Chapter 453: Banquet
Tens of thousands of people had gathered in the massive Town Hall.
The Town Hall was expanded with a secret magic. Therefore, it still seemed capacious even though it had now been holding so many people.
On both sides of the hall and beside the walls, over ten sets of chime bells had been ringing together. Same as the others, those musicians were obviously drunk, their faces turned red entirely while they rang the bells without any melody. Most of the bells couldn’t keep up with the rhythms of each other, and consequently, the bill rings had now become a chaotic wave of noise, yet, no one cared.
In a corner of the hall, a few musicians were holding horns and pressing their fingers on peptachords[1]. They all had droopy eyes from drinking, and by now, all of them had been giggling. The sounds of horns were being let out intermittently, like the sound of snoring, while the peptachords rang from time to time like a showering rain. However, the sounds of horns and peptachords mixed with the ringing of chime bells were actually pleasing to the ear.
Large groups of young girls who had hot figures carried large trays carved out of fine jade, serving good wine and delicious dishes to the guests as quickly as a flowing river.
Those straw sheets and long tables orderly set in the hall had now become a complete mess. All people attending the banquet were now holding bowls and vats of booze and large grilled beast legs, moving around in the hall while laughing loudly. They were having as much fun as they wanted with their old or new friends.
Even Si Wen Ming, who had always been calm and sober, was drunk right now. Right now, along with the loud shouts and yells by Huaxu Lie, Lie Mountain Kang, and some other younger people, he was wearing a glowing red face and had bared his upper body, doing arm wrestling against Qing Lei, who also had his upper body bared.
Si Xi, Candle Dragon Gui, and other few old ones were gathered together, also badly drunk. Their faces had been filled with grins, yet, no matter from which angle one looked, their grins always contained slight traces of unspeakable evilness and creepiness that would make people’s fine hairs stand straight up.
As for Zhu Rong, who always seemed to be a bit proud and aloof and had been an inaccessible one, standing high above the masses, now had his red robe taken off and made to only wear a red, tight and sleeveless long shirt. He was baring his pair of snow-white arms, dancing crazily in the Town Hall like a spirit snake with a few beautiful girls who came from the Eastern Wasteland. Meanwhile, he had been laughing loudly and enjoying thoroughly.
One had to know that not only was Zhu Rong incredibly handsome, but his dance was also extraordinary beautiful as well. The dance performed by him seemed as full of vigor as a giant who was powerful enough to split a mountain up, yet, it was also with natural and smooth movements like a beautiful young girl washing a newly woven piece of silk by the river. Strength and gentleness had been combined perfectly by his dance and added with his pair of fierily shining eyes, a stunning, exotic sense of beauty was delivered.
The Town Hall was now filled with the dense scent of booze and grilled meat. Leaders and elders of many big-scale clans were gathering together, while warriors and commanders from all clans were shouting in joy. Ji Hao was leaning against a large pillar, gulping wine. He only felt that now the Town Hall was filled with wild creatures who had been dancing in riotous revelry. It was quite lively indeed.
A warrior from the Western Wasteland boasted about his great strength, but next, a Kuafu warrior, who had tried his best to shrink his body but still was nearly twenty meters tall, threw a heavy slap out. The slap ended up leading to all the Western Wasteland warrior’s teeth broken.
A Maguspriest from the Northern Wasteland boasted about his mysterious magic, then another Maguspriest came from non-famous Southern Wasteland clan casting a sneak attack on him. The Southern Wasteland Maguspriest released a fire and burned out all of the Northern Wasteland Maguspriest’s hair and beat him, severely embarrassing him.
A beautiful woman from the Eastern Wasteland boasted about the beauty of Eastern Wasteland women. All this caused Ji Hao to instantly pop his eyes out in a tremendous shock, watching another pretty woman from Southern Wasteland with her whole body faintly glowing with a fiery light suddenly grab her own top off and expose the round and tender pair of breasts, which looked like two pieces of top-grade mutton-fat jade. Not only Ji Hao, but countless other people also gasped deeply in shock as well.
That beautiful woman from Southern Wasteland was drunk. She puffed her chest out in an extremely unconstrained manner, laughed out loud and said, “Sisters from the east are indeed slim, but speaking of body conditions, our Southern Wasteland girls are the ones!”
A sturdy man with dense beard rushed over in panic, took off his own shirt while complaining and hearing the cheers, applauses and foot stamps let out by countless people, wrapped that drunk woman up and yelled, “Three, Three, come take your mother back home!”
Bang! Before the shouts and yells faded over here, two drunk men began wrestling to liven things up. They looked like two staggering bears, randomly striking each other with their shoulders, knees, and butts; every strike launched by them would cause a thunderous bang.
Both of these two men were quite powerful, definitely half-Magus-Kings already. When they struck each other with their bodies, loud metal-clashing noises would be generated instead of muffled thuds caused by fleshy bodies.
Suddenly, a loud cracking noise burst out. A strong man who was badly drunk, with his eyes already filled with blood streaks, had shattered a pillar next to him by slapping while laughing resonantly. Fortunately, the Town Hall was a powerful magic treasure itself, and the shattered pillar merged back together quickly, so no harm was done to the structure of the Town Hall.
The atmosphere grew hotter and hotter while people became more and more excited. Ji Hao felt that a chaotic war could happen soon.
At this point, large groups of pretty young girls walked into the hall, bringing everyone in the hall a bowl of soup to dispel the effects of alcohol. The soup was cooked by Senior Magi of the Magi Palace and was rather effective; it would pour down people’s throats like a clear and chilly spring, speedily dispelling the effects of alcohol. Everybody became much soberer after having the soup.
Therefore, the atmosphere in the Town Hall calmed down right away. People began laughing happily and calling each other friends again, while more and more vats of booze were carried into the Town Hall ceaselessly.
Ji Hao remained standing and leaning against the pillar, hiding a big half of his body behind this giant pillar that required numerous people to hold their arms around, silently appreciating this lively scene.
Indeed, he had been appreciating this scene as an outsider. Silently, he appreciated this warm, boisterous and magnificent scene that he couldn’t even dream of in his previous life. All these people, all those things that had happened, this era and this world... Ji Hao held his glass of wine, standing among these people, yet, his heart and mind had gone far beyond the clouds, looking down at everything from high above.
Abruptly, an especially frosty yet fierce and violent sense of power reached over. Wuzhi Qi carried a vat of booze, walked up to Ji Hao with a pair of unusually vicious and aggressive eyes, then threw a heavy slap on Ji Hao’s shoulder. The long fur on his face was all stained by the booze.
“Little kid, you’re quite capable...When you go back, put Dark Cloud down and send all those slaves to me, your master Wuzhi Qi. Then we can call an end to this.”
Wuzhi Qi was apparently drunk as well, even a bit incoherent when talking. Once he opened his mouth, a strong scent of booze swooshed right at Ji Hao’s face.
“Just pay for those slaves if you really want them. Anything can be negotiated.” Ji Hao wasn’t afraid of Wuzhi Qi at all. Even though he was an old minister of the Gong Gong family and was a powerful being that no one knew how old he was and possessed an amazing power, nevertheless, why should Ji Hao be afraid of him?
Ji Hao slapped Wuzhi Qi’s furry claw off his shoulder, then said coldly, “If you don’t have the money, why are you acting like you do? Dark Cloud showed no respect to me, hanging on the arch is the punishment that he deserved. As for when I will put him down, that shall depend on my mood!”
Wuzhi Qi narrowed his eyes and suddenly stretched his neck by a few feet. He put his face near Ji Hao’s side, gave an evil and malicious grin and said in a cold, creepy voice, “Aren’t you afraid of me?”
Ji Hao looked at Wuzhi Qi’s furry face, sneered and taunted, “This is the Town Hall of the human emperor, and I am a decent human being. Should I be afraid of you, an ape?”
Wuzhi Qi was enraged immediately. Blood-red beams of light flashed across his eyes while he fiercely clawed down right towards Ji Hao’s face.
With Wuzhi Qi’s strength, if his claw truly struck Ji Hao’s face, his entire head would definitely be torn into bits.
But Ji Hao was well prepared for this. He leaned his body and dodged Wuzhi Qi’s claw, as Wuzhi Qi’s moves were slower than usual because of the drunkenness. Along with a shrill sword ring, the Flame Dragon Sword pierced into Wuzhi Qi’s lower abdomen, followed by a muffled puffing noise.
Blood splashed everywhere, and the surrounding area instantly felt into a deadly silence; countless people looked over here.
________________
[1] Peptachord: Ancient Chinese musical instrument.