Chapter 72 – Leaving the Great Wasteland
A wave of a single arm had 40 to 50 thousand jin of strength, and a wave with both arms has 80 to 90 thousand jin of divine strength! This was only an estimate, and wasn’t a completely accurate description of the little guy’s hidden strength. However even so, it was still so incredibly astonishing, and it made the group of people sigh endlessly with admiration and regret.
“Yi…” The old woman frowned, and she felt as if she overlooked something. Her eyes flickered with silver symbols like an illusory celestial river.
Suddenly, she raised her head and shot out two frightening beams of light from her eyes. “We made a mistake!”
“How did we make a mistake?” A youth on the side asked.
The old woman took out an lustering eggshell from her bosom. It had stripes like rainbows, and specks of multicolored light all over, making it seem as exquisite as jade; it was precisely that broken piece of the Archaic Descendant egg.
“I was careless a moment ago, and just realized it just now. That child and the little mountain beast on his shoulder had a seemingly familiar aura. At first, I thought they smelled weird because they were dyed in the blood of many vicious birds and fierce beasts. After thinking over it now carefully, that should have been the aura of the egg birthed by Archaic God’s descendant.”
Everyone who heard was shocked.
“That can’t be. That child ate the egg of the Archaic God King’s descendant? That’s way too frightening!” A youth’s mouth was so wide that he could swallow half a fist.
“A harmless looking kid actually acted so recklessly and dared to journey into the Archaic Descendant’s nest to steal its egg?”
The group of people practically could not believe it. After reaching this conclusion, all of them were left speechless.
Only a few people would believe this situation if someone told them this. He was nothing more than a child, but he actually dared to enter the nest of an Archaic Descendant to create such a shockingly large affair.
Their hearts simultaneously became apprehensive, but was also filled with sudden regret. They felt an extreme pity since that was an egg of the Divine Bird’s descendant. As long as they bred and nurtured it, they could definitely have peered into the secrets of the Archaic God King’s precious technique.
A precious egg like that was eaten by a child and a mountain beast just like that!
What a loss this was. What kind of clan would have a child that did things like these?
“Something’s wrong. That little mountain beast ate the rainbow bird’s egg as well? Could it also be extraordinary?” A middle aged man from the party of people questioned.
The others who heard this were suddenly startled. How could an ordinary little mountain beast bear the essence energy of an Archaic Descendant? It would inevitably be battered to death by its effect.
“The fist sized little beast… I vaguely saw the bottom of its foot being scarlet-colored,” said another person
The old woman was emotionally startled, and as if she thought of something, she said, “Could that be the legendary Zhuyan?”
According to legends, the descent of this vicious beast would inevitably bring chaos. The whole world would fall into a calamity of war, and the earth will become a battleground; this was a horrifying omen.
Everyone was stupefied since they unexpectedly met such a strange kid. Everyone in the group was mistaken.
The lead white-clad female in the lead laughed, and her black hair drifted in the wind. Her sparkling white skin flickered with a hypnotic luster, and her eyes swiveled as she said, “This child isn’t very simple. Let’s just treat it like bearing good karma.”
“Let’s hope he will enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion and not be snatched away by any other means!”
In the distant mountains, the little guy urged his mount to madly sprint forth. The unicorn transformed into a silver streak of light and passed through the mountain ridges. It quickly reached the pinnacle of its speed, and the forest on both sides quickly passed by. Soon after, they were several hundreds of li away.
The fist sized Hairy Ball completely resurrected. The grey white hairy all over its body flickered and turn gold once again. Its pair of large lifeless and expressionless eyes shined as well, and it weirdly jumped up and down on little Shi Hao’s shoulders.
The little guy grabbed its tail, carried it backwards and said, “You can’t run all over the place, and you can’t get into trouble again. You can only stay by my side!”
He had left Stone Village for twenty one days already, and had already completed a large portion of this endless journey. He was already less than 100,000 li away from Stone Clan’s second ancestral land, and would reach it in just a few days.
During the next few days, the little guy rode through thistles and thorns while advancing through the great wasteland, meeting one batch of fierce beasts after another. He experienced hundreds of bloody battles before he finally arrived at the border of Stone Country.
He was just a child, yet he traversed the endless mountain ranges within a month. He battled with many vicious birds and strange beasts as he dashed through 300,000 li, and this was an absolutely shocking feat. If news of this got out, it would trigger a lot of controversy, and shake even those deep and hidden ancient families.
Even when the Bi’An, Pi Xiu and the other most powerful Archaic Vicious Beast trained their young, this was as far as they pushed. This kind of dangerous ordeal was easy to talk about, but when it came to actually putting it into action, it definitely resulted in death nine out of ten times.
For an ordinary child travelling alone, let alone 300,000 li, even 300 li or 3,000 li would be dangerous, and might easily result in them falling prey to the mouths vicious beasts.
The western border was full of dense ancient forests that had many fierce beasts residing within. There wasn’t a trace of human establishment, and there were malicious beasts and fierce birds everywhere, making this the most terrifying piece of primal land.
Let alone a child, even a group of adult experts together would have difficulty traversing through this land. They might be suddenly eaten by an Archaic Descendant at at any time without even a skull remaining.
The little guy had sharp senses, and avoided many terrors and dangers while on this journey, yet he still encountered many life and death ordeals. He had suffered multiple serious injuries along the way, but he still finally made it out in the end.
He was just over seven years old, yet he already completely such a magnificent feat!
If people knew of this, this would inevitably become stunning news, and it would shake every direction and spread to the rest of the world. If this was known by the likes of Zhulu Academy, they would instantly dispatch experts to find him, making him a member of their academy.
When he finally saw the village, the little guy galloped out of the great wasteland while riding on the back of the unicorn.
When he stopped and asked around for directions, he couldn’t help but feel stupid. His general direction was not wrong, but he was off by more than 20,000 li.
“Wu, I’ve obviously followed the route given Willow Deity, but in the end, I was still off by so much. I most likely made a wrong turn somewhere after falling into that long river.” The little guy scratched his head and once again set off.
After leaving the endless mountain ranges, there were far less vicious birds and fierce beasts. Relatively speaking, it was much safer, and in two days, he arrived near one of Stone Country’s important border towns.
The ancient country was extremely vast, as millions upon millions of li of rivers and mountains rested within its domain. A powerful kingdom within it could have up to hundreds of millions of people, or perhaps even billions; its vast territory was boundless.
Such a vast territory would naturally be rather hard to supervise. They could only establish a huge city in the middle of each region to control them. Once a riot occurred within that region, the huge city commanding the area would rapidly send out their experts to calm the insurgency.
In reality, Stone Country was at its peak, and did not need help calming down its insurgencies. In particular, the emperor’s powers have reached the heavens during the last few centuries, gaining unrivaled divine might. The country’s powers flourished even more, and no one dared to rebel.
Only the regions at the borders would be met unrest at times, as other tribes would often knock on the gates from time to time to rob their clan and devour their food. For such a vast ancient country, however, a few minor battles did not account for much.
Rushing Cloud Town could actually be a considered a city, as it had a population of 80,000. It was situated in an extremely important geographic location, and an important town was situated west of it. This was one of the central city’s defensive checkpoints.
In the past hundred years, experts from other tribes would invade from time to time, but as long as they wanted to pass through with a large force, they would never succeed.
On the road, the little guy met many people in succession, and they were mostly businessmen who had traveled through the ancient forests to purchase beast skin, spirit medicine and other items from distant tribes. Although the journey was extremely dangerous, their profits were high as well.
“Wu, let’s go back as soon as possible. I heard it hasn’t been peaceful around here lately. The great wasteland’s Wood Clan keeps sending troops out. Furthermore, I heard rumors that an Archaic Descendant from the heart of the mountains just stopped over here. It will definitely start showing off its power and begin its intimidation. It will most likely come to Rushing Cloud Town and create a ruckus.”
The little guy carefully overheard. By sitting on by himself on his mount, he was naturally rather conspicuous, however, no one gave him a hard time along the journey. Any child who traveled alone with blood all over his body was certainly not a simple figure. In reality, these people frequently went into the ancient forests; they’ve experienced a lot and seen a lot. They assumed that this was most likely the disciple of a large clan who came out to train.
“Yiya, not good. It looks like there’s a little beast flood. It couldn’t have been that the Archaic Descendant decided to show its might early, right?”
“It shouldn’t be. It’s most likely an ordinary beast king, as there aren’t that many groups of beasts. However, let’s still leave quickly!”
Along the journey, they could already see Rushing Cloud Town. The city walls were majestic, and it was as if a mountain range obstructed in front. It was constructed out of diamond rocks, and so its entirety was pitch black like metal as it emitted a terrifying luster.
In front of the city was a group of vicious birds and fierce beasts, and they formed a pitch black expanse. They did not avoid the city, and directly displayed their might. Their howls shook the sky, and they wanted to siege this city, making everyone tremble.
“Move away quickly. Hopefully, our Great Guardian Spirit can behead these vicious beasts and wipe them clean!”
The group of people rapidly escaped into the distance. They could not enter the city during this time, since they were afraid of attracting the attention of these beasts and causing a catastrophe.
In the city, there was a mountain of earth close to the city wall. A plant that was four to five zhang1 tall grew on top, and it was clearly visible from even outside the city. Its entire body was dark green, and it had huge palm-like leaves.
This was the Guardian Spirit of Rushing Cloud Town, a plant whose name even the locals did not know of; it was usually referred to as Great Guardian Spirit or Great Rushing Cloud.
It released waves of fragrance from each of its three huge, and strange flowers extended from between its huge palm-like leaves. Each flower was as large as a millstone, and they all had gorgeous petals that flickered with multi-colored light. One of them was curled up in scarlet light, another was as pure white as jade, and the last was shrouded in purple mist.
The beast herd had obviously seen the people outside the city, and a group immediately rushed out while producing thunderous roars.
“Great Guardian Spirit! Save us!” This group of people shouted loudly.
The little guy had already finished his battle preparations; however at that moment, there was a flash of scarlet light, and one of the flowers belonging to the plant on top of that mountain blossomed with a multi-colored scarlet light. Its petals unfolded, dispersing a shocking ripple.
Chi.
A streak of scarlet light shot out before turning to attack towards that region of beasts. Suddenly, the group of ten vicious birds and fierce beasts that rushed out went into disarray, and constantly howled as their blood spilled into the air, causing heavy casualties to the beast herd.
The little guy had a surprised expression on his face, and shockingly discovered this so-called scarlet light was actually a flying sword that was scarlet all over; it sparkled like a fiery jade.
“A flower with a flying sword inside?”
After a short while, those ten fierce beasts and birds all fell into a pool of blood. They either had their heads chopped off or had their bodies cut in in half. It was extremely tyrannical.
“It’s so much more powerful that the Wolf Village’s Legendary Wolf. If it was compared to Aunt Green Scaled Eagle before she ate the Suan Ni meat, she would definitely be inferior as well,” said the little guy lightly. That scarlet light was too quick and violent. In just a short period of effort, it executed all of those vicious creatures.
After a flash of splendor, the scarlet sword flew back into the city.
The faces of all those businessmen who collected beast skins and spirit medicines became pale. After they regained their composure, they charged toward Rushing Cloud City to kowtow and show their gratitude.
“Ya, so it turns out it is its stamen which actually contained many identical flying swords,” said the little guy in amazement. That flying sword was only a stamen that was shaped like a sword, and it sheathed itself back into the flower petal. After the dazzling splendor circulated a bit, its petals closed again.
“Great Rushing Cloud has been protecting this town for hundreds of years, ever since it was a town of less than 1000 to the city that has a population surpassing 80000 people today. Its contributions are simply astronomical!”
“Great Rushing Cloud’s powers is enough to protect a huge city, and it is not in any way inferior to those Guardian Spirits of huge cities. Only, it never had the desire of leaving.”
These people were all discussing among themselves. After the little guy heard this, he was amazed at how extremely powerful that plant was.
“This Guardian Spirit is very extraordinary.” Within the city, a fat middle-aged man talked to himself. His face could not be considered white, while his eyes flickered radiantly.
“It is extremely powerful, and this kind of Guardian Spirit is very rare as well. If master showed his face to invite it, perhaps this Guardian Spirit could become a member of my Rain Clan.”
The fat middle aged man shook his head and said, “Whatever, it’s bad for this stuff to spread, and actual matters are more important anyway. We don’t know whether or not young lady Xia Youyu has returned. I’m here to seek that talisman.”
1. Zhang = 3.3 meters