"Where is the Sword Mountain?" Ren Baqian asked.
"No one knows. Every sword slave only knows the existence of Sword Mountain. Countless people have tried to find out where Sword Mountain is, but all of them failed," Ning Caichen replied.
After thinking about it, Ren Baqian felt that this world needed a satellite. It was a pity he wasn't rich. Actually, this wasn't a huge problem as he felt that he would become rich eventually.
But how was he going to bring such a huge object over to this world? At least he never brought along his bed every time he was teleported.
He wondered whether or not was it because of his blanket and bed sheet. His bed sheet teleported along with him every time.
Even if he could bring over a satellite, he did not have a launching pad, a control station, or personnel with the necessary skill sets. How was he going to launch the satellite into the sky then?
"Spirit swords only choose newborn babies?"
"Most of time. There are also some people who got them after they have grown up, but such cases are rare."
"Are spirit swords alive?" Ren Baqian had always been very curious about this.
"They are alive too, but they are unlike ordinary humans. When they are injured, the sword slaves can feel it too. If they are destroyed, the sword slaves will die too." While Ning Caichen was stroking Green Pearl gently, it trembled softly, appearing as though it was communicating with him.
"When they are injured, the sword slaves will feel it too?"
"Of course, they will transmit what they are feeling to the sword slaves. Right now, I can feel my body hurting," Ning Caichen continued with a look of grief on his face. Ren Baqian reckoned that Ning Caichen's facial expression was partly caused by the pain on his body.
"How many sword masters are there?"
"I'm not sure. Usually, there are just over a hundred sword masters existing at the same time. Every time the world turns chaotic, more sword masters will be born. Reportedly, one thousand years ago, there were thousands of sword masters in existance at the same time in the world. That was a magnificent era where countless heroes were born. Just the thought of it can make one spellbound."
When Ning Caichen spoke of that magnificent era, his eyes lit up. He had been looking forward to the recurrence of that era. However, when he recalled that his Green Pearl was shot down just now, he no longer had the mood to think about anything else, and his eyes dimmed. An aura of misery exuded from his body.
While Ren Baqian was filled with fantasy and expectation for this world, Ning Caichen was still grieving.
The aboriginals on the mountain continued what they were doing. Some of them figured out what the sound was, but most of them still did not understand what was it about. Aboriginals did not understand most of the things that originated from Great Xia.
At the foot of the mountain, everyone went back to rest. Most of them knew what the sound was, but they did not know what the result was after Qi Zixiao shot the arrow. They reckoned that someone was now in deep trouble.
The empress was reclining in a couch in the royal carriage. Beneath her body, there was a thick animal hide. Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were massaging her foot and kneading her shoulders respectively. At the same time, the empress was holding a wine flask and drinking by herself.
"Your Majesty, what is the sound just now?" Hong Luan asked softly. As the maid of the empress, she was rather knowledgeable, but she was still very curious about the situation just now.
Upon hearing Hong Luan's question, Qing Yuan's ears perked up as well.
"It's just a small bug. It was too noisy and it disturbed me," the empress replied casually.
When Qing Yuan and Hong Luan saw that the empress did not continue talking, they did not ask her any more questions.
If Ning Caichen and Green Pearl heard the empress's words, they would feel sad again.
If Green Pear wasn't so high-profile and arrogant, it would not have ended up in such a pathetic state.
Be it a human or a sword, it's best to stay low-profile at certain times.
Nothing happened for the rest of the night. After the various happenings throughout the day, Ren Baqian was deadbeat tired. After adding some branches into the campfire, he ignored Ning Caichen, whose entire body was in pain, and lay on the ground to sleep.
The ground beneath his body was completely covered in pebbles. After lying on it for some time, his entire body felt painful. However, even so, he did not care at all. This showed how much fatigue the happenings throughout the day had caused him.
Both his mind and body were exhausted.
Ren Baqian was woken up by the cold. Light could be seen peeking out from the horizon. A layer of white mist hovered in his surroundings. Sitting up from the ground, he realized the moisture in the air had drenched his clothes. The campfire was extinguished too, no wonder he was feeling so cold.
On another side, Ning Caichen hugged his sword with his eyes closed. However, his eyebrows were still tightly knitted.
Ren Baqian stood up from the ground and gave the inside of the campfire a slight push. Not a single spark was produced. Too lazy to start another fire, Ren Baqian hugged himself to stay warm until morning completely arrived. When Ren Baqian thought of the fact that he was going to leave the mountain soon, he was overjoyed. The most dangerous night of his life had finally passed.
After another hour had passed, Ning Caichen also woke up.
He seemed more normal after he getting up. At least he did not have the grieving look on his face anymore.
"Wait a while more, and we will start a fire and make something to eat. Then, we can prepare to get down from the mountain in the afternoon," Ren Baqian said.
Ning Caichen nodded his head and continued hugging his sword.
After the sun had risen up, the mist in the mountain was slightly reduced. Ren Baqian moved around the surroundings and picked up some branches.
By the time they started a fire and roasted some meat, it was already eight in the morning. the pair ate a simple breakfast and prepared to leave the mountain.
Ren Baqian was holding a crossbow in one hand and a wooden branch in the other. The wooden branch was for him to beat the grass to scare the snakes away. Meanwhile, Ning Caichen followed behind him while carrying his spirit sword with both his arms, resembling the Sunset Warrior.
They walked along the stream. When they saw the pulverized remains of the sharp-toothed tiger, Ren Baqian scanned it with his eyes. Then, he used his wooden branch to flick away the bloody flesh and carefully took out something.
When Ning Caichen saw the thing in Ren Baqian's hand, a disgusted look appeared on his face.
Ren Baqian did not care at all.
If I'm not wrong, this should be a tiger penis, right? The penis of a sharp-toothed tiger is the same as a tiger penis, right?
Ren Baqian was glad that this thing wasn't smashed.
He could bring it back to Chen Qing. That guy needed this treasure.
At this point in time, Ren Baqian no longer had the vengeful and bitter look on his face. He was already thinking of other things. He brought the tiger penis to the stream and washed it thoroughly. Then, he tried to think of a way to bring it back.
He couldn't carry it with his hands as his hands were full. He couldn't place it in his waist bag either as it would be dirtied by the things inside the bag.
"Brother, can you help me bring it down the mountain? My hands are full," Ren Baqian asked Ning Caichen with a smile on his face.
Ning Caichen's face twitched. He felt his brain was like a rattle-drum at this moment.
When Ren Baqian saw the unwilling look on Ning Caichen's face, he ripped a piece of cloth from his clothes to wrap the tiger penis and stuffed it inside his waist bag. He could not bear to throw it away.
His clothes were damaged in many areas when he traversed through the forest. Furthermore, he also ripped two pieces of clothes from it. By this point in time, he looked like a beggar. He and the shabbily dressed Ning Caichen were like brothers who had been through tough times.
Going down the mountain was much easier than going up the mountain. After walking for some time, they began to see other people. With a mace on his back, Du Changkong scampered out of the forest with a ball in his hands over his head. His running speed was extremely fast. Before Ren Baqian could say anything, Du Changkong had already disappeared out of his sight.
After a while, Ren Baqian saw someone running out of the forest while raising a dead sharp-toothed tiger above his head as well. The sharp-toothed tiger was larger than the one he'd seen yesterday. However, its head had been bashed to the state that it looked like a piece of sachima.
When Ren Baqian saw the distant horsemen and carriages from the border of the forest, his eyes began to tear up. He had finally gotten out of this goddamn forest alive.
On an empty spot at the foot of the mountain, there were many prey lying on the ground. There were also people keeping record of the preys.
Ning Caichen and Ren Baqian stepped out of the forest empty-handed, but no one cared about them at all.
Following behind them were Quan Yonghe and Quan Yonglin. Quan Yonghe had unhappiness written all over her face while Quan Yonglin forced a smile on his face.
The both of them were empty-handed also. There were a few wounds on Quan Yonglin's body, and his waist was dyed dark-red by his blood.
Ren Baqian turned around and looked at them again. Needless to say, Quan Yonglin must have bashed a prey to smithereens again.
Ignoring them, Ren Baqian went to report to the empress in a wretched manner.
Since he was sent to the mountain to stay overnight as a punishment, he should make himself more pathetic to garner sympathy.
"Your Majesty, I almost couldn't come back..." Ren Baqian started crying the moment he saw the empress.
"Oh? Then why have I heard about Deputy Ren's brutal killings?" The empress's cold voice came from within the empress carriage.