Chapter 50: Aftermath
“Ha!”
Followed by a great roar, a six-foot-long sword, which was seized from a Black Water Serpent Clan Senior Magi, flashed across the air along with a beam of cold light, separating a gigantic tree trunk from its roots. Ji Hao leapt high in the air and threw a heavy punch onto the tree trunk; the over two-hundred-feet-tall tree slowly fell down.
Tens of slaves rushed over, chopping all the branches off with axes and knives, and stripping off all of the tree bark. Then the four-tusk mammoth, which waited on the side, rolled up the stripped tree trunk with its long snout, carried it to a mine hole under the cliff, and put it down in front of the entrance for later use.
“You have to produce another two multicoloured flames in order to give the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] to your parents.”
Ji Hao let out a sigh, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and waved the long sword towards another gigantic tree.
Ji Hao has been wanting to give the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] to his parents for over half a month. Ever since he gained all of Ji Xiao’s Senior Magus blood a couple of days ago, he wanted to give the magic spell to them even more.
However, his plan fell through after listening to the mysterious man’s words. To practise the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] required a multicoloured flame, identical to the one in Ji Hao’s lower abdomen, as a trigger. The mysterious man only had one spare multicoloured flame, which was already given to Ji Hao. Unless Ji Hao could improve his practice on the [Bu Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] to the peak level and produce other multicoloured flames with his own flame, he could never impart this powerful and magical spell to any other person.
As for the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words], which was created by Ji Hao in his previous life, it was completely different from all other kinds of magic sorceries that the Southern Wasteland Magi practiced in.
Ji Hao had no idea about how to clearly explain the origination of the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] to his parents. When he was a little boy, he tried to discuss the magical power of the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] with Qing Fu. However, Qing Fu couldn’t even understand the [unity of heaven and human], which was the most basic theory of the Mantra Dan.
Therefore, he couldn’t impart the [Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words] to his parents. The Southern Wasteland Magi and Maguspriests had their own knowledge system and practice methods.
“So, I have to practice harder. To live well in this Southern Wasteland, I need to be stronger and more powerful!” murmured Ji Hao in his mind.
He couldn’t improve the powers of Ji Xia and Qing Fu with his magic spells, instead, he could only improve himself as much as possible!
Ji Xiao’s Senior Magus blood was absorbed by Ji Hao’s body. A human-head-sized sphere of Senior Magi blood floated above the multicoloured flame in Ji Hao’s lower abdomen; powerful beams of multicoloured lights were continuously circulating in Ji Hao’s body and improving his physical strength.
Ji Hao suppressed the desire for advancement, keeping his bloodline’s power from bursting out, and only concentrated on improving his physical strength.
He took a deep breath and slowly triggered his internal power. A strand of extremely pure internal power circulated through the muscles and blood vessels in Ji Hao’s arm and infused into the sword in his hand. Along with a sharp swis.h.i.+ng sound, an blinding light flashed along the sword edge. Ji Hao held his breath and swung the sword, another huge tree, which took five people to wrap their arms around it, was cut into two. With only a slight kick from Ji Hao, the tree trunk slowly fell down with a creaky noise.
Loud bird calls came from the sky. Tens of Windstorm Rocs[1] were flapping their wings and diving down from the sky.
Standing on the backs of those Windstorm Rocs, were a squad of armed Fire Crow Clan warriors; hanging from their claws, were huge cages woven from vines, filled with young and strong slaves.
Ji Ying, Ji Lang, and Ji Bao stood on the ground, waving and shouting towards those Windstorm Rocs, directing them towards the landing spots. Those gigantic birds gently put the cages down, then slowly landed on the ground.
Another batch of Fire Crow Clan warriors, who were waiting nearby, rushed over, ripped the cages open and drove the slaves out. A few especially strong and unruly slaves started yelling and tried to resist as soon they got out of the cages. Tens of long spears instantly hit their bodies, knocking them down onto the ground, whilst they ceaselessly struggled, trembled, and cried.
“Ho! Ho!”
Outside of the Cold Stream Valley, over a hundred Fire Crow Clan warriors were riding all kinds of contracted beasts and swept past the entrance of the valley.
The troop leader held a long spear, with a one-foot-square flag tied on it, which fluttered in the wind. Painted on that flag was the totem of the Fire Crow Clan’s Three-Legged Golden Fire Crow. On both sides of the valley, over two-hundred-feet-tall walls were built.
In contrast to the old wall, which was built with logs and mud days ago, these two new walls were built with gigantic stones; and lava was poured into the gaps between the stones, combining the stones into one. The defensive function of these two new walls were ten times better than the old walls made of logs and mud.
The walls were thickly dotted with Fire Crow Clan warriors. By now, the number of elite warriors who were guarding the valley on the walls was over three-thousand.
“Ting, ting…”
Metal striking sounds continuously sounded from one of the caves. A great flame spurted out of the cave, burning all of the plants within the circ.u.mference of hundreds of miles into ashes.
A workshop was built in one of the caves by hundreds of Fire Crow Clan warriors. Large amounts of metallic materials were transported to the Cold Stream Valley from nearby branch clans. In the workshop, Fire Crow Clan craftsmen were busy forging all kinds of tools. Heavy swords and axes for lumbering; hammers and crooked chisels for opening mineshafts; as well as other tools in need. All of those tools were continuously forged during the past couple of days.
In the past, Cold Stream Valley only had a few thousands old or weak slaves sent from the Springs Mountain; however, within these past couple of days, thirty thousand strong slaves were sent to the valley from every nearby branch clan.
Under the cliff on the north side of the valley, twenty mineshafts were opened in a line. Slaves were mining while loudly singing a work song.
Each of those stripped logs were cut into three pieces, sent into the mineshaft, and used to support the roofs of the shaft. Baskets of soil and rock mixed with a large amount of gold and jade pieces were being sent out of the mineshafts.
The weak and old slaves gathered beside the Cold Stream, carefully picking the gold and jade pieces out.
This mine under the Cold Stream Valley was extremely rich and rare. Within every basket, only forty percent was composed of rocks and soil, the rest were pieces of gold and jade. The smallest piece amongst them was as big as a human fist.
In past few days, two small mountains of gold and jade pieces were piled up in the Cold Stream Valley. The gold mountain was twenty feet tall and over two hundred feet in diameter, while the jade mountain was tens of feet tall and over a hundred feet in diameter.
Under the sun’s rays, the pieces of gold and jade were s.h.i.+ning and illuminating each other. Ji Zhuo, who was sitting on a big stone and supervising the mining work, smiled from ear to ear with a mouthful of glistening, white teeth. From time to time, he flaunted his frozen leg to the nearby clansmen.
Due to Ji Zhuo’s presence, the allied force of Blood Fang and Black Water Serpent Clan was destroyed. By now, all the Maguspriests and Elder Magi in the Holy Land had clearly been informed of the amazing resources of the Cold Stream Valley mine, especially the discovery of Fire Essence Crystal.
Such a rich mine, its importance was obvious.
Ji Shu had been strangely cooperative during these past couple of days. He not only transferred a large number of elite warriors to the Cold Stream Valley to join Ji Xia’s troops and guard the valley, he also quickly sent the slaves, craftsmen and all kinds of necessary materials from the nearest branch clan.
Ji Xia calmly accepted Ji Shu’s goodwill, and didn’t let those elders know about the fact that Ji Mu colluded with the Black Water Serpent Clan and tried to kill him.
In Ji Xia’s mind, the clan was always the top priority.
“Abba was right…whatever Ji Mu did could be completely irrelevant to Ji Shu. We can never defeat Ji Shu by letting everyone know about what Ji Mu did. He only needs to heartlessly kill Ji Mu, and easily blame everything on him.”
“Rather than this, why don’t we just keep silent for a while and get ourselves some actual benefits,” thought Ji Hao.
Ji Hao gasped, turning around to look at the Cold Stream Valley.
Presently, Cold Stream Valley was guarded by twenty thousand elite warriors who came from every branch clan, and ten thousand slaves were working hard in the mines. This valley had already become the Fire Crow Clan’s most powerful stronghold.
While smiling, Ji Hao swung the sword backwards, cutting another gigantic tree into two.
Thousands of miles away, inside the deep jungle, Jiang Yao stood on the head of a Bi Fang Bird and slowly descended from the air. Her beautiful face was as twisted as a ghost.
———————————————
[1]Roc: Mythical bird of prey, that possesses enormous size and strength.