Chapter 681 Petrified Water (1/2)

One person was baiting it away while the rest weren’t moving. Were the Flaming Horns sacrificing one guy to protect the rest?

Wu He speculated as he watched from above.

At this moment, Shao Xuan twisted and turned in the forest, his full focus on the king stoneworm behind.

It followed him wherever he went. However, it merely followed Shao Xuan’s location in a straight line- even if there was a mountain in front, it would have rammed right through it!

The king stoneworm left behind a ridged stone trail wherever it went while surrounding trees turned grey. It left a pencil-straight tunnel when passing through mountains like the tunnels in its old nest. Moving around here was as easy as a beast walking through a meadow. The rumbling became softer when it wriggled through an entire mountain compared to moving on the ground.

Shao Xuan observed the fire seed aura from the king stoneworm and its fluctuations to guess its emotions. He realised that the fluctuations were not huge and could be described as simple. Other than joy and a little excitement, he did not sense anything else.

Shao Xuan was not sure if it was due to his own limitations or this king stoneworm just did not experience complex emotions. He believed it was the latter.

Not having complex emotions was not good news either. Shao Xuan had no way of guessing what it wanted to do, what it desired and what its goals were. All he could do was experiment and guess.

At least the king stoneworm had not shown signs of negative emotion yet. There was even a hint of friendliness there in its excitement.

This did not mean the king stoneworm would not attack Shao Xuan, it just meant it might treat Shao Xuan as someone of the same species. Just like how the bat leader treated Shao Xuan as ‘one of its own’.

The difference was that while the bat leader did not attack Shao Xuan, this worm could not control its powers. If they got closer to each other, Shao Xuan would be turned to stone.

Zheng Luo and Gui He guessed that Shao Xuan was leading the worm away. But how far did he have to lead it to consider it a safe distance? And how would he shake the king stoneworm off afterwards.

“Cha Cha’s here too.” Gui He looked up and was more at peace to see Cha Cha following them.

“That’s good, that’s good.” Zheng Luo was less stressed too. They just had to lure the king stoneworm away, then Cha Cha could bring Shao Xuan back. The worm could not fly, what could it do?

After that, Gui He took out a strip of cloth and a stick of pigment to write a note. Then, he called his snow falcon over and had it bring the note back to the trading point.

The white bird flew off towards the trading point, ignoring the long-winged bird in the sky.

Alas, they saw the snow falcon flying over. Ao, who was resting on the floor, leapt to take the note tied to its leg.

“What does it say?” Duo Kang and Ta rushed over.

“It’s Gui He. He says that Ah Xuan has lured the king beast away.” Ao read the note aloud.

“Lured the king beast away?” Duo Kang was confused. Can you lure a king beast away just like that? If it is that easy, why is everyone so afraid?

At the salt mines, the salt beast acted completely according to its own whims and ignored everything else. The king stoneworm should not be lured away this easily.

However, this was Shao Xuan. It was possible.

“Luring it away is a good thing,” said Ta. After the encounter with the king stoneworm, he did not want to fight it. Fighting a king beast would require huge effort and the outcome might not even be good.

Very soon, new of their Grand Elder luring the king beast away spread across the trading area. There were not many people anyway, so it was reasonable.

“Lured it away?!”

The Flaming Horn tribesmen cheered.

The other people who stayed looked disappointed. They were prepared to die gloriously, even promising the Flaming Horns that they would help fight the beast when it arrived. But now it wasn’t coming anymore?

What was the point of staying behind then?

The future was dark!

“No way, I’m leaving!” Someone suddenly broke out of the crowd.

The patrol team had just started to relax upon receiving news. Although the three gates were closed, the fences were not useful against a person good at climbing. This person was agile enough to climb over. Since it was unreasonable for the patrol team to chase after one person in this situation, they let him be.

A few more people escaped too. The rest thought about leaving too, complaining that they wanted to see the king beast. They were beaten up by the guards. The Flaming Horns did not want a riot just because of a few people.