"Prince Shak, thank you for saving us. We'll part ways here," Prince Loy said with a smile.
Shak's face immediately hardened, and he said discontentedly, "What's the rush, Prince Loy? The surrounding area is swarming with magic beasts, and you only have seven people. If you run into more beasts on the road, it'll be dangerous. Travel with us. With so many of us together, we'll be much safer."
Prince Loy hastily said, "Prince Shak, no—"
"Don't refuse, or I'll get angry," Shak said sternly.
Prince Loy's expression grew somewhat awkward, but inside he was seething with fury. He wasn't a fool — his men's actions of collecting the packs from each fallen comrade had already aroused the other side's suspicion.
Yes. His men's packs were filled with the Hanmu Kingdom royal family's precious treasures. The Hanmu royal family had held high positions for over a thousand years. Though not as ancient as the Fenlei royal family, their wealth and treasures were still staggering. They simply lacked spatial rings, so they could only carry everything in packs.
Actually, during this time of chaos, many of the larger families in Fenlei Kingdom and Hanmu Kingdom were fleeing with their family treasures or Magic Crystal Cards packed into bundles. How many people in the entire Yulan Continent had spatial rings? Even an institution like Pruxus Hall — only its chief director owned one.
"That Shak is up to no good," Loy thought with growing anxiety.
He wanted to refuse but feared Shak would truly turn hostile.
The knight standing beside Prince Loy gave a gentle tug on his sleeve. This knight was Prince Loy's master. He stepped forward and said, "Since Prince Shak is so gracious, we'll travel with him then. Sorry to trouble you, Prince Shak."
"No trouble at all, haha, let's travel together," Shak said with a hearty laugh.
Judging by Shak's appearance alone — nearly two meters tall, broad-shouldered and powerfully built — he looked the very picture of a brute. But having grown up inside a royal family, how could he truly be so crude? He understood perfectly well what the other side was thinking. But he wasn't worried.
The two groups set out together, heading north.
"Boss, the atmosphere is really strange," Bei Bei said to Lin Lei via soul transmission.
Lin Lei smiled to himself. Prince Loy didn't dare offend Shak outright, but he also had to watch out for a potential attack. Naturally, his words and actions carried a subtle tension. Lin Lei, who had been observing from the side the whole time, could see the dynamics between both parties with perfect clarity.
After talking with Shak for a while, the two men parted.
Shak rode back alongside Lin Lei and whispered, "Lord Lin Lei, did you see that?"
"See what?" Lin Lei looked at Shak.
Shak glanced over at Prince Loy's group. Seeing no one was nearby, he lowered his voice. "That Hanmu royal family must be carrying treasures accumulated over a thousand years. I'll bet those packs on the knights' shoulders are full of priceless goods."
Lin Lei understood. Because of the Four Nations Bank, Magic Crystal Cards had become very popular. Even major families and royal houses used them. For families sitting on fortunes of hundreds of millions of gold coins, ordinary treasures were negligible. A single Blueheart Herb worth nearly a hundred thousand gold coins? During a desperate flight like this, those families wouldn't even bother carrying it.
What they carried were the most important things — treasures worth millions of gold coins or more. Nine-level magic beast Crystal Cores, Holy Domain magic crystal cores, rare treasures from other planes, divine artifacts...
"Lord Lin Lei, as long as you lend a hand, you'll naturally get a share of the treasures. No — two shares. How about that? I'd say those treasures are worth at least several million gold coins," Shak whispered.
Shak knew very well the staggering wealth of a royal family, because in his possession he held five Magic Crystal Cards — five hundred million gold coins.
The Hanmu Kingdom was no less prosperous than Fenlei Kingdom. Its treasures couldn't be much different.
"Agreed," Lin Lei nodded. "When it's time to make a move, just let me know."
Shak was delighted to hear this.
During a flight, a mage might be a liability, but in real combat, a mage's destructive power was terrifying. Lin Lei was a level seven dual-element mage. With the enemy completely unprepared, he could potentially take out half their people.
Lin Lei carefully examined the seven people in Prince Loy's group. Each was now carrying four or five packs on their shoulders. And one in particular...
"Hm?"
Lin Lei suddenly noticed that a middle-aged man's horse was striking the ground with particularly heavy hoofbeats, and the animal looked far more exhausted than the others'. More importantly, the man had an extra horse beside him — riding one while leading another!
Obviously, he needed to switch mounts frequently.
"These horses were all specially selected — even with three or four riders they'd still gallop at full speed. So why was this one middle-aged man tiring his horse out so much? Why the need to switch so often?" Lin Lei instantly figured it out.
This middle-aged man was very heavy.
Or rather, he was carrying something extremely heavy.
"But the man only has a short sword at his waist. Could it be in those packs...?" Lin Lei could only conclude that among the four packs on this man's back, something extraordinarily heavy must be hidden.
Night fell. A cold wind howled through the darkness.
Both Prince Loy's group and Prince Shak's group settled in for the night. No matter how powerful one's abilities, rest was still necessary. Prince Loy's seven huddled together in one cluster, while Shak's men spread out into four or five small groups. The two parties kept well apart.
"Master, when do we leave?" Prince Loy whispered softly. The other five were feigning sleep.
"Wait a little longer. Once they're all sound asleep, we ride out immediately," the middle-aged man whispered back.
Escaping under cover of darkness was nothing special. And it was nothing special precisely because everyone did it — and everyone did it because it worked!
Over thirty of Prince Shak's men were also feigning sleep, with not a single one truly resting. Everyone knew a fight was coming tonight.