Chapter 450: Golden but Poor!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The City of Runes was surrounded by forests. Looking down from the high places in the city, the white city was surrounded by a dense green. However, now, a conspicuous, empty path appeared in the forest.
Smoke rose in the rain, and the residents of the City of Runes could see it clearly from afar.
“What happened there?”
“The faint sound of explosions kept coming from that direction earlier. Could the Iron Fire Castle have launched an attack?”
“I woke up to arrange the goods before sunrise, and do you know what I saw? Groups of Rune Guards walking into the forest in that exact direction.”
Seeing the smoke from far away, the City of Runes’ residents wondered what had happened. The intel regarding an alien appearing had yet to spread.
“It’s him... it must be him...” In the crowd, a short and skinny man was terrified. The people around him noticed his reaction and guessed that this person might know something, so they asked him about it.
“That’s an alien! He landed outside the city last night. He speaks our language and made a request to the Lord of Runes...” This person was the head of smugglers from the previous night. He poured out everything that he had seen. More and more people gathered around him to listen, and they could not believe it.
“A battle definitely broke out there. This means that the Lord of Runes did not accept the alien’s request.” The head of smugglers gulped. The crowd exchanged looks and saw panic in each other’s eyes.
This time, a commotion broke out in the distance. A Rune Guard ran back with all his might, his face still covered in the cannon ashes. He kept looking back with terror like there was some kind of monster behind him. Then, more and more defeated soldiers ran back after him.
This scene gave the residents a very bad feeling. A middle-aged man realized that his brother who served in the army was running back as well. He hastily caught him and asked him what had happened.
“The people above rejected the alien’s request. They wanted to capture the alien... The army of tens of thousands of soldiers lost to the enemy who was alone. Thousands of us died, but we couldn’t even touch him. It’s terrifying. Everyone is escaping. You guys should too! He’s coming to the city!” Fear was still lingering in this guard. He quickly explained the situation and ran away frantically.
The people were shocked, panicked, and outraged. They almost wanted to beat up the Lord of Runes—why did he not accept the alien’s request? Why did he have to mess with the alien and bring danger to the entire city?
This time, a group of soldiers walked out from the direction of the central tower. They pushed away the residents and cleared a path. The Lord of Runes rushed to the edge of the city together with a group of officials, and the guard behind them was holding a strange sculpture.
The alien was going to enter the city very soon, so there was no time to escape. The Lord of Runes had no choice but to take the statue and ask for mercy. According to the intel from the frontlines, the alien did not chase the running army and was not hurt. Maybe the alien did not like killing. What he was doing was a total bet. His greed toward the alien had completely vanished, and he only hoped that the alien would leave after taking the statue and forgive them.
Seeing this, some residents followed behind. Along the way, more and more people joined in and formed a wave behind the Lord of Runes, wanting to see what happened with their own eyes.
Thousands of people came to the village at the edge of the city. They looked in the direction of the forest anxiously.
The Lord of Runes kept wiping off his sweat, apprehensive.
Ta, ta, ta!
The footsteps on leaves and soil came from the forest and gradually got closer. As the distance between them shortened, the residents and the Lord of Runes felt more and more uneasy. Not long after, Han Xiao finally walked out of the forest and came to the edge of the City of Runes.
As soon as he appeared, countless eyes focused on him with curiosity, fear, worry, and other emotions.
Seeing the large crowd and the group of people who clearly were government officials, Han Xiao’s eyebrows twitched. His lips curled up as he could guess what their plan was. They had realized that they had messed with someone that they should not have messed with, and now they were offering the statue in exchange for forgiveness and mercy.
But isn’t it too late to yield?
The Lord of Runes took the statue from the hands of the guard, walked forward hastily, observed Han Xiao cautiously, and said with a shivering voice, “Thi—this should be what you are looking for...”
Not knowing what the alien was thinking, the Lord of Runes did not dare say anything else. Although he was a ruler, he had absolutely no confidence in front of someone that could easily destroy an army of tens of thousands of soldiers.
Although Planet Secret Blue did not have a proper Super system, there were some that had discovered the path of Supers. The War Rune Church was the gathering ground of these people in the City of Runes and had a high position. However, even their founder could only barely face one thousand Rune Guards, and it had taken him a very long time to defeat them. The efficiency of killing was completely on a different level from the alien before them.
After the battle report came, the Lord of Runes had wanted to request the warriors of the War Rune Church to stop the alien but had immediately been rejected. The War Rune Church knew that there was nothing that they could do, so they did not even give the Lord of Runes a chance to speak... despite them receiving huge funds from him every year.
Han Xiao touched the statue. The information on the interface was correct, so this was indeed the last lost statue.
When he reached out to take the statue, the Lord of Runes’ body shivered visibly. His eyes met with Han Xiao’s eyes, and he lowered his head in horror.
Glancing through the nervous crowd, Han Xiao said calmly, “Don’t worry, we don’t kill innocents.”
Hearing Han Xiao’s words, they breathed a sigh of relief.
“By the way, who’s your ruler?”
The residents pointed at the Lord of Runes simultaneously. Before the Lord of Runes could relax, his face turned stiff, and he gave a very forced smile.
“You’re the one that sent the troops to attack me?” Han Xiao asked. “Why didn’t you accept my request?”
The Lord of Runes shivered and did not dare to respond.
“According to the fair-trade rule of the mercenaries, you have attacked me. If you want to settle it, you have to pay compensation.” Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. “What do you want to pay in exchange for your life?”
The Lord of Runes was covered in cold sweat. He was both furious and anguished. This was the first time that he had been threatened—who would dare speak to him that way normally?
Plus, you killed and injured so many of our men, yet you’re the one asking for compensation?
“We have a lot of outer space objects...” The Lord of Runes clenched his teeth in his mind. He had no choice but to endure it and ask his subordinate to make a list of their inventory to give to Han Xiao.
Han Xiao scanned through roughly and was a little disappointed. The local currency of Planet Secret Blue was completely meaningless to him, and the only things that were acceptable were the outer space objects. However, the inventory of the City of Runes was really filled with trash. Most of it was trash. A small portion were products from rune civilizations that were close to rubbish and had basically no value. After looking through the list from head to toe, he came to a conclusion—looking at the list was a complete waste of time as these people were extremely poor!
Han Xiao threw the list away and shook his head. “These things can’t buy your life. Sorry, I will have to make you pay for your mistake.”
The Lord of Runes’ face changed drastically.