"Dear ambassador, please don't be angry… Take a seat please, please take our seat of honor." said Huaxu Lie, "Bring the best tea!"
Among all human ministers and elders in attendance, Huaxu Lie had the most handsome face, his manner of behavior was the most natural and unrestrained, and the way he got along with people was the smoothest and most sophisticated. Seeing Feng Qi about to go off, he hurriedly gave a big, warm grin and walked up to her, trying to mediate that dispute and affably offering Feng Qi a seat.
One of the Magi Place's elders took out an immense and top-grade piece of jade, quickly carving it into an extremely beautiful arm chair by himself. After that, he firstly paved layer of pearls and small jade pieces on that exquisitely crafted, beautiful arm chair, then paved a piece of dragon-crocodile leather on those pearls and small jade pieces, then a piece of white tiger abdominal skin on the dragon-crocodile skin. At last, he spread a thick layer of multicolored peacock tail feather on the tiger skin. With all these decorations, this stunning armchair had become strangely luxurious and shining.
This gorgeous armchair was placed right in the middle of the headquarters pavilion, and underneath it was a carpet made from lamb wool that was three-inch thick, paved with a thick layer of multicolored bird feathers, and upon those bird feathers was a layer of freshly picked petals. After all this was done, Feng Qi finally sat down on that armchair, in satisfaction.
Before this, Feng Qi had been standing on that multicolored cloud and wasn't willing to touch the ground with her feet; until Huaxu Lie and the others prepared her such a specially luxurious chair, her body, for the very first time, touched something else in this pavilion ever since she broke in.
With a gentle smile that was as warm as the sunlight, Huaxu Lie took a tiny tea boiler with charcoal fire himself, and carefully made a cup of tea which had an amazingly nice aroma. He poured the tea into a large mug that was inlaid with gold and jade, then wrapped the mug up with white silk and held the mug with both of his hands, presenting it to Feng Qi.
"Dear ambassador, please give a try to this tea. The land of our humankind is barren and infertile, therefore, we barely have anything nice. Our tea can't compare with the tea of the phoenix-kind, which is so wealthy. But in our eyes, this tea is of the top quality." Huaxu Lie's smile was especially warm, gentle and attractive. He looked at Feng Qi directly in the eyes, that warmness and tenderness in his eyes seemed able to even melt stonemen down.
Watching this, Ji Hao couldn't help but feel goosebumps raising all over his body, while all of his fine hairs were standing straight up. Hao Tao, who was upright, straightforward and nearly emotionless, Si Wen Ming, who was honest, tolerant, calm and extremely reliable, and those Magi Palace elders, such as Wulong Yao, Fangfeng E… for all these people, Ji Hao knew their personalities quite well.
However, Huaxu Lie, one of the princes of the Huaxu Family, normally, he always made Ji Hao feel that he was a typical warrior who slept with weapons and showered in blood; he had barely shown a slight faint smile for all this long. Nevertheless, when he was talking to Feng Qi, that smile on his face was so warm, even containing a weird, faint and complicated meaning. Added with that flawlessly handsome face of his, he now looked completely, thoroughly different from his usual self.
"Hm, you're quite thoughtful." Feng Qi nodded in satisfaction, took over that mug and slowly sipped a small mouthful of tea from it. Her knitted brows gradually loosened, and looking at Huaxu Lie, whose face was now filled with a big, warm smile, she couldn't help but praise, "Some of you are rather smart. However, you should spend some time to teach those stupid kids a good lesson, and some old ones who don't know any better, just to prevent these people from causing your humankind troubles, even disasters, in the future."
Stupid kids? Ji Hao's face darkened.
Old ones who don't know any better? Hao Tao's face was tightened badly while both of his hands were held behind his body and clenched into fists. Ji Hao was even a bit afraid that Hao Tao might suddenly explode and directly smash Feng Qi's head.
"Sure, sure," The smile on Huaxu Lie's face grew bigger and bigger, warmer and warmer, "The phoenix-kind and our humankind are intimate friends… you, my dear ambassador, came all the way here, this is a great pleasure of ours. Anything is negotiable, right? Ji Hao's just a little boy, he hasn't learned much of manners yet, please forgive him for offending you, my dear ambassador."
Feng Qi threw a sideway glance at Ji Hao, then responded in a bland tone, that sounded still containing a slight trace of anger, "Alright, I will not haggle with a little kid anyway…Finally, a reasonable one of you has shown up. You should know that if wasn't for our phoenix-kind, your humankind would have perished countless times."
Si Wen Ming curved his lips slightly downwards, Hao Tao raised his eyebrows, and that group of Magi Palace elders each maintained an extremely darkened face; none of them said a word.
Only Huaxu Lie kept up that sunny smile, while taking over a large bowl made from white jade that fully contained all kinds of rare and fresh fruits, from a servant, who had just walked into the pavilion. Purple grapes, red cherries, yellow apricots, golden bananas… all these fruits were perfectly clean, and covered in a thin layer of water drops.
Huaxu Lie placed the large bowl of fruits in front of Feng Qi, then said smilingly, "You're absolutely right… in many aspects, our humankind needs to rely on the phoenix-kind, so…"
Without even taking a glance at those fruits contained in that white jade bowl, Feng Qi interrupted Huaxu Lie proudly, "So, you must hurry up. Call that purple grain dragon sandalwood in, tell him to go with me. I have many other things to do, can't afford to waste my time in here with you, for nothing."
Huaxu Lie looked at Feng Qi with a quite embarrassed look and said in a low voice, "Dear ambassador, that Dragon Pool is now a Magi Master of the Magi Palace, he has already kowtowed to nature and our ancestors' souls, officially joined the Magi Palace, he…"
Feng Qi rudely interrupted him again, said, "He's nothing but a wood stake, you don't need to think about his will and feeling. Can't you just make the decision for him? Just call him in and tell him to go with me. As for what he is now, is that important?"
Feng Xi then threw a sideway glance at Huaxu Lie, probably because of his handsome face and big, warm and adorable smile, Feng Qi's voice softened pretty much after that, then she said, "How much do your humankind owe our phoenix-kind? Give us that purple grain dragon sandalwood… just think it in this way, you're returning our favors."
Ji Hao sneered while remaining silent. Favor? The humankind owed the phoenix-kind favors? Even if this was true, who would come to the others and shamelessly ask for things as returning favors?
Dragon Pool was now already a Magi Master of the Magi Palace, if the phoenix-kind truly wanted Dragon Pool's myron and fruits so much, they could just sit down and have a peaceful negotiation with the Magi Palace; the Magi Place could just sell those materials to the phoenix-kind at a fair piece. In the worst case, because of those 'favors' the humankind had owed the phoenix-kind, the Magi Palace could just offer them a discount or a sweeter price, which could also be considered as a sky-big favor.
However, with such a tough attitude, Feng Qi directly asked for the proprietary right of Dragon Pool, intending to force Dragon Pool to be a slave of the phenix-kind; this was way too much!
Huaxu Lie's face was darkened slightly, but he still squeezed a smile out of his face and said, "Dear ambassador…"
Feng Qi's straightly pointed her finger at Huaxu Lie's nose, staring at him with a beautiful yet frosty face, eyes shining with multicolored light and yelled in a harsh tone, "Cut the crap! Just call that bloody wood stake in. You don't think that I'm easy to be fooled, do you? Or, do you think that our phoenixes are all easy to be fooled?"
Ji Hao finally couldn't stop his anger from bursting out anymore. He took a step forward and yelled also in a harsh tone, "Ambassador, are you doing this by following your own will, or the will of the entire phenix-kind? The humankind and phoenix-kind have always been friends… the humankind owes your phenix-kind a lot of favors, this is true! However, can this be a reason for you, dear ambassador, to mess around with us as much as you like?" Ji Hao then raised his voice and continued, "Ambassador, can you even be reasonable?!"
Feng Qi's face became even colder. She slowly stood up, then abruptly grabbed that large mug and threw it heavily against the ground. Next, she slapped that white jade bowl, which fully contained all kinds of fruits, into pieces; after she smashed that jade bowl, her palm didn't stop, instead, straightly slapping towards Huaxu Lie.
With Huaxu Lie's power, he could easily dodge this slap if he wanted to.
Nevertheless, seeing Feng Qi's cold and proud face, Huaxu Lie gnashed his teeth and stayed still in where he was.
Slap! Feng Qi's hand slapped hard on Huaxu Lie's face, even making him stagger backwards and nearly fall to the ground.