Chapter 1075 - 828 Behind the Scenes

"We admit it was just a minor oversight, but the reason we didn’t use Ai Lin’s new spell mechanics formula is because we doubted the correctness and stability of this new spell mechanics formula, so we used the safest traditional spell mechanics formula..."

"You’re spouting nonsense!" the Emperor didn’t even wait for him to finish before flipping the table with a crash. "You have been a magic researcher in my Divine Auffa Empire for nearly fifty years, and you tell me, which Master ever told you that you can mix and use things from different systems? Which sage ever told you that conclusions drawn from such a mixed experiment can be widely reported throughout the entire army! Now the entire army is panicked because of the reports from you three idiots. Who is going to take responsibility for the consequences!"

"I will take responsibility!" the expert roared.

Bang!

The Emperor kicked him to the ground, pointed at his nose, and cursed: "Can you fucking take responsibility? Do you bunch, who only know how to hide in labs, know what’s happening now? Who is our enemy? Come on, I’ll tell you now! Our enemy is the Ancient Mage Tower! Yes! Don’t stare at me with those big eyes! Our enemy is the Ancient Mage Tower! The Ancient Mage Tower has sent countless Magic Masters to control all the small countries except for our two nations. The strength of those small country soldiers is soaring rapidly! Instead of assisting Miss Ai Lin in quickly enhancing our soldiers’ strength, you caused a panic throughout the entire army. Tell me, how are you going to take responsibility? What use will you be once the war starts? Who can you block? And once our nation falls, who will you be responsible to? Those soldiers who, because of your nonsensical report, gave up stronger magic? Or your Emperor who would be struck down by the Ancient Mage Tower due to the country’s destruction?"

The words of Saint Jialin shocked the three men into stupefaction. Initially full of confidence and momentum, the three gradually wilted.

Only then did the Emperor lift his foot from the chest of the expert, turned around, and took out another report: "I know, ever since Ai Lin arrived and overturned your three magic conclusions, causing you to lose face, you’ve been harboring resentment, haven’t you?"

The expert on the ground let out a heavy sigh and finally bowed his head.

"If beheading the three of you could immediately erase the impact, I would not waste my words with you. So, if you really have the responsibility and conscience you claim to have, go and eliminate all the impact immediately, and get everything back on track as soon as possible. Then... you’re also getting on in years, so retire and enjoy the good life."

Fully aware they were in grave trouble, the three experts did everything in their power to rectify the situation. They ran new trials, put in more efforts in the army, and they even held several public apology meetings.

Eventually, the state of panic that had pervaded the army finally dissipated.

Some soldiers who had initially firmly believed in Ai Lin were now joyfully experiencing substantial growth in their own strength, with Divine Armor-level Mages shining brilliantly in the army. Those who had hesitated now deeply regretted their indecision; had they believed in Ai Lin earlier, they themselves could have been Divine Armor-level fighters by now.

The power of role models is boundless, especially when one’s own comrades were just like oneself a few days ago. And then, suddenly, they transformed into Divine Armor Mages within a few days—no one could withstand such a stimulus. Let alone the fact that the three old experts had started dispelling the rumors. Even if there had been some real issues, these fervent soldiers would not be stopped now.

It seemed as if all had finally settled down, and yet the instigators of it all, the three old experts, were far from comfortable.

At this point, their pressure did not come from within the nation, even though the incident had tarnished their reputations. As scholars, they did not care much about that. Rather, the real pressure was coming from the man before them.

"Master Zulal is very dissatisfied that you could not handle such a simple task," said the man in front of them. He was an envoy from the Ancient Mage Tower, representing the person hailed as the second-in-command of the Ancient Mage Tower, Master Zulal.

"We all did as you instructed, but His Majesty the Emperor has personally intervened, and there is nothing we can do," said the three experts, a look of helplessness on their faces.

"Nothing you can do? Master Zulal will definitely not want to hear such an excuse," the envoy sneered.

"The three of us are just researchers, without any power or status. Honestly, we’ve already tried our best just to get this far!" one expert said.

"Tried your best? Just doing this much is trying your best? Truly fitting of lowly ground dwellers, contented with themselves even without any merit," the envoy mocked.

One expert frowned deeply: "Then, Your Excellency, as a noble member of the Ancient Mage Tower, what solution do you have?"

The envoy looked at the expert with displeasure: "I naturally have my methods, but you don’t need to know them."

"Is that so? Since you have a solution but won’t tell us, and then turn around to blame us for inefficiency, would Master Zulal be pleased with such behavior?" another expert asked.

The envoy finally heard the tone, devoid of any respect but filled with accusations!

"You dare to criticize me?!" The envoy’s eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn’t fathom how the three who should have been obeying his every command not just failed to kneel submissively before him but now even had the audacity to blame him!

"Yes, we are criticizing you, because this mess is your fault!" the eldest of the experts spoke up.

The envoy couldn’t believe his ears. How had the three experts who had always been so complaisant suddenly changed like this?

Wait! Something was amiss!

The messenger understood that things had gotten somewhat out of his control.

"You will face punishment from the Ancient Mage Tower!" the messenger said fiercely.

"Really? But we’d rather get a taste of your so-called punishment right now!"

With that, the three experts actually leaped forward at the same time!

The messenger let out a cold laugh. If it had been Long Yi here, he might have been a little afraid, but these three old academics who spent all their time buried in the labs thought they could challenge him?

He raised his hand and cast three Magic Missiles. Although he didn’t know why, he believed that the Magic Missiles alone would be sufficient against these three. The missiles easily hit their marks, smashing the three experts’ heads without them putting up any sort of resistance—those heads were blown apart all at once!

Scalding blood sprayed out, and the messenger stepped back, not letting any of it splatter onto himself.

"Hmph, three useless pieces of trash, not even able to handle such a minor matter!"

With a snort, the messenger turned to leave. But shockingly, the headless bodies of the three experts staggered to their feet again! Their bodies twisted, giant mouths opened across their chests, and sharp fangs protruded, making huffing noises.

"Ah! How could you—how did you turn into this!" The messenger suddenly felt a chill crawl from his heels to the top of his head. These three monsters were his most terrifying nightmare!

He turned to run but fell to the ground after taking just one step upon seeing the heads he thought he had destroyed were somehow at his feet, grinning grotesquely at him!

"Ahhh—"

A piercing scream erupted from the messenger.

Little Zi stood to one side with a grin, while the three other experts looked on with tense faces.

"Is that enough?" one of the experts asked.

"Yes, that’s enough," Little Zi nodded and said, "Daring to come here and cause trouble without any mental fortification, it’s like he never even considered me a threat. Now, he’s probably going to be fighting with the enemy he fears the most for a while."

"For a while... How long? What if he wakes up..." one of the experts asked nervously.

"Don’t worry, it’s going to be a very, very long time, long enough to lock him up in the most secure prison of Emperor Saint Jialin without him knowing," Little Zi said.

Watching Little Zi levitate the messenger away with mana, the three experts also sighed in relief: "Sigh, we were fooled by that bastard at first. This time, we must have made up for it, right?"

Compared to the difficulties Ailin faced, Long Yi’s treatment in the Sanctuary Empire was entirely different. The Sanctuary Empire, even more centralized than the Divine Auffa Empire, revered the Emperor’s supreme authority, so nothing Long Yi did met any resistance. Long Yi once obtained some automaton fighters, the legacy of Giant technology. By reverse engineering this technology, Long Yi applied some of it to the improved Divine Armor.

Despite facing no obstacles in the Sanctuary Empire, improving the Divine Armor required more materials and technologies that only other nations possessed. And those nations were now tightly controlled by the Ancient Mage Tower, so when the Sanctuary Empire proposed a trade, the reluctant Emperor of that nation could only refuse.

These bastards really dare to make a move.

All sorts of displeasure filled Long Yi’s mind.

"Those nations are already under the control of the Ancient Mage Tower; I will check the black market," Saint Danze said.

"The black market? There’s no time!" Long Yi said.

"Then what should we do?" Saint Danze had no great ideas, they couldn’t just send in troops to attack those small countries, could they? Up until now, everything had been happening under the radar. The things occurring now were something all the nations had become vaguely aware of, leading to dissatisfaction with the Ancient Mage Tower among many countries. But if they were to deploy troops, not only would it give the Ancient Mage Tower an even more suitable pretext and reason, even the small countries on their side might really turn to the Ancient Mage Tower.

"Hmm, I’ll go find some people to help," Long Yi said with a smile. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit qidian.com to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to continue reading.)