The Magus Era

The dragon bone wine was indeed delicious.

Cup after cup, hot waves of power streams surged in Ji Hao’s body while the multicolored flames in his lower abdomen flicked quickly. Ji Hao was now soaked in sweat. His pores were opened by the hot power streams while strands of white mist rose from his pores, gathering into a small white cloud upon his head.

His physical strength was rising soaringly. After Ji Hao had gulped an entire vat of dragon bone wine, his physical strength had been improved by over a hundred percent.

Same as Ji Hao, everybody else including Emperor Shun had been gulping the wine as well, which made Si Xi’s eye corners twitch ceaselessly. He nearly yelled out — The primary material of this wine was incredibly hard to find and he didn’t have too much of this dragon-bone wine left.

Didn’t all these people come here to discuss some important things? Why did everybody end up like a big alcoholic, minding nothing but pouring wine into their mouths?

“Eh, Earl Chong…Nah, Marquis Chong’s tiger bone wine is indeed of top quality.” Emperor Shun held the long bamboo scoop and scooped the last bit of dragon bone wine out of a vat, poured into his own cup and began sipping smilingly.

While sipping that wine, he raised his head, smiled to the others and said, “Let’s exchange our views on how exactly should we deal with all those people, and things that had happened.”

Exchange views? How?

The two maidservants carried a large vat into the living room, fully containing nice scented serpent soup. The meat of five-color viper was juicy and soft, and was cooked with tens of rare herbs. The most well-known features of serpent soup were its dense aroma and great nourishing effects. Ji Hao moved the fastest. He grabbed a large bowl and scooped himself a full bowl of soup, then buried his head in it and started wolfing. While eating, he just couldn’t stop giving praises for that serpent soup. The culinary skills of Si Xi’s two maidservants were not bad at all. Besides, the soup cooked by them was excellent in appearance. The soup was milky white with translucent slices of serpent meat slightly shaking in it, looking like soft crystals. Just by looking at this soup one could develop a healthy appetite.

Dishes cooked by Yu Mu were stunningly delicious, yet the appearances of Yu Mu’s food were far worse than this bowl of soup. Ji Hao had seen Yu Mu’s serpent soup, which was a whole pot of dark liquid with giant pieces of serpent meat and entire centipedes floating in it. Some even didn’t look dead; people who weren’t brave enough wouldn’t even have the guts to take that soup.

People in the room quickly devoured the serpent soup and fish slices made from the two white fishes, stuffed their own stomach, then wiped the sweat on their faces clean. Afterward, they finally each let out a long breath in satisfaction.

Glancing at each other, people in the room laughed together. Then Si Wen Ming started the conversation, “Elders like Ying Yunpeng have committed grave crimes and have to be executed. Not only them, but even their relatives also have to be downgraded to slaves.”

“Then, what about all those warriors who came from different clans?” said Emperor Shun in a deep voice, “They turned their weapons around and attacked our own people in Evil Dragon Bay. They almost broke the Chi Ban Mountain defensive line and put our humankind into a grave dangerous. These warriors…their crimes…”

“How should we declare them guilty?” Si Wen Ming smiled bitterly and asked, while helplessly spreading his arms.

Emperor Shun gnashed his teeth, not saying a word for a while.

Alliance of human clans was only an alliance of clans. Emperor Shun possessed the title of human emperor, yet he was nothing more than a leader of the alliance of human clans. He was the one elected by tens of thousands of different scaled human clans and families because of his reputation and influence, which made him a trustable one as the human emperor. His responsibility included solving all kinds of conflicts and problems between human clans.

However, the power of the human emperor was limited. The human emperor was far less powerful and supreme than how people thought he was.

Sometimes, some powerful clans and forces wouldn’t listen to the orders given by human emperors for their own benefits, and Emperor Shun didn’t have any good ideas regarding how to deal with these kinds of clans and forces.

Just like Wuzhi Qi.

Emperor Shun punished him with a hundred years of captivity, banned him from showing up in public, but during the Chi Ban Mountain war, he showed up right in front of everyone. After this, he even boasted about the battle achievements he made, claiming that his contribution was more than enough to offset all his old crimes. What could Emperor Shun do to him?

“Those warriors…” Si Xi murmured in hesitation.

Those warriors had turned their weapons around only because of an order that was given by Ying Yunpeng and other elders. From the standpoint of the entire humankind, these warriors had all committed heavy crimes, and they must be beheaded in public to show the justice of the law to the others; in the best case ever, they should all be downgraded to slaves.

Nevertheless, from the standpoints of their clans, they had done nothing wrong, nothing at all.

Ying Yunpeng and the other elders were their elders, and in battlefields, those warriors had to obey any order given by their elders. Therefore, when Ying Yunpeng ordered them to turn the weapons around and launch attacks in the other human warriors, they did exactly what they were told. They obeyed the order given by Ying Yunpeng, and had done nothing wrong!

On battlefields, if those warriors disobeyed the orders given by their own elders, then that would be a flagrant crime. As a consequence, they and all their relatives wouldn’t be able to have any foothold in their clans anymore, and would certainly suffer the cruelest punishments given by their clans.

“All downgrade to slaves?” Ji Hao held his large bowl and suggested a bit hesitatingly.

“Their clan leaders and elders would never accept that.” Emperor Shun helplessly shook his head and said, “Because of this, I have already argued with them many times. But those many clans would resist this decision joint handedly…Those warriors were all elites of their own clans. If we downgraded all of them to slaves, the powers of each clan would be weakened largely. Therefore, they would never accept this.”

Emperor Shun seemed to be quite helpless. Ji Hao looked at Emperor Shun’s helpless look and felt quite helpless himself as well.

If this mistake was made by a sole clan, such as the stupid move made by the Ink Ape Clan trying to loot captives, Emperor Shun could give a direct order and downgrade over a hundred thousand warriors of the Ink Ape Clan to slaves. With Emperor Shun’s power, he could do that, because Ink Ape Clan had offended the benefits of all clans, and all clans would support Emperor Shun on this. Therefore, facing the great pressure given by all clans, even Gong Gong Wuyou didn’t have the capability to save those Ink Ape Clan warriors from being enslaved.

However, those warriors who had turned their weapons around in battles came from many different powerful clans in Pu Ban city. Their clans were rather powerful. Therefore, if Emperor Shun intended to punish those rebel warriors, a joint handed resistance of all these large, powerful clans would be raised, and even Emperor Shun wouldn’t be able to suppress that.

Besides, those clan leaders and elders were actually making sense. Those warriors had obeyed the orders given by their elders, what was wrong with that?

Ying Yunpeng and those elders rebelled, therefore, they ordered their warriors to rebel as well. Those warriors had done nothing but follow orders. The ones who did the wrong things were elders like Ying Yunpeng. For these elders, their clans were willing to hand them out and let them take the punishments they deserved.

Since the arch-criminals were going to be punished fairly, those warriors shall just go back home!

“I am not insisting on punishing those warriors.” said Emperor Shun frowningly and in a deep voice, “I… just want to set up a rule. There has to be a rule…our humankind is a unity. Warriors from clans can’t only listen to their own elders.”

Ji Hao slightly spun the clay bowl held in his hand, raised his head, glanced at Emperor Shun and then glanced at Si Wen Ming.

“Then, we can learn from the non-humankind. Didn’t they build a Yu Dynasty? A united country with a highly centralized power!”

The whole room suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

Cold sweat poured down Emperor Shun’s forehead ceaselessly.

‘Build a country with a highly centralized power, just like the Yu Clan created the Yu Dynasty? Make the human emperor a true emperor, instead of the leader of an alliance?’

‘Take the powers away from the hands of those clan leaders and elders, and centralize all those powers in one particular person?’

The sweat that covered Emperor Shun’s entire body up was from the shock given by Ji Hao’s words.