Amidst the shrill cries of nearly ten-thousand young dragons, Ji Hao and the eight representatives from the dragon-kind and phoenix-kind sat back on the nine dragons chariot.
Ao Bai brought a bottle of light golden ointment, which had a refreshing aroma. He asked Feng Ling to send out a group of her people and help to apply the ointment on the bodies of the young dragons, who were injured by the essence sun fire earlier. Soon, the fire power lingering in their bodies faded, and their carbonized skins and muscles were healed. Weakly, the young dragons curled up on the watery cloud.
They were exhausted, but at least, they stopped crying.
Ao Hao, who had lost a massive amount of spirit blood, now had a sulky face. He swallowed a few highly replenishing pills, then stood quietly behind Ao Bai. Not only him, Ao Gu and the other two ancient dragon gods, and the twelve dragon kings as the commanders of the great dragon army, all stood quietly behind Ao Bai. Clearly, they weren't on equal footing with Ao Bai.
Feng Ling and the other three ancient phoenixes sat straight on large fiery armchairs, looking at Ao Bai frowningly. They racked their brains to search the deepest, forgotten corners of their memories, but failed to find any information about him. This man in a white robe seemed to be even weaker than a newborn dragon, but who was he?
Ji Hao had also been looking at Ao Bai seriously.
This man was way too influential among dragons. The hysterical Ao Ku, the infuriated Ao Gu, and those dragon kings who were inconsolable because of their dead children, all quieted down after hearing a word from Ao Bai. They now looked so obedient, daring not to express any emotion of anger.
If he were merely influential, Ji Hao wouldn't be so surprised. But, from his eyes, Ji Hao discovered a 'light of wisdom' that normally had nothing to do with dragons. That warm, bright light in his eyes was generated from a natural-given wisdom, which was brewed by time for countless centuries. When Ji Hao and Ao Bai looked at each other in the eye, Ji Hao felt that he was penetrating him, while he failed to dig any useful information from Ao Bai.
Ji Hao wasn't afraid of brave dragons, who were as brainless as cannon fodders in any battleground. He wasn't afraid of greedy and selfish dragons either, because those dragons were blinded by profits, and were so easy to fool.
He did dread dragons with wisdom. With their strong bodies, great strengths, strict stratifications, if a leader with transcendent wisdom emerged among them, without a doubt, the dragon-kind would become the most terrifying species in Pan Gu world.
Stroking the pair of fire dragons, who had devoured a giant amount of spirit blood and fallen into the deep sleep of evolution, Ji Hao smiled nicely to Ao Bai and said, "Mr. Ao Bai, I am deeply sorry about the misunderstanding just now. Fortunately, you showed up timely, before a larger damage was caused. You are finally here. Otherwise, I wouldn't know how to wrap this up if anything happened to Ao Gu and the others of them."
Hearing him, the faces of Ao Gu, Ao Ku, and the other dragons turned blue with rage. What did he mean? That if Ao Bai didn't show, he would kill Ao Gu and the other dragons? Not to mention if Ji Hao had the guts to do it, he probably had, but was he capable of doing it? They were the four dragon gods after all. Ao Ku was sneakily attached by him and lost a great amount of spirit blood, but Ao Gu and the other two were perfectly uninjured and ready to fight!
Did he want to make anything happen to Ao Gu and his people? Was he able to do it?
Ao Bai smilingly nodded. With a gentle voice, he mildly said to Ji Hao, "Emperor Hao is right. These kids are with the salt of youth, so they can be very unreasonable sometimes. As for some misunderstandings, we shall just let them go. Emperor Hao, you shall not take it to heart."
Pausing for a short moment, Ao Bai continued straightforwardly, "I think, the contract Emperor Hao drafted is fairly appropriate. One-hundred thousand pure blood dragons, a billion elite water-kind warriors, with full sets of armors, weapons, and other equipment, they will all sign the contract to follow Emperor Hao forever. Even their descendants will follow Emperor Hao's lead, generation after generation. I wonder, will this offer earn us a divine throne?"
Ji Hao raised his eyebrows and looked at Ao Bai in surprise.
Was this man truly so easy to talk to? Or, did he need a divine throne so eagerly?
Ji Hao looked calmly at Ao Bai, without any change of expression. He simply narrowed his eyes, seeming to fall into his deepest thoughts.
Sitting aside, Feng Xing became anxious. What a joke? If the dragon-kind accepted the terms, what about the phoenix-kind? One-hundred-thousand pure-blood dragons? Did that mean that the phoenix-kind had to give Ji Hao one-hundred-thousand pure-blood members too?
How many pure-blood phoenixes even existed in Pan Gu world in total?
The phoenix-kind could offer Ji Hao billions of the other birds like rocs and peacocks. Pan Gu world was so vasty, and those birds were as many as the stars in the sky. But, one-hundred-thousand pure-blood phoenixes? Feng Xing's mouth grew wider as she prepared to say something. Ao Bai abruptly raised his head smilingly, then elegantly nodded to Feng Ling and said, "If Qing Qiang is here, she would agree with me."
Once he said 'Qing Qiang', Feng Ling's expression changed immediately. She looked at Ao Bai from head to toe, as if he were a ghost.
A long while later, Feng Ling and the other three elderly phoenixes sitting beside him finally calmed back down. They became extremely respectful and polite to Ao Bai. With a proud faint smile, Feng Ling slowly said to Ji Hao, "Since Bai…Great Ancestor Bai said so, we will give the same offer. One-hundred-thousand pure-blood phoenixes and a billion flying warriors will sign the contract for a divine throne. Emperor Hao, what do you think?"
'Great Ancestor Bai'?
Ji Hao smiled and nodded, responding blandly, "Great Ancestor Bai is so decisive. While you are here, I shall put forward my conditions. One-hundred-thousand pure-blood phoenixes and one-hundred-thousand pure-blood dragons sound a bit too less to the heaven. How should we say this, the heaven is mighty after all. How many warriors we need simply for the daily patrol?"
Straightening three fingers, Ji Hao grinned and continued, "I am not greedy. How about there, a billion elite water-kind warriors and a billion flying warriors, settled. But, I want three-hundred-thousand pure-blood dragons and three-hundred-thousand pure-blood phoenixes! If you agree, we will sign the contract now. If you don't, we'll forget about this."
Feng Ling remained silent and looked at Ao Bai.
Ao Bai smiled, then nodded to Ji Hao. As he pointed out his finger, wisps of golden light flew out his fingertips and wrote down the number Ji Hao said in the blank in the contract.
Ji Hao took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He smiled at Ao Bao, then nodded slowly and said, "Great! So, about the third throne I promised, the dragon-kind, the phoenix-kind, if you're interested, you can start bidding now."
Before Feng Ling said a word, Ao Bai laughed, "How about we double these numbers? We will take the third throne too. Feng Ling girl, you shall not bid against me. I will talk to Qing Qiang about this later."
Feng Ling stood up and slightly bowed to Ao Bai, then released a golden light from her fingers and left a sign that represented the phoenix-kind on the contract.
Ji Hao smiled, and so did Ao Bai. Only Ao Ku viciously stared at Ji Hao while rubbing his chest, which was penetrated just now.