Tao Sha was the name of that Taotie Clan elder, and was a bit shameless. As a pure-blood Taotie, Tao Sha held a highly important position in his clan. He was the totem of his clan. More importantly, he was a truly powerful, core elder of that large clan.
Standing on the golden bridge, Tao Sha rested his hands on his hips and murmured with a m.u.f.fled voice, "Earl Yao, you can’t lie to me. They promised me a large quant.i.ty of food. Will you really double it? Hehe, we are Taotie Clan, we won’t be fooled!"
Giving Tao Sha a side glance, Ji Hao responded impatiently, "Of course I’ll double it. Even if my Yao Mountain territory can’t afford it, we have Tushan Family on our side. Are you afraid that Tushan Family don’t have enough food?"
Tao Sha tilted his head and pondered for a while. He seemed to think Ji Hao’s words were reasonable, as he let out a long breath in relief, and laughed happily, "This is making sense. Hehe, Si Wen Ming, that kid, he is Tushan old man’s son in law!" Clicking his tongue, Tao Sha continued, "Eh, I was too anxious. I must have lost my mind back then. Why did I accept their offer? I should have gone straight to Si Wen Ming!"
Clicking his tongue once again, Tao Sha took out a thumb-sized silver chain, which was glowing with a sharp cold light. He gently stroked the chain, seeming to be quite sad.
The power vibration released from the chain was especially sharp, such that Ji Hao felt like being p.r.i.c.ked by needles even from the distance. This chain was such a fierce weapon that ordinary people could never get anywhere near it, because they would definitely be shred into pieces by its power vibration.
"This is?" Ji Hao asked curiously.
"Taotie teeth!" Tao Cha coiled that long chain around his left hand and responded with his m.u.f.fled voice, "The greatest treasure of our Taotie Clan. It was a nature-crafted chain, and the teeth of generations of our Taotie ancestors were pulled out by their descendants after they died, melted and merged with it. It’s a pre-world magic treasure!"
Tao Sha frowningly touched the few slight scratches on the chain, as if he were suffering a heartache. Then, he looked at Ji Hao from head to toe, said, "Where did you get that b.l.o.o.d.y bell of yours? We have inherited our ancestor"s memories through our bloodline, but we have no impression of that bell. Eh, Taotie teeth only b.u.mped against it for a few times. How can it be scratched like a piece of iron?"
Ji Hao chuckled, not wanting to answer this question. Instead, he asked straightforwardly, "Who hired you to stop me?"
Taotie blinked his eyes, laughed hollowly, slapped his chest and said, "Earl Yao, you doubled the quant.i.ty of the food for our Taotie Clan, and I sincerely appreciate you. So, I will fight for you. But, as for the one hired me earlier, I truly can’t tell you his name. I’ve already lost half of this old face of mine. I can’t bear to lose all of it, can I? I did it for no one but those children in my clan… Hehe, otherwise…"
Shaking his head, Tao Sha pointed at Pu Ban City and continued coldly, "I’m not the only one. Many people are still waiting out there. I was here to stop you, while some others went for Si Wen Ming’s troop!"
Ji Hao’s face turned dark. Didn’t those people go too far? He couldn’t help but shout in anger, "What do they want? Are they truly going to tear the humankind apart, make all human beings homeless, and become slaves of the water-kind?"
Tao Sha remained silent for a while, then sighed heavily, and said, "I don’t know what do they want. Our Western Wasteland is poor. We never had too much food stored in our clan. If we don’t do whatever we can to get some food back soon…I’m afraid those children would all starve to death!"
Spreading his hands, Tao Cha said blandly, "People are dying. Humankind is falling apart…Hehe, whatever it is, fill our stomachs and survive, isn’t this the most important thing?"
Ji Hao stayed silent, boosted up the power of the golden bridge, and raised the flying speed.
Tao Cha and the others who came to stop Ji Hao, their words may not be pleasant to hear, but they were telling the truth.
Western Wasteland had the richest metal power in the world. Because of the high density of the metal power, the lands in there could barely grow crops. Therefore, Western Wasteland had been poor since always. Although mineral resources were rich, the food was extremely scanty. Basically, no family could have the food for tomorrow.
In peaceful days, strong Western Wasteland clans such as Taotie Clan, Zhuwu Clan, Chaos Clan, could sell mineral resources to clans from Midland and the other three Wastelands, to trade for food and daily necessities. But the flood came so suddenly that it left no time for the humankind to prepare anything. Even the food stored in Pu Ban City was no longer enough, not to mention those Western Wasteland clans.
As Tao Sha said, if they couldn’t bring back some food as soon as possible, those Western Wasteland people would truly starve to death. In order to save his people, Tao Sha covered his face and came to try to stop Ji Hao. However, he didn"t send out the Taotie army to loot around the world. This was already law-abiding, could even be counted as moral.
"We will have food!" Ji Hao looked at Tao Sha and said word by word, "The flood will soon be past…Whoever started this, we will make them pay!"
A strong gust roared down from the higher sky, following which, an extremely sharp pair of claws reached fiercely down towards the golden bridge.
Ji Hao raised his head. Above in the sky was an enormous golden-wing roc bird. Standing on the birds’ head was a strong man, whose face was covered in leather, and body wrapped in a coa.r.s.e piece of cloth.
"Duo!" Ji Hao activated the Pan Gu bell and released a stream of Chaos power that surrounded the golden bridge. The bird’s claw heavily landed on the Pan Gu bell and generated a thunderous bang. Fire sparkles rose from the rock’s claws, but the Chaos power streams released from the bell didn’t even move.
The roc bird screamed furiously. Its eyes dazzled with two beams of golden light, piercing towards the Pan Gu bell like a pair of swords.
Following a sizzling noise, the two sharp beams of light cut on the bell. Fire sparkles flew all over the sky, yet, the bell remained perfectly unharmed.
"Ah!" The man standing on the birds’ head growled thunderously and wielded his pair of arms. Two water-tank-sized, sawtoothed flying wheels swished down, glowing with a cold light as they whirled swiftly around the bell.
A buzzing noise could be heard without an end. The pair of flying wheels left long streaks of fiery light in the air. On the surface of the Pan Gu bell, patterns of clouds sparkled, under the effect of which, the pair of flying wheels failed to cause any harm to the bell either.
Tao Sha gave a heavy sigh, raised his head, and shouted, "Old bird, stop fighting…Earl Yao is generous, he promised us double quant.i.ties of food. Hehe, why would we fight him? We can fight for Earl Yao together…He doubled the food, double!"
The strong man standing on the bird’s head quivered, then lowered his head and looked at Ji Hao. The man abruptly puffed off the piece of leather wrapped on his face and showed a cold and square face.
That serious face had been twitching unnaturally. This man stared at Ji Hao for quite a while, then finally squeezed out an embarra.s.sed smile and said, "Earl Yao, what a coincidence that we ran into each other! Where’re you going? As long as we can get food, we’ll do anything!"
Tao Sha smirked, while the man laughed hollowly.
Ji Hao gave a bitter grin. Food, food again. The shortage of food had been driving these clan elders crazy.