Meanwhile, the sight before Fei Longwei and Wei Shang made them felt so baffled that they almost spat out their blood!"Cuck! Cucko! Cuck..."
Rows of chickens were lined up like the military and stood still as Cucko gave them a motivational speech and went around checking their form, pecking them in the neck if they got it wrong.
In total, there has to be more than a hundred chickens here and their built was bigger than the normal poultry chickens, their eyes glistening with the bravery of barbarians from the mountains and their fur colorful like the rainbows of the seven sky!
It was a marvelous sight!
"When in the world.. are there so many chickens here?" the two of them stared with widened eyes in disbelief.
Individually, these chickens were nothing much as they were all in Qi Condensation realm, but in groups, they were extremely lethal just as what had transpired the day before, where most of the bandits were eliminated by their unsuspecting ambush!
Still, they could not help but to be shocked on the actual numbers that went with them. To think that it was this many.. no wonder these chickens practically just popped up out of nowhere with every single ambush!
Shaaa!! Shaaa!!
After what seemingly was a complete debriefing regarding their mission, the chickens flapped their wings and flew into the horizon with the agility of an eagle before disappearing, sending shivers down the spine of both Fei Longwei and Wei Shang.
"C-Chickens can actually.. fly?"
Trodding with its chest puffed up, Cucko walked towards them before speaking directly into their mind.
"I just sent my men to become the lookout for every mile in a radius of 500 meter each from this village. They should be able to inform us on anything suspicious!" Cucko said.
"..." Fei Longwei and Wei Shang.
Why are we not surprised that its now able to speak telepathically into our mind with ease?
"Benefactors, are those chickens your pets- ah!" the Village Head got poked in the eyes by Cucko before he could even finish his sentence and was rolling on the ground in pain.
He was initially elated to see so many healthy chickens suddenly appearing en ma.s.se in his village right after the ma.s.sacre and thought that it was a gift from the heavens to appease his depressed people.
Who could have thought that those chickens were actually formidable to the extent that they could even fly?
Additionally, most of the villagers also saw this mystical phenomena as well and their mouths were wide agape, full of disbelief!
If they hadn"t seen this scene with their very own eyes, they would not have dared to believe it to be true even if they were slapped silly!
BOOM!!
"Cuck! Cuck! Cuckoo!!!" Cucko angrily cucked while stomping its feet, creating a huge depression on the ground!
Knowing that Cucko was angry after being called as a pet, Wei Shang helped the Village Head to stand up and fed him a recovery pill before explaining, "This chicken, eh- I mean Cucko, is not our pet, but our comrade and part of the team.."
He then continued to explain that their rescue effort was only possible largely due to the help of Cucko and his henchmen in their ambush.
After knowing this, the Village Head immediately prostrated on the ground while crying emotionally, "Ohhh Great One, please forgive this lowly one for besmirching your t.i.tle! We foolish peasants do not know the heights of heavens and had unknowingly wronged you despite the great lengths you did to save us! Please cease your anger!"
The rest of the villager immediately followed suit and prostrated on the ground as well.
"Great One, please forgive us!" they cried out feeling guilty, making Fei Longwei and Wei Shang speechless once more.
Hais!
A few moments later, Fei Longwei took a group of men to bury the dead while Wei Shang took another group of people to a.s.sess the extent of damage done to the village and salvage whatever they have left that could be used. Meanwhile, most of the women was left to tend the wounded and some were tasked to cook food in order to recuperate their strength.
...
"I thought that our Jiu Empire was doing quite fine.. but to think that a village like this would be so vulnerable to a bunch of bandits and were killed like ants.." Wei Shang said with gritted teeth right after having finished his task.
Fei Longwei closed his eyes as he meditated beside him before replying, "This is the reality of it. Only cultivators like us would truly have the chance to defend ourselves from harm in this world."
In the Jiu Empire, all eight towns were located around the Capital City of Nine Lotus and was where life could be said to be truly safe, away from the worries of being ransacked and plundered by bandits.
Although Knights would be regularly dispatched around the empire to patrol the villages, the vast distances between each of them makes travelling very difficult even with the ability to fly and would sometimes took months before the village was visited by another Knight. After all, there were several tens of thousands of villages spread across in the Jiu Empire and only some were closely connected to the Airtrain station, where their security would be easily guaranteed by the nearby military outpost.
To put it simply, the Jiu Empire simply does not have enough resources to protect common villages from harm!
At most, there are only several thousands of Official Knights and a few hundred of t.i.tled-Knights in the Jiu Empire. Majority of them were either tasked to protect the border or were sent out on missions and expeditions.
This therefore, left only a handful of them which limits their effectiveness despite actively travelling between villages. As a result, a ma.s.sacre like the village they were in right now would sometimes occur.
"Don"t worry too much. Now that our Lord has become the Imperial Overseer, things will definitely change. I don"t know how much money he got, but one time I saw him playing dominoes with several thousands of high quality spirit stones.." Fei Longwei said with a sour taste in his mouth as he recalled what he saw.
Just a single high quality spirit stone was already enough to hire a group of powerful cultivators to protect a village for a set duration. Not to mention that thousands was being treated like toys in the eyes of their Lord.
"Yeah.. I guess you are right." Wei Shang let out a stifled laugh as he nodded to Fei Longwei"s words in agreement.
Only their Lord would treat high quality spirit stones like copper coins!
"Anyway, let"s get to our main task and ask around if they had seen the Lord"s mother before."
Fei Longwei nodded as they went around collecting information.
...
Meanwhile, inside a s.p.a.cious study room filled with countless rows of books on the numerous affairs of the Jiu Empire in the Imperial Palace, Shen Lu and Utmost Being was seeing each other for the first time.
"d.a.m.n.. you really do look like him!" Shen Lu said, unable to tell the difference between Duan Li and this clone of his.
"You must be blind. I"m more handsome and manly than him." Utmost Being promptly replied with a stern look on his face.
"Ah.." Shen Lu"s mouth twitched.
I just spot the difference...
"Enough useless talk. Out of all the followers he has, you are the only one with the suitable level of, albeit admittedly, sub-par intelligence to comprehend what I am about to teach you, so listen and study well!"
Huala!
Utmost Being waved his sleeve and a few books flew to the top of his table from the shelf.
He decided that, from now on, Shen Lu needs to upgrade his level and knowledge base about the Jiu Empire as well as several important strategies to handle certain unique situations if the need arises in the near future.
Although Shen Lu realized that he was just being called as dumb by the other party in a somewhat lengthy sentence, he had to admit that this clone of Duan Li truly had the capabilities to teach!
In just a few moments, the two of them were absorbed in their discussion, one the mentor and the other the disciple.
It was from then on that the legendary strategist of the Jiu Empire was born.
...
In a containment laboratory somewhere in the Imperial Palace, Guo He could be seen copying the results of his experiments with concocting medicine to his personal journal.
"Very good. You really have talents in alchemy, or specifically in concocting medicines! Come, let me show you the next experiment and how to handle them to produce various differing results without wasting ingredients!" praised Ju Zhianhu, the Chief Doctor of the Imperial Palace.
"Thank you master!" Guo He clasped his fists together in respect and veneration towards the other party.
Although it feels weird to learn alchemy from his Lord"s disciple and called the later as his master, contradicting his own seniority between them, he felt that it was somewhat justified as he was learning from the top notch expert in the field that he liked the most!
In the near future, he will eventually be called as the Alchemy Medicine G.o.d!
...