Compared to a few days ago, this new village of the Rong Mountain Clan had changed quite a lot.
The fence wall built at the entrance of the valley was no longer the same one that had been built with rocks. Instead, now it was a fence wall made completely of metal, and it was three times taller and two times thicker than it had been before. The fence wall was glowing with a cold light under the rays of the sun. Huge magic formations were drawn on the fence wall at every three zhang. In between these magic formations, thumb-sized magic crystals, each coloured differently, were inlaid thickly.
The warriors standing on the fence wall were all wearing heavy, metal armours. Their completely sealed armors were crafted exquisitely in beautiful shapes, done with master-like skills. A totem of a flame was embossed on the chest area of each of their armours. The black armours and red totems made an eye-piercing strong contrast.
Ji Hao used his spiritual power to observe these armoured warriors closely and immediately his heart sank.
Only around the hundred zhang long fence wall, Ji Hao discovered twenty Senior Magus level warriors already. All the other warriors on the wall were at the peak of Junior Magus level. If you added those combat beasts lying beside them, the military capability on this fence wall was equal to the military capability of five Rong Mountain Clans together. Such a great, powerful force was not something that the Rong Mountain Clan could afford.
The gigantic eagle floated above the fence wall. Meng Ao took out his identity tablet, which clearly showed that he was a Deacon of the Magi Palace, then yelled arrogantly out.
The warriors standing on the fence wall remained perfectly still, like statues.
Meng Ao seemed to be badly offended by this. His face had even turned blue and his voice grew louder and louder, “How dare you! Are you, the Rong Mountain Clan, trying to enrage our Magi Palace?!”
After quite a while, followed by the sound of unhurried footsteps, Elder Iron Yan, who had now changed into a clean and luxurious silk cloak and whose waist was wrapped around by a wide, pure-gold belt that had been decorated with large pieces of jade, walked slowly onto the fence wall. Both, his hair and beard, were perfectly brushed.
Ji Hao’s pupils shrank instantly. Elder Iron Yan had always been walking around with his bare upper body. Or he would roughly wrap his body with a piece of leather, or wear a simple flax shirt. He had always left both muscular arms of his bare, because it was that way smithing or mining would be more convenient. But now, Ji Hao had trouble believing that this man was the same Elder Iron Yan he had known all that time.
Ji Hao’s pupils began glowing and swept across Elder Iron Yan’s silk cloak with waves of spiritual power.
Silk, truly, unbleached silk that had a faint cream colour, and was made with extremely fine skills. Although it hadn’t been bleached or dyed, nor jacquard, the silk still looked quite luxurious. Apparently, this cloak was made from silk that had been reeled off from cocoons with special techniques, and was of very high quality.
Besides, this cloak was sewed exquisitely as well. All the lines were smooth and the cloak was completely neatly-pressed, making Elder Iron Yan look especially tall and sturdy. The Rong Mountain Clan certainly couldn’t make neither afford such kind of high-quality silk.
Apart from this luxurious cloak, Elder Iron Yan’s hair and beard were brushed meticulously. Ji Hao could even sense a faint fragrance of flowers being emitted from his head. Could you even imagine? An old blacksmith, who had spent all his life with mines, flames, iron blocks and heavy hammers, had carefully brushed his own hair and beard. He had polished both of them with essence oil that had flower petals soaked in it.
Ji Hao raised one finger and pointed slightly backwards. Followed by his hand motion, Feng Xing silently leapt down from the back of the black, transformed into a hazy silhouette and darted away, without making even the slightest noise. He was an archer, only an adequate distance would allow him to release his power to full potential.
Yu Mu held his fat belly and began murmuring, “Damn, I’m having a stomach ache, I, I must have eaten something dodgy, damn, I have to go to the loo…”
While complaining, Yu Mu hurriedly leapt down, thudded heavily against the ground then rushed into the dense jungle while farting all the way to it. Ji Hao swept his spiritual power across the jungle and discovered that fatso Yu Mu had rushed into the jungle, made a circle and moved towards the other end of the valley, just as Ji Hao anticipated.
Ji Hao and his teammates had helped with the exploration of this valley, therefore, they knew clearly that the only small stream in the valley was the only water resources of this entire area. If that fatso, Yu Mu, became evil and threw some of his poisons into the stream, all the Rong Mountain Clan people would have to shed tears of ‘gratitude”.
Taisi looked confused at Yu Mu and Feng Xing, who were darting away, opened his mouth and prepared to say something. However, before he had let a word out, Shaosi crooked her index finger and knocked hard on his rib. Waves of great pain instantly struck Taisi’s body. His face immediately turned deadly pale, while cold sweat poured down from his forehead in streams.
Shaosi then said blandly, “Oh dear brother, are you having pain again? I’m sorry, you respected deacon, I have to take my brother to find some pain-killing herbal medicines in the jungle. Man Man, come, help me take care of Taisi!”
While speaking, Shaosi grabbed Taisi’s neck and carried him up while with her other hand she held the hand of Man Man, who hadn’t realized yet what just had happened around here, then leapt down from the back of the eagle back as well and rushed quickly into the jungle.
Ji Hao couldn’t help but let out a pleased grin. Since when did members of this temporary team began cooperating so perfectly?
Ji Hao felt quite great. He puffed his chest out while grinning, then suddenly curved the corners of his mouth downwards, pointed his finger at Elder Iron Yan and shouted, “You old bastard! Don’t you feel ashamed?! Deacon Meng Ao, this is the one who trapped us underground and attempted to kill us. If the underground cave hadn't accidentally collapsed and shown the underground river that allowed us to survive, we would be trapped dead down there by now!”
Meng Ao was quite angry as well. He felt so offended by the bland attitude that this Elder Iron Yan was showing that his head even started to hurt. He had anticipated that, faced with a Deacon of the Magi Palace, Elder Iron Yan would cry in regret and apologize continuously. That he would kneel on the ground and beg him to show some mercy, to not punish the Rong Mountain Clan too harshly. Most importantly, Elder Iron Yan would thrust a great amount of stuff into his hand to bribe him!
How dare this old man hold his head so high and stand so calmly right in front of him, a Deacon of the Magi palace?!
Meng Ao became angrier and angrier. He hadn’t even noticed how strange and unreasonable those excuses, used by Yu Mu and Shaosi, were. He still had Ji Hao standing beside him anyway. Ji Hao was a witness, with witnesses and the power of the Magi Palace, Meng Ao was quite confident that this small Rong Mountain Clan that had only around two hundred thousand people in total, would eventually bend in front of him.
Almost leaping into the air, Meng Aao yelled out, while pointing at Iron Yan, “Iron Yan, do you admit your guilt?!”
Iron Yan looked at Ji Hao while frowning. A trace of confusion flashed across his face then soon disappeared, after which, Iron Yan laughed out relaxed, held his hands behind his body and said, “Why I am I guilty? Deacon Meng Ao, we were about to report to your Magi Palace and seek some justice.”
Iron Yan then continued harshly, “These few kids sent by your Magi Palace had fled away in fear when our campsite was attacked by a group of wild beasts. Because of which, thousands of our clansmen has been killed. Your Magi Palace has to take this responsibility and compensate us for it!”
Gasping deeply, Iron Yan said, “I thought these few kids wouldn’t be so shameless to come back after they had fled away. I had been planning to go find them in the Magi Palace in a few days. But now, since they have come back, Deacon Meng Ao, you have to give us a reasonable solution for this, we want justice!”
Meng Ao paused briefly, then yelled out in rage, “How dare you! Iron Yan! You’re nothing but a small, small Rong Mountain Clan! How dare you slander our Magi Palace like this!!”
A scornful voice came from afar, “Small Rong Mountain Clan? Hehe, the Rong Mountain Clan is a branch of our Lie Mountain Clan. The Rong Mountain Clan people are all our Lie Mountain Clan clansmen! Looking down upon the Rong Mountain Clan is equal to insulting our Lie Mountain Clan. You, a nobody named Meng Ao, are you looking for trouble?”
Along with this voice, a tall and handsome young man walked slowly onto the fence wall, while proudly looking down at Ji Hao and Meng Ao.
Iron Yan bowed smilingly to this young man, then said, “Prince Xu, it is just a small problem, you don’t need to come out here yourself.”
Prince?
Ji Hao looked at Meng Ao in confusion.
By now, Meng Ao’s face had turned so twisted, as if he had just fallen into a thousand kilogram pile of dog shit.