Chapter 1698: Belittlement
No matter how the elders and clan heads tried to explain, Ye Zichen’s expression left them no room to turn this around.
For fear of the Upheaval Alliance’s power and authority, as well as because they were the alliance’s subordinates, they dared not resist. They simply meekly followed Xiao Yumei out of the guest house.
“That’s more like it! How could people like that be qualified to partic.i.p.ate in this meeting?” Gu Li’s already narrow eyes narrowed into slits, and he smirked disdainfully at the cowardly bunch being escorted away.
Some time pa.s.sed before Xiao Yumei returned to the meeting hall.
If it were just a matter of requesting that these people leave, there was no way it should have taken this long. It was clear that, after seeing them off, Xiao Yumei had taken the time to soothe their feelings.
“Big Sister, those cowards aren’t worthy of such concern,” said Xiao Yan.
“So is this how serving as the Lightning Tribulation Emperor all those years changed you?”
It was immediately obvious that Xiao Yan feared his older sister; when he saw her frown, he forced his retort back down, his eyes darting around erratically. He dared not meet her gaze.
“Heh, it’s good we asked them to leave. Their skills aren’t much, but they talk more than anyone.” Gou Yuzhan had been slumping in his chair all this time. The tuft of hair on his head wiggled as he adjusted himself and sat up properly.
“Drop it.” Ye Zichen brought their scattered comments to a halt. Although he didn’t want to see those cowards again, he understood why Xiao Yumei had taken the time to talk things over.
Although the Upheaval Alliance occupied its own Divine Mountain, its reserves and acc.u.mulated experience was far, far inferior to those of the Divine Mountains that had existed since the start of the era.
Furthermore, of the Tenth Divine Mountain’s cities, only Upheaval City showed signs of human civilization. The cities in the ring around it were spa.r.s.ely populated, and beyond that was unsettled territory.
They were lucky to have subordinate factions at all. Naturally, Xiao Yumei had to treat them well.
Inviting them to this meeting had also been an attempt to deepen their feelings for the Upheaval Alliance.
As the head of the alliance, Ye Zichen’s words naturally carried a good deal of weight. The uproar throughout the hall instantly quieted down. Ye Zichen gestured for Xiao Yumei to return to her seat. Then, his gaze circled around the gathered experts under the direct jurisdiction of the Upheaval Alliance.
“Everyone, what do you think of the era-destroying giant beast in the video?”
“What else could we think about them? If they dare come here, their Grandpa Gou Yuzhan will send them to an early grave.” Gou Yuzhan snorted without giving it a second thought. His hands flashed with the light of an auxiliary star, and his words were disdainful.
At the head of the meeting room, both Ye Zichen and Gu Li’s eyebrows shot up. His application of starlight, to tell the truth, seemed even more smooth and practiced than theirs. And they were the Emperor Stars!
Especially when Gou Yuzhan’s starlight first appeared; the s.p.a.ce throughout the room turned a little chaotic.
Everyone in the room could sense it: although the starlight was just the size of his fist, it contained enough power to destroy heaven and earth.
“Kid, could you stop releasing your power at random? Replenis.h.i.+ng starlight takes a lot of time,” said Yin Shang.
“What’s the harm in using a little?” Gou Yuzhan fearfully withdrew his starlight. It seemed his dread of Yin Shang had become instinctive.
But shortly after, he glared at Yin Shang. “I’m the Minister of the Right! Do I need you, the Minister of the Left, to tell me what to do? You might have been able to beat me in the past, but you sure can’t do it now!”
“Then do you want to try it with Big Sister Liu’er?”
Gou Yuzhan snuck a look at Su Liu’er. Even after Yin Shang mentioned her by name, her expression was exactly the same. She looked straight ahead and sat perfectly straight, and even from a distance, you could sense her ice-cold temperament, that personality that refused to let anyone close to her.
Big Sister Liu’er?
When had the two of them gotten so close?
Ye Zichen frowned slightly, then glanced between the three of them.
Actually, seeing them now, Ye Zichen was so curious he could hardly stand it. Just a few months had pa.s.sed since he’d last seen them, but Gou Yuzhan and Yin Shang’s auras suggested that they were both imperial experts already.
There was even less need to discuss Su Liu’er; she’d always been terrifyingly strong, but now, she was more than twice as terrifying as before.
“Big Sister Liu’er, what do you think?” asked Ye Zichen.
“They’ll be tough to handle.” Su Liu’er’s red lips parted, but she was a woman of few words as always. To Gou Yuzhan, these words were like a slap in the face.
“Big Sister Liu’er, you…”
“All I did was share my intuitive response. Got a problem with that?” A frigid wind swept by, and in the blink of an eye, the entire meeting room was coated in a thin layer of ice.
Gou Yuzhan licked his lips, not daring to utter so much as half a word. His ahoge drooped, as if dejected, and he hung his head like a defrosting eggplant, then fidgeted awkwardly.
For even Su Liu’er to say the enders would be tough to handle left Ye Zichen surprised.
From her aura, it seemed she was already an imperial lord; the icy breath she’d just let out carried hints of the Dao Heart of Ice.
If she’d have trouble even at her cultivation, then it was a clear reflection of just how terrifying the primordial giant beasts were.
“That’s a conservative estimate, though,” said Su Liu’er, breaking the silence. “This might hurt General Li’s feelings, as your son used a hidden art to send you his phone at the cost of his life, and because you are proud of his refusal to abandon his brothers in arms. However, in my eyes, his behavior was a bit sloppy.”
No one would have guessed Su Liu’er would say something like that. Their gazes s.h.i.+fted erratically as she continued, “If he’d abandoned his pride and returned from the Outside, he could have given us a more direct account of his personal experience with the enders. Now, all we have to work with is a video less than an hour long, and from it, we cannot determine the full extent of the beast’s spiritual pressure or the nature of its aura. All we have to base our judgments on is its size and the fact that it devoured our heroic soldiers. This itself is unreasonable.”
“Based on my understanding, an enormous size isn’t directly correlated with strength. That it devoured our scouts is not in and of itself proof of its strength. Just based on the video, we can’t possibly determine the strength of our future enemies. This wasn’t just reckless; it was a waste of our time.”
“I can’t even begin to understand why General Li would call us here for a meeting with such urgency just to show us this video.”
The atmosphere instantly plummeted.
Su Liu’er’s words were blatantly flinging salt into General Li’s wounds. His son had died, and his heart was already covered in scars. All he had was this video his son risked his life and died to return to them. This was his only comfort amidst his grief.
But now, Su Liu’er was saying that the video his son had traded his life for was worthless.
The kind Su Yan couldn’t help but tug at her sister’s clothes. General Li stood, his arms trembling uncontrollably.
“In that case, Empress Su, why don’t you go to the Outside and bring back more convincing data yourself?”
“Hah…” Su Liu’er snorted without a single change in expression. “I was just thinking that!”