Chapter 5: Flying Dragon
The pressure on the eight people immediately decreased by two-thirds, and their offense and defense immediately became comfortable. However, there was an expression of disbelief in everyone’s eyes. It was nothing to have someone come to the rescue, but the reinforcements were a group of monsters.
A fire dragon flew towards the flying dragons, three bolts of lightning once again fell from the sky, and then a gust of wind suddenly swept through the flying dragon group, blowing the flying dragons unsteadily.
“Okay, everyone, follow me. We still have to deal with these guys,” Zhang Lao said with a smile to the eight people.
“Okay, the old man please lead the way,” the female magician said, the eight people were already exhausted and were looking forward to getting out of the battlefield.
Twenty horned monsters blocked the rear path, and Yuli constantly supported them with magic, while Yuri directly confronted the flying dragons. Zhang Lao also constantly harassed the flying dragons with some minor magic. In fact, if I didn’t stop them from killing these flying dragons, the three of them plus twenty horned monsters could easily kill eight or ten of them (the rest fled).
Finally, they reached the ambush circle. The group of people looked a little disheveled. After all, it was not easy to fight back when they were attacked while fleeing.
“Golden Qi soars in the sky, chaos,” Tianyi Luo Bingcheng shouted.
Golden light broke through the sky and flew towards the flying dragons, instantly raising a sky full of feathers. One flying dragon even fell to the ground and could not get up. Taking advantage of this, everyone safely ran back.
“Everyone find somewhere to hide,“ I shouted.
The furious flying dragon no longer cared about anything, flew high up, then immediately dove down, extended its claws, unleashed its wind magic, and pounced on the people who were still standing.
”Shoot!” I shouted calmly.
Three hundred people rose from the grass, their bows already nocked and arrows aimed at the flying dragons in the sky. Three hundred arrows whizzed towards the flying dragons, all of them hitting their mark. This was combined with two super-large exploding fireballs, a fire dragon, and seven lightning bolts. The flying dragons, which simply did not have time to react, immediately fell to the ground. Only the last three flying dragons that fell escaped unscathed, immediately climbed high, and took aim with their bows and arrows, which no longer posed a threat to them.
“Everyone hurry up and tie these flying dragons’ wings with wire. Sister Yuli, when you see a tied flying dragon, you reply for it,” I said.
The three flying dragons kept wailing in the air, unwilling to leave for a long time.
The dark goblin took a deep breath, nocked an arrow on his bow, and a green glow appeared on the bow and arrow. “Whoosh,” the arrow soared through the air and pierced the wing of one of the flying dragons. The three flying dragons let out another mournful cry before flying off to the west.
I gave a mysterious smile and, with twenty horned monsters, I chased after the flying dragons.
“What’s he going to do?” Qiangli asked the female wizard in a low voice.
“He’s going to catch the three flying dragons,“ Zhang Lao explained with a smile, hearing Qiang’s words.
”How is he going to catch them?“ Qiang asked in puzzlement.
”You’ll see!”
Just then, a dark cloud suddenly appeared near the nest of the flying dragons. It was the aerial forces that had finally arrived after I had cut off the flying dragons’ escape route. As soon as it collided with the flying dragon, the pterodactyls charged bravely up, and the wind creatures also immediately spewed out a wind knife one after the other. Although the flying dragons were one or two levels higher than them, they were really outnumbered and were finally defeated and lay on the ground unable to get up.
I quickly ran up to them and tried to make a contract with them, but the angry dragons just stared at me with fiery eyes. In the end, I had no choice but to massage them with ice, fire, electricity, and peeling skin and cramps. Finally, the dragons were moved by the fact that I had saved their lives at the brink of death and signed a contract with me. I carefully removed the arrows from their bodies one by one, healed them with white magic, applied herbs, and then released them back into the monster world.
I returned to Zhang Lao and the others very excitedly, and began to inspect my group of future little brothers. Like the last batch of flying dragons, they gave me angry looks.
“Have you tamed those three dragons?” Qiangli asked.
“Needless to say, with me on the case, everything is settled,” I said proudly.
“Thanks to this young master, if it weren’t for you, we would have been buried here today,” the female magician thanked me.
“You’re welcome. You were a pretty good decoy,“ I said, shaking my hand generously.
The eight of us looked at each other, wondering how we had become decoys.
”What are you guys doing here?” Cathy next to me asked curiously.
“The eight of us are mercenaries. We passed by here and heard that there were flying dragons harming the villagers, so we hurried here. We didn’t expect that there would be nearly 30 flying dragons, and each one was stronger than what we knew,“ the female magician said with a bitter smile.
”You guys are pretty strong. You didn’t have a single casualty under the siege of 30 flying dragons. That’s really tacit understanding,” Yuli sister said.
“We were only able to hold them off for a short while. If you hadn’t arrived in time, I’m afraid only two of us would be alive now,” said the dark goblin.
But the Yuri siblings had cold faces and ignored the dark goblin. The dark goblin didn’t get angry either, and the others seemed to be used to it and didn’t say anything.
I felt a little strange about this, which was not in line with the character of the Yuri siblings: ”Elder Zhang, why are they like this?”
“The dark and light fairies are very hostile towards each other. In their beliefs, the light fairies believe in the gods of light, while the dark fairies believe in the gods of darkness. As a result, the two races are constantly arguing, and in the end they stopped communicating with each other and even went to war.“
”But I saw that at first Yuli sister cared a lot about that dark fairy, as if she was afraid that she would get hurt,” Cathy also asked curiously.
“Although there are disputes between the Light and Dark Goblins, they consider them internal matters. If an outsider bullies one of the Light or Dark Goblins, the goblins of the other tribe will also attack the outsider.“
”Really!” Cathy said.
Six hundred years ago, the Chu State, aware of the powerful magical powers of the goblins, wanted to subdue the goblin tribe and sent 400,000 troops to attack the Sunset Forest. The goblin tribe fought back. But the commander of the Chu State took the radical measure of ordering the forest to be burned, which finally forced the goblin tribe to come out of the forest to fight. As a result, the goblin tribe was defeated and faced with the crisis of extinction.
At this critical juncture, 100,000 dark goblins broke through from the Lagiza Mountains and invaded the Chu-Huai Kingdom. Within ten days, they captured 17 cities and were heading straight for the capital of the Chu-Huai Kingdom. In great alarm, the emperor of the Chu-Huai Kingdom issued 17 imperial orders in one day, urgently ordering 400,000 troops to return to the capital. When the Chu-Huai army retreated, the Light Goblins took advantage of the situation and attacked, but only managed to inflict minor losses on the Chu army. There were still 300,000 troops out of the 400,000. Just as the 300,000 troops were hurrying back, the remaining 80,000 Dark Goblins also retreated. The Eastern Tianzhu and the Empire of the Sun, which were eyeing Chu Huai, saw that the goblins had not been subdued after the long war, but had instead suffered losses. More importantly, the two armies were exhausted from the long journey. The two sides sent troops out almost at the same time, and in the end Chu Huai lost 300 square kilometers of land near the Sunset Forest, which was completely incorporated into the territory of the Empire of the Sun.
The Light and Dark Goblins are related by blood. When one is in trouble, the other will never sit idly by. I had someone tie the wyverns together with ropes and prepare them for transport back to the mountain village. The wyvern nests were also ransacked for a while, and there were quite a few good things in the nests, magical items, swords, shields, armor, and so on, as well as quite a few wyvern eggs. I put them all in my bag of wonders.
“Who are you working for now?“ Cathy seemed to be even more curious than I was, and asked the eight people.
”We are now working for the city of permafrost.”
The faces of Zhang Lao and the two goblins changed. The city of permafrost is located at the entrance to the demon world in the frozen tundra, and is the first line of defense against the demons. It is also known as the city of meat. At least hundreds of millions of creatures have died inside and outside this city, and almost every ten years, half a million people from both sides have to die.
“No wonder the eight of them are so powerful,“ said Yuri.
”I know my own limitations. I’m still a long way off from being as strong as you,“ said the male wizard.
”I still don’t know your names! I’m Cathy,” said Cathy.
The eight of them smiled at each other and announced their names. The female mage was called Si Rui, and the male mage was called Tai Donglai. They were a couple. The swordsman was Qiangli, the axe-wielder was Kyle, the knight was Zhang Xiongcai, the two berserkers were brothers, one was called Qianli and the other Qianliang, the dark goblin was called Ge Peilia, and we also introduced ourselves to them.
“How much can you earn in a month at most?” I asked with ulterior motives.
“Ten gold coins a month!“ The income of these mercenaries was very high during the war, but of course if he survived, he could only earn one gold coin normally.
”I can give you twenty gold coins a month,” I said with a smile.
The eyes of the eight men were full of money, and their faces were full of greed. I couldn’t help but doubt whether my decision was correct.
“Just tell me what you need. Even if it means going through fire and water, as long as you pay, I won’t hesitate to go in the front line,“ Kyle said, patting his chest.
”Yes, our 800-Ban Mercenary Group is famous for its reputation,” Knight Zhang Xiongcai said, of course, greed for money is the most famous.
Qiangli suddenly knelt down in front of me on one knee: ”Young master, I will go through fire and water for you without hesitation.”
“Okay, okay, what kind of appearance is this in front of the customer? Isn’t this embarrassing the Yao Bai Ban Mercenary Corps! How many times have I said, don’t always care about money.” Shirai snapped, then turned her face towards me and replaced it with a charming smile. I don’t think she has ever smiled like this when dealing with Taidong. “Young master, from now on, the 800-Man Mercenary Corps will do things for you. As long as you give the order, we will definitely complete it. However,” Shirai’s smile on her face was even more charming, “can you give us some gold coins first? We still have a debt on our shoulders.”
“How much?” The two demons were about to start wrestling.
…
After an hour of struggle, I paid a deposit of 123 gold coins to the eight people, and the eight people will work for me from now on.
Back at the mountain cottage, I first placed two seals inside the flying dragons, then threw them into a special prison. Then I summoned 20 minotaurs and ordered them to torture the flying dragons non-stop. Of course, I also had someone treat the flying dragons every day to completely destroy their will before I subdued them.
After I finished my business, I invited the eight people to a meal, and of course the meal expenses were deducted from their wages. Damn, I found that all eight of these people are starving ghosts reborn, and the money I deducted is too little.
“Everyone has had enough to eat and drink, and it’s time we talked about the mission.”
“Young master, this is where you’re wrong. How can you do strenuous exercise right after eating?” Tae Dong shook his head and said.
“For each completed mission, each person will be rewarded with three gold coins.”
“Donglai, don’t speak unless you know what you’re talking about,” Si Rui snapped. ‘Don’t you know that exercise after a meal is good for your health?’ Si Rui smiled at me: ‘Young master, just tell me what you want!’
I nodded in satisfaction: ‘I heard that there is another wyvern nest not far from the first one. Your task is the same as last time: to lure the wyverns to our ambush…’ All eight of them had already fallen under the table.
After two days of fighting, the remaining dragons were captured alive, 20 in total. The previous 21 dragons, impressed by my hospitality and massages, were very self-conscious, no, very positive, about asking for a contract with me. In order to give them a chance to repay their debt and so that they could sleep peacefully at night, I was forced to sign a monster contract with them (the other 20 dragons were subdued later).
It was easy to deal with the stone monsters. As soon as the three fire demons appeared, the 17 stone monsters immediately surrendered without hesitation. In fact, stone monsters are very scary. Their defense capabilities are simply unbelievable. Bows and arrows simply cannot penetrate their bodies. They can freely cast level 6 petrifying and earth magic. However, the fire demons are too powerful. You have to know that when they came out, even Old Zhang’s face changed (Old Zhang probably had to take a bit of a beating against the fire demons).
I divided the monsters into two main groups, one in the air and one on the ground, each divided into six teams. The six stone monsters are the leaders of the six ground teams, numbered Earth 1001, Earth 2001…Earth 6001, and the ones in the air are Heaven 1001, Heaven 2001… 6001, and the ones in the sky are numbered Tian 1001, Tian
2001… Tian 6001, with each one belonging to a row in order. There are only about 2,000 monsters, so it’s not clear when the twelve teams will be fully formed. But with these 2,000 monsters, they can defeat an army of 20,000.
I ordered the fifth and sixth teams in the sky and the fifth and sixth teams on the ground to stay behind, as well as a fire demon, to protect the 13 villages in the sky. Their secret mission is to subdue the monsters.
New Year’s Day is approaching, and that’s a big day in the Empire. I have to hurry back no matter what (there’s so much delicious food). I told the 800-Man Mercenary Corps to stay at the 13 Fortresses of the Flat Sky (later I decided that Flat Sky and Equal Sky sounded bad, so I changed it to Flat Land and Equal Land) to help train the people there. Then I returned to the capital.
I didn’t go out for a few days before New Year’s Day, I was too busy. Every day I ate and slept in the palace, slept until I was full and then ate some more. On New Year’s Day, I went to worship the heavens during the day, which was boring. It was a waste of good food to keep it on the stone platform and not let people eat it. In the evening, it was really fun. A ball was held, with countless foods. My younger brother and sister and I rampaged around the ballroom, looking for food. There were other children behind us, one of whom was the grandson of Zuo Zai Longli Duoqi. They are now my younger brothers.
As I ate, I looked proudly at the dance floor, where one-third of the clothes worn by the dancers were made by our Milanese capital.
I met a lot of people at the ball today, some from the Zuo family, some from the Youchen family, and some from the Gongbu family.
“Miss, may I have this dance?” A handsome man bowed in front of my sister Suizi.
“Second Brother, don’t mess around here, she’s my personal bodyguard,” I said.
“Really!” The man looked up with disappointment. ‘Fourth Brother, how could you have such a hobby at such a young age?’
That’s disgusting, comparing me to him. In fact, my second brother is quite capable, leading the Sky Knights and accomplishing countless great feats. He just has a thing for beautiful women, and when he sees a pretty woman, he doesn’t know who he is anymore. I snorted and ignored him.
“Elena,” my second brother shouted next to me, his voice full of joy, ‘I never thought you’d be here too.’ He rushed over.
A beautiful girl next to him, who looked to be only fifteen, seemed to be petrified and unable to move. At this critical moment, an additional foot next to the girl kicked my second brother in the stomach, but his hand grabbed my second brother’s arm first, and my second brother let out a muffled grunt.
A red-haired beauty appeared, “Your Highness,” the red-haired beauty said word by word, “This is a public place, please be careful with your words and actions.”
Erge screamed, “Milo, why are you here too? Didn’t you say you were going on a trip?”
“In order to protect the young girls of the capital from the hands of perverts, I have specially stayed for a few more days. I will only leave in peace when the perverts have gone,” the red-haired beauty said with righteous indignation and unwavering resolve.
I stood there, dumbfounded, watching the whole thing. My second brother couldn’t even handle two women. This was a disgrace to his reputation as one of the four most beautiful men in the capital, and to my father’s reputation as an “invincible beautiful man.”
“Sister Milo, you’re so pretty,” I said, running up to her and taking the red-haired beauty’s hand.
“Little brother, who are you? You’re so cute,” said Sister Milo, picking me up.
“Sister, my name is Qiu Lei. I want to eat something. Will you take me there?”
“Okay, little brother, we’ll take you,“ Elena, who had already recovered her senses, said as she patted me on the head.
I lay in Milo’s arms, making a face at my second brother, Qiudongmiede, while my younger brothers dispersed to play on their own.
After the ball, my father sent someone to call me into a room.
”Lei’er, this is Abbot Dajue, come and meet him!” my father said.
He was wearing a black-like monk’s robe, with a plain face and calm, peaceful eyes. There was a penetrating power about him, and I felt as if I were naked under his gaze. But there was no chilling feeling, just peace.
In front of this eminent monk, I respectfully bowed down and said, “Greetings, Master. Lei greets you.”
The Abbot of Dajue Monastery smiled slightly, “In a hundred years, Buddhism will flourish because of you.” Then he closed his eyes and said no more.
My father led me out, saying, “The Abbot still has to go to Fahyan Temple tomorrow to preach the Dharma, so let’s not disturb him today.”
The ball passed by uneventfully today. Who knows what these people will be like to me tomorrow!
These past few days have been particularly lively, with many people giving lectures, playing acrobatics, singing, and dancing. Since there is also a Heavenly God Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the hustle and bustle of the capital has not gradually subsided with the passing of New Year’s Day, but instead, it is gaining momentum. Of course, business has also doubled over the past few days. If it weren’t for the small venue, business would have probably doubled again. The only thing that upset me was that the eight people from the Pingdi 13 Zhai actually said that I had to give them a year-end bonus at the end of the year. I refused on the grounds that I had not worked for six months.
Today is the Feast of the Gods. The Fu sisters’ song and dance routine is scheduled for the third-to-last performance in the evening. This is not a good position, because the program is too long, lasting five hours. By the time they perform, the audience will already be tired. Besides, some other good song and dance troupes have performed before them and were a great success. Although I have confidence in myself, in this era when flashy pseudo-romanticism prevails, I don’t know what fate awaits me.
But when the violins played the introduction with their gentle tremolo, they captivated the audience so much that they had to be played again after the introduction was finished. This is especially true when the second part of “Messiah,” the “Hallelujah Chorus,” is performed, which expresses the suffering of God and the light it brings. The kind of clear and moving melody that makes people feel that only the unpolluted clear spring from the deep mountains or the holy water from the hands of God to baptize us can be so transparent and pure, and can make the hearts of the people buried in the dust and sealed by the net a little brighter. (From “Music Notes” by Xiao Fuxing)
Classical and sacred music echoed through the Imperial Theater, and the high priests of both Buddhism and Taoism stood up to listen respectfully. Lianxin’s music and the entire theater, along with the surrounding world, were filled with a sacred and solemn atmosphere. (From “Music Notes” by Xiao Fuxing)
The next day, newspapers across the capital began to promote the Lianxin Song and Dance Troupe for free, saying: “Even the most foolish person can feel the suffering and blessings of the gods.” They called it “beautiful song and dance with stirring melodies, the only bright light of the Heavenly God Festival party…” Lianxin became an overnight sensation. Since then, people have been coming to invite Lianxin to perform, and Lianxin has become one of the top three song and dance troupes in the world.
The next night, I went to the Fu family to congratulate the four sisters. I should have come yesterday, but since there were a lot of delicious things at home, I was afraid that they would go bad and be wasted if I left them there until the next day, so I ate them all at home. On the other hand, the four sisters were still at Grandpa Lin’s house, and I didn’t want to meet him just yet, so I waited until today.
“Congratulations, sisters, on your successful performance,“ I said, holding a drink in my hand.
Ye Ran shook her head: ‘Little brother, this time it was because of you that we succeeded. If we had just performed our songs and dances, we wouldn’t have had this effect.’
”Little brother, can you tell me where you got these dance tunes?” Fu Wanxin asked.
I pretended to be confused: ”I don’t know. I just remember reading them in a book by chance.”
The four older sisters saw that I wasn’t going to tell them, so they didn’t say anything more and started chatting. I chimed in curiously, too, while Cathy was even more greedy than me. She hadn’t even finished eating after ten days, and now she was cleaning up the food on the table. Hmph, Yuli was right when she said that I didn’t know how she could fit so much food in her little stomach.
Soon everyone’s spirits lifted and they began to sing and dance. The courtyard was bustling with activity, but when Sister Fu Bing’s singing started, the whole place fell silent. As her clear voice rippled out, it seemed that everyone’s hearts were gently swaying along with the song, forming a beautiful and moving arc. What must it be like to stand and sing under the night sky? The night breeze gently blew, the long skirt fluttered, the long hair fluttered, as if melting into the melody of the song and swaying with the melody; the clear female voice was like water from heaven, crystal clear, echoing brightly in the vast night sky.
When the song ended, the crowd was left with a lasting impression. “Bing, you sang so well, can you sing for me every day in the future?” I said to Cathy.
“If you like it, I’ll sing for you in the future,” said Bing Fu, who rarely showed a tender expression.
“Yes!” Cathy and I clapped our hands happily.