After the ceremony was a routine banquet.
Ji Hao walked in the great hall with an exquisite bronze wine cup in his hand, while chatting and greeting with everyone he knew. This time, no one provoked Ji Hao right to his face, neither did anyone tease him. Wherever he walked past, Ji Hao saw nothing but friendly smiling faces. Some small clan leaders even showed reverence and awe when they looked at him.
Obviously, this change was caused by the right of punishment, which was given by Emperor Shun.
Because of Ji Hao’s largely improved individual power, or his amazing achievements, or the four Jia Clan battle kings that stood behind him, things were all different now. These four Jia Clan warriors were all at peak Divine-Magus-level, and were only a half step away from Supreme-Magus-level. Countless people grinned so brightly when they tinkled their wine cups against Ji Hao’s cup, but as they saw the four Jia Clan battle kings with dark-golden skin behind him, all of them had their faces twitched and pupils shrunk to the size of needle tips.
Without twenty same-level human warriors, these four Jia Clan battle kings couldn’t possibly be defeated. By walking all over the hall with these four battle kings, Ji Hao made himself look slightly like a playboy from a rich family, swaggering through the street with a bunch of fierce pets. But many people found this ‘rich playboy’ figure of Ji Hao quite impressive.
Those clan leaders, who had good relationships with Ji Hao grinned brighter and brighter. Unlike them, the ones who had hatred with Ji Hao, such as Ten Sun Country people and people from the other Eastern Wasteland clans, along with Northern Wasteland clan leaders under Gong Gong’s command, had all been squeezing embarrassed smiles out of their faces on facing him. Seeing their awkward smiles, even Ji Hao felt bad for them.
Taking a circle in the hall, Ji Hao greeted Huaxu Lie, Lie Mountain Kong and some other of his friends, then he had a short chat with Gong Sun Yuan. Afterwards, Ji Hao prepared to go find Si Wen Ming and discuss something rather important, but someone abruptly showed up in front of him and blocked the way.
That was a Fire Qi Lin Clan warrior, wearing a heavy red armor and had been releasing a great heat from his body. This warrior spread his both arms and stood in front of Ji Hao. Looking down at Ji Hao, who was a foot shorter than him, this warrior began talking expressionlessly, "Earl Yao, our prince wants to talk to you."
Ji Hao glanced at this warrior, raised his hand and gently pushed this warrior’s chest while responding, "Zhu Rong Tianming? Tell him to come by himself if he wants to talk to me."
Ji Hao snorted slightly while he put forth his strength through his palm. The warrior swayed, then staggered back for a few steps, nearly bumping into a maid, who carried a large tray with both hands and happened to walk by. This warrior cast a glance at Ji Hao in surprise while murmuring, "As I expected, Divine-Magus-level…so quickly!"
Ji Hao gave a faint smile, gently shook the bronze wine cup in his hand, and said with a cold voice, "Divine-Magus-level indeed, but no big deal. Tell Zhu Rong Tianming to come find me himself… Or, you don’t want to mess around in here, do you?"
Two Jia Clan battle kings snorted coldly. Each took a step forward, standing on both sides of that Fire Qi Lin Clan warrior. This made the two Jia Clan battle kings feel that the world had turned upside down. Once, at parties and banquets of the non-humankind, for all kinds of reasons, they’ve engaged in many fights for their old masters against the others. But now, at a banquet for the leaders of the alliance of human clans, they threatened a human warrior for Ji Hao, who was a significant human minister now.
Letting out a long breath simultaneously, the two battle kings pressed their hands heavily on the warrior’s shoulders and said, "Kid, do not make any reckless moves. Otherwise, we might pull your head off and kick it like a ball!"
The surrounding space suddenly fell into a deathly silence while everyone’s look turned especially weird. In front of all those human leaders, two Jia Clan battle kings threatened a Fire Qi Lin Clan warrior. Before, seeing such a scene, all those surrounding human leaders would certainly pull out their weapons and rush up together to hack the two Jia Clan warriors into pieces. However, at this very moment, these two Jia Clan battle kings were actually Ji Hao’s guards.
Some older human ministers shook their heads in praise while ceaselessly whispering to young people from their own clans, "Look at him, then look at yourselves…Kids, you should all have some goals. I’m not saying that you must earn yourselves titles of ‘earl’ or ‘marquis’, but you should have some goals of your own."
The crowds of people abruptly split up, through which, Zhu Rong Tianming walked over, with a few people. He was wearing a vividly-red long robe, and his entire body was glowing with a red light.
Greedily and jealously glancing at the four battle kings, Zhu Rong Tianming bowed to Ji Hao and said, "Ji Hao, I was wrong in Pan Xi world. For all that happened before, it was all my fault. Do you think we can…"
Before Zhu Rong Tianming finished his speech, a tender hand suddenly thrust out of the crowd, pressed on his face and pushed him away, that made Zhu Rong Tianming scream while falling aside.
People in that area quickly stepped away, while Zhu Rong Tianming fell directly on the ground, and couldn’t stand back up for quite a while. People brought over by Zhu Rong Tianming angrily rolled up their sleeves, preparing to ask the reason from the one who pushed Zhu Rong Tianming. But once they clearly saw the face of the owner of that tender hand, none of them dared to let out a word.
Man Man happily squeezed out of the crowed, rushed to Ji Hao and yelled, "Ji Hao, Ji Hao, look at this!"
She raised a fist-sized blue crystal ball. That crystal clear ball was flawless, and had faint water streams weaving in it, with a few tiny, light silver sea horses slowly moving in the water. The tiny bodies of those sea horses sparkled with a beautiful silver light from time to time.
"Shaosi and I visited her Shifu, that Candle Dragon old man. Another old man with a long white beard was also there. He saw me and asked me to bring him to you, and he gave me this pretty ball."
While Man Man was excitedly talking to Ji Hao, Zhu Rong Tianming angrily leaped up, rubbed his own face, which now had a red handprint on it, and yelled, "Man Man! How can you be so rude? You, you, do you even remember that I am still your brother?!"
Man Man impatiently waved her hand and said, "Alright, alright, you’re just a half-brother. Cut the crap, it’s annoying to even see you."
Zhu Rong Tianming’s face turned red, and then turned blue. His lips quivered, as he was tempted to rush up and spank Man Man. But seeing the four Jia Clan battle kings standing around Ji Hao, he lost the last little bit of courage.
Next, an elderly man with long white hair and beard slowly walked out of the crowed.
Man Man smilingly nodded towards that elderly man. The elderly man nodded back, then cupped his hands towards Ji Hao and said, "Earl Yao, I am the current leader of Tushan Family. You can just call me Tushan old man."
Tushan Family?
Ji Hao narrowed his eyes, smilingly cupped his hand and deeply bowed towards the elderly man and said, "I am Ji Hao. It’s such a pleasure to meet you… I’ve been hearing about Tushan Family since always. People said your family is even as wealthy as the dragon-kind and phoenix-kind…"
Looking around, Ji Hao grinned and continued, "Shall we find a quiet place to sit down?"
Tushan old man gave a large grin as well, squeezed his pair of eyes into curved lines while hurriedly nodding. He grabbed Ji Hao’s hand and walked straight out of the great hall.