The night hung low, and within Jie Ming’s mansion in Elosia City, the study’s lamplight still burned.
Dressed in loose robes, Jie Ming’s fingertips lightly tapped, sending a final thread of concealed radiance into the wall. The room’s aura instantly melded into a seamless whole, not a trace leaking outward.
Sensing briefly, he nodded with satisfaction and withdrew his hand.
Since returning from the banquet, he had barely rested over the past few days.
After successfully confounding the mansion’s array of surveillance, he dove into a frenzy of work. Now, at last, he had completed the construction of the necessary arrays.
“First… a test.”
After a moment’s thought, Jie Ming pulled out a metal disc, its palm-sized miniature spatial teleportation array emitting a faint glow.
This small-scale array could only facilitate point-to-point short-range teleportation, requiring pre-established nodes at both ends.
He had long set up the corresponding node in the underground laboratory of his Golden Harbor mansion.
Stepping into the array, space warped around him. The next moment, he stood within the underground chamber of the dilapidated Golden Harbor mansion.The air was thick with the scent of blood.
In specially crafted steel cages nearby, the three beastman generals he had captured lay slumped, barely clinging to life.
Their heads hung low, bodies marred with gashes and burns.
Having been absent for over half a month, these captives, already in poor condition, had endured without food or water. Their life force flickered like candles in the wind.
“Excellent. The spatial teleportation is functioning smoothly,” Jie Ming said with a grin. “This way, I can continue my research even from the capital.”
He stepped forward to inspect them, a cold smirk curling his lips. “Not bad. True legends, holding on in such conditions. I was worried you’d starve to death.”
“You…” one beastman general raised his head in fury, but his weakened state left him only the strength to glare.
Jie Ming clapped his hands with a smile. “Don’t worry. Now that I’m here, I won’t let you starve. Though, from your perspective, death might be the better option.”
“Beastmen… never yield,” another general sneered with disdain.
Jie Ming glanced at the silver-white golem approaching on command, shrugging helplessly at the beastmen. “Pity, I don’t need your submission…”
He handed several bags of freshly prepared nutrient fluid to the golem. “Inject them with these. Don’t let them die.”
After checking the captives’ conditions and confirming their “usefulness,” Jie Ming left the underground chamber, walking through a passage to the mansion’s courtyard.
He leisurely surveyed his surroundings.
Golden Harbor had long fallen to the beastmen. The once-luxurious city now lay in ruins, strewn with rubble and smoldering charcoal emitting faint heat.
Vast swathes of buildings had been razed, repurposed as temporary camps for beastman or human forces.
Only his mansion stood out as an anomaly—from the inside looking out.
From the outside, it blended seamlessly with the surrounding ruins.
This was the effect of the concealment array Jie Ming had meticulously set up before leaving Golden Harbor.
Beyond masking the interior’s true state, the illusion array synchronized with the environment, projecting an identical “ruined” facade.
As a high-tier array, it also dampened the area’s presence.
Additionally, a subconscious repulsion technique woven into the array instilled unease in anyone who approached, prompting them to instinctively avoid the area.
“Perfect,” Jie Ming chuckled. “The investment in this lab was steep, but the results are impressive.”
…
…
Days later.
With the spatial teleportation device, Jie Ming spent the next few days immersed in research at his secret Golden Harbor laboratory.
Suddenly, engrossed in his experiments, he looked up at a blaring alarm.
It was a signal from the array in his capital mansion, alerting him to a visitor.
Activating the surveillance screen, he saw a figure outside the mansion bearing the royal guard’s insignia, their demeanor urgent.
He halted his experiment, touched his isolation suit, and it transformed into a loose robe.
Stepping into the teleportation array, a flash of spatial light returned him to the study in his capital mansion.
He promptly restrained his aura, feigning the air of someone who had just finished reading, and calmly opened the study door.
Outside, the butler raised his arm to knock, informing him that the royal guard captain and a messenger awaited in the parlor.
“Advisor Jack!” the guard captain greeted Jie Ming with a bow, his expression respectful yet tinged with urgency. “By His Majesty’s command, you are to proceed immediately to the palace’s council hall to observe the negotiations with the beastman and elven delegations.”
Jie Ming paused, caught off guard.
He was merely a “special advisor,” a nominal title. Such high-level diplomatic talks shouldn’t involve him.
Though puzzled, he maintained his composure. “Oh? Does His Majesty wish for my insights on the beastmen?”
The messenger replied respectfully, “His Majesty did not specify, only stating that this negotiation is of great importance and he hopes to gather diverse perspectives.”
“Very well, I’ll go,” Jie Ming nodded, agreeing.
Access to more information was something he welcomed.
…
…
Deep within the palace, in King Ottorek III’s private study.
The king set down a scroll, his gaze settling on the chief minister bowing before him. “That ‘Jack’—he’s headed to the council hall?”
The chief minister replied, “As per Your Majesty’s orders, he has been summoned.”
Ottorek III sneered, leaning back in his wide chair. “Good. Let him stir up the beastmen.”
“Hmph, just a bunch of barbarians playing petty tricks,” the king said, narrowing his eyes. “Placing this ‘expendable piece’ at the negotiation table—if he can’t resist contacting the delegation, we’ll gain valuable intelligence.”
He paused, a shrewd glint in his eyes. “Even if he restrains himself and makes no contact, his mere presence will be a thorn in the beastmen’s side, unsettling them, making them think their secrets are exposed, or even sowing paranoia. That’s enough.”
“Your Majesty is wise,” the chief minister said, bowing, his voice steady and devoid of emotion.
…
The palace council hall.
The atmosphere in the hall was tense and heavy.
At the long negotiation table, the kingdom’s core ministers faced the beastman delegation’s representatives.
The elven and dwarven delegations, acting as mediators, were also present.
Jie Ming sat in a corner of the observer’s section, playing the unobtrusive role of a “special advisor.”
The negotiations had gone through several rounds but remained deadlocked.
“Humans, our demands are clear. You must compensate with the agreed-upon resources and pay for the losses caused by your delays!” declared the beastman delegation’s leader, a grizzled elder with coarse fur, his voice booming with unyielding authority.
“Beastmen! We’ll pay the agreed resources, but you must answer for seizing our cities!” retorted a human minister.
“You dare call that your city? It’s our spoils of war!”
“You filthy—[expletive]!”
“[Beastman profanity].”
As the “negotiations” devolved into a shouting match, some eyes turned to the elven and dwarven delegations.
After all, these two races were invited to mediate the escalating tensions between humans and beastmen.
Unfortunately, their presence was less than helpful.
From the elven delegation, the female elf Jie Ming had sensed an anomaly from at the banquet rose to her feet.
Tall and regal, her expression cold and haughty, she spoke with clear disdain. “Both your races know only how to take, never to contribute. Aligning with such crude peoples tarnishes the elves’ honor!”
Jie Ming’s eyelids twitched at her outrageous words. “Is she mediating or pouring oil on the fire?”
Shockingly, the other elves remained silent, their expressions subtly approving.
As expected, her inflammatory remarks sparked an immediate response.
“Pointy-ears, I’ll [expletive] you!” roared the beastman leader, followed swiftly by the human ministers.
“[Capital profanity].”
The elves retorted without hesitation. “[Elven refined profanity].”
As for the dwarves, those taciturn folk had no intention of intervening, drunkenly sprawled and indifferent.
“Did you hear? The beastman leader got into a brawl with the patrol outside the city, shouting about ‘beastman honor.’ If the Mage Association hadn’t stepped in, it might’ve turned deadly,” whispered one attendant to another.
“And that elf, Seraphina—she’s so condescending, tearing down both beastmen and us. Does she even want this alliance?” grumbled a noble aide, frowning.
“The dwarves are no better. That female dwarf leader just brags about their tech and mines but won’t commit to war support. Stubborn as stone.”
Jie Ming overheard these murmurs, a sense of unease stirring within.
It seemed the races were accustomed to their mutual conflicts.
Yet something felt off.
Discreetly, he cast his gaze toward the foreign delegations. He now knew the three “anomalous” individuals he’d sensed at the banquet were the leaders of these groups.
The female elf sat with aloof elegance, seemingly indifferent to the negotiation’s outcome.
The beastman warrior was busy trading insults with the human ministers.
The female dwarf clutched a wineskin, taking swigs, her gaze unfocused.
With the three delegation leaders’ inaction, the negotiations grew increasingly heated, the air thick with hostility.