Chapter 864
Chapter 864
After she finished speaking, Princess Dora took out a miniature grenade.
It was filled with low-yield black powder, but she tossed it without hesitation.
Boom.
Another explosion erupted.
The explosive force wasn't great, but the chain reaction it triggered was not.
*Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh.*
Countless sharp arrows, hidden projectiles, and even poisonous liquids shot out from all directions.
‘What does it matter if you have hidden weapons or traps? I'll just destroy them all with force. It's not like we have to step on the triggers for them to activate, right? The shockwave from a grenade will surely set them off.’
And so, Princess Dora used brute force to clear the path.
She continued to set off miniature grenades, destroying every last trap mechanism.
The underground secret passage that followed was extremely long, and it was impossible to tell which direction it led.
After walking for a full hundred meters, they finally reached the end of the passage, only to be blocked by another secret door.
Princess Dora once again planted an explosive charge.
"Fall back!"
*BOOM!*
A deafening blast echoed as the secret door was blown apart, and Princess Dora and her party charged inside.
Inside was a large hall, a bizarre chamber thick with the stench of blood.
Princess Dora spotted Duchess Dipas standing in an arched doorway at the far end of the hall.
She was, as expected, stunningly beautiful.
Her red hair, in particular, seemed to blaze like fire.
She was breathtakingly gorgeous, and her figure could only be described as devilishly curvaceous.
Princess Dora thought that Dipas was one of the rare women who could rival her in both face and figure.
Duchess Dipas looked at Princess Dora and suddenly flashed a strange, cruel smile.
She drew a finger across her neck in a light slashing motion before slowly opening her mouth to speak.
"You want to kill me? You must be dreaming. When you die, I hope that Eastern clown of yours sheds a tear for you."
After saying that, she turned a mechanism.
*Rumble...*
A thick steel door slowly descended.
It was over half a foot thick, completely impervious to any blade.
And with that, Duchess Dipas vanished behind the heavy steel door.
This was likely the Rousseau Clan's final safe room.
An absolutely secure panic room.
Neither an earthquake nor explosives could breach this astonishingly thick steel door.
Princess Dora, leading a dozen or so masters, charged madly toward the fleeing Duchess Dipas.
"Awooo~!"
At that moment, a guttural roar echoed through the hall, and countless pairs of eyes began to glow in the surrounding darkness.
The next instant, wild beasts charged in a frenzy.
This was the basement of the colosseum, where numerous savage beasts were kept.
Lions, tigers, giant wolves, cheetahs—there were too many to count.
The space was over ten thousand square meters, but in an instant, hundreds of beasts had surrounded Princess Dora's party, preparing to tear them apart in a rabid assault.
As the steel door sealed shut, even the roars of the beasts from beyond it were silenced.
Duchess Dipas spoke cruelly.
"I hope your flesh is tasty enough for my beasts to have their fill. The next time that Eastern clown sees you, you'll be nothing but a pile of animal dung."
* * *
Princess Dora and her party were completely engulfed by hundreds of beasts, so much so that they were no longer visible from the outside.
Only the growls of the beasts and the endless stench of blood filled the hall.
"Awoooo."
"Grrrr."
Princess Dora's group were all large in stature, but at this moment, they looked like a small boat tossed in a storm.
Before them, behind them, to their sides, and even above their heads, there was nothing but a sea of frenzied beasts.
Bright red blood sprayed everywhere, and a moment later, everything fell silent.
All the attacking beasts were dead, their hundreds of corpses piled up like mountains.
"Hoo..."
Princess Dora exhaled, emerging from beneath the countless beast carcasses.
"When I see our lord again, I'm definitely going to spit in his face. You all remember that. Remind me if I forget. In any case, this place stinks. This mission is even more disgusting than we imagined."
"Your Highness, I'll certainly remember. But if you really do spit in our lord's face, I'm worried he might develop a taste for it. Didn't he take the cake you were halfway through eating last time? I think he wants to have a taste of you, Your Highness."
Princess Dora quickly changed the subject.
"These hundreds of beasts must have tens of thousands of pounds of meat, right? We'll have enough to eat for days."
The smell of beast blood, which covered their bodies from the fight, was unbearable.
"Is anyone injured?"
"Yes."
"Is anyone dead?"
"No!"
Princess Dora led the dozen or so Amazon masters to the front of the thick, massive steel door.
* * *
They reached out and knocked on the door, then drew their scimitars and struck it in unison, but only sparks flew. The thick steel door remained completely unscathed.
It was truly a door impervious to blades.
Dora planted an explosive charge and lit the fuse.
"Fall back!"
*BOOM.*
A loud noise echoed, and the underground hall even trembled, but the steel door was still undamaged.
Princess Dora laughed and said.
"Dipas, you must be feeling incredibly smug right now, thinking we can't do a thing about this thick steel door. And with so little time left for us. With an army descending upon your duchy, you probably think we'll soon die without even a grave. You believe no weapon in the world can breach this door of yours. But my lord, Shen Lang, is an exception. To borrow his words, it's time for a miracle. Bring it all out."
At Princess Dora's command, everyone took off their backpacks and pulled out the thermite they had brought.
In truth, Duchess Dipas was thinking exactly what Princess Dora had said.
She was certain that no one in the world could breach this thick steel door.
The army led by Lord Vytin would arrive soon, and the mere hundred or so Amazon masters were destined to die here.
The aerial surprise attack orchestrated by that Eastern clown, Shen Lang, was astonishing, even miraculous, but that was as far as it would go.
They would ultimately fail.
Moreover, the High Priest of the Fire God Sect planned to use the never-before-seen Hellfire Bugs to kill Shen Lang and the rest of the Amazon legion, so perhaps they were all already dead.
* * *
Princess Dora affixed an astonishing amount of thermite to the thick steel door.
"What kind of brain does our lord have? To invent something so terrifying. When I first saw this, I couldn't believe it could turn iron into water. Wisdom is strength, and power is strength, but wisdom is truly the greatest strength of all. Now, everyone, fall back!"
Princess Dora lit the fuse and quickly retreated.
They knew they should close their eyes, but they couldn't resist watching.
*Rumble...*
A truly astonishing scene unfolded.
The light that erupted in an instant was brighter than the sun, illuminating the underground hall as if it were midday.
The vast amount of thermite produced a heat of 2,600 degrees Celsius, and the seemingly indestructible steel door instantly turned red-hot and melted into molten iron.
An incredible amount of thermite burned continuously, mercilessly melting the center of the thick steel door, creating a large, distorted hole.
"Keep falling back!"
Princess Dora commanded, and then she took out a large explosive charge and, from dozens of meters away, hurled it with all her might into the large, sunken hole in the center of the door.
There was no need for a detonator.
The thousands of degrees of heat from the burning thermite were enough to detonate even the most stable explosives.
*BOOM.*
A massive explosion roared.
The steel door, already softened and punctured by the fire, could no longer withstand such a powerful blast, and a gaping hole a meter in diameter was blown through it.
Princess Dora stood before the large hole and looked into the safe room on the other side.
It was filled with an astronomical amount of gold and silver, and there stood the incomparably beautiful Dipas, staring in utter disbelief, her face a mask of shock.
This was the Rousseau Clan's secret vault; there were no more secret passages inside.
Now, even if Dipas had wings, she could not escape.
Princess Dora smiled and said.
"Duchess Dipas, you are now a prisoner!"
The place where Duchess Dipas had hidden was the Rousseau Clan's secret vault.
Anyone who saw this place would begin to question their life, wondering if so much gold could even exist in the world.
Here, gold and silver were piled up like mountains.
Ten-pound gold bars were stacked one by one to form walls, and thousand-pound silver spheres were placed here and there, their numbers too great to count.
Furthermore, there was also red copper and yellow brass.
Normally, there would be no need for copper in a secret vault like this, would there?
Compared to gold or silver, copper was of lesser value.
However, for someone of Duchess Dipas's status, money was no longer just money; it was a form of power.
The Rousseau Clan had ruled the Azure Wave Province for hundreds of years, and for more than half that time, they had been independent, known as the Duchy of Azure Wave.
Therefore, they had to mint their own currency.
The common people couldn't use gold coins at all, and even silver coins were only used for large-scale transactions, so for most daily purchases, copper coins were essential.
Thus, copper coins represented the financial stability of the Azure Wave Province.
Every year, Duchess Dipas had to store large quantities of copper to protect their minting rights.
So, how much copper was in this secret vault?
The exact amount was unknown, but it was an astronomical figure.
Within the several thousand square meters, everything besides the gold and silver was filled with copper.
As if that wasn't enough, every year the Rousseau Clan would melt copper and pour it directly onto the floor.
After so many years, only the heavens knew how thick the layer of copper on this floor had become.
A conservative estimate would be over several thousand cubic meters, which would roughly calculate to about fifty thousand tons.
This was a true secret vault.
The amount of gold and silver piled up like mountains far surpassed the treasury of the State of Yue; anyone who entered this place would tremble in awe.
If Shen Lang had seen this scene, he would have been greatly astonished and thought to himself.
‘What on earth is the Rousseau Clan planning? It seems your ambition doesn't end with just being the Guardian of the South.’
However, Princess Dora and the others showed no reaction upon seeing this secret vault.
They had no interest whatsoever in things like gold; they would much rather have cake or ice cream.