524 The Stratagem Technique (1/2)

”The bird automaton?”

When he first saw the flying bird, Meng Qi was stunned by its rough shape. It was all black, with iron plates on its wings. Its eyes had no vitality and seemed to be made out of brass. He almost mistook it for the zombie bird from the Nine Serenities. It was only after Jiang Zhiwei recognized it that Meng Qi thought, ”Isn't that the Flying Bird of the stratagem technique?”

There were a few small sects that had mastered the technique of mechanisms in his world. They could make all kinds of traps and mechanized items like the wooden ox and the wingless flying bird. But Meng Qi had never seen a bird automaton like this that could fly so freely in the air!

”Is this a portal? Have we been transported close to a sect of great stratagem techniques?”

The bird automaton glided around the mountain and into the clouds. Soon afterward, it was beyond the reach of their senses.

”A bird automaton that can fly so formidably is supposed to be from medieval times. It should have been lost long ago...” Jiang Zhiwei furrowed her brows as she spoke.

Upon hearing that, Meng Qi had other strange feelings. ”Or is this a time travel door? Have we been transported back to medieval times?

”No that's not right, the heaven and earth Vital Qi shouldn't be so thin in the chaotic Demonic Buddha world from before.”

He looked at the village at the foot of the mountain and said with great interest, ”Zhiwei, why don't we descend the mountain and ask those people?”

The purpose of traveling was not only for fighting and challenges, but also for learning and experiencing things. Traveling thousands of miles and seeing thousands of different things was more important than just reading thousands of books.

Meng Qi's temperament was such that seeing new things suited him very well.

Jiang Zhiwei was also very interested. She cheerfully looked at the smoke curling up at the foot of the mountain and said, ”I wonder where we've arrived.”

They did not immediately descend the mountain, but flew to the crater of the volcano instead. They did not leave until they had closed the Plenitude Gate, put the token away, and erased their traces.

Then they flew down the mountain. Not knowing the local situation, they stopped flying before they reached the foot of the mountain and walked toward the village.

On the outskirts of the village, many fertile fields were being cleared for farming. There was a man in his 50s wearing a bamboo hat standing on the ridge of a field. In front of him, some cattle-automaton-like ”wooden monsters” were dragging the plows and slowly advancing, turning the soil over.

From time to time, when the ”cattle automatons” stopped, the semi-gray old man would quickly twist the mechanism. The cattle automatons then creaked again and went back to plowing. Many similar scenes in other fields could be seen in the distance.

The old man wiped away his sweat and walked back to the ridge. Suddenly, he saw a man and a woman on the main road. The man was dressed in black and carried a long sword. Handsome and smiling, he looked both relaxed and easy-going. The woman was dressed in light yellow. She was pretty and graceful and carried a long sword as well. They walked over side by side, and the skirts of their clothing drifted lightly with the wind. It was really picturesque.

Seeing Meng Qi and Jiang Zhiwei observing his fields, the old man warmly greeted them. ”Are you paying a visit here?”

Although the words were slightly different, they managed to understand him. Apparently, their languages had the same origin... Meng Qi just smiled. ”No, sir. We were just passing by and saw you caught up in your work. It's really amazing, so we had to take a look for ourselves.”

The semi-gray-haired old man said with a laugh, ”I guess you're interested in these cattle automatons.”

He smacked his lips with an air of pride. ”This was improved by our Scholar Xie. It's much better than the clumsy and heavy cattle automatons that we used to use! He was admitted to be a scholar when he was only 16. Quite a few Sages and Earls said that he had a kna... what-do-you-call-it? He was bound to be a Sage and become a real automaton architect.”

”Automaton architect?” Meng Qi and Jiang Zhiwei looked at each other. ”The villagers here are real experts of mechanism techniques.”

”Scholar Xie is really talented.” Meng Qi praised him after the old man finished speaking.

The old man grinned from ear to ear as if he himself had been praised. Suddenly, he spotted someone and shouted loudly, ”Scholar Xie, Scholar Xie, you have a visitor!”

It was a 16- or 17-year-old teenager wearing a scarf and a black robe. He had a round face and was concentrated on helping one of the farmers fix a cattle automaton.

Hearing the old man call him, he put down his tools and made his way toward them with a brown puppy following behind.

One of the dog's feet was made out of wood. It seemed to be a prosthetic, but it did not affect the dog's running.

Scholar Xie stopped beside the old man, feeling reserved in front of these two fairy-like guests.

”Are you looking for me?”

”We just heard this gentleman talking about you. We'd really like to meet someone so talented in stratagem techniques,” Meng Qi said with a smile.

Scholar Xie scratched his head. ”Well, I've just had good luck.”

His cheeks were red with a hint of a smile. He was actually delighted about all this praise.

”My name is Xie Xuan. What should I call the two of you?” he asked rather politely.

Meng Qi smiled and said, ”My name is Su Meng, and this is my friend, Jiang Zhiwei.”

Just as Xie Xuan was about to say something, a man dressed in a Taoist robe arrived. He was in his 20s and carried a peach wood sword. Using his Heaven-earth Merging senses, Meng Qi found that he had no secrets at all and all of his movements were as expected. For example, he carried a dozen charms with him.

”Did you come from Mount Firemist?” He sounded unfriendly.

However, he eased his tone because he could see that the young man in front of him was smiling and appeared to be easy-going. ”There are evil spirits up there. Don't try to take a shortcut.”

”Evil spirits?” Jiang Zhiwei asked in confusion.

They had not sensed any trace of evil spirits up there. ”Were they scared into hiding?”

The old man explained, ”You might not know it, but two years ago, there were evil spirits lurking in Mount Firemist.”

Since the old man did not get to the point, Xie Xuan could only look at the young man in the Taoist robe and explain in detail. ”Mount Firemist produces Divine Sun Stones, and a few Divine Sects and our Darkness Palace have been guarding there. Moreover, it's been exploited since ancient times, thus there have been fewer and fewer Divine Sun Stones.