Chapter 1038: Let’s Go Together
Actually, the Gilded Kingdom needed that negotiation more than the forces in the Breezy Plains. That was also the reason they put on a domineering front as soon as they appeared, vehemently refusing to give any concessions, because they knew that once they let up, there would be a chance that their opponents would realize the situation that they were in. By then, those forces would definitely be even more aggressive.
However, what Cantory and the rest did not expect was that the young president of the Tower of Dusk did not care about the so-called forceful deterrence of the Gilded Kingdom. He was either confident that he could deal with the Gilded Kingdom, or had already seen through the facade of the Gilded Kingdom’s envoys, and knew that they were only pretending to be intimidating. However, regardless of the reason, they’d already caused Cantory and the others to fall into a dilemma.
In that case, could they leave the Tower of Dusk out and reach an agreement with the forces of the Breezy Plains? If the Tower of Dusk was just an ordinary local force, there would naturally be no problem with doing that. However, the Tower of Ashes was not an ordinary local force. How could they have the rights to replace a powerhouse like the Ashen Warlock[1]?
At this moment, Cantory and the others finally realized that the Tower of Dusk that they did not take seriously had actually put them in such a tricky situation. They also played an extremely important role in their plan. In fact, it could be said that they would determine the success or failure of the whole plan. Therefore, although Cantory was incredibly infuriated and frustrated, there was nothing he could do about the Tower of Dusk.
This time, the representatives of the various forces did not leave together with the members of the Tower of Dusk, but neither they nor the Gilded Kingdom were interested in continuing with the negotiation. Due to Lin Li’s departure, the negotiation had to end fruitlessly again. Cantory and the others could no longer be bothered to bid the others goodbye as they hurriedly left the conference hall.
The representatives of the various forces remained seated. They were also dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events. Previously, they had thought that it was just a negotiation tactic of the young president of the Tower of Dusk, but this time they felt that he was not putting on an act. Instead, he really didn’t take the negotiation to heart.
This time, not to mention the envoys of the Gilded Kingdom, even the representatives of these forces were rather anxious. They were hoping that there would be a force that could contend with Tower of Dusk, but they did not really want to get into a war in the Breezy Plains. All the forces would definitely be involved in such a conflict. By then, they would all end up becoming cannon fodder, and that did not align with their interests.
Besides, the Gilded Kingdom was afraid of the Ashen Warlock who was supporting the Tower of Dusk, but the forces of the Breezy Plains knew that the young president of the Tower of Dusk was the most terrifying one. They did not think that the Gilded Kingdom would care about them if a war were to really break out. Besides, the Tower of Dusk would start taking revenge on them first. They still remembered clearly the consequences that some forces had suffered for offending the Tower of Dusk. It was truly a ruthless reprisal.
The forces wanted the Gilded Kingdom to turn against the Tower of Dusk, but they didn’t want to be the cannon fodder of either party. Hence, the negotiation would definitely be mandatory. However, the members of the Tower of Dusk were clearly no longer interested in the negotiation, and the other factions were just as anxious as the Gilded Kingdom’s representatives.
In fact, the Plains’ forces were clear that what they were doing now was unethical as they were already harming the interests of the Tower of Dusk. After all, the Tower of Dusk was originally already at the pinnacle of the Breezy Plains and dominated over the rest. Now, they were trying to give the Tower of Dusk an opponent to deal with. That was obviously harming the interests of the Tower of Dusk.
Due to their guilty conscience, those forces began to get increasingly anxious and worried after seeing the behavior of the representatives of the Tower of Dusk. They did not want to end up offending the Tower of Dusk and gaining nothing. This time, if they could reach a consensus, it would still be alright, but if they could not, their forces would not be able to escape, since they were situated in the Breezy Plains.
On the other hand, when the representatives of the various forces were discussing countermeasures for the matter of the Tower of Dusk in the conference hall, Cantory and the others from the Gilded Kingdom headed to a lounge outside the conference hall instead of returning to the battleship in the port.
As soon as they entered the lounge, Cantory, who had been holding back for a long time, immediately lost his temper and vented his anger for a long time before stopping. He then said, “Elder Jorre, I think you’d better invite Elder Rustin and the others to come and just destroy the Tower of Dusk. These guys are simply too arrogant!”
Elder Rustin Cantory mentioned was the chief elder of the Illuminati who was a true Sanctuary powerhouse, and was not inferior to the pope of the Illuminati in power. Cantory clearly did not just want to destroy the Tower of Dusk—he wanted to eliminate the Ashen Warlock as well.
Hearing Cantory’s words, Elder Jorre shook his head a little, and waited for Cantory to calm down before slowly saying, “Rustin and the other Sanctuary-realm elders are all busy with monitoring the Endless Ocean, and have no time to come. Besides, if they really stepped on the mainland, the horror that they would face would be more than just the Ashen Warlock. They might also have to face those people from the Brilliance Shrine and the Supreme Council.”
Ordinary people might be puzzled and wonder why they had to monitor the Endless Ocean, but as senior executives of the Gilded Kingdom, Nasry and Cantory knew the reason. In fact, they visited the Breezy Plains this time as envoys as they were greatly involved in this matter. The problem of resources was actually not the most important.
This time, the largest magic tides appeared in Anril. Although the Gilded Kingdom was far away in the sea, it was also greatly affected. At first, just like those on the mainland, many of their mages who broke through the bottleneck saw a huge increase in their strength, which was an extremely joyous affair for many of them. However, to their surprise, there were also some unknown changes under the influence of the magic tides, thus causing the Gilded Kingdom’s environment to become increasingly harsher.
That was the very reason that the people of the Gilded Kingdom thought of sending envoys to the Breezy Plains to collect a large amount of resources that they needed, and also to make preparations. If things in the Gilded Kingdom were to really reach an unmanageable state, the Breezy Plains, which was in between the Felan Kingdom and Ledin Kingdom, would undoubtedly be the foothold of the Gilded Kingdom in Anril.
In fact, another hidden purpose of buying the mineral resources that belonged to the local factions was to create a suitable excuse for the Gilded Kingdom to enter the Breezy Plains. Hence, whether the negotiation in the Breezy Plains went well would likely be related to the future survival of the Gilded Kingdom.
In addition to their inherent arrogance, Cantory and the others were domineering because they wanted to hide the awkward situation that the Gilded Kingdom was in. If others were to discover it, they would probably end up in a pa.s.sive position.
“Do we really have to apologize to that unruly guy and invite him back for the negotiation?” Cantory asked indignantly. As the top elite of his generation, he had never bowed down to anyone and swallowed his pride to apologize, as it was harder for him than dying.
“Cantory, if we can secure our footing in the Breezy Plains, do you think the Tower of Dusk can pose a threat to us?” Jorre asked while stroking his beard and looking at Cantory.
At his words, Cantory’s eyes finally lit up again. Actually, Elder Jorre’s idea was very simple: he felt that it would not be too late to take revenge then. If the Gilded Kingdom and the Illuminati got a footing in the Breezy Plains, wouldn’t it be easy for them to deal with the Tower of Dusk?
While the representatives of the forces from the Breezy Plains, as well as the members of the Gilded Kingdom, were discussing the countermeasures to take after Lin Li’s departure, Lin Li, who was the center of attention, leisurely led Alan and the others on a casual stroll in Calon City. They even went to the so-called black market where they bought many inconspicuous articles. It was not for the sake of earning money, but purely for leisure and relaxation.
Lin Li only returned to the Malfa Family’s residence when the sky was turning dark. However, he saw the representatives of the forces who had been waiting for an unknown period of time in the courtyard.
They were pacing around anxiously, and immediately beamed with joy when they saw Lin Li returning with the others. They quickly approached, and were almost greeting Lin Li deferentially.
“Are you all here to send me off? I appreciate your goodwill. Since you guys have so much work to do, don’t waste time here anymore,” Lin Li said while leading Alan and the others through the crowd. Soon, they arrived in front of a door of a certain place.
Lin Li’s words caused the people present to feel awkward. Since they arrived in Calon City for the negotiation, they had already taken the initiative to meet Lin Li several times before. One reason was that they had a guilty conscience, and the other was that they felt that since the Tower of Dusk had the Gilded Kingdom as an opponent, they probably could no longer dominate the Breezy Plains. Hence, the other factions would naturally not have to obey Lin Li.
However, things had now developed beyond their control, and they had no choice but to take initiative to see Lin Li. They hoped that there would be a force to contend with the Tower of Dusk, but they did not hope for there to be a war in the Breezy Plains again, as that would harm their interests. Besides, they still wanted the Tower of Dusk to stand up for them and help them reap more benefits from the Gilded Kingdom.
Initially, they were somewhat reserved, and just hoped to persuade Lin Li to return to the negotiation. Some were even confident that they would succeed in persuading him. However, before they could even get to the main topic, they could tell from Lin Li’s words that they were going to leave.
“President Felic, are you leaving now?” asked Joseph, the representative and former patriarch of the Mithril Alliance, someone Lin Li knew too.
Due to the fact that Joseph’s behavior in Prince Brahere’s mausoleum had brought about significant losses to the Mithril Alliance, Elvis took over all of Joseph’s authority. Now, Elvis had stepped into the Sanctuary-realm, and although he had done so with the power of the magic tides, his status in the Mithril Alliance was unshakable. Joseph had no choice but to follow Elvis and join the negotiation in the Gilded Kingdom as a representative of the Mithril Alliance.
Joseph’s question was exactly what everyone else thought. Hence, they fell silent at this moment, and were all looking at Lin Li nervously, waiting to hear his answer.
Lin Li glanced at everyone with a nonchalant smile, and he naturally said, “Of course. Since there isn’t an outcome, why bother wasting time here? The Gilded Kingdom is very powerful. When I go back, I must make arrangements and get ready to face the music from the king of the Gilded Kingdom, and maybe you guys.”
Lin Li’s last sentence made everyone frightened to the point of getting gooseb.u.mps. What a joke! With that Sky Castle, the Tower of Dusk could be considered extremely st.u.r.dy, and even if the forces in the Breezy Plains united, they would not be able to defeat the Tower of Dusk unless they had someone like Geresco on their side. Besides, the Tower of Dusk had a terrifying Sanctuary powerhouse whose abilities were not inferior to those of the Ashen Warlock.
After thinking about the Tower of Dusk’s power carefully, those people no longer hoped for the Tower of Dusk to fight with the Gilded Kingdom. If the two forces were to really duke it out, there would be no chance for them to reap any benefits, and they could only end up being the ones losing out.
“President Felic, you must be joking. If the Gilded Kingdom dares to lay a finger on the Tower of Dusk, we, the Mithril Alliance, definitely won’t condone it. No matter what kind of enemies we face, the Mithril Alliance will stay firm and stand by the Tower of Dusk.” Having learned his lesson previously, Joseph did not hesitate to show his loyalty to Lin Li.
“Yeah, President Felic, the Gilded Kingdom is nothing. They’re just foreign barbarians. I think we’d better just leave together. Anyway, the Gilded Kingdom doesn’t seem sincere about the negotiation,” said a representative of the Caesar Family, who was also someone Lin Li was acquainted with. It was Claus’ grandson, Charles, who had once been in a conflict with Lin Li.
[1] I think the author made a mental shortcut here: they think TofA is supporting TofD, so they have scruples about TofD.