Chapter 425: Scarletfire Flying Foxes
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ, KLKL
By the time Ai Hui came to Blind He to talk about his idea, Blind He had already satisfied his cravings for using White Cluster Flames. As such, now he responded indifferently to Ai Hui.
Ai Hui felt that Blind He seemed to be unhappy with him ever since he’d met Lou Lan.
Eh? Why was he unhappy with him?
Ai Hui couldn’t wrap his head around it. He had not really offended Blind He before.
If Blind He wasn’t blind, he would have rolled his eyes. How could someone like Ai Hui have such a good sand puppet in Lou Lan? Fortunately, Blind He had not forgotten that Ai Hui was his employer and his salary was paid by Ai Hui.
However, after he used the eyes on his palms to scan Ai Hui’s design plan, he was startled. "You want to use lava-spitting beast’s snout?"
Ai Hui could not help but praise Blind He in his heart. Blind He was indeed a Master. He knew Ai Hui’s intentions with a mere glance at this design plan.
However, Ai Hui did not praise Blind He openly and asked, "How? Can you make it?"
When it came to work, Blind He immediately went into his zone. He became a completely different person and his nonchalant attitude disappeared without a trace. He sat up straight with his back bolt upright and his facial expression turned cold. His perception became sharp and his entire body was brimming with confidence.
"This area needs to change, this area as well. I roughly understand your plan. This area can be changed in this way. You see, am I right?"
As Blind He was explaining to Ai Hui, a rough structure model was forming in his hands.
The more Ai Hui listened to Blind He, the more he admired him. When Ai Hui took over the structure model, he adulated Blind He, "The strength of a Master is indeed formidable!"
One could tell whether or not a person was an expert just by looking at his actions. Even though Blind He had not completely understood Ai Hui’s idea, his rich experience allowed him to give a lot of valuable suggestions. These suggestions stemmed from Blind He’s years of accumulated experience, something that Ai Hui was lacking in.
Theoretically, Ai Hui had memorized the entire [Treating The City As A Piece Of Cloth]. During Ai Hui’s last visit to his master before he died, his master still talked long-windedly to him about some of his theories. Furthermore, even before Elders Guild began to study Wang Shouchuan’s research works and theories, Ai Hui was already immersing himself in [Treating The City As A Piece Of Cloth]. At that point of time, Ai Hui did not realize the brilliance of his master’s theories. He was only studying them based on one very simple mentality. He was his teacher’s only student, how couldn’t he know his teacher’s theories and research works?
After studying his master’s theories for quite some time, Ai Hui had a deeper understanding towards them now.
In practice, Ai Hui still faced the problem of his lack of experience. He couldn’t do anything about this problem. After all, he did not have many opportunities to practise and there was no one to guide him along. For example, he could understand the science behind God-subduing Peak, but he did not know how to build it. Other than knowing that an immense amount of materials was needed to build it and how these materials could come together to create the highest possible destructive power, Ai Hui knew nothing else.
Only if he possessed a huge number of skilful blacksmiths, like Elders Guild, could he then build a powerful war machine like God-subduing Peak.
Blind He’s superb attainments in his craft were extremely important to Ai Hui at this point of time. This could be seen in the energy-stabilizing pillars. Blind He’s completed energy-stabilizing pillars were finer than the ones in Ai Hui’s design plan. The slight reduction in the thickness of the energy-stabilizing pillars was derived from a countless amount of experience and wisdom.
Ai Hui’s previous unhappiness had vanished without a trace. It was alright for a Master of his level to treat him with slightly less respect.
Suddenly, the warning alarm rang in the middle of their discussion.
Ai Hui’s facial expression changed. He quickly ran out and looked at the sky.
A bat-like dire beast was circling in the sky above the valley.
Scarletfire flying fox!
Scarletfire flying fox was a type of dire beast that lived in caverns that were near a volcano. Their faces looked like a fox’s and they had pointed mouths. Their bodies had a wide, darkish red membrane that allowed them to fly.
Even though their flying ability was not as good as a real bat, they were very clever. They were extremely nimble and agile when they were running on the ground as well. A scarletfire flying fox’s nose was very sensitive. Even though the fog-formed mirage of the valley had deceived their eyes, they still could detect the smells of elementalists with their noses.
They circled in the sky above the valley as they were not sure what was beneath them.
Ai Hui had a headache when he saw the scarletfire flying foxes. The scarletfire flying foxes were not powerful, but they liked to operate in a large group. If one of them was provoked, the rest of the group would be provoked as well. The consequences of that were worse than poking a hornets’ nest.
Ai Hui signalled to everyone not to do anything rash.
Shi Xueman furrowed her eyebrows. She was having a headache too, "Why are there scarletfire flying foxes here?"
"This is a volcanic terrain. There are more fire elemental dire beasts here," Ai Hui replied in a helpless tone, "Luckily it’s just a bunch of scarletfire flying foxes. If it was a group of lava-spitting beasts, this valley would be razed to the ground."
Upon hearing the alarm, Jiang Wei and the rest ran over.
"What shall we do?" Sang Zhijun was unhappy with this situation, "Are we going to let them circle above our heads like this?"
Initially, Ai Hui wanted to find something to assail their nostrils with. Scarletfire flying foxes had sensitive noses and this was something they could make use of. However, when Ai Hui’s gaze swept across the distant mountain ridge, a cold shiver went down his spine.
Ai Hui had just spotted a red glow. He subconsciously knew that he had just seen the eyes of some dire beast!
He was sure that he was not mistaken. He took a deep breath and carefully scanned the mountain ridge with his eyes.
Shi Xueman cast a puzzled look at Ai Hui. Ai Hui was motionless and he was staring at somewhere with his pair of fixed eyes. It was as if he was frightened by the scarletfire flying foxes. However, Shi Xueman knew that Ai Hui would not be afraid, even if there were a few hundred scarletfire flying foxes.
She looked at the direction Ai Hui was staring in but she could not see anything.
At this moment, Ai Hui heaved a sigh of relief, "Phew, I almost missed it. There is a rockback earth dragon!"
"Rockback earth dragon?"
Rockback earth dragon was not of the same level as scarletfire flying fox. It was more dangerous. Rockback earth dragon had four stout and short limbs. Its head was shaped like a triangle, resembling the head of a giant frog. Its back was black in color, cragged, and had a rocky texture. It looked as if it was carrying a fake mountain on its back. This was how rockback earth dragon got its name.
Rockback earth dragon was a dire beast that lived in the depths of earth fire. It had immense strength and it could knock down those slightly smaller peaks. It also loved to devour the fire marrows within the lava.
"Our auras are beginning to attract the dire beasts from nearby. The scarletfire flying foxes are the advance party while the rockback earth dragon is here to spy on us. If we don’t put up a powerful front, they will invade this place."
"The dire beasts are so clever?" Sang Zhijun was slightly surprised.
"These dire beasts are old and experienced. What’s so clever about them? They are just cunning. If you’d encountered those really clever dire beasts, they would not have used scarletfire flying foxes as their advance party."
"We have a lot of people with us and most of us are quite powerful. The aura of our elemental energy will definitely attract the dire beasts nearby. In the eyes of the dire beasts, all of us are human-shaped elixirs," Ai Hui maintained his composure as a tinge of worry swept across his eyes, "Everyone, brace yourself. This will be a tough battle. However, the more powerful we display our strength to be, the more they will be scared of us and the safer we will be then."
Ai Hui knew that they were not the only ones that had attracted the dire beasts, but the five elemental energy pools in the valley as well. Pure elemental energy was a huge supplement, not only for elementalists, but for dire beasts as well. They could not hide such powerful elemental energy undulations from these sensitive dire beasts. Now that Ai Hui thought about it, he realized he had overlooked a lot of things.
The earth fire that a huge volcano like Blackfish Mouth Volcano contained definitely nourished a huge number of fire elemental dire beasts. He was too greedy as he tried to get everything done at once. Now that he had encountered a problem which was too difficult for him to handle, the time and effort he spent on building a large-scale defense system had gone to waste.
At this point, it was too late for him to think about all these things.
Ai Hui calmed himself down and got rid of all the distracting thoughts in his head. A tinge of ruthlessness swept across his eyes. He quickly instructed, "Ask Master He to quickly finish up the components that I asked him to make. All non-combat units hide under the defensive ancient tree. As for the rest, prepare for battle."
Everyone in the valley started to work.
"Jiang Wei and Sang Zhijun will lead the archers to set up a formation on the sand dune. Fatty, you will lead some people to guard the front position of their formation. If there’s any scarletfire flying foxes approaching them, you have to block it for them."
Ai Hui looked at Fatty.
Fatty looked slightly scared but he still nodded his head, "I understand."
"I will be careful. Ai Hui, don’t worry," Fatty added.
Ai Hui patted Fatty’s shoulder and turned to Shi Xueman and said, "Both of us will go and kill the scarletfire flying foxes first. How about this? Do you want to bet who can kill more scarletfire flying foxes?"
A tinge of fire flashed across Shi Xueman’s eyes. She replied bluntly, "Alright."
Following which, Ai Hui turned around and told the rest, "After we kill these few scarletfire flying foxes, there will definitely be many more to come. I will think of a way to lure them into the valley. Jiang Wei, Sang Zhijun and all the archers, make sure all of you are prepared and launch a frontal assault. There’s no need for you to hold back. Attack with all your strength and send them into chaos. Bangwan, prepare as many high-grade grass seeds as you can. Once Bangwan takes action, the rest will follow me and Iron Lady to charge the enemy lines. Everyone understand?"
"Understood!
Everyone had a serious look on their faces. They knew the upcoming battle would be extremely important. Even hunting groups did not dare to attack a group of scarletfire flying foxes head-on. However, Ai Hui and his counterparts had to do this. Otherwise, the dire beasts would join hands and they would be in deep trouble then.
An austere and nervous atmosphere arose in the valley.
Everyone had rich combat experience. Furthermore, they had spent a lot of time carrying out offensive drills. Whether it was setting up formations or carrying out preparatory work, they were adept at it.
This upcoming battle would be the biggest battle they’d encountered ever since they entered Wilderness.
Ai Hui and Shi Xueman stood side-by-side as an absolute silence descended upon the valley.
Shiiinnng! Ai Hui unsheathed his Wintry Jade Blade and held it beside Shi Xueman. Shi Xueman smiled with her eyes as she passed her Cirrus to her left hand and used it to touch Wintry Jade Blade lightly.
Clink!
A crisp and sharp clink resounded throughout the valley as two figures ascended into the sky together.