The piece of gold in Su Gu’s hand was square in shape. Even after being left under the sand for such a long time, it didn’t have any mottles and still shone brightly in the sunlight.
Shao Xuan was not interested in gold stone, but was curious about it. He wanted to observe the gold stone carefully. However, since Su Gu was holding on to it tightly, Shao Xuan gave up on this idea and waited for him to stabilize his mood.
“Su Gu, have you finished enjoying the stone? If yes, let’s move on.” Shao Xuan was thirsty. Since they were close to the oasis, instead of enjoying the beauty of the gold stone under the sun, he preferred to head to the oasis, to have a drink and take a break.
Hearing Shao Xuan’s words, Su Gu found himself staring at the “stone” on his hand while his attention wavered. He quickly wrapped up the gold in his hand and placed it in an inner pocket. The attire he wore that day was st.i.tched with an inside pocket to hold things.
Su Gu continued walking after he put the gold in his pocket. After walking two steps, Su Gu felt that something was strange. He looked at Shao Xuan up and down, carefully scrutinized the expression on Shao Xuan’s face and did not let go of any minute details. However, Su Gu felt helpless because he couldn’t spot even a bit of greed or fascination from Shao Xuan’s face. It seemed like, in the eyes of Shao Xuan, what they saw just now was an ordinary stone and not any treasure.
“Don’t you feel that the stone is mesmerizing?” Su Gu couldn’t help but ask.
Shao Xuan shook his head, “Not at all.”
“How?….that’s impossible!” Su Gu looked at Shao Xuan again and saw that he didn’t change his opinion.
*How could there be someone who can resist its charm?!* Su Gu was puzzled at the moment. At the same time, he became doubtful that maybe only he himself felt the stone was so beautiful. If that turned out to be the case, would his father dislike it if he presented it as a birthday gift?
Shao Xuan’s reaction made Su Gu doubt his previous beliefs. *Am I too smitten, or is it Shao Xuan who doesn’t know about the things to appreciate in life?*
“When you saw it, didn’t you have a special feeling?” asked Su Gu.
*Special feeling?* Thinking about it, Shao Xuan only felt slightly surprised.
Noticing Shao Xuan’s expression, Su Gu didn’t give up and asked, “Don’t you have a feeling that you are standing in a palace and overlooking the whole city, when you see this stone?”
“I haven’t been to the palace,” said Shao Xuan. Meanwhile, he also understood Su Gu’s feelings from his words. What Su Gu had seen in the gold stone were power and wealth. As a young master of a city, no wonder Su Gu could appreciate such a treasure. If Lei and Tuo saw this piece of gold, they would probably be more indifferent than Shao Xuan, feeling that this “stone” was even less important than a piece of meat.
“Do you think the Fallen Leaves Lord will like it if I present this stone to him?” asked Su Gu.
“I think he would like it.” As the Lord of a city, the Fallen Leaves Lord would be ambitious and pursue more power and wealth. Even if Su Lun saw gold for the first time, he would definitely like this “stone” that reflects golden light as long as his preferences were similar to Su Gu, .
Su Gu wanted to show it to the other three people to see how they react, but he gave up after thinking about it.
As they moved forward, there were some gra.s.ses distributed sporadically, clearly visible in the desert. Surrounded by yellow sand, looking at the green gra.s.ses made people feel energetic, like their vitality had returned.
As they continued to go forward, they could see more gra.s.s and some trees, that were not tall, which Shao Xuan couldn’t name. Dozens of camels, which were tied to the trees, were eating the gra.s.s nearby. Not far away, some slaves equipped with weapons patrolled back and forth, staring vigilantly at the desert in the distance to prevent or quickly handle any abnormal situations.
Shao Xuan followed Su Gu and Wu Shi to the oasis, and a team of slaves stopped them. After Su Gu gave an explanation, Shao Xuan and the other two were allowed to enter.
The area encompa.s.sed by the oasis was not large, but it was heavily guarded by about a thousand slaves stationed in this oasis.
After entering the oasis, Shao Xuan noticed a special group of slaves. The clothes these slaves wore were much better than the other slaves. Some of the other slaves also wore fabric clothes, but in most cases their clothes were tattered. However, even though the clothes worn by this special group of slaves were dusty and had some stains, they looked clean without a hole – they even had patterns on them. If Su Gu didn’t mention that those were all slaves, Shao Xuan might have mistaken the Head slave, whose clothes were neat, for a slave master.
“Those are the slaves of my father,” explained Su Gu, “There has not been so many people guarding the oasis before. Probably, because of something that happened just recently, more slaves have been sent here.”
Seeing Su Gu, the leader slave respectfully took a bow, and his eyes swept over Shao Xuan and the other two. His eyesight showed calmness, but Shao Xuan felt as if he had been stabbed by a knife when being glanced at.
Shao Xuan felt as if this slave was acting extremely guarded against them.
“Third young master, are they from the Flaming Horn tribe?” asked the slave named “Chi Shi.”
“Yes, they are my allies and I asked them to accompany me for this trip,” said Su Gu.
Shao Xuan found that Su Gu spoke to Chi Shi in a gentler way. Compared to the att.i.tude Su Gu had while speaking with Wu Shi, his att.i.tude at the moment was quite different.
But it was understandable. Chi Shi, being the slave of the Lord, was superior to Wu Shi.
“Well, I hope you three can stay away from the spring pool,” said Chi Shi indifferently. His tone showed that there would be no room for manoeuvring.
“Why?” asked Su Gu. He knew that other people were barred from entering the spring pool area, but what Chi Shi said was strange. *Did something happen, that I still don’t know about?*
Chi Shi didn’t answer him but kept staring at Shao Xuan and the other two defensively.
“Alright, we’ll go to the room over there and take some rest.” Shao Xuan didn’t wait there, taking Lei and Tuo, and walked towards the resting place that Su Gu showed to him before.
Shao Xuan waited for a while in the sand house, and then a visibly angry Su Gu came by. It seemed like the conversation between Su Gu and the Head slave was not pleasant.
“What’s the matter?” asked Shao Xuan.
“N-No…it’s nothing.” stuttered Su Gu.
“Third young master, since we are allies now, I hope you can share with us some of the important discussions,” said Shao Xuan.
“Well…I know that, of course….” nodded Su Gu.
“So, third young master, I want to ask, why is that Head slave so guarded against us?”
When Su Gu was about to answer him, Shao Xuan stopped him and said, “Don’t tell me he is like that with all the tribes. The way he looked at us just now, made me feel that he was only taking precautions against our Flaming Horn tribe.”
The Head slave named Chi Shi extremely emphasized the words “the Flaming Horn tribe” just now. It was obvious that there was something related to the Flaming Horn tribe which happened, but the three people didn’t know.
Su Gu thought about it, he asked Wu Shi to go outside and guard the door, and then said to Shao Xuan, “Some a.s.sa.s.sins hid in the palace water supply team’s water supply container and caused some trouble.”
Su Gu didn’t talk more about that, but Shao Xuan got the gist of it. He asked, “So that Head slave thinks we have some relationship with the a.s.sa.s.sins?”
Su Gu nodded.
“But only three people of the Flaming Horn tribe came to your city. All the other tribes can attest to that,” said Shao Xuan.
“I didn’t say it was you. If they were sure that you three were involved in the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, you would have been immediately arrested by the slaves,” explained Su Gu.
“Then what’s the reason?” asked Shao Xuan.
“It is because of a person who is related to your Flaming Horn tribe. According to the rules of your tribe, he probably isn’t a member of the Flaming Horn tribe any more, but the slave masters and the slaves still think you are all from the same group. ”
“Who is it?” asked Shao Xuan.
“Dao Yu.”