Chapter 7: Transmitting skills
Three days passed, and the Winged Clan did not appear before us. I was not impatient. After all, the Winged Clan did not kill my people back then, and they certainly won’t kill them now. I stopped the training program for the special forces of the Crouching Tiger Group. The training of the Hidden Dragon Group is only about hiding and reconnaissance, but now there is of course a target—the Winged Race. The Wood Group monitors the Winged Race settlements we have discovered, while the other groups (Metal, Water, Fire, and Earth) monitor the other directions. The people of the Crouching Tiger Group are on guard and deployed around the farm. Over the course of three days, fabric clothes, salt, tea, medicine, and even a batch of grain were constantly transported to the mountains. Of course, due to limited financial resources, there was not much.
That day, I was practicing Taoist techniques and Taiyi Xuangang in the “Wuji Room” of the palace when suddenly there was a fluctuation in my primordial spirit. I hurriedly used my spiritual power to guide the true energy back to my dantian. I was overjoyed. It seemed that Old Zhang had reached his destination and established a transfer space. I hurried back to the Ningxin Palace to say hello to my mother and ran to the farmhouse on Zhenlong Mountain.
Entering the training camp in the dense forest, I had the timber on the ground removed to reveal the six-star magic circle on the ground. I placed six magic stones in the hexagon to provide energy, and then recited the incantation, “Ali Baba, open the door.” The six-star magic circle emitted a faint blue light, enveloping me, the Yuri siblings, and Lu Weixian. The blue light suddenly turned purple, and we disappeared.
We were in the depths of a dark, damp cave, extremely vast, with flickering torches burning on the walls, and the sound of dripping water could be heard from time to time.
Alas, after living in a place like this for a long time, I’m sure I’ll get arthritis.
“Your Highness, I have fulfilled my mission. However, when we were approaching the foot of Changbai Mountain, we encountered the Hurricane Bandits, the Wolf Team. Although we annihilated the other party, all the escorts also died.” Old Zhang said.
“Let them die. They are Zuo Jai’s men. Before entering the capital, they were all river bandits and lake pirates, killing and robbing. They don’t deserve to live.“
”Your Highness, since you are here, would you like to take a look around our place?“ Bachang asked.
”No, I still have some business to attend to. I will need to borrow the Baku brothers for a while.“
”If there is anything I can help you with, please let me know,” said Baku, patting his chest.
“I have discovered the Winged Ones and I want to subjugate them too.“ I did not answer Baku directly.
”Winged Ones!“ There was a buzz of excitement among the orcs.
”Yes, Winged Ones. They captured some of my subordinates, and then we tracked them to a settlement of about 500 people.“
”What do they look like?” asked Arcado, the leader of the leopard clan, which had the most contact with the Winged Ones.
I described the appearance of the winged clan in great detail.
“It’s the Eagle Clan and the Falcon Clan,” said Arcado with certainty.
“That’s a problem. The Eagles are a proud race. If they hadn’t been slaughtered by the Humans, they would never have joined the resistance. As a result, they have an irreconcilable hatred for your race. The Falcons have always been allied with the Eagles and follow their actions,” said Bachiang.
“Is hatred more important than survival?“ I said indifferently. ‘Baku, I need you to appear at the last minute to convince them that I can be a reliable ally.’
”Your Highness should take a few more people with you, just in case there is a conflict,” said Paganini, the Bull Clan leader.
Taking a few more people will also increase the persuasiveness, I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll take a few more, you recommend a few to me.’
In the end, each clan sent out two people.
“By the way, I suspect that your lives may be a bit difficult, so I bought some daily necessities especially for you. You don’t need to refuse, just take them.” After saying this, he used a magic circle to transport most of the things we had bought back and forth several times.
The orcs were overjoyed when they saw the things we had brought. They were in dire need of these things, but they could not buy them through trade. Usually, they could only pretend to be bandits and go down the mountain to loot, but they were afraid to do it too often for fear of alerting the human police. In particular, the tea, medicine, and salt solved their urgent needs.
“Thank you, Your Highness, we happen to need these things urgently, so we will accept them without hesitation.”
“Very well, I will visit again when I have time. For now, I must return to deal with the Winged Clan, so I will not disturb you.“
In the dense forest near the top of the mountain.
”Why keep those humans? They’re wasting our precious food,” said a young voice angrily.
“Laren, you must consider the consequences before doing anything. What good will we get by killing them? But we will have to face retaliation from the other side. The other side has talent, don’t forget, they infiltrated without a sound and took down three of our people. What’s even more terrifying is that if they report to the city guard in a hurry, we’re finished, so we must let them have hope and not take any rash actions.” An elderly male voice said.
“But are we just going to wait for them? Why don’t we attack them at night and finish them off?“ the young voice continued.
”Do you know how many of them there are? How strong they are? What is their background? Are there any repercussions? Do you know all this?” an elderly female voice said.
There was a moment of silence.
“My child, you still have a lot to learn. At times like these, one wrong step can be fatal. The only thing we know for sure is that they haven’t reported to the city guard yet. We can only hope that they’ll keep quiet through negotiations,“ said the older female voice.
”Will they keep their word?“
”If all else fails, we can use that thing to silence them.“
”So what do we need to do now?“
”Wait!”
…
Another few days passed, and the Winged Clan still made no move. Even I was losing patience. That morning, I was sitting on a large rock in the mountains, facing the mountain stream and inhaling the clouds among the mountains. This is an esoteric method contained in the Cloud Sea Scripture, and once it is mastered, it is extremely powerful.
“Your Highness, we have news.” Jin Yi George Sand suddenly appeared behind me.
I stopped practicing and stood up, “Speak.”
“Sixteen people appeared twelve miles north of Area 8. They were wearing clothes, so it was impossible to tell if they had wings, but they looked similar to the ones we saw four days ago. They are currently walking towards the mountainside.“
”Reconnoiter and see if they are followed by any troops.“
”Yes,“ George Sand said, quickly disappearing behind me.
”Finally. You guys can really hold out. Unfortunately, I have more advantages than you, so how can you be patient?”
A group of sixteen people wearing old clothes walked out of the dense forest, and the first thing that caught our eye was our training camp. Mu Yi strode out of the camp, brandishing an axe at his waist, “Everyone, this is private property, please stop.”
One of the young men stepped forward. “Young man, may I ask if Mr. Qiulei is here?”
“Qiulei is indeed the name of the owner.”
Two of the sixteen people exchanged glances.
“We have come especially to resolve the dispute in the forest. Please introduce us to your owner.”
Mu Yi stepped aside, opened the camp gate, raised his hand and made a few gestures, then motioned for the guests to come in. “The owner has been waiting for a while. Please come in.”
Sixteen people followed Mu Yi’s example and entered the camp in an orderly manner. I stood at the door to greet my guests, “Hello everyone, please come in and sit.”
“You are…” Another young man asked hesitantly.
“I am Qiu Lei, the person you want to meet,” I said with a childlike smile on my face.
Almost everyone in the group was taken aback, except for two middle-aged men whose faces only slightly changed. I secretly kept my heart.
The group secretly sized me up, then looked at the guards around me. Behind me stood five hooded figures, with a demon on each side. This puzzled the group. Even if they were isolated from the outside world, they knew that the demon and human races did not get along, or rather, they were very hostile towards each other. The young man in front of them had the ability to have two demon clan members as his escorts.
At this time, Jin Yi appeared at the door and gestured to me, telling me that the other party had gathered more than a hundred people in Area 2, and it seemed that they were all experts in their clan (Area 2, the area closest to our training camp, was directly in front of us).
“Everyone come in and sit. Let’s talk about it when we sit down,” I greeted them cordially.
“No need, Your Excellency. We are here to deliver a message and to inquire about your opinion,” said a middle-aged man.
“Oh, what message needs to seek my opinion.”
“Please allow me to apologize to you first. What happened that day was indeed our fault. Your men were too formidable. Our guards were discovered as soon as they approached. In fact, if they had quickly left at that time, I’m afraid what happened today would not have happened. However, please rest assured that the eleven of your men are living very well with us and have not been mistreated.” The other middle-aged man apologized to me and explained a little about what happened that day.
“Let’s get down to business. How should we resolve this?“ I said.
”Our clan chief would like to invite you to our camp for a long talk to resolve this incident once and for all.“
”Let’s talk here. I have good wine and food here, if not anything else.“
”No, this time it was our fault, so it is only right that I host the banquet to make amends.”
I frowned and stopped arguing with them, and went straight to the point, “How about this, let’s drink and chat in the dense forest ten li away from here.”
The middle-aged man smiled insincerely, “Sir, is that place relatively too close to your camp? This is not good.”
“Your village is about ten li away, you are not far away. Besides, your Falcon Clan is known as the overlord of the forest, I have to be on my guard.”
The two middle-aged men glanced at each other, and one of them said, “I’m really sorry, we can’t make the decision, but we’ll let the chief know what you said when we get back.”
I nodded, “To show my sincerity, I’ll give your people some gifts. They’re not anything valuable, just some daily necessities. Just take them.” I then told someone to bring out the things I had prepared.
After the sixteen people from the other side had seen the items, they were overjoyed. A middle-aged man’s tone of speech also contained an extra three points of sincere emotion, “Your Excellency, we will accept your hospitality. I will convey your sincerity as it is. We will go back now. Goodbye.”
“I still have some things to take care of, so I won’t see you off. Have a good trip.”
The people gradually disappeared into the dense forest.
“They left before they even sat down. What are they busy with?” Sister Yuli laughed.
“Hmph, those people came to deliver a message and to find out our strength,“ said Mu Er Chen Hu.
”At least one of the sixteen people in this group has a very high status in the clan, otherwise why would sixteen people come at once, and there are actually more than a hundred experts behind them,“ said Shui Yi Clara.
”Everyone is observing very carefully, but can any of you tell who that person is?”
There was silence all around, and no one answered. It was not easy to find one person out of sixteen. Besides, they had not had much time to interact with each other, so there was not much information to go on. On second thought, the person who talked the most was not necessarily the ringleader. It seemed that anyone could be the ringleader.
I looked around and noticed that only Lu Weixian, Konstancia (Fire Eleven), and Water Three were smiling and not saying anything.
I pointed at Shui San and said, “Xixi, you tell us who it is.” Xixi was a shy girl, and if I didn’t let her speak, she probably wouldn’t say anything.
“I guess it was the young man who spoke first when they saw Your Highness when they came in,” Xixi said with a blush.
“Why him and not someone else?” Sister Yuli asked her curiously.
“Generally speaking, when an unexpected event occurs, it is the leader who speaks first, and subordinates will not interrupt casually in order to avoid responsibility. When His Highness appeared before them, it was obviously unexpected, so the person who spoke first at that time was most likely the leader.“
”I would like to add,” said Lu Weixian, ”I have observed that no one was instructing him, and the young man spoke naturally.”
“Not bad. But I don’t understand how a young man can have such a high status in the clan that they would pay so much attention to him,“ I mused.
”Your Highness, should we be prepared in case the other party turns against us,“ said Konstancija.
”Everyone spread out and set traps in the forest. Remember, set them everywhere except in the direction of the winged tribe,“ I nodded.
”Yes!” Everyone replied with high spirits.
…
Deep in the forest
“I personally think they are sincere. After all, even the goblins are cooperating with them. I think we can use them to buy things we desperately need, such as food,” said a middle-aged voice.
“What do you think, Sangjie?” said an old voice.
“Judging from their obvious strength, they are quite strong. The strength of either of the two goblins is not inferior to mine, and the five masked people behind them are not much weaker than me. If we really fight, I’m afraid we will suffer a serious blow.“ The young voice said.
”Why would the goblins help him?” The old female voice muttered to herself.
…
Three days later, the winged tribe sent a message, and two days later, we met at 9 am. The location will be as we discussed last time, but the number of people on both sides of the talks should not exceed ten.
“If we go with fewer people, will it be dangerous?” Sister Yuli said worriedly.
“Don’t worry, how could I be tricked by them? Here are eleven diamond amulets, once used they will make you invulnerable to swords and spears for ten hours. If that doesn’t work, there are also eleven flying cloud amulets here, which can increase your speed. As for how much it will increase your speed, it depends on your cultivation level, and it also has a duration of ten hours. There are also poison-avoiding amulets here. At that time, we will each take three amulets, so we won’t be afraid of them tricking us.” I proudly showed off to Yuli.
“Jin Yi, you take a few people and clear an open space there. Mu Yi, you take someone to the bottom of the mountain to buy some wine, so that we can entertain our guests well,” I added.
…
The two days passed in a flash. In the early morning, I arrived early at the meeting place and had a table of wine set up. I brought five orcs (still masked), the Yuri siblings, and Zhang Zhengli and his apprentice.
The sun hung above the forest, and the crisp chirping of birds could be heard continuously in the forest. Everything seemed very peaceful.
Suddenly a flock of sparrows flew up in a flurry, and everyone looked in the direction the sparrows flew, knowing that the Winged Ones were here.
Ten winged people walked out of the woods in an orderly manner, still wearing old clothes, but this time they did not hide their wings under their clothes. They folded their wings behind their backs and did not unfold them. Only one of the ten people was a familiar face, the young man we thought was the leader of the group last time. Three of the ten people were young, four were middle-aged, and three were old.
“I am Qiulei. How do you do?“ I went up to greet them and introduced my people to them. When introducing the orcs, I just said that they were my subordinates and passed them over. The ten people obviously paid close attention to the goblins. After all, it was surprising that the goblins could follow a human.
”Hello, I am Tarozi, the leader of the Eagle Clan,“ said one of the elderly people
”I am Lintorn, the leader of the Falcon Clan,” said the other elderly person.
Then the eagle clan leader Tarozi introduced his people, and the remaining elderly people were the falcon clan elders. Of the four middle-aged people, three were falcons and one was an eagle. Of the three young people, two were falcons and one was an eagle. The young man we knew was an eagle, his name was Sangjie. These people were the warriors of both clans.
“Let’s sit down and talk,” I raised my hand to invite the other party to sit.
“You’re welcome.“ The other party did not hesitate and sat down directly. The three of us (myself, Zhang Zhengli and his apprentice) and the three elderly people from the other party sat directly opposite each other.
After the wine had been drunk and the topic of conversation had been broached, Tarozi, the chief of the Eagle tribe, said, ‘I wonder how you would like to resolve this accident.’ These old foxes always insisted that it was an accident.
”What do you think?” I also said with a smile,
“How about this: You promise not to reveal our whereabouts, and we will immediately return your people,“ said Tarozi.
”How will you believe my promise? You won’t keep two people behind, will you?“ I showed a childlike smile this time.
”We have a gold mine,” the other party answered non-committally
I was interested as soon as I heard it, just as I was in need of money right now, ”so what?”
“If you don’t reveal our secret, we will supply you with gold.“ This time it was the falcon clan leader, Lintendo,
”How much per year?“
”The amount of 30,000 gold coins. Of course, we will only provide gold nuggets, and you will need to polish the gold coins yourself. In addition, we need you to buy a large amount of the items we need for us. We can only rely on you.” Lintendo
I nodded slowly, “We can agree. Since there is this common interest as a basis, I believe we can cooperate happily.” At this time, Zhang Zhengli whispered a few words in my ear, and I nodded. “Two tribal chiefs, I would like to ask, how long can the gold mine support 30,000 gold coins per year.” The elder is still wiser, and he asked the key question at once.
There was a moment of silence from the other party. “Twenty years,” said Lintorn slowly in a low tone
“After twenty years, how can you trust me not to reveal your secret?“
Tarozzi said with a bitter smile, ‘We can only trust that you will not go back on your word.’
”Without a material benefit as a foundation, the agreement is just empty words.“
There was still a moment of silence.
”Do you two clans hope to live here forever? Generations after generations, living here forever until you are discovered?”
A flash of light appeared in the eyes of Tarozzi and Lintern: ”What do you mean?”
“I need your strength to do something. After it is done, I will give you land.“
The two clan leaders glanced at each other, their eyes full of surprise. ‘Please Your Excellency clarify your identity,’ Tarozi said cautiously
”I am the fourth prince of the empire.“ I looked at the two of them
”This is too dangerous,“ Tarozi said. After the two clan leaders understood my identity, they knew what I wanted to do.
”If there is no danger, what do I need you for,” I said indifferently
“That seems like something to consider,“ Lintorn said to Tarozi. The Falcon tribe lives in the dense forest, while most of the Eagle tribe lives on the cliffs. In comparison, the Falcon tribe is more likely to be discovered, and the Falcon tribe has less and less land to farm, and the food is already running out. The crisis of survival has already begun to appear.
Tarozi was still hesitant.
”Are you an Eagle?” I asked deliberately
The eagle clan’s faces showed anger. “Of course we are the eagle clan,” the young man Sangjie said
“Isn’t that different from the eagle clan I know?” I deliberately smacked my lips and said, “The eagle clan I know is free, soaring through the sky, fighting in the sky, but what about you? Crouching in this corner of the land, struggling for survival, do you still dare to soar freely in the sky now?” I coldly said to them
The faces of all the Eagles changed, their eyes filled with tears, grief and shame.
“This goes beyond the purpose of our visit, but I will go back and convey this to all the clan members. After all, it concerns the lives of all the clan members.” Taroqi forced himself to calm down a little and finally made up his mind, “Now we will go back and discuss it.”
“Then I won’t keep you. Whether it succeeds or not, we can still cooperate. After you go back, you can give me the gold, and I will go down the mountain to buy things for you. In addition, I hope that the 30,000 gold coins for this year will be given to me now. I believe you have it.”
The two clan leaders did not decline. ‘We will take care of it after we go back. We will leave now. We will give you an answer in three days.’
The group quickly left. Watching them leave, I also commanded everyone to pack up and go back.