The Medallion
Chapter 58 The Formidable Opponents

"She looks breathtakingly beautiful. Her charm must be at par with that of Marcia's and Lena's." Rocky observed as he stroked his jaw. His eyes sparkled with admiration. He knew Erica was always quite the beauty, but seeing her up close only reinforced that truth.

Felicia and Erica were warmly welcomed by the crowd. They went across the square, along with the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire, and sat gingerly on their designated seats at the end of the square. The princes including Alston and ministers of the Holy Dragon Empire waiting there made their salutations to Felicia to show their respect.

The instant Alston saw Erica, his mind became unsettled.

"Preceptor Felicia, please take a seat." The emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire respectfully reached out to invite Felicia.

"Your Majesty, you're welcome." Felicia nodded. She waited for the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire to sit before she settled herself on the seat of honor beside him.

Then Lena sat down with Erica aside. When chatters and murmurs of the guests simmered down, Priest Dean took a step forward to announce the beginning of the Dragon Birth Festival. Soon, people sang and danced in the center of the square in an ecstasy of joy.

"Thanks to Her Majesty, we have the great honor to receive Preceptor Felicia at the Dragon Birth Festival of the Holy Dragon Empire. Please send my warmest appreciation to her when you return," the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire said with a benign countenance, humbly presenting himself. As was known by most people, Felicia was the white-haired person of the empress of the Magic Phoenix Empire. She was delegated to take charge of most of the principal affairs in the Magic Phoenix Empire. This showed that she was a person of high influence there. Thus, the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire had to treat her with utmost respect.

"Your Majesty, you're welcome. Our empires have thrived in good relationships throughout. It's the honor of the Magic Phoenix Empire to be here to watch the Dragon Birth Festival of the Holy Dragon Empire. Her Majesty was very much enthused with your invitation, so she commanded me to take Erica, my disciple, and seven new phoenix spirit manipulators with me. This is a great opportunity for them to broaden their horizons. They can also exchange experience and skills with the royal spirit manipulators of the Holy Dragon Empire. From what I've heard, one of the new royal spirit manipulators even fused with the Holy Dragon Bead. As far as I can recall, it is the holy treasure of the Holy Dragon Empire from centuries ago," Felicia commented, her eyes directly fixed on the emperor's visage.

"You're very much abreast about the information..." The emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire was both impressed and taken aback with the mention of the Holy Dragon Bead. He forced a laugh, trying to evade the embarrassing conversation, so he changed the subject and said, "The thirty royal spirit manipulators of the Holy Dragon Empire are preparing there. Where are the seven new phoenix spirit manipulators you've spoken of?"

"Erica." Felicia nodded in Erica's direction on the lower floor, sending her a signal that she was being summoned.

Responding to the signal given to her, Erica stood up and whistled. Suddenly, a chromatic shadow of phoenix showed up from a wing of the square. With glittering light, it looked beautiful and sumptuous. Seen from afar, it flew over carrying a few people.

"Is this the Glint Phoenix?" the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire asked, obviously surprised with the display before him.

The Glint Phoenix was a breed of rare spirit-manipulated beasts. The Magic Phoenix Empire inherited the ability of the Phoenix Master Clan. Due to this, its phoenix spirit manipulators could control the phoenix, a higher spiritual creature, which was the only rare spiritual treasure on the Wild Spirit Land at par with the dragons. It could also be divided into the war phoenix and the spiritual phoenix. The Glint Phoenix was not actually the purebred phoenix. It was only considered as a breed of spiritual beasts. However, it was said that it inherited an extinct capability of the ancient spiritual phoenix. To be specific, it could be reborn after nirvana. On top of it all, it increased its power by double after each nirvana. Moreover, the Glint Phoenix was so rare that it was considered much more precious compared to some kinds of spiritual phoenixes. Therefore, there were hardly any stories and information about it. Only a few people of the Holy Dragon Empire could recognize it.

In addition, the Glint Phoenix had a tendency to be arrogant and disdainful, making it troublesome to discipline. For that reason, it was practically an impossible task to turn it into a spirit-manipulated beast. "Your Majesty, it's surprising that you could recognize the Glint Phoenix. This is the four-star spiritual beast my disciple subdued a year ago," Felicia coolly mentioned, but deep inside she couldn't help but feel smug of what her disciple gained.

Upon hearing Felicia's words, the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire and Priest Dean were astonished. Though they had heard that Erica had a four-star spiritual beast with excellent natural endowments, they never thought that it would be a Glint Phoenix. Actually, her Glint Phoenix wasn't remarkable in its current state. But with its inherent ability to increase power after nirvana, in time, it would surely grow stronger and would take its place in the top ten.

"Miss Erica, it is no doubt that your power and capacity is immense since you could tame the Glint Phoenix to be the spirit-manipulated beast of your own," the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire commended after a while.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I'm honored," Erica replied, showing neither indication of being humble or haughty.

At the point, the Glint Phoenix had arrived at the sky above the head of the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire. Everyone present couldn't help but be stupefied in awe at the amazing scene before them. Then, seven figures landed together and got down on one knee before the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire. They said in chorus, "Your Majesty, we are the phoenix spirit manipulators from the Magic Phoenix Empire."

"Please stand up. You don't need to do this," the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire said as he waved his hand.

The seven phoenix spirit manipulators stood up at the command of the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire. The members were composed of five women and two men. The phoenix spiritual power was known for being too gentle, therefore most phoenix spirit manipulators of the Magic Phoenix Empire were women. Very few men have the capacity to become phoenix spirit manipulators. But once men could pass as phoenix spirit manipulators, they would be excellent.

Glancing over the seven before them, the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire and Priest Dean donned a serious expression. They found one of them even had reached the sixth grade of the Mortal Stage, two of them at the fifth grade and the rest four between the third grade and the fourth grade.

While on their end, the best new royal spirit manipulators of the Holy Dragon Empire were just at the fourth grade of the Mortal Stage. The contrast between the two empires was glaring.

"The Magic Phoenix Empire is truly a galaxy of talents," the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire applauded, keeping his composure the whole while.

"Your Majesty, we are nowhere near the Holy Dragon Empire," Felicia humbly mentioned.

"Preceptor Felicia, what's your plan for the skills exchange? I will ask the royal spirit manipulators to prepare based on whatever you deem worthy," Priest Dean announced.

"What I can suggest is for you to select seven new royal spirit manipulators as the contestants. Then, we can have a wheel battle between the two sides. The loser will be eliminated while the winner remains. The side that has no contestant to send will lose the battle," Felicia declared.

The emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire shifted his gaze to Priest Dean as if looking for an answer. Unfortunately, the Priest was as dumbfounded as he was. They stared at each other speechless and stunned at Felicia's proposal. Apparently, it was against the Holy Dragon Empire. But in consideration of courtesy to guests, it was awkward of them to evade carrying out Felicia's plan once she had asked. Fortunately, they just intended to exchange experience and skills among the spirit manipulators of the two empires this time, so winning or losing was of no great importance. However, if the royal spirit manipulators lost the battle with enormous incongruity, it would be very much shameful for their empire.

"Go and arrange it as Preceptor Felicia said," the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire ordered Priest Dean.

Priest Dean nodded immediately and did as he was told.

Not long after, he came to the rest area.

"Priest Dean..." Mia called as she bowed down.

"This comes as a surprise to us, but the phoenix spirit manipulators are so powerful. Although, it makes sense because they fused with the power of the spiritual race half a year earlier than us," Priest Dean analyzed as he locked eyes with Mia, but he still sounded a little unconvinced.

"The most powerful of them is merely at the sixth grade of the Mortal Stage. There's no need to be afraid." An arrogant voice came about.

They all turned their heads, looking for who the owner of the voice was, only to replace that it came from Rocky who was dozing in the chair aside.

"You're good for nothing. Even with a few years more, you still can't reach the sixth grade of the Mortal Stage. Stop deceiving yourself and others," Priest Dean scoffed with cold eyes.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐