Chapter 117 – The Union of Five Hunting Groups (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

“The Fire Crystal?!” Cheng couldn’t help it but his voice somehow trembled. He was unable to be calm at the moment.

Mai slowly put Shao Xuan down as he stared at the red crystal in his hand. Mai tried to reach out his hand to take the crystal, but thinking of something, he was a little hesitant.

Shao Xuan put out his hand, and flipped it to drop the crystal down.

Mai hurriedly grabbed it, as if he was afraid it would drop down on the ground. He held it in his hand as if he were holding something beyond precious. Nervous, excited, unbelieving, he was drowned in the mixture of different emotions, and even he himself couldn’t tell what he was feeling right now.

With the crystal in his hand, Mai felt that a stream of warmth was distributing into the air. However, the warm stream could only extend to the close surrounding of the crystal, and not extend to a larger area, as if it was being imprisoned.

The whole crystal was in the size of a quail egg, with an irregular shape. It was not clean on the surface, for some stone chips were still attached to its surface. However, traces of light shone on the red crystal from the gaps of the leaves. The light was not so bright, but it covered a veil of thick red shadow around this quail-egg-sized red crystal.

Above, the leaves were dancing in the wind, which caused traces of light to move constantly. It looked like the red shadow was also dancing around the red crystal, like fascinating flames.

“Is it really the Fire Crystal?!”

Cheng trembled as he approached Mai. He wanted to take it for a closer look, but Mai clenched his hand to hold onto the crystal tightly.

Seeing Mai like that, Cheng opened his eyes wide. His beard on the cheek even began to tremble and he said, “Are you not giving it to me?!” He said slowly, stressing each syllable.

Cheng looked at Mai, and it seemed like he would start a fight right now if Mai prevented him from seeing the crystal. The muscles on Mai’s face were also twitching, and he was not sure what kind of expression to make.

These two people confronted each other for a while, before Mai slowly opened his fingers. It was much slower than when Shao Xuan opened his fingers, as if it was slow-motion. As he opened all his fingers, he emphasized again, “It was found by a warrior in our group!”

Cheng just ignored Mai’s “It was found by a warrior in our group”, and took the red crystal from Mai’s hand right away.

It didn’t feel like a regular stone. Instead of feeling cold and hard, he felt a stream of warmth.

“The Fire Crystal…it is indeed the Fire Crystal!” Cheng was reluctant to give it back once he held it in his hand.

There was a special method for the absorption of the Fire Crystal. It needed to be put in the flames in the fire pit. Some of the energy would be absorbed by the fire pit, while the other part of the energy would be absorbed by people standing around the fire pit.

Over twenty years ago, someone in Gui He’s hunting team found a small Fire Crystal that was a little bigger than a pinkie finger nail. At that time, a dozen junior warriors turned into intermediate warriors overnight. And a few intermediate warriors’ totem patterns grew by a lot, even though they did not become senior totem warriors. Their totem patterns were slightly over the elbows, but then they reached their wrists.

A long time ago, some shaman once said that whoever found the Fire Crystal, he would have the priority access to use it. No matter if that person was from the mountaintop or the mountain foot area. No one else could ever interfere with the usage of it. However, there’s a rule that people must use it as a whole hunting group. Whichever hunting group’s person found the Fire Crystal, they could bring their families to benefit as well.

This is very tempting to any warrior in the tribe, not only Mai and Cheng.

“Have you seen enough of it? Give it back to us! It was found by someone in our group!”

Mai wanted to have it back, but Cheng was reluctant to give it back.

Shao Xuan saw these two hunting group leaders arguing over that piece of stone, like no one else was watching. Weren’t they afraid of attracting those big bats or ferocious beasts if they made too much noise?

As these two were snatching over the crystal, Cheng said, “Our group joined the mission. Your guys weren’t the only ones at the scene! Don’t think of hogging it all!”

Seeing those two group leaders acting like that, the other warriors in the two groups joined the discussion. Some of them had no idea what a Fire Crystal was. But when they were briefed in by their mates, they began to stare at Cheng’s clenched hand with desire and fiery eyes.

Warriors in the tribe had a persistent pursuit of power, and they were willing to face any kinds of risks or crises to obtain power and strength.

The two sides were in a deadlock for a while, but suddenly, someone asked Shao Xuan, “Where did you find the Fire Crystal, Ah-Xuan?”

At that question, the two group leaders stopped to look at Shao Xuan.

“In the giant pit before.” Said Shao Xuan.

Mai gave up on fighting over it with Cheng, for he knew that it was impossible for Cheng to take it for himself. The Shaman wouldn’t allow that.

“Before you left, it was the Fire Crystal that you dug out?” Asked Mai.

“Yes, I was feeling that something was beneath my feet, and it felt good. Later when we retreated, I felt reluctant to miss it, so I started digging.” Said Shao Xuan, “I’m sorry, but I will be more smart next time.”

“No, no, no. I would be more impulsive if I were you!” Cheng said. If he was sensing a Fire Crystal beneath his feet, perhaps he would start digging right away?

However, not everybody could sense the Fire Crystal. After all, Ah-Xuan was learning from the Shaman. People all believed that the Shaman was the reason why Shao Xuan could find the Fire Crystal. People tended to believe whatever that was related to the Shaman, without raising any questions.

Now, Cha couldn’t help but think why Ah-Xuan wasn’t on his group?

But soon enough, people realized another thing.

Cheng was breathing somewhat heavily, but he tried to ease his tone and asked Shao Xuan, “Have you felt the existence of other Fire Crystal when we were back in the giant pit?”

“Yes!” Shao Xuan was positive.

When they were running for their lives, Shao Xuan felt some of them, but he did not have the time to dig them up.