113 In the Name of Justice (1/2)
Hei Gou was able to move on his own now. He could fight for brief amounts of time, and his complexion had improved significantly. However, Xue Wei knew that it was not that simple.
He had consumed almost all of the blood essence he had within his body, and it was something that took a long time to be restored, which could be seen in how short of breath he was while fighting.
Hei Gou's Qi was constantly being purified while they were traveling and as a result his strength was skyrocketing, but the fundamentals of his body were still weak.
This was why they continued to move at a slow speed. Hei Gou's body could simply not sustain traveling faster than they were.
Fortunately, none of the Primordial Beast Hunters had been able to track them down after losing sight of them, and their current circumstances were much safer than they had been before.
Day after day went past in a blur. Xue Wei and Hei Gou survived in the wilderness by living off of plants and roots, occasionally coming across mortal beasts for a change, but all the Fierce Beasts were gone from their sight. It was as if they fled as soon as they caught a whiff of the two experts.
Finally, after traveling for a full eight days like this, they reached a wide-open prairie. This prairie was rather large, and both Hei Gou and Xue Wei were filled with excitement as they left the bush and reached this area.
The prairie was now known as the Flowing Blood Prairie. It was a place filled with different tribes that were always fighting one another. The original name of the prairie was Purple Cloud Prairie because long ago legend had it that a purple cloud had appeared over the prairie and gifted every cultivator within with exceptional cultivation talent.
Now, the name had changed to the Flowing Blood Prairie. Since then, many wars had erupted between the different tribes, and massacres were a normal sight in the prairie. A completely different set of rules applied to those who lived here: the tribesmen were not even expected to join the army.
The Flowing Blood Prairie was considered a no-man's land. It did not belong to any particular kingdom, and it was instead the border between Heping Kingdom and three neighboring kingdoms: the Great Fire Nation, Zhanshi Kingdom, and the Empire of Danmai.
These three nations were also considered outskirt kingdoms of the continent, but they were many times more developed than the Heping Kingdom just from the fact that they were closer to the center of the continent.
The Kingdom of Heping's territory was like a crescent moon from north to south on the east side of the continent. This was also the reason why it was possible for Xue Wei and Hei Gou to escape the boundaries of the kingdom as fast as they had. It was a narrow country, and by traveling west, they managed to quickly leave.
”I am not hallucinating am I?” Hei Gou asked hesitatingly as he looked at the Flowing Blood Prairie that was right in front of him. He rubbed his eyes and soon a smile appeared on his lips.
”We did it!” he exclaimed loudly. ”We really did it! We have escaped that damn place, and now the hunters won't hunt us any longer!”
”That is true,” Xue Wei smiled too, but he was a bit more hesitant. ”I don't know if they will completely give up on capturing us, but I know for a fact that our journey starts from here on out.”
”To be honest, whether we're being chased or not changes nothing. We are on our own, and we will have to rely on our own abilities to make it through the difficulties we face in the future.”
”But for now, the biggest issue will be whether or not we can pass the Flowing Blood Prairie alive. You would normally be fine with your Sky Warrior strength, but I am a mere Earth Warrior. Not to mention you are severely wounded still.”
”We will fight our way through the prairie!” Hei Gou said with a grin on his face, but he was slightly more worried now than he had been before. ”If we have to go down, then let us live a life of no regrets. Let us live every day as if it is our last. If we have to go down in this Flowing Blood Prairie, then we will go down in a blaze of glory!”
Xue Wei smiled wryly. ”Of course, but we will do everything we can to stay alive first. Don't be eager to die.”
Hei Gou embarrassedly rubbed the bridge of his nose as he smiled. ”I know,” he said. ”I will do everything in my power to let us survive!”
The two grinned, and slowly moved towards the Flowing Blood Prairie.
Back in Heping Kingdom's capital, Shen Mu and Luo Zhirou were held for questioning. They were known to be good friends of Xue Wei, and thus many were looking at them with hostility.
A trial was held to determine whether or not these two experts were aware of Xue Wei's real agenda, or if they had been tricked by that convincing act of his.
By now, there was no doubt amongst any of the people in the entire Heping Kingdom that Xue Wei had tricked Xiao Lei into believing that he was his nephew when in fact he was planted by the Primordial Beasts with some strange purpose that had yet to be determined.
The commoners and most of the nobles were of the expectation that Xue Wei had been planted by the beasts with the sole purpose of killing Xiao Lei. Because of this, many had offered themselves to hunt him down, but the higher-ups in the kingdom all declined these people taking justice into their own hands.
Their reason was that they had already sent a group of Primordial Beast Hunters to capture him, and sending anyone else would be the same as sending them to their own death.
Rumors of what had happened in Lingyun Town quickly spread throughout the entire kingdom and many were stunned silly. If there had been doubt before about him colluding with the Primordial Beasts, this doubt had now been extinguished completely as he had moved under the cover of a beast horde.