After leaving the Flowing Gold Fort and crossing the Goldwater River, one would arrive at the Harvey Plains.
The Ferocious Race had set up camp here in the beginning. They had been a.s.saulted on all sides from the very beginning, and their territorial boundaries were was constantly in a state of flux. As such, the owners.h.i.+p of the Harvey Plains often changed hands.
Today, the Harvey Plains wasn’t a core area of the Ferocious Race’s territory anymore; instead, it was located in the southern area of the Iron and Blood Country. Past the Harvey Plains were the Permafrost Wastelands, the Blood Wastelands, the Halma Forest, the Black Flatlands, and many more geographical features and areas. As their names implied, even though most of these places were quite large, they were also quite barren.
Back when the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty was driving the Ferocious Race back over and over, the resilient Ferocious Race had relied on their powerful physiques to traverse the plains, the wastelands, and the forests, paying a tremendous price to wipe out the various races around them before finally arriving at the Black Flatlands, which was relatively fertile. They had set up camp there and recuperated before mounting a counterattack.
Lots of blood had been spilled along this path, and corpses had piled up on both sides like mountains.
That road still existed today. It was called the Ancient Bramble Road and represented the Ferocious Race’s resolute spirit and fearlessness, through their arduous journey from the Harvey Plains all the way to the Black Flatlands.
There were countless habitations and cities lining the path consisting of different Ferocious Race tribes. They were like pearls that had been scattered carelessly all over the plains.
Because these groups of Ferocious Race individuals lived so close to the border, they were constantly alert, and even all the commoners were quite gifted in combat.
Every Ferocious Race individual became a soldier when they drew their blades.
They were the vanguard that defended against the human onslaught, and they were also the Ferocious Race’s frontline cannon fodder.
Unlike the humans, who resolutely defended their positions with experts, the Ferocious Race had placed all of their commoners in this place, making them both the bait and the mousetrap.
As such, the Harvey Plains was an extremely violent place. If any human troops charged into the plains, it would immediately turn into a swamp of Ferocious Race individuals, entangling and swallowing up the human invaders.
This was the unique way of defending themselves that the Ferocious Race had chosen.
Leguha Castle was an important control point within this swamp.
It was located near Dunchla Lake on the plains and was the largest city for hundreds of kilometers in any directions.
Its appearance was quite desolate and wild. Who knew how it had managed to conceal the ma.s.sive armies of the Gravel Lizard Tribe and unleash an ambush against the Heavenly Might Army.
What an extraordinary situation!
Because this battle had taken place almost four years ago, by the time Su Chen arrived, Leguha Castle had basically reverted to its original state.
The walls, which were made from red clay, were short and una.s.suming, and the front gate looked like it could be knocked over with a single push. However, the moat in front of the walls and the inscriptions visible on the city’s walls indicated that the city had some hidden defensive abilities — clearly, the Ferocious Race also knew how to hide things.
By utilizing the Shapes.h.i.+fting Origin Substance, Su Chen had transformed himself into a Ferocious Race individual.
He now possessed a brawny physique and thick tusks, and a ma.s.sive battle axe was slung across his back. This was something he had found amongst the Flowing Gold Fort’s storehouses and had once belonged to a vicious Ferocious Race General.
Leguha Castle wasn’t hard to enter. At this point in time, disguising techniques were relatively rare, and there weren’t many people who had the ability to see through disguises either.
Su Chen easily infiltrated Leguha Castle. A few corpses were hung across the top of the front gate — they obviously belonged to the human armies.
Su Chen felt a bit more relieved when he didn’t see a mountain of corpses anywhere. That was something that the Ferocious Race loved to do — pile up all of their enemies’ skeletons into a mountain for the shock effect.
Just like what Xiao Feinan had told him, the Heavenly Might Army had managed to escape and run deeper into the plains.
Right now, he needed to figure out exactly which direction the Heavenly Might Army had escaped towards.
That wouldn’t be difficult to find out; all he needed to figure out was where the Ferocious Race was headed.
Naturally, the best place to get information was a wine tavern.
And there was a wine tavern in the center of Leguha called the Scarlet Tavern.
Su Chen carried the corpse of a large wolf he had hunted along the way into the wine tavern. All around him were Ferocious Race individuals drinking and yelling at one another. No one paid him any particular attention.
Su Chen walked over to the barkeep and tossed it in front of him, asking, “Tell me how many Bone Tokens this is worth.”
Origin Stones were a form of general currency, but Su Chen was pretending to be a Ferocious Race hunter, so it was better for him to use the local currency.
Thankfully, because of the Hidden Dragon Inst.i.tute’s instruction, Su Chen could speak the Ferocious Race’s language quite fluently and knew many of their social customs.
The barkeep flipped the wolf corpse over and inspected it. “Fifty.”
Su Chen shrugged. “That’s a bit low, but whatever. Give me some wine.”
The barkeep poured him a cup of wine. It was unknown what had been fermented to produce the wine, as its scent was incredibly b.l.o.o.d.y. The wine did indeed live up to the tavern’s name.
Su Chen tried a mouthful and felt the pungent smell of blood crawl up his nostrils.
He frowned. “Is there any Dragonsblood Wine?”
“We only have this. If you don’t want to drink it, then don’t drink it. It’s imported,” the barkeep replied brusquely.
Even though Su Chen knew how to talk like a Ferocious Race individual, he still gave off the air of a foreigner. Thankfully, there were many different tribes amongst the Ferocious Race, so even though he spoke the Ferocious Race language with a bit of an accent, people would only think that he was from a different tribe. However, if a person was familiar with all the various accents of the Ferocious Race tribes, such as the Head Ancestor, then he would be in trouble.
As such, the next thing Su Chen needed to do was to familiarize himself even further with the Ferocious Race’s language.
Thankfully, it was more than enough to deal with this barkeep.
“It’s such a pity, there isn’t really anything good near the border. If it weren’t for the fact that I wanted to kill some humans, I would have never come here,” Su Chen mumbled to himself purposefully.
“Kill humans?” The barkeep laughed tauntingly, “That happened a few months ago. You’re way too late for that.”
“That’s not my fault. News traveled too slowly; I raced here as soon as I got wind of it, but who would have known that they would lose so quickly? Now I don’t know where to go looking for more,” Su Chen lamented as he drank some more of the Scarlet Wine.
“They went north. They’re probably all dead now,” one of the Ferocious Race individuals said.
“No, not yet. At the very least, Lamicah Jurchen hasn’t returned with his troops yet,” one of the Ferocious Race individuals added on.
“He will return, along with the skulls of those humans.”
“Or he might just come back with his defeated army.”
“Balza, watch your mouth. Don’t get yourself into trouble.”
“I like to get into trouble. What are you going to do about it? I hate Lamicah Jurchen. I hate him with my life, and you can’t do anything about it!”
“You d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
One of the Ferocious Race individuals charged over and punched Balza. Balza didn’t shrink back and countered with a fierce punch of his own, and the wine tavern immediately exploded into a full-blown brawl. The barkeep continued to pour wine as if nothing was happening.
Su Chen had heard from his instructors while at the Hidden Dragon Inst.i.tute that the Ferocious Race only enjoyed eating, drinking, fighting, and sleeping.
It seemed like there indeed was some truth to their words.
Explosive adrenaline coursed through their veins, causing their desire to do battle to surge.
If he were to draw some of their blood, perhaps he would be able to isolate a new “Frenzy” Origin Substance.
As Su Chen’s thoughts wandered, he poured the rest of the Scarlet Mary into his mouth.
How refres.h.i.+ngly wild!