Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
North Territory.
Since the end of the Great Hunting War, the Divine Pavilion, which was once the most powerful force in the North Territory, was destroyed. This destruction led to the situation in the North Territory surging and changing.
After all, the Divine Pavilion had been too strong before, leading all of the top forces covetousness, wanting to take a slice of the pie to strengthen themselves. In such a situation, the Daluo Territory had risen rapidly. In less than a year, it had already expanded greatly, thus becoming the strongest force in the North Territory.
As for the North Territory Alliance, which was formed between Mandela and other top forces, it also acquired some substantive significance. Mandela had relied on her prowess as an Upper Earthly Sovereign to become the leader of the North Territory Alliance.
The fame and status of the Daluo Territory made it the force in which countless powerful people in the whole North Territory wanted to rely on most. Therefore, in this short period of nearly a year, countless strong people poured into the Daluo Territory, trying to join become allies.
However this expansion inevitably caused some trouble, as those old and powerful people, who had once been in the Daluo Territory, inevitably had some conflicts of interest with the newcomers. As such, even Mandela did not have solutions to these problems. After all, such issues were inevitable in times of expansion, so they could only wait for time to resolve them.
Today, the entire atmosphere was particularly lively, as it was time for another Conference of the Lords! These conferences, which were now held in the Daluo Territory, were much larger than they used to be. After all, following the rapid expansion of the Daluo Territory, there were now as many as 18 lords!
Mandela had carefully handpicked these lords stringently, but with the addition of so many new lords, it was clear that it had caused a great impact in the Daluo Territory. Now, even senior lords like Lord Asura, Lord Blood Hawk, and Lord Mountain Cracker felt a bit threatened by the new influx of lords.
Every Conference of the Lords saw the appearance of wither a new lord or king, so by now, it had become the most important meeting in the entire Daluo Territory. Whenever it was held, even the dukes of the Daluo Territory’s most important cities would attend!
However, as the entire Daluotian empire was in the midst of its bustling preparation, it was silent in Nine Nether Palace. In the huge palace, the army, which was donned in black armor, was strict. The sky above had powerful spiritual energy fluctuations, in which spiritual symbols appeared subtly, indicating that a powerful spirit array was guarding the place.
Today’s Nine Nether Palace was vastly different than when Mu Chen and Nine Nether had left it. Whether it was the number of cities under its command or the number of strong people who populated it, the palace had made a significant leap forward.
After all, it was clear to all of the Daluo Territory that the relationship between Mu Chen and Mandela was very close. As such, even the three Kings would pay their respects by giving their resources to Nine Nether Palace. In fact, Nine Nether Palace now showed signs of being the most powerful force in the entire Daluo Territory.
Regarding the attention that Mandela gave to Nine Nether Palace, everyone in the Daluo Territory was jealous about this. This naturally made some of the people very dissatisfied.
This was because they considered the inferior powers of Mandela and Mu Chen to not be worthy of being placed in charge of the vast Nine Nether Palace, much less obtaining such a huge amount of resources. Thus, it seemed that this pairing was a mismatch, which led the people to become very skeptical.
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Nine Nether Palace, within one of the main halls.
As the entire Daluotian Territory was in an excited frenzy, it was rather quiet in Nine Nether Palace, as if the Conference of the Lords had nothing to do with them. Within the main hall, there were many people, making for a grand scene.
Two empty positions had been left open within the hall, below which, sat the chief steward of Nine Nether Palace, Tang Bing, and her sister Tang Rou. Alongside them, a lady dressed in a white dress in a wheelchair sat primly.
The woman in the wheelchair looked beautiful, but her cheeks were a little pale. Her spiritual energy fluctuations were not particularly strong, but she was obviously in a position that was second only to Tang Bing.
This lady, whom Mu Chen had met in the Great Hunting War, was Zhantai Liuli, the Divine Pavilion’s war troop dispatcher. After the fall of the Divine Pavilion, Zhantai Liuli and her family had joined the Daluo Territory at Mu Chen’s request. She was currently the most sought-after war troop dispatcher in the entire realm.
Therefore, although her spiritual strength was not strong, when coupled with her war troop dispatcher power, even an ordinary Seventh Grade Sovereign would find it difficult to obtain a victory over her.
Following the line after Zhantai Liuli, dozens of figures sat along the hall, powerful spiritual energy fluctuations surrounding each of them, especially the four figures in the front. Judging from these spiritual energy fluctuations that were radiating out of their bodies, they were all Seventh Grade Sovereigns!
This kind of strength, even if placed in the present Daluo Territory, gave them the preliminary qualification to be crowned lords. These strong people, who were naturally summoned by Mandela, were tasked with helping Tang Bing to temporarily stabilize Nine Nether Palace.
“Today is the Conference of the Lords. In accordance with our usual practice, Nine Nether Palace will not be involved in this matter for the time being. I will close the palace for one day only today.” At the top of the hall, Tang Bing looked at the strong and powerful line-up.
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Although the audience had expected Tang Bing’s words, there was still inevitably some regret in their eyes. After all, it was a pity that they couldn’t participate in such a grand event.
“It is said that, in this Conference of the Lords, the Dragon-Arm Sovereign and the Withered Old Man may get the opportunity to vie for the position as the new king. This is a major event, so are we not even going to make an appearance?” one of the middle-aged men among the four Seventh Grade Sovereigns suddenly asked.
Dragon-Arm Sovereign and Withered Old Man were the two most powerful figures out of all who had joined the Daluo Territory within the last year. They had actually just stepped into the ranks of the Ninth Grade Sovereigns, so they had extremely powerful momentum heading into the Daluo Territory.
They had both coveted the position for a long time, so now that they felt ready, they wanted to compete for it. If they were successful, the three Kings of the Daluo Territory would expand to become five. As such, the middle-aged man wanted to bring Nine Nether Palace closer to the two new possible Kings, or at least to try to forge some positive relations.
This middle-aged man was named Xu Kun, and he was powerful. He was also the strongest among the four Seventh Grade Sovereigns.
As such, although he had not been at Nine Nether Palace long, he seemed to be the strongest person there. Thus, he was held in high esteem.
Now that he had opened his mouth, it attracted some people to immediately echo in consensus. After all, in the Daluo Territory, the status of a king was second only to the Dominator.
Tang Bing saw the situation and frowned slightly. Naturally, she was aware of the Dragon-Arm Sovereign and the Withered Old Man. She had also thought of visiting them on behalf of Nine Nether Palace in the past, but the two men regarded themselves highly and were arrogant towards everyone, even Mu Chen and Nine Nether!
In Tang Bing’s view, if it were not for the Dominator, these two arrogant people would ignore Nine Nether Palace entirely. After all, towards a Ninth Grade Sovereign, even the Dominator would take a slightly lower stance, because they were the best combat powers apart from the Dominator herself.
However, since these two were so cold, Tang Bing naturally did not want to face humiliation by approaching them. In addition, Mu Chen and Nine Nether were not present, so she really did not have too much confidence to do so. Thus, she could only try her best to control the present circumstances.
Tang Bing looked at the main hall, where the discussion was going on. She sighed in her heart. With the crazy expansion of Nine Nether Palace, her reputation had obviously been weakened.
It did not help matters that these new strong men were both powerful and equally defiant! However, even though they did not respect her command entirely, they listened to her begrudgingly.
At the time, she did know that Xu Kun was said to have something to do with the Dragon-Arm Sovereign and Withered Old Man. From this point of view, he probably meant to form close relations with them.
After all, once these two people became kings, it would certainly change the situation in the Daluo Territory. Obviously, Xu Kun was not the only one who had such an idea, as the voices in the hall began to all speak at once. The silence in the hall had been broken, and for a while, even Tang Bing could not suppress it.
“Chief Steward Tang, if you still don’t want to, then allow me to go to the Conference of the Lords alone,” said Xu Kun, who smiled and got up directly.
Seeing him rise, there were also some strong people in the hall who followed, and even more people who were obviously hesitant. Tang Bing looked at this scene, her face becoming green with displeasure.
When Xu Kun saw Tang Bing’s face, he smiled faintly and did not care. Although Tang Bing was under the command of the two masters of the palace, he regarded himself as being a powerful man.
Thus, he decided that he was far more important than this runt Tang Bing! Even if the two masters of the palace came back at that time, they would surely rather rely heavily on him. Thus, he has no fear of offending Tang Bing.
Thinking of this, he waved his sleeve and was ready to leave with his supporters. At this moment, however, Tang Bing rose up and yelled, “Stop!”
Xu Kun paused his footsteps and frowned, declaring in a cold voice, “Chief Steward Tang, I am not your subordinate!”
As the two clashed, the atmosphere in the hall immediately became tense, with many strong men looking at each other, wondering what to do. The situation was in a stalemate. Then, a faint laugh rang out suddenly.
“Haha, I didn’t expect to see such a lively situation in Nine Nether Palace!”
The sudden sound immediately shattered the tension in the hall, as all of them were shocked by the mysterious voice. It was as if they had caught sight of something, all of them looking directly at the two empty positions in the main hall.
There, a man and a woman had suddenly appeared, and the young man, who looked tall and handsome, was looking at the people with a smile. That smile, which seemed gentle, made everyone in the room feel an inexplicable sense of pressure.
Tang Bing also stared at the two figures. Then, a moment later, there was an irrepressible look of surprise that filled her face, as she exclaimed, “Sister Nine Nether! Mu Chen! Y’all have returned!”