The Magus Era

In the pavilion, where the headquarters of the alliance of human clans was located, a long, stone table was placed in the middle. Representatives of the humankind and Di Family were sitting by each side of the table, facing each other.

Ji Hao sat next to Si Wen Ming and Huaxu Lie, facing Di Falang. Di Falong was an elderly Yu Clan man, who had a graceful look, and long, silvery white hair, which were carefully brushed and plaited into thin, shining braids, hung loosely behind his head.

Di Falang had been concentratedly looking at Ji Hao, from head to toes. As an elder of the Di Family, who was more powerful and holding a higher status than Di Luolang, he was very interested in Ji Hao. In other words, he had keen interests in all talented young human beings, who attained great achievements at a young age.

Ji Hao had been carefully observing Di Falang as well.

Unlike the other Yu Clan people, the sense of power given by Di Falang was gentle and peaceful, as natural as a clear gust of wind. Although the nature of his power still came from the dark and evil Blood Moon bloodline, the darkness and evilness one could sense from his body were both not that fierce; instead, the darkness and evilness of Di Falang were mixed with a restrained, inclusive, even un-harmful sense of power.

Si Wen Ming, Huaxu Lie and other ministers and elders had also been looking at Di Falang with serious looks.

Beside Di Falang were the other two Di Family head elders sitting there, who had their eyes fixed on Si Wen Ming and Huaxu Lie, and were looking at them up to down.

To these elders of the Di Family, this frustration was a heavy strike to their entire family. They didn’t give a damn about those medicine prescriptions, formulae and other science stuff that Ji Hao had extorted from them, neither did those armous and weapons mean anything to the Di Family. However, the fact that Di Sha was killed, Di Suo and Di Mo were captured alive, and nearly a thousand Jia Clan big warriors had all become captives of the humankind; all these together, was like an unimaginably great crisis to the entire Di Family.

If they couldn’t handle this crisis well, the new Emperor in power, Dishi Yanluo, would definitely give the order to kill without any hesitation and teach the Di Family a bone-deep, grave lesson. Nevertheless, if they could handle this crisis perfectly, this would become an amazing opportunity for the Di Family to rise; as for the price they had to pay, was nothing more than the fall of the Qian Family.

Representatives of the humankind and Di Family had been silently observing each other for an entire quarter of an hour till now, none of them saying anything.

After a very, very long while, Ji Hao abruptly stood up, smilingly nodded to Di Falang and said, “You came all the way here but have been just sitting there and haven’t said anything yet, I assume that you’re too starving to talk, right? We have prepared some delicate dishes and wine especially for you, why don’t we talk about the business after you filled your stomachs? What do you think?

In negotiations, whoever talked the first would lose the advantage, Di Falang and the other Di Family elders were all deeply aware of this.

But now, facing Ji Hao’s weird, ridiculous suggestion, Di Falang had to talk. Fill their stomachs before talking about the real business? How ridiculous! The Di Family was now like a piece of meat grilling on a bonfire, if they couldn’t solve this severe issue here, the whole family would fall into a serious trouble.

“A banquet is not necessary, let’s address ourselves to the business first.” Di Falang sighed and said. Upon the current situation, the Di Family was like a piece of meat on the chopping block, while the humankind was like the knife. ‘Sometimes, some slight disadvantages are inevitable.’ thought Di Falang helplessly.

“So let’s head to the business.” Si Wen Ming smiled and patted on Ji Hao’s back, hinting him to sit back down. After that, he knitted his long and dark pair of eyebrows to a serious degree, then threw the question out with an extra serious tone, “Dear elders of the Di Family, what is the Di Family’s decision on this?”

“Fully cooperate!” Also with an especially serious look, Di Falang raised his right hand. On that white and tender hand which looked like a hand of a young girl, five extremely luxury and exquisite rings, made from gold and inlaid with jade and gemstones, had been shining with beautiful, multicolored light and releasing strong, vibrating power streams. He seriously looked at Si Wen Ming and continued, “Our Di Family has already started preparing on this. In five days at least and half a month at most, all our armies which were sent to the Chi Ban Mountain area will launch full-strength attacks at the Evil Dragon Bay.”

Evil Dragon Bay!

Huaxu Lie clapped his hands and following that, over ten inner palace Magi walked over to the long table, pressed their hands on the table and injected their powers into it. Instantly, a magic sandbox appeared on the table. Si Wen Ming quickly slipped his fingers upon the sandbox to switch the images in it, and soon found the location of the Evil Dragon Bay.

That was a fluvial plain, located where two curved rivers meet and was covered in wetlands and swamps, but had flat terrain.

The Evil Dragon Bay was an extremely important and essential supporting spot of the battle line on the side of the humankind. If the non-humankind armies broke into defensive line set in the Evil Dragon Bay by the humankind, what was located behind the Evil Dragon Bay was nothing else but a fragile blockade line in a valley area. After breaking into that blockade line, the non-humankind armies would be able to go straight deep into the area occupied by the humankind, and could at least push the frontal line towards the South by at least three-hundred thousand miles.

The defensive line of the human army was extending and all supporting spots were connected, but if one supporting spot was broken and that section of defensive line was pushed inwards for three-hundred thousand miles, the entire defensive line of the human army would definitely and immediately fall into chaos. When the moment came, if non-humankind armies, which were dispersed in other areas, combined their powers and launched full-strength attacks, although they might not be able to easily destroy the entire human army in the Chi Ban Mountain area, but to annihilate a great number of elite human warriors would be totally possible.

However, although the Evil Dragon Bay was a plain, the terrain environment in that area was quite complicated, and the soil was soft, had high water coverage, all of which made the Evil Dragon Bay a perfect place for setting an ambush.

“We have already let the spy hiding in our Di Family know that our Di Family will put our best effort to launch all-out attacks at the Blood Cloud Mountain area, which is located thirty-miles away from the Evil Dragon Bay in the South. Therefore, as long as you coordinate with us and take some moves to show that you’re transferring part of your forces out of the Evil Dragon Bay to the Blood Cloud Mountain area, the Qian Family would never let this great opportunity go.”

Di Falang looked at Si Wen Ming with his right hand held perfectly still before Si Wen Ming’s face, and continued, “The Qian Family would love to see that we are catching the human army’s attentions while they are snatching the opportunity we created, and making great contributions by treading upon the dead bodies of our warriors.”

“Are you sure that the Qian Family will buy it?” Ji Hao interrupted Di Falang while staring straight at him with a pair of dagger-sharp eyes.

Di Falang smiled and nodded to Ji Hao, as he responded, “The Qian Family is the enemy of our Di Family, and we know about our enemy the best. This is not some complicated plan; this is simple and straight, therefore, they will certainly bite the bait.”

’This is not some complicated plan; this is simple and straight, therefore, they will certainly bite the bait’!

Si Wen Ming maintained that serious look while staring at Di Falang in the eyes, then reached his hand out and shook Di Falang’s hand with a smile on his face.

Si Wen Ming’s hand was thick and strong, like a bear paw, while Di Falang’s hand was white and tender like an artwork; when these two hands shook each other, a strong contrast was made instantly and all kinds of disharmonious senses could be detected.

“So, it will go as you said.” Si Wen Ming looked at Di Falang, smiled gently and said, “We hope that your Di Family will not make any mistake. Because once a mistake occurrs, we, our humankind, will not lose anything, while you…will definitely fall into a grave trouble.”

Di Falang smiled back at Si Wen Ming and was going to say something, but suddenly, countless eye-piercing beams of light dazzled in the pavilion. Next, over a thousand defensive screens set in this pavilion by Magi Place’s high-level Magi were broken one after another, while a quick series of ear-hurting popping noise came from the air.

“Who is it?!” Si Wen Ming immediately leapt up from his seat and pulled his sword out.

“It’s me!” A silvery and clear voice burst out from the air. Within a single moment, over a thousand defensive magic screens were wiped all out. Feng Qi flew out from a multicolored sphere of glowing mist with a brightly shining, flying spindle held in her hand, then steadily landed on the middle of the long table in a stunningly beautiful shape.

“The phoenix-kind?” Si Wen Ming’s face twitched while murmuring. He put the sword down, unwillingly saluted to Feng Qi and said politely, “Welcome, my dear ambassador of the phoenix-kind, what can I do for you?”

As for Di Falang and the other Di Family elders, they hurriedly raised their arms and hid their faces behind their broad sleeves, then quickly transformed into streams of blood-red mist, and dissipated in the air.