Chapter 787
You Can’t Watch
Three days?
Shao Xuan didn’t know why they did not leave with Mu Yao or why Yi Cong wanted three days but...
“Why should I?” Shao Xuan looked at the two Yi people nearby. “In the forest, when the wolves catch the deer, they do not give it time to catch its breath.”
“No, these three days will be beneficial to us and you Flaming Horns.” Yi Cong’s expression did not change. “Within three days, our Yi family will battle Yi Xiang to death. I believe I do not need to explain who Yi Xiang is.”
Shao Xuan raised an eyebrow. He knew who Yi Xiang was, of course. Rock Hill City was currently so powerful mainly because of Yi Xiang. Yet Yi Xiang had always been called by the Yi family as ‘The Unlucky One’.
Shao Xuan pointed at them with the hand without the knife. “You two?” He pointed at the ground. “Here?” He pointed in the direction of the desert with his thumb. “Fight Yi Xiang?”
They were so far away, how will they fight?
Plus Yi Cong had said ‘our Yi family’, not ‘I’ or ‘we’. Did that mean the entire Yi family was participating in battle? They were so far away and not the entire Yi family would head to the desert. So how will they fight this war?
Seeing Shao Xuan’s confusion, Yi Cong explained patiently, as if confident Shao Xuan would not kill them now, “Our Yi family’s fighting techniques differ from other tribes.”
Yi Qi, who was listening next to Yi Cong, had his lips curved upwards, looking proud. He seemed to look down on how other tribes fought- they fought with knives the moment their tempers flared, how barbaric! Unrefined! Only the Yi family was sophisticated!
“How different?” Shao Xuan was now interested. The Yi family was a very special group. They did not have much firepower or strong physiques like other tribes, yet still managed to become one of the six royal families of King City.
“If I tell you, could you give us three days?” asked Yi Cong.
“Yes.” Shao Xuan could afford three days.
Yi Cong relaxed after hearing his reply. All they needed was for Shao Xuan to give them three days.
Sitting down on a piece of animal hide laid by his slave, he continued, “Our Yi family never worshipped the strength of the flesh.”
Shao Xuan knew this. The Yi family could kill from a long distance, often creating all sorts of accidents that cannot be investigated successfully.
“The abilities of our ancestors aren’t just limited to the world you see.” Yi Cong stared into space, eyes filled with admiration and reverence. “You will not be able to witness the battle between the Yi family members. A true master is not hindered by distance, just like how you receive information from something far away.”
Can’t be seen?
Shao Xuan planned to watch their battle to learn more, possibly improving his knot divination skills. But Yi Cong said he won’t be able to see it?
“I don’t know how you learned the Yi family’s divination skills but you are not one of us. Even if you have mastered one skill, you still will not be able to reach the core of the arts. This is only accessible to the lineage, and is related to the fire seed’s powers,” said Yi Cong.
“You punk, so which freaking Yi family method did you actually use?!” Yi Qi finally blurted. He still could not completely believe that the person who tracked them using their own techniques was a tribesman?!
“If I tell you, will you tell me how I can watch the battle?” asked Shao Xuan.
“No, regular people will not see it. You must know the core of the arts, just as Yi Cong mentioned. Plus you can’t, even if someone told you how because you do not have Yi blood in your veins!” cried Yi Qi.
Without Yi blood, one could not use their fire seed or get to the core of the arts. Especially not witness the Yi family’s battle from an insider’s perspective.
Fire see again?
“Then how do you know the Yi family will be fighting? From a reading? Three days because the battle will begin in three days?” asked Shao Xuan.
These people had been in the forest for a long time, how could they know something so accurately?
“That’s right,” nodded Yi Cong.
Although Shao Xuan had attempted a reading, he still could not tell what the Yi family was up to. Perhaps that was the difference between outsiders and the Yi family? Other than knot divination, he could not seem to master any of the other Yi skills.
“You might sense a force affecting our readings now. While we can’t conduct readings for anything else, we can still predict the Yi family’s movements. There will be war in three days,” said Yi Cong.
Something was affecting their readings? Shao Xuan had not noticed, he had just done a reading on the mountain to check on the hunt team. Although it was a little more difficult than usual, his reading was still successful.
Of course, Shao Xuan kept this to himself.
During these three days, Yi Cong only talked briefly about Yi Xiang and the life-or-death battle coming soon. Then, he and Yi Qi turned their full focus on battle preparations.
This was a good place, perhaps because it was near Eagle Mountain, there were not many threatening fearsome beasts nearby and eagles rarely rested at the foot of the mountain. That was why Yi Cong and Yi Qi did not leave with Mu Yao. Even if they had three days, there was no way to get out of the forest so soon to find a better place. They decided to fight the battle here.
The battle had come too quickly. They were still planning to look for better forging materials with the Mu family to fight the desert threats. However, the battle came too suddenly so they did not need to catch the star butterfly larvae because there was no need. Even if they caught the larvae and made the weapons, the battle would have ended by then.
Yi Cong and Yi Qi said three days but in reality, on the second day both of their faces darkened. Having their slaves stand guard around them, they took out their prepared trays, jades and golden sand.
Just like conducting a reading, they put the jades in a specific order in the tray and scattered sand on top. Every time they moved the jades, the sand would change.
Shao Xuan watched Yi Cong and Yi Qi, who had seemed to forget about the world. Their eyes were glued to the changes in the sand on the tray as if that was the world.
They were not afraid of Shao Xuan watching either. Shao Xuan was not a Yi family member, even if he were unexpectedly talented, this outsider would not be able to access the dimensions they could.
Access to the inaccessible was the reason why the Yi family felt better than everyone.
Within the tray, the golden sands moved despite the still air, first moving in one direction, then another. The jades seemed to create invisible forces to push the sands around. The hands moving the jade seemed to move very slowly, even stopping, yet at the same time moving so fast that the hands were just afterimages while the jade and sand moved on their own!
Changes were happening quickly.
Energy ripples intensified. The slaves around stepped backwards, then again, and again... distancing themselves because of the oppression from the two suddenly powerful auras.
Whoosh—
An orange-red flame mixed with white light erupted suddenly in an arc before Yi Qi, forming an arc of fire. On the outside, there was a fireball mostly consisting of orange-red flames while the bottom was white. The flames were as tall as a man. On the other side of the arc, Yi Qi sat with three shadows behind him, flickering along with the flames. One fireball, but three shadows?!
Fire seed flames!
The fireball was the fire seed’s flames, the one that was merged with the Yi people’s bodies!
The fire seed that appeared, and the arc, plus three resulting shadows coincidentally formed the Yi family totem! This was the Yi family – previously the Yi tribe- totem!
Shao Xuan had seen the Yi family totem in King City, though the aristocrats no longer called them totems but sigils. Carriages, shops, mansions all bore totems. However, Shao Xuan never knew that the Yi family totem presented itself this way!
Yi Cong was a little slower but the same situation occurred.
Shao Xuan finally knew why they needed three days. The battle was coming in three days and as long as the Yi people were in this condition, Shao Xuan would be unable to attack them easily. The influence of their fire seed was present as protection, just like how a fire pond could protect a tribe. The power of the fire seed was a sort of protection, and the Yi family had just turned this protection up to the maximum, stronger than what Shao Xuan felt on another Flaming Horn’s body!
It was still bearable far away but as long as he came within ten steps of them, he would feel a strong repulsion with every step. This was why their slaves kept retreating back because they could not stand close. At the same time, Yi Cong and Yi Qi were sitting very closely, hence their auras overlapped and intensified.
The battle definitely would not last just one or two days. The three-day condition they offered was probably just an excuse to stall time, not wanting to waste energy before the battle. They first had to negotiate with Shao Xuan, then once they entered battle mode, the fire seed’s ‘shield’ would be activated.
“You think I can’t harm you just because of the fire seed?” Shao Xuan laughed. Both of them probably knew he would not force an attack during a moment like that anyway. The Yi family fighting Yi Xiang was actually a good thing to the Flaming Horns. Flaming Horn did not like both parties that much anyway.
Furthermore, Yi Cong had probably analysed Shao Xuan’s modus operandi anyway. He was only calm because he felt Shao Xuan was unlikely to attack now.
However, he did not know that Shao Xuan was not afraid of the fire seed’s repulsion and could withstand the oppression coming from both people. But Shao Xuan did not plan to kill them now.
Looking at the two people wrapped in flames, Shao Xuan went to look for another spot. He got Chacha to watch their surroundings, then took out a straw rope.
You said I can’t watch the battle?
I wouldn’t know without trying.