Otherworldly Affairs Office
Chapter 1163: Emergency Meeting
"Alas!" Celt let out a long sigh upon hearing the question. Although the two clans now jointly rule the Dragon Realm, the years of conflict and estrangement cannot be eliminated right away. No one can predict how the Daoist Realm Dragon Race will react to the clan leader falling into enemy hands. After much deliberation, Celt ordered, "Do not let them in for now. Find an excuse to stall and decide after we see the results from inside."
"Understood!"
After instructing everything outside, Celt hurriedly rushed into the grand hall. An attendant was already waiting inside, and upon seeing his arrival, immediately led the way. Before long, he was brought into a side chamber.
While still in the corridor, Celt smelled a strong scent of blood. Seeing the bloodstains along the way, he quickly walked past a maid diligently cleaning the blood off the floor and pushed open the door. The first thing he saw was a room full of defeated soldiers. His gaze swept over the wounded until it landed on Salafam, who sat dejectedly on a leather chair, looking somewhat bewildered and at a loss.
"Salafam!"
Celt’s call pulled Salafam, who was still in shock, back to reality. Seeing this elder from his clan, Salafam tried to support himself on the table to stand up, but after several battles and with a restless heart, he fell back onto the sofa several times.
"No rush, speak slowly! What on earth happened? How is His Majesty the Dragon King now?"
"Uncle, my father has been captured!"
From Salafam’s account, Celt finally understood the details of the event. Thinking that the Blood Charm and the Dark Race had joined forces to deeply infiltrate the Dragon Realm, carrying out such an astonishing act right under the noses of the two great clans, it was undoubtedly a blood charm’s formal declaration of war on the Spirit Monster Plane.
Everyone anticipated that a battle between the five great planes and the Blood Charm would occur after the Sword Discussion Conference. The Demon Race of the Hell Plane was already on high alert to prevent a surprise counterattack by the Blood Charm. But who would have thought the Blood Charm would bypass the main battlefield and choose to launch the first battle of the full-scale war within the Dragon Realm?
As Celt pondered the next step to take, other clan leaders of the Dragon Race, upon receiving the information, rushed over in a hurry. After confirming the rumor’s authenticity upon entering, Andrea, the clan leader of the Fairy Dragon Lady Race, known for her magic attack and defense skills, asked, "What should we do now?"
"What else can we do? We must send reinforcements to rescue His Majesty the Dragon King!" An angry voice came from the inner house. Everyone followed the sound to see Hydra, whose tendons had been severed and not yet fully healed. Pushing aside the supporting hand of an attendant, he stumbled against the wall and came out urging.
Koverdale, the clan leader of the Silver Dragon Race, skilled in healing arts, hurried forward, supporting him onto a chair in the room. He rolled up Hydra’s trouser leg, frowned slightly at the injury, and then began to heal it.
"Now it might already be too late. Their target was His Majesty the Dragon King. After succeeding, they would directly withdraw through the space rift. Would they still wait at the original place for us to fight for him?" Celt voiced what most of the clan leaders present were thinking. This was also why Salafam secretly gathered the clan leaders rather than openly rallying the reinforcements after returning.
"So we just do nothing here? His Majesty the Dragon King is captured! We should do something, right? There should still be hope for rescue, right?" Hydra’s voice grew softer and softer towards the end. He knew that once a person was taken away from the Spirit Monster Plane, rescuing them was as difficult as climbing to the heavens.
"That is why we have gathered here to discuss countermeasures. On the way here, I have already dispatched personnel to scout towards Half Moon Gorge. I think we will soon receive news, and by then all the clan leaders should have arrived, and we can discuss a comprehensive strategy."
At this point, Celt turned to Salafam and quietly said, "Salafam, when your father was captured, the items on him...."
"He gave them all to me!" Salafam replied to Celt, understanding what he was referring to before he could finish the sentence.
"That’s good! Now hand over the items!" Celt breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, then patted Salafam’s shoulder and instructed.
"Elder, what do you mean by this! Those were left for the Young Clan Leader by His Majesty the Dragon King!" Hydra and the other close attendants of the Dragon King immediately voiced their dissatisfaction upon hearing this.
"These Divine Artifacts belong to the entire Dragon Race! Only the collective clan leaders have the right to use them. Among them are not only Divine Artifacts but also the keys to our clan’s treasury! Now, with His Majesty the Dragon King’s life or death uncertain, how can the items he entrusted with his life be left with a clansman whose strength is insufficient to protect them?" Celt finished speaking and looked at the despondent Salafam helplessly and said: "I know my words are harsh, but this concerns the entire clan’s interests. We must settle this matter before other clans arrive so that the items are entrusted to the clan leaders present for safekeeping. The Red Dragon Race will not touch them! Once His Majesty the Dragon King is rescued, or...."
Here Celt paused for a moment and still voiced the second half of the sentence: "Or after electing a new clan leader, these items would belong to him for singular management."
"Uncle, I understand your intention! But even if I want to give them to you now, I can’t!" Salafam looked at Celt with a puzzled expression, smiled wryly, and reached out his hand.
Celt reached out to grasp Salafam’s wrist, and after a moment, he let out a relieved expression and shook his head with emotion: "His Majesty the Dragon King truly had a touching paternal love, using his own Dragon Essence to seal his legacy within you. Only when you reach a level sufficient to absorb all this Dragon Essence, or when the Ancestral God personally intervenes, can it be extracted. Otherwise, any forceful attempt by others would trigger the Dragon Essence and the Divine Artifacts to self-destruct together."
"My father didn’t do this to guard against the elders; I think he was more worried about the Blood Charm reversing tactics and killing us midway." After Celt spoke, the atmosphere in the room became somewhat awkward, and Salafam had to speak up to alleviate it.
Whether or not guarding against the same clan, everyone present had their own thoughts. This issue of handing over the legacy had to be put to rest, for now, awaiting the Ancestral God’s return for a result. Meanwhile, clan leaders from other Beast Races, besides the Dragon Race, who rose through magic, also rushed to the sleeping palace after receiving the news.
The clan leader of the Giant Wolf Race, clan leader of the Golden Bull Race, clan leader of the Lion King Race, clan leader of the Griffin Race, clan leader of the Holy Snake Race, and others all arrived, causing the already small side chamber to become crowded. Everyone moved to the meeting hall, and it wasn’t until the arrival of Phoenix, the clan leader of the Phoenix Race, representing avian species, that this meeting officially entered the discussion phase. At this time, the first round of scouts dispatched by Celt returned with discovered intelligence.