“The Imperial Capital is gone?”
“Gone? What do you mean?” Huang Sheng and Gong Dequan exchanged glances and asked skeptically.
“Not even a single brick in the Imperial Capital was left. There is only a massive crater. The land within a radius of a thousand li is barren, not a single soul in sight. It’s like… the barren land we passed by near the Mountain of Flames in Yi Province years ago…”
When Wang Hui claimed that the Imperial Capital was gone, both Huang Sheng and Gong Dequan might not have understood him. However, both their expressions contorted as soon as Wang Hui mentioned the barren land near the Mountain of Flames in Yi Province. They were as petrified as wooden chickens.
“Oh my God, just how many people died?” Huang Sheng’s face was drained of color.
“Not only that, Liqiang and I realized that the region to the south of the Imperial Capital, which is here around Jinling, wasn’t that severely affected when we climbed up a mountain near Jinque Pass. There was a landslide on Mount Jinque. The western and northern sides of the Imperial Capital seemed to be more severely affected. The Four Regions to the north of Mount Jinque have turned into barren wastelands. I’m afraid that the number of casualties might just total up to be several million…”
“If that’s the case… then isn’t… isn’t the future of the Great Han Empire… in jeopardy…?” Gong Dequan immediately thought of the aftermath and his tone grew heavy.
“We’ll worry about the Great Han Empire later. We’ll be sitting ducks at this point if we keep hanging around Jinling. There’s no telling when assistance will come, so we only have ourselves to rely on!” Yan Liqiang interjected. “How’s the preparation going here in the depot?”
“We spent an entire day working together since last night. Everyone managed to get all the goods out. Apart from a few slightly damaged boxes, the goods are all pretty much safe!”
“The carriages which are still in working condition are ready!”
“Then we shall proceed according to plan tonight!”
The three escorts nodded without saying anything else.
“Oh right, Brother Wang. To boost everyone’s morale, we should split all the valuables we seized from the city yesterday with everyone before we continue with tonight’s operation. If some of us accidentally get split up along the way, it will come in handy too…”
“Ah, those things… How are we splitting it, Liqiang?” Wang Hui seemed to be unsure for a moment.
The valuables they seized from the thugs they killed in Jinling City yesterday were put away after they returned to the depot. Since Yan Liqiang didn’t say anything about it, they didn’t split the valuables. Besides, Yan Liqiang had killed most of the thugs, nearly half of them in fact. Therefore, he definitely earned the rights to decide on how to settle those valuables according to the rules of the escort party and the reputation he had garnered. Wang Hui assumed that Yan Liqiang wasn’t planning on splitting those valuables for the time being, so he didn’t expect it to be Yan Liqiang’s first agenda upon his return today.
“By the number of all our brothers in the escort agency of course. Oh yes, count that lady by the name Yu Qing in too, as a form of insurance for her. Hopefully the three of you are fine with that?”
How could the three of them possibly have any objections? Yan Liqiang had all the rights to keep half of the valuables for himself. If he was willing to share, what else could they say? Furthermore, the three of them were so secretly moved by Yan Liqiang’s generosity in spite of their current situation that they saw him in a new light. Such an individual was hard to come by even in the Divine Sword Sect. After observing Yan Liqiang’s intelligence, decisiveness, generosity, and his bottled-up talents, the three of them were quite certain that he would definitely go far in the sect.
“Since Brother Liqiang said that, we shall do just that!” Wang Hui nodded.
“I, Huang Sheng, can only say that I am impressed by Brother Liqiang’s generosity!”
Gong Dequan didn’t say anything. He only raised a thumb at Yan Liqiang and had a look of admiration on his face.
Yan Liqiang only responded with a small smile. The valuables might seem like a lot, but it was nothing much to him. He was apprenticed to the Sect Guardian of the Divine Sword Sect and would succeed as the next Sect Guardian. This menial amount of valuables hardly amounted to anything. Although his actions seemed like they were for everyone, it was actually for his own sake. The calamity that the escort party faced this time was pretty much an opportunity for him to rise above being an external disciple of the Divine Sword Sect. If his reputation spread among the sect, it would be justifiable for Liu Guiyuan to officially accept him as his disciple without making it seem too abrupt and suspicious. With that, his status in the Divine Sword Sect would change and everything would be different from then on…
How could these escorts possibly see through Yan Liqiang’s thoughts?
…..
Shortly after that, it was dinner time. When Wang Hui divided the valuables they seized from Jinling City yesterday into more than forty portions and distributed them, everyone in the escort party cheered joyfully. They simply couldn’t believe that they would be given a portion of the valuables. Almost everyone who was still alive in the escort party each received money and jewelry that were worth about two hundred taels of silver. This amount greatly exceeded the income that most people would receive for an escort trip like this.
The group of people who just escaped from a calamity suddenly got a windfall. The party’s low morale almost instantly shot through the roof as light began to return to many people’s eyes.
There were only collapsed buildings in the depot. Apart from Yan Liqiang and them, no one else was around. The owner had disappeared after burying his wife and children. The remaining staff members in the depot ran away to find other ways to survive. The other few merchants who were fortunate enough to survive were also aware that they shouldn’t prolong their stay in Jinling City as great chaos and a major epidemic might just break out at any moment. Early this morning, before Yan Liqiang and Wang Hui returned, those merchants dug out some valuables that were easy to carry around, found a few steeds, and fled. They didn’t even want their goods which were trapped under the rubble anymore.
After finishing dinner, everyone in the escort party started moving when the sky turned completely dark.
Huang Sheng and Gong Dequan had prepared more than thirty carriages. After the goods were loaded back onto the carriages, Yan Liqiang and the rest personally drove the carriages in the dark without carrying any torches. They traveled along an empty, small road in total darkness, then arrived at a medium-sized impact crater several hundred meters to the west of the depot. The boxes on the carriages were then moved into the crater one by one…
Everyone returned to the depot again and made another trip to the crater with another batch of boxes. After the boxes were deposited into the crater, they made yet another trip…
Seven to eight trips later, all the goods in the escort party were deposited into the impact crater. The crater was almost completely filled by the boxes. Everyone then released the steeds from their carriages and made some simple tools with wooden planks. With the help of the steeds, the crater was then filled with the surrounding soil. They also made sure to cover it up well so that it wouldn’t be discovered.
By the time they finished everything, almost an entire night had passed. Everyone prepared their stuff and rations, then left Jinling to set out on a journey back to the Divine Sword Sect with each person leading a pair of steeds…
At this point in time, news about a calamity striking the Imperial Capital of the Great Han Empire had spread like wildfire. A storm of chaos that would engulf the entire Silver Continent finally descended from the heavens…
