Chapter 29 - Qing Yi
Ji Hao was sitting on the head of a Four-Tusked Mammoth, curiously looking at his surroundings.
The Four-Tusked Mammoths were the most common beasts to carry burden in the Southern Wasteland. Adult Four-Tusked Mammoths could grow up to a height of sixty feet from shoulders to toes, and a hundred of feet in length. Adult Four-Tusked Mammoths could also become as powerful as warriors at the Junior Magus Level.
The mammoth Ji Hao was sitting on, was the leader of the mammoth’s parade[1], and was over a hundred feet tall. It was shaking its head, while tearing those towering trees that were in the way, into pieces with its four huge teeth, and opening up a broad road in the dense jungle.
“Good, big guy!” Ji Hao tapped the head of the mammoth delightfully, and scratched the soft skin behind its ears. The mammoth raised its head pleased, and let out a great sneeze, which started up a fierce wind that blew down a few big trees standing hundreds of feet away.
Walking behind the mammoths’ leader, was its partner, a female mammoth. Similar to the mammoths’ leader, this female mammoth was also a lot bigger than the other mammoths in the group. The female mammoth was carrying a platform on its back, on which a shack had been built. Qing Fu was sitting in the shack, looking at Ji Hao with a smile.
Ji Xia was standing on the female mammoth’s head, continuously talking to other warriors of the troop.
“Be careful! There are a lot of highly poisonous miasma and bugs in this jungle, don’t get yourselves hurt! Don’t let the Human-Eating Vines attack you from behind! Follow up！Don’t fall behind!”
The jungle in the Southern Wasteland could be very dangerous. Even a powerful Senior Magus might get seriously injured when traveling alone through the jungle. As the team leader, Ji Xia had to pay extra attention to his people, and constantly remind them to be careful.
Ji Xia was leading a powerful troop. Beside himself, there were three warriors who had just reached the Senior Level; they were Ji Ying, Ji Lang and Ji Bao; all three of them were close friends of Ji Xia. Other than them, there were also fifty Senior Magi warriors and six-hundred Novice Magi warriors in the troop.
Jiang Yao was standing on the mountaintop of the Gold Black Mountain, looking at the troop which was disappearing in the jungle. “Ji Xia! Qing Fu! And that damn little bastard, Ji Hao!” Her face was twitching hideously.
“My ‘Thorn of Life and Death’! Qing Fu! You wasted your inherited Magus treasure to save lives! You stupid bitch!”
“You’re gonna die! All of you! Wu, my son! My precious son!” Jiang Yao shivered and growled ferociously.
Jiang Bo was standing behind Jiang Yao, glaring at his daughter coldly. “Look at what you’ve done! We could’ve killed all of them quietly! You caused us all these problems! Ji Hu, Ji Feng, and Ji Shui are dead now. Don’t you think that their fathers will blame us for that?”
Jiang Bo gnashed his teeth and continued: “Do you know what’s more troublesome? That girl, Jiang Xue! I told you to keep an eye on her! Keep an eye on her! But you! You...you sent her to kill Ji Hao! On purpose! Now Ji Hao is still alive, and Jiang Xue has gone missing! How should I tell that old bastard Jiang Shu about this?”
Jiang Yao grinned hideously; that creepy laugh even made Jiang Bo shudder. Jiang Yao stared at her father, gnashed her teeth, and said: “It doesn’t matter...We’ve already got what we wanted from the Fire Crow Clan, haven’t we? What that Lord wanted...we can supply continuously from now on...”
A trace of delight showed up on Jiang Bo’s face. He nodded and said with a smile: “That’s true. As long as we can serve and please that Lord...There will be a lot of benefits for us, which others can’t even imagine. These little troubles and frustrations are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles of present, seem like nothing.”
Jiang Yao stared Jiang Bo in the eyes, gnashed her teeth, and said: “I want Ji Xia, and his entire family to die! You! You will never be able to hold me back!”
Jiang Bo stayed silent for little a while, then slightly waved his hand and said: “You can do whatever you want, just don’t let those Fire Crow Clan elders find out. It’s about time to get this over with.”
Half a month later, Ji Xia’s troop had gone far away from the Gold Black Mountain. They had traveled through mountains, crossed rivers and fought against groups of crocodiles and poisonous snakes. They even met countless strange creatures that they had never seen before.
During their journey, they had met tens of branch clans of the Fire Crow Clan. Ji Xia’s troop gained plenty of supplies from these clans. Each of these branch clans sent a part of their elite warriors to join Ji Xia’s troop. At this point, the troop had now become a few times larger.
At present, Ji Hao was sleepily sitting on the mammoths’ leader’s head. The mammoth pulled a pile of vines apart with its ivory tusk; a beautiful great lake showed after that up.
The lake was huge, and stretched over thousands of miles away. By the lakeside, there were white and fine sand beaches. A few huge turtles were lying on a beach and were enjoying the sunshine. Countless white birds were hovering above the lake, picking up fishes from time to time.
On a black big stone, which was only less than a mile away from Ji Hao, a-hundred-feet-long Flood Dragon was coiled and snoring there. The Flood Dragon heard the mammoth and the people, sniffed and took a lazy glance at Ji Hao, then fleetingly jumped into the water and disappeared.
Ji Hao gazed stunned at where the Flood Dragon had disappeared to.
It was a real Flood Dragon, with white scale and a beard; it had a single horn in the middle of its forehead and there were three claws beneath its belly. Ji Hao was captivated by its perfect body shape.
“A little Flood Dragon! Fled away, such a shame. Otherwise, we could have had it chopped. The Flood Dragon's meat...is the most delicious thing in the world,” said Ji Xia, while he looked at that black stone and complained. “I’ve had Flood Dragon meat once, when I was a little kid, and my father had still been alive. That flavor...oh my...Hao, if you ever get the chance, you have to try the meat of a Flood Dragon!”
Ji Hao experienced all sorts of emotions when he heard what Ji Xia said. Was the Flood Dragon, a legendary powerful creature, only a kind of food to warriors like Ji Xia?
Suddenly, a green shadow flashed through the jungle; an arrow silently appeared in front of Ji Xia’s face.
Ji Xia laughed out loud, slightly flicked his finger and shattered the arrow into pieces. Then he shouted out: “Ying! Haven’t you eaten yet? I felt no strength coming from this arrow! Or...Did your wife drain you?”
“My big brother! Don’t misguide the kid! Is this Hao? I only saw him once when he was only a newborn.”
Along with the voice, a tall and slim-built young man darted out of the woods. He was running really fast, even leaving a great series of shadows behind him. Following this young man were another two hundred young warriors, who were also tall and slim-built.
All of these young warriors were holding longbows, and had big leather bags tied around their waists, containing sharp arrows.
Ji Hao stared at the young man who was talking to Ji Xia, and soon recollected all the information about him. “Uncle! Are you tired from coming all the way here?” Said Ji Hao.
That young man was Qing Ying, Qing Fu’s blood brother, and the leader of the warriors of the Qing Yi Clan.
Ji Hao happily looked at Qing Ying.
The warriors that were standing behind Ji Xia, leapt off from the back of the mammoths, one after another, opened their arms and hugged those Qing Yi Clan warriors.
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[1] SR’s note: According to some researched articles on the internet, a group of elephants are called a parade. Mammoths are predecessors of elephants, so I applied the same name to them.(Link: http://twistedsifter.com/2010/06/10-bizarre-names-for-a-group-of-animals/)