Chapter 32: The Cold Stream Valley
Editor: Hitesh_
"What do you mean 'talk to you like that'? Look at what you've done!"
"It has been nearly two months since you've been given this job! The Mountain of Springs where you and these slaves came from are only hundreds of miles away from here. And these slaves haven't even built up their own shelters by now!"
"You had plenty of time and all these people! But you haven't even started building the mine hole! What have you all been doing these days?"
"I'm not finished yet. Could you please tell me where the food for these slaves are? Where are the meat for our fighting beasts and beasts of burden? Where are all the equipment we're gonna need for exploration and mining work? You just wasted the whole two months here!"
Under the starlight, Ji Xia was waving his arms and yelling at two men who seemed lazy and haughty.
The two men were wearing metal armours that were very rare in the Southern Wasteland. Ji Hao heard Ji Xia's voice; he then stopped walking, quietly watching them from the shade of the cave. He sensed strong power from the heavy swords worn around their waists. Faced with Ji Xia's reprimand, the two men just showed arrogant faces and seemed to not take Ji Xia's words seriously at all.
"Ji Xia, you're allowed to say whatever you want. We have sent five thousand slaves to you as what we've been told. From now on, you're responsible for the mining work in the Cold Stream Valley, as well as all the other affairs around here which has nothing to do with us."
The two men laughed out loud and whistled sharply. Two 'iron claw bald eagles' with the wingspans of tens of feet soon landed in front of them. The two man hopped on the eagles backs; the eagles then rapidly rose high into the air, hovered around and flew towards the Gold Black Mountain.
Ji Xia raised his right arm angrily, then he paused; his arm froze in the air.
Before, if Ji Xia found any man muddling through his work, he would never hesitate to slap him hard in the face. However, as the two men had said, he was no longer the leader of the Holy Land warriors at this point in time, which meant he had no right to do so.
Mr. Crow abruptly landed on Ji Hao's shoulder.
Ji Hao then walked up to Ji Xia, looked at the two eagles which were gradually becoming smaller in the sky, and said, "Abba, are they Ji Shu's people? Do you want me to shoot them down?"
Mr. Crow cawed loudly, spurting wisps of fire from his beak.
Qing Ying quietly showed up beside Ji Hao. He pulled out an arrow and started yelling excitedly while he was waving that arrow.
"Yes! Hao's right! Let's shoot those bastards down! I only need a single shot for that from this distance!"
Ji Xia laid his arm down, tapped Ji Hao's head and said smilingly, "Don't. That was their own fault for not doing their jobs well. But we can never violate the rule of our clan. We can never take the initiative to hurt our own people."
Ji Hao gazed at Ji Xia's pale face. His mind flashed back to what he saw at the time when he fainted. He clearly remembered that Ji Xia blocked the attack with his own body; the boiling hot blood of Ji Xia splashed on his body and face. Ji Hao could never forget this.
"Sure, I won't do anything to them. Unless they do something to me first." Ji Hao smiled at Ji Xia, then turned around and started to observe this valley carefully.
The starlight was bright and clear. Where Ji Hao had stood was the center of the valley. This valley was tens of miles long and miles wide; a thousand-foot-wide stream was rapidly flowing through the middle of the valley. By the streamside, there were piles of gold and jade pieces.
The water of the stream was ice-cold. Though Ji Hao was a mile away from the stream, he could still sense the chill from it. Ji Hao could hear the swish and gurgle of water washing out those gold and jade pieces by the streamside; those gold and jade pieces shone with an alluring light.
"Such an amazing lode!" Said Ji Hao.
"Indeed, it's a surprisingly large and rich lode. After we got here, your Amma did some exploration; she found out that the mineral resources here were buried relatively shallow, which will be easy to dig. We can easily get a hundred thousand pieces of gold and tens of thousands pieces of jade from this valley." Ji Xia then frowned and continued, "But those bastards from the Mountain of Spring only sent us five thousands of slaves with nothing else."
All kinds of knocking noises resounded throughout the valley. Thousands of slaves were singing their working songs and were busy at building their shelters. On the other side of the valley, tens of stilt cabins were already built up.
On the cliff, tens of Fire Crow Clan warriors were working hard on building the watch post. A few long vines were dropped down from the cliff and it pulled thick logs up to the cliff from time to time.
Near the entrances of both sides of the valley, a group of warriors were supervising hundreds of slaves building the wall. The slaves laid the foundation of the wall with thick logs; then filled two lines of logs with rocks and clay. This kind of wall would be firm enough to block the attacks from beasts.
The Cold Stream Valley was in the extreme North of the Fire Crow Clan's territory. The valley was surrounded by primitive jungle. A lot of dire beasts were living in the surrounding jungle of the Cold Stream Valley, added with other unpredictable dangers; if they don't build this wall as quick as possible, these slaves' lives would be in great danger.
Qing Fu came with a few warriors.
She smiled when she saw Ji Hao and intimately patted his head. Qing Fu then handed a fist-sized piece of red jade to Ji Xia and said, "Xia, this lode not only produces gold and jade. I asked these warriors dug thirty feet deep and we found this."
Ji Hao looked at that red jade piece curiously. That red jade was translucent and contained great heat; there seemed to have some kind of liquid flowing inside it. Under the starlight, this red jade piece was shining with a bright fiery light.
"Hmm? 'Fire Jade Pith'? This is the treasure which can largely and rapidly improve the power of Senior Magi with the natural abilities of fire control, and also is a kind of excellent material for making magus tools." Ji Xia popped up his eyes and said delightfully. "If we send this to the Clan as tribute, one piece of 'Fire Jade Pith' can be worth more than thousands of pieces of gold and jade!"
"We have to let those elder Maguspriests know that we have found the 'Fire Jade Pith' here as quick as possible. Tell them that they should send more warriors to guard this valley. And, Xia, you need to start hunting with Ying after the sunrise. The Mountain of Spring people haven't brought any food for these slaves." Said Ji Fu in a low voice.
Ji Hao took the 'Fire Jade Pith' from Ji Xia's hand then sent his spiritual power into the jade piece. He suddenly sensed a great power which rushed into his body from his palms. He felt like that he was drawn into a lake of lava and almost screamed out.
Ji Hao was half-shocked and half-surprised. This piece of red jade was not 'Fire Jade Pith', instead, it was a piece of 'Fire Essence Crystal'. In Ji Hao's previous life, he had seen hundreds of powerful warriors fighting for a small piece of a 'Fire Essence Crystal', which was less than one percent of the piece in size he was holding right now.
This was truly precious. The Cold Stream Valley was a great treasure indeed.
No matter who guarded this valley well, and sent the gold and jade to the clan as he had been required, he would earn the reward and thankfulness from the clan. Would Ji Shu be so kind to let Ji Xia have this credit?
Chapter 33: Savage
Editor: Hitesh_
The fat bear immersed its entire body in the stream, after which it slapped its huge bear palms hard onto the surface of the water. The water splashed and brought up a five-foot-long fish, which was pure white and without scales. The fat bear opened its drooling mouth wide, caught the fish, and swallowed it instantly. After that, it let out a few cheers.
In the valley, one group of slaves were still working hard to build shelters and the wall; the remaining slaves had already started making simple stone tools for mining work under the supervision of a few Fire Crow Clan warriors.
Ji Hao stood on the wall which was nearly finished, and frowned while looking at those slaves who seemed to be lifeless.
In the Southern Wasteland, the mining work had always been extremely dangerous and heavy. Even a strong man with a healthy body would probably be disabled after working in the deep and dark mine shaft for two or three years. However, there were very few healthy men among the slaves Ji Hao was looking at. Nearly half of them lacked an arm or a leg. The rest of them were either children or old people. There were even a few sick people who couldn't walk straight.
Half of them couldn't last even a minute in the mineshaft. Where did Ji Shu find all this garbage? Ji Hao thought.
Ji Hao sighed, then shouted to Ji Ying who was supervising those slaves, "Uncle Ji Ying, I just pity those poor kids! Set them off into the jungle to find some fruits instead. They can do nothing around here anyway."
Ji Ying was holding a whip with which he lashed at the ground annoyed, then took a glance at those poor scrawny kids who couldn't even carry a piece of wood, and growled, "Damn Ji Shu! When I become stronger, I'll have to kick his ass and teach him some rules!"
"Take these useless kids away! The two of you! Send them to the back of the valley where there is a piece wood with wild fruits. Let them fill their stomachs, after which they will have to bring all those fruits back to us!" Ji Ying said to a couple of warriors who were standing behind him.
Ji Hao shook his head then turned around, and looked into the dense jungle. In the morning, right after the sun had come out, Ji Xia had gone into the jungle and started hunting with a group of warriors. Feeding thousands of people wasn't easy at all, and would need at least hundreds of big animals to be hunted.
A few slaves were carrying huge stones even taller than themselves on their backs and gasping heavily. They walked beside Ji Hao step by step, then put those stones into the wall heavily. These slaves were bare naked, without even a leaf to cover their private parts. Tattoos of crocodiles on their skins showed that they had come from the Blood Crocodile Clan which was a subsidiary clan of the Black Water Serpent Clan.
The Fire Crow Clan and the Black Water Serpent Clan had been fighting against each other for decades; it was not uncommon for them to capture and enslave people from each other or their subsidiary clans. Ji Hao checked the few slaves working beside him with his spiritual power, and discovered that they were all Novice Magi under the second level.
"Yohohoho~ Yo! hoho~"
A strange shouting sound came from the jungle. A few figures flashed through the jungle then countless trees started shaking. A couple of spears darted out of the jungle along with the ear-piercing sounds of sharp winds created by them.
In the next second, a few slaves were speared and nailed on the fence wall.
"Enemies..." While Ji Hao was shouting, a tall and strong man rushed out of the woods and ran up to Ji Hao. This man was almost naked; his waist was wrapped around by a small piece of fur, and his whole body was covered with thick black hair. He was holding a wooden stick in his hand.
The wooden stick he was holding in his hand had the same thickness as Ji Hao's lap and the same length as Ji Hao's height, and was covered with dried blood. The man was only an inch shorter than Ji Hao, but his shoulder was half a feet wider than Ji Hao's shoulder, which made him look like a human-like chimpanzee. He raised the stick high in the air then let out a growl and smashed it down towards Ji Hao's head at the same time.
Ji Hao grabbed a spear which was leaning against the wall beside him, then let out a growl as well.
The appearance of enemies was too abrupt, and had left Ji Hao no time to cast any witchcraft or magic spells; he could only fight back with his physical strength.
All of the black hair that covered the strong man's body stood straight, and a cloud of black smoke appeared faintly behind his body. Inside the smoke, a red tiger head was roaring silently. A wisp of powerful black smoke then surged out from the stick and transformed into a tiger claw, which slapped towards Ji Hao's face with great speed.
Obviously, this strong man was a Junior Magus warrior. Only magi at the Junior or higher level could transform their powers into a certain shape. Usually, the strength of a Magus would go beyond twenty-thousand 'stones' when he or she reached the top level as a Novice Magus; once he or she advanced to Junior Magus, his strength would grow to at least thirty-five thousand stones; added with his or her bloodline power, the punch of a Junior Magus would at least be two times stronger than a top level Novice Magus.
Before Ji Hao could stimulate his internal power, the spear clashed against the stick.
The strong man stared happily at Ji Hao. He only saw a ball of faint light shining behind Ji Hao, which meant that Ji Hao had already started to make the connection with his bloodline power but hasn't awakened it yet, and Ji Hao was only a Level 12 Novice Magus tops!
"Die...Meat...Delicious kid..." The strong man murmured, his arms started swelling, which showed that he had used all his strength.
"Savage! Damn cannibal savage! Fight! Fight! Kill them all! Damn! Ji Hao! Step back! Quick!"
Bang!
The spear and the wooden stick simultaneously exploded into pieces. The explosion hadn't hurt Ji Hao at all. He slightly shook his arms and looked at the strong man. He discovered that the man was not as powerful as he had thought.
Contrary to Ji Hao, both of the palms of the strong man had been broken into several pieces; blood spurted out from his wounds. He stared at Ji Hao in shock while he was sent flying backwards.
"Kill!" Ji Hao growled. He was half-shocked and half-surprised.
He was controlling his power and strength intentionally and keeping himself at the eleventh level as a Novice Magus. However, he had only used six percent of his physical strength just now and completely beat a Junior Magus up.
"The magical [Bu-Tian Bu Lou Magic Spell] made me gain extra strength; the dragon blood gave me a perfect human body; and the Senior Magi blood from Abba and Amma, it was so powerful!" Ji Hao cheered silently in his head.
He then let out a growl, grabbed a pair of axes from the hands of two warriors and rushed towards the strong man.
Tens of savages rushed out of the woods while screaming and shouting. Ji Hao waved the axes and broke through the crowd of savages like a whirlwind. Soon, the tens of Level 5 and Level 6 Novice Magi savage warriors were all chopped into pieces by Ji Hao. Blood splashed everywhere.
"Kill!" Ji Hao growled hoarsely. His pupils turned red. More savages rushed out of the woods continuously. Ji Hao madly rushed towards them.
Hundreds of savages were slaughtered by Ji Hao in the blink of an eye. The ground was littered with body pieces.
Suddenly, an angry growl came from the jungle. A three-meter tall man who was plump and sturdy rushed out. Three red light spots were brightly shining on his chest, which meant that he was a Senior Magus who had three Magus Acupoints awakened!
The Senior Magus savage grabbed a savage warrior who was running beside him and threw him hard forward.
The poor savage warrior let out a deep howl while darting towards Ji Hao like a human cannonball. Ji Hao sensed a strong wind coming along with the human-cannonball when it was still tens of feet away from him. He felt a strong chest pain that made him unable to even breathe.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
6 Power
stone 
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