Last chapter recap: The Freedom Alliance reaches the dragon nest.
This chapter has been brought to you by me, and WanderingGummiOfDoom.
V01-S17-C03
Chapter Three – You are the One!
Death Ridge was always shrouded in the shadows. Even in the afternoon, the sun could not dissipate the layer of mist in this mountain valley. The gusts of wind howled as they blew past the mouth of the valley.
Aofeng and the others used the mist to ride more than twenty sacred beasts into the giant dragon nest"s valley. That terrifying lineup caused the surrounding spirit beasts to retreat in terror.
They successfully found the Komodo Dragon"s nest which was located in a wide little mountain valley. Flowers and gra.s.ses covered the ground in springtime, and there was a clear and vast lake at the center. The scenery of the valley was exceptionally beautiful. In the distance, the scenery behind the mist was unclear but the sound of fighting carried from the opposite sh.o.r.e of the lake. The fighting over there clearly had not finished yet.
With the sound of feathers in the wind, the Snow-Feathered Owl, who was extremely skilled at hiding, flew back and reported, “Master, the Komodo Dragons are going to be defeated soon. They are strong, but they are few. Including the Komodo Dragon King, there is only eleven of them. The human lineup is similarly powerful, they have several sacred beasts and two divine beast. Multiple celestial magister experts have trapped the Komodo Dragon King. I"m afraid the fighting will end soon.”
Aofeng thought for a moment and then ordered, “Your Excellency Mo Nan, and the magisters will come with me. Everyone else, stay at the mouth of the valley. Aohai, you will stay behind as well. We may encounter high ranking magic beasts here. I"m leaving the group into your care.”
Qin Aohai was a member of the four great families. His presence would increase awkwardness, and Aofeng did not want to tarnish him.
“Alright, I understand.” Qin Aohai could feel Aofeng"s good intentions. He smiled gently at her. “Even if the opponent is the Qin Family, I will stand on your side, especially now when I dislike that Lan Cheng. However, you can be slightly merciful to the members of our family. The four families are looking out for their own, but they were dragged by Lan Xun onto his side. If they encounter great trouble, no one would help the Lan Family at the detriment of themselves.”
The Lan Family and the other three families only agreed on the ownership of the dragon egg. The four families weren"t stupid, who would help the Lan Family without reason?
Aofeng nodded and said, “His Excellency Qin Jian is Uncle"s friend. I will not make it difficult for him. Also, we aren"t going there to kill people.”
“Haha, Grand Commander, you will not kill people, but this is more vicious than killing them!” Liu Dong laughed, holding his belly.
After these days, the group mostly learned Aofeng"s personality. Their young grand commander was full of authority at times, appearing cold and hard to interact with. But after a long period of contact, they found that Aofeng was not so emotionless. Aofeng would plan while with consideration of others. Many people received Aofeng"s care. Even if they joke on Aofeng"s behalf, the youth would not get angry.
Adding on Aofeng"s outstanding leadership ability, the alliance members developed a fondness for this powerful youth.
Lei Yufeng, standing next to Aofeng, reminded Aofeng, “Aofeng, if you go there like this, they will recognize you.”
“Don"t worry, I"ve prepared.” Aofeng winked at him confidently. She put away her black robe, and took out the snowy white robes of a priest from her spatial ring. She then pulled her hair up into a tall ponytail and put on a pitch-black mask she had made in the last few days. Her entire face was covered with only her eyes exposed. She appeared eerie.
“We cannot recognize Grand Commander like this. If we didn"t know, we"d think you were a ghost.” Lian Ya and the others laughed in amus.e.m.e.nt at the new appearance. Only Lei Yufeng was still savoring Aofeng winking at him. He felt unspeakably pleased at Aofeng showing him unique expressions.
“Have you laughed enough? Let"s go!” Aofeng rolled her eyes at these people laughing at her. She waved her hand, and shouted. More than twenty sacred beasts lined up in a row and charged out!
The fighting was raging on the other side of the lake.
The Komodo Dragons were engaged in fierce combat with the sacred beasts of the human magisters. The four great magister families were clearly defined with three sacred beasts in each camp. Adding on Lan Xun"s divine beast, the Soaring Crab, the sacred beasts surrounded the ten Komodo Dragons in a circle and attacked wildly.
The other sacred beasts were just to hold back the Komodo Dragons. Only the Soaring Crab could injure the Komodo Dragons. Its two crimson red pincers were extremely sharp. It stared with its small beady eyes at the Komodo Dragon. If there was an opening, it would burrow in. With each attack, the enormous pincers would bring about a rain of blood.
These sacred beasts were the ones that Lan Xun had promised each family to tame for them in these ten days after entering Death Ridge. Due to this, all of the celestial magisters, including Qin Jian, had sworn an oath that the dragon egg belonged to the Lan Family. While Lan Xun hurt at the loss of the sacred beasts, these were insignificant compared to the dragon egg.
“Your Excellency Lan Xun, this group of Komodo Dragons are mostly high star-level magus beast, and there is also a five-star divine beast. This is much better than the magic beast you helped the other families tame previously. Our luck is very good. The other three families envy us.” Lan Cheng watched as the komodo dragons fall one by one. The Komodo Dragon King was wailing grievously under the celestial magic techniques, faltering. He was full of excitement.
Lan Xun was driving another divine beast, a Gra.s.s-Tailed phoenix with the phoenix bloodline, to attack the Komodo Dragon King. Hearing this, he was extremely flattered and said smugly. “They were too impatient. Who told them to use all of their chances at taming right after entering Death Ridge? This group of Komodo Dragons is fated to belong to the Lan Family, no one can steal them!”
“Originally, I was worried our family will not get even one sacred beast. Now they come to us. It seems that even the Heavens is helping us. Ten high star-level sacred beasts and one divine beast. This has never occurred before in the history of our family. When we return to our family, our status will rise a great detail.” Overwhelmed by the joy of getting a group of sacred beasts and one divine beast, he was full of pride as he imagined the glory and rewards he could get.
“Let"s discuss this after returning to the family. Be careful, this is Death Ridge. It will be terrible if an accident occurs.” Lan Xun shook his head and remined. He felt helpless at Lan Cheng"s fickle and impatient personality.
“How could there be any accidents. This is the nest of the Komodo Dragons, other magic beasts rarely come here. Also, the families are working together. Even if one or two sacred beasts and divine beasts come, we don"t need to worry. I don"t think that a dozen of them would come.” Lan Cheng waved his hand carelessly as he laughed and spoke.
Before he finished laughing, a burst of chaos and shouts came from the squad ebelow.
The shouts attracted the attention of the experts who were fighting. They paused in their movements, wanting to turn their heads and see what was happening. When they looked, their eyes almost popped out of their heads, their eyes filling with unparalleled terror!
In the direction of the valley entrance, on top of the mist-shrouded lake, large figures were charging, arranged into a long row. From far away, three waves of gerat pressure rose and covered the presence of the Soaring Crab and Gra.s.s-Tailed Phoenix. The presences stunned the humans" weak minds like lightning and thunder.
The presence of divine beasts, a herd of sacred beasts!
As people from the four magister families, the majority of people were knowledgeable and quickly recognized what those terrifying figures coming at them were. Their faces paled and they yelled.
“What is going on, where did this herd of sacred beasts come from?”
“And three divine beasts! We are done for, done! I don"t want to die yet!”
The ten sacred beasts level Komodo Dragons were within their ability to manage, but twenty to thirty coming in together, who could withstand them? Did you not know the Kaya Dragonriders were called unstoppable? Among the sacred beast herd, there were also three divine beasts leading the way. Even His Excellency Lan Xun"s divine beast did not have the upper hand. This was a death sentence for most people! Other than the celestial magister that could flee by flying away, all others would become targets to be slaughtered!
Lan Xun almost wanted to choke Lan Cheng to death and tear apart his unfortunate mouth.
Why did you have to say a herd of sacred beasts? Now a herd of sacred beast actually came, and three divine beasts as well for free. Are you satisfied? You jinxed this!
Lan Cheng almost fainted, his eyes wide. His hand tightly covered his mouth, his eyes popping. He swore he would never make jokes again. Once jokes became reality, they were not funny!
“Defense! Quick! Retreat and defend!”
The people from the four families were stunned by the appearance of the group of sacred beasts. Finally, a celestial magister dressed in blue robes shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone who had been fighting gave up on their fight, flying out of the circle and organizing the troops of their own families to retreat. Even Lan Xun and Lan Cheng ignored the group of Komodo Dragons and Komodo Dragon King about to be defeated and first fled for their lives.
As they retreated, Lan Xun felt as though his heart was dripping blood. Ten high star-level sacred beasts and one five-star divine beast! The meat that had reached their mouth was lost!
“Our sacred beasts and divine beast!” Lan Cheng wiped his tears and cried.
“Ignore that. As long as the green mountain remains, we don"t have to worry about wood to burn. As long as the people are fine, even if we are not rewarded, we won"t be punished.” After they formed a defensive formation, they retreated. But this was already the innermost part of the valley. There was no way to retreat more.
That group of sacred beasts stopped a long distance away and did not attack them. The members of the four families saw the scene and sighed in relief.
Lan Xun patted his chest with teror and said, “Lucky that we left behind that group of Komodo Dragons. Those sacred beasts may not attack us with the Komodo Dragons as food. We are a strong group. If they attack us, they will pay a great price. This is loss and gain … …”
Before he finished saying his words of comfort to himself, the look of relief on Lan Xun"s face froze.
Not just him, everyone around him turned to stone at the same time.
Because from far away, that group of sacred beasts surrounded and subdued the Komodo Dragons and the Komodo Dragon King. But what followed was a human dressed in white priest robes that flew out of that group of sacred beasts!
Not a magic beast, a human! A human was in control, what did this mean?
This this this … … this was naked robbery!
When Lan Xun thought of this, his nose almost flew off as his anger rose. He shot forward, and flew opposite that group of sacred beasts. He shouted angrily, “What factions are you “friends” from? Why have you disrupted us at the crucial moment of our Komodo Dragon hunt? You want to make life difficult for the four families?”
Seeing that it was humans, this was much easy to do. The sacred beasts did not care about the four great magister families, but humans, most of those that walked the continent feared the four great magister families. Especially when the four great magister families moved together, their authority could match the Radiance Continent which ruled over the beliefs of the continent.
The other celestial magisters also flew back. Everyone was displeased at such a mistake. The Liang, Xiao and Qin Family each had a celestial magister, the Lan Family had Lan Xun and Lan Cheng. The five celestial magister gazed at the white-robed person standing in the wind, and speculated to his ident.i.ty.
“The Lan Family?” The white-robed person wore an extremely strange mask. He gave off a cold presence, and a wave of disdainful hoa.r.s.e laughter came from underneath the mask. The person said coldly, “We want to steal from the Lan Family!”
The celestial magister stilled, gaping. Hearing this person"s tone, they seemed to know their ident.i.ties, and came over to interfere!
Lan Xun had never been angered like this in his life. His finger trembled as he pointed and said angrily, “You dare challenge the Lan Family so!”
“What about the Lan Family? Our Grand Commander is correct. We are stealing from you. What, you don"t accept it? When your eyes were growing on top of your heads, why didn"t you bend down and take a look!” Clear laughter came from the rear and the sacred beasts made a path. The sword master Mo Nan and Lei Yufeng flew out, pulling an enormous being. It was the weakened Komodo Dragon King. This magic beast was completely subdued right now.
“It"s you?” Lan Xun saw Mo Nan, Lei Yufeng, and the group of adventurers among the herd of sacred beasts looking at him with disdainful eyes. His eyes grew wider.
“This is impossible! How can rabble like you have so many sacred beast!” Lan Cheng couldn"t help but shout.
The celestial magister could see that this many sacred beasts couldn"t belong to one person. So then it could only be these adventurers. However, a week ago, they were so poor some couldn"t even afford spirit beasts. In just a short week, they had become wealthy! This was so fantastical!
“I know that you are the Lan Family"s master beast tamer, but that is nothing great.” Aofeng, wearing the mask, lowered her voice. Her black eyes stared at Lan Family as she gave a proud laugh. “People who only look down on others. You"re the only one that can tame beasts? I will tame this little dragon to show you!”
Translator Ramblings: I"m never sure if I should tone down the “arrogance” in the dialogue or magnify it. Maybe I should look into using italics to emphasize the plural and the tone. IE “well, our Lan family will not …”