Chapter 127: The Reward
For Lennie, it wasn't a big deal to send Zen to the military office because he believed they couldn't find any offense that Zen was guilty of. Even so, he would not allow Yolande to take Zen there.
“Even if people regard Zen as a hero, we couldn't turn a blind eye that he offended Hugh and even killed a military counselor. He should be subjected to a trial,” Yolande said stubbornly.
“Yolande, please let it go!” Spencer persuaded her as he stood by Lennie's side. “Yes, Zen killed a military counselor and minded you, I investigated. That counselor from the Zhuge Clan provoked him and wanted to kill him first, but Zen overpowered him. Moreover, Zen fought with us against the Demon King Aldrich. So even if Zen had killed an officer of the Imperial Army, I would have still forgiven him with his crime!”
Spencer's words had absolute power. What he meant was very clear — he was the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army. He had the authority to influence as to how Zen would be dealt with.
“I agree with that! And I don't want to pursue that matter. Now I know why Zen killed Josef, my fault,” said Hugh as he stepped forward near to Yolande.
Yolande was silent for a while and after a careful thought, she nodded and said, “I will let it go!”
When they heard it, Spencer, Lennie and Hugh felt all relaxed and heaved a sigh of relief in unison. Although they were determined to go against Yolande, it was crystal clear that she could be stubborn and was used to getting her own way. She wasn't called a Killer Girl for nothing, since she was heartless and no one could stop her from doing what she wanted.
Then Yolande lifted her right hand. She snapped her slender fingers and the transparent shell around Zen began to soften, slowly turned into life vitality and was gone completely.
“Boy, you did a good job! You should be proud that you saved us!” Lennie stepped forward and patted Zen's shoulder. At the back of his mind, he thought Zen and Nina would be a perfect match!
Zen felt slightly embarrassed for such high praises and downplayed, “It was just a coincidence. If Yolande didn't take me to fight with the Demon King Aldrich, I wouldn't have the chance to kill him.”
The truth of the matter, everyone doubted two things about Zen. One, why was he able to absorb the demon's holy fire.
It was known that the demon's holy fire was mystic and powerful. And just like every coin with two sides, the demon's holy fire could prove to be deadly to humans, while it was worthy to demons.
If an ordinary person was thrown into the demon's holy fire, it would corrode him to nothingness in a blink of an eye. Only the masters at the Illuminating Soul Realm, such as Yolande, were safe in the demon's holy fire. Even so, her perception and sight was adversely affected in the battle.
But Zen was bizarre and though he was half-step into the nature level, he was seen as an ordinary person in the eyes of the masters at the Illuminating Soul Realm. Unexpectedly, Zen not only got no injuries, but completely absorbed the demon's holy fire.
It was hard to believe!
Had Spencer absorbed the demon's holy fire even just a single drop, he would have been greatly hurt. But Zen had absorbed a large cloud of the demon's holy fire and yet he was still alive and unscathed. They could hardly believe it!
Second, it was Zen's life energy. When they were at the conference in the Governor's House, they didn't take time to understand his life energy though they knew that he almost killed Hugh because of it.
They were so impressed when Zen created a five-clawed black dragon and as they recalled it now, they realized that Zen's life energy was so powerful that he could even absorb other people's life vitality.
No one could create such a strong and ferocious five-clawed black dragon except Zen.
At first they thought that Zen might have used someone's life vitality to double its power, just like that of Hugh. But on the contrary, it would be difficult for Zen to combine his life energy and Lennie's life vitality, which was able to be formed too speedy silver swords.
There were people in their realm that were willing to contribute their life vitality to Zen. Thus, Zen could have been able to create such a huge five-clawed black dragon.
They needed to win the battle and that was the most important. The Demon King Aldrich had to focus on the battle and so did Yolande. Because of that, Zen was able to take the chance to attack the demon king. If the situation had not been like that, they couldn't have won since Zen's five-clawed black dragon wasn't as speedy as they had thought.
The stars had aligned that day and made it to such a magical ending. Perhaps that was an act of providence!
The men wanted to uncover the mysteries about Zen, but on second thought they knew it was not good to make him show his secrets, although he was only half-step into the nature level.
Zen was only half-step into the nature level, yet he had made such great achievements. They believed that Zen was destined to be a great man.
Finally, the men stopped their curiosity to flourish. Then Lennie put his arm around Zen and said, “Let's go to the Governor's House first!”
The White Emperor City was almost destroyed after the demon attack. It brought a large number of death toll and what was worse, the Imperial Army had lost several masters at the Illuminating Soul Realm. But through it all, it was regarded as a big win!
After all, they had eliminated two powerful demon kings! One of which was the powerful Demon King Aldrich, who was known to be savage and tough as an opponent.
After defeating the demon's army, the soldiers began to clean the rubbish which was one of the aftermath of the battle.
“Uncle Lennie, have you seen Nina and other disciples?” asked Zen as they arrived at the Governor's House.
Lennie was delighted and smiled from ear to ear and he thought that Zen had actually cared for Nina. But in truth, he misunderstood it as Zen was just concerned about all the disciples from Cloud Sect.
“They were escorted back by some people before the battle began,” answered Lennie.
Hearing this, Zen felt relieved. The entire White Emperor City had been in chaos during the battle. If the disciples from the Cloud Sect had been stranded in the city, there might have been a lot of fatalities.
When the battle ended, many officers gathered in the Governor's House to report the number of dead soldiers in their teams.
A series of names and numbers were uttered and mostly were the troops of the Imperial Army stationed in the White Emperor City, to protect the north side from demons. Today they paid a respect to their fallen soldiers. They had won the battle but in the end, they lost thousands of lives.
As soon as the number of casualties and the loss of the White Emperor City were counted, a tribute ceremony began.
“As we all know, Zen gave us the greatest contribution to win the battle, who is an outer disciple from the Cloud Sect's Drizzle Peak!” Spencer exclaimed at meeting hall of the Governor's House. “If not for Zen's strength, a lot of us would have died and the entire White Emperor City would have been under the dominion of the demons. Zen, on behalf of the Imperial Army, I wish to express my gratitude.”
When Spencer finished his speech, he bowed to Zen much to the surprise of the people around them.
Zen was overwhelmed as the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army bowed to him. Like a scared rabbit, he stammered, “Gov… Governor, you are flattering me but I don't deserve such high praises.”
“There was once a great man named Quin Yan, he knelt down to a beggar who saved a person's life. Today, you helped the Imperial Army win the war and thousands of lives were spared. Certainly, you deserve it!” Spencer told a story earnestly.
“It was said that Quin, a respected gentleman in ancient times, was once a poor man. He walked on the side of the river and saw a beggar save a person from the river. He had no money to reward the beggar, so he knelt down to salute the beggar!”
Spencer told a short story for Zen to consider and accept his praise.
“We can't give you a remarkable military feat since you are not a soldier of the Imperial Army, but as a representative of the Imperial Army, I am here to award you three treasures and you can choose the treasures yourself as you enter our treasure house!” announced Spencer.
“Three Treasures!”
“He can choose freely!”
The crowd got noisy and all their eyes sparkled with excitement.
Over the years, the Imperial Army had accumulated great fortune of treasures and only those that were priceless were kept at the Imperial Army's treasure house in the White Emperor City.
They were gifted to soldiers with extraordinary feats. Receiving this award was extremely hard and you were not even allowed to select one for yourself freely!
But Zen was given the honor to enter the treasure house and could freely select three treasures. Everyone knew there were tons of treasures and all the officers were envious of Zen.
After the meeting was over and everyone left, Spencer led Zen to the Imperial Army's treasure house.
The Imperial Army's treasure house was hidden below the ground. Zen was following Spencer as they walked underground along the dark narrow passageway. Spencer ignited a candle after he opened a heavy stone door, and the entire treasure house lit up.
Even in faint light, the whole treasure house blazed with golden brilliance, sparkling to its glory.