Chapter 1087 - 340 Playing Games

The Emperor had always suspected that Long Yi and the Ancient Mage Tower must have some sort of conflict. After all, the control the Ancient Mage Tower had over the nations within this plane was very likely aimed at confronting the Sanctuary Empire and the Divine Auffa Empire, with Long Yi and Ai Lin standing behind these two empires.

To be honest, many emperors of the smaller nations had already reached a consensus on this matter. If possible, they really didn’t want to stand against Long Yi. The aftermath of what had happened before was clear for all to see, and the end of those who opposed Long Yi was common knowledge. However, the Ancient Mage Tower had started by forcefully taking control of the armies, leaving the emperors of any nation without any means to resist.

But now, Long Yi had arrived.

The Emperor sighed deeply and said slowly, "Since you have come, you must have seen that I, the Emperor, am in name only. The entire country is controlled by a bunch of fools from the Ancient Mage Tower. Frankly speaking, if they were really serious about forging an invincible army, I might have been a bit happier. Unfortunately, they have almost used all their time and energy planning how to build a statue for Elma. The six leaders are researching every day what kind of statue would be more imposing, and the artisans are constantly making revisions. Their three hundred or so people are scouring the entire planet for gold—although our planet is famous for its gold production, starting to build a one hundred meter tall gold idol? This is simply madness! Now the people of the entire planet are being forcibly controlled to excavate new gold mines to satisfy the demand for gold. No one is growing crops, no one is raising livestock, and no one is catching seafood. And these bastards even complain that they can’t eat fresh fruit..."

The Emperor almost burst into tears as he was speaking. After all, as the Emperor, seeing his own country being harmed to this extent, how could he not feel heartache!

"Hmm, it looks like the situation is far more severe than I thought," Long Yi smacked his lips and said.

"Extremely severe!" the Emperor exclaimed.

"All right, then I only have one little question," Long Yi grinned slightly, "I can help you clean up these idiots, it’s just that by doing so, you may have to face the wrath of the Ancient Mage Tower. Do you dare take on this responsibility?"

Long Yi’s question was very realistic, as it was almost a question of choosing sides.

Ancient Mage Tower? Or Long Yi?

"This responsibility, I will take it!" the Emperor made his decision.

"Good, I like an emperor who is as straightforward as you." Then Long Yi gave the Emperor some precautions and left the Imperial Palace. From beginning to end, the Ancient Mage Tower guards outside the palace did not notice.

"So, how shall we begin?" Long Yi looked around.

"How about we start with a fire?" Xiaodie asked eagerly.

"Good idea, since we’re going to set a fire, let’s start with the most conspicuous target!"

Long Yi pointed to the huge, rough outline of a statue at the top of a distant mountain.

Building a huge pure gold statue for Elma was Kabein’s idea. As the main person in charge of this planet and country, he believed this was the best way to please Master Elma. After all, the country was already under his control, and he felt that building a statue was just a matter of a few days’ work.

But he had overestimated this world.

Despite the country having great master sculptors, this didn’t mean they could complete such a huge project, as their usual works were only a few meters tall at most. Now, to ask them to finish a piece one hundred meters in size was an impossible demand.

However, since the idea was from Kabein, to showcase his authority, he naturally couldn’t abandon the project halfway.

At this time, the craftsmen were resting the stacked stones. Unlike shaping through magic, these purely hand-carved sculptures couldn’t afford any mistakes; a single error meant discarding a huge stone and starting over. It was precisely because of this that such pure handcraftsmanship was extremely precious.

Kabein had his sights on this, which is why he had devised this plan. He believed that once Master Elma saw the completed pure gold statue, he would be happy, and then Kabein’s authority could be expected to increase.

That is why he spent most of his day watching the progress of the statue.

At this moment, Long Yi didn’t realize that in a small house beneath the statue was the main leader of the Ancient Mage Tower. He too was not far away, watching the statue, while the craftsmen were busy without a hint of joy on their faces. Some people from the Ancient Mage Tower came and went, occasionally saying something that emitted piercing laughter, but the craftsmen completely ignored it.

Long Yi didn’t understand much about art, but he respected it. However, at this time, he had to sadly apologize to those craftsmen and artists.

"Are you ready?" Long Yi asked Xiaodie through the contract.

"Ready!" Xiaodie replied.

Long Yi placed his hand on a certain stone, and immediately, the power of the stone infused inside, causing the surrounding mountains to tremble! At first, the tremors were small. But as the power of the stone continued to be infused, the scale of the earthquake grew larger, rocks tumbled down the mountainsides, and the craftsmen quickly evacuated from the statue.

Some people from the Ancient Mage Tower urged the craftsmen to go back to work. But the craftsmen weren’t high-end mages and had no means to withstand such an earthquake.

Kabein also ran out, asking loudly what had happened; those around him told him that there had been an earthquake. The craftsmen were too afraid to continue working and had retreated.

Kabein’s face was filled with dissatisfaction, and he disdainfully said, "How delicate these ground-dwellers are, even a slight tremor can get them so worked up?"

The surrounding members of the Ancient Mage Tower agreed since they basically shared the same view.

Gradually, the earthquake stopped, and Kabein was just about to let the craftsmen continue working when he suddenly noticed a small, bright spot in the sky slowly falling down.

What is that?

Kabein looked on in puzzlement, and he was not the only one; everyone else saw it too. The tiny speck of light was falling in this direction. It seemed not very large and the speed of its descent was getting faster and faster.

"You go and open a shield for me! No matter what that thing is, it cannot be allowed to damage my statue,"

Kabein ordered the people next to him.

Immediately, a few subordinates flew over and opened a shield above the huge statue.

Then the light orb continued to fall, it was only the size of a light orb. But those who opened the shield above the statue clearly felt that the orb seemed to bring with it a tremendous amount of heat. This surprised them; how could such a small orb have such enormous heat? What’s more, the orb wasn’t even falling fast.

By the time the light orb was in front of them, its immense heat was nearly roasting the people in the sky, making it hard for them to breathe. They were forced to open shields specifically for themselves to block the heat, but to their astonishment, the shields that blocked the heat didn’t work!

They had no idea that the heat of the light orb was being emitted through the light, and as long as you could see it, there was no hoping to block it!

In a blink of an eye, the hair of the few people had already burned to a crisp, and their clothes turned yellow and deformed!

Even Kabein on the ground had already started to feel the astonishing heat from the light orb!

He even guessed what the light orb was trying to do!

"Stop it! It must not be allowed to land on my statue!" Kabein roared.

The few people above were already struggling to hold on, but they had no choice but to obey Master Kabein’s command and persevere there. Their skin had started to blister, their lips were dry and cracked, yet there was no bleeding.

Suddenly, one person’s clothes spontaneously ignited!

He cried out in alarm, extinguishing the fire with magic.

At this time, the light orb finally landed on the magic shield they had raised, which barely caused any ripples as the orb went straight through the shield and landed on the statue. Then, Kabein watched as his most treasured statue melted away rapidly under high temperatures like a candle in the heat. Lava began to flow around, from the top down, the whole statue melted so fast that Kabein didn’t even have time to say anything before the entire statue became magma.

Not only the statue, even the ground was completely melted by the light orb, turning into a lake of fire.

After a long while, Kabein regained his senses from the shock, pointing to where the statue had been, his fingers trembling. He was not afraid, but furious!

And those few who were responsible for opening the shield in the sky were so surprised they couldn’t speak. They had never expected that the shield they had fully upheld against the high temperature would have no effect whatsoever!

Could it be that it was not a spell?

The three returned with burns and the smell of charred bodies, while Kabein stood there, still staring blankly at the lake of fire.

"My lord..." a person who was less severely burned began to speak.

"You three idiots! What good are your shields if they’re just for show!" Kabein snapped back to reality, and cursed wildly.

"My lord... that light orb, we felt it might not be a spell. When it passed through our shields, they didn’t react at all,"

"Bullshit! If it’s not a spell what is it? If it’s not a spell, how did this happen?" Kabein yelled loudly. At this point, he knew the statue was beyond recovery, and in his despair, he could only take his frustration out on these men. But actually, he had seen clearly that the three had tried their best to maintain the mana shields, but just like they said, the shields had no reaction.

It wasn’t a spell? Then what could it be?

"A natural disaster?"

Kabein looked around, he could feel the mana fluctuations within a vast expanse. Whatever this orb was and wherever it had come from, bringing it forth must have required the casting of magic, yet throughout the whole process, there had been no suspicious mana fluctuations at all.

"You go and rest for now," Kabein waved his hand, sending the three scorch-smelling individuals down to rest. Then he gestured to the people beside him: "You go arrange for the quarry to work overtime and mine more stone. Once that lake of magma solidifies, the work shall begin anew."

The few people next to him immediately took their leave to carry out the orders.

Kabein was somewhat baffled but decided to chalk up the event as a natural disaster.

However, when news came in succession from several quarries that they too had been turned into lakes of magma by the strange light orbs, Kabein immediately knew that someone was sabotaging him behind the scenes. (To be continued. If you like this work, we welcome you to vote for it on Qidian [qidian.com], as well as cast monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)