Jian Wei had been taking care of the unconscious Yan Li ever since they made it out of the underground ruins. His heart was filled with gratitude for this man in front of him.
In a lifetime many people are met and many becomes friends, while many become enemies. However, friends come and go and the same goes for enemies. But there are always those people who stay and become irreplaceable in life.
To Jian Wei his friend Yan Li was as close as family and for Yan Li to be willing take the blow for him meant a lot.
As Jian Wei sat there contemplating he heard the rumbling of wagons and horse a short distance away. Once he exited the tent he saw a large caravan approaching.
Flags with a silver spear could've seen looming over the caravan. A team of ten horsemen rode in front of the caravan toward where Jian Wei was.
When the horsemen got closer Jian Wei was able to see silver emblems with a spear on the ten men.
He recognized that emblem as the symbol of the Silver Spear mercenary group. As long as the employer has the money these mercenaries would do the job.
Of course they did not take jobs that went against their code. No pillaging, no raping, and no killing of the innocent. Overall this group had a good reputation.
"What are you doing here?" A mounted man asked Jian Wei.
"Kind sir we are simply travelers. We wish to go to Aurora city to visit some family." Jian Wei replied. Although the Silver spears had a good reputation he still did not want to reveal his status as the lord of Aurora city.
It was best to keep his status hidden because for now he can't trust anyone besides those in his group.
"So that so. How come your group is so small?" The man asked.
That was when Jian Wei remembered that when traveling within the Dragon's Maw there was a requirement of traveling in a party with at least a few thousand people.
People would have to wait until a group met the required numbers before being allowed into the Dragon's Maw. This was to ensure that groups would be big enough to repel demonic beast attacks and the risk of bandits.
This he is questioning Jian Wei most likely is because he thought Jian Wei could be a bandit.
"My son’s wives could not keep up with the speed of the group so we ended up getting left behind." Jian Wei said.
"Is that so? Would you guys like to join our caravan? But first of course I would like to meet and get a head count of how many is in your group." The man said.
"Sure!" Jian Wei replied as he called his men out. One by one they emerged from their tents and lined up.
Everyone but the trio and Yan Li was present. Yan Li was still unconscious.
"Is that everyone? Which one is your son? And I also don't see any women." The man asked.
"We have one man who fell ill during the trip and he's resting in this tent." Jian Wei said as he pulled back the curtain revealing Yan Li.
"As for my son his tent is right there I'll go get him." Jian Wei said as he began heading toward Zhang's tent.
"Let me come with you." The man said as he dismounted his horse.
"Of course." Jian Wei said as he led the man toward Zhang's tent.
Pulled back the curtain Zhang could be seen sandwiched between two out of this world beauties. Their cloths appeared loosely and suggestively.
Seeing this the man stared intently without batting an eye. The two beauties were too mesmerizing from their silky hair, snow white skin, to sliding curves that could be seen from the blanket laying on top of them. The man stared slack jawed at the two of them.
After allowing the man a small glimpse Jian Wei quickly closed the curtain.
"He he he kids these days." Jian Wei said smiling at the man.
"Ye-yes." The man said while Still in somewhat of a daze. After a few moments he was able to snap of the daze.
"If you guys want to you are welcome to join our caravan. They should reach here soon." The man said.
"We would love to." Jian Wei replied politely. Joining the caravan would help the group avoid suspicion when they reach the checkpoint at other side of the Dragon's Maw.
On the other side of the Dragon's Maw was under the control of Green Clover city. Famous for its rare seven colored mushrooms. These things can help cure hundreds maybe thousands of different types of poisons.
After roughly half an hour the rest of the caravan reached where Zhang’s group had camped. Once the caravan reached where the group was the man that questioned Jian Wei rode his horse toward another man who dressed in silver armor.
Moments later the man in silver armor rode over toward the group. Just when the man reached where Jian Wei stood Zhang emerged from his tent along with Yuying and Ai.
The trio finally had enough rest and woke up oddly at the same time. There was an awkward silence when they woke up due to the sleeping position they were in. A while later Zhang got up and walked toward the curtain of the tent and the two beauties followed after.
“Hello my name is Sheng Huo leader of the Silver Spear mercenaries.” The man in silver armor said with a smile on his face.
Sheng Huo greeted everyone in the group and then welcomed them to the caravan. Sheng Huo lent the group two of his spare carriages for the remainder of the trip. The Silver Spear mercenaries numbered roughly five thousand while the rest of the caravan numbered another three thousand people. The caravan’s regular people consisted of many merchants that sold a wide assortment of things.
This caravan had set off roughly a month and a half ago and in another two months or so they would reach Green Clover city.
“Brother I heard that some of the merchants in the caravan formed a mini market and selling things out of their carriages. Do you want to go have a look?” Yuying asked Zhang.
This flask had the power to store large amounts of liquids despite its size. Using this flask Zhang had collected a huge amount of the concentrated essence water from the huge lake where the ruins ended up. The water from that lake held extremely high volumes of essence and it allowed the spider queen to grow so large.
If others knew about this water they’d paid extremely high prices to obtain it because there aren’t that many things out there that could quickly replenish someone’s essence especially during battle.
“Next time I see Xi Ning I need to thank him if he did not suggest that path then I wouldn’t have such a big harvest.” Zhang thought to himself.
Now the two beauties were using jewelry fit for a queen or princess which added to their beauty by giving them a noble aura. Anyone who saw them wouldn’t think twice and believe that these two were princesses from some kingdom.
Then they would see Zhang walking next to Yuying and Ai, once they saw Zhang they would secretly curse at him.
Many types of goods were being sold here from things such as food, jewelry, weaponry, and even lower level demonic beasts. The demonic beasts here would most likely only serve as house pets or beasts of labor. They possessed little to no battle potential at all.
At night it would crawl off into the night to hunt for prey. For now, it’s diet consisted of regular lizards, rodents, and sometimes even birds. Once it grew bigger the spider queen would most likely start hunting other demonic beasts.
The spiders at the ruins would only listen to simple commands even when ordered by the queen. Once these eggs hatched they would be different, they would be able to do intricate tasks thanks to Yuying’s manipulation of their minds.
But Yuying and Ai being as picky as they are, did not simply take everything that was handed to them. The trio continued walking for a while until something caught Zhang’s eye.
“Hello sir how much for these? Also do you have any high quality ones?” Zhang asked.as he picked up three transmission bracelets.
“Here you go.” Zhang placed a small pile of gold coins in front of the merchant.
“No thank you sir.” Zhang said as he took the bracelets from the merchant and walked away with the two beauties.
Now as long as the trio were in a radius of a few hundred feet from each other they’d be able to keep in contact.
Zhang he asked Jian Wei to come over to their tent to discuss some important matters.
“Senior I have something to give to you.” Zhang said.
Zhang knew that according to Jian Wei’s personality if Zhang did not call him foster father he most likely would ignore Zhang until Zhang did call him foster father. So to save time and effort Zhang simply went with the flow.
“This is the imperial seal? It simply slipped from my mind after everything that happened. I’m getting too old…” Jian Wei said with a sigh and picked up the imperial seal.
“It’s because it’s the symbol of authority of the first empire to ever rule over all of the warring states region?” Zhang replied.
“Legend has it that the emperor who united this land started out as an average farmer. But one day he stumbled upon a magical weapon. This weapon bestowed upon him amazing powers to which he used to unite the land and squash his enemies. However, after uniting the land he felt heavy regret toward the things he did. You must remember if he did not find the weapon he would have stayed a simple farmer. Sometimes living a normal life is better than ruling over an empire. With power comes responsibility. Those who stand at the time are always tasked with the hardest decisions. Because he was filled with so much regret and had no more need for the magical weapon he had a tomb erected and in this time he sealed away this weapon.”
“After the tomb was sealed he had all of the people who worked on it executed. Besides the emperor no one would know of the weapons location. But he knew that power was needed to control a nation so he had a map made that led to the location of the tomb. And that map is the imperial seal of the Sai empire.” Jian Wei said as he lifted the seal up into the air.
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ALSO HERE IS A LINK TO MY POST ON HOW I IMAGINE THE LIGHTNING EATER SCALE ARMOR LOOKS.
https://iendworlds.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/lightning-eater-scale-armor/