After the Flaming River Grand Banquet ended, the Flaming River Trading Point was officially open.
In front of the few entrances were giant stone plates carved with the new rules of the trading point. Every new face that came by were gestured by the Flaming Horn guards to read the rules first, or else they wouldn’t even know the reason if they were killed inside the trading point.
Once their lives were involved, those who didn’t care at first immediately went back to take a closer read.
These new faces were people who followed the few major tribes when they came to attend the grand feast. Before, they couldn’t even enter, but when they heard that the Flaming River Trading Point was officially opened, they thought about it for an entire night before they finally made the bold decision to go in.
If they already made it this far and were accustomed to expeditions, they had a heart for adventure and were full of curiosity, or else they wouldn’t have followed them until now.
When they were hiding in the distance and observing the Flaming River trading point, their curiosity made them want to know more, but because they couldn’t, they had to hold back the urge.
Now, they could finally see everything inside the Flaming River trading point.
None of the twenty-four tribes that came left. All of them planned to stay here and trade. Some wanted to leave later while others were waiting for the perfect time to go.
Like the Zhi tribe, they didn’t leave yesterday because they over-ate and couldn’t run fast. There were also all sorts of dangers outside.
Now that night had passed, they had finished digesting most of the food, and they also finished up all the leftovers they took from inside the Flaming River Castle. Now, they were only waiting for those people outside to come into the trading point. Then they would leave. If they left earlier, those people outside who had bad intentions might stop them on the way, so the best way was to wait for those curious people to enter first and then leave. That was the safest option.
Some other smaller tribes thought the same way too. They were not good at most things, but they knew how to determine the best time to escape.
The people who just entered the Flaming River Trading Point were already attracted to all sorts of “sturdy” goods.
“Whoa, look over there! What a giant piece of meat!”
“Judging by the colour, I don’t think I’ve tried this before. Is this what they call fearsome beast meat?”
“Fearsome beast meat?!”
These three words were indeed a great shock to them, even if they often went on expedition trips. They rarely saw any fearsome beasts, unless they went to the Fearsome Beast Forest or the desert. But how many of them were bold enough to enter the Fearsome Beast Forest? Even back then the Wanshi tribe rarely ventured there. So if they were not stupid or out of their minds, they would stay away from that fierce land. As for the desert, even fewer people went there.
“What is this meat?” someone with widened eyes asked. He went closer to smell the bloody meat as he asked. His face expressed his fascination, “This must be delicious!”
“Giant Bear,” the Flaming Horn tribesman who was selling it said slowly.
“Giant Bear? How giant is it?” someone asked curiously.
“What is this other meat?” Before they even got an answer from the seller, another person asked again.
“That’s the meat of a giant claw beast,” the person in charge of that stall replied calmly.
“Giant claw? How big is giant?”
“Um, like that one over there,” the person who was selling pointed to the stall opposite from his. It was full of beast fangs and beast claws. “It’s that third giant beast claw if you count from this side.”
“Oh ~~~” another group of people rushed over together.
“So this is the claw of the giant claw beast?”
“Yes,” the uncle who was selling the beast fangs and claws smiled at them with his dazzling teeth. He took the giant claw down from where it was and let these people who had never seen the “real world” take a closer look.
The people who rushed over touched the beast claw from top to bottom. Then their hands went from bottom to top again. Their eyes stared with awe at the giant beast claw that was twice as tall as them.
“What beast does this claw belong to?” another person asked from the side.
“That’s a beast fang.”
“This beast fang is so huge!”
“It’s okay, it’s not THAT big,” the man who was selling the beast fang grinned at them with his white teeth, “Would you like to buy this?”
The people who were growing excited suddenly felt like they were splashed with a bucket of ice.
Their expressions were all frozen, dumbfounded.
They were too rushed when they came, so to ease their travel when they were tailing the major tribes, they didn’t bring enough “money”. They felt around their pockets and only found a few glittering gems, stones, or shells. There was some jade, but they were not of decent quality. They really couldn’t get much out of their pockets. At first, they wanted to trick the Flaming Horns about how valuable their goods were, but seeing how the Flaming Horns were capable of hosting a “showing-off” feast, how was it possible for them to not have seen these? As they recalled everything they had seen since they entered the Flaming River Trading Point, they didn’t dare to trick the Flaming Horns.
They thought about the rules that were carved on the stone plate when they entered the trading point, and then thought again about how carefree the uncle who was selling the beast fangs and beasts horns was, how effortlessly he moved the giant claw over for them to see.....
You’ll get killed, alright?!
But, if they came all the way here without bringing anything back to show off, they felt sorry for themselves.
But to rob?
Some of them looked around with fierce glares and glanced around them. They were searching for those people from the smaller tribes who came over to attend the feast. Some were tribes that even had trouble filling their own stomachs. If they wanted to rob anyone, it would be them. Indeed it made no sense to rob those powerful tribes. Even idiots wouldn’t do it!
But when they began their search for these people, the Zhi tribe and other smaller tribes had already left. If they wanted to chase after them, it would be too difficult!
Some people did not want to stop there. They gathered their people and left the Flaming River Trading Point. Due to the rules and regulations inside, they didn’t dare make a move, so they could only search outside.
Meanwhile, as these people went to search, the chiefs of the major tribes, the Mang tribe, the Eight Limbs tribe, the Longboat tribe, the Thousand Masks tribe, the Feather tribe, the Tianshan tribe, and the Hui tribe all walked into the Flaming River Castle. But this time, they did not meet in the open-air venue they used before. Instead, they were led into a special meeting room inside the Flaming River Castle. Only a few of the chiefs entered, and on the Flaming Horn’s side, only Gui He and Shao Xuan went in.
Shao Xuan stood up and stretched. After such a busy day yesterday, he even had to deal with some things that came after the event. He didn’t get enough sleep, and the ancestor’s flame giant also consumed a lot of his energy, so he was feeling exhausted now.
When Shao Xuan stretched his arms, the people in the meeting room all looked at him.
When he felt those stares, Shao Xuan said, “Don’t worry, I’m just stretching.”
They didn’t care. Only when Shao Xuan finished stretching and yawning did they emotionlessly withdraw their stares.
They had no choice. Yesterday’s event terrified them. They didn’t know what happened to the flame giant, but they knew that Shao Xuan was the one who created it. With a simple pull of the sleeves, he flooded the entire trading point with a flame torrent. That left a deep negative impression on them. When Shao Xuan stretched his arms, they couldn’t help but feel anxious.
Gui He understood this feeling, but he knew that the ancestral flame giant rarely appeared unless they were holding a sacrifice. When he noticed their reactions, he wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. When the ancestral flame giant appeared yesterday, he was standing beside Shao Xuan. At that time, he was so shocked that his entire back was covered in a cold sweat.
After gathering his emotions, Gui He looked at Shao Xuan, and seeing Shao Xuan nod in response, he said, “Let’s start.”
The stone door of the meeting room slammed shut with a “boom” and shut out all the sounds from within.
It was only until nighttime when the stone door was opened again.
The few chiefs had perplexed looks on their faces. It wasn’t clear whether they were happy or mad. They left with their people on the fifth day after the Flaming River trading point officially opened.
And the curious travellers who followed them here also left one after another.
With their help in spreading the news, the Flaming River Trading Point’s name would soon spread far and wide across the continent.
To the people who lived on this continent, news about the destruction of a tribe by another only lasted for a short time. Most tribespeople only talked about other tribes whom they were not familiar with or lived too far away when they were bored. If there were any other exciting news, they would immediately turn their attention towards it. But when it came to eating, they could discuss it for a very long time.
Some people even counted with their fingers and tried to recall how many tribes hosted “showing-off” feasts in the past few years.
Especially those expedition teams that belonged to different trading points. When they had spare time, they would gather together and discuss these matters.
“I wonder what they ate at the Flaming River Grand Banquet.”
“I heard even some major tribes praised the dishes.”
“Wow, that means the Flaming River Trading Point is very powerful.”
“Not the Flaming River Trading Point. The Flaming Horn tribe is powerful!”
“That means the same thing. Have you guys been there?”
“No. We know people from another tribe who went before.”
“So those rumours are all true? A beast fang this big? A beast claw this size?! Those are all real?” someone stood up and tried to show how big it was.
“Pfft, not that small. It’s way bigger than what you think! Too bad they didn’t bring enough goods to trade, they couldn’t bring a giant beast claw back. Those claws, heh, they don’t even need to be polished. They could be used directly as weapons! I heard it could even split rocks in an instant....”
It was rare for that person to catch the attention of so many, so he was delighted. He cleared his throat and continued to tell them all about what he heard.
Gradually, more and more people gathered to listen, and some even made strange sounds like “Ssssss”, “Ahhhh”, “Huh”, “Yaaaaa”, “Oh”.
“Umm, those people who went there didn’t have any goods to exchange, but they didn’t even try robbing?” someone asked.
“Are you sure you’d rob the Flaming Horns?” the crowd looked instantly at the person who asked the stupid question. In their minds, the Flaming Horn tribe was already at a new height. Their rank was not any lower than the few major tribes from the central region.
“Pfft! When did I say I would rob the Flaming Horns? Am I that stupid?” the person who asked tried to explain, “What I meant was to rob those smaller tribes!”
“No way, the tribes who lived in that region were too familiar with the geography there. I heard that when they tried to chase after some of them, they couldn’t even catch up and lost them,” the person in the centre immediately caught on to the topic and continued to blabber on.
“Why not, we find time to go on an expedition trip there?” a leader of some tribe’s expedition team said as he listened.
“I had the same thought, let’s go together.” the leader of another expedition team said.
“Haha, we can gather more people. It’s not easy to rob those smaller tribes. They’re very tricky and clever!”
The person who spoke only repeated what he heard once, but when that person told him about the smaller tribes and said how “tricky and clever” they were, he was speaking through gritted teeth.
That person said that whenever they were chasing those people in the forest, they were so close, but those people always succeeded and escaped. They even almost fell into an abyss.
“So that’s why, when we go to the Flaming River Trading Point in the future, we should bring more people. If people fell into the abyss, at least there would be others there to save them. And there would still be enough people to chase after the smaller tribes,” someone came over said with a professional tone.
Their plans were excellent. However, it was still unknown who would suffer when the time came.