Chapter 128 - Secret Auction
Inside the private courtyard, Leon continue to circulate his energy and stabilize his 6th step Awakener Realm. After stabilizing his Awakening cultivation, he switched practice to Divine cultivation and elevated his strength to the peak 8th layer of Body Tempering Realm after a short two hours of practice.
Opening his eyes, Leon sighed. Without bottlenecks brought by his stronger body, it was much easier to progress in his cultivation. Once he reaches the peak 9th layer, that is when he will start to pick up on his cultivation speed.
The Body Tempering Realm was just the conditioning period to prep the body for the real energy cultivation. Although he was now cultivating with different energy, he had once reached the Divine Origin Realm.
Bottlenecks of the energy cultivation system was no bottleneck for him with his profound level of control. Only the bottlenecks of the body were hard to overcome due to the lack spirit herbs and high demand for body-forging spirit pills.
"Your highness, since you have killed Marquis Wyatt, the Solaris family will not forget this feud." Howard reminded after seeing the prince finish his cultivation session.
Leon nodded at the palace guard's words and said, "Even if there's a feud, they won't be able to do anything to me. But of course, it is better to remove the roots than to let it fester."
"Send a shadow guard over to me." He ordered.
Not long after he finished his words however, did a young shadow guard dropped down from above and answered his call.
"You called, your highness?"
Leon nodded and said, "You came at the right time. I want the record information on the Solaris family. The more detail, the better."
Leon wagered there was still another three hiding above on the roof.
"Err…" The young shadow guard appeared hesitant.
"What's wrong? You can't take my orders?" Leon asked with knitted brows.
"Answering his highness, the shadow guards only take orders from the King." The young shadow guard said humbly with a fist-hand salute. He felt several shaking heads when he said this.
"Huh? Then why the fuck did you appear in front of my face?" Leon was displeased and gave the young shadow guard an incredulous look.
'I asked for a shadow guard and you appeared right away without my personal guard having to call any shadow guard over. It's clear you can listen to my orders, but you say you only listen to the orders of my father? Are you purposely trying to pick a fight with me!?' Leon thought and glared at the young shadow guard.
The young shadow guard froze at his words and didn't know how to answer the question.
"My father has been in coma for 17 years. Who have you been taking orders from, if not from my mother? Should I go ask her?" Leon continued with a stern tone.
The young shadow guard sweated nervously and looked left and right for help. A sigh came from above as another shadow guard appeared in front of Leon.
"Please forgive him, your highness. He just completed his training and still new to the work. I will fetch the related information for you immediately." The senior shadow guard pleaded on behalf of the young shadow guard.
"Mm, go on." Leon nodded and waved them off.
The senior shadow guard heaved a sigh of relief, seeing that the prince was unwilling to pursue the matter.
He brought the young shadow guard and reprimanded him, "Are you stupid? How long has his majesty been in coma? How do you think the shadow guards have been listening to her majesty's orders? Don't you also know her majesty dotes on the prince greatly? His words are as good as her majesty's!"
"Thank you for saving me there, senior. Err… I wasn't thinking straight... hahaha…" The young shadow guard said, before laughing it off awkwardly.
"Don't mind it. Next time, you better put your mind in the right spot." The senior shadow guard advised.
"Yes, yes, I will try."
"Don't try. Do it!"
The senior shadow guard smacked his junior on the back of the head.
The young shadow guard rubbed his head and swallowed the small grievance silently. How can his mind not wonder off when all they do is camp the roof all day? It was boring as hell!
Some time later, the senior shadow guard returned to the courtyard.
"Here is all the recorded information on the Solaris family and their activities in the past years, your highness." The senior shadow guard presented the documents subserviently with both hands.
"Thank you. You can return to your post." Leon said, before training his gaze on the document, no longer paying attention to anything else. His divine sense seeped out and swept through the document. All the information enters his mind without needing to open the documents.
Leon browsed the information in his mind with cold amusement, while Howard and the palace guards were taken aback by the prince's actions. From their perspective, the prince did not open the documents to read, but instead glared at it and pulled various expressions.
Was the prince possessed by an evil spirit? Or has he gone insane? Or maybe both?
"I heard some old parchments are usually haunted with evil spirits." Jack commented jokingly as he studied the prince's expressions.
However, Howard was immediately shocked by the comment. If one had to say what Howard's biggest flaw was, it was that he was a very superstitious person. When he heard the comment, he took it as the truth and acted immediately. Save the prince!
"Begone, evil spirit!" He roared and slapped the documents flying out of the prince's hands, startling Leon awake.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Leon glared at him angrily.
Pft… Jack, Cain and Jeffry, all broke into laughter.
Howard was immediately stunned by everyone's reaction.
"Howard thought you were possessed by an evil spirit, your highness!" Jack exposed him.
Leon glared at Howard once more and said, "Are you crazy!? Do I look possessed to you!?"
Howard wanted to say 'I'm not crazy! you are crazy!' but he was too ashamed to say anything since he now knew he had been tricked by Jack.
"Go away. Don't disturb my reading." Leon shooed.
Howard awkwardly kept his distance and glared at Jack, while Jack pretended not to see it.
Some time later, Leon finished perusing the information with a cold expression. The Solaris family wasn't clean as they appeared to be on the surface.
They had engaged in all sorts of illegal activities. The only difference between them and the Four Great Family was that the Solaris family wasn't as brazen and was better act concealing traces of their crimes. Leon wagered that the Solaris family wasn't the only noble family like this.
Greed was an irresistible temptation. No doubt, that when the Four Great Family began their evil business, the other nobles also played their parts. Except they were very timid and didn't dare touch any of the heavy crimes that involves the cost of human lives.
However, the crimes piled up over the years was still enough to warrant their deaths. At least, Leon now had no scruples in wiping out the Solaris, but he wasn't in any rush.
There was a particular intel that caught his interest. It was also the latest one. The Solaris family was hosting the next secret auction tonight in their underground home. There would be lots of good items as well as illegal items not found on the open market.
If they bust this secret auction, they could confiscate everything and capture all the guilty participants. This was killing two birds with one stone. To buffer up their depleting treasury and catch all the bad nobles in one fell swoop.
He immediately paid his mother a visit to inform her of his discovery and plan. Upon finding his mother wearing a worried looked in the king's study room filled with reports, letters and documents, he immediately asked with concern, "What's wrong, mother? How can this child share your burden?"
"Ah… my son, you're here. It's like this… our royal expenses are currently immense due to the projects around the Capital and the commoner's relief supply. At this rate, the treasury will be emptied out in a few months. Mother is stumped with the lack of funds." Elizabeth smiled warmly with relief her son's offer and concern, before consulting him.
Her child was intelligent and might be able to help her.
"Ah… so it's this matter. This won't be a problem, mother. We can…" Leon wore a sly smile and began whispering to his mother about his plan on the Solaris family's auction he discovered.
His answer could be summarized into 7 short words; No money? No problem! Rob the nobles!
"Damn!" Elizabeth slapped her knee in exclamation and praised, "My good son! Very Devious! Great finding! Excellent planning!"
Elizabeth's mood was excellent. She pulled her son in for a big hug and pecked him on the cheeks furiously, making him feel embarrassed.
Leon peeled himself away, before continuing, "We now have a lot of underground land. After we remove the bad nobles, we can lease a specific amount of lands to the good nobles or completely open up the underground to public and take a certain amount of tax from the harvest."
Elizabeth's eyes shined with money signs when she heard this.
"That's also a brilliant idea! But it needs finetuning... Come, let's continue to discuss... kekeke."
The mother-son duo continued their money-making discussion in the king's study room with mischievous looks and evil laughter.
None of the nobles knew that at this moment, their wealth was being eyed by royalties like ravenous wolves.