Chapter 1375: Treacherous Undercurrent
Translator: Law Editor: Hitesh_
The roof of the Town Hall was temporarily repaired. Inside the Town Hall, all clan leaders, earls, and marquises, who were still qualified to attend and take part in a discussion regarding the future of the humankind, sat straight on the ground.
Sitting behind Gong Sun Bo and the other leaders were a large number of marquises and earls, lined up according to their bloodlines. The number of those people was over sixty percent of the total number of all human marquises and earls on the scene.
The rest forty percent of marquises and earls were divided into several groups according to their relationships, scattered in the corners of the hall. In the broad hall, only the space around Ji Hao, Man Man, Shaosi and Ji Hao’s other friends was completely empty, without even a ghost.
Many Marquises and earls, who were close to Ji Hao, nodded to him with bitter smiles. Their clans and families were branches of those powerful ones, and all originated from those powerful families. Both themselves and their clans had been affected largely by those powerful families. In front of Gong Sun Bo and the other leaders and elders, not a single one of these earls and marquises dared to show any friendliness towards Ji Hao.
These families were way so powerful; their influence was even beyond people’s imagination.
If one thought about it and dug deep, even Emperor Shun’s family was a branch of You Xiong Family, both descending from Emperor Xuanyuan. Facing these powerful families, even Emperor Shun had to consider the ‘overall situation’, not to mention these earls and marquises.
Ji Hao sat on the ground, rested his hands on his knees, and smilingly lapped at Gong Sun Bo.
These powerful families hated Ji Hao so much, but at the moment, they wouldn’t recklessly attack again. As the members of top-grade powerful human families, these people were proud. They wouldn’t let themselves be stuck in a bad situation like those who lived in the bottom of the society. They tried, but failed to talk out Ji Hao. Now, they had made the whole thing personal, and they would solve all problems in a personal way.
Gong Sun Bo and the other leaders nodded to Ji Hao smilingly too. They hated Ji Hao to the utmost degree, but as leader of top-grade powerful families, they still needed to act polite and generous.
At this very moment, everyone in the Town Hall had a warm smile on their faces, as if Ji Hao had never slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people earlier. In the hall, only Ji Hao and his friends sat in the empty area like an iceberg; the coldness spread from them even chilled everyone’s heart.
Emperor Shun looked around. Seeing the smiles on the faces of Gong Sun Bo and the other leaders, he sighed helplessly, then took a glance at Ji Hao. He had tried his best to mitigate the conflict, but Ji Hao had killed so many people from these families, and that hatred could never be erased.
Gong Sun Bo and the others had made a blood oath, that they had to take revenge against Ji Hao and his clansmen in a destructive way to wash off the shame Ji Hao brought to them, and to defend the honor and dignity of their great families. The blood hatred could not be erased, not even by the twelve former human emperors themselves; that was a fast knot.
Perhaps by now, Emperor Shun could only do whatever he could to protect a part of Ji Hao’s clansmen, so that the Gold Crow bloodline wouldn’t disappear. Silently, Emperor Shun did a rough calculation. With the power of his family, that was all he could do.
Coughing slightly, Emperor Shun said in a deep voice, "The flood is ebbing, and many things need to be settled. First of all..."
Gong Sun Bo rudely interrupted Emperor Shun and said blandly, "First of all, Si Wen Ming is injured to a coma, so that flood-control army shouldn’t remain under his command."
Waving his hand, he continued, "That is an elite force. These years, they fought hard in the flood, in the storm, against the water-kind, day after day. They are tired. Therefore, we need to allow them to live better lives. We have decided to dismiss this army, and we will take them over, along with their families."
As Gong Sun Bo finished, the leaders of High Sun Family, Wu Chang Family, You Chao Family and Suiren Family applauded, grinningly praising Gong Sun Bo for his brilliant idea.
Those leaders started giving our their words. In front of everyone else, they promised to treat those warriors and their families well, that they will have farmlands, houses, livestock, and all living supplies. With all the resources possessed by those powerful families, those warriors would definitely live a bountiful life from now on.
Ji Hao sneered.
The army under Si Wen Ming’s command was tremendous. It could even be considered as the largest human force since the beginning of history.
Warriors in this army mostly came from clans destroyed by the flood. In the past few years, they fought against water-kind creatures every single day. They flattened mountains, and expanded gorges. Each day, they would consume a great amount of energy. Therefore, all of these warriors had grown iron-like muscles and an unbreakable spirit.
Before the flood, many of these warriors were ordinary Junior Magi or even Novice Magi. But through years of working hard and bloodshedding, some of them had made the breakthrough and become Senior Magi. This army under Si Wen Ming’s command was not only great in scale, but also, every single warrior in this army was exceptionally strong, with especially rich battling experiences that ordinary warriors could never compare with.
The flood-control mission lasted for years. Those powerful families never sent out one single warrior. Instead, they only dug out some stale crops from their storages and gave to Emperor Shun. But when the flood was gone, these families immediately attempted to carve up Si Wen Ming’s army!
"This army..." Emperor Shun started talking. But, the leader of High Sun Family impatiently interrupted again, "We all understand that Si Wen Ming is a capable kid. His ‘All Streams to the Final Land’ formation is drawing the four wastelands, and within three months tops, the four wastelands will be connected with Midland."
"Therefore, Emperor Shun wants to send this army into Northern Wasteland and wipe out all of Gong Gong’s remaining force." The leader of High Sun Family continued with a smile, "You can leave this to us. As we are taking over the army, we surely need to send strong forces to bring them in anyway. As for cleaning Northern Wasteland, we will do it."
Ji Hao almost laughed out loud.
‘What a wishful thinking. The flood-control mission was accomplished with blood and severe efforts. For that, you didn’t even touch it. Yet, for cleaning the Northern Wasteland and swallowing up the territories that belonged to Northern Wasteland clans, you have already started to drag this fleshy piece of meat into your bowls.’ thought Ji Hao.
The core forces of these powerful families mostly centered on Midland. If they could truly swallow Northern Wasteland...What would they do as their strengths started soaring?
Emperor Shun shook his head again in helplessness. He wanted to say something, but those were tens of powerful families with combined powers, and over sixty percent of all earls and marquises were now on their side. Under the circumstances, their decisions were basically the decisions of the alliance of human clans.
Even Emperor Shun couldn’t easily overthrow their decisions, unless he turned against them openly and officially!
How could emperor Shun ever do that? Yu Dynasty had still been covetously waiting in the north. If the alliance of human clans burst into internal conflicts, the non-humankind would mercilessly throw the humankind into hell.
Sighing slightly, Emperor Shun said a few words.
Ji Hao didn’t hear Emperor Shun clearly, because a jade talisman in his inside pocket suddenly turned burning hot, as an emergency message was delivered —Outside Yao Mountain City, a large mysterious army was approaching speedily.
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