Chapter 931: They Each Had Their Means
Looking at Kanber’s back, Donald shook his head helplessly, and turned around to return to the camp of the Tower of Dusk. Kanber looked down on the Tower of Dusk, which was a regional force, but his force was no different. However, their power was equal to the Brilliance Shrine’s, and they even had a great advantage because of the Alchemy Colossuses.
However, there was now the addition of the Tower of Dusk which had a dwarf that was very learned in the structure of the Alchemy Colossuses. Once the Tower of Dusk and the Brilliance Shrine could completely unite, what advantage would they have?
“Archbishop Martin, President Felic, in order not to affect our next discussion on the details of cooperation, I got His Highness, Prince Kanber, to head back first. We can go ahead with the discussion now.” Donald returned to the tent and explained himself to Lin Li and the archbishop before returning to his seat.
“Master Donald, with the absence of a leader for your team, it doesn’t seem appropriate to talk about cooperation in this situation. Are you sure you can make decisions on Prince Kanber’s behalf? If you can’t even have a unanimous agreement within your team, what’s the point of talking about cooperation?” Master Basel, who was beside Lin Li, questioned indifferently.
Although it seemed that Donald was not as arrogant and conceited as Kanber was, Basel could tell from Donald’s tone and behavior after returning to the tent that there was actually no difference between the two of them. They similarly looked down on anyone who was not from the Rotterdam Kingdom.
Even Master Basel could not stand the way that the people from the Rotterdam behaved. What a joke. Kanber spoke in such an unruly manner just now, and you came back without any apology at all, yet you immediately decided on everyone’s behalf and went straight to talking about the cooperation. How could there be something so easy!?
Master Basel’s question made Donald’s face grow a little sullen, while anger brewed within him. He was the mighty chief imperial mage of the Rotterdam Kingdom, and he was already being very respectful by sitting there and discussing a cooperation with the President of a local force. Yet, even a subordinate had the audacity to go against him!
However, Donald had just persuaded Kanber. How could he forget what he said immediately? He had no choice but to suppress the anger in his heart. He said, “Everyone, rest a.s.sured, I can make a decision, and I can guarantee that Kanber will never do anything to affect our cooperation.”
Seeing that the atmosphere was a little tense, Archbishop Martin had no choice but to give everyone an out. “Good to hear, good to hear. I believe that under Master Donald’s persuasion, Prince Kanber probably would not do anything that would affect the cooperation. In this case, President Felic, do you think we can talk about the details of our cooperation now?”
Even Archbishop Martin was rather sympathetic towards Donald. There was no great difference in the status of two princes, but the status of a prince and that of a crown prince were worlds apart.
The team of the Brilliance Shrine was indeed led by the unlikeable Prince Jeremiah, but Archbishop Martin could at least suppress him with his position in the Brilliance Shrine. On the other hand, Donald might be the chief imperial mage of the Rotterdam, and also had a high position, but Kanber was the genuine heir to the throne. Hence, it was impossible to suppress him. Donald had to have spent a long time convincing Prince Kanber to agree to the cooperation.
Prince Jeremiah, who was sitting next to Archbishop Martin, was also secretly thankful and glad at this moment. He had not expected the pretentious Kanber to be chased out. Fortunately, he had not gone ahead with him and said anything offensive. With that example, Jeremiah immediately behaved himself, and remained still in his seat with his head hung low and his eyes fixed on the table as if there was a beautiful painting on it.
Lin Li still had to show Archbishop Martin some face. Besides, he had originally intended to make the people of the Rotterdam cannon fodder. Hence, he naturally couldn’t really let the cooperation talks stop. After hearing Archbishop Martin’s attempt at persuasion, Lin Li nodded, and said, “Alright, since Master Donald is confident that that Prince Kanber will not do anything to affect the cooperation, let’s put this aside and discuss the details of the cooperation.”
In fact, Lin Li did not really care whether or not Prince Kanber would do anything to affect the cooperation. An insignificant figure like him could easily be destroyed by Lin Li. As long as the people from the Rotterdam fell for it, it would not be up to them to decide if they wanted to be cannon fodder or not when the time came.
“Since we have reached a consensus on the issue of cooperation, we should exchange information. Master Donald, would you like to share the information you have first?” Although Lin Li said to put that matter aside, it was obvious that he was not going to give Donald a good time. Hence, he decided to make them reveal what they knew first.
In the current situation, Donald obviously could not say that he was not willing to do so. If that matter had not happened, he could’ve still played some tricks and tried to decline. However, he now had to show some genuine sincerity. He had no choice but to take out a scroll and unroll it on the table while secretly cursing at Kanber for being foolish. He said, “This scroll, which was handed down in our royal family in the Rotterdam Kingdom, describes the structure of the Sky Castle.”
In the past, Lin Li had obtained a design sketch of the Sky Castle in the Scar of Death. At that time, after studying that sketch, Lin Li felt that he could even build a Sky Castle on his own based on the information on the sketch. However, in reality, that was simply impossible. Not only did he need a ma.s.sive amount of precious materials, the Sky Castle was huge, and its structure was incomparably complex. How could everything be presented on a single sketch?
If it was built according to that sketch, Lin Li would not even be able to build a simplified version of the Sky Castle like the Eternal Furnace, much less a real Sky Castle. The only thing that could be built would probably be an ordinary castle on earth that looked like a Sky Castle, which would be extremely difficult to live in.
The painting that Donald took out was not actually a design sketch, but a description of the structure of the Sky Castle. It was like a city map that stated where the control center was, mentioned the important function of each area, and so on. Besides, it only described a small part of the structure of the Sky Castle. Seeing that Donald had taken it out without hesitation, Lin Li reckoned that he had to have a more valuable sketch.
However, to Lin Li, the structure diagram was insignificant regardless of whether it was complete or not. He had the control crystal of the Sky Castle, and although he couldn’t control the entire Sky Castle now, he could still understand the situation of the Sky Castle through the control crystal.
“Is this… the structure diagram of the Sky Castle?” Archbishop Martin asked in shock as he looked at the diagram on the table. Although they had first entered into a cooperation agreement with the people of the Rotterdam, the agreement was only a ceasefire. It did not reach the point of exchanging information. Hence, it was his first time seeing the structure diagram as well.
“Yes, the ancestors of the Rotterdam Kingdom had the bloodline of the High Elves and the n.o.ble position granted by the High Elven queen herself. Hence, there were a few ancestors who had the privilege of living in this Sky Castle for a period of time. Besides, the structure of this Sky Castle was drawn by those ancestors from memory after they left this place.” At the mention of it, Donald couldn’t help but reveal a prideful expression.
Although only the royals of the Rotterdam Kingdom had the bloodline of the High Elves in the beginning, after thousands and thousands of years of reproduction, the vast majority of people in the current Rotterdam Kingdom could be said to possess a trace of the High Elven bloodline. Hence, even though Donald wasn’t a member of the royal family, he was considered a descendant of those ancestors, and there were traces of High Elven blood in his body.
Psht, what’s there to be proud of? Aren’t you just a bunch of b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!? Jeremiah, the prince of Ledin Kingdom, thought to himself. He was definitely the n.o.ble of n.o.bles. However, after a few days of interaction, he still felt the contempt of the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom despite being slow-witted.
In the eyes of the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom, only the n.o.bles who had been conferred their t.i.tles during the High Elves’ dynasty could be considered real n.o.bles. The so-called n.o.bles of the human kingdoms, including the royals, were all just country b.u.mpkins. Even the people of the Rotterdam who were not n.o.bles felt that they were superior to other nations because they had the High Elven blood.
Of course, Jeremiah’s displeasure was limited to just a couple of curses in his heart. One reason was that it involved relations between nations. If he were to voice his thoughts out loud, it would be tantamount to offending everyone in the entire Rotterdam Kingdom, and that would result in disputes between nations. Another reason was that he had already provoked the Tower of Dusk, and would not be stupid enough to mess with the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom next.
Donald slightly restrained some of his arrogance, and took a sweeping glance at everyone present. He said, “With the structure diagram of the Sky Castle, we can find anything we want easily. At least, we won’t have to search around blindly. I believe it will be quite useful for the upcoming exploration. As for the authenticity of this structure diagram, I believe that you all should be able to judge it.”
It was clear what Donald meant. Since they dared to go there to explore, they definitely knew something about the Sky Castle. If they could not judge the authenticity of the diagram, they would not qualify to cooperate with him.
“I didn’t expect you to actually have the structure diagram of the Sky Castle. Indeed, the guidance of this structure diagram will be of much help to us in our upcoming exploration.” Of course, Archbishop Martin also knew that the diagram only depicted a small party of the Sky Castle. However, the so-called exchange of information wasn’t really about sharing all the information that they each had. The main purpose was to prove that each of them was worthy enough to be part of the cooperation, and to determine their position in the cooperation.
“In this case, Archbishop Martin, what preparations has the Brilliance Shrine made this time?” Donald smiled proudly, but instead of urging Lin Li, he directed the question at the Brilliance Shrine.
In Donald’s eyes, the strength of the Tower of Dusk could not be considered negligible, but it was not that significant, either. The only thing worth valuing was their alchemical expert dwarf. Hence, during that exploration, the only compet.i.tor of the Rotterdam Kingdom was actually still the Brilliance Shrine—as it had always been.
“Heh, what we have is a far cry from this structure diagram of the Sky Castle,” Archbishop Martin said humbly. At the same time, he took out a wooden box and placed it on the table. He gently pressed the lid to open it, revealing the item inside.
“Key?”
After seeing what was in the box, Donald and Lin Li were momentarily stunned.
It was just a key that looked extremely normal. Beside it, there were many more like it. However, after recovering from shock, Lin Li immediately saw from the appearance of those keys that they were not meant for unlocking ordinary locks. After understanding that, Lin Li immediately thought of something. He wondered, Could these keys be used for opening the doors of some important places in the Sky Castle?
“Yes, these are keys. There are 36 sets of keys here, the very ones used to open the gates of the 36 Magic Towers, not including the Central Tower. These keys were part of a relic found in a ruin of the High Elves that was unearthed by a few bishops shortly after the end of the Dark Age.” Although Archbishop Martin said that it was inferior to Donald’s structure diagram, he actually sounded extremely confident at this moment.
Anyone could tell that apart from the Central Tower, there was definitely a large amount of treasures in the other 36 Magic Towers of the Sky Castle as well. Although one might not really be denied entry without those keys, there would definitely still be a great price to pay if one were to try and barge in. After all, the owner of the Sky Castle had still been the Immortal King.
In fact, Donald was still doubting whether Lin Li had really explored the Sky Castle. He had heard from Archbishop Martin that Lin Li was still just a level-22 Legendary-mage when he’d first explored the Sky Castle. Even though several forces had joined forces, the strongest in the team was only an elder of the elves who was probably only at level-23.
Donald could not imagine how a force like theirs had actually dared to explore the Immortal King’s Sky Castle, and even managed to obtain quite a few treasures from the Central Tower. The Immortal King was a mythical figure. If his Sky Castle had been invaded that easily, wouldn’t it have been a huge joke?