Weapon seller in the world of magic

488  The acting monarch of the mighty Dragon Empire

Imperial Palace, Dragon Empire;

In the royal meeting chamber of the palace where important meetings between the Emperor and his guests take place, Second Prince, Tang Yifan was in the middle of conversing with a couple of elders of Void Temple.

With the Emperor falling sick, Tang Yifan was unanimously appointed as the acting monarch of the empire despite the fact that there were 6 other imperial princes, a crown prince, and three Grand Princes (male siblings of the Emperor), who were all eligible to sit on the throne.

The reason was the fact that Tang Yifan was the only prince who managed to unlock the Fire dragon bloodline and awaken his Red dragon form, just like his grandfather and forefathers. There was no question of competition in the first place.

Ever since he had taken up the duties of the acting monarch a couple of months ago, he knew that the upcoming event was going to be his first big event that he had to manage.

He needs to care about the accommodation of special guests, prepare proposals for the envoys, use this opportunity to bring investment from wealthy organizations from other empires, tighten security, etc…

There's a lot to do and he was working nonstop to prove his worth so that no one would point a finger at his rule.

After having a series of meetings with ministers, rereading the orders and stamping them to send them to the governors and the generals, he could only eat lunch in peace for one hour before the Void Temple's representatives visited the palace to talk about the upcoming auction.

The Empire has so many treasures and the Void Temple wants Tang Yifan to auction one of their prized artifacts, trying their luck with him as the last time a prized treasure came into the auction was about 11 years ago.

The prized treasure often refers to a Divine grade item. The Dragon Empire might not have high-quality ones like the Divine Throne, but they still hold a significant number of Earth-grade items (low-quality Divine/Mythril grade).

Tang Yifan was in a bit of a dilemma, wondering whether he should take the decision or consult his sick father as the prime minister was in favor of putting up the Crown of Talim in the auction.

He was busy exploring the options, but the urgent news of the appearance of three supreme beings disturbed his meeting. As soon as he heard that they came along with Princess Shen Ling, he sent away the elders of Void temple and summoned the newly appointed supreme commander and the prime minister in the name of emergency.

22:00

As the 9-circle realm expert arrived, Tang Yifan reminded him of the recently concluded investigation of the deaths of his ancestor, one of their two supreme commanders, and the rest of the men at Phoenix Empire.

The Supreme Commander that watches over the eastern region of the continent, Qiu Junwei was quite alarmed when he heard that their supposed criminal arrived at their doorstep with three Supreme Beings along.

Obviously, he thought that Mark came either with bad intentions or to mock them.

"What do you wish to do, Your Highness?" asked Qiu Junwei with his face full of seriousness.

Tang Yifan didn't give his answer and merely turned his head to the side, looking at the prime minister.

Prime Minister Xian thought for a bit and said, "Your Highness, if you ask me, then, it is not wise to take any kind of action against him."

Tang Yifan furrowed his brows in displeasure, "You want to say that we should welcome the scoundrel that killed the royal ancestor with all smiles? Do you think we cannot capture him? Even if he has thirty Supreme Beings on his side, we can still capture him with our Imperial treasure." It is another thing if just the Supreme Commander died under Mark's hands, but one of the victims was a former emperor and his direct ancestor. In his opinion, everyone would laugh at the Emperor if he didn't take appropriate actions. Tang Yifan was hell-bent on punishing Mark, not knowing that the latter wasn't the real killer.

As the Prime Minister advised him not to confront the enemy without gauging his full strength, Tang Yifan ordered Qiu Junwei, "Supreme Commander Qiu, I want you to meet the Imperial Sovereign in person and relay this news."

"Imperial Sovereign? But, he is in close-door cultivation," Qiu Junwei was taken aback by the order.

In response, Tang Yifan lost his composure and slammed the table between them in anger, "I don't care. This involves our prestige. *Ahem* Sorry about that." Correcting his tone, he added, "Please do anything you can to accomplish this task."

As the Dragon Empire was a lot bigger than other Empires, its military hierarchy was slightly different from the rest.

Usually, the ranks go like Soldier, Lieutenant, Captain, Royal Knight, Lt. General, General, and Supreme Commander.

However, for the Dragon Empire, more ranks are included. It goes like Soldier, Elite soldier, Squad leader, Lieutenant, Captain, Imperial Knight, Lt. General, General, Lt. Commander, Commander, Supreme Commander, and finally, the Imperial Sovereign.

The Imperial Sovereign is the head of the military and is often considered the symbol of power for the Empire with the Emperor being the symbol of the authority.

Tang Yifan had confidence in this powerful Supreme Being who never lost a battle, but the Prime Minister had a different opinion. He couldn't help but interrupt the second prince, reminding him that they hadn't even confirmed that the young man who came along with the princess was the one they were looking for and neither there has been any formal relationship formed between the Western Moon kingdom's royal family and Lu Zhen. Any attack on Shen Ling or her men might prove costly.

Adding on top of that, they also have to take the safety of other people into consideration. If they weren't careful on this matter, the very prestige Tang Yifan trying to protect could get hurt. The Prime Minister made him understand that if the result came unfavorable, he would likely be held responsible as he was merely an acting monarch, not the Emperor.

The Prime Minister's words brought a little bit of uncertainty in Tang Yifan's heart, but instead of getting tensed and taking back his words, his eyes gleamed brightly as he claimed that he thought of a solution to that problem too.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Mark was having a cup of tea with another guest at the hotel who also came too early for the event. James and Steve were having tea but merely staying as spectators as their dad was conversing with the stranger.

Fun fact, not only Qing Jie is a weapon seller but he is also an imperial prince of the Xieze Empire of the Black Turtle continent, except that he is a traditional weapon seller and his late mother is a commoner. Qing Jie left the palace at the age of 19 due to bullying from his half-siblings and chose to settle down in his mother's hometown, taking over his maternal family's weaponry forge. He then had a protagonist moment of coincidentally encountering a heavily injured grandmaster blacksmith with mysterious origins and becoming his disciple.

Currently, this 52-year-old is a 6-circle realm expert who runs a weapon store, selling everything that comes out of his weaponry forge.

While Mark was quite surprised to hear about a human-operated weaponry forge that managed to create semi-divine weapons, he wasn't actually interested in such old-fashioned weapons.

The reason he bothered to accept the invitation is the fact that Qing Jie has been selling his items in the world auction for the past 20 years and could gauge the item value by looking at it and hearing the details as long as they were true.

Hence, he intended to take out the treasures he looted from the Wuji sect and see if they could be sold at a higher price than what the system offered him.

But, as he could not directly come to the matter right away, he engaged in conversation, asking about him first and then explaining his background that was known to the general public.

After a while;

"So, this is the last piece of the set, huh," mumbled Mark as he stared at the gold ring on the table. "I heard that it was lost but didn't expect it would be with you, Mr. Qing."

Qing Jie let out a pleasant smile as he asked, "Are you interested, Mr. Lu?"

"Hmm?" As Mark raised his eyes and looked at him, the latter said, "I can give it to you for free as long as you can convince everyone that I have the backing of the supreme beings."

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