As the Lu tribe’s migrating team left the central region, fewer people came to trouble them.
Initially, the Lu tribesmen thought that they would encounter more troubles in the central region but that wasn’t the case. Their large team walked for so long and even though they also encountered some small troubles along the way and were sometimes ambushed by people in the central region, they safely made it out of the central region. However, they might encounter more troubles now that they were out of the central region and the population was more sparse.
In the central region, there were many people watching as the Lu tribe migrated. If anyone decided to make a move on the Lu tribe, they had to be careful not to be noticed or recognized by anyone else because getting caught would mean the end for them. However, in places with fewer people, they could do whatever they wanted and people might not even notice, and even if the Lu tribe wanted to seek help, they wouldn’t be able to receive any in a short time.
That was why they had to be more alert after leaving the central region.
At night, as the team stopped to rest, Shao Xuan had an ominous feeling. After some thought, he took out his ropes and began to perform his divination.
When the other Flaming Horns saw this, they were all surprised. Shao Xuan would not use his ropes unless it was something important. They had decided not to rely on knot divination because if they relied on it too much and it stopped working one day, they might not be able to live without it. That was why as long as it was a problem they could solve easily, they would not use knot divination. The others all knew about this. That was why they were curious when they saw Shao Xuan performing the knot divination. Was something wrong?
After he finished and studied the ropes, his brows furrowed in confusion.
The others did not ask him what was wrong. They patiently waited for Shao Xuan to tell them after he figured it out himself. They were merely curious about what the ropes said because it seemed to be portending something unpleasant. Were they about to be robbed?
Indeed, the ropes did not bring good news. Shao Xuan looked in one direction. It was where the desert was. This was a feeling he had for a long time and he knew it was related to the desert.
Knot divination cannot tell exactly what would happen in the future because there are too many unpredictable factors involved. Shao Xuan could not predict what exactly was about to happen, but he was sure that danger was approaching and they had a specific target.
Shao Xuan looked toward Gan Qie. These people were not targeting the Lu tribe. Their target was Gan Qie.
They could not see the sun now. Only a dim light lined the clouds at the horizon, and Gan Qie’s bald head reflected the light of the rising sun.
Gan Qie was also looking in that same direction, but Shao Xuan couldn’t tell if he had also sensed something or if it was just a coincidence.
“Guang Yi, lead the team with Xiang Chen tomorrow. You guys have to leave first,” Shao Xuan turned around and said to Guang Yi, who was resting beside him.
Guang Yi frowned deeply, “Is something going to happen?”
“The Lu tribe is not their target,” Shao Xuan’s finger pointed in the desert’s direction. “People might be coming from over there, so you guys must leave first.”
Guang Yi couldn’t tell faces apart, but he had a good sense of direction. He knew where Shao Xuan was pointing. At first he wanted to ask if they should stay and help, but after recalling the desert monsters they couldn’t kill, he hesitated. He asked, “You’re going to be alone? Do you need more people to stay with you?”
“He’ll definitely stay,” Shao Xuan’s head turned toward Gan Qie’s direction.
“Gan Qie is most likely their target.”
Those people were targeting Gan Qie, not Shao Xuan. Hearing this, Guang Yi felt much assured. Gan Qie was not part of their tribe and he wouldn’t care even if anything happened to him. He didn’t have to worry about Shao Xuan either because he could escape even if there was a difficult enemy. Chacha was with him and it was easy for him to escape. All he had to do was hop on Chacha and fly away, but if more people stayed with him, they would have a hard time escaping.
Since Shao Xuan was already so firm on this decision, Guang Yi remained silent.
The next day, the team set off for their destination again, and this time, Guang Yi and Xiang Chen were the leaders of the team. They would bring their people as well as the Lu tribesmen to the Flaming River region. With them leading the team, Shao Xuan didn’t have to worry about anything going wrong.
Many in the Lu tribe were doubtful when they saw Shao Xuan and Gan Qie stay behind. The Flaming Horns did not tell them why Shao Xuan chose to stay back, and after they asked and received no answers, they eventually gave up and stopped questioning. They could tell Shao Xuan stayed behind to fend off some trouble.
After the sounds of the reared beasts faded into the distance and the team could no longer be seen, Shao Xuan sat on a tree nearby and waited for the people to arrive. Those people definitely had a way to track them. Back then when Robber Eleven entered the secret chamber in the Flaming River Castle, he also brought an insect box to track Gan Qie. The people from Rock Hill City always had a way to track their target.
They were in the middle of a forest, but the trees here were not dense. Perhaps it was because people came here often so there weren’t many ancient and tall trees nearby. There were hills here but they weren’t high. This place was nothing compared to the forests in which fearsome beasts resided.
Everything was green around them. The morning dew gave the grassy ground a moist appearance.
Shao Xuan rested on a tree nearby as he waited for those people to approach. As long as they stopped here, those people would definitely be able to find them. If they don’t arrive today, they will definitely arrive tomorrow.
The Flaming Horn and Lu tribesmen were already far away. No matter what happened here now, it wouldn’t affect them.
Gan Qie sat on a giant rock under the shade of a huge tree. Some soldiers once rested in the same spot before. There were some carvings left behind on the stone he sat on, but it was already indiscernible. He couldn’t tell what was written there.
The hood covered a huge part of Gan Qie’s face. His eyes were hidden, and he looked in the same direction for an entire day. Once his eyes fixated on something, he would stare at it unblinkingly for a whole day, like a stone statue, and he wouldn’t even move or change his position. This was not something an ordinary person could do.
The sun rose and set. The clouds were painted at the edges by the setting sun, casting a glow of red on the ground beneath them.
They heard an eagle’s cry in the sky. Shao Xuan got up and looked toward the sound.
They’re here!
Not long after, four birds appeared in the sky far away.
As the figures approached them, Shao Xuan recognized these birds immediately. They were birds tamed by the slave masters in the desert, specifically known as desert eagles. Their claws were identical to other eagles, but they were larger in size and their talons were sharper. When they hunted in the desert, their claws were so sharp that they could dive into the sand and drag their prey out of the sand even if they tried to escape. They fed on poisonous snakes, scorpions, and lizards in the desert.
Not many of them came. There were only four eagles, and three of them carried one person each. The fourth eagle carried two people.
Shao Xuan became more vigilant. The fewer the people, the more difficult they were to deal with.
Shao Xuan recognized the two people on the eagle. It was Su Le and another cloaked puppeteer.
The other desert eagles each carried a person. Su Le and the puppeteer were both holding tightly to their eagle while the other three merely stood on the backs of their eagles. They were very stable too. They were dressed the same way as the desert monster, but Shao Xuan could tell that these three were much different from the ones he encountered in the desert.
The three figures jumped off the eagles’ backs even before the eagles landed.
Stomp Stomp Stomp!
As the three of them landed, the ground shook as if a meteorite had struck it.
The ground was cushioned with thick grass, so not much dirt or sand flew up when they landed. After these three figures landed, they did not move. They just stood there in the dents they created in the ground, and since their faces were covered by cloth, Shao Xuan could not tell what they looked like, but with his special vision, he could see that their bones were much brighter than ordinary bones.
They did not breathe and had no heartbeat. Even after they landed, they did not pant. They were like wooden chunks that had no feelings.
Reanimated corpses. These were special human puppets.
Shao Xuan looked at Gan Qie. These three were very similar to Gan Qie when Shao Xuan first saw him. Perhaps they also came from the same tribe as Gan Qie.
The only thing that differed was that these people had red energy flowing through their bones controlling them. Their bones were infused with the fire seed’s energy.
Someone injected a foreign fire seed’s energy into their bones and used this energy to control them. This was not the doing of the person who stood beside Su Le, or else Gan Qie would’ve been made into a puppet back then.
The strange thing was that Shao Xuan could not sense anyone else nearby. Where was the person who controlled these three puppets? Or did they not require someone to control them?
Shao Xuan froze at the thought. He had seen the puppets in the desert. Those could only be considered puppets of a high grade, but these three were more unique.
While Shao Xuan contemplated, Su Le and the other eagles had already landed on the ground. They were unlike those three reanimated corpses who felt no emotion or pain, so they didn’t jump directly from the sky. They only descended from their eagles after they stood firmly on the ground.
After Su Le adjusted his stance, he took a glance of the area and his eyes stopped on Gan Qie for a while before he turned to look at Shao Xuan as Shao Xuan jumped down from the tree.
“Shao Xuan of Flaming Horn!” Su Le roared contemptuously.
Su Le was furious as he recalled how Su Gu looked at him when he came back all beaten up after losing the fight. He even abandoned his armour and fled for his life back then. The Fallen Leaves Lord was also disappointed in him. Su Le thought about getting the ancient corpse back, and he even took out his treasures and contacted the robbers to get the ancient corpse back from the Flaming Horn tribe for him. Unfortunately, they lost contact with the robber and other robbers told him that the robber who went had died.
Luckily, this was his second chance. He could bring this ancient corpse back and this might empower him to win his fight for the throne against Su Gu.
As he thought about the person who was the cause behind all the trouble he suffered from, Su Le’s eyes blazed with fury. However, upon the thought of Shao Xuan’s strength, he began to feel afraid. Luckily, he didn’t need to participate in the fight this time. Even if there were ten of him, he would be no match for Shao Xuan.
“Chu Xu!” Su Le turned to look at the person who stood beside him.
The person in the yellow cloak didn’t bother to look at Su Le. His gaze had been set on Gan Qie even before they had landed. He knew that the person sitting there was his target, but he just felt something was wrong. He looked again at the person’s side view and his greenish looking hands. Startled, he glared at Shao Xuan, “What have you done?!”
Shao Xuan laughed but didn’t speak a word.
Chu Xu’s cloak carried some sand from the desert. As the wind blew the sand off his sleeves, they suddenly felt the energy of the desert. It was totally different from the energy of the environment they were currently in.
Chu Xu turned to look again at the cloaked figure on the rock. The greyish-white linen sailed in the wind and flapped as the winds blew. He was also cloaked. This person on the rock was even more unique compared to the three puppets that came with them. If it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t breathe and that the tracker in Chu Xu’s hands pointed to him, Chu Xu would’ve been doubting his own judgement.
What did the Flaming Horns do to this ancient corpse?!
“Why are you wasting your time with all this nonsense?!” Su Le was impatient seeing how Chu Xu was just standing there, not taking any action. “Shao Xuan, give that ancient corpse back to us, and we’ll let you go!”
With these three helpers here, even his tone sounded more confident.
Shao Xuan replied, “Ha ha.”
Shao Xuan’s attitude and tone fueled Su Le’s anger. His eyes and tone clearly showed his mockery and rudeness. He clearly looked down on him. But after thinking about the numerous times he was defeated by Shao Xuan, he inhaled deeply and continued, “Let’s stop the nonsense. Just kill him and get this done with!”
The latter sentence was an order directed at Chu Xu. He wanted to kill Shao Xuan so he could take the ancient corpse back with them. He never wished to meet Shao Xuan here. If he lost his life here, then everything he planned would be meaningless, but seeing Shao Xuan’s attitude, Su Le wasn’t able to let him go easily. His father, the Fallen Leaves Lord, once said, “These three puppets are different from normal puppets.” If they are used against Shao Xuan’s flaming sword, there shouldn’t be a problem, right?
After thinking about this, Su Le became even more afraid, “Chu Xu! What are you waiting for? Attack!”
The person who stood beside Su Le continued to disregard what Su Le said because he noticed how the cloaked person was glancing at him. In the shade, a pair of eyes looked straight at him under the hood!
Chu Xu told Shao Xuan once again after seeing those unnerving eyes, “Let him come with us. We need to take him back to Rock Hill City.”
Shao Xuan didn’t move. “This I have no control over. You guys should ask him yourself and see what he thinks. If he wants to go, even if I want to, I can’t stop him.”
What did he mean by this?
They were all doubtful, but very soon, Su Le and Chu Xu heard the person on the rock say, “Who are you guys?” His tone was calm and did not carry any emotion.
“He...spoke!” Su Le felt the numbness spread across his skull. Chills travelled down his spine.
Wasn’t this an ancient corpse? How was it able to speak?
Chu Xu was even more shocked. It was impossible for puppets to speak because they were dead. Who was this sitting on the rock? Chu Xu had personally set him under an animal cart before and he knew this corpse very well. How come he became a completely different person?
“He’s definitely under the Flaming Horn’s control! Chu Xu, attack!” Su Le was so scared that his voice became ear-piercingly loud as he screamed.
Chu Xu did not hesitate any longer. He also wanted to find out what happened to the ancient corpse.
“Attack!” Chu Xu yelled.
After his command, the three cloaked figures shot forward like arrows aimed at Gan Qie, who was still sitting on the rock.
Sensing the sudden tense atmosphere, Gan Qie flinched and felt the muscles on his body tighten. All around him, he could feel the chills as the temperature decreased.
These were his tribesmen. Even before they appeared, Gan Qie felt their presence. However, besides this fact, he could also feel a murderous energy within their bodies, and it was directed at him.