Chapter Twenty-Four: The Origin of Qi and Stone

  "What? Didn't you say it was impractical?"

  "It's not bad, but it can only be used for decoration! But you're comparing prices, and it's indeed ten times better than yours! Even twenty times!"

  "How is it possible?" Ishihara Kuma sat up straight: "Even if you hit a gold mine, it wouldn't be worth much, would it?"

  "Explain yourself!" said the king.

  "Hah! It may not be made of gold, but it's made of Mithril!" The Great Mage's words left everyone gasping in shock!

  "This is impossible!" Ishihara Kuma shouted: "Do you know how much Mitsu Gin produces in a year?"

  "It's less than ten kilograms, and most of it is in the hands of dwarves!" Cara said: "But I swear on my honor that this sword was indeed forged from high-purity Mithril, and weighs around fifteen kilograms! You can ask the Archbishop to appraise it as well, he should be able to test it with Holy Light magic."

  "Right, Bishop-sama, please use your Light Magic to appraise it!" said Ishihara Kuma

  "Alright!" The archbishop took the treasure sword, input a stream of light magic power, and instantly the treasure sword shone brightly, like the sun, making everyone unable to open their eyes! Fortunately, he immediately withdrew his magic power. Now everyone knew the answer. The archbishop sighed with a bitter smile: "It's Mithril, it really is a useless treasure sword, I think no one would use it for battle."

  "Can you appraise it? I want to know how much it's worth!"

  "Oh, let me think... the silver trade is all in kilograms, each kilogram is about 100 million gold coins, one jin is 100 kilograms, that's 1 billion gold coins, and fifteen jin is 15 billion!" Carla was so shocked by her own words that she didn't dare to say anything more.

  "Hehe, actually it's not that much, because the annual output of this species is only about 1 catty, so it's quite expensive. If there were suddenly 15 catties more, the price would drop sharply, and a few hundred million would be enough." Mom explained.

  "Where did this come from?" the king asked.

  "Dwarves, this is just their yield for two years!" "Can you announce the results now?"

  "Of course! You little guy won, take it all away!" The king said to me: "Do you know? I found out that you now have more money than me!"

  Everyone burst into laughter again. I took the sword from the attendant's hand, put on the ring myself, and tossed the sword to the Third Prince, saying: "Take it, lest you be laughed at for being a country bumpkin!"

  He didn't even care what I said, and hugged the treasure sword tightly! I thought to myself, heh heh, this kid has really gotten himself hated by the Shi family now, help me share some of their firepower! It's not good for me to bear it alone! I stole a glance at the reactions around me, my mother and grandfather nodded in approval, the queen also smiled with gratitude. The people from the fifth prince's Shi family looked like they had lost their father. Exhilarating!

  The more joyful the occasion, the more people come out to stir up trouble.

  It's that damned archbishop again, he doesn't dare to provoke my grandfather and mother, so he says to my father: "Duke, you know that in a few years it will be the 100th birthday of His Holiness the Pope, all the rulers and bishops will send gifts. I saw the sword your son had just now, it's very good! I hope to buy it at a reasonable price as a birthday gift for His Holiness!"

  At this time, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became very tense. Everyone was silent and still. This is clearly a robbery! The Pope is God's representative, he represents God. If sold, who dares to want the money of the God of Light? At least no one has heard of anyone daring to ask the church for gift money! Ordinary people encountering this kind of thing are eager to send out gifts, lest they invite disaster. Those who do not sell or give are executed in the name of blasphemy against the gods! Many people have been burned at the stake on the mainland for this! However, such things usually happen to small nobles, and large nobles are not easily provoked by the church, unless the church wants to intentionally bully you! Now he just wants to bully our family!

  "Archbishop, aren't you being too excessive?" The Queen said

  "I don't understand what you mean, isn't it an extremely glorious thing to pay homage to His Holiness the Pope?" The archbishop said with a pretentious tone: "Your Excellency the Duke, are you going to agree or not?"

  "Haha, this sword is quite interesting, I'll keep it for my old self! Nobody gets to have it! If Koman Wester wants it, tell him to come find me himself!" Grandpa said coldly.

  "Good! I'll convey your words to His Holiness the Pope! Farewell!" The archbishop stormed off.

  "Old man, aren't you afraid of being blamed by the church?" The king said

  "Hehe, Coman still has some old-fashioned notions, he won't treat an old friend like me unfairly!" Grandpa said with a smile.

  "Haha, I forgot, you're still friends! Alright, let's stop here for today. What a great banquet, what a pity!" The king's calm words revealed a hint of dissatisfaction.

  All the guests have left, and I was called by my grandfather and parents to a private room for a talk.

  "This time Xiao Wu did a good job! It's really satisfying!" Grandfather said: "I've been looking down on the Ishihara family for a long time, and now they've even lost the heirloom of the clan head. Let's see how they'll get by! Haha, let me take a look!"

  I gave him the ink jade ring, he looked at it with a smile, extremely delighted!

  "Dad, are you really going to let Wu Xiao take charge?" Mom was more concerned about this.

  "What's it got to do with us? Do we have any use for him? He's just a nominal figure to appease them!" Grandfather said.

  "So that's how it is! I'm relieved now!"

  "But from now on, Xiao Wu's words need to be careful, after all, it was said in front of so many people. You can't do anything, but don't cause trouble either! Do you understand?"

  "I'm so obedient and never cause any trouble!" The poor Taoist's mind was a bit discouraged.

  Dad shook his head and said: "The troubles you got into at six years old are more than the ones I got into at sixty!"

  "You can't be serious, you were once known as the 'Kyoto Tyrant', fighting eight times a day, and it's not even noon yet! That means, including afternoon and night, who knows how many more fights there will be!"

  "Who told you that, you little stinker?" his father bellowed, his face red with rage.

  "I won't tell you it was Grandpa who said that!" The poor Daoist pretended to be silly again, and everyone burst out laughing.

  "Dad! Why do you always say such things! You're ruining my image!" The father complained helplessly.

  Grandpa ignored him and smiled at me, scolding: "Hehe! You little traitor! How hateful! Alright, get ready, you'll be starting school in a few months, no more being naughty!"

  "Got it!"

  "But you should also be careful!"

  "Why? Who dares to look for trouble with me?"

  "Ishihara household is bold! And add the five princes!"

  "Don't worry about those few good-for-nothings?"

  "A few is nothing to worry about, dozens are a different story!"

  "How can there be dozens of them?"

  "The Ishihara family is known as the 'thousand-man clan', with over 1000 male members. This is no exaggeration, as they are extremely promiscuous, each having multiple wives, and accumulating many children, both legitimate and illegitimate. In your school alone, there are over 50 of them, so be careful!"

  "Isn't it? Then why are you still asking me to go? They hate me to death, aren't you pushing me into the fire pit?"

  "And besides, your principal, Wizard Wycliffe is one of them!" Grandpa said slowly.

  "I'm doomed! Now I don't even have a place to appeal for justice!"

  "I believe in your abilities, and your four brothers will also help you!"

  "Alright, but what if something goes wrong?"

  "As long as no one dies and no one becomes disabled, I'll take responsibility for you!"

  "Haha! So that's it! It was fun!" I said and then left.

  "Father! Shouldn't we warn the Ishihara family? I'm worried that Koichi will be taken advantage of!" Mother said.

  "But I'm worried he's too heavy-handed! He'll ruin the Ishihara family's reputation, it's not good!"