"Alright, these small things have already taken too long… just go, everybody, go!" Si Xi walked out of the crowd, carelessly waved his hand and said, "This ten-year meeting doesn’t happen every day, and I haven’t seen my old friends for long. Let’s go drink, drink!"
The group of earls and marquis instantly burst into laughter, and at least sixty percent of them cupped their hands towards Si Xi.
"Earl Chong is right! It’s cold and perfect for drinking!"
"You're wrong, wrong… this is Marquis Chong now!"
"Yeah, yeah, Marquis Chong with an expanded territory… you should stand the treat this time, old brother Si Xi!"
People in the hall laughed and chatted happily, many of them greeting Si Xi. But at this juncture, no one paid any more interest to Wuzhi Qi, who was sealed in the ice, and Gong Gong Wuyou, who was with a truly darkened face. Except for those earls and marquis that came from the Northern Wasteland, who would care?
By now, all sane people had perceived that this time, Wuzhi Qi brought disgrace on his own head. Apparently, he was against Earl Yao Ji Hao for some reason, sneakily hiring a non-humankind assassin to murder Ji Hao. Meanwhile, he deployed Huai Water army to attack Yao Mountain City but didn’t think that Ji Hao was so powerful that he actually managed to kill all five of those non-humankind assassins and wipe the Huai Water army entirely out.
After all this, Wuzhi Qi, this old beast, attempted to make a false countercharge and came to Emperor Shun to accuse Ji Hao of killing his sons and River Earl Jade Dragon, trying to force Emperor Shun to punish Ji Hao for this accusation.
Again, he didn’t think that Ji Hao would come up with such a perfect excuse. Although everybody clearly knew that Ji Hao was talking nonsense to play a trick on Wuzhi Qi and Gong Gong Wuyou on purpose, no one could find any fault in Ji Hao’s explanation.
According to Ji Hao, Wuzhi Qi’s sons and River Earl Jade Dragon bravely and kindly lent a hand when Yao Mountain City suffered an attack from the non-humankind army. In Ji Hao’s statement, the Huai Water army passed by Yao Mountain territory and saw a non-humankind army attacking Yao Mountain City. Then, because of their loyalty to their own kind, they gave out a helping hand and ended up perishing together with the non-humankind army.
This explanation of Ji Hao was absolute shambles and even rascally, however, Gong Gong Wuyou had to chime in with him. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to explain to all these earls and marquis on the scene, why the Hai Water army entered into Earl Yao’s territory without permission, and how on earth did Wuzhi Qi’s thirty-six sons and River Earl Jade Dragon died
Almost everybody knew the truth by now, but one just couldn’t speak it out loud.
If Gong Gong Wuyou ever dared to admit that Wuzhi Qi did deploy the Huai Water army to attack and kill Earl Yao, Ji Hao on purpose, Wuzhi Qi would immediately become a public enemy, and Emperor Shun would be forced to give the order to arrest and even execute Wuzhi Qi right on the spot.
Even if Wuzhi Qi could manage to run out of Pu Ban city with his great power, the fact was that he had deployed warriors to try to kill an earl and colluded with non-humankind assassins to attempt to assassinate the earl on his journey. Moreover, he had even sent an army to try to break into the city that this earl lived in, and wreck the city. This unrestrained, crazy and reckless behavior would make all human earls and marquis his enemy, and force all earls and marquis to send their armies to encircle and suppress the entire Huai Water!
At that time, Gong Gong Wuyou wouldn’t be able to save Wuzhi Qi even if he went to the battlefield in person.
Ji Hao said that the non-humankind army that attacked Yao Mountain City only had a thousand warriors, and Wuzhi Qi’s thirty-six sons and River Earl Jade Dragon and the army under their command were actually defeated and wiped out by a thousand non-humankind warriors. Regarding this wronged charge, Gong Gong Wuyou had to admit its factualness. If he refused to admit what Ji Hao said was true, and if any of all those traps contained in Ji Hao’s explanation were revealed, Wuzhi Qi would die for sure, and Gong Gong Wuyou himself would have to take blame for the mismanagement of his subordinate. He might even be punished by Emperor Shun for it.
Therefore, Wuzhi Qi was sealed in dark ice while Gong Gong Wuyou played nice with Ji Hao and Si Xi stepped out to interrupt. After that, all earl and marquis in the great hall who knew the truth laughed out and started chatting happily, calling their friends and walking out together for drinking and fun.
Many earls and marquis didn’t come to Pu Ban city too frequently, and because of this ten-year meeting, those earls and marquis in Midland finally gathered together. Many of them were old friends who hadn’t seen each other for a whole decade, and now, it was the perfect time for drinking, chatting and bonding.
In the dark ice block, Wuzhi Qi showed his sharp teeth and roared in rage, attempting to shatter the ice and break out and start a life-and-death fight against Ji Hao. However, the two men with black robes who had cast the ice sealing magic seemed to be immeasurably powerful. No matter how hard Wuzhi Qi roared or tried to struggle in the ice, he couldn’t move an inch; even his voice couldn’t come out of the ice.
The thing had been settled; Wuzhi Qi’s sons and River Earl Jade Dragon bravely helped Ji Hao for a just cause. They saw the non-humankind army attack Yao Mountain City and instantly decided to lend a hand to help. Killing non-humankind warriors who surprisingly attacked the city could be counted as a credit. Nevertheless, the non-humankind warriors only numbered around a thousand, but these one thousand warriors had actually exterminated the entire Huai Water army. Clearly, the Huai Water army was way too weak, and this would be counted as guilt.
The credit and guilt offset each other, and therefore, Wuzhi Qi should just stay in the dark ice for a while to ponder upon his own fault, instead of coming out and making more mess.
Gong Gong Wuyou grinningly held Ji Hao’s hand in a friendly manner, and nicely invited him to be a guest in his palace, "Earl Yao, are you satisfied with the view in Fine Jade Snow Palace? Last year, I bought myself a new piece of land in Pu Ban City and built a new palace, named Fine Jade Palace. You have to come and take a look."
Ji Hao also held Gong Gong Wuyou’s hand and said in a warm-hearted tone, "I will, I certainly will. As long as Lord Wuzhi Qi won’t kick me out with his stick, I will surely come to visit. Eh, Prince Wuyou, please do some talking for me. Tell Lord Wuzhi Qi that I truly didn’t kill his sons and River Earl Jade Dragon."
Ji Hao looked at Gong Gong Wuyou right in the eyes while he continued, "Prince, you have to understand that I am only a Senior Magus. How can I possibly kill Divine Magi? Thirty-six Divine Magi and River Earl Jade Dragon’s power is even more immeasurable. Furthermore, those more than a million heavily armored elite warriors and hundred-million aquatic creatures that had actually raised a flood… how could I possibly kill all of them?"
Gong Gong Wuyou felt that his heart had been bleeding, but he could only look at Ji Hao with a fake and embarrassed smile on his face, suffering the great heartache without saying anything.
Huai Water was an important water vein under Gong Gong family’s command, and Huai Water had a strong military power. Nevertheless, so many Divine-Magus-Level powerful beings were taken out by Ji Hao all at once. This was weakening the Gong Gong family’s power. Gong Gong Wuyou was so sad and angry about his loss that he truly wanted to hack Ji Hao to death directly.
However, Emperor Shun and Hao Tao were sitting right beside them and had now been staring at Ji Hao and Gong Gong Wuyou with complicated looks.
They thought of those stupid things done by Wuzhi Qi, of the fact that Wuzhi Qi, that stupid creature, had actually come to Emperor Shun and yelled about this. They then thought of how hard Gong Gong Wuyou tried to finally fix this, to not make things truly ugly with Ji Hao and prevent Wuzhi Qi from getting into a real fix with those earls and marquis.
Gong Gong Wuyou’s smile grew bigger and bigger. He held Ji Hao’s hand tightly and said in an especially nice tone, "When you have time, you have to come to be a guest in my Fine Jade palace."
Ji Hao was grinning warmly as well as he held Gong Gong Wuyou’s hand and responded, "I will, I will… if I have the time, I will certainly come to visit you in the Fine Jade Palace."
A stream of cyan light sparkled around Ji Hao’s fingers while Gong Gong Wuyou’s hand turned translucent, like a piece of jade. Their hands held tightly, generating a series of cracking noise. Following this, all of Ji Hao’s finger bones broke while Gong Gong Wuyou’s little finger was crushed by Yu Yu’s divine light.
Taking a deep gasp simultaneously, Ji Hao swung his arm and took two steps back.
Gong Gong Wuyou took two steps back as well. After that, he politely bowed to Ji Hao, flicked his sleeve, turned around and walked right away.
Ji Hao gave a faint smile as he swung his hand again; his broken bones were all healed already.
Good, from now on, he would be against the Gong Gong family until the end.