Everyone in the hall was agitated. All long tables set for the banquet were taken away, while all human earls and marquis stood side by side. Their hands were pressed on the hilts of their swords as they stared fiercely at the five Yu Clan messengers who were walking into the hall.
The atmosphere in the hall was tense, and the fierce aura of killing released from over ten-thousand earls and marquis had nearly frozen the air. When those Yu Clan messengers walked into the hall, visible air-ripples vibrated around their bodies, even causing a clear jade-bottle-cracking-like sound.
The five Yu Clan messengers who seemed to be proud and arrogant before turned serious and cautious upon being stared at by all these people, every one of these people having an obvious fierceness in his eyes. Their overwhelming attitudes were pressed down, and even their walking pace had become much slower and gentler.
Ji Hao stood in the crowd, holding Man Man's little hands while staring at these Yu Clan messengers coldly. Just like the others, he was silently wondering the purpose of these Yu Clan people. It had been five years since the Chi Ban Mountain War ended, why did Yu Dynasty send their messengers over now?
The Five Yu Clan messengers walked up to Emperor Shun with some solid difficulties.
Emperor Shun sat perfectly still in his seat, calmly looking at the five of them.
Candle Dragon Gui sat beside Emperor Shun, laughed out loud carelessly and said, "You five little kids do have some balls, haha, what are doing here? There're many ways if you want to die … you can cut your own throats or simply drink some poisons… why do you have to come all the way here?"
All human beings on the scene, regardless of their positions and relationships, all of them laughed loudly out, even including those musicians, performers, maids, and servants, who were hiding in the corners. At that moment, the power vibrations released from every human being's body combined into one, pressing right down onto the five Yu Clan messengers' heads like a mountain, making them quiver intensively. Exquisitely crafted amulets worn by them blasted out one after another, releasing countless shining spell symbols and creating layers of light screens, shielding them inside and fending against the strong pressure that came from the outside.
However, the clan leaders of all Midland large clans and all earls and marquis who were entitled by human emperors were gathered in here. Among all these people, the number of Divine Magi was not small at all. Among the rest who were qualified to walk into the main hall and meet with Emperor Shun, even the weakest one was a Magus King.
At least a thousand spell symbol light explosions happened on the bodies of the five Yu Clan messengers in a row, creating hundreds of light screens and wrapping them firmly up. However, under the great pressure released by so many powerful human Magi on the scene, those protective magic screens broke one after another. At last, followed by a raging growl, all five of them were pressed down, and embarrassedly ended up kowtowing to Emperor Shun.
Instantly, the great pressure eased, and many earls and marquis laughed in weird tones.
"They kneeled!"
"Hehe, kneeled!"
"A bunch of pretty boys, I doubt they have backbones! I thought that they'd rather die than submit. They should have simply sliced their own throats before kneeling. Then, I could give them some respect!"
"Nonsense! Don't you know that these Yu Clan pretty boys fear death the most? Rather die than submit? They'd actually rather submit than die!"
Teases and taunts came over like tidewater, making the faces of the five Yu Clan messengers turn dark in anger. The Yu Clan young man with a blood-red long robe, who seemed to be the leader among the five of them, yelled out, "Do your humankind want to start a war against our entire Yu Dynasty? We came under the order of the twelve Emperors in Power!"
The talking Yu Clan young men then took out a scroll with difficulty. The black scroll cracked, and a light screen swished up into the air, on which, were twelve clear, different-colored seals, and in the middle of each seal was a glowing erect eye.
Emperor Shun straightened his waist. This was an official letter signed jointly by the twelve Emperors in Power of Yu Clan, something he had to take seriously.
In order to make a quick achievement, Dishi Yanluo, the new Blood Moon Emperor in Power, led the Blood Moon and started a massive attack on the humankind, nearly shaking the entire Pu Ban City. If all twelve branches of Yu Clan joined hands and deployed all their military forces to launch an all-out attack, that would be a disaster for the humankind.
Emperor Shun raised his head and released a dense and warm power vibration, blocking the great pressure released from all surrounding earls and marquis, then said calmly and blandly, "Stand up. Since you're Yu Clan messengers, no need to be too polite."
The Five Yu Clan messengers embarrassedly stood back up, all angrily looking at Emperor Shun.
They didn't want to kneel and kowtow to Emperor Shun, but all those earls and marquis unreasonably forcibly pressed them down with their combined senses of power, how could they possibly resist that?
The Yu Clan young man in a blood-red robe said impatiently, "Cut the crap. Back then in the Chi Ban Mountain War, Dishi Yanluo had lost the face of our entire Yu Dynasty. A few Emperors in Power had been concentrating on their own cultivations, and didn't get the time to deal with that in recent years."
Taking a deep breath, the young man gave a malicious grin and continued, "But three months ago, Emperor Yemo Luoye of our Dark Sun called all twelve Emperors in Power together and apportioned the blame for the failure of the Chi Ban Mountain war. At last, the twelve Emperors decided that we have to teach your humankind a lesson!"
The Yu Clan young man in a blood-red robe seemed to have forgotten about the embarrassing situation of kneeling and kowtowing on the ground that he had suffered just now. He proudly raised his head and said, "You human beings are meant to be our slaves. You should remind yourselves all the time that you're a lowly race and our Yu Clan people are the noblest creatures in the world."
All earls and marquis were enraged by his words. Many of them intended to shout out in anger, but Emperor Shun waved his hand, temporarily calming them down.
"Therefore, with the great wisdom of our twelve emperors, they designed a game." The Yu Clan young man in a blood-red robe looked at Emperor Shun coldly and said, "We will send out a million of our elites, while you send out ten-million over-average elites. There is a small world approaching this world. All people sent out by us will enter into this small world together and explore it and collect resources from it…till death!"
The Yu Clan young men chuckled while looking at Emperor Shun and continued, "Till our people or your people die out in there."
"You have to accept this life-and-death challenge, and you have to select over ten-million elite young people and send them into that small world." said the Yu Clan young man in a cruel tone. "You will send them to take the life-and-death challenge, send ten million people to die and to turn the wrath of our emperors away. Otherwise, we will start a full-scale war!"
The light screen released from the scroll began burning. Within the coiling streams of smoke, twelve tall and slim silhouettes were faintly visible. "A life-and-death challenge or a full-scale war… lowly barbaric creatures, you do not have another choice." said the twelve silhouettes said together.
The light screen then exploded, turning into streams of fiery light and dissipated. The Yu Clan young man in a blood-red robe took a deep breath, took out another scroll from his sleeve and said, "This is a bet, and our noble emperors have wagered a sweet price on your lives and death. You also have to give out an equal bet."
Emperor Shun took over the scroll from which another light screen swooshed out. Seeing the first line on that light screen, all earls and marquis couldn't help but gasp deeply in shock.
If the humankind lost, Chi Ban Mountain would be ceded to the Yu Dynasty; if the humankind won, they would be allowed to expand their territory towards the northern side of Chi Ban Mountain for one hundred million miles, and Yu Dynasty would not launch any attack on the new territory belonged to the humankind.
"This… is, too hard!" An elderly human marquis murmured.
Once the humankind lost the game, the Chi Ban Mountain area would be ceded away. This price was way too heavy.