Chapter 342: Ten Devil Dragon Crystals (I)
After giving Huang Shuo some hope, he naturally wouldn’t enter a fight to the death. And not telling him the complete truth about the situation was naturally to get some more profit from the demons.
Regarding this point, Ling Xiao and Han Qian were all very willing to see that happen. The loss of seven outstanding young Demon Hunters was a considerable blow to the Alliance, and even if their seven Demon Hunt Squads didn’t end up entirely dissolved, they were bound to need some rearrangement. Under these circumstances, if they couldn’t get some benefits from the demons, let alone the responsibility the Priest Temple would have to bear, even Han Qian wouldn’t be able to escape taking responsibility. And given the nature of these two, they wouldn’t possibly try to avoid shouldering it.
Naturally, hearing Long Haochen’s words, Huang Shuo’s mood stabilized a bit, and raising his hands, he signalised his subordinates not to act rashly without thinking. Walking alone, he advanced in the direction of Long Haochen, and stopped about twenty meters away from Ling Xiao.
“To tell me about their situation, what do you want from me?” Huang Shuo asked coldly.
Long Haochen replied in a tranquil voice, “I want ten crystals of Devil Dragons. You should have quite a few of these things, don’t you?”
“What did you say?” In fury, Huang Shuo instantly projected killing intent towards him, all of which was blocked by Ling Xiao.
The crystals from the Devil Dragons were not the same compared to Dragon Ointment. Dragon Ointment was a special substance that Devil Dragons would secrete naturally, serving as a fabulous tonic to humans and demons. But magical crystals weren’t the same. Every single magical crystal from the Devil Dragon Clan was not only a treasure, but could also be a symbol of the Devil Dragon’s ancestors. When one Devil Dragon powerhouse would pass away on the battlefield, all others would use every possible method to retrieve its corpse to return it as an offering to the Devil Dragon Clan.
Even the Devil Dragons himself wouldn’t use their own clansmen’s magical crystals unless encountering a life-threatening situation, to say nothing of giving it to humans.
In the whole demon history, the times humans had obtained Devil Dragon crystals only numbered very few, and each of them had provoked a frantic counterattack from the demons. Even the Demon God Emperor would personally handle the matter in some cases.
Long Haochen indifferently repeated his own words, emphasizing them this time even further, “I want ten Devil Dragon crystals. And I want them immediately. The Illusory Shrine is on the verge of submerging so there’s still time if you give me the magical crystals now, otherwise, if we wait for the Illusory Shrine to submerge, there will be no use even if you want to give them to me at that time. Let me emphasis that I don’t want any demon to take offense or act against the Temple Alliance after I obtain these ten magical crystals, because it is a deal and not me taking them by force.”
Huang Shuo almost spouted out his own blood. What did this kid take the Devil Dragons’ magical crystals for? Mere sweets? Taking these by force? Just try if you dare!
Turning his head to look at the Illusory Shrine, there was some truth in what Long Haochen had just said. The dark green radiance released from the Illusory Shrine started to gradually become weaker, and it seemed to be in the process of blending back into the lake soon. Before, Ling Xiao had said that a Fairy Dragon had been living in the lake for several dozen thousand years. Huang Shuo did not even have the slightest idea of its strength, but perhaps even the Demon God Emperor couldn’t be sure to fight it victoriously. And even more importantly, at that time, would Ah’Bao’s group still be alive?
“Why should I trust you?” Huang Shuo coldly looked at Long Haochen, “And furthermore, I don’t have so many magical crystals of my clansmen. I am only the leader of the Black Dragon Guard. The authority over our clan’s magical crystals is only under the prerogative of His Highness himself.”
Long Haochen shrugged his own shoulders, saying, “In that case, there’s nothing I can do. But even if you don’t have that many magical crystals, aren’t there many of your clansmen here? For the sake of your crown prince, is it that you are not willing to pay the price of your lives?”
Huang Shuo’s breathing became all the more heavy.
If this time, there had only been Devil Dragons around, things would have been better off, but that wasn’t the case! There were many powerhouses from other clans present. These words from Long Haochen were just too vile. At this time, the looks the powerhouses gave Huang Shuo and the Devil Dragon Guard completely changed.
This was Long Haochen’s brilliant plan. The great demon forces that came consisted of all kinds of powerhouses. More importantly, this time, among the demons that participated, were successors of different clans.
For this reason, these powerhouses were very concerned about the information, further adding the fact that this time, Long Haochen only asked for magical crystals from the Devil Dragon Clan. The other powerhouses immediately had a change in their attitude.
In spite of how powerful the Devil Dragons were, they didn’t dare say anything. However, a certain sentence came to their minds. “For the sake of your crown prince, is it that you are not willing to pay the price of your lives?” Moreover, he’s the successor of our entire race!
Huang Shuo was trapped in a terrible predicament. After a short time of silence, Huang Shuo coldly looked at Long Haochen, “Three crystals. I can only take out three of the crystals from my clansmen, and give these to you as exchange. Do you even have any proof that you could cause the Illusory Paradise to disappear temporarily and prevent my people from coming out?”
Long Haochen gave him an indifferent smile, “Three is impossible. I want only ten, and not a single more. But a single one less won’t do either. Elder Huang, you should make up your mind as quickly as possible. Look.”
Saying these words, he pointed at the Illusory Shrine. Sure enough, at this time, the thorny undergrowth linking the Illusory Shrine to the shore had started to disappear. The bushes in the direction of the shore shrank down, and the outlines of the Illusory Shrine started to sway slightly like a mirage.
“You...” Huang Shuo turned pale with fright. If all the young demon powerhouses that entered had died in battle, he would admittedly certainly take the blame, but this would be only the blame for this specific matter. However, after Long Haochen said these words, his responsibility wasn’t that simple any longer. It seemed even possible that the successors of this many demon gods would have died because of his commanding error. At this time, the common anger would even be taken out on his family.
“Come.” Huang Shuo shouted loudly.
It seemed indeed strange that after this shout, the Illusory Shrine suddenly stopped to descend into the waters.
With a start, Huang Shuo turned back to look at Long Haochen, noticing that he was lifting his left hand in the direction of the Illusory Shrine. An insipid green brilliance connected it to the Illusory Shrine. It looked as if he could really control the Illusory Shrine and prevent it from sinking down.
“I think that I showed enough of my good faith. However, I cannot keep waiting for much longer.” Long Haochen’s voice was heavy as he said that.
From behind Long Haochen’s back, Zhang Fangfang advanced to his side, raising up both of his hands before calmly yelling, “Ten!...”
Just as no one seemed to have understood what he meant, he retrieved a finger.
“Nine...”
“Eight...”
“Seven...”
“Crap! A countdown like this! How fierce!” Han Qian and Ling Xiao looked dumbstruck at Long Haochen and Zhang Fangfang. Let alone Huang Shuo, even the two of them were nervous. Weren’t these stenchy youngsters a bit too bold? But no matter whether they could control the enemy’s’ intentions or not, their cooperation was just flawless.
“Stop counting!” Huang Shuo shouted in fury, waving his right hand and letting a light yellow leather bag fly in Long Haochen’s direction, without reducing any of the immense pressure he emitted.
In a flash, Han Qian appeared in front of Long Haochen and recovered the leather bag.
Opening it to look inside, he immediately saw a strong dark green radiance being released.
Han Qian blanked out, wearing a feverish expression, before swiftly closing the bag. He nodded in Long Haochen’s direction.
Indifferently smiling, Long Haochen looked at Huang Shuo in amazement, “I didn’t expect Elder Huang to have really brought so many good things. Then I won’t stand on formality. Thanks a lot.” He was actually asking for such sky-high prices and had Zhang Fangfang pressure him with this countdown so that Huang Shuo would let go of his greatest treasures, but didn’t expect him to really have what he asked.
“Hurry up and speak. How are Ah’Bao and the others?” Huang Shuo shouted in rage. He was already on the verge of exploding, and could start attacking at anytime. Right at this time, the powerhouses from the Temple Alliance were just as nervous, and that concealed Temple Knight who had had a small talk with Han Qian stared at Huang Shuo coldly, aiming his oppressive power directly at Huang Shuo. The others didn’t perceive anything, but Huang Shuo was stifled by the extremely tyrannical oppressive power. Before drawing a few steps back, his face changed once again despite himself.
To be able to suppress him to such degree, perhaps only the top ten ranked demon gods were able to do that. Although if he went all out, he had some confidence to give the opponent a hard time, he would inevitably die in the end.
Long Haochen also knew that he couldn’t keep infuriating Huang Shuo at this time, saying in deep voice, “We humans abide by our promises. Since I obtained what I wanted from Elder Huang, I will naturally tell you everything I know.”
“Within the Illusory Paradise, we have run into your group of demons several times. The rest of our group was killed by your demons, and the Crown of Heritage in my hand belonged to a Blue Flame Fiend. The other demons weren’t killed by us, but have opposed the Illusory Paradise by themselves, causing the insurrection of the magical beasts living there, that went all out to dispose of them. Because the three of us haven’t harmed any of the magical beasts residing in the Illusory Paradise, we haven’t been involved in the retribution that took place before we appeared. Among your group of demons, the deaths count a few, and the rest have been saved by your Demon God Emperor.”
Hearing this reply, although Huang Shuo felt a lot more relaxed, he almost spat out his blood in response. It was for such an information that he had paid ten magical crystals!