The Ring: Sell Dung Beetles in Junction

Chapter 470 Lobbying and Big Pie

The conditions given by Wuming caused a commotion in the army, especially among the Messermo soldiers.

When the jihad just began, everyone's will was still firm. They would never return home until the mission was completed.

But a thousand years have passed, and the lofty aspirations have turned into numbness due to the long-term killing. Hometown has also become an unattainable luxury. Many people found that even in their dreams, the appearance of their hometown has become blurred, and they went crazy.

No one had given up hope, and when they heard Wuming's words out of the blue, most of them were not happy, but rather doubtful and unwilling to believe.

The black knights were relatively more resolute, but rustling sounds could be heard coming from the crowd, and the sound of armor colliding became louder, revealing their uneasy hearts.

Seeing that Wuming's words had shaken the morale of his people, Andros's face became increasingly gloomy.

He wanted to rebuke Wuming for his evil words and to calm the troops, but when he turned his eyes back from the army, he could no longer find Wuming.

When he looked up again, Wuming was already standing on the platform high above the vault, and greeted Andros:

"Think about it carefully. After all, whether your men can return to the border depends entirely on you."

Andros' heart sank. Wuming's voice, standing on the high platform, was heard by more people.

Andros looked at the swaying Messermo soldiers and sighed softly:
"People's hearts are scattered, and it's hard to lead the team..."

Wuming returned to the vault. Messermo was waiting for him to return, feeling a little nervous:

"Is this okay?"

"I will go to the Horned Man to talk later and agree on the time and place for the peace talks." Wuming adjusted his armor.

Messermo nodded slightly.

He was still a little hesitant, whether to give up his mission or take the initiative to change.

I was worried that by doing this, I was betraying my mother, fulfilling the saying that snakes betray everything.

While hesitating, Wuming had already led Patch and others to push the matter to a point where it would be difficult to turn back.

It is this kind of doubt that makes Messermo worried - whether the jihadists behind him, whose faith is even stronger, will easily believe the big promises made by Wuming.

After all, Wuming himself couldn't go back to the border, so it was no wonder that Messermo felt that the cake drawn by Wuming was not very tempting.

"Are the Black Knights and the Horned Man really willing to sit down and talk?" Messermo asked, "How can we ensure that they don't fight when they sit together?"

"Many black knights and soldiers are depressed." Wuming said, "and the Horned People are also longing for their own gods and salvation. I think everyone still doesn't want to continue fighting, as long as both sides are willing to take a step back. Although this step may be harder than climbing to the sky."

Wuming looked at the hesitant Messermo, patted his shoulder, and roared, making Messermo's head buzz.

"What are you doing?" Messermo looked at him in shock.

I found that Wuming had turned into a goat-headed man.

Sheep head opens its mouth:
"I'm going to negotiate with the Horned Man. You stay here."

As he spoke, the goat-headed man went down in the elevator, followed the rope ladder lowered by Patch from the wizard's side, climbed down the city wall, bypassed the Shadow City and headed for the Horned Man camp.

With a big horn on his head, and more importantly, Wuming's calm and natural pace, he managed to avoid many Horned People scouts and walked to the Horned People's camp in a swagger, approaching the position of the Horned People old woman.

Then he was captured by a horned warrior with a bird-shaped helmet and covered in golden armor. He was dragged and brought to the old horned woman.

"Oh, how come this horned warrior has such a sharp vision." Wuming twisted his wrist, feeling the pressure of his wrist being held by the raptor, and marveled at the horned warrior's observation skills.

Hearing Wuming's exclamation, the old woman sneered with pride and said to Wuming:
"The Divine Bird Warrior is the ancestor of the Horned Warriors. He is on par with the Divine Beast Master."

"No wonder he's so powerful." Wuming suddenly realized.

The old horned woman suddenly became confused. She sniffed a few times with her eyes covered by the hard horns, shook her head slightly, and pointed at Wuming's head with the colorful long horns on her head.

The old horned woman was a little confused, as if she was in a dream, but she soon cleared the fog in her dream.

"Wait, this guardian spirit has my son... Are you Lord Yongren?!" The old horned woman exclaimed, finally recognizing Wuming.

"Long time no see." Wuming smiled.

"Master Divine Bird, this is Master Divine Beast, a brave man." The old horned woman raised her head and used her horn to find the direction of the Divine Bird warrior. "He is not an enemy. There must be some misunderstanding."

"That's right, I'm not an enemy." Wuming nodded repeatedly, agreeing very much with the old horned woman's point of view.

But the bird warrior held Wuming's wrist tightly and didn't let go. There was no response to the old woman's shouting, which was very cruel.

"Lord Divine Bird, what does this mean?" The old Horned Woman wondered, "Could it be that the Divine Bird and the Divine Beast are going to fight again? Now is an important day for our tribe. If you are filled with anger, please vent it on me first, and then go to the battlefield and devour the sons of those evil women!"

Facing the words of the Horned Old Woman, the Divine Bird remained silent. Just like the cold Divine Bird, it did not respond to anyone.

"Because you can't see, he's not Yuto." A voice came from behind.

Wuming turned his head and saw a blood noble.

Seeing the Blood Noble walking safely among the Horned People, Wuming confirmed his previous conjecture:
"The Horned Man has indeed joined forces with the Blood Dynasty."

"How can it be considered a teaming up? We are one family." The Blood Noble showed off his hard horns, "We are all members of the Golden Tree who were excluded."

After the blood noble finished speaking, the old woman on the opposite side said:
"My lord, you can't see it, so you don't know. This is a despicable man who deceived you. He is not a mythical beast warrior, not even a horned man."

The old Horned Woman was quite surprised when she heard the words of the Blood Noble: "How is it possible? But... he clearly has the scent of a divine beast. And he also carries the spirit of my son. Only a brave man and a divine beast can have such spiritual power."

The blood noble chuckled and looked at Wuming:

"He does have horns, but these horns probably came from an unholy place. I'm afraid they were taken from a goat after he killed it, just like the bear feast."

The Blood Noble said, "It's probably a form of trance, but others use big horns to trance, while he obtained big horns through trance, and used this to deceive you."

"Even if that's a dragon feast, it's still there." Wuming was dissatisfied, "None of the ancient dragons have seen it? Are the people of the Blood Dynasty so ignorant?"

"Master Yongren, you—" The old woman of the Horned Man was even more shocked when she heard Wuming's response, "What you said—what he said is true?"

Wuming had no intention of hiding it, so he said:
"I am indeed not a horned man. The horns are the effect of my transformation. However, my skills with souls are not inferior to those of the horned man."

The old woman seemed to have been hit by something. She was silent for a long time before she recovered. When she spoke again, her voice sounded a little older:

"Who are you then? What is your identity? How dare you impersonate the Lord Divine Beast? What is your intention?"

"Do you really want me to tell you?" Wuming glanced at the person next to him, "There are outsiders here."

"Our alliance is indestructible and all intelligence is shared. If you have any secrets, you'd better confess them as soon as possible. Otherwise, we also know a thing or two about the punishment." The Blood Noble threatened Wuming.

Wuming sighed:

"At the beginning, there was a man who asked you for the recipe for scorpion soup. Do you remember it?"

The old woman pondered doubtfully for a long time before she gradually realized:
"Your voice is the same as that guy's... How is that possible? You are lying to me... But how did you pretend to be the Divine Beast Master?"

"I saw a lion head next to you, so I put it on." Wuming said.

"Impossible, the helmet of that mythical beast has long lost its fragrance." said the old horned woman.

"I have my own methods. I can refurbish items and do professional repairs." Wuming said, "I want the recipe for scorpion soup, but I don't want to force you, so I'll use this method."

The hunched body of the old Horned Woman suddenly stretched out, and the huge resentful spirit above her head roared and appeared, as if it was going to devour Wuming. The resentful spirit struggled, and it seemed that the master they parasitized was also in great pain.

The old horned woman screamed:

"For scorpion soup? You disgusting liar, you are still deceiving me. What is your purpose——" The old woman's face suddenly turned pale:
"You asked me for the hiding places of all the Horned Ones..."

"That's to help me understand the situation." Wuming said, "You all the Horned people have gathered now, have you heard of any Horned people base being attacked?"

"That... is indeed not the case." The old woman said, "But you must have some other purpose. You are actually a minion of Messermo. I am really blind!"

"You are indeed blind." Wuming said, "I do have other purposes, do you want to hear them?"

The old woman from the horned tribe was so angry at Wuming's attitude that she couldn't breathe. She kept coughing and couldn't respond.

The blood nobles on the side were very interested:

"Tell me your purpose. I see you are quite calm."

"When two armies are at war, they don't kill envoys." Wuming said, "The reason I came here is very simple - to negotiate peace."

"Negotiations?" The old woman couldn't believe her ears. "Right now?"

"Did you receive the gifts I gave you a few days ago?" Wuming asked.

"What gift?" The old horned woman tilted her ear, trying her best to listen to Wuming's words. She no longer wanted to use her horn to sense Wuming. Seeing her son staying above Wuming's head, she felt heartbroken.

"Those corpses. We released them after we deliberately forced you to retreat." Wuming said, "From what I observed, you have buried all the corpses."

"You said that." The old woman suddenly realized that she had heard something. They had buried the bodies in the past few days, and until now, they were still wondering what Messemo's purpose was.

The Horned Man had heard that one of Messermo's men was a fire knight named Wengo who could revive the dead and use them as bombs. So when they buried the bodies, they were terrified and buried them far away. They also sent people to guard the graves to prevent the zombies from resurrecting and exploding behind them.

"That's the sincerity of Messermo and the Flame Knights," Wuming said, "They want to end the holy war."

"End the holy war?" The horns of the old horned woman turned red. "You have burned us with fire for a thousand years. Now you want to write it off by returning the bodies you slaughtered and burned? How many of the warriors here have relatives among those corpses? Do you think we will just let it go?"

The old woman of the horn held back her anger:

"We will not trust the promises of the invaders. Do you know why? Because you have the ability to destroy us again at any time, just like the betrayal you did in the first place. I will not believe the words of a liar either."

"So this is just a little bit of sincerity." Wuming said, "You scouts should have seen it today. The furnace golems are all shut down. Did you see it?"

Wuming said, "There is one thing we should be able to agree on - the basis of the peace talks is that both sides are on the same level, or at least the gap can't be that big. So I made the decision to shut down the Furnace Golem first. Although it is powerful, its operation method, whether it is the core or the energy supply, is too wasteful. The Golden Tree and the Horned Man also avoid it, so I shut it down."

"You decide?" The old woman with horns probed Wuming with her horns again, "Who are you?"

"To be precise, I am not from Messermo." Wuming said, "I am a businessman. As a third party, I am fully responsible for promoting the peace talks. You can understand my will as Messermo's will."

"Can you represent Messermo?" The old horned woman sneered.

"I can't represent Messermo, I can only represent my own will." Wuming said, and his handcuffed hands slowly and smoothly broke free from the iron hands of the divine bird warrior.

The divine bird warrior noticed that Wuming was struggling to break free, and he exerted more force. His nails scratched sparks on Wuming's arm armor, but he could not stop Wuming at all.

Wuming stretched out his arm in front of him, and draped the Divine Bird Warrior who was holding his arm tightly behind him as if it were a cloak. He stretched out his arm in front of the old woman of the horned man and clenched it:
"What I mean is that Messermo will certainly obey my will. You can rest assured about that."

The old woman from the horn tribe could not see Wuming's actions, but the confidence in Wuming's words made the old woman silent.

"As for the trust issue, I lied to you, but only for the recipe. Whether it's the hiding place of your Horned People or returning the bodies, these are real things to do. You can judge for yourself whether I can be trusted or not." Wuming said, "And you shouldn't refuse the conditions I offer - I will let Messermo lift the seal and return the White Tower to the Horned People, how about it?"

The old woman's body trembled slightly, and she raised her head slowly:
"really?"

"If it's not returned, then peace talks will be impossible," Wuming said. "I learned from the Horned Scholars that the Spiral Tower is the essence of your entire culture, just like the Golden Tree to the Golden People."

Wuming thought for a moment and said, "It may be even more important - after all, you Horned People have not given up for thousands of years, while some of the Golden People may still give up their faith in the Golden Tree due to long-term suffering."

The old woman lowered her head, not knowing what she was thinking. The vengeful spirits above her were changing strangely, as if a storm was brewing.

"Don't rush to make a decision. I just revealed my bottom line. If you want to gain more benefits, you can continue to negotiate." Wuming said, "As long as you are willing to sit down and talk, maybe there is a chance to reach a consensus. Even if you can't reach a consensus...why don't you just keep fighting?"

Seeing the old woman's silence, the blood noble beside her seemed to want to say something:
"Sir, we don't have to—"

Before he could finish, the Blood Noble's voice suddenly disappeared, the sound waves were smoothed by magic power, Wuming put the pyroxene crystal in his hand back into his pocket and glanced at the Blood Noble:

"The adults are talking about serious matters, children should not talk."

The old horned woman remained silent, with her head lowered, as if she was struggling with her conscience and was still lost in deep thought.

Wuming was not in a hurry and waited for her quietly.

After an unknown amount of time, the old woman finally spoke:

"Huh...huh..."

The sound is steady and peaceful, with a lasting charm.

Suddenly, a snore came out of the old woman's mouth, waking her up. She straightened her back and looked around: "...Hmm...Hmm?"

"Have you thought about it?" Wuming asked.

The old woman of the horn said, "You want to negotiate?"

"That's right." Wuming said.

"What about the time and place?" said the old woman of the horn.

Nameless took out the map:

"You can pick a few places by yourselves. I will let Messermo and the Black Knights pick a few more places later. If there is any overlap, we will go to that place."

"Where there is no overlap?" said the old woman from the horn tribe.

"Our caravan has everything." Wuming took out a compass. "Kalia magic can project your image in front of others from a long distance, and you can also see the influence of others. In this way, you can negotiate directly even if you are across the ocean. If the Horned People are worried about an ambush, they can use this."

"No need for that." The old woman of the horned man said, "We use the soul to judge people. We can't be sure whether others are sincere by using this trick."

The old woman of the Horned Man said, "This matter is of great importance and cannot be entrusted to envoys. We must gather representatives of all tribes to negotiate. But this is very dangerous. We must bring troops with us. And find an open area to prevent ambushes."

"I'll give you a suggestion - why not stay close to us, right here on the battlefield?" Wuming said, "Keep a little distance between you two, so that neither Shadow City nor the Horned Army can launch a surprise attack right away. Both sides will have enough troops, so there's no need to worry about a sneak attack from the other side."

"Sure." The old woman said, "When?"

"You decide." Wuming said.

"Two days later." said the old horned woman.

"Time is running out." Wuming said.

"Even if you want to ambush us, we won't give you time." The old Horned Woman said, "And if you really have an ambush, we will definitely prepare the most severe curse for you before we die."

"Deal then." Wuming held the old woman's hand and shook it.

Feeling the familiar palm and temperature, the old woman with horns confirmed that this was indeed the brave man from before.

"Why do you do this?" asked the old horned woman. "Do we have anything worth doing this for? What do you covet? The Gate of God? The secret treasure? Our skin? Our spiral?"

Wuming raised his head and thought for a while, then replied:
"Hornman's soup, isn't it great?"

"Huh?" The old woman from the horn was stunned.

Wuming waved his hand and took off the divine bird warrior that was still hanging on his body:
"Then I will go back and report. See you on the battlefield in two days."

(End of this chapter)