Armipotent

After the declaration, Chief Hulgem threw the blade to the ground and raised his hammer. He did not try to launch a surprise attack on the invader, but he wanted to destroy the blade before the fight. Before he could swing the hammer, he saw the shadow hovering from above.

Chief Hulgem realized he was done for. He might have the time to get away or even block the incoming assault. However, his hammer was above his head, ready to swing toward the blade. Even if he tried to change the swing direction, the power behind his swing would be reduced.

'Ah, right. They toss such a high-quality Artifact to me, that means they are confident to take it back from me as well.'

The bone-crunching noise rang in the air as Chief Hulgem's elbow bent to the side it was not supposed to. Blood poured down from the elbow as the white bone was exposed. The Chief groaned in pain, losing his grip on the hammer. Then he felt the hand reach his neck, raising into the air. His short feet flailed in the air, and he also lost his grip on the heavy blade.

The other Dwarves then reacted. They did not see the invader coming for the Chief. In fact, the other Dwarves did not expect their chief to try to destroy the Artifact. The other Dwarves were about to jump to save their chief, but a firewall rose from the ground, separating them from their chief.

The Dwarves exchanged glances, panicking about their current situation. Before they could decide what to do, they noticed they were inside a cage made of lightning. They were trapped with nowhere to go. One of the Epic Rank Dwarf tried to destroy the lightning cage, but the lightning zapped him in return, sending him flying.

The sky suddenly turned dark, and The Dwarves looked up to the sky where the dark cloud gathered right above them. The spark of lightning could be seen beyond the dark lightning. They were doomed if the lightning struck them down. There was nowhere to go because they were trapped inside the lightning cage.

Tang Shaoyang raised his hand, signaling Rosalie and Zowen to stop the attack on the Dwarves. The flame wall dissipated, but the Dwarves were still trapped in the lightning cage. He threw the Chief Dwarf to the front of the lightning cage before retrieving the Titan Blade.

Rosalie then approached the Chief Dwarf. Despite the acute pain he felt, Chief Hulgem remained unyielding, "Just kill me! Kill ME" He yelled at Rosalie.

"That will be easy. But it will be a waste of time for us to return empty-handed." Rosalie shook her head, looking down at the Chief Dwarf with an emotionless expression, "I will make it easy and quick for you. Since you can't give what we request, we have to change the condition. We want your expertise. The Tang Empire wants your expertise. Work for us."

"I will never lead my people to be slaves ever again!" Chief Hulgem replied with no hesitation. He and his people broke from the System's chain. They survived and slowly obtained back what they were capable of. He would not lead his people to another misery. "Just kill me! Kill me!"

Rosalie frowned, recalling her wordings. She did not mention anything about slavery but jobs, offering them to work for the empire. Thinking a little longer, she realized the chief misunderstood her words because of Tang Shaoyang. Tang Shaoyang offered to be his slave or be killed, so when she mentioned working for the empire. Chief Hulgem thought it was to be a slave.

"I never asked you to be the slave of the empire but a work. A real work, taking part in the development of the empire. Become one of the empire's people, not as a slave." Rosalie shook her head, explaining carefully to make sure the dwarves understood her. "He threatened you because he did not want the pointless fight. He thought you would give up if your lives were threatened and told you guys about this work."

Chief Hulgem furrowed thick brows, glancing toward the man who broke his elbow. He did not trust the woman, let alone the man. His fear was that these people tried to deceive him and his people.

Rosalie let out a sigh, "If we know you guys are dwarves, we will not kill the guards at the foot of the mountain. Our empire is also a house of dwarves, so he does not want to kill you guys. If we want to take you as a slave, we can just kill you all here and take all the remaining dwarves inside to be our slaves. There's no need for us to waste our time with you and your trusted people. There must be a lot of dwarves who want to replace your position as a Chief."

Chief Hulgem's mouth clamped shut, and thought carefully about what the red-haired woman just told him. Everything that the woman said made sense, but it was still hard to trust these people he just met. The people who killed his people. Even though he could not refute that they killed his guards in self-defense.

Tang Shaoyang canceled the integration and stored his weapon in his inventory as the talk went smoothly. He approached Chief Hulgem and opened the member list of his faction. All the people who joined his empire had to sign the contract and join the faction officially, including the Dwarves and Elves. He just needed to show the member list of his faction because it showed the race too.

"This should be enough to convince you that Dwarves are part of the empire," Tang Shaoyang made a list to appear so the Dwarves could see it. There were over a thousand Dwarves on the list.

Chief Hulgem was convinced with the list and looked up at the man. The list could not be faked, and he realized the man in front of him was the big shot, the biggest big shot in this group, and also the empire, The Emperor. At the same time, he felt relieved as his shoulder drooped down, and let himself fall on his back, looking up to the clear sky.

Even though the mountain looked foggy from the outside. It did not block the view from the inside. It was the tool his people made to hide from the monster outside.

"Then let's talk about the treatment of our people if we become part of your empire."