After going back to the palace, Su Gu asked the slaves to send some unkilled animals to his chamber every day. He told others that he wanted to cook these animals by himself, but in fact, he was secretly practicing enslavement.
Among his numerous attempts, some succeeded while others failed. As time went by, the success rate of Su Gu’s enslavement was getting higher.
Su Gu fulfilled his end of the deal by providing Shao Xuan with some of the slave master’s information in writing, on a piece of cloth.
Shao Xuan recorded these information on his hide papers, and from this information he also obtained a general idea of the major cities in the desert and the great slave masters of these cities.
On the sixth day, just as Shao Xuan predicted, out of nowhere a sandstorm arrived at the doorsteps of the Fallen Leaves City. Until that moment, there was no sign of it.
Standing in the palace, Su Gu looked at the murky sandstorm that was approaching from the distance. The sandstorm came exactly as Shao Xuan predicted, and Su Gu grew more fearful of the ability of Shamans in the tribes.
People always feared the unknown. In particular, Shaman seldom appeared in the desert cities which were filled with slave masters.
The sandstorm swept through the entire city in an instant. The large grains of sand in the sandstorm were close to the ground, slamming into everything near and on the ground. People who were outside any semblance of shelter would suffer from attacks similar to that of a barrage of piercing needles . Even some creatures which were covered in scales were not willing to suffer such pain – they tried their best to drill under the sand and avoid the attack of the sandstorm.
Sand which weighed less was easily blown by the wind and covered the sky.
The three people of the Flaming Horn tribe, who were long prepared for the sandstorm, stayed inside their residence with the doors and windows closed, and listened to the crashing sound outside.
Outside their residence, the camel “Mud”, with its hair tossed about, stood in the sandstorm facing against the wind. Camels had long gotten adapted to the climate in the desert. They would not be scared by this level of a sandstorm, and some of them were even able to walk freely in such sandstorms.
Hearing the roaring sound of beasts coming from outside, Shao Xuan and the other two rushed out with their weapons.
Some of the beasts, using the sandstorm as cover, had crossed the peripheral walls and broke through the perimeter defense placed within the city.
People of other tribes did not come out of their residence. Unless the sandstorm beasts rushed to their doorsteps, they would not come out to handle them. But the three people of the Flaming Horn tribe were different from them. They had gotten bored in the past few days, and they wanted to use this opportunity to vent their frustration. For those who had been used to hunting since childhood, such a long gap in hunting prey would make them feel like their bones became rusty.
Were the beasts in the sandstorm dangerous?
Yes.
But for the people of the Flaming Horn tribe, who regularly encountered and fought against fierce beasts that were much more dangerous, facing the sandstorm beasts didn’t scare them at all. They even showed delighted while facing these beasts. Moreover, after catching these sandstorm beasts, they could eat them as food. Even if these beasts only had a little meat, a bone soup would also be a good idea.
If other people knew what was running in the minds of the Flaming Horn tribesmen, they would think that the people of the Flaming Horn tribe were insane.
Shao Xuan and the other two were not catching the sandstorm beasts inattentively. They cooperated well, just like the way they used to hunt in the mountains.
Low visibility? It doesn’t matter. As long as they could hear, they could still differentiate the sound of the sandstorm beasts if they concentrated keenly enough.
Chacha, who finally moved to the residence of the Flaming Horn tribe, also caught some prey.
When the sandstorm ended and the city became peaceful again, everyone in the tribal area saw that there were some dried meat of sandstorm beasts hanging near the residence of the Flaming Horn tribe.
The slaves and the slave masters of the Fallen Leaves City changed their view of the people of Flaming Horn tribe once again – only two words appeared in their mind “fierce” and “voracious”.
On the tenth day, Fallen Leaves City returned to its former state.
People of the other tribes were all busy with their own matters.
Shao Xuan knew that these tribes were concealing something from the Flaming Horn tribe, but he didn’t care about it – he was confident that he would figure it out eventually.
On the day agreed upon by Shao Xuan and Su Gu, Shao Xuan and the other two people were all set for their travel.
This time Shao Xuan did not plan to bring the camel along. Letting the people sent by Su Gu to take care of the camel, Shao Xuan brought Chacha along for the trip. Although the outside was just a long stretch of desert, it was good to bring Chacha out to relieve its boredom.
During these ten days, Su Gu’s enslavement ability had improved a lot. He felt that he was almost able to enslave slaves. However, he would not enslave people in the city until he was completely sure.
It had been half a year since Su Gu last went out of the city. This time he only took Wu Shi, plus Shao Xuan and the other two people.
The oasis Su Gu mentioned was owned by his father, the Fallen Leaves Lord – It was forcefully taken over from another slave master a long time ago. Other cities always tried to seize this oasis, but they have all been defeated. Resources in the desert were obtained through robbing, and were defended by strength. If the owner had no strength, then the resources would be taken away by others.
It took about two days to walk to the oasis from the Fallen Leaves City. If one is traveling light, they can get there in one day.
They didn’t bring much luggage this time. What’s more, being strong, they didn’t find it difficult to walk in the desert – they just needed to be on guard against the desert beasts.
Maybe because the sandstorm had just pa.s.sed, the desert was calm. All they could see were the sand dunes that stretched like waves and they couldn’t spot any creature in their field of vision.
After leaving the city, Su Gu told Shao Xuan about the purpose of their trip. Su Gu told other people of the city that he wanted to go to the oasis to relax and take along the three people of the Flaming Horn tribe as his bodyguards. But in fact, he just wanted to find something, a beautiful stone, which Su Gu planned to present to his father as a birthday gift.
The birthday of the Fallen Leaves Lord Su Lun was coming soon, and Su Gu decided to perform well this time so that he could get more resources. There were still many “ordinary” slaves who were not “enslaved” by any slave master in the city and the Fallen Leaves Lord was the one who decided which of the slave masters were to be rewarded with these slaves. Because Su Gu had not succeeded in enslaving yet, the Fallen Leaves Lord did not send more slaves to him. This time, Su Gu decided that he would seize the opportunity to pick out some outstanding slaves.
“Stone? What kind of stone?” Shao Xuan was curious. *How unique the stone must be?! Why would Su Gu keeps it in his mind all the time and even plan to present it to Fallen Leaves Lord as a birthday gift?*
Su Gu was extremely attracted to the stone. The stone was discovered by him before, but at that time he was not strong enough so he didn’t take out the stone. Now, in order to seize the opportunity, he decided to find out the hidden stone again.
“It’s so incredibly beautiful. It’s the most beautiful thing in the world.” Su Gu looked into the distance and seemed to be reminiscing the intoxicating feeling he felt when he saw the stone for the first time.
Before starting for the oasis, at the strong request of Su Gu, Shao Xuan signed a treaty with him, swearing by the Flaming Horn tribe totem, that he would not rob the stone. In exchange, Shao Xuan also received a lot of benefits from Su Gu.
For the Flaming Horn tribe, even the jade of the Mang tribe was not that attractive. In Lei and Tuo’s perspective, stone is best used as a weapon. *What’s the value of a stone that can only be appreciated? Can people use it to hunt?*
Therefore, Lei and Tuo did not care about Su Gu’s words at all, but Shao Xuan was more curious. *What kind of stone is it? Why is this slave master, who has been living an extravagant life, fancying it so much?*
Su Gu stopped when they finally arrived at his destination.
Shao Xuan looked around. There were only tall sand dunes and no mountains. The water in the oasis, in the distance, seemed to come from underground. The place where Su Gu said that the stone was hidden was not in the oasis, but in a place outside the oasis.
Looking at the high dunes and surroundings, Su Gu judged the relative position of the stone and then rushed to a spot between two tall sand dunes and began to dig.
Shao Xuan, Wu Shi and the other two people also came to help him.
It took a long time and there was only a small progress. It was very difficult to dig up the stone Su Gu had hidden.
Fortunately, Su Gu had a good memory, and he roughly judged where he buried the stone. After digging for a long time, a wooden box buried in the ground was finally discovered.
“You, all of you turn around and be on guard!” Su Gu gasped, his eyes full of cautions.
“Can’t I take a look?” asked Shao Xuan.
Su Gu hesitated. However, remembering that Shao Xuan had signed a treaty with him and swore by the totem of his tribe, and had also helped him a lot, Su Gu kept silent, acquiescing that Shao Xuan could have a look.
Su Gu carefully took the box out of the sand, gently swept aside the sand that were on the wooden box, and then opened the wooden box.
Inside the box was an item wrapped in linen cloth which was smaller than a fist.
After taking the stone out, Su Gu seemed to only focus on the stone that shone under the sun.
Seeing the item in Su Gu’s hand, Shao Xuan was stunned. He didn’t expect to see it here.
For a long time, Shao Xuan a.s.sumed that he would not see it in this world, but now it appeared in front of Shao Xuan.
Looking at Su Gu, who looked smitten, Shao Xuan wanted to say: Bie San, it’s not a stone. It’s a piece of gold.