Zhang Bo, Sun Zhiru, and the others felt a chill creep up their spines as the Kujit guards’ abrupt and forceful departure was like an ice pick dropped into warm water, instantly shattering the false harmony that had just prevailed.
The banquet hall was dead silent, with only leftover food and a solidified, awkward atmosphere remaining.
The Wood Elf dancers stopped their movements, and the Blue Star maids stood with their hands down, not daring to breathe.
The smiles on Yang Di and Zhang Song’s faces had long frozen, turning into a cold scrutiny, like two icy probes, firmly locked onto the Deherim negotiation team, especially Zhang Bo, who was at the forefront.
Sun Zhiru and the other negotiation experts still had traces of their previous ease on their faces, now replaced by immense astonishment and displeasure.
They felt that the Kujit captain was too rude and reckless, practically trampling the host’s dignity!
But they also vaguely felt a hint of unease—
No matter how strict military orders were, insisting on leaving amidst such warm hospitality, and doing so forcefully, hinted at an inexplicable strangeness and determination.
“Ha… hahaha…”
Just as the suffocating silence was about to crush everyone’s nerves, a deliberately loud, slightly stiff laugh broke the deadlock.
It was Zhang Bo.
He forced out an incredibly “brilliant” smile, as if nothing had happened, and proactively raised the wine glass in front of him; the amber-colored mead inside rippled slightly due to the uncontrollable trembling of his fingers.
“President Yang, Manager Zhang, honorable ministers!”
Zhang Bo’s voice carried an exaggerated eagerness as he surveyed the room, smiling broadly as if to dispel all gloom: “My subordinates are ignorant, only knowing how to execute rigid orders; it’s truly a spoilsport! I’ve made you all laugh! The banquet is only halfway through; how can it just end?”
His gaze lingered on Yang Di, filled with utmost sincerity:
“President Yang’s warm hospitality, this fine wine and delicious food, and these moving songs and dances, we haven’t enjoyed them enough yet! Come, on behalf of Lord Shen Mu and all colleagues from Deherim, I toast President Yang! Thank you, President Yang, for your trust and support; we will remember this friendship forever!”
With that, he tilted his head and drained the wine in his glass, his throat bobbing as he used the act of swallowing to suppress the panic in his heart.
He could clearly feel Yang Di’s eyes, almost spitting fire, staring intently at him; it was certainly not just displeasure over the captain’s departure.
Because he also noticed that Yang Di seemed to distrust him more and more because of the departure of these Kujit guards.
But Zhang Bo couldn’t explain anything at all.
After all, he couldn't control these Kujit guards, nor could he control these Lingjie Human Race soldiers.
How could there be any explanation at this time?
“Yes, yes, yes! Steward Zhang is right!”
Although Sun Zhiru’s heart was pounding, as the second-in-command, he had to bite the bullet and step up at this moment.
He also quickly forced a smile, raised his wine glass, and echoed: “President Yang, please calm your anger; the soldiers are crude, only knowing how to charge into battle, not understanding human relations, which is truly extremely rude! We are still here, and our intentions are still here; the mood of this banquet cannot be ruined! Come, come, come, I also toast you! This afternoon’s negotiations yielded fruitful results, and the prospects for cooperation are vast, worth getting drunk over!”
Seeing this, the other negotiation experts also quickly suppressed their unease and speculation, piling on smiles, raising their wine glasses, and chattering to smooth things over, praising the delicious food and wine, complimenting the graceful Wood Elf dances, and thanking the Green Leaf Group for their hospitality.
For a time, the banquet hall was filled again with chaotic clinking of glasses and slightly hurried laughter, attempting to mask the bone-deep chill and awkwardness.
Yang Di’s facial muscles twitched violently, and his knuckles gripping the wine glass turned white from the force.
The anger of being deceived and the humiliation of being cornered surged within him like magma, almost breaking through the dam of his reason.
He looked at Zhang Bo’s face, which feigned composure and wore a “sincere” smile, and found it incredibly ironic.
Is this kid… acting?
Or is he covering up his shameful betrayal?
But he was Yang Di, after all, the warlord who had struggled and fought his way out of the apocalypse.
He took a deep, icy breath, which forcibly suppressed his almost explosive rage.
Turning hostile now would be tantamount to cutting off his own escape route!
The plan…
The plan must continue!
“Heh heh, it’s fine, it’s fine…”
Yang Di’s lips twitched upward, also forcing out an extremely strained smile, but the coldness and scrutiny in his eyes remained undiminished.
He slowly raised his wine glass, his gaze sweeping over Zhang Bo, Sun Zhiru, and the others, and slowly said, “Mr. Zhang Bo… Vice Steward Sun, and all the experts. Young people are hot-blooded, and military orders are like mountains; I can understand… I can understand.”
He deliberately paused, each word seemingly squeezed through his teeth, full of inexplicable meaning: “What’s important is… our ‘trust’ is still there, the basis for cooperation is still there, right? Come, drink!”
He drained the wine in his glass, the spicy liquid burning his throat, but it couldn’t dispel the chill and the suffocating feeling of being fooled in his heart.
Zhang Song’s facial expression management was slightly better than Yang Di’s.
He quickly regained his seemingly gentle but distant demeanor and also raised his wine glass to smooth things over: “That’s right, we’re all on the same side; a small interlude is nothing to worry about. Everyone, please continue, continue! Musicians, play on! Dancers, don’t stop!”
He waved his hand, attempting to revive the atmosphere.
The sounds of strings and flutes began again, but their melodious and ethereal quality seemed to be shrouded in a shadow, becoming unstable.
The Wood Elves danced again, but their movements were noticeably more constrained, their eyes darting around, not daring to look directly at the central figures in the hall.
The Blue Star maids were also more cautious when refilling drinks and serving dishes, fearing they might trigger something else.
The banquet that followed became extremely strange.
Amidst clinking glasses, laughter still echoed as Yang Di and Zhang Song began to toast several younger negotiation experts who seemed easier to approach, discussing irrelevant details of “future cooperation” such as transportation routes for certain materials or the possibility of integrating certain industries—topics were intentionally or unintentionally steered towards minor details, as if the “friendly negotiations” about core interests at the negotiation table that afternoon were already set in stone.
Sun Zhiru and several seasoned experts tried their best to cope, echoing any topic the other side brought up, no matter how empty.
They smiled, but their minds were rapidly calculating.
The abnormal departure of the guards was like a thorn in their hearts, and combined with the host’s current demeanor, still talking and laughing but with a hidden coldness in his eyes, it gave them an ominous premonition, yet they couldn’t quite articulate it, only attributing it to the rudeness of the Kujit team that had angered the other party.
Zhang Bo, meanwhile, became the focus of everyone’s attention.
He sat there, maintaining an impeccable social smile on his face, clinking glasses with every management minister who came to toast him, speaking appropriately.
However, only he himself knew that every time he raised his wine glass, his muscles had to exert all their strength to control the unnatural trembling;
Every time he looked into Yang Di’s or Zhang Song’s eyes, he had to mobilize all his mental faculties to maintain that “sincerity” in order not to have his inner defenses shattered by their penetrating gaze.
Yang Di’s gaze was like an invisible needle, pricking him from time to time.
Zhang Song’s words were always veiled in politeness but sharp: “Mr. Zhang Bo is deeply trusted by Lord Shen Mu and shoulders such an important responsibility; he is truly young and promising… This effortless demeanor truly makes us old folks admire him.”
The words “deeply trusted” and “effortless” sounded like biting sarcasm to Zhang Bo’s ears.
Time flowed agonizingly amidst clinking glasses and false pleasantries.
The grander the feast, the more decadent the singing and dancing, the more intense the unease and suspicion pervading the air became, like poisonous vines silently spreading in the deep night, tightly coiling around the heart of everyone present.
Zhang Bo’s heart pounded heavily in his chest; each beat reminded him: a storm was coming, and they had already lost their strongest shield.
The lie of “everything is going smoothly” was crumbling on this night shrouded by death spirit rules.
As a Prophecy-type Mage, Zhang Bo finally sensed in the ethereal something quite amiss, a feeling that enveloped his heart.
This made Zhang Bo’s heart pound even more intensely.
It was as if…
A great crisis was about to arrive!
“Could it be that Yang Di and Zhang Song suspect I betrayed them, and they no longer want to play along with me, wanting to completely overturn the table and go for broke?” This thought appeared in Zhang Bo’s mind.
This made his heart pound even more fiercely.
“No, absolutely not! After the banquet, I must talk to President Yang and Zhang Song and explain exactly what’s going on! I must analyze with them what has happened!” Zhang Bo’s heart was extremely agitated, and the hand holding his cup trembled slightly.
Zhang Bo’s forced smile was now like a mask plastered onto stiff clay, every subtle twitch appearing incredibly strained.
Cold sweat, fine and icy, uncontrollably seeped from his temples, tracing down his sideburns, leaving faint wet marks.
His knuckles gripping the wine glass were white from exertion, yet he still couldn’t stop the almost imperceptible but clearly visible trembling; the amber wine in the glass swirled uneasily, reflecting the panic he desperately tried to hide deep within his eyes.
Yang Di’s gaze, like a poisoned icicle, took in Zhang Bo’s appearance completely.
That sweat, that trembling, how could it be guilt over the guards’ departure?
It was clearly a guilty conscience!
“He’s scared!?”
Thoughts churned in Yang Di’s mind, killing intent almost bursting forth: “He’s afraid we’ll discover his double-dealing, afraid we’ll expose his trick of betraying Green Leaf and defecting to Shen Mu! This cold sweat is the panic of being exposed! This trembling is because he knows he chose the wrong side and is finished!”
Zhang Song, on the surface, was still gracefully discussing “trade route optimization” with a young expert beside him, but the corner of his eye accurately caught Zhang Bo’s momentary display of unease.
He possessed a cooler scrutiny than Yang Di, but in the face of Zhang Bo’s obviously excessive physiological reaction, the scales in Zhang Song’s heart completely tipped towards the worst possible conjecture.
Their eyes briefly met across the noisy banquet.
No words were needed; Yang Di’s eyes conveyed furious “action” and urgency, while Zhang Song transmitted the order to “immediately notify the perimeter guards and raise the highest alert.”
Zhang Song slightly tilted his head, about to quietly give orders to his trusted subordinate standing behind him, instructing the guards to immediately go on full alert and prepare for countermeasures, absolutely not giving Deherim or Shen Mu any opportunity for an inside job—especially to prevent the Kujit guard team that had already withdrawn from suddenly attacking!
Although these were just their speculations, based on such conjectures, they had to be careful.
Just then—
“Woo—!!!”
A shrill, prolonged horn blast suddenly tore through the village’s previously quiet night sky!
The sound penetrated the exquisite wooden walls, overpowering the forced strings, flutes, and laughter inside the hall, like the horn of death, exploding directly in the depths of everyone’s eardrums!
The wine glass in Zhang Bo’s hand clattered to the ground, wine and fragments scattering!
The color instantly drained from his face, leaving only a deathly pallor, his pupils contracting sharply with immense fear.
“It’s here… it’s really here…” The icy tremor brought by the Prophecy-type Mage’s intuition instantly overwhelmed him.
This sound was the horn blowing, signaling a general attack!
The expressions on Yang Di and Zhang Song’s faces also froze instantly!
However, before the echo of the horn could dissipate into the stunned air…
“Enemy attack!!!”
“Enemy! There are enemies!!”
“Ah—!”
“Hoofbeats! Cavalry! Many cavalry!”
“Hold them! Shoot arrows! Stop them!”
“The wall has been breached!!!”
Heart-wrenching shouts, desperate screams, the piercing clang of weapons, and the increasingly clear, denser, and more terrifying sound, from far to near, like rumbling thunder or a surging tide—
The thundering hooves of thousands of horses, like heavy hammers, brutally shattered the last semblance of false calm barely maintained in the banquet hall!
This was no longer an external disturbance, but the entire Green Leaf Group’s seemingly peaceful and harmonious Wood Elf Village burning, bleeding, being mercilessly trampled by war and iron hooves!
The entire banquet hall was instantly plunged into an extreme ice cave!
The music abruptly ceased, the musicians’ instrument strings snapping!
The Wood Elf dancers’ graceful movements froze in terrified poses, their thin veils drooping limply!
The Blue Star maids screamed, clutching their heads and crouching down.
The negotiation experts, who had just been exchanging pleasantries, were all deathly pale, stunned like wooden chickens.
Dead silence.
A silence colder and more despairing than when the Kujit guards left enveloped everything.
Everyone’s gaze, including the unbelievably terrified gazes of Sun Zhiru and the others, instinctively turned towards Zhang Bo!
All of Yang Di’s anger and suspicion at this moment completely transformed into monstrous killing intent and a furious rage at being played like a fiddle!
He violently stood up, his force knocking over the long table in front of him, sending precious utensils and dishes crashing to the floor with a clatter.
“Zhang Bo!!!”
Yang Di’s voice was like a chilling wind from the netherworld, every word laced with ice: “You backstabbing, glory-seeking—traitor! Is this your sincerity in negotiations?! Is this your so-called ‘trust’?!”
He drew the saber from his waist, its blade glinting with a grim light under the magic lamps, pointing directly at Zhang Bo, whose face was ashen and body trembled like a sieve.
All pretenses were torn to shreds!
All suspicions were confirmed by the cruel reality!
In Yang Di and Zhang Song’s minds, this sudden, deadly attack was the signal sent by Zhang Bo, the “insider”!
It was the fatal blow he ushered in after “sending away” the Kujit guards!
Deherim’s “betrayal” and sneak attack had begun!
And they were sitting in the banquet hall, because of Zhang Bo’s performance, almost losing their last bit of vigilance and reaction time!
Under the cover of the death spirit rules that descended with nightfall, a cold night of slaughter.
It had actually descended upon his Green Leaf Group, his Wood Elf Village! (End of chapter)
