Chapter 783 - Wanna Fight Me?! (1/2)

Chapter 783

Wanna Fight Me?!

Within the forest, a group of almost five hundred people was travelling through, a group of armoured guards protecting a few in the middle.

Two of them within this centre group stood out because they were wearing silk, the silver-white patterns occasionally reflecting sunlight. Compared to the unkempt crowd, these two still looked clean albeit exhausted.

“Master Qi, how long more?” asked the person in front, turning to the centre of the group.

The elder of the two protected people had a tray in one hand with a few jades placed on top, the other hand stroking his beard. “We will arrive in ten days.”

The person ahead heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”

Although they were prepared, travelling in the forest was a stressful affair. They had not been able to sleep properly at night, terrified of being eaten by some hidden fearsome beast or dragged away by strange plants. The forest here was much more dangerous than forests on the other side!

They initially had eight hundred people but only five hundred remained. The other three hundred had become either plant fertiliser or animal food.

This was WITH pointers from the two Yi family members too, avoiding a majority of threats. Without them both, perhaps only a handful would survive the journey.

“We’ll take a rest here, there are no major threats nearby,” said the person with the tray.

The surrounding guards sighed, they could finally rest. However, despite the announcement that there were no major threats, they still had to be vigilant against small threats. Being careless could also mean being killed by something small.

“Master Yue, do you really not know what the worm looks like?” the leader of the expedition, Mu Yao, asked the only Gongjia family member in the group during rest. This was also a great master blacksmith but it was too bad the new lord did not like Gongjia Yue so he had not been living well these days. If it wasn’t for protection from the Mu and Yi family, Gongjia Yue might not be able to continue living in such luxury, perhaps even lacking materials for forging.

Gongjia Yue sat nearby. His hair was greying, for he was no longer a young man. He used to be a prominent figure in the Gongjia family but unfortunately, he had been rude to the new lord before his ascension to the throne. When the new lord came into power, he took most of Gongjia Yue’s resources and handed it off to other Gongjia blacksmiths since there were many of them around. These blacksmiths spent all their time forging and never had the time to collect materials, heavily relying on the royal family for supply. They could rely on current stocks to survive for a few years but that was only temporary.

After Gongjia Yue lost his position, the Mu and Yi family continued to support him so he did not fall to rock bottom. This help obviously also came with conditions- they wanted him to make even more powerful weapons. Rock Hill City was currently targeting the Mu and Yi family of King City so it was easy to see why they were so worried. They took the opportunity of Gongjia Yue’s fall from grace to gain some power.

Gongjia Yue also planned to use this matter to restore his former glory. He had enjoyed a long life of glory and luxury so losing power did not feel good. If he could settle this matter well, then returning to his peak was not an impossible task.

Gongjia Yue was considered a master in the blacksmith world, having been to Gongjia Valley just like Gongjia Heng when he was younger. He had also read the ancestral secret notes there so he knew what Gongjia Heng knew too.

Both Flaming Horn and Rock Hill City had found the green-faced fanged beasts so everyone knew what the quality of these products was. Despite being better than other metal weapons, the Mu and Yi family were still dissatisfied.

And since the green-faced fanged beast was not enough, they tried to go search for the other worm. There was too little information in their ancestral notes about it… but didn’t they have the Yi family with them?

Both parties decided to partner up and after a huge effort, finally conducted a successful reading for the worm’s location. They then recruited people, avoided the main battlefield by the coast and Flaming Horn’s (whom they had conflict with) territory to arrive in the forest.

“I haven’t seen the worm before and there are only written notes in the records without images. The ancestors called them Star Butterflies.” Gongjia Yue had given this answer many times, and that was all he could say too. He did not know what a star butterfly looked like, nor its larvae form. They were currently looking for larvae of the star butterflies.

“The only thing I know is that we must hurry up and find them before the larvae turn to butterflies, extract their blood and bring them back.” Gongjia Yue’s eyes flashed with manic excitement. If he could forge even more powerful weapons, he would be a very rich man! It had been so many years and the Gongjia family still had not been able to find this worm.

“Don’t worry, there’s still time before they mature,” reassured Yi Qi.

“I’m worried people might be following us. If that happens, aren’t we helping them? And we’re not sure if they will harm us.” Mu Yao voiced his concern.

“There’s no need to worry, we have shaken them off.” Yi Qi looked proud. He had used his divination abilities to determine the group’s direction and leaving times. Bit by bit, they shook off everyone following them. Now, he felt no one on their heels.

Next to Yi Qi was a young man from the Yi family. Strangely, he looked young but had a head of white hair. In contrast to Yi Qi’s calmness, he looked worried, like he had a bad feeling.

“Uncle, you must remain vigilant,” he said.

“Yi Cong, are you questioning my abilities?” Yi Qi was displeased by Yi Cong’s reminder, about to say something when he suddenly furrowed his brows. Ignoring everything else, he started tapping the tray in front of him. The shiny jade stones rolled around for five minutes before finally stopping.

“Master Qi, did something happen?!” asked Mu Yao and the rest hurriedly.

“Nothing serious. Must be someone who secretly learned the Yi family divination methods, or some useless Yi traitor! How dare they use divination to track our movements? Hmmph! Wanna fight me?!”

With an arrogant huff, he displayed his contempt towards this person.

“And right now?” Mu Yao looked at Yi Qi.

“That person will not know where we’re heading next,” he replied nonchalantly. “It’s just some small trick that only Yi family children use when they’re fooling around.”

“Someone managed to track us using divination?!” Yi Cong was shocked, then suddenly thought of something. His eyelid twitched and he hurriedly took his own tray. He reached out to grab a handful of fine golden sand from a clay container held up by a slave, then scattered it in his tray.

The golden sand fell in streaks in the tray. They were initially normal, for the grains moved normally either towards the jade stone in the tray or away. However, the changes soon stopped and with a ‘poof’, the sands scattered messily again.

“I can’t tell which way they’re going!” gasped Yi Cong.

Usually, when another party was tracking them through divination, they could use a secret Yi method to similarly locate the other person. Of course, they could also directly stop the other person from tracking them, just as what Yi Qi did. But there was one unpredictable variable- if there was a large enough gap between both parties’ abilities, it creates a power imbalance and results in them unable to track the opponent back. This was why Yi Cong was shocked. He was already the top of his generation within the Yi family, yet he still could not track this person.

Yi Cong’s expressions changed, the usually calm face turned into a rare frown. “This again!”