all in. Celeste’s chest was analyzed too and was put into his inventory. The two cultivators brought the last two chests and placed them next to Celeste as she said. Julius ordered them to open it.
He expected both of them to flash off yellow because it has an extreme luminosity, and the reflection is strong from multiple points of view. It turned out to be only one did, but the other didn’t. Julius threw his and Celeste’s chest away like toys, creating another hole through the wall. Using both hands, he dragged the two chests right to his spot. As Skoltor's system does another analysis, he observes the chest with no gold to find multiple items and books all stashed together in the chest’s available space. Hence, there’s so much to do with it, so Julius closed it.
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“What are you doing?” Empress Cai asked.
“It ain’t gold, and I’m saving this for review back at the capital,” Julius said. “All of you guys continue scavenging as I’ll deal with this chest.”
They departed, but Empress Cai remained by his side, prompting him to ask why she hadn’t joined the others. In response, she reminded him that he can’t be alone. Hence, Julius only nodded, and the two headed back outside through the clustered route. They directed through the mess and stepped out. He walked a couple of reps until he was distant enough away from the flagship and placed down the loaded chest. “Ok.”
Empress Cai sounded like she caught onto his action. “Are you opening it out here?”
“Yeah, I'm saying that as an excuse so I…we can get a sneak peek at what’s in here first,” Julius said, lifting the lid open.
Empress Cai kneeled to the ground next to him and pulled out a couple of contents from inside the chest. “There are a couple of clean notebooks.”
“Try opening it,” Julius said while taking a small container box out. “And see if they’re any marks in there…Also, I wonder what’s in this box.”
The small box, which was the size of his palm, refused to budge open. It was odd because the small box was literally where somebody had to only pull up the upper half, and there should be a tape or something to keep it from easily opening. However, none of that was there. Julius’s fingers felt nothing to it. So, he gripped hard on it and exerted his qi through his joints, forcing it open. A gush of leafy green qi shot up to the sky momentarily. The force from the qi came with a loud screech, scratching his mouthplate and knocking Julius down to the floor. He lost his grip on the box and dropped it to the floor. Empress Cai dropped the notebook and lifted Julius up.
What the fuck was that? From that damn box. Julius was bewildered at the sudden event. “I’m good,” he said to Empress Cai and quickly got up. He sped to the laid box where the qi had already cleared into the air. With a grip on it, the box revealed to be a ring, secured by a velvet insert. It was a black matte finish and marked by a green pattern, which he assumed the color of qi came from. The triangular pattern appeared to be engraved into the ring’s metallic frame. The pattern flashed at his first glare and subsided the next second. Before he could touch it or be curious about it, Empress Cai mentioned another box. “There’s two more in here,” she said, pointing inside the chest.
Julius’s hand swept inside and brought out two boxes that were like the one he dealt with a moment ago. He turned to Empress Cai. “You want to try opening it for yourself? Your eyes looked curious.”
“I don’t see the problem of not wanting to,” Empress Cai said, taking one. She then muttered. “Using my qi…shouldn’t be a problem.”
“It’s a powerful force from inside, so be prepared for it,” Julius warned. “I wasn’t joking when I fell.”
“It’s alright, I’m sure it will be fine,” Empress Cai said, opening the box.
Huh? “The hell? There’s nothing.”
“You are unlucky. I guess—”
Boom!
Empress Cai coughed violently, prompting a burst from Julius.
Swoosh!
“Woah, relax…I can’t…this…is too…much!” Julius said as he continued to grow in a depth of laughter that he forced open his mouthplate.
“The first time…cough…that I see you laughing…cough…all because of this?!” Empress Cai yelled hysterically.
Julius thrust and nodded, confirming his reasons, while his body involuntarily continued to laugh. He couldn’t help himself but released a couple words in between. “I’m…sorry…I can’t help myself.”
What Empress Cai said was true. He never laughed like this. Even before first stepping foot into West Cai Dynasty territory, he never burst into laughter. A smile doesn’t count. Happiness was a rare phenomenon that Julius never fully understood. It was complicated for him to interpret. Hence, he might finally comprehend what it felt like today as he was going through it.
Empress Cai sounded upset momentarily until she said, “How about you try opening that?!”
Julius’s burst subsided, and once he calmed down, he went for the third and last box. After he opened it, a gas blasted onto his face, almost like he had been splattered with blood so many times during a conflict. He coughed violently and felt pain because it was scratching his insides. Empress Cai reacted with laughter as if karma intervened.
“Ha! Now you get some too!” Empress Cai said, pointing at him before rolling to the floor and bursting into laughter.
That gas blew into Julius’s face and smelled pungent. It was a strange combination because at first; it was nasty and toxic, which led to him coughing. After a moment of him going through an episode of violent coughs, the aftereffects of the nasty smell went into soothing. Hence, the coughs suddenly stopped, and the scratches that reached up towards his throat ceased as if nothing had happened. What in Yinhai was that?
He sat up, grabbing the two boxes. The one with the green triangular pattern and the other with a combination of gasses. Empress Cai was still laughing, much more than Julius emitted. While she continued to, he looked at the latter box and found it to be a ring with the same structure and frame but with a purple circle. Unlike the ring with the green triangular engraved patterns, it continued to flash bright purple from the outline.
Zap!
Julius jolted up from the ground, grabbing the two boxes. He headed to Empress Cai, who was still laughing. An echoing exertion of his qi banged her face like a bong. That snapped her out of it and stopped laughing. “What?”
“These are relics…All three of them. I don’t know what they were planning by bringing this on the flagship to battle. But that’s three now.”
When she heard the word relic, Empress Cai leaped up swiftly with her box. “Oh, I felt it.”
“Let me see if the ring in the box you’re holding has a pattern,” Julius said, walking right up to her hand holding the box. He glared briefly inside the box and nodded. “Yep, a red square, and I have a green triangle and a purple circle.”
Empress Cai was silent for a moment and made a sudden decision. “I’m keeping this,” she said, hovering the box close to her chest.
“I was about to ask but you are one step ahead of me…In that case, I’ll have to choose…uhm…to be honest, I’m not so sure. These two rings are gripping me towards them, and I don’t want to wear two of them at once.” Julius looked up right at Empress Cai’s face, hopefully disturbing himself away from the persuasive pressure.
“Mine was smokey, but a whiff of it felt good after I inhaled it as I was yelling,” Empress Cai said with a shrug. “Go with the one you felt good like I did.”
Darn. Julius disappointedly mumbled. “The problem is both of them felt jolting in different ways.”
“Let’s continue while we look at the chest.”
The two sat down on the floor next to the chest, and Julius placed the two ring boxes in front of him, right on his lap. As they dug through it, he continued. “The green triangle was a violent breeze. I’ve never ever felt that punch in my life. Is that even possible?”
“You must be exaggerating…Out of everything? Not even the underground tournament story or that moment where you lost it to Míngyuè’s punch? I think you might need to think again about that.”
“Whoops, I didn’t mention more clearly. I meant in a good way; not a punch that wounded or trashed me to despair. It’s hard to explain in a literal sense unless you try it for yourself…Well if it’s even possible now because the box lid was already opened.”
Empress Cai raised her palm, suggesting a wait. “Let’s refocus back more on what’s in the chest.”
“Have you looked at what’s in that notebook?” Julius asked, looking at the notebook lying on the ground beside her.
“I glimpsed through, but I can’t read it,” Empress Cai, turning to the first page, showed it to Julius. “Here’s the title page.”
Looking through the page, it was indeed a title page. However, not written in Yue. Julius immediately recognized the first line along with the rest of it as to be in the Kriegyu alphabet. The first line was the title, and he read it out. “Die Verbotene Kampfkunst: Der Weg der Alphabete des Hilde Georgine (The Forbidden Martial Arts: The Way of the Alphabets by Hilde Georgine.).
“It’s some secret martial arts coming from the Kingdom of Renos…To find out more, we have to go through the pages,” he said to Empress Cai and failed to turn the first page as if it was locked in place. “Oh well, I guess that can wait.
Empress Cai handed two more notebooks that came with the one Julius read a moment ago. He put it in his inventory, along with the two ring boxes. The former put her red square ring box away. Everything else in the chest wasn’t as attentive compared to the rings and the three notebooks as the two quickly took out all the chest’s contents, concluding to be underwhelming. Afterward, they threw the stuff back inside and closed the chest, and Julius lifted back on his shoulders, figuring out what to do with it.
The two walked back to the flagship, where Celeste and others were about to walk out from the opening. She asked Julius about his chest and responded with nothing interesting and was looking to dump it. That prompted Solomon to insist he take it instead because he might build something out of all the junk or make some use of it. Julius, without a second thought, handed it over to him. He wondered what they were bringing out, and Solomon said it was mainly clothes and any daily items that weren’t damaged from the waters. Also, he went to the other side of the flagship to check with other’s findings. A few had something worthy of value to bring back home. However, it might be another half an hour until they are completed scavenging the ship.
Before he could say anything, a medical cultivator arrived. “Sir!”
“Yes? What’s the matter?” Julius asked.
“Patient number one has awakened from her injuries. Would you like to see her?”
Julius slowly breathed in and out and followed with a nod. “Sure. Anything else?”
“The Tang Family is here. They are about to step foot to the entrance border of the village…That’s all I have.”
“Ok, you may go. I’ll be present in a moment.”
The medical cultivator teleported from the scene, and Julius turned back to the group. “Can I trust you, Solomon, to handle the Tang Family for a moment?”
“Of course. Do you want me to lead them to the center of the village or where do you want me to take them?” Solomon asked.
“Bring them to the center of the village. Everything is getting set up there with Father Kang. Bring them there and begin the conversation. I’ll join later, as I have some personal business in the medical area.”
Solomon nodded and went off to meet up with the Tang Family. Julius turned to Celeste, prompting her to respond. “I’ll go with him to keep him in line.”
“Sure, I trust you can keep things peaceful with others.”
Celeste affirmed. “I'm certain that I will…I’ll see you soon.”
Unlike Solomon, who preferred to fly at low altitudes, Celeste immediately spawned her platform, Vesper, and went on a step up high, hovering over Solomon from above.
“Shall we go?” Empress Cai asked.
“Let’s do it,” Julius said.
----------------------------------------
It turned out that after the medical cultivator came with the news, the second patient was also awoken from injuries. Julius sent praise to the medical team for their hard work. Two of the patients’ vitals are in great shape now. He had found out how bad it was worse beforehand, which the theory could relate to that nasty black qi that forcefully left their bodies after they were knocked out. Hence, an after-effect might have resulted in such concerns.
Julius sat down with Empress Cai in one of the empty tents, waiting for the medical team to carry the two patients, each on a stroller, into the tent. And there it was. They don’t recognize him yet because of the upgraded mask and his scarred face, making him unrelated to his past appearance. However, they seemed to know Empress Cai as their reaction went, eyes open like in shock.
“Who are you?” The second patient asked, looking right at Julius.
Xavier. I hate seeing you like this. What the hell did they do to all of you? Julius silently reflected briefly before getting the nudge to answer. “You don’t recognize me?”
Xavier shook his head. “Have we met before?”
“I’m not surprised. We have met before, but that was a long while ago. In fact, it was someone close to you as a former student. You have multiple followed your knowledge, and I was the most recent in the crowd,” Julius said, giving the obvious hint.
The last statement prompted Xavier to sit up from his stroller. “Recent?! Hang on…” He then turned to Helda, who was still lying down, insisting on her getting up.
She got up with one hand on the side of her head, groaning from the headache. “What is it?”
“What do you mean, what is it? It’s Empress Cai. We both saw her sitting there, waiting for us. Hang in there for a moment.”
Julius chuckled. “I didn’t expect to be Xavier this empathetic. It really has been a while, even though it’s only been almost two months,” he said, and his mask started opening in front of him and Helda. “Recognize me now?”
Xavier’s face went baffled that it put him out of the stroller, prompting him to sit up straight.
“Hey, be careful,” Empress Cai said.
“I know you’re overwhelmed by my sudden appearance, but please calm yourself. I’ll explain what happened at this past hour. The first thing to get out of the way is do you recall anything recently?
“…No…I don’t,” Xavier said slowly. He tried to think but couldn’t. “I only remembered the night I fell asleep back at Kriegshan. Now, I’m here.”
“So, you don’t remember anything in between?”
“Nope.”
Julius turned to Helda, asking the same question. She responded with the same answer as Xavier’s, leaving the two with no recollection of anything that happened out in the sea. Julius looked at Empress Cai, and she gave a stare with both of her eyebrows raised, signaling him to begin talking. Here we go. He took a deep breath and turned back to Xavier and Helda, starting the reunion conversation and catching them up to date.