CHAPTER 1690: CHAPTER 557: RACING AGAINST TIME (PART 1)

"The Lucian elves should still be in the Southern Cross Star Forest campaigning against the surface elves. However, with the premature opening of the ’Space-Time Rift’, I estimate they were caught off guard and will soon withdraw. I’ll look for them then," Richard said eloquently, but in his heart, he was secretly saying there’s no way he’d look for them.

"However, Your Majesty, arranging a meeting with Prince Pompei is no problem, but let’s skip that lecherous prince from the Saint Francisco Empire. At the recent banquet, his eyes never left the handsome Prince Tang Zang. If not for the relations between our countries, I would have beaten him already!" Richard couldn’t help but add, "Such a disreputable figure shouldn’t offend Your sight. I’ll have Master Stefano contact their royal family separately to send someone respectable over!"

"The prince is known to indulge in both men and women, with a claimed 20,000 partners. Such debauched private life is indeed disgusting, but does it necessarily relate to political acumen?" Emperor Sal cast a sidelong glance at Richard and reprimanded fatherly, "Tell me, Richard, who dictated that a lecherous person can’t have political intellect? And who said the licentious can’t become high-ranking leaders? Hmm? Speak up! I implore you, don’t judge people based only on appearances or personal biases! Management skills and a greedy or licentious character are entirely unrelated. As a politician, you still have a long way to go and much to learn!"

"Honest officials might not necessarily manage their domains to prosperity, that’s an indisputable fact." Old Duke Bruckner chuckled, "Integrity truly has little to do with management skills or political capacity."

"A lecherous person can also govern a country and become a renowned minister?" Richard’s ideological views were overturned for the first time, though he seemed to have forgotten one thing—he should reflect on himself first, as the prosperity of Florence is closely linked to his own activities!

"Young man, I saw it clearly. This time you returned from the Demon World with many unfamiliar beauties, just looking at their hair shows they’re peacock maidens! You’re not exactly innocent yourself, so why look down on others?" Andulan elder glared at Richard, "Not to mention the messes you’ve created in the past!"

"They’re not peacock maidens, they’re from the Demon Clan." Richard lowered his eyes, slowly and repeatedly stabbing a dagger into the table leg.

"Elder, don’t worry about Richard’s private life. For national leaders, these matters are minor. Back when my concubines were selected into the palace, did anyone obtain their consent beforehand? Whoever Richard brings back is his business; the means used are unimportant. This is a time when the weak need no tears." Emperor Sal laughed to smooth things over.

"Your Majesty, grant me half a battalion of House archers, I have a significant task for them." Richard no longer wanted to discuss this topic; hearing about it now only frustrated him. In fact, he was considering reforming.

"With the divine song halo totem pillar you gave the kingdom, even if you asked for the ’War God’s Whip’, I would give it to you! But can we negotiate a bit?" Emperor Sal furrowed his brow, pondering for a moment, "Once the Demon Clan enters the wasteland, the military pressure in the Southern Province will also increase. To have Piers allocate House archers for you, you’d either get the undesirable ones, or the desirable ones they wouldn’t want to part with, so I’m thinking of another way...."

"Your Majesty doesn’t mean to support me with fifteen hundred porcupine lancers, does he?" Richard said with a bitter smile, "Or Doug Tribe grappling hand protectors? If that’s the case, I won’t even bother asking."

"I can’t leave bamboo shoots hungry while starving the bamboo; whoever else I neglect, I can’t neglect you! Recently, I reached a mutual aid agreement with four prairie elf tribes living on the Donau wasteland, and I’m planning to select two thousand elite prairie elf archers for you. What do you think?" Emperor Sal smiled, "There are more elf mages in the royal city, and using magic teleportation arrays is definitely faster than the Southern Province. If you have no objections, I’ll have Kahn arrange it within three days!"

"I don’t want elves; I can handle the transportation, exchanging these prairie elf archers for House archers to the Southern Province." With Elise’s reminder, Richard knew these aesthetically-minded elves couldn’t use coarse magical mercury bows, so he absolutely refused to have them.

"That’s nationalist chauvinism!" The Emperor sternly criticized Richard’s racial discrimination: "All right, all right, I’ll transfer the ’Sea of Beja’ squadron from the Imperial Guard and the remaining House archers from the last desert battle to you! But at most, I can only muster up fifteen hundred for you; any more and I’d be stretching too thin."

"Fifteen hundred is all I need." Richard knew the Emperor was genuinely giving him everything he had, "The ’Sea of Beja’ squadron is from the most special unit of the Imperial Guard, the overseer archers, with ten captains and vice-squadrons all being elite archers, a hundred commanders all gold-star level sharpshooters, all from the House Zebra People; plus the House archers who survived the desert battle. This way, Florence’s archer force nearly concentrates all the essence of the Beamon!

On the battlefield, formidable sharpshooters are the nemesis of almost all troops. Richard couldn’t find the words to express his gratitude for the Emperor’s benevolence.

"Handle your phantom beasts quickly; I’ll ordain the hundred young shamans to leave their tribes and pledge lifelong allegiance to the Summer Palace." Emperor Sal kindly looked at Richard, "I still have about five million gold coins in my treasury, mostly from the last harvest of Kalimantan City, and since I won’t be using them, I’ll allocate four million to equip the Golden Dwarves for you! Moreover, maintain frequent interactions with the human Pope, and try to get more Base Dragons! Including our Holy Temple Knights, I think they too should transition to phantom beast flying armor!"

"I can provide two hundred more sets of Phantom Beast Armor to Your Majesty. Our secondary legion has stock, and they are all trained mounts. As for the Base Dragons, they will support various battle zones at any time in the future. With the magic teleportation array, there’s nothing to fear." Lucian didn’t want to say much in gratitude, so he calmly accepted His Majesty’s gracious gift and casually explained to His Majesty and the old Duke about his understanding of the third chant of the Spirit Communication War Song, which would allow shamans to have dual pets of plant and animal and command auras, and use the ’Parrot Copycat Conch’ as a shortcut to enhance the singing power of all shamans.

Whether it was the king, the old Duke Bruckner, or Old Father Andulan, they were all completely shocked by this Shaman of Divine Songs’ invention.

"I will notify the temple and the army about this matter, and quickly have the shamans gather in Florentine and register and allocate all the Wind Whisperers." Finally, a genuine cheerful smile appeared on Sal’s Majesty’s face.

"Mourinho has the Strong Attack Aura, Helen naturally evolved the Battle Dance Aura, and I have the Wasteland Aura, but compared to you, our inventions seem so insignificant and laughable," the old Duke Bruckner repeatedly remarked on the awesomeness of the younger generation.

"Wasteland Aura?" Lucian looked at the old Duke curiously, then at His Majesty, a bit puzzled: "Is the Strong Attack Aura of Lord Mourinho referring to his invention ’Great Wind Song’?"

"Ten years of drifting overseas, I’ve also understood a new war song —— ’Sea Wave Song’! The aura of this war song can draw the life force of plants and animals and convert it into elemental power!" The old Duke wiped the corner of his lips with a napkin: "This war song’s level is not high, and war shamans can use it. Each time it is used, the elemental power absorbed is exactly twice the singing power consumed when using this war song, a two-way enhancement."

"That’s equivalent to using one gold coin as capital and earning two coins in interest." Lucian laughed, indeed, this war song is indeed a blessing for common shamans, and it can also work on magic mages. Beamon shamans, as the kings of auxiliary units, seem to have a lot of potential to be explored.

"The only flaw is that the Wasteland Aura causes plants to wither while only making animals lethargic, it’s truly regrettable. If this war song had lethality, the Attack Aura would be the exclusive patent of the Jose family." Sal’s Majesty thought his heart was broad enough, yet at this moment, he couldn’t help but have an ominous premonition of ’returning light’ sprouting in his heart.

For Beamon shamans, such a significant leap in realm within a short period can only be explained with this to rationalize the cause and effect relationship.

Attack Aura? Isn’t the ’Tears of Ding Dong Chord’ fired by musical instruments just that? Lucian felt a surge of regret, although under Helen’s guidance in the past few months, a hundred young shamans from Cambridge Academy had played this song, an adaptation of the Hegemonic Singing Family from the Cardiel race abilities, on pearl seven-stringed lyres as the Sonic Blade Song, most of the kingdom’s shamans still had no time to learn it; there were more regrets than just this, Helen used Battle Dance to translate ’Great Wind Song’, but only taught the young Cambridge shamans, without time to spread it widely!

Time! Without six months of preparation time, the drawbacks of insufficient preparation all surfaced.

If there were another six months, all the kingdom’s shamans could learn to use the pearl seven-stringed lyres and Great Wind Battle Dance, with the ’Parrot Copycat Conch’ upgrading to intermediate staff singing power, wouldn’t the kingdom effectively have a large group of intermediate mages? Qualified mages who don’t need beast pets to provide help!

And now?

The largest shaman class in history, yet can only serve as suicide weapons in reserve. Lucian and His Majesty exchanged silent glances, nearly shedding a thousand tears.

**

Brothers, shouldn’t the Xiang Pa ticket be instant-cast at the speed of fingers?

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