novelOld Mage
| ← Ch.0900 | Ch.0902 → |
After returning to the Tower of Dusk, the Archmages lowered their heads and began surging towards the Legendary-realm. In no time, there would probably be a large batch of Legendary-mages in the Tower of Dusk. By then, the Tower of Dusk would probably become a true Magic Land in the Breezy Plains.
Finally, it was the day of the meeting held by the Tower of Dusk which would determine the fate of countless forces of various sizes in the Breezy Plains. After verifying the authenticity of Lin Li's advancement to the Sanctuary-realm and the intriguing relationship he seemed to have with the Ashen Warlock, no individual or force dared to question the authority of the notice.
On this day, the leaders of the large- and medium-sized forces, including the Mithril Alliance, Caesar Family, Blood Moon Clan, and the Glittergold Trade Union, were all gathered at the Tower of Dusk. As for the smaller forces, the meeting wouldn't affect them much, as they would just be surrendering their benefits to a different person at most.
Although the Tower of Dusk had been established for a short period of time, there were more and more people who joined the Tower of Dusk, and they were not just mages, but also talents in other fields, such as technicians from Forging Workshops. It was impossible to arrange for all of them to live in the Tower of Dusk. Hence, the Tower of Dusk was no longer just a tower that stood by itself in Doland. It had developed to the point where it was like a city. There were residences for mages to live and study in, Forging Workshops where magical weapons were constantly imported, and trading places for various products.
However, they still couldn't afford a meeting place that could accommodate such a large number of people for now. After all, the Tower of Dusk wouldn't hold large-scale meetings that often, as everything could be decided by the 10-odd senior executives. There was no need to build a conference venue on purpose. Hence, this time, except for a few top forces, the leaders of all the other forces were arranged to wait in an open-air plaza for the meeting to take place.
However, no one dared to show the slightest dissatisfaction with the arrangements made by the Tower of Dusk, and their current mood was actually similar to that of a criminal waiting to be sentenced. They were all thinking about what their fate would be in the future. No one cared about the details at all.
The leaders of several top forces, as well as those who had long cooperated with the Tower of Dusk, such as Master William of the Time Consignment Store and Master Cheyenne of the Malfa Family, were first invited to the Tower of Dusk. Hoffman and the longtime partners of the Tower of Dusk were naturally at ease and behaving normally.
However, Joseph and Claus looked rather anxious and uneasy. Although Lin Li hadn't done anything to the two forces when they left the Gargas canyon, that didn't mean that the scores were settled. In their opinion, Lin Li would definitely hold the past against them.
In fact, regarding that issue, the leaders of the various forces in the square outside were also making conjectures. Back then, the Mithril Alliance took the lead, and various forces jointly suppressed and boycotted the Tower of Dusk. That was a matter of fact that was known to everyone in the Breezy Plains. At this moment, everyone watched as Joseph and Claus were led into the Tower of Dusk with sullen expressions. Some were frightened, while some were waiting to see the two become laughing stocks.
However, when Lin Li led Joseph and the others out of the Tower of Dusk, Joseph and Claus were somewhat relieved, even though they were not overjoyed. That was a surprise to the people outside.
It was completely silent on the plaza, and everyone was quietly waiting for Lin Li to speak, and waiting to hear the verdict that might change their fate.
In fact, the Tower of Dusk's unification of the forces of the Breezy Plains was something that people took for granted as Lin Li, who had already been powerful enough, actually stepped into the Sanctuary-realm. He also had an unusual relationship with the Ashen Warlock. If they were in his place, they would definitely do the same too. However, those who had yet to enter the Sanctuary-realm were on a completely different level from the Sanctuary powerhouse. How could they guess what the Sanctuary powerhouse was thinking?
Actually, Lin Li didn't have that much to say, and he managed to get straight to the point of the meeting with just a few words, and that was to have all the forces submit to the Tower of Dusk. In fact, he just wanted to further establish the authority of the Tower of Dusk in the Breezy Plains.
Submission was still fundamentally different from unification, at least for the interests of the various forces, as the Tower of Dusk wouldn't bother to touch them. Commercial operations were another matter.
The Tower of Dusk did not place much emphasis on territory. As Lin Li entered the Sanctuary-realm, the Tower of Dusk was bound to become the Magic Land of the Breezy Plains, and mages of all levels would definitely be attracted to it. Hence, Lin Li had no intention of expanding his territory.
After hearing it straight from the horse's mouth, the crowd below felt like they were dreaming as they had initially thought that they might lose everything and have to say goodbye to the authority and prestige they enjoyed. However, in the end, they realized that things hadn't become as terrible as they thought. Submitting to the Tower of Dusk was nothing too unacceptable. After all, the other party was a strong Sanctuary powerhouse, and it wouldn't be embarrassing to do so. Other than that, there was no difference from before. Of course, they definitely couldn't provoke anyone from the Tower of Dusk, not even a trivial mage apprentice.
Since reality wasn't as bad as they'd imagined it to be, they accepted it much quicker. Things definitely weren't as terrible as they'd expected. To them, submission to Lin Li was far better, and was simply tantamount to a bestowal of a gift as opposed to losing everything like they'd imagined.
Of course, submission wasn't simply a matter of speech. The parties would still have to be bound by a contract and subject to laws. However, those matters were reserved for after the meeting. Seeing that no one expressed any objections, Lin Li directly announced the end of the meeting, and stated that those who were willing could proceed to sign the contract, and those who were unwilling...
However, at this moment, an exclamation that was full of resentment sounded amongst the crowd.
"What if I'm unwilling!?"
It would be hard to find out who the person who said that was, since it sounded out of nowhere, but no one in the right mind would be willing to go against a Sanctuary powerhouse. Hence, as soon as they heard the exclamation, everyone in the crowd ran and made space to reveal the person who said those words.
However, that person did not panic even though he had been exposed. In fact, there was a bit of madness on his face, as if he was looking at his archenemy. He gritted his teeth and stared at Lin Li, who was standing on the platform, before ruthlessly saying, "Master Felic, congratulations on stepping into the Sanctuary-realm and unifying the Breezy Plains. I have specially brought you a gift today. I hope you'll like it, Master Felic!"
Upon hearing that person's words, there was once again a strange sound in the square, followed by gasps and exclamations of the crowd. Several people who were originally wearing black magic robes like others suddenly tore their robes apart to reveal their bodies that were made of metal. They were alchemy puppets in disguise.
Actually, those alchemy puppets didn't seem too intricate in structure, but what was truly frightening was that they each had a Legendary magical crystal embedded in their chests, and the crystals were emitting a strange ray of red light under the constant stimulation of some Alchemy Array. An absolutely horrifying mana wave overwhelmed everyone.
This was what caused the crowd to panic as anyone with some knowledge would know that it was the precursor to the eruption of magical crystals. The power that would erupt from a Legendary magical crystal was far beyond comparison to an ordinary magical crystal's power. The might of every Legendary magical crystal launched by a Magical Crystal Cannon was at Legendary-level, but each Legendary magical crystal could allow a Magical Crystal Cannon to launch hundreds of attacks in a row. Clearly, the power contained in a Legendary magic crystal was massive.
It could be said that a level-20 Legendary magical crystal would not be inferior to a level-24 Legendary magic spell if all of its power was released. However, it would not be easy to make a Legendary magical crystal explode, and there were more important uses for the valuable Legendary magical crystals. Usually, no one would be willing to use a Legendary magical crystal as a disposable magic bomb.
However, they had no idea how much hatred that person had for the Tower of Dusk. There were six similar alchemy puppets in the entire plaza, and the power that might erupt from the six Legendary magical crystals would be enough to wipe out the entire place. As for the leaders of the various forces, they would definitely have a hard time escaping their doom even if there were some Legendary powerhouses among them.
"It's Albert, he's really here!" exclaimed Cheyenne from the Malfa Family, who immediately recognized the other party's identity as soon as he saw him.
Albert was the leader of the Dark Blade and the son of the leader Lansdale. Back when the Dark Blade had attacked the Tower of Dusk, Borg and Baldela, the two Legendary leaders, were crippled by Lin Li, and with the loss of those elites, the Dark Blade directly became a second-tier force. The Malfa Family rubbed salt into their wound by besieging the Dark Blade and robbing them of their territory.
Now, the Dark Blade which used to be a top band of bandits could be considered to have been completely removed from the Breezy Plains. However, in the process of hunting down the remaining members, the Malfa Family missed Albert, who was an Assassin and the leader of the Dark Blade, as well as several other elite Assassins who were level-15 or higher. The reality had proven that it was a grave mistake of theirs. Those several elite Assassins had caused great trouble in the process of the Malfa Family acquiring the Dark Blade's territory.
Fortunately, the Malfa Family was supported by the Legendary-mage Cheyenne, after all, and after a series of arrangements, they had set up many traps. They even went as far as using their heir, Hutton, as a bait on several occasions to trap those several elite Assassins one by one. However, as the elite Assassins died, Albert vanished without a trace.
A level-19 Assassin would be a great threat even to a Legendary powerhouse. Although it was embarrassing, the Malfa Family nonetheless informed the Tower of Dusk about it since they were partners. After all, the Tower of Dusk could be considered to be the main party that had led to the destruction of the Dark Blade.
Lin Li informed the various forces of the time of the meeting a month in advance so that they could make preparations. After all, some of them were very far away from the Tower of Dusk. Another reason was to give the hidden enemy a chance to appear.
For a Sanctuary-mage, even a Legendary-level Assassin wouldn't be able to pose any threat to him, let alone a level-19 Assassin. This time, if the Tower of Dusk were to successfully unify all the forces of the Breezy Plains, there would be no room for the enemy anymore. Hence, at this moment, the enemy only had two options. He could either retaliate no matter the cost, or give up completely from then on and find a place to hide for the rest of his life.
The fact that the other party chose to take action against the leaders of the forces in order to affect the reputation of the Tower of Dusk was not beyond Lin Li's expectations. However, to Lin Li's surprise, the other party had a high capital this time, and he was clearly prepared to attack the Tower of Dusk all the way. The six alchemy puppets should have been purchased from Rotterdam, the Alchemy Nation. Although they seemed rather poorly made to Lin Li, they should have been worth quite a lot. Besides, the six Legendary magical crystals were considered a huge fortune to the average person.
Unfortunately, Albert had clearly underestimated the strength of the Tower of Dusk and the power of a Sanctuary powerhouse. If it had happened before Lin Li entered the Sanctuary-realm, the six self-destructing alchemy puppets might indeed have kept Lin Li busy for a while. However, Lin Li now only needed the power of the debris of the stars, Nothingness, to send the alchemy puppets into the chaos of spacetime. Regardless of how powerful they were, it would be useless.
"I know that this can't hurt you, either, but you can't stop the deaths of these cowards. You can't protect anyone, haha!" Albert exclaimed. He resented Lin Li to the core, and although he knew that he couldn't cause any substantial damage to Lin Li, his being able to hurt the leaders of those various forces and destroy the buildings of the Tower of Dusk was bound to be a great blow to their prestige as well.
At this point, the leaders of the various forces were losing their minds, and everyone got into a huge uproar. They all wanted to leave the area as soon as possible.
If that were to go on, the meeting would become chaotic, and Lin Li certainly wouldn't allow that to happen. He reached out to grab the debris of the stars, Nothingness, and planned to send the six self-destructing alchemy puppets to the spacetime chaos.
However, at this moment, a patch of space in the air suddenly warped, resembling ripples on the surface of water. Next, an old mage who was dressed in a black robe and had white hair strode out of the warped space.
Seeing the chaos in the plaza, the old mage frowned slightly, and waved his hand casually while moving towards Lin Li in midair.
| ← Ch. 0900 | Ch. 0902 → |