Chapter 117 – Walking out
"It should be about time I took a trip to this Han Mountain City." This clear morning Su Ming awoke from his rest, his heart still burdened with last night"s indecision also he had already made his choice.
After checking the pills he had on him, Su Ming look one last look at this cave he was in. This was were he had been living in the past two years, yet he was probably never going to come back, this place which had become so homely to him and a great place to cultivate.
"Of the information I obtained from Fang Mu, about ninety percent should be the truth so I still had to personally verify some things, things such as the Pu Qiang Tribe. Also…… this Han Mountain City is the only way to the Frigid Sky Chiefdom, whats more they might even have a map to the western region." Su Ming"s eyes flashed as he walked out the cave, standing by its entrance basking in the winds of the monsoon season he first experience two years prior.
Feeling for the damaged pouch in his robes, he was relieved that it had not deteriorated any further and the s.p.a.ce within had not fragmented any more.
Other than containing the large amount of pills he had refined, there were also various animal hide and parts which he hunted in the past two years. From Fang Mu, he had learnt that the tribes in this southern region were slightly different from those of his western alliance, although they too had demand for herbs, but they demanded the parts of wild beasts even more.
For example, the first time he encountered Fang Mu, they were hunting a python for its poisonous bile and bones which they used to make medicine.
Fully prepared, Su Ming"s body disappeared in a flash as he headed straight into the rainforest.
When nightfall approached, at the edge of the rainforest, for the first time Su Ming walked out in a sky blue robe, his black hair dancing in the rain as he faced stood in front of a vast gra.s.sland.
With his head lowered, Su Ming retracted his gaze as he walked into the plains with not another shadow in sight. In reality, this rainforest was a place where few people visited and when they came it would be to hunt for resources to make medicine.
The moon hung high as the moonlight fell upon the land, Su Ming silently advanced like a streaking rainbow, only this rainbow stuck close to the ground as it flashed onward.
Fang Mu mentioned that it would take about ten days of travelling, and Su Ming had long since found out the direction to the Han Mountain City from Fang Mu as well as details of the place.
"It was a chaotic city controlled by three different tribes, and due to its central location had many powerful individuals…… these three tribes also exuberantly invited many of those people as guests to their tribe, buying them over with gifts." Su Ming"s eyes flashed as his pace continued to increase.
In the southern lands, mountains dominated the lands as a tens of thousands of hills covered the vast lands, saying the mountains dominated the lands here was truly no exaggeration.
Each and every tribe was built around a mountain completely unlike the tribes in the western alliance.
Due to the sheer quant.i.ty of tribes in the southern regions, there were numerous different Mán-Techniques, and the number of powerful Mán-Cultivators was truly not few. Adding on the existence of the Frigid Sky Chiefdom, as well as the Frigid Sky Sect established by the elites of the region, this laid a st.u.r.dy foundation for cultivation.
The Frigid Sky Sect was a sect which controlled the Frigid Sky Chiefdom, and was not a Tribe but a genuine sect! A sect for Mán-Cultivators. As long as the Mán-cultivator was from the southern region, regardless of which tribe they were from, as long as they pa.s.sed the Frigid Sky Sect"s tests, they could enter the sect.
This Frigid Sky Sect was very famous in this southern region, there were many rumours of it being formed six thousand years ago when the Mán-Elder of the Frigid Sky Tribe with the help of people of the outer realm, as time pa.s.sed the medium sized Frigid Sky Tribe eventually grew into one of the two large tribes of the south and then into the Frigid Sky Chiefdom of today.
The Frigid Sky which contains ten thousand Mán-Cultivators!
They were the first in the south to shatter the restrictions of tribes, the first group which released Mán-Techniques to the rest so that those who were qualified could become elites and supplement the region.
It can be said that the Frigid Sky Chiefdom becoming the leader of the region could be attributed to its close relationship with the Frigid Sky Sect. There were also rumours that the mysterious cultivation techniques and Mán-Tribe all came from the outer lands.
Rumours also said that in the outer lands, there were no tribes, only sects.
Following the Frigid Sky Sect"s success, in the following thousands of years it set off a wave of sects in the southern region, where a large number of tribes congregated by the border of the eastern region to create the Eastern Oceans Sect resulting in friction between the two.
Similarly other than the small sized tribes, several relatively powerful medium sized tribes set up several other tribal sects.
Only these kind of sects were really still lead by the original Mán-Elder, and were unable to fully open up to others thus only releasing a portion of the Mán-Techniques in hopes of attracting some stronger Mán-Cultivators to bolster their strengths, these groups were formed by mutual benefit and remained guarded against each other.
These matters were told to Su Ming in the past half year from Fang Mu. Even though he was from the western alliance, he spent his life in the vicinity of the Wu Mountains and so his understanding of the western alliance as a whole is actually inferior to his current understanding of the southern region,
The Han Mountain City was established in this kind of a condition and definitely existed for over two thousand years, yet the Pu Qiang, Yan Chi and An Dong tribes have only been around for four hundred or so years.
Su Ming once heard from Fang Mu, that in his tribe"s records, Han Mountain City was controlled by a single powerful medium sized tribe which after its decline was completely eradicated by the current three tribes who then took over control of Han Mountain City.
The reason for their take over was as the ones who controlled the city, would have the qualifications to contact the Frigid Sky Sect also those who controlled the city would be the overlords of the region, enjoying privileges which even Fang Mu did not know about.
Only, those three tribes strength did not differ much and they were thus unable to once more fight for a final victor. Thus to avoid further strife the Han Mountain City deliberately divided control of the tribe among the three of them.
But they did not control the city as tribes, rather as three separate sects.
The information Fang Mu told Su Ming floated in his mind, a few days later he stood on a mountain, a single foot resting on the mountain peak as he watched the evening glow cover the evening lands as a tall mountain stood in the distance.
The mountain was devoid of vegetation, rather there was a majestic city of stone standing atop it, the Feng Zheng Tribe"s stone city greatly waning in comparison to this, this the largest city Su Ming had ever seen.
Standing on his mountain peak, he gazed at the city for a long time before taking a deep breath as his eyes shone. He faintly thought of how it must feel for grandpa to leave the Wu Mountains and travel the world, only after seeing more things, only after seeing the world can one truly be considered grown up.
Otherwise what matured would only be the body and not the mind.
Without immediately heading onwards, Su Ming stood amid the whistling storm before sitting down as his long hair fluttered in the wind. Where he was he could feel the numerous NightWing souls turn restless. Sitting cross legged he shut his eyes before quickly opening them up again, in this instant the blood moon appeared in his eyes.
The NightWings were formless and invisible to others, but to Su Ming the scene before him underwent a huge transformation!
He could see that on the mountain city were three different groups of qi floating about.
The colours of these mists were red, black and white!
Similarly, outside the Han Mountain City were three mountains surrounding it. On the peaks of these three mountains were these three colours of mist respectively, a terrifying sight to behold.
On the far left of the mountain city was a red mist, and within the red mist was the face of a girl, emanating a chilly feeling which when gazed at made one"s heart tremble.
To the right of the city is a mountain, beyond which is shrouded by white fog. a celestial sight to behold subsequently – at times it radiates a murderous intent. Within this white mist was the figure of a large white scorpion, and on its tail was what seemed to be a single black bell.
On the last mountain peak towards the back of the city, a black qi surrounded it shrouding it in a deathly aura, within the grim mist sat a single black skeleton.
"Black mist should be affiliated with the Pu Qiang Tribe, the red mist should be related to the Yan Chi Tribe and the last white mist should belong to the An Dong Tribe!" Su Ming murmured as the blood moon faded from his eyes.
(TLN: I never really translated the names of the tribes before but as this might be relevant:
(Pu Qiang) 普羌 is roughly something like Dusk Nomads as Pu(普) would be best interpreted here as dusk while Qiang is a nomadic tribe in China,
(Yan Chi) 颜池 is something like Dignified Lake (not too sure about this one),
(An Dong) 安东is literally Safe East, or possibly can be interpreted as eastern sanctuary or something like that
Also would you guys prefer these tribe/sect names translated (Dusk Nomads, Dignified Lake, Eastern Sanctuary) or not (Pu Qiang, Yan Chi, An Dong))
Although the mountains are said to surround the Han Mountain City, they were actually several days walk away for normal civilians.
There were also three iron chains linking the mountains to the peak of the Han Mountain City, below the meeting point of these chains was a deep abyss, unless you were at the awakened realm, falling in would be certain death.
(TLN: Awakened realm → Can fly out)
These three chains were extremely high up and shook along with the wind.
In the distance, these chains which connect with the three different tribes seemed to extend even further, only it was obscured by mist and could not be seen.
"These three tribe"s enveloping the Han Mountain City with their auras, is obviously them trying to exert their dominance and deter each other while at the same time attracting the elites to them." Su Ming"s eyes flashed as he stared at the mountain with black mist emanating from it behind the Han Mountain City, there was where the Pu Qiang Tribe was located.