Chapter 600 – Va.s.sal
Naturally, Zhao Hai knew that this mentality wouldn’t apply to these ice beasts. These ice beasts didn’t have souls from what he had seen. It was possible that they were puppets that don’t fear anything, thus not knowing about retreat.
Zhao Hai was most proficient with Dark Magic, and Dark Mages had inseparable relations.h.i.+p with souls.
Because of this, Zhao Hai was sensitive about any movements of souls. Although there were already a lot of dead ice beasts, Zhao Hai still didn’t feel any soul in the vicinity. This proved Zhao Hai’s speculation that these ice beasts were puppets.
But what made Zhao Hai feel strange was that these puppets didn’t have anyone giving them command. They seem to have been moving independently. This explained why they didn’t have any attack formation and were attacking by instinct alone, causing their movements to be very disorderly.
These ice beasts weren’t weak, if they had some kind of command, their strength would have been increased by about three times. In this case, the Diamond Apes won’t be able to block them anymore.
The hundred thousand ice beasts were slowly overwhelming the mountain, they seem to be aiming for the Diamond Apes. The trees on the surrounding were virtually untouched, all of them were going straight to the Diamond Ape city.
The stone golems didn’t have any problems in dealing with them, but some ice beasts had started to spill out and headed to the mountain city. This made the Diamond Apes start to act against the ice beasts.
In fact, Zhao Hai had the power to eliminate all of these ice beasts, but he wanted to look at the fighting strength of the Diamond Apes.
It didn’t take too long for the Diamond Apes to show Zhao Hai their fighting ability. The bodies of the Diamond Apes suddenly lit up with a yellow light that resembled golden armor. This made the Diamond Apes and their partners become golden armored soldiers. The wooden clubs on their hands also had a layer of golden light on it.
At this time, the ice beast were already upon the city. Then a scene that Zhao Hai didn’t expect happened. The ice beasts gathered together and then a white light flashed. When the white light vanished, a huge ice beast was seen outside the city. This ice beast was much taller than the stone golem. Then it roared and rushed to the wall.
When it was a few meters away from the wall, it suddenly jumped. This one jump along propelled it towards the wall.
However, at this time, two Diamond Apes made their move. Two bangs were heard as four fists. .h.i.t the head of the ice beast, causing its head to explode and the ice beast disintegrated after.
But that was not the end, the broken pieces of the ice beast suddenly became little ice beasts. Then those ice beasts rushed towards the other Diamond Apes.
The Diamond Apes seem to know about this property, so they didn’t go away after dealing with the giant ice beast. The Diamond Apes then started to clash with the ice beasts.
Zhao Hai discovered that these golden soldiers were extremely coordinated. The numbers of the ice beasts were simply useless in front of them.
Moreover, from what Zhao Hai had seen, the Diamond Apes seem to have developed a method to have their companion beasts work in total conjunction with their movements. There were no useless movements between the two of them, it was very flawless. This ability was very scary.
After seeing the Diamond Apes fight, Zhao Hai immediately casted a powerful fire element attack. Then an inferno appeared below the city wall. The ice beasts seemed to flinch. It seems like they fear fire.
When he saw this, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but nod. The weakness of the ice beasts were indeed fire element magic. However, Zhao Hai cannot use a larger attack magic than he had just used, otherwise, he would be burning the forest down.
While the Diamond Apes were focused on the fire, Zhao Hai immediately released a large number of undead in the forest and had them eliminate the ice beasts.
One of Zhao Hai’s undead can easily eradicate all of the ice beasts, but it would take some time, time which Zhao Hai didn’t have. He was currently thinking about how strange these ice beasts were. He had already mapped the entire southern area of the volcano and he couldn’t wait to unravel the mysteries of the northern part.
Moreover, Zhao Hai reckoned that Tess had already decided to follow him in leaving the icefield. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be waiting for him on the wall.
Because of the undead that Zhao Hai had released, no ice beasts were able to approach the wall and were eliminated in the forest. Because of this, the fight had reached a sudden conclusion. After a couple of moments, no ice beasts can be seen in sight.
This made Tess look strangely at the situation. There was no ice beasts present and Zhao Hai had also retrieved his stone golems. Aside from the traces of the fire magic, it was as though nothing had happened.
However, Tess felt puzzled, he remembered the number of ice beasts that has been killed and was sure that it was not enough. So why did the ice beasts stop coming? This was out of his expectations.
Tess had fought the ice beasts for the entirety of his life. So he was very familiar with the rate of each ice beast attack. Every single time these beasts attack, they would number no less than 100 thousand. When they fought with the ice beasts in the past, they would even need the support of the elderly and the women. So how could the current group of ice beasts be so little?
Zhao Hai looked at Tess expression as he faintly smiled and said, “Patriarch, no need to be worried, there are no ice beasts left.”
Upon hearing this, Tess couldn’t help but turn his head to stare at Zhao Hai. Then he immediately thought that since Zhao Hai was the first one to discover the ice beasts, then the reduction of ice beast numbers should be because of him.
Tess then sighed deeply as he nodded to Zhao Hai. Then he turned to his tribesmen and loudly said, “We’re good, everyone disperse!”
Although the Diamond Apes felt that it was strange, they still dispersed under Tess’ command. In the minds of a lot of people was the thought that this was the most relaxing fight they had been in their entire life.
Seeing that everyone has dispersed, Tess then arranged some people to guard the walls before he led Zhao Hai back to his house. After they had sat down, Tess looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Mister, we have reached an agreement. The elders all agreed. Starting today, our Diamond Ape tribe will forever be your followers!”
Zhao Hai cannot help but get stunned after hearing this. One must know that this statement carried heavy implications for the beastmen. The Diamond Apes basically stated that they would become Zhao Hai’s va.s.sals starting today. The meaning of va.s.sals for the Beastmen and Humans are different. For the Humans, va.s.sals would still have their own autonomy and independence. As long as they listen to their lord, then they would be fine by governing themselves. But Beastmen va.s.sals are a different matter. Beastman va.s.sals would forever respect and regard their master highly. Moreover, there weren’t much of an independence when it comes to their conditions. What they do and how they live would have to depend on what their lord wants. Therefore, when Tess expressed their decision, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but gawk.
Zhao Hai looked at Tess and said, “Patriarch, you need to think about it. If you become a va.s.sal to the Buda Clan, you would no longer have autonomy. I just need to remind you of this.”
Tess nodded and said, “We already considered it. I’ll be frank to Mister, these past few years, the 13 peaks had gotten more and more unstable. And we don’t know when they would erupt, but when they do, we would have nowhere to run to. Pa.s.sing back through the icefield towards the Prairie wasn’t something that we are able to do. And even if we managed to return, what would be do then? Our tribe has vanished for 5000 years, when we come back, we won’t know what we’ll do.”
Zhao Hai nodded, he understood what Tess was saying. Seeing Zhao Hai nod, Tess continued, “When you brought me to Iron Mountain Fort, I asked Ares about their situation. You did not lie, you truly do treat beastmen very well. I believe that if we come with you, we wouldn’t suffer any loss.”
Zhao Hai looked at Tess and then faintly smiled, “Alright, I’ll accept the Patriarch’s words. Patriarch, have your clansmen prepare. In a few days, I would deliver you to Iron Mountain Fort.”
Tess nodded, then he looked at Zhao Hai and said, “If Mister is worried about our living necessities, you don’t have to. Our Diamond Ape tribe can handle hards.h.i.+p. The continent would enter summer soon, it would be fine if we don’t have houses.”
Zhao Hai can feel their sense of urgency as he heard Tess’ words. He gave a smile and said, “Patriarch, just wait for a few days. Even if you don’t bring anything, you would still be fine.”
Zhao Hai didn’t lie to Tess, he had a lot of things in his hand. Ever since Wales promised him 100 thousand slaves, he had already ama.s.sed materials in order to accommodate them. Of all these things, Zhao Hai gave priority to the thing that Beastmen needed the most, tents.
Tess looked at Zhao Hai and nodded, from what he heard from Ares, Zhao Hai was a man of his word, he wouldn’t deceive them. “Alright, then we’ll trouble Mister. Also, isn’t Mister planning to retrieve the Beast G.o.d’s Spear as well?”
Zhao Hai nodded, “I would look for it certainly. But rest a.s.sured, I’ll deliver you to the wasteland first so that you can avoid any more attacks from the ice beasts. After I send you to the wasteland, I can then take my time in looking for the Divine Artifact. I can just return to the continent whenever I want so you don’t need to worry about my safety.”
Tess already experienced Zhao Hai’s s.p.a.ce Divergent Ability, so he didn’t doubt Zhao Hai’s words. He s.h.i.+fted the topic and asked, “We still have magic beasts in here. How would we deal with those?”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “That depends in how you want to handle it. If you want to raise magic beasts in the wasteland, then that won’t be a problem. But if you don’t want to raise this kind of magic beast, I can trade you some argali, bulls, or other beasts. We’ll decide on a fair price. What do you think?”
Tess thought for a moment and said, “We’re really not familiar with argali or bulls. We don’t have any knowledge on how to raise them. On the other hand, we’re quite used to raising these fire rabbits. Can we just raise them in the wasteland?”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “Of course, that’s not a problem. But fire rabbits don’t sell for much money. If you decide to raise argali, you can get some milk, wool, and skin for money. But since you don’t have any experience, I’ll give you some argali and bulls to practice on and try to raise them. If you decide to raise them and forgo the fire rabbits, you can approach me and we’ll do a fair trade.”
Tess felt very grateful to Zhao Hai as he said, “Mister, you’re really a good person. Our Diamond Ape tribe didn’t have prior relations.h.i.+p to you, but you still decided to greatly help us. Let me express my deepest thanks.”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “Patriarch doesn’t need to say anything. You joining my Buda Clan made our overall strength increase. It should be me who says thanks.”
Tess didn’t say anything. However, he knew that Zhao Hai was just saying this out of courtesy. Ares had told Tess about the Buda Clan’s present status in the continent. With the Buda Clan’s current strength, having the Diamond Ape tribe join them wouldn’t give them much of an improvement.
This fact made Tess more grateful to Zhao Hai. There was no doubt that Zhao Hai had helped them a lot but for little benefit to him. This fact made Tess feel very moved.
Seeing Zhao Hai like this, Tess felt that he had not followed the wrong person. It strengthened his determination even more. Zhao Hai looked at Tess’ expression and didn’t comment. It was just as Tess thought, with the current strength of the Buda Clan, he didn’t need the help of the Diamond Ape tribe.
Speaking of true fighting strength, Zhao Hai already had enough 9th ranks to overrun the entire continent. And to say about herding, he already had the s.p.a.ce to do it for him. The main reason why Zhao Hai helped the Diamond Apes were mainly because of sympathy and admiration.
He sympathizes with the situation of the Diamond Ape tribe, while he admired their resolve. After these many years, they still hadn’t given up in their quest to search for the Beast G.o.d’s Spear. To such a race, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but look highly upon them.