General Lin Zhenxiong had been turned into a blackened, crispy roast chicken.
And so, this long-planned, earth-shaking coup d’état came to an absurd end.
Outside the palace gates, a hundred thousand rebel soldiers were still dancing like demons in a cloud of pink poison gas.
With their commander captured—and after being sent flying through the sky before crashing down as a lump of charred blackness—the rebels were left leaderless.
Combined with the omnipresent hallucinatory laughter powder, their morale and military organization completely collapsed.
Some rolled around on the ground. Some were pulling each other’s underwear off.
Others were doing the can-can in front of the city walls.
The scene was truly painful to look at.
When the capital’s defense forces arrived to reinforce them, they stared at the hundred thousand soldiers writhing on the ground and were completely dumbfounded.
Suppressing a rebellion?
This was clearly a large-scale psychiatric hospital coming to collect its patients!
A terrifying coup that should have brought about a change of dynasty in the Dayuan Kingdom and left rivers of blood in its wake had been quelled by Su Yaoyao with a few little pieces of interstellar technology—in a manner so ridiculous that it made people laugh and cry at the same time.
According to the usual conventions of a storybook, once the crisis was resolved, the emperor should have taken his seat in the main hall.
He should have summoned the ministers, rewarded those who had contributed, and comforted the civil and military officials who had been frightened out of their wits.
He should also have delivered an impassioned self-accusation edict or issued a proclamation to reassure the people.
But the Tyrant of Dayuan had never done things according to convention.
In the square before the Hall of Supreme Polarity, the fence-sitting officials had just crawled out from their hiding places.
They were preparing to straighten their urine-soaked robes and rush forward to kowtow to the emperor and pledge their loyalty.
But they did not even catch a glimpse of the Tyrant.
Su Zhen grabbed Su Jin, who was still staring at the blood-red secret letter beside him.
Then he scooped up Su Yaoyao, who was just about to start cracking sunflower seeds again.
“Come on, come on! Back to the imperial study!”
The movements of the three members of the family were as smooth as flowing water.
They were so fast that they left afterimages behind.
It was as if rabid dogs were chasing them.
In less than half an incense stick’s time, the family of three had hurried back to the imperial study.
Su Yaoyao was just about to ask whether her father had rushed back because they needed to discuss some matter of national importance.
But what happened next gave her a thorough understanding of the saying, “Like father, like family.”
She watched as the dignified Emperor of Dayuan sprawled shamelessly on the floor.
Half of his body had disappeared beneath the enormous dragon bed in the imperial study.
“Jin’er, give me a hand. It’s a little heavy!”
With his rear sticking up in the air, Su Zhen grunted and huffed as he tugged at something beneath the bed.
Su Jin—the cold-blooded living Yama who struck fear into the hearts of all who heard his name—was also lying on the floor at that moment, his eyes shining as he skillfully helped.
With a ripping sound, father and son finally hauled out a huge bundle of pitch-black objects.
Su Yaoyao took a closer look, and the corners of her mouth began twitching violently.
They were more than a dozen extra-large black sacks!
Not only did the sacks have an astonishing capacity, they had also been sewn from top-grade silkworm silk mixed with gold thread, making them exceptionally sturdy.
Several large characters had been written on them in wild cursive:
“For Imperial Use Only—For Storing Money.”
Su Zhen dusted off one of the sacks, grabbed three of them, and stuffed them into Su Yaoyao’s arms.
“Daughter, let’s go!”
“Before those old geezers in court have time to come to their senses, we’ll go confiscate General Lin Zhenxiong’s fortune first!”
Greed glittered in Su Zhen’s eyes. He looked exactly like a bandit chief who had just come down from the mountains.
“Father is right. In war, speed is of the essence!”
Su Jin skillfully stuffed a black sack into his sleeve and drew a poisoned dagger.
“That old dog Lin Zhenxiong has embezzled and taken bribes for years. His residence must be overflowing with wealth!”
“If we get there too late, those civil officials will definitely submit memorials demanding that the family fortune be confiscated for the national treasury!”
“How could money put into the national treasury compare with money stuffed directly into our private coffers?”
Hearing this shamelessly villainous declaration, Su Yaoyao froze for a second.
Then her large eyes lit up with astonishing brightness.
That was right!
War was fought with money!
She had spent a great many points and interstellar materials out of her own pocket to create the Gatling gun and poison-gas bombs.
Of course, she had to claw that loss back from Lin Zhenxiong— and claw back plenty besides!
“Dad! Big Brother! What are we waiting for?”
“If you’re not enthusiastic about raiding a house, there’s something wrong with your brain! Charge!”
The family of three instantly formed a united front.
Rewarding meritorious officials? Comforting the ministers?
To hell with all that!
Making money was the Dayuan imperial family’s number-one productive force!
Half an hour later.
A heaven-shaking crash suddenly rang out in front of the General’s Residence, which lay beneath the deep night sky.
Bang!
The two vermilion gates of the General’s Residence, each reinforced with rows of bronze studs, were kicked apart by Su Zhen and collapsed with a thunderous roar.
“All living creatures inside, listen up!”
Su Zhen strode through the gates, carrying an extra-large black sack over one shoulder and holding the Longquan Sword in his hand.
“General Lin Zhenxiong has committed treason and rebellion and has now been executed!”
“By imperial decree… No, I personally have come to conduct a house raid!”
Following behind him were several hundred Imperial Guards who looked as ferocious as wolves and tigers.
Su Jin was dressed in black, his expression icy. In his hand, he held a string of universal tools for picking locks.
Su Yaoyao waved her little hands excitedly.
This scene did not look like an emperor enforcing the law.
It looked like a band of starving bandits breaking into the home of a completely unprepared wealthy landowner.
The servants and female members of the General’s household, who still had no idea that their master had already met his end, were scared witless.
They screamed and fled in every direction like headless flies.
But the villainous family of three had no time to bother with these insignificant underlings.
Their objective was clear.
They headed straight for the main target.
Su Zhen and Su Jin demonstrated a level of professionalism completely at odds with their identities.
They climbed over walls whenever they encountered them and smashed locks whenever they encountered those.
The hidden weapons and mechanisms Lin Zhenxiong had spent a fortune installing throughout the residence were as laughable as children’s toys before two top-tier experts and one interstellar poison doctor.
“Father, there’s a pair of century-old blood-jade lions here. Pack them up!”
“Daughter, stuff that rosewood folding screen into your magical sack for me. That thing is worth a fortune!”
Wherever they went, they swept through everything like a swarm of locusts, leaving not a blade of grass behind.
Even the canopy bed in the General’s bedroom, inlaid with sea pearls, was kicked apart by Su Jin.
He then pried every last pearl from the wreckage.
But these visible treasures clearly could not satisfy the appetites of the three villains.
“Something’s wrong. This is way too wrong.”
Su Zhen weighed the sack in his hand and frowned.
“How could the military funds Lin Zhenxiong used for his rebellion amount to nothing but this pile of junk?”
“He must have an underground vault!”
Su Yaoyao took a small metal detector from her space.
“Leave it to me!”
The little girl carried the detector through the General’s rear garden, sweeping back and forth as if she were clearing a minefield.
Before long, the detector began emitting a sharp beeping sound in front of a rockery.
“Found it! It’s here!”
Su Yaoyao pointed excitedly at the ground beneath the rockery.
Su Jin stepped forward and shattered the rockery with a single palm strike, revealing a pitch-black underground passage.
A damp, frigid chill rushed toward them from the depths of the passage.
The family of three exchanged a glance, their eyes blazing with a feverish hunger for enormous riches.
They followed the long flight of steps downward.
The passage leading to the hidden chamber was long, with dim ever-burning lamps placed along both sides.
Along the way, they effortlessly dismantled more than a dozen poisoned arrow traps and collapsing-floor mechanisms.
These members of the Dayuan imperial family were more skilled at breaking and entering than professional thieves by a hundredfold.
At last, they arrived before the entrance to the deepest underground chamber in the General’s Residence.
A massive, heavy stone gate that could sever a dragon.
Carved across it were intricate, ancient defensive patterns.
“Stand back. Your old man will handle this!”
Su Zhen rubbed his hands excitedly as the qi within him began to surge.
At the thought of the mountains of gold and silver treasures that might be piled behind the stone door, he felt strength flooding through his entire body.
“Open for me!”
Su Zhen bellowed, raised his long leg, and summoned every ounce of his strength before delivering a vicious kick to the massive stone door.
“Rumble!”
The dragon-sealing stone, weighing ten thousand jin, let out a pained creak under the Tyrant’s monstrous strength before collapsing inward with a thunderous crash.
A vast cloud of dust billowed through the air.
Su Zhen’s face lit up with delight. Holding the Longquan Sword aloft, he strode into the secret chamber.
He was ready to welcome his mountain of gold and silver.
Ready to stuff the money into sacks to his heart’s content.
However—
Just as he kicked open the final stone door to the chamber and had barely stepped one leg inside, several sharp flashes suddenly streaked through the darkness beneath the cover of the dust!
“Swish! Swish! Swish!”
Several top assassins who had escaped the net lurked in the center of the secret chamber, like venomous snakes waiting in the darkness!
