Ultragene Warlord

roof.

In general, kings of the realm didn't tend to carry the proof of kingship with them, and the only one who knew where it might be located besides the king himself was the one person he trusted more than any other in the world: his own son, Duan Gen.

If Duan Gen possessed that proof of kingship, he could very well initiate the ceremony to coronate a new king, which would cause even more trouble for Zhang Lie.
And if Duan Gen were to take the throne, unpolished, inexperienced, and crippled though he might be, he would still be the king of the realm of a large world, and there was the potential for even more trouble in Zhang Lie's horizon.

Duan Gen didn't even need to initiate such a ceremony; just keeping the proof hidden would be sufficient to foil Zhang Lie's plans.
Even if Zhang Lie were to set up a government, the moment someone else became the king of the realm, all the structures of power in the world would be meaningless.

On the other hand, as long as he were to deliver the proof of kingship to Li Zongming's hands, that alone would be sufficient to consider the world of the west 'conquered'.
That was how important the proof of kingship was, and the reason he was in Duan Gen's rooms now.

Duan Gen, controlled by the mistmeld clam soulshard, began, “Father hid the proof of kingship in a place no one would ever think to look in.”

Indeed, as Zhang Lie had suspected, Duan Zisuan had told his son about where it had been hidden—perhaps to allow his son one last chance at negotiation even if everything were to go awry.

Despite all of Duan Zisuan's plans, he had never anticipated that his son's captor would be equipped with a soulshard with the ability of mental compulsion.

“Where is it located?”

“The mouth of the golden dragon decorating the roof of my father's quarters.”

“…there?”

Duan Gen nodded.
“Father said that the safest location was the most dangerous, and the most dangerous location was the safest.”

Indeed, no one would have guessed that the proof of kingship was located in such an ostentatious location.

Zhang Lie had suspected that it was kept in the royal treasury, just as the scaleman king had done, or in some location only the king of the realm and Duan Gen knew about.
This was why the servants loyal to the Duan had no choice but to bring Duan Gen away, because he was the only remaining person in the world to know where the proof was hidden.

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Zhang Lie had even considered the notion that there might be some hidden passageway or special mechanism by which the proof would need to be recovered.

The fact that it was simply hidden in an obscure location made it far easier to recover than he had suspected.

After finding out where the proof of kingship was, the only remaining problem was dealing with Duan Gen himself.

Beheading him felt like letting him off far too easily; Zhang Lie had suffered greatly because of what he had done, and Li Qianlin had even died because of him.
Even crippling this bastard himself wasn't enough.
He wanted Duan Gen to suffer as he himself had suffered a hundred times, a thousand times over.

“From today onwards, you'll be no prince, just a lowly beggar, one everyone can kick or step on.”

Zhang Lie settled on deep hypnosis.
From that day onward, Duan Gen, the erstwhile beloved prince of the realm, would experience a complete reversal of fortune…