Su Gu’s mood was quite complicated after he realized that he had enslaved a turtle.
A team of patrol slaves was pa.s.sing by and Su Gu quickly threw the turtle, which was enslaved just now, into the water. He didn’t want anyone to know that the object of his first successful enslavement was a turtle. If his two brothers learn about this matter, then it would be known by everyone and he would turn into a laughing stock.
Still, Su Gu was happy that he finally succeeded in enslaving.
After leaving the pool, Su Gu returned to his chamber immediately. Without taking a break, he continued to practice enslavement. He did not experiment on human beings when practicing secretly as he was not capable of enslaving humans at the moment. Moreover, he was afraid of being discovered by others if he failed in enslaving humans too many times.
After practicing alone for a while, Su Gu felt bored. He ordered the slaves, waiting upon him, to send a live scorpion to his chamber and then tried to enslave it secretly. He failed to enslave the scorpion and it died. Although its body didn’t become abnormal nor receive any wound, it died just like those humans, who died in most cases, when the slave master failed in enslaving them.
Su Gu was disappointed by the failure, but he cheered up soon. After all, he had succeeded once.
After a day of recuperation, Su Gu came to the pool where his father raised turtles, again.
There were five look alike turtles laying on the side of the pool. Su Gu could never recognize the appearance of turtles before, but at the moment, he felt that the turtle he succeeded in enslaving yesterday was not among these five turtles.
After a while, Su Gu saw a black turtle crawl out of the water. It was bigger and darker than the other ones.
When the turtle climbed out, all the five turtles which had been laying on the side of the pool quickly crawled back into the water. It seemed like the five turtles were extremely afraid of this bigger turtle.
*It’s exactly this one!*
Su Gu leaned forward and carefully observed the turtle which he had successfully enslaved yesterday. He knew that, “enslaved” slaves were a lot stronger than ordinary slaves. Unexpectedly, this appeared to be the case even for animals.
The changes looked so obvious just after one day of enslavement!
*I’m not a loser!* Su Gu forgot about the embarra.s.sment of enslaving a turtle, and felt quite satisfied.
This turtle did not only grow larger, but was also full of spirit. Moreover, because it was successfully enslaved by him, it was quite obedient and did not try to bite Su Gu when he picked it up.
After the initial excitement, Su Gu finally calmed down. He won’t let others know about such changes. What’s more, he would never reveal to his two brothers that he had succeeded in enslaving. Being weaker than his two brothers, Su Gu felt the need to be extremely cautious before he became strong enough.
As for the turtle, Su Gu thought others would find it abnormal if the turtle suddenly grew larger within a few days.
Thinking about it, Su Gu went to look for his father and request a turtle for partaking.
The disgruntled Fallen Leaves Lord agreed after rebuking Su Gu.
Su Gu placed the turtle within a hide bag and brought it back to his chamber. With no place to raise the turtle, Su Gu cooked it, and then took the pot of turtle meat to the tribal area for Shao Xuan and the others.
“This is for you guys.” said Su Gu, placing the pot on the stone table.
Smelling the broth, Lei and Tuo couldn’t help but fill their bowls with food. Noticing that Su Gu wished to discuss something privately with Shao Xuan, Lei and Tuo went out with their bowls.
Smelling the aroma from the pot, Shao Xuan asked, “What’s this?”
With no other person present, Su Gu told Shao Xuan proudly, “My slave!”
Shao Xuan, “…” *He cooked a human being?!*
Looking at the pot, Shao Xuan suddenly lost his appet.i.te. After thinking about it, Shao Xuan spooned up some meat and bones from the pot and observed carefully. After recognizing what it was, Shao Xuan felt relieved.
“Is this turtle meat?” Shao Xuan looked at Su Gu.
“Yeah.” Su Gu described how he had enslaved a turtle.
Shao Xuan had helped Su Gu a lot which enabled him to successfully enslave. Furthermore, as they were allies, Su Gu also intended to tell Shao Xuan that he was still a Lordship candidate with potential and not a complete loser – so that the Flaming Horn tribe people would trust him and not have a half-hearted alliance with him. Su Gu also implored Shao Xuan not to share the information, which he was about to disclose, with others, including Lei and Tuo.
For Shao Xuan, the enslavement experience Su Gu said was interesting but not astounding. After all, people of the Flaming Horn tribe used secret engraving technique to engrave beasts, so what this young slave master had done did not surprise him at all.
“I believe it won’t take a long time for me to have my own slaves!” After a pause, Su Gu continued, “Human slaves!”
“As for the information about other slave masters in the city, I’ll give you the materials within a few days.” said Su Gu.
“OK.” Shao Xuan waited for what Su Gu would say next.
“Ten days from now, I plan to go outside of the city. I hope you can accompany me,” said Su Gu.
“For what?” asked Shao Xuan.
“I’m planning to go to our oasis to find something. I’ll tell you what it is when we reach the oasis. Don’t talk to other people about this matter,” said Su Gu.
Shao Xuan nodded. Thinking for a while, Shao Xuan said to Su Gu, “Oh, Bie San, can you leave this room for a while.” (Translator’s Note: Bie San/鳖三, offensive, means a beggar in Chinese. The p.r.o.nunciation and spelling of the word “鳖/Bie” is the same as the word “turtle” in Chinese.)
“Call me third young master!” Su Gu was quite dissatisfied with Shao Xuan’s way of addressing him. Su Gu was about to say something more, but when he replayed Shao Xuan’s words, Su Gu was delighted, “Are you going to practice witchcraft?!”
“I’m not a Shaman.” replied Shao Xuan.
“I know.” said Su Gu, waving his hand, but the expression on his face revealed his thoughts: *Don’t tell lies! I know you are a Shaman!*
After Su Gu left, Shao Xuan took out a thick hollow straw, that he picked up when he was looking for camel feed.
Since they were going to the oasis, Shao Xuan wanted to predict the weather. In the beginning, he could only predict the weather for the next one or two days, but now he could predict the weather conditions for the next ten days. The difficulty and exhaustion from straw prediction was not as high as it was in the early days. Although Shao Xuan could still not predict more complicated things, he had already made great progress.
After a short while…
Once he read the prediction from the straw knot, Shao Xuan then crushed the knot into a ball and threw it out the window.
The camel’s shed was just outside Shao Xuan’s room, and the straw ball fell right on the camel’s head.
The camel, being hit by the straw ball, felt stunned for a while and then found the straw ball on the ground. It picked it up and ate it.
This was a perfect way to destroy the straw knots.
When Su Gu went inside Shao Xuan’s room again, Shao Xuan told him, “There will be a sandstorm after six days. Don’t roam around. You’d better stay in the palace that day.”
After experiencing the a.s.sissnation attempt, Su Gu no longer doubted Shao Xuan’s words.
A sudden sandstorm in the desert could make the Fallen Leaves City, including the surrounding areas, invisible. At the same time, some brutal beasts in the desert, took advantage of such weather to prey. Every time there was a sandstorm, Fallen Leaves City would strengthen the defense, and all slave masters would stay in their chambers.