Translator: Law Editor: Hitesh
The dense scent of blood reached directly to the sky, and not even the fragrance released from those ceaselessly burning spices could cover it.
For this sky-offering ceremony, two hundred thousand large-scale livestock would be sacrificed, but this livestock would not simply go waste. Instead, in the banquet soon after the offering ceremony, this slaughtered livestock would all become delicious dishes and be served to people who had participated in the sky-offering ceremony.
A hundred thousand non-humankind captives were sacrificed as well. Their dead bodies, which were still twitching, were thrown into the blazing ditch and burned to ashes along with those huge piles of spices. A fierce gale blew across the ditch, stirring up large clouds of white bone ashes, drifting in the air and flying to unknown places. In the next year, the soil of Pu Ban city would indeed become richer.
When the blood of the last slaughtered animal was drained and the wails of the last killed captive faded along the wind, a yellow-colored beam of light dazzled up into the sky. Next, a magic sandbox that had the image of the Midland appeared in front of everyone.
The image of the vast Midland now presented in front of everybody in the form of a hundred-mile in radius precise geography that was floating in the air. Everyone could clearly see the mountains and rivers in the geography. The atmosphere suddenly tightened, while some people showed proud grins. By now, the sky-offering ceremony was finished, and it was the time to award people according to their contributions.
In this Chi Ban Mountain war, the humankind had gained a complete victory. A huge number of enemies were annihilated while even more were captured alive. The amount of trophies extorted from the Di Family was immense, and even Dishi Yanluo was forced to lower his head and gloomily run back to Liang Zhu city. Even Fan Hai, who abruptly showed up with his zombie armies and attempted to step into this, ended up being harmed severely. His flying zombie was killed while a large portion of his zombie warriors was taken out.
For so many great achievements, an overwhelming wave of rewards was inevitable.
Even some high-level leaders of large-scale clans, such as elders and clan leaders, couldn’t help but hold their breaths and silently expect the rewards coming to their own clans.
Emperor Shun stood on the altar, looking down at the group of clan leaders standing and expecting their rewards, and subconsciously showed a faint smile, which was a bit stiff, at the corners of his mouth. After a long while, he said in a deep voice,
This war, our humankind have won.
Victory!
Countless people raised their arms simultaneously and cheered out.
There was no lack of Magus Kings or even Divine Magi among these people. As they shouted loudly, fierce gusts of gale instantly rose from the ground. This had truly caused a drastic change in the weather, even the earth had vibrated intensely for a few seconds. Those over a thousand winged dragons hovering in the sky were affected by the hurricane as well; their wings were struck by the fierce gale that nearly made them fall from the sky. Hurriedly, they flapped their wings and flew up to the higher sky.
Emperor Shun raised his hand and instantly, the tsunami-like cheering shouts stopped.
He lowered his head, looked at those people standing around the altar, then said in a profound yet strong voice,
After many days of discussion between me and all ministers, the first prize attained by our humankind will go to…
The crowd remained extremely quiet, while Si Xi, Si Wen Ming, Huaxu Lie, Lie Mountain Kang, Hao Tao and the other ministers turned to Ji Hao together. They all had warm smiles on their faces, and their eyes were all filled with encouragement and support.
Meanwhile, Ji Hao sensed a few rather vicious gazes piercing over from a long distance like sharp swords. He raised his head and looked over, saw Gong Gong Wuyou staring at him with a badly darkened face. Standing behind Gong Gong Wuyou was Wuzhi Qi, who was wearing a luxurious outfit yet still looked like a giant stupid monkey. Wuzhi Qi had his teeth gnashed tightly and was glaring at Ji Hao in an extra malicious, threatening way.
Ji Hao immediately realized something. After carefully retrospecting what had happened during the war, he felt that it was totally reasonable for him to attain the first prize.
It was particularly evident in the final battle when Ying Yunpeng and a large number of human troops suddenly turned their weapons around to launch a sudden strike. While Dishi Yanluo’s army was about to break the Evil Dragon Bay’s defensive line and the entire humankind was facing a grave danger, that nine-grid sword formation rose suddenly into the air and made vigorous efforts to turn the situation.
Even though Ji Hao had tried to cover the fact about the sword formation, Emperor Shun, Si Wen Ming and the other ministers were never blind. No one had mentioned it yet they certainly knew that the sword formation indeed had something to do with Ji Hao. Emperor Shun was capable enough to attain the help of Netherworld Priest, and Netherworld Priest and Gong Gong and Xi Mu seemed to be old acquaintances; they had even entrapped Fan Hai joint-handedly. Therefore, if Ji Hao thought Emperor Shun and those ministers had completely no idea about something, he would be downgrading Emperor Shun, the well-known emperor of the humankind.
Ji Hao, this time we have won a landslide victory in the Chi Ban Mountain war, and you are the one who made the biggest contribution.
Finally, Emperor Shun gave a splendid smile that came right from his heart. He pointed his finger at Ji Hao then continued in a deep voice,
Come up, let everyone see your face.
Ji Hao solemnly saluted to Emperor Shun and turned around, smiled at Man Man, Shaosi and the other few of his teammates, then walked towards the altar with steady steps.
Everyone around Ji Hao remained absolutely silent, while all kinds of complicated gazes landed on Ji Hao.
Most of those people were curious, a small part of them were jealous, and a very few of those people were gratified and pleased by Ji Hao’s achievements; contained in the gazes cast over by some other people was bone-deep hatred. Hundreds of millions of gazes gathered on Ji Hao’s body. Among the owners of these gazes, many were Magus Kings and Divine-Magus-level powerful beings; their gazes swept across Ji Hao’s body as fierce as solid daggers, making Ji Hao feel as if an enormous mountain had been pressing down on him.
Ji Hao steadily walked up to the altar using the stairs that led straight to the top. He stood in front of Emperor Shun and saluted to him with a solemn look.
This is Yao Mountain, surrounded by a vast open field that has the radius of a million miles. This piece of land is rather rich in natural resources.
Emperor Shun pointed his finger at a towering mountain in the north and continued,
Ji Hao, you are now conferred the title of nobility on Earl Yao for your contribution in this war. This land around Mountain Yao with a radius of a million miles is now your territory. Three-hundred-thousand top-quality armors and other matched armaments and supplies will also be rewarded to you, for you to build your own army.
Most of the gazes cast on Ji Hao from down the altar were instantly added to incomparably intense jealousy and anger.
Ji Hao was conferred with the noble title of Earl Yao, with an enfeoffment of a piece of land that had the radius of a million miles. This didn’t make those people jealous. The Midland had plenty of vast open fields; not to mention a million miles in radius, even a hundreds, thousands of times greater piece of land wouldn’t catch any attention of those high-level governors of large-scale clans. As for the title of Earl Yao, it was nothing but a noble title. It could only prove that Ji Hao was now an official under Emperor Shun’s command and was qualified to come in and go out of Emperor Shun’s meeting hall; this was not a big deal either.
However, he was also awarded three-hundred-thousand top quality armors.
These top-quality armors must be the highest grade ones gained from the non-humankind, which were more than ten times better in quality than the ones produced by the Magi Palace. Di Shun had awarded three-hundred-thousand sets of those armors to Ji Hao at once, those would be enough for Ji Hao to build an extremely elite personal army.
Bur soon, the gazes cast over by those people had turned to gloating from jealousy and angry.
These people suddenly thought that Ji Hao came to Pu Ban city all by himself. His clan was in the Southern Wasteland and was a low-ranking clan. Not a single Magus King had emerged from the clan for countless years. Not to mention three-hundred-thousand top-quality armors, even if Emperor Shun awarded whole three million sets of armors to him, what could he possibly do with them?
Ji Hao could achieve nothing, not even if he were allowed with an entire hundred years. The foundation he had here in Pu Ban city was way too weak, even too weak to be noticed.
But right afterward, Emperor Shun’s words froze the gloating smiles on many people’s face.
You can select three-hundred-thousand people from all captives captured during the war, including those who are still on sale in markets of Pu Ban city, as your slaves.
Emperor Shun looked at Ji Hao with a faint smile on his face while he continued,
All families of the ones selected by you will also become your personal slaves. You shall do the selection after the ceremony.
Many people nearly began vomiting blood after hearing Emperor Shun.
Emperor Shun, how could you do this?!
Just now, these people were silently taunting Ji Hao for his weak foundation, but so easily, Emperor Shun awarded three-hundred-thousand high-quality captives to him! Ji Hao would certainly select the most elite ones and bring them away. Added with the families and relatives of those selected ones, a large-scale clan, with the population of over a million people and a formidable power would be roughly formed!
Ji Hao saluted to Emperor Shun, then took over the certificate scroll of his conferral, and walked down the altar with his head held high and chest puffed out.
