Chapter 51: Collusion
In a deep valley, a smelter around ten feet in radius, was spewing a great flame.
With a metal-clattering-like noise, a three-meter tall, sturdy man, who was tied up by chains and shackles, was being dragged towards the smelter by two Jia Clan warriors.
Every time the man struggled, blinding lightning bolts flashed and darted out from the chains that wrapped around his body.
Followed by an electricity-like sound, the powerful lightning struck the sturdy man’s body, making his hair stand up and body twitch intensely. “Monsters! You monsters! Fight against me like a real man! Do you dare! Do you even dare!” the man roared in rage. He was so angry that he even went hysterical.
“I like this guy!” A nearly four-meter-tall Jia Clan warrior quickly walked over. He was wearing heavy armour, as solid as a fort; however, he didn’t make any noticeable sound while walking. He raised a bull-horn-shaped heavy axe, neatly hit the back of the chained man’s head, and knocked him unconscious.
“Look how powerful he is! Look how tall and sturdy he is! Haha! He’s as energetic as a mad bull! He has got to be worth a fortune!” The Jia Clan warrior waved his axe and boasted proudly to others standing around.
Nearly a thousand Jia Clan warriors were gathered in the huge valley, sitting or hunkering on rocks. Each of them had four eyes, which were shining with cold lights. All of those Jia Clan warriors laughed out loud when they heard their fellow clansman.
Two other Jia Clan warriors dragged the unconscious man to the smelter. A short man—with the height of five feet, whose bulging mouth resembled a large ape, and red-speckled skin exhibited a strange, light-green colour—stood beside the smelter and chuckled creepily. He pulled a searing iron rod out of the smelter and branded the area between the chained man’s eyebrows.
Spell symbols lit up on the surface of the searing iron rod. The unconscious man suddenly woke up in pain and started howling. He struggled with all of his strength, however, the iron rod remained still, as if it was rooted in his skull. After quite a while, the searing iron finally left his skin.
A palm-sized, blood-red brand was burned onto the chained man’s forehead—a tower reaching towards the sky, with an open, blood-red eye floating above it.
Along with a sizzling sound, countless tiny, blood-red lines rapidly spread out from the vertical eye and pierced into the chained man’s bones, muscles, and internal organs. The chained man started quivering violently, streams of cold sweat pouring down his body.
The blood-red lines, which radiated a vile and evil atmosphere, slowly disappeared after drilling into the man’s skull, taking full control of his body and mind. By now, the chained man had lost the power to resist; he was dragged away by two Jia Clan warriors and thrown aside as if he were a bag of garbage.
Another chained man, who was also struggling hard, was dragged up to the smelter by Jia Clan warriors and branded on the forehead by the evil, chuckling man.
The sizzling sound didn’t stop. Hundreds of Southern Wasteland warriors were branded by the seal of disgrace and turned into slaves against their own wills.
A long and beautiful bird song came from the sky. A Bi Fang bird with the wingspan of over two hundred feet, gracefully descended from the sky; it gently grabbed a sharp rock with a single talon. The bird slowly folded its wings, elegantly lowering its body down.
Jiang Yao slowly walked down from the bird’s back. Two tall and muscular Jia Clan women walked up to her, throwing a disdainful glance at her, who was much shorter than themselves, and mumbled in a deep voice, “Follow us. The leader has been expecting you for quite a while.”
Jiang Yao followed them, walking towards the centre of the valley. After a bit of walking, a gorgeous tent built under the cliff appeared within their sights.
Tens of well-dressed men lazily stood outside the tent, relaxedly, chatting, and laughing in low voices. Each of these men had a vertical eye located in between their eyebrows; wind, frost, lightning, and other supernatural visions flashed across their pupils.
These men, noticing Jiang Yao nearing, instantly straightened their bodies and assumed serious faces, but they couldn’t help but to stare up and down at Jiang Yao’s body. A few even started swallowing saliva; their lust and greed were completely obvious.
Jiang Yao threw a scornful, sideways glance towards these men, and slowly walked into the tent, as if she were a resplendent queen.
The tent seemed only thirty feet in diameter from the outside, however, if seen from within, the inner space of this tent could accommodate over a thousand people and host a party for them at the same time. The floor was covered with thick and soft, white carpet; exquisitely crafted knives, swords, and shields were hung as wall decorations; and tens of extremely exquisite and complete, gold and jade-inlaid armours were placed in the corners of the tent.
Di Luo, who had previously lost an eye, and had one arm severed by Ji Hao during the chase a few of nights ago, embarrassingly stood in the tent. Lazily sitting on a huge, golden chair beside him, was a middle-aged man who looked very similar to Di Luo, but with a huge scar on his face.
“Di Sha, you didn’t fulfill your promise!” Jiang Yao walked into the tent, looking at the middle-aged man with a sneer on her face and said, “If I knew you people were so useless, I would have given up on you and cooperated with your competitors.”
Di Sha, the middle-aged man, slightly waved his hand and slowly said, “Dear respectable Maguspriestess, let's cut the crap. In the Southern Wasteland, we, the Blood Fang, are not only the most powerful group, but we also have the best background with the strongest power supporting us.”
“You have no choice. To get what you want, you, and the whoever standing behind you, can only cooperate with us” Di Sha shrugged and said calmly.
The vertical eye on Di Sha’s forehead suddenly opened, radiating an eddy of darkness. The light emitted from hundreds of tallow candles dimmed instantly, and the tent was soon filled with darkness. An evil power enveloped the entire inner tent space, emanating a great pressure which made everyone feel as though a huge mountain was descending from above.
“You can’t blame us for that failure. The information you gave us was completely wrong. Those people are much more powerful than you’ve described. That little guy’s gigantic Fire Crow, that woman named Qing Fu, who knows how to cast large-scale Maguspriest sorceries, and that oddly, powerful old man unexpectedly showed up...Too many coincidences and surprises occurred during our mission. Look at my poor brother; look at what you did to him.”
Di Sha put on a troubled expression, burying half of his face into his hand, barely squeezing out a hint of sadness, and let out a sigh. “Look at my dearest little brother, my Di Luo. He hasn’t even married yet! But, but he lost a beautiful eye! My good god, do you have any idea what that means to us, the noble Yu Clan people? He lost an eye; he can never find a woman willing to bear his offspring, not in this life!”
Jiang Yao breathed deeply, then took out a bottle from her sleeve. The bottle was made of black jade and contained about an ounce of clear medicinal liquid, which emitted an extremely strange scent—a scent that seemed to be the combination of the thick smell of blood, a nice herbal aroma and the horrible stench of numerous types of poisonous insects. This strange scent slowly filled the entire tent.
“This is the Wu Xian medicine, well, not the real legendary magical medicine though. This bottle was made by the most powerful Maguspriest Alchemist in the Southern Wasteland.” Jiang Yao threw the bottle to Di Sha and blandly said, “Take this medicine, it will heal all kinds of wounds, no matter how serious it is.”
“Now, Di Sha, seriously,” said Jiang Yao coldly, while staring at Di Sha, “apart from the things we did to show the others, as you promised me before, when can you get me the pure blood of Ji Xia and his son?”