Chapter 1097: Chapter 850: Becoming Emperor?
The messenger immediately nodded, "Actually, this mission was personally arranged by Master Elma himself!"
"Oh? That’s great! Tell me, what’s different about the recent Elma compared to before?"
Different? The messenger shuddered upon recalling the scene when he had met Master Elma.
"There’s a big difference compared to before," the messenger murmured, "He’s taller, more robust, and although his voice remains the same, it is extremely stiff, cold as ice, as if he were not human. Just standing beside him, one can feel the Mana fluctuations emanating from his surroundings, fluctuations that made it hard for me to breathe."
Long Yi nodded, confirming through the words of a second person that Elma was indeed transforming himself.
"Didn’t you see his face?" Long Yi pressed.
"No," the messenger shook his head, "Master Elma covered most of his face, but I saw his chin and his lips, they were transparent like crystal! His hands were transparent too! Just like the transparent girl beside you!"
Having seen Lingling before, the messenger easily made the connection to her.
Could it be that old geezer Elma has completely turned himself into a Crystal Demon?
Long Yi was startled by his own guess, that old bastard truly was the type who could do such a thing. Initially taken hostage by Solis, he could only survive on Crystal Poison, perhaps he really took the opportunity to research how to turn himself into a real Crystal Demon!
The likelihood was extremely high!
Subsequently, the messenger added quite a few details, which Long Yi carefully noted down. Afterward, the messenger looked at Long Yi with hopeful eyes.
After some thought, Long Yi regretfully told the messenger, "Unfortunately, although you have been cooperative, the information you’ve provided lacks originality. I’ve known about these matters for some time, so, unless you can find some more useful information, I can only say I’m sorry."
The messenger, hearing Long Yi say this, was immediately dumbfounded. He racked his brain but couldn’t think of any useful information, yet suddenly, inspiration struck him. Then, with a bitter smile he said, "You never intended to let me go, right."
Long Yi smiled, "You’re really smarter than I thought, you even saw through that."
The messenger originally also intended to probe Long Yi’s intentions, but he didn’t expect Long Yi to candidly admit it!
He dejectedly said, "I have long been traveling back and forth between the realms of surface-dwellers, I am already familiar with you folks; you would never let someone like me, an enemy, leave."
Yet Long Yi shook his head, "I don’t let you go not just because you’re my enemy; look, I’ve let some of my enemies leave. I don’t let you go simply because all this started because of you, so obviously, it must also end with you."
And another reason Long Yi didn’t mention was, if the messenger were allowed to leave, once he returned to the Ancient Mage Tower, he would surely tattle, and then those whom Long Yi had just let go might not survive.
Look, I let them go; I want them to survive. Without my permission, no one can lay a finger on them.
Of course, Long Yi had no interest in explaining this to him.
Many villains seem to talk too much; Long Yi believed that, as the protagonist, he could break this curse, and once he decided, he would certainly not waste time.
After dealing with the messenger, Long Yi murmured, "I wonder how Ai Lin and the others are doing."
As soon as Long Yi arrived in the Thundercloud Empire, Ai Lin, disguised as a Commander, led the Sanctuary mage troops to the Storm Empire.
The Storm Empire was a traditional ally of the Divine Auffa Empire, with close ties, and both had a tradition of sharing their magic research findings with each other. Including the parts of the formulas that Ai Lin had recently improved, the Divine Auffa had chosen some that were less secretive to share with the Storm Empire.
So when the people of the Ancient Mage Tower decided to disarm the Storm Empire, Emperor Stroms of the Storm Empire surprisingly ordered a resistance. As expected, the resistance forces were effortlessly taken care of by the five hundred mages from the Ancient Mage Tower. And most unexpectedly of all, Dana, the chief of the Ancient Mage Tower, declared herself Emperor right there!
Dana, not yet thirty years old, had grown up under the halo of genius within the Ancient Mage Tower, and she could definitely be considered a young talent. At such a young age, she had shouldered important responsibilities within the Ancient Mage Tower. Now she was in charge of an entire planet’s operations, enough to prove her strength. However, the act of claiming to be Emperor took all her subordinates by surprise.
But when Dana appointed a bunch of various officials and enjoyed the benefits from these officials, nobody was surprised anymore. These people had no clue how to govern a country, and all sorts of messy orders full of loopholes were issued, inevitably leading to a multitude of problems. Instead of reflecting on their mistakes, they blamed the underlings for poor execution.
As a result, the entire Empire was seething with popular discontent.
And Ai Lin and her Sanctuary mage team arrived amidst such circumstances.
Unlike the vastly neutral citizenry that Long Yi encountered on Thundercloud planet, the people of the Storm planet could be described with nearly lining the streets in welcome.
Dana, unlike other planet leaders, had her own ambitions, so from the outset, she gathered a group of native powers that had defected to her side. Among them were wealthy merchants and nobility, who contributed their private armed forces. These forces numbered over five thousand, but their strength was inconsistent. However, within a mere two months, Dana had used strong-arm tactics to transform these good-for-nothings into fighters fit for battle. She also specifically used knowledge from the Ancient Mage Tower to teach them.
In Dana’s view, such an army was more than capable of suppressing any human armed force on the ground. That was why, when Ai Lin led her forces to arrive, Dana hadn’t even attempted to put up a fight.
Because there was simply no need.
"My army will send all those pathetic fools who come knocking straight to their graves, without leaving a single one alive," Dana had proclaimed from her throne to her so-called ministers, to a thunderous round of applause.
Then, as Ai Lin’s troops entered the Imperial City and she, leading the way, finally laid eyes on the enemy that should have attacked from the skies, a chilling realization dawned upon her.
The opposing forces were numerous and looked fierce, brimming with confidence.
"Battle formation! Prepare to meet the enemy!"
The Divine Auffa Empire’s soldiers immediately deployed into battle formation, just as they had been trained.
On the other side, the Commander of Dana’s forces, seeing that the Divine Auffa Empire’s army had not drawn their magic staves but instead was facing them empty-handed, couldn’t help but laugh out loud, "Those fools over there, are they planning to engage us in hand-to-hand combat without even using their magic staves? Come on, brothers! Let’s give them a lesson! Let them learn through death what the masters from the Ancient Mage Tower have taught us with their advanced magic!"
The battle commenced instantaneously. Ai Lin had initially thought the opposition would be very strong, so she was somewhat concerned that her own side might struggle. But she had to admit, she was wrong. She had made an empiricist’s error. The strength of those on the other side lay solely in their imposing aura, an aura that quickly dissipated, as the fight was almost entirely one-sided.
Despite their numbers, Dana’s army was outclassed in every aspect, be it in the selection of magic, casting speed, or the intensity of their magic attacks. From the first exchange of spells, they were being overwhelmingly suppressed! By the end, they were even forced to allocate more people to defense, with only a handful attacking, which made their already insufficient offensive power even more stretched thin.
They were outmatched, and that was a fact.
What to do?
The Commander of Dana’s forces was now almost pallid. Before he left, Dana had personally charged him with at least making the Divine Auffa Empire’s army pay a price, should he fail to stop them.
And now, it seemed that the Divine Auffa Empire’s troops hadn’t paid any price at all; their uniforms were not even wrinkled.
"Commander! We can’t hold them back! Those bastards attack both fast and fiercely!" one of his subordinates shouted.
"Retreat! Immediate retreat!"
The Commander of Dana’s forces immediately issued the order to retreat, for despite having the numerical advantage, the disparity in strength between the two forces was far too apparent, leaving them with no chance of victory.
Seeing the enemy retreating, Ai Lin stopped her warriors from pursuing further.
"Just a bunch of clowns. Don’t waste mana on them. Our first priority is to rescue the Emperor," she declared.
Ai Lin’s order was crystal clear, and a thousand people immediately headed towards the Imperial Palace.
On the way, several individuals secretly joined the group. They were all close confidants of the Emperor, and had been secretly keeping track of the Emperor’s whereabouts ever since his imprisonment. When they heard that the Divine Auffa Empire was sending troops, of course, they were delighted. But seeing that there were only a thousand soldiers, their hearts grew cold. Yet, seeing how this small contingent had routed five thousand elite forces, they realized these thousand soldiers were not as they had imagined; perhaps they could actually rescue the Emperor.
So they joined the troop midway to provide information to Ai Lin. Ai Lin had been looking for a few professionals to ask for directions, but several volunteers came forward. A simple mental magic check verified their sincerity, and Ai Lin immediately set tasks according to the locations they gave.
Meanwhile, the Commander of Dana’s forces had already run back to the Imperial Palace where Dana was sitting on her enormous throne, awaiting ’good news.’ However, instead of good news, she was greeted by the Commander, arriving in utter disarray.
"Your Majesty! We couldn’t hold them back at all! They are too strong!" the Commander shouted.
"Too strong? Did they bring tens of thousands of troops?" Dana asked in confusion, the capacity of a spacecraft was limited, they couldn’t possibly bring that many people, could they? In Dana’s calculations, the combat power of the mages she had trained far exceeded that of the average soldiers in this world by several times. Unless the opposition had tens of thousands of troops, these five thousand soldiers shouldn’t have been overwhelmed!
"They... They only had a thousand people..." the Commander felt his face burning with embarrassment.
"A thousand people?!" Dana’s voice grew icy cold. This time, even if the opposition had five thousand, she could excuse a defeat as the new troops’ lack of harmony. But now, there were only a thousand enemies! While here, there were five thousand freshly trained powerful soldiers who instead got suppressed?
"What level are their strengths?" Dana asked gravely, considering herself a composed and calm person, it was essential to remain even more calm when faced with such abnormal circumstances.
"Their uniforms only have one star..." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit qidian.com to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
