Chapter 1147: Chapter 897: Victory is Hard-Won
"So it’s a body swap?" Lyd Jon asked.
"Yes, it’s a body swap," Long Yi said.
"What if I age and then swap for a new body?" Lyd Jon asked, his eyes slightly lighting up.
"Then your already aged soul will cause your body to age rapidly," Long Yi said.
"Oh, I see," Lyd Jon chuckled.
"Unless I make your soul young again, then it would work," Long Yi added.
"Really? Can that be done?" Lyd Jon asked excitedly.
"Of course, in this universe, even Crazy Demons cannot live forever. Therefore, what Elma calls eternal life cannot possibly be true, but extending a person’s life is not hard to do," Long Yi said.
"That’s great!" Lyd Jon said happily.
Even though Lyd Jon seemed unimpressed by the various proposals made by the envoy from the Ancient Mage Tower, ultimately, no one dislikes the idea of living a little longer.
"There are three days left. In these three days, I will hand over the safety guarantee gift package to you one by one," Long Yi said.
"Okay, but before that, I think I should first establish a contract with you," Lyd Jon said.
"There’s no need for that, I trust you," Long Yi said.
"Yes, I trust myself as well. But since this time it’s beyond your control, in case something unforeseeable happens, this contract will ensure that I am always on your side," Lyd Jon said.
To be honest, having come this far, Long Yi had indeed gained a new respect for Lyd Jon. No matter whether his aim was to place a heavy bet on himself or something else, by this point, even Long Yi had to give him a thumbs up.
Once the contract was established, Lyd Jon and Long Yi secretly left the Red Star and came to the Empire’s Sanctuary, where Long Yi fulfilled his safety guarantee gift package one by one. Including immunity to Crystal Poison, immunity to mental magic, backups of personality, consciousness, and memory. Most importantly, Long Yi actually copied a body for Lyd Jon.
"If you can’t withstand it and die, use this magic to protect your body. When I find you afterward, I can use this method to resurrect you." Long Yi gave Lyd Jon a spell whose sole purpose was to prevent the body from decomposing and the soul from leaving the body.
By the time everything was ready, three days had passed.
The envoy from the Ancient Mage Tower came knocking again, and as usual, Long Yi hid behind the wall, while Lyd Jon presented a grave face.
"Actually, I should refuse you," Lyd Jon said before the envoy could speak.
"Why?" the envoy asked, puzzled.
"Because right now the Ancient Mage Tower is really not doing well; you’re facing setbacks everywhere, and the promises you’ve made, I see no hope of them being fulfilled," Lyd Jon said.
"So you’re actually going to refuse our sincere invitation?" the envoy asked, while secretly sneering inside, because Lyd Jon’s first words were ’I should’ refuse you, not a direct refusal. This meant that his words were simply laying the groundwork for what he was going to say next.
"I think, Mr. Elma, you should first show me some actual benefits," Lyd Jon spoke.
As expected, Lyd Jon was tempted!
It’s not a worry for them to set conditions, but rather if they’re unapproachable! As long as they come up with conditions, things become manageable!
The envoy smiled and said, "Let’s hear it then, what do you want?"
Lyd Jon also smiled: "First, I want a treatment that matches my status. I know you’ve also rounded up a bunch of nobodies to fill your ranks, but I am different from them. The idea of sharing the same status with them is unacceptable."
The envoy nodded: "That’s fair, Lord Elma has already anticipated that you would have such concerns, so he has entrusted me to tell you that you don’t need to worry about that at all. You are completely different from them, and in fact, Master Elma has different offers for different foes, you can rest assured about that."
Lyd Jon nodded, saying, "The second point is even more important. I need to see the hope that you can defeat Long Yi—listen carefully, hope, I don’t expect you to beat Long Yi, but at least let me see that you might have an army that could defeat Long Yi in the future, rather than feeling like I should be leading a group of three-year-olds against a group of adults."
The envoy was completely unprepared for this condition, even Elma had not anticipated that anyone would make such a request.
"This..."
"It’s very important because, from my point of view, the reason you can’t beat Long Yi at the moment doesn’t have much to do with the commander; the most important reason is that you don’t have a group of capable soldiers to fight for you. I believe that the others you’ve invited will agree with me. So I think you should go back now and ask Master Elma what he has to say," Lyd Jon said.
The envoy knew that with the conversation having reached this point it was pretty much settled, and that staying here any longer would be meaningless.
"I will convey your words in full to Master Elma and ask that you please keep our conversation confidential, Lord Chief Lyd Jon," the envoy said gravely.
"Don’t worry, I’m not foolish enough to reveal this to Long Yi and bring trouble upon myself," Lyd Jon said.
Long Yi came out of the hidden room behind the wall, nearly ready to applaud for Lyd Jon. He had to admit, compared with outright joining the other side, this manner of laying down conditions seemed a bit more authentic.
"The next move is to see how the other party copes," said Lyd Jon.
Messengers returned to the Ancient Mage Tower one after another, but when the news was summarized to Zulal, there wasn’t much in the way of good news.
"Out of the one hundred and thirty people we invited, only sixteen directly agreed to come. Some people directly refused, while most indicated that they would consider the matter, but they expressed doubts about our strength. They believe we are no match for Long Yi, and that this gap cannot be changed by them joining us. Some people clearly expressed interest but also believe we are not a match for Long Yi, including the Red Skin Clan’s Lyd Jon."
Zulal condensed the content of the reports into a few sentences to tell Elma. After listening, Elma fell silent for a while and then said, "It’s just as I expected; they still lack confidence in us."
"Perhaps, we should do something that would give them confidence?" Zulal suggested.
"Yes, that’s why I have been rushing to produce Black Crystal Mages," Elma replied.
Hei Jing was the unbeatable mage Long Yi had encountered in the Stellar Realm Arena, his body surface covered in Dragon Scale armor that provided him with ample defense. Coupled with the assistance of Dragon Power, he was nearly invincible. And now, inside the Ancient Mage Tower, they were mass-producing this type of mage under the codename Hei Jing.
"Currently, we have over a thousand Black Crystal Mages and nearly twenty thousand Semi-Crazy Demons. Do you think this is enough to help them establish confidence?" Elma Zulal asked.
"I don’t know. The Black Crystal Mages are strong, but the power of those Divine Armor Mages..." Zulal wasn’t sure.
"Yes, but the Semi-Crazy Demons who have now mastered Resonance Spells are not to be underestimated either," Elma said with a smile.
"They’ve already mastered spell resonance!?" Zulal exclaimed in surprise.
"Yes, after you found that person for me, it only took him one day to perfect the spell. And now, all the Semi-Crazy Demons can easily trigger their own Mana Resonance with the help of the Crystal Poison’s Resonance. When in a state of resonance, no matter what spell they cast, its power is greatly boosted! In this state, even if they do nothing and just use spell resonance to enhance the Black Crystal Mages’ power, their goal is achieved!"
"So then, where shall we attack?" Zulal asked excitedly.
"If we’re going to attack, then we might as well pick a few representative planets," Elma said as he opened up the star chart.
"A few?" Zulal asked, puzzled.
"Yes, let’s start with three. After all, we are the ones taking the initiative. How could we not be proactive?" Elma said with a laugh.
A few days later, Lingling received the information transmission. As soon as Long Yi read the message, he immediately arranged for the troops to converge on a specific sector of space.
"Elma, that bastard, really dares to do it, attacking three planets at once. And you’ve got spell resonance, huh? So much confidence?" Long Yi said, looking at the three distant planets.
"So, what do we do?" Ai Lin asked, looking at Long Yi.
"You and Silver Light go here; Little Zi and Xiaodie, you go here; and I’ll go here," Long Yi assigned the tasks.
"Alright!" Ai Lin, Silver Light, and Little Zi agreed simultaneously.
"Now let’s talk tactics," Long Yi said.
"Tactics already?" Little Zi asked, puzzled.
"Yes, this time our tactic is, to win with difficulty," Long Yi stated.
"To win with difficulty?" Ai Lin, Silver Light, and Little Zi looked at Long Yi in confusion.
"To win with difficulty is very difficult for me," Xiaodie popped her head out from Long Yi’s private space and said.
"That’s why I said it’s with difficulty because to win with difficulty is difficult, haha!" Long Yi found the humor and laughed heartily, but since the girls didn’t laugh, Long Yi, feeling his joke was cold, promptly shut up.
"So you mean, we have to win, but make it seem hard for Elma to believe we had a tough time winning," Ai Lin inquired.
"Yes, that’s it," Long Yi said.
"So, it’s hard for me because when the Stellar Material erupts, I really don’t think many Crazy Demons would survive," Xiaodie said.
"No worries, you can learn slowly. After all, you can’t always rely on Stellar Material for battle, right?" Long Yi said.
"Of course I can, I have enough Stellar Material to directly destroy a hundred planets like this," Xiaodie said.
"Alright, tone down the boasting. If you could help us open the gate to the middle Plane, I’d let you create a small star right now and burn all the idiots in the Ancient Mage Tower to death, but we can’t do that yet," Long Yi replied.
"Oh, alright then," Xiaodie lowered her head, resigned, and moved closer to Little Zi; this time she was paired with Little Zi.
"No worries, I can teach you some simple spells. Just think of this as a fun trip," Little Zi said.
"Little Zi, you’re the best!" Xiaodie said forlornly.
Afterward, Long Yi carefully explained the plan for this time, and then everyone set off on their respective missions. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation; mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
