BXBX NOVEL Chapter 555: Honorary Alliance
She then raised the staff toward the levitating statue. The serpent shot a ray of beams from its eyes and struck the hollow part of the statue. Suddenly, the statue reacted by turning the hollow part into a portal in a dark background.
"Follow me…" She jumped right in.
Mark and his sister took a look at each other before following her into the portal.
While the siblings of Ice attribute ventured into the land of the unknown, at the Lunaris City, a few things happened in their absence.
First of all, King Yan fixed a marriage alliance with Feng Wu and his daughter.
Secondly, the Acting Emperor of the Qilin Empire also put forth a marriage proposal, which was between his eldest son who is still 15, and Princess Shang Jiao. However, Shang Fu mildly rejected the proposal, stating that Shang Jiao is too young at the moment.
While it ended up in failure, the Prince/acting emperor of Ming managed to strike a deal with Shen Niu instead.
Perhaps, he managed to sense Mark\'s future move when the latter warned the merchant guild\'s vice president. Or perhaps, he knew about the giant factory on Fujian island. Or maybe, it is because of the demigods. Or was it because of Mark\'s assertive behavior during the auction?
Whatever reason might be the case, the Qilin Empire and the United Celestial Dominion drew up a pact of friendship, in which, the Qilin Empire would be a part of the alliance as an honorary member.
However, what it required was acknowledgment from the Council of Kings.
After a brief discussion between Shen Niu and Ming Xianzhi, the King of Western Moon put forth the proposition of an honorary membership for the Qilin Empire.
Luckily, the other kings and emperors were still staying as guests at the palace. Hence, the decision was taken quickly.
As if Ming Xianzhi knew how the Genesis Cabinet works, he even brought up the required terms and conditions too.
Unlike the permanent member, the terms were slightly different for this honorary member.
Being an honorary member, the Qilin Empire\'s representative can participate in the Council of Kings\' meetings and share their opinions but doesn\'t have the power of voting. However, they can send one permanent representative to the Genesis Cabinet, which makes the laws.
Unlike the permanent members who pay 40% tax, the Qilin Empire will pay a fixed amount of 50,000 gold coins each quarterly as tax. In return, the Empire will have military protection of the alliance, which includes a demigod.
This demigod is neither Sylvandria nor the Zheng. It isn\'t even Lan Jingyi. It\'s Eol who is in the body of Fu Sheng, leading his troop as Fu Sheng too, and making it an exclusive army of the Cabinet.
To win everyone\'s trust even more, the Prince of the Ming Dynasty, representing his father as the acting Emperor, also revealed an important secret of their research on teleportation formation. He proposed making a joint research team, which will focus on building teleportation formations in each capital city so that it becomes much easier to travel between the member states of the alliance.
Perhaps, some of the members aren\'t satisfied with Mark\'s behavior in the auction. Or perhaps, they genuinely wanted to expand the group and feared that Mark wouldn\'t accept it.
Hence, in Mark\'s absence, the Kings influenced their representatives to fast-track the procedures. Within two days, the acting Genesis Cabinet\'s president, Shao Ping, the representative of the Western Moon kingdom, made the announcement of inducting the Qilin Empire into the alliance.
One week later;
Song Mansion, Lunaris City;
While Little Lu Shan was peacefully sleeping in his cradle and guarded by a couple of rank-9 robots, and secretly, a rank-10 robot that mostly stays hidden, Song Yue found herself in the special training room in the mansion, although one could say she was dragged by Sylvandria without her consent.
Forcing her to sit on the floor, the former elven priestess sat before her and spoke in a serious tone so that the human pay attention to her words.
"Look, Sister Yue. I know that you are safe with everyone around and you don\'t actually need any training. But, it was never about getting strong. You cannot ignore the fact that Xiao Shan was born with the chaos element due to the remnants of the Chaos energy inside you. Lu Zhen didn\'t have the element and probably would have no idea how to train the element.
So, you should be the one who needs to teach him or else, who knows what kind of disaster the child brings, if kept uncontrolled…"
Sylvandria\'s words felt like a jolt to Song Yue that had passed through her entire body and made her shiver for a second. She couldn\'t help but ask in curiosity, "Is Chaos element that powerful?"
The elf let out a deep sigh, "Powerful? It\'s one of the most powerful elements in the universe. With a thought in your mind, you could just transform a tree into a forest, and a block of brick into a mansion. You could manipulate reality to any extent and alter the laws of nature. It is why Chaos is considered the enemy of Gods, who don\'t like disorder.
Lu Zhen could probably protect his family from even immortals. But, the Heavenly Palace is entirely a different question. The Gods can wipe out this entire world with a snap of their fingers."
"Eh?" Song Yue\'s curiosity turned into fear with her face going pale and her eyes widened, "will the gods punish my child?" She herself knows that it is a ridiculous thought but being a mother, she couldn\'t help but become concerned about the possibilities.
"Nothing to worry, a mere child wouldn\'t come into their vision," replied the elf, patting Song Yue\'s shoulder before continuing, "But, you can see Lu Shan is only one month old and he is already at the intermediate stage of 2-circle. We don\'t know how powerful he even become in the future.
Hence, it is important that you become more proficient in mastering your element so that it becomes easier to either train him in the future or suppress his powers in case of an accident."
Song Yue took two seconds to digest what this elf was trying to say and she nodded firmly, "I understand. Please take care of me."
"That goes without saying," Sylvandria let out an amiable smile, wiping off her earlier serious expression and straightening her back, "For now, let\'s meditate. We focus on ether energy control before moving to the elemental control."
**
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Mark appeared at what appeared like a sea bed with a bubble-like barrier covering him. The surroundings were so dark that none of them could see anything.
Before they even get to wonder where they are, a voice is heard in the surroundings, "Oh, there are two mortals apart from my apostle? Hmm… the aura of Blizzard Pegasus? Interesting… Fine, I will grace you with my presence. But, before that, you two have to prove your worth. Here we go, good luck…"
*Snap*
Followed by the sound of the snap of a finger, Mark\'s surroundings were once again changed, finding himself in the middle of an endless barren land with undead skeletons slowly rising from the ground.