Chapter 348: Black-robed Silver-haired Young Master Twelve
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Purple Crystal Pavilion of the True Capital was the highest building in the city and the symbol of power and authority.
A man with superior aura and a dominating presence was standing in front of a giant screen. Every move he screamed of elegance. He was wearing a Chinese jacket with a straight collar that had a five-clawed golden dragon sewn on it. Even though it was just casual wear, the attire represented a certain status.
In the ancient times of the old civilization, only the emperor, the ruler, or the person with the highest authority and power in the entire world was worthy of such attire.
In the Purple Moon era, such rules were obsolete, so anyone could wear the prestigious attire if they wanted to.
However, no one was willing to bear such a high profile unless their power matched their image.
All the powerhouses knew that such a prestigious attire was favored by a certain powerful man in the True Capital and he disliked anyone else sharing the same attire or even the same style unless he acknowledged them or the person was a rival or a friend with the same level of power.
This man was the castellan of the True Capital. He was known as Emperor Han—Huangfu Zhengjing.
He was not exactly calm at the moment. The footages playing on the screen sent him into deep thought.
Huangfu Zhengjing was a proud man, yet he was able to remain unusually rational at the same time. Therefore, he never took the young geniuses, who were on the rise, seriously.
Firstly, his pride reminded him that the achievements of the young geniuses were not worthy of his attention.
Secondly, his logic reminded him that a genius could only remain a genius if he or she could grow and prosper. Otherwise, those young geniuses were nothing more than a meteor flying over the sky.
Of course, there was indeed a genius that caught Huangfu Zhengjing’s attention, or more precisely, a girl.
Her name was Higan and her talent ability was so overwhelming and astonis.h.i.+ng to the point that she could be considered as the acme of fear. Therefore, after the last Moon Chasing Celebration, Huangfu Zhengjing had branded her name in his heart. He had also asked his trusted four kings for their opinions about her.
Other than Higan, Huangfu Zhengjing never spared a glance at Tang Feng’s son, or the first of all geniuses, Tang Long.
He knew that sometimes, the secret weapon should never be revealed on the table. The best sword would never simply leave its sheath. However, it seemed like he was wrong about this.
Huangfu Zhengjing paused the footage on the screen as he sat down in the s.p.a.cious but quiet room. He brought a pair of antique walnut b.a.l.l.s of the highest quality from the old civilization and started spinning them in his hand.
“Maybe the era has really changed. The Northern First Defense Line…” Huangfu Zhengjing started to mutter to himself as the pair of antique walnuts were spinning faster.
“Tang Long? Tang Ling? Especially Tang Ling…he’s involved with The First? Is this hinting at something?” As his muttering continued, Huangfu Zhengjing slowly closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep. His incoherence eventually faded into nothing.
…
In Starstay City.
On the huge Floating Island No. 1 was a strange-looking building.
The building resembled a s.p.a.ce battles.h.i.+p that only appeared in sci-fi movies of the old civilization, but since that particular image was very abstract, it also somehow resembled a transformed castle.
Therefore, this building was named the Battles.h.i.+p Fortress. It was connected to the Sky Castle further away on Floating Island No. 2.
Everyone in Starstay City knew that the Battles.h.i.+p Fortress was where the true power of the city lay.
There were more than 10 core councilmen from the Stardust Council stationed there all year long. Even the mysterious president of the council was inside the Battles.h.i.+p Fortress.
Rumor had it that he had already surpa.s.sed the threshold of rank 7 Purple Moon Warrior, and was officially starting rank 8. He no longer cared about the matters happening in the world as he concentrated on achieving the legendary state of rank 9 and hoped to break certain walls of limitations.
Meanwhile, deep inside the Battles.h.i.+p Fortress, a middle-aged man was sitting in seiza style inside the room made entirely out of the Universal Source Rock. He was as still as a statue and appeared not to be breathing.
Three minutes later, a cyclone-like stream gushed out from his mouth. With a single exhale, his breath traveled a dozen meters ahead. After the breath scattered, the middle-aged man slowly opened his eyes.
His heart failed to remain calm. It was his wrong judgement that had spared Tang Ling the last time and he never expected Tang Ling to turn out to be Tang Feng’s son. Now, the kid was rapidly rising.
Everything felt like a joke.
The middle-aged man slowly stood up and opened the window in the room. The violent streams of air flowed in, yet nothing on him fluttered, not even a strand of hair.
He was the dignified and indomitable president of the Stardust Council. Why should he care about a mere kid like Tang Ling? He could even turn a blind eye to Tang Feng entirely!
No matter how glorious and grand Tang Feng’s achievements were, the Dragon Army that he once led had lost to the Stardust Council.
Everything had been determined from the start of the Purple Moon era. Tang Feng would never succeed. The events that happened in the end told everyone that the Stardust Council was correct. No, the Stardust Council was destined to be on the correct path.
The president of the council was confident of it.
But now, Tang Ling has ties with The First…
With that in mind, he recalled the scene that he saw an hour ago.
The middle-aged man was quite cold and calm, yet there were several beads of nervous sweat on his forehead. He somehow looked…afraid. Whenever a person was afraid of something, the likelihood of that particular something tending to happen was higher.
Before the fear on the middle-aged man’s face faded, a shadow appeared in the room made out of the Universal Source Rock.
Being very sensitive, after he sensed the presence of the shadow, he spun around and appeared in the center of the room in a flash. He knelt down without even looking at the shadow.
“My dear President, what’s your opinion about your own mistake?” The shadow was cast on the wall of the Universal Source Rock. It was blurry and barely formed the shape of a man.
However, even though he faced just a rough silhouette and a calm voice, the dignified president of the council dared not even lift his head up. He dared not answer! Originally, the mistake was nothing severe. Since he did not take Tang Feng seriously, why would the shadow be any less?
What could Tang Ling, Tang Feng’s son, possibly do?
However, once The First was involved…The middle-aged man could not bear the consequences of the mistake.
“No answer, President?” The silence of the president made the shadow unhappy, so its tone started to fluctuate.
“I’ll do my best to make up for the mistake.” The president lowered his head further and almost pressed his forehead to the floor. Drops of sweat rolled down and soon wetted the reflective floor as the pressure he was facing was tremendous.
“Make up for your mistake?” the shadow sneered. In the next moment, the quiet room got windy and cyclones were whipped up without a sign. Wind blades formed from the cyclones and flew towards the president.
The wind blades might be powerful, but if the president wanted to block them, he could do so without any ha.s.sle, but he did not have the courage to! He even straightened his body and faced the wind blades!
The dozen of wind blades mercilessly perforated the president’s body. After letting down his guard, the president’s body was no different than a strong common man’s.
Heavy puncturing noises echoed in the room and lasted for more than 10 seconds before it quietened down.
After the puncturing stopped, the dignified president of the Stardust Council had a dozen b.l.o.o.d.y holes caused by the wind blades all over his body. His blood, which was as dense as mercury, trickled out from the b.l.o.o.d.y holes with a glowing trail.
The president dared not wipe nor treat his injuries at all. Instead, he lowered his body and bent over right away.
The wind blades were not deadly, but a shadow casting such intense wind blades? What kind of power could that be?
“Mistakes must be punished. No one is exempted from this. I’ve already held back, so those are just some flesh injuries, but your core isn’t hurt,” said the shadow.
The middle-aged man quickly thanked the shadow for his kindness to hold back.
“After you are done with everything, kill Tang Ling. As for Tang Long, he must be restricted,” ordered the shadow.
“Noted.”
“On top of that, Higan is back. She’ll see you soon,” said the shadow after a pause.
“Please enlighten me, Master,” the middle-aged man asked in reverence after some hesitation.
“Let her go. It’s no longer important for her to stay in the Stardust Council. The seed has been planted, so it’ll be best if it has the element of surprise. After she leaves, she’ll have nothing to do with the Stardust Council anymore, but…” The shadow paused.
The middle-aged man dared not speak. He was waiting for instructions.
“No one can go unpunished after disobeying me. Do what you see fits,” said the shadow before disappearing after a few pulsations.
The middle-aged man dared not stand up even after the shadow was gone. After a full minute, he finally straightened his body and stood up with fear lingering on his face.
The trickling blood was held back by a mystical force and was soon absorbed back into his body. As his muscles moved, the injuries caused by the wind blades slowly healed and disappeared.
The middle-aged man wiped the sweat off his forehead. His fear was replaced with his usual calm and cold expression. He returned to his seating cus.h.i.+on and knelt, sitting on his thighs again.
“Call Draconic Twelve in.”
The first order had been given.
Draconic Twelve was the most mysterious and the lowest profile of the Stardust Sixteen.
This time around, he did not even partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion in Darkness Port as though he did not care about the chance. Instead, he had stayed back in Starstay City. Compared to the other Stardust Sixteen, he was a little different.
After the order was delivered, the middle-aged man added, “Call Higan over. After the meeting with Draconic Twelve is over, bring her in,”
A mellow and strong answer then came from the door, “Yes, Sir.”
Two minutes later, a door opened in the Universal Source Room. A teen in a hooded black mantle with a strange flute at his waist came in. He bowed to the middle-aged man respectfully and greeted, “President.” As he bowed, a lock of silver hair slipped out of his hood.
If Tang Ling had been around, he would have surely recognized Draconic Twelve because he had been the one who had tossed San San into the bunch of zombies.
He was none other than Draconic Twelve of the Stardust Sixteen!