Chapter 338: Seven Days to Pay

News from Riftward threw the Homeworld into uproar.

[Divine Province won again? Already? How?]

[I thought holding Riftward until their Champions came back was the best they could hope for. Instead, they wiped out the invasion. Not a single farmer escaped!]

[I told you Cassian would leave something behind!]

As more Lords accepted that the hidden Wonder was the Five Elements Temple, the celebrations were joined by some very different reactions.

[Wasn’t their World Wonder supposed to be a shop? How did it become a Five Elements Temple?]

[With that defending them, who can touch Divine Province at home? We’d need Mythic forces from an older sector.]

[You can’t move Mythic forces that casually. Bring several down from a war sector, and you could upset the balance there.]

Mira posted the table she had prepared in the Homeworld Channel.

[Mira Calder: The attached list contains our prisoners of war and the ransom required for each.]

[Mira Calder: Transfer payment to Lord Cassian Vale, include the prisoner’s name in the payment note, and post a copy of the receipt here. Once payment is confirmed, Divine Province will release the prisoner immediately.]

[Mira Calder: You have seven days to decide. After that...]

She did not finish the threat. No one needed her to.

Then the Lords reached the total at the bottom of the table.

[That’s ruthless. One war, and Divine Province will be as rich as a nation.]

——

Third Realm. Highcrest.

"Hundreds of thousands of prisoners. A million Aether at the very least for each Lord. And ten billion apiece for War Marshals from the older sectors..."

The Valcrest founder’s projection stared at the figures, his envy plain.

"Seven hundred billion if they all pay! Even half would bring in three or four hundred billion!"

Seven hundred billion Aether was hardly an unimaginable sum for an entire Realm. Unfortunately, House Valcrest was famously the poorest of the great ruling families.

Edran gave him a disdainful look.

"Try to look a little less desperate."

The founder ignored him. Another thought had brightened his expression.

"That girl Lyra can operate the Temple in Cassian’s place. The two must be close. She’s from my fourth son’s branch, isn’t she? I’ll speak with him. If we could make Cassian one of the family..."

He chuckled.

Edran frowned. He had made no final decision about drawing Cassian into a closer alliance with House Frost, but he could think of no better young Lord to have on their side. Now someone else was trying to claim him.

The Caerwyn Sovereign’s projection narrowed its eyes as well.

Marriage alliances were something he understood very well. Naming a new princess would be easy. If one was not enough, then ten. For a young man with Cassian’s potential, even a hundred would be worthwhile.

A fit of coughing interrupted their thoughts.

The Valcrest founder’s projection shook violently.

"What happened?"

Edran and the Caerwyn Sovereign both turned toward him. A ruler of his strength did not simply catch a cough.

Unless...

"My time is nearly up."

The founder finally brought the coughing under control. His voice was calm.

"If I don’t launch a Heavenbreaking War and ascend, I have a dozen years or so left. No more."

"Then I’ll prepare a welcome for you in the Fifth Realm," the Caerwyn Sovereign said at once.

The founder smiled bitterly.

"But I can’t leave without worrying. Once I’m gone, what if my Realm ends up like the Jade Court?"

His expression grew grave.

"My House can fall. What I can’t allow is a break in the Crown’s strength in the Sixth Realm."

The other two fell silent.

The upper Realms stood above the rest, but the lower worlds supported them. The Jade Court in the Seventh was already rotten. If the Sixth failed as well, even the great powers above would face disaster.

"My eldest... Did you find another life, or was your soul destroyed?"

The Valcrest founder’s projection faded, leaving only the soft question behind.

Edran rose.

"I’ll go to the Netherfolk. We must find House Valcrest’s lost heir."

"And if we do?"

The Caerwyn Sovereign sighed.

"Reincarnation means starting again. He’d need a century to regain his former strength. Would you put a Lord below Level 200 in charge of the whole Realm? Who would obey him?"

His projection slowly disappeared as well.

——

[Sixteenth checkpoint cleared. Labyrinth Points +6,000,000.]

[Find and destroy the seventeenth checkpoint within 24 hours. Failure will end this attempt and return you to the Human Hall.]

With half an hour left on the previous countdown, Cassian’s Faerie Dragons and Crystal Maidens had easily taken the sixteenth checkpoint.

The clear reward alone was now six million points. Beside what he earned from hunting, it was still a small amount.

"Judging by the time, the fighting in Divine Province should be about over."

Cassian considered that with interest.

"I wonder how much Aether they’ll bring in."

Separated from the Homeworld by a different time and space, he could receive no messages from its Lords, whatever method they used.

In fact, families from the Black Banner, Western Beacon, and the Dawn Coast had already started sending payments. Once he returned to the Homeworld, the Exchange would have a flood of transfer notices waiting for him.

Over the past days, Cassian had kept a steady pace of one checkpoint per day.

The sixteenth stage’s Domains were Rank XVII. Every monster was Level 90, and every Domain had at least one Legendary Hero. In raw attributes, a Level-90 Legendary Hero fell only a little short of Liora and Sylvara.

For safety, Cassian had combined his six separate forces into three. Even so, he had only managed eighty-nine Domains during the day spent in the fifteenth stage.

The passages widened as he went deeper. Beyond the sixteenth checkpoint, they were five kilometers across and a kilometer high.

Cassian rode on Crystal Nine’s back as she flew in Dragon form toward another Domain in the sixteenth stage. While they traveled, he opened the Human Champions Channel.

[Legendary Heroes started appearing in the thirteenth stage. Our team is taking casualties now. At this rate, we’ll be lucky to clear the fourteenth.]

The speaker was a Lord from the Ninefold Sanctum.

[Lucan Merrow: Fourteen is already an excellent result. The thirteenth checkpoint awards 1.8 million points. The fourteenth may give three million. Plenty of Champions from the lesser Realms would never earn that much on their own.]

Gavin promptly agreed.

[Gavin Roswell: Which proves that teams were the best choice. If Humanity reaches the top hundred this time, we will owe it to the leadership of the twelve great Realms.]

[Piers Haldane: And yet some people publicly defied their orders for selfish reasons. A disgrace to our Homeworld.]

Other Western Beacon and Black Banner Lords joined in. Several took the opportunity to sneer at the Crown’s Lords while praising their team leaders.

Cassian curled his lip.

Their flattery was tiresome. Still, he could not deny the advantages of working in a team.

A thought occurred to him. If every Human Champion followed behind him and collected the checkpoint awards, could Humanity take first place in Race Ascendancy?

Quite possibly.

He dismissed the idea almost at once. He was not generous enough to carry everyone at his own expense, much less reveal every hidden card just to secure first place for the race. For Humanity’s Paragon, he needed to lead the Human standings while Humanity finished in the top hundred. That was enough.

Seven interrupted his thoughts.

"Lord, there’s a portal fifty kilometers ahead."

"Leave it alone."

"But units of another race are coming through."

Cassian’s gaze sharpened.

"Which race?"

So the fighting between Lords was finally coming to him.

Usually, a Lord only crossed through a portal to hunt another race after reaching a limit in their own progress. Those who chose to do it were generally confident in their strength.

Ten seconds passed before Seven answered.

"Judging by their forms, I’m ninety-nine percent certain it’s a Void Insect Lord."

Void Insects?

Cassian’s interest stirred. He had never killed a Void Insect Lord before.