Chapter 53: Po
The scorpion’s head was shattered instantly by the golden cube.
The vitality of this powerful, poisonous insect was especially high. The scorpion’s body still twitched, its long legs embedded into the ground, while slashing a few deep ditches in the ground.
“This is a devil-wind scorpion. Generally, this kind of scorpion is around ten feet long, and all of them are wild and hard to kill,” said Ji Hao. He was squatting beside the scorpion, watching the sturdy young man neatly cut open the carapace[1] on its back, and continued, “this is the first time I saw such a huge devil-wind scorpion’.”
“It has become a spirit beast,” said the young man. He opened the carapace on the scorpion’s back, displaying the translucent, light-silver coloured meat inside its body.
“Don’t waste it!”
Saliva gushed out of Ji Hao’s mouth once he saw the meat. Ji Hao was beaten so hard by this scorpion with explosive stones that he couldn’t even fight back, which meant that this scorpion must be as powerful as an ordinary Senior Magus and its meat could largely improve Ji Hao’s power. Its meat was a treasure to Ji Hao.
Seeing that the young man was about to throw the meat away, Ji Hao leapt onto a tree and picked hundreds of foot-long leaves, then put them on the ground. The young man smiled, sliced the meat off and neatly placed them on those leaves.
Qing Ying came over with a few warriors. Those warriors scattered around while staying alert. Only Qing Ying walked close to the huge scorpion curiously, pulling out a dagger out and heavily knocking on the scorpion carapace.
The dagger ignited large amounts of fiery sparks against the scorpion carapace. Although Qing Ying’s dagger was badly abraded, it failed to leave even a trace of a cut on the scorpion carapace.
“Such a hard carapace! It can be the perfect material to make armour! Must be indestructible!” yelled Ji Hao.
The sturdy young man laughed, nodded to Ji Hao, then gently said, “my young friend, I was careless just now and almost let this evil creature hurt you. Since you like this scorpion carapace, then let me make it into an armour for you as a gift, which will protect you in the future.”
While speaking and laughing, the young man cut open those long legs of the scorpion. Thirty-six fist-sized, green, transparent beads rolled out of its legs. Blown by the morning wind, these beads flew into the air and started to rotate.
“Wow!” Qing Ying exclaimed, “can devil-wind scorpions grow these kind of beads inside their bodies? I’ve never seen something like this before! Even the most knowledgeable elder in the clan has never talked about this!”
“These are scorpion-dragon beads. Ordinary devil-wind scorpions, no matter how big they are, are nothing but poisonous insects; they can’t have these kind of beads inside their body for sure.” The young man was picking those beads up and putting them in his sleeves, he smiled and said to Qing Ying, “however, this scorpion was different. It had become a spirit beast by absorbing nature’s power, learned how to practice its own power, and pursued higher achievements; by doing so, it could produce these thirty-six beads.”
“What will do you with those beads?” asked Ji Hao curiously.
The young man picked up the last bead and put it into his sleeve, then smiled and nodded to Ji Hao and said, “My name is Po. I’m an ascetic traveler, traveling around the world. The Southern Wasteland is my last stop of this travel.”
“I’ve traveled through the Middle Land, the Eastern Wasteland, the Northern Wasteland, and the Western Wasteland. Sometimes when I gazed into the sky, I perceived that there are some mysterious principles of the planetary orbits. Afterwards, I conceived an powerful, ancient, heavenly fighting strategy, called the [Primordial Celestial Life Transformation Art ], therefore, I thought I might be able to imitate the principles of the planetary orbits and create a treasure which requires thirty-six thousand scorpion-dragon beads. This is the last thirty-six of them, I finally got them all.”
Ji Hao opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything. He stared at Po stunned.
“In order to fulfill his own inspiration, he decided to create a treasure, gathering a total of thirty-six thousand scorpion-dragon beads, for which he needed to kill a thousand cold-wind scorpions which were as powerful as Senior Magi!”
“How many places he had been to, to gather all those beads?!”
“How fertile could this land be, to hide that many spirit stage devil-wind scorpions?” said Ji Hao in his head.
“A thousand devil-wind scorpions! You’re so patient!” exclaimed Ji Hao.
“Wasted so much time.” Po scratched his own head and smiled honestly, “my teacher also said that I wasted too much time making treasures. If I hadn’t wasted this much of time and focused on my daily practice instead, my power would be far greater than it is now. But if I gave up on treasure-making and only concentrated on practicing daily, how boring would that be?”
Ji Hao raised his thumb towards Po, while thinking his words were very reasonable.
The basic theory for daily practice is to cultivate one’s heart and mind, and to coordinate the human power with nature’s power. Po did what he felt like doing and obsessed in treasure-making; one might say that he wasted his time, however, what if the treasure-making was another training method?
The troop was heading back to the Cold Stream Valley. Warriors walked in the front and carried the scorpion meat on their shoulders, while singing a Southern Wasteland song. Ji Hao was dragging the empty scorpion carapace, ardently chatting with Po.
Po had traveled through countless places, his experiences were incredibly rich. The sceneries he talked about were all strange sights that were even hard to be imagined by the Southern Wasteland’s people, such as the endless sea in the East, the forest in the North, the barren land of the West, as well as the boisterousness of the Midlands.
“Hao, my young friend, the world is vast. You must go out and see it. Don’t waste this strong body of yours, which was nourished by the nature.” Po was a frank and straightforward person with an extremely bright smile on his face; after a short while of chatting, he already viewed Ji Hao as his close friend.
“When I get the chance, I’ll certainly venture out of the Southern Wasteland!” said Ji Hao seriously. “I want to know how this world really looks like...hmmm...Po, you said that the Midlands were flourishing, how is it like now?”
Po frowned, shook his head and said, “the last time I passed the Midlands, it was suffering from a war. Everyday, thousands of people get robbed, countless women raped, and innumerable children become slaves or get killed.”
“My strength is limited. I tried my best to save those people, but I couldn’t save all of them. Amongst this vast world, I, Po, am only an ascetic traveler. I’m too weak to save this world and all of the suffering people,” Po curled his lips downwards, despondently.
“The Midlands! I’ve heard about it; it’s the broadest and greatest area in this world!” Qing Ying said curiously, “Po, according to you, the Midlands are in a mess, just like our Southern Wasteland!”
“The Midlands are in a much bigger mess than the Southern Wasteland!” said Po seriously, while looking at Qing Ying, “The Southern Wasteland is a peaceful, quiet paradise.”
We’ve just been through a great fight against the Blood Fang and the Black Water Serpent Clan; hundreds people died in that fight. Can this chaotic Southern Wasteland be a peaceful, quiet paradise? thought Ji Hao.
Ji Hao was stimulated by Po’s words, he couldn’t wait to go to the Midlands and see what that legendary land looked like with his own eyes.
Soon, the troop arrived at the Cold Stream Valley. From a distance away, Ji Hao yelled towards the valley, “Abba, Amma! We have a guest here! Get the booze and the grilled meat! Let’s host our honoured guest!”
Pausing for a second, Ji Hao continued, “our guest has came from outside the Southern Wasteland!”
Followed by a long clarion sound, a batch of Fire Crow Clan warriors opened the heavy gates of the fence wall, walking out in a line.
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[1] Carapace: The hard upper shell of a tortoise, crustacean, or
arachnid.