"Here, you know the prices and I leave all the managing to you. It's your wish on how many servants you want to hire and how much salary you will give them. I'm allotting a maximum of 500 gold coins for the salaries.

As for Meng Tao, he is already hired as the assistant manager and his salary is percentage basis just like you. It's just that you will get 2% and he will get 1%. Depending on the earnings and the sales, you might get a bonus or a salary hike.

The most important rule you will have to remember is that you have to sell it from the store just like how we do here. I will you the best of luck in your new journey, Chang Bo.

Meng Tao, I hope you too will do your job without disappointing me."

After reminding him what he needed to know, Mark gave a send-off to Chang Bo and Meng Tao.

As a result, Allen returned to his original job, although there won't be any customers for a while for the android to sell the weapons.

A couple of days later;

The preparations for the coronation ceremony of Western Yan's new king are going in full swing.

The kings of the Eastern Sun and Western Moon have already confirmed their participation. On that day, they will gift the new king with their formal acknowledgment.

As for the other empires in the continent, Qilin Empire and Kun Empire outrightly rejected the invitation as they don't want to become the enemies of the Phoenix Empire.

The Dwarven kingdom cannot interfere in the matters of the humans. So, the dwarves will also be absent.

The Leon Empire, on the other hand, neither rejected nor accepted. The Emperor of the Shi dynasty decided to wait until the Phoenix Empire finally acts.

Depending on the result, they will change their stance.

But spiritually, the Emperor was on the side of the Western Yan as it would lessen the strength of the Southern Empire.

And the main player, Shang Fu, gathered his three current generals, two retired generals of which one of them was reinstated as the stand-in for the northern army, sect leaders and their elders, Elite Adventure teams from various guilds, and finally, the three supreme realm experts (including Lan Ju aka Wu Weibao).

While the army was slowly marching to the west, the three supreme realm experts flew at their respective paces and reached their destination in different time intervals.

Lan Ju was the first to arrive there and he didn't attack the soldiers on the front line. Instead, he zoomed past them and put up act with the gold dragon in the skies by the time the remaining two caught up with him after they casually attacked the enemy soldiers standing in their way.

As a result, Western Yan lost a couple of LARS systems, seven rank-5 robots, more than twenty rank-3 robots and robot dogs, and roughly about 120 foot soldiers.

Song Tai and Huang Ming reached Lan Ju who appeared to be on a stalemate with the dragon.

As they were about to support him to slay the beast emperor, the zheng first warned them not to interfere in his battle and further reminded them to go on their way in order to fulfill their respective missions.

According to what they have discussed earlier, Wu Weibao (Lan Ju) will handle the gold dragon while the remaining two supremes will take of Feng Wu, his guardian, and his contracted demon (if exist).

Following the plan, Huang Ming and Song Tai left the gold dragon and flew toward the palace.

Surprisingly, no guard stood outside of the palace to even block their way. Adding on top of that, their senses cannot penetrate the building.

The two experts assumed that it is probably done by the so-called Feng Wu's demon and further concluded that Feng Wu's soldiers were hiding in the palace to ambush them.

However, with the two of them working together, they felt only a demigod has the power to defeat them. Hence, they confidently barged into the palace without caring whether there are traps or not.

It was there they received another shock. The whole palace was empty. No soldiers were hiding. No maids, no Feng Wu, and no hostages either. Instead, they could only sense one presence.

Huang Ming and Song Tai looked at each other and meaningfully nodded before going on their way to the courtroom, where they saw a handsome youth sitting on the throne and welcoming them with a smile.

"Hello there, my human friend said I should be courteous with the both of you. He asked me to give you a choice, especially for you, Mr. Song. So, here it is." Demon King Bael put forth an option before Song Tai as Mark thought that Song Yue would feel sad if her ancestor dies in the war. "Surrender yourself and become our prisoner or be punished along with your companion. What will be your decision?"

Song Tai furrowed his brows in displeasure. "We knew about you from the start and we are here to kill you, demon."

The demon king lets out a fake sigh and commented, "Each to their own decision. Nothing can be done about it."

He stood up from the throne and his two opponents went into their battle stance.

It was then Bael raised his hand and snapped his fingers with a smile on his face. The surroundings changed immediately to that of an endless barren land without anything else.

The eyes of Song Tai and Huang Ming widened in great shock as they looked around.

"An illusion?" Song Tai wondered out loud.

Huang Ming shook his head in extreme seriousness, "This isn't an illusion, Brother Song Tai. This is called the domain."

"Domain?" Song Tai's heart skipped a beat for a second and abruptly turned his head to look at his comrade. "A demigod?"

As Huang Ming nodded seriously, Song Tai didn't hesitate to take out a Bo staff from his storage ring and shocked his teammate as well as their enemy at the same time.

"A divine-grade weapon?" Huang Ming and Demon King Bael sounded at the same time.

Placing the Bo staff with a golden ring around its center firmly on the ground, Song Tai spoke, "You underestimated the Phoenix Empire's imperial family. They might not have a strong expert within the army but there is a reason why the Shang Dynasty has been successfully ruling this southern empire for more than 1780 years.

Earlier, you gave me the option to choose. Now, I will give you a choice. Return to your underworld and sever your con Ugh"

Before he finished his warning, all of a sudden, a sharp pointy energy broad blade erupted from the ground and pierced Song Tai's body at an unimaginable speed.

Upon piercing his body, the energy blade transformed into demonic energy and invaded his body, paralyzing him.

*Thud*

The bo staff fell to the ground and Song Tai was frozen like a statue before falling onto his back.

Looking down at Song Tai, the demon king snorted, "Hmpf, a fool talking nonsense in the middle of a battle. You are the one who underestimated me. You should actually be thankful that my friend doesn't want you dead."

Meanwhile, Huang Ming rushed toward Song Tai in a flash and grabbed the Bo staff, and spoke to the weapon while creating an ether energy barrier around himself, "I don't know your name but please grant us your strength. I request you to allow me to wield you for a while."

The Bo staff glowed for a second and became lighter. At the same time, a divine energy shield was formed over him.

"Thank you."

Huang Ming didn't waste in speaking dialogues and charged forward with the Bo staff.

Bael looked untroubled. He calmly stared at the opponent as the latter reached him and swung down the Bo staff.

Bael ducked in a timely manner and raised his right hand. Lightning bursts out of his palm in the form of a concentrated beam of energy and struck the divine shield.

The shield couldn't block Bael's attack and the lightning beam broke through his defenses, making a hole out of his chest in the middle.

Bael fell onto his right knee. Clenching his fist, he tried to heal his wound by using ether energy but for some reason, the hole wasn't closed and the blood continued to pour down.

*Pfft*

The demon king broke out into laughter, "Did you forget that you are in my domain? Here, I set the rules. And one of my three rules bans the healing altogether. Hahahaha."

Huang Ming could only raise his head and look at the laughing demon in deep hatred.