After leaving the square, Austin headed straight to the Royal Palace where a large number of palaces were located.
Austin's palace was located in that area too. Since he had been away from home for a long time, he went straight to his palace.
As he approached his residence, he found over twenty men near the closed door. Some of them kicked the door aggressively shouting, some spitted on the door and some even threw stones into the yard.
'What's going on in there? They are not my men.
Who dared to send them to stir up trouble in my palace?' he wondered.
Austin stood still and kept observing the mob. They acted in a bossy, rude manner.
The door opened, and out came a middle-aged man, followed by dozens of guards.
The man who took the lead was Mike. Before Austin had entered the Mysterious Nether World, he had asked him to take charge of his palace.
"Guys, what's your business here?" Mike inquired with a little frown.
His voice was full of caution as if he was afraid of those people.
Austin was baffled. 'All those guys are at the eighth or ninth level of the Energy Gathering Realm except one of them who is at preliminary stage of Earth Realm. Mike is a cultivator of the Earth Realm. Why is he behaving like this?'
"Hmm. How dare you ask us? Send your men to clean up our master's yard. From now, you will assign servants to tidy our master's palace. And you will also send a dozen maids to serve our master," the guard at the preliminary stage of the Earth Realm spoke in a domineering manner.
It looked like he was the leader of those people.
"What? But I already sent people to do the cleaning this morning."
There was exasperation and resignation in Mike's voice.
"Our master, Soren, said that your men need to come over there to do the cleaning twice in a day—in the morning and in the evening—from today onwards.
Besides, you need to pay us five thousand vital energy crystals daily instead of a thousand from now," the guard continued scornfully.
"Five thousand vital energy crystals every day!
You're going too far. We've already paid you a thousand vital energy crystals daily for a month. When do we stop paying you?"
Mike responded indignantly.
"You speak too much. You should be thankful that our master allows you to live here instead of kicking you out. Now what? You got a problem with that?
Our master said you either pay vital energy crystals or move out of here. If you defy him, our master will take care of you in person. At that time, all of you will be dead or badly injured. That's all I can tell. It's your decision now, old man," the guard snorted and raised his chin with contempt all over his face.
"The emperor granted this palace to our master. Who has given your master the authority to throw us out?" Mike snapped, trembling with anger.
Obviously he was simmering with rage, but he was trying hard to control his temper as if there were some concerns and reasons that bothered him.
The leader of the guards burst into laughter as if he had heard a funny joke.
"So what? There are hundreds of special guests in this place, and the emperor provided each of them with a palace.
And that Austin is just a brat. He acts arrogantly and creates trouble only because he is stronger than some people. Our master says he needs to teach him a lesson so that he will learn to behave himself."
"I see. But who is Soren?" Austin murmured curiously.
'Who the hell is Soren? Why did he ask Mike to pay him a thousand vital energy crystals and send people to clean up his palace daily over the past month?'
Austin could tell by the guard's tone that Soren did this on purpose, probably to give him a hard time. Since he had messed with many people, he speculated that Soren intended to confront him for some of his enemies.
Meanwhile, he got to know that the palaces in the Royal Palace were inhabited by the special guests of the royal family.
The so-called special guests of the royal family were cultivators with a good cultivation base whom the emperor had recruited. The royal family provided them with a comfortable life, and when they were needed, they would work for the emperor.
'When I won the first place in the Outstanding Talents Exchange Games, the emperor gave me this palace. It looks like he planned to bribe me with this to be loyal to the royal family, ' Austin analyzed.
"It looks like Soren is one of the special guests of the royal family. But now that he has provoked me, I'll make him pay a heavy price," he muttered.
Austin sneered in contempt before making his way to his residence.
"Are you giving us the vital energy crystals or not? I don't have all day. Don't try my patience," the leader of the guards shouted at him because Mike didn't give him a reply.
"What is it, Mike? Why are there so many jerks shouting around here?"
Austin's voice reached Mike's ears.
Upon hearing the words, Mike was relieved and overjoyed. He looked in the direction where the voice came from and saw a good-looking lad walking towards him slowly. It was Austin.
He gushed, "You're back, Austin!"
The arrogant guard was taken aback. He was surprised. With a stunned expression, he asked, "You're Austin?"
He was bullying Austin's men in his palace, but didn't expect to meet Austin.
The next moment, he tried to get rid of his shock, and the haughty expression appeared on his face again.
"Austin, here you are! Our master, Soren, has asked you to come over and kneel before him. Since you're new here, my master wants to help you learn some rules," the leader of the guards said smugly.
'Not surprising to see that he is such a coward. He is acting so aggressively because of his master, ' Austin sneered.
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