Shun Long turned his attention towards young lady Niu who was giving him an unfriendly look.
The cold look in her eyes nad the commanding tone in her voice made it obvious that she was not willing to compromise on this matter.
The Northern Sovereign snorted and looked at young lady Niu and senior Feng with a displeased look, before she turned her gaze back at Shun Long and said in that same warm voice as before
''Shun Long, we know that you have gotten your hands on the golden skeleton that was here previously. The truth is that this golden skeleton is a treasure much more important than you think. Keeping it on you will only make things more dangerous for you so it's indeed best to hand it over.
Of course, if you hand it over to me I will make sure to protect you. Not just you, but your Holy sect will also be under the protection of my Northern Sovereign's city from now on! What do you think?''
The Grand Elder and the experts around him were all stunned when they heard the Northern Sovereign's words.
It was one thing for the Holy sect to forge a good relationship with the Northern Sovereign thanks to Shun Long, and another thing to be under the protection of the Northern Sovereign's city.
If the Northern Sovereign truly decided to protect the Holy sect, then the powers that would be able to offend them -even throughout the entire central region as a whole- wouldn't be more than 20!
If the Holy sect had the protection of the Northern Sovereign previously, the young lady of the ancient Bai clan, Bai Liuxian, naturally wouldn't have dared to be so brazen as to go to the Holy sect and grab any disciples that she wanted.
Seeing that the Northern Sovereign had already made her move, young lady Niu sneered and shook her head, before she looked at Shun Long and said calmly
''Shun Long, since you are the one who got the golden skeleton, then naturally I wouldn't ask you to hand it over for free. How about this? As long as you hand over the skeleton to me, I will give you a million high-grade spirit stones in return. Additionally, your Holy sect will also be under the protection of my master from now on. I am sure you understand what this means.''
The Grand Elder and the surrounding experts all sucked in breaths of cold air when they heard young lady Niu's offer, while a burst of cold killing intent erupted from the Northern Sovereign's body.
Young lady Niu's offer was an insult to the Northern Sovereign, but young lady Niu didn't seem to mind in the slightest. As long as Shun Long chose to give the golden skeleton to her, young lady Niu was certain that the Northern Sovereign wouldn't be able to do anything.
Naturally, young lady Niu's confidence didn't stem from her own strength or the strength of senior Feng next to her, but from her master's own strength and reputation.
As long as Shun Long agreed to give the golden skeleton to her, then the Northern Sovereign wouldn't dare to do anything or it would be no different from offending 'old freak Gao' himself.
Additionally, young lady Niu's offer was much more appealing than the Northern Sovereign's.
1 million high-grade spirit stones wasn't a lot to someone like the Northern Sovereign or young lady Niu who had an extremely powerful background, but to most early-stage Sovereign realm experts, it was an amount that they would need a very long time to gather and wouldn't be able to toss it out so easily.
Even the Grand Elder of the Holy sect who was a peak rank 9 Dao Emperor only had a little more than 200.000 high-grade spirit stones in his possession previously, so one could guess how difficult it was for a single person to gather a million high-grade spirit stones.
Of course, none of those experts present here today doubted young lady Niu's words.
In fact, compared to the promise of her master protecting the Holy sect, one million high-grade spirit stones were truly nothing in comparison.
An expert like 'old freak Gao' truly stood at the peak of this world, and the number of experts who would dare to offend could be counted on the number of fingers in a person's hands.
Even the Northern Sovereign and her Northern Sovereign city were nothing in the eyes of someone like 'old freak Gao'!
Nodding his head, the red-haired Sovereign realm expert, senior Feng looked at Shun Long and said seriously
''Kid, you should think carefully before you make your choice.''
The experts around the Northern Sovereign, including the Grand Elder of the Holy sect himself, all remained silent as they watched this scene in front of them.
None of them knew what they would choose if they were in Shun Long's shoes.
In hindsight, choosing to hand over the golden skeleton to 'old freak Gao' was probably the better choice, but offending someone like the Northern Sovereign wasn't wise either.
No matter what he chose, Shun Long was bound to offend one of those 2 behemoths either way.
And yet, Shun Long didn't seem too flustered in the face of all of this.
Instead, he looked at senior Feng who was staring at him seriously, and without the slightest bit of shame on his face he said calmly
''Golden skeleton? Senior, I have no idea what you are talking about.''
It wasn't just senior Feng, but the Northern Sovereign and the other experts who stared at Shun Long in disbelief.
Was he really trying to deny that the golden skeleton was in his possession?
''Kid, don't play with me! Do you take me for a fool? There is no way for the skeleton to disappear from the palace all by itself. Since it's not in the Northern Sovereign's possession, it can only be in your hands! Hand it over or don't blame this old man for what's about to happen!''