novelraw Chapter 653 484: Caught in a Capital Scheme!
Chapter 653 484: Caught in a Capital Scheme!
As the host, administrator, and even the Secret Realm Master of this place, Lu Pa naturally stands at the best position in the entire Dragon Soaring Arena.
Beneath the platform where she stands is a circle of square boxes, with equally excellent views.
—These are luxurious private boxes that can only be enjoyed by purchasing first-class tickets.
The boxes are lavishly decorated, with floors covered in soft carpets made from unknown Spirit Beast hides, and the air is filled with a faint fragrance that calms the mind.
Outside the huge one-way floor-to-ceiling windows is the blood-pumping circular arena.
A tall, rugged man is standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window at this moment, holding a glass of amber liquor, using his brown eyes filled with seriousness and anticipation, watching the sandy arena below.
He appears to be about forty years old, sporting a somewhat rugged beard, and the dense body hair is evident on his exposed hand, dressed in a luxurious regional fur coat that clearly has self-regulating temperature function, exuding a faintly thick air of authority.
On the other side, on the sofa sits a relatively small man. He is thin, but his eyes are sharp as an eagle's, dressed in a dark suit.
The aura around him is relatively weak, yet he already stands at the Five-Star level.
"Ah, every time I come to Great Xia, I am genuinely amazed."
The rugged man swirled his glass, with movements slightly larger than usual, looking at the window at those spirited and excited spectators from all over the Sky Arena, and recalling the seemingly unreal bustling city scenes he had seen in the past few days, somewhat complexly drained the liquid in his glass.
He sighed, then spoke in a language distinctly different from the pronunciation of Great Xia Language, with many rolled R sounds, sounding harder.
"Great Xia is simply heaven."
"Safe, prosperous, full of opportunities, almost everyone is a Spirit Master, yet the people here are not satisfied, they still thrive upwards, pursuing strength without a hint of decay."
"And thinking about our place… even those damn beast tides take up a lot of energy, each family is still fighting, internal strife… just a few scattered demon race brats from other frontlines are annoying to no end, it's a world of difference."
He looked to the thin man behind him: "Igor, my brother, living here permanently, I envy you."
"I haven't seen you in ten years, and you're already a Five-Star."
The thin man didn't speak, using a white handkerchief to wipe his spotless gold-framed glasses, only a glint of pride was evident in his eyes.
Clearly, these two are not from Great Xia.
The rugged man hails from Kiev Russia, north of Great Xia, is the head of a trade delegation, and is also a Five-Star Spirit Master.
And Igor, the thin man referred to, is a diplomat stationed at the Coastal City consulate of Kiev Russia.
The family they belong to, in Kiev Russia, is one of the most powerful and formidable spirit master families, the Akhmetov family, within which exists a Six-Star demigod.
There, a Five-Star powerhouse is already considered the pinnacle, second only to a few transcendent figures at the Six-Star level.
But in these few days amongst Great Xia's diplomatic etiquette and meetings, encountering Five-Star powerhouses comparable or superior to himself was frequent, giving him considerable pressure.
He has sighed in his heart more than once.
—What?!
—A powerhouse of similar level to himself can at most be a boss of a medium-sized company in Coastal City?
Yet for Great Xia, this lineup is just politeness.
The rugged man sighed again, this time filled with worry.
"You're not in the country, perhaps you don't know… the beast tides at the front are becoming more frequent, as if driven by the demon race, our 'Barrier' line of defense is under too much pressure."
The rugged man's eyes became serious, and his voice also carried a trace of urgency he himself hadn't noticed.
"Domestically, spiritual artifacts and potions are severely scarce, the quality and output of those workshops' products far from meet the consumption."
"We must find a way to order a batch of new spiritual artifacts from Great Xia, or else the next beast tide involving a Beast King, the defense line might face significant problems."
"When that time comes, we'll really have no choice but to seek help from these great nations, which will only cost us dearly!"
His words carry no hint of hope for aid, even disdain for such actions.
That's because they all realize one truth — seeking aid comes at a price, even a helpless action.
If importing advanced spiritual artifacts and potions from these top-tier nations merely gets fleeced due to technical barriers, you could say the post-fleeced prices are still cheaper than if they'd worked on research themselves, with better cost-effectiveness.
But if truly asking powerhouses to aid your country… how much would it cost? How much interest must be conceded?
How long can they help?
In the end, afraid that even people and wealth would be gone.
But if they're pushed to the point of needing aid, they couldn't worry about all that.
"Our situation is even considered good."
The rugged man's voice sank: "You couldn't possibly not know, the kingdom of Kush once rich in gold, had its capital directly flattened by a hidden 'Purgatory Count' that broke through the defense line last month, almost the entire royal family was wiped out."
"Also, across the Mediterranean, the Carthage principality reportedly couldn't withstand the pressure, starting secretly paying tribute to the demon race for temporary peace… truly pathetic, might as well have sought aid instead."