Chapter 50

"All right, when do you plan to notify him?"

Yang Rong looked at Lin Hanxuan with a tender gaze and said, "You only arrived here not long ago, and His Majesty will need some time to select combat personnel as well. I think you should just have fun here for another two days, and I'll notify His Majesty the day after tomorrow."

Three days later—

Midras was very pleased to receive Yang Rong's notice. That very day, he asked Yang Rong to bring Lin Hanxuan to the imperial palace to discuss some of the finer details of handling the mission involving the Magic Beasts' fight, and also to let Lin Hanxuan meet several grand mages along the way.

Yang Rong specially chose a pale-blue sky robe for her younger brother, and his shoulder-length black hair was tied up with a gold ring, making him look full of vigor and spirit. Yang Rong had Yi Junze stay behind at the residence for the time being, while Lin Hanxuan summoned Peiganbo, and the siblings rode Peiganbo as they flew toward Victory Palace.

"Victory" was a term used exclusively by the Misera Empire, meaning "triumph."

When the siblings descended from the sky atop the Blood Mantis Peiganbo, they alarmed the palace guards.

Originally, Lin Hanxuan had not intended to let Peiganbo be exposed, but when his sister asked whether he had a contracted Magic Beast, Lin Hanxuan told her the story of how he had become acquainted with Peiganbo. After that, his sister repeatedly insisted that Lin Hanxuan bring Peiganbo along on the day he entered the palace. Though Lin Hanxuan did not understand his sister's intentions, he still obediently did as she said.

In the blink of an eye, a full two square formations of soldiers had surrounded Peiganbo, dozens of long spears flashing with cold light aimed at the Blood Mantis.

"Stand down." A man clad in silver armor, who looked like the captain of the guards, shouted, "Are you all blind? The imperial consort is sitting up there. If you startle Her Highness, won't His Majesty chop you all down? All of you, stand down."

The silver-armored warrior hurried to Peiganbo's side, first saluted Yang Rong, then extended both hands to signal that he would help Yang Rong down.

Yang Rong's face flushed slightly, and she said, "That won't be necessary, Captain Jimmy. I can get down myself."

"Yes, yes, this subordinate has been rude." Though Jimmy spoke of his rudeness, his eyes remained staring blankly at Yang Rong the entire time.

Lin Hanxuan instructed Peiganbo to wait outside the hall, then followed his sister and slowly walked into Victory Palace.

The main hall was decorated with splendor and grandeur. Unlike the simple, unadorned style of the Thunder Eagle imperial family, the walls on both sides glittered with inlaid gemstones of every color. Emperor Midras sat upon the throne, currently speaking with several mages.

Seeing Yang Rong lead Lin Hanxuan inside, Midras greeted her very warmly and first invited her to rest behind the hall, only then introducing Lin Hanxuan to the mages.

"Everyone, this young man is the imperial consort's own younger brother, and also the next prince of the Thunder Eagle Empire, Yang Zhao," Midras said.

"This junior, Yang Zhao, greets the three grand mages." Following the etiquette his sister had taught him, Lin Hanxuan bowed to the elderly men.

"Prince Yang is truly a hero emerging from youth," an old mage said with a cold laugh. "So young, yet you already have a high-level Blood Mantis Magic Beast as your escort, and you are also the sole prince of the 'Thunder Eagle' Empire. Your future prospects are boundless indeed." When the old man said the words Thunder Eagle, he even deliberately raised his tone.

"Not at all. Peiganbo is my friend. I suppose he and I could be called friends made after a fight," Lin Hanxuan replied awkwardly, deliberately avoiding the fact that the Thunder Eagle Empire and the Misera Empire were currently in a hostile state. The old man's sharp words left him feeling rather hard-pressed.

"Tudunford, what do you mean by that? Prince Yang is from the Thunder Eagle Empire, yet he is willing to stand forward and help dispel the crisis our nation is facing. And what have you ever done for the empire?" A short old man pointed at Tudunford, who had been souring Lin Hanxuan with his words, and cursed at him.

"Hmph, Wultin, I still haven't settled last time's account with you. The defensive ring you forged was completely useless. We didn't even see what the Magic Beast looked like, and my younger brother died beneath the flames. Some divine craftsman you are." Tudunford furiously cursed back.

"You still dare say that?" Wultin struck the floor with the magic staff in his hand, his temper flaring as well. "I told you a thousand times, ten thousand times, that since the Magic Beasts chose a volcanic region to fight in, at least one of them had to be a fire-type Magic Beast. You absolutely could not lack high-grade water-type crystals in your preparations, and you absolutely had to put on blue crystal armor before approaching the volcanic region. Did you ever tell your younger brother that? You people were careless yourselves and refused to listen to my advice, and now you turn around and blame me?"

Emperor Midras did not mediate the quarrel. Instead, he remained seated with a smiling expression on his face, as if these two had been at odds for a long time, and he had long since grown used to their arguments.

Lin Hanxuan, however, could not bear to watch anymore, and quietly advised, "Masters, I don't know what the actual situation was, but His Majesty is here as well. It doesn't seem very proper for the two of you to quarrel like this."

"Pah, you ingrate who eats from one house while serving another. You couldn't make it in the Thunder Eagle Empire, so now you want to cling to the imperial consort and hope to soar on the wind, turn yellow into gold?" Hearing Lin Hanxuan try to mediate, Tudunford turned around and cursed Lin Hanxuan instead.

Lin Hanxuan's expression changed slightly. He had come out of pure good intentions to help the common people of the Misera Empire, yet he was being mocked like this by a grand mage. With a young man's temperament, how could he swallow such a breath? Peiganbo, who had originally been waiting for Lin Hanxuan in the open space outside the hall, sensed his master's anger and, without another word, flew to the front of the hall, provoking another wave of panic from the guards.

"Have you two argued enough?" Midras said coldly. He had been wholeheartedly hoping to use the imperial consort's connection to win over Lin Hanxuan, who possessed a guardian god. Now that Tudunford had spoken this way, was he not clearly trying to force the young man to leave?

Hearing that the emperor was angry, the two old men both shut their mouths.

Midras glared at Tudunford. This old man had ruined his plan, yet he just so happened to be someone Midras could not punish. Tudunford also knew he had spoken wrongly in his anger, and lowered his head slightly, not daring to meet the emperor's gaze.

"Master Wultin, now that we have Yang Zhao and his Magic Beast to help us, plus that guardian god, I would like to hear your arrangements," Midras said, suppressing his anger and doing his best to make his tone gentle.

"Yes." Wultin explained the revised response plan to the others, and Midras nodded repeatedly as he listened.

"Yang Zhao, do you think this plan is feasible?" After Wultin finished, Midras asked Lin