It’s snowing. It’s light and you can still see things, but no one would set off on a long journey if they have to walk through half metre tall snow pile.
Yet there was a line of thirty and more men on this plain.
Four more people were added to the thirty-one men pioneering team, the priest Yan Mo and his three disciples.
The team assumed a diamond shaped form, a huge wooden board was dragged in the middle of the form. Everyone walked with their own two feet, just that they had two boards on their feet and two sticks on their hands.
Yan Mo didn’t know how Yuan Zhan could find the correct way on such a snowy day where you can’t see any landmarks, but it was a fact that they didn’t encounter a large group of beasts after ten days of walking.
Yan Mo didn’t know if it would have any effect, but he used the medicinal materials he had to make some beast repellent.
These types of beast repellent can be divided into two types. One is using animal fur, excrement or urine and other secretions to make other beasts afraid to come close. The second type is also taking advantage of the animal’s sensitive sense of smell by adding some herbs that have a strong smell and animals don’t like into the medicine bag.
Yan Mo made both types and gave one to each member of the pioneering team. For the beast secretion type, he used Jiu Feng’s excrement.
Yan Mo could actually choose to stay behind without telling Jiu Feng. After all, there is no way Jiu Feng can tell if other beings come into his territory once he falls into deep sleep.
But Yan Mo was unwilling to deceive Jiu Feng. Jiu Feng treated him with sincerity, even if he didn’t return the same sincerity back, he didn’t want to treat the other party as an idiot. He’s bad, but he keeps his words. Since he had said to Jiu Feng he will immediately leave, then he will leave immediately.
Ever since he could understand Jiu Feng and the bees’ language, he found out that this bird of prey and insects that had brains not as developed as humans have their own intelligence and ways of distinguishing things.
He could stay behind, but can he guarantee that he can leave in time before Jiu Feng wakes up?
If he secretly stayed but then got discovered by Jiu Feng who woke up, if he was Jiu Feng, he would be very angry.
The homeowner already told the guest to leave his house, but not only did the guest not leave, he ate and drank as he liked in the owner’s house and made a mess everywhere. No matter how good the feelings between the homeowner and the guest are, the owner would definitely get angry when he woke up, right?
He didn’t want to test how deep a bird’s affection to him and didn’t want to kill Jiu Feng and take over his territory, so he could only leave.
But he didn’t just leave the place defeatedly, he used Jiu Feng’s name to trick people again.
He told A’wu people that to test the new members of the tribe, mountain god Jiu Feng required them to build a new and grand city at the place he appointed, and not just be able to live under his protection. He, the priest, was unwilling to let the tribesmen suffer by themselves, so he and the god blood warrior will leave with them to build the new city.
When Jiu Feng disappeared, A’wu people had been worried everyday that they had been abandoned by the god. Then they saw Jiu Feng attacking them with their own eyes and were even more worried if their actions had displeased god. Without waiting for Yan Mo to come look for them, they came forward to ask for audience under the shaman’s lead.
Yan Mo just used those words to answer them.
A’wu people felt at ease, moreover they were full of hope and expectation for their lives in the future as they listened to Priest-daren describing the city.
Although journeying to the new residence during the heavy snow would be hard, A’wu people are not afraid with both Priest-daren and god’s warrior going on the journey with them, in fact, they felt a rush of excitement to be the ones reclaiming a land.
“If any one of you is tired, go sit on the board a bit.” Yan Mo told the three little kids behind him.
Big-eyes rushed to speak first, “Priest-daren, I’m not tired, I can still walk.” Actually he’s already panting hard. He’s still around eleven years old after all, even if his body is strong, he can’t keep up with adult’s long legs or quick steps.
The naughty Sa stole glances at the wooden board but Big-eyes just said that he’s not tired, he’s embarrassed to be the first to sit down. Even Priest-daren is still walking with his own feet, how can they sit and rest first?
Straight-brows kept his silence. He’s physically stronger than the two other kids, and carried more stuff on his back than the two.
Yan Mo didn’t persuade them anymore. These little cubs will get on the board themselves once they’re so tired they can’t walk anymore.
He originally didn’t plan to take these three kids on the road, wasn’t that just adding burden? But when the kids heard that Priest-daren would go out with the pioneering team and they the disciples would be sent back to the A’wu clan, Straight-brows was the first to tell Yan Mo that he wanted to go with him.
Straight-brows was quite okay in Yan Mo’s eyes. The little kid looked a bit fierce but he had the kindest heart among the kids, he’s also the most sensible one among all of them. He thought, he does need someone to help him with miscellaneous errands and Straight-brows is strong, so he agreed to him coming.
But when the other kids were getting sent back to the A’wu clan, Big-eyes saw that Straight-brows stayed behind and immediately ran back. He didn’t say anything, just followed closely behind Yan Mo, looking at him with big begging eyes.
With Big-eyes now staying behind too, naughty Sa probably thought he can’t just let them have all the benefits, and also ran back.
The little kid A’wu also wanted to stay behind,
But the three big kids joined hands and threw him back to the adult taking the kids back. Same with the other kids.
Yan Mo smiled, “You guys can stay, but the journey is hard and dangerous. If you can’t walk anymore later and fall behind, no one will go back to look for you. Similarly if you affect everyone’s pace, I won’t be soft to you just because you are my students.”
The three kids didn’t understand all of that, they had to guess what Priest-daren was saying by his expression and tone and some of the words they did understand.
Yan Mo said again, “I told you yesterday that you guys have an important task to do when you go back, you guys have to pass on the language and knowledge that I have taught you to your clan members. Right now you have to think about this, will you go back to help your clan or leave with me at the risk of your life. Come to me again after you’ve thought about it.”
This time to ensure the kids really understood his words, Yan Mo put his hand on Straight-brows’s forehead for the second time. He didn’t want the kids to develop reliance on this so he had never put his hand on the kids’ heads again ever since the classes began.
Straight-brows retold Yan Mo’s words to the other two kids. The three of them whispered among themselves for quite some time, Yan Mo didn’t know how they discussed it, in the end they still came to Yan Mo who was preparing for the journey.
Like that, there were three more little kids within the team.
Yuan Zhan saw that Yan Mo didn’t oppose to them coming, so he also didn’t. The little kids are not young in his opinion. When he was twelve, he was already level one warrior and could go out to hunt with the adults.
The two people didn’t even say anything, there’s no way A’wu people would oppose to the little kids coming. They even gave the kids a lot of care during the journey because they were Priest-daren’s disciples.
Yuan Zhan turned around from the front of the formation.
“What is it?” Yan Mo quickly raised his head, every time Yuan Zhan walked back during the journey it’s because he had something to discuss with him.
Sure enough, Yuan Zhan went to his side and walked next to him, raised a quick hand to wipe off the snowflakes on his brows, then said, “Did you feel like it’s harder to walk now than two days before?”
Yan Mo nodded. Not only tiring, it’s also cold. He had wrapped a bigger beast coat on top of the big sleeved overcoat and buttoned up the overcoat, wearing it like an inner vest. He’s already wearing the most compared to other people, from afar he looked like some bear, but he still felt cold, he felt like his ears and nose were going to be frostbitten.
His basic long boots were made from pelt, and it felt colder the more he wore it. His toes were so cold it felt numb, just slight rubbing when he sleeps would hurt so much, don’t even mention his hands.
“That’s because we’re close.” Ten days’ journey, if it was him alone he would’ve gotten there already, but their team hadn’t reached the place after walking so long because of the heavy snow and their large number.
Yan Mo suddenly perked up. “How much longer?”
“We’ll definitely get there in three days if we hurry a bit. Actually we have already entered the high land, we’ve been walking up the slope since afternoon yesterday.”
Yan Mo looked around him and muttered to himself, “This slant is not very obvious.”
“The slope is really long, if you don’t pay attention you won’t even notice you’re walking on a slope. When you reach the top, there will be a wide flat area. It’s very big, about as big as the salt lake.”
“You didn’t come over just to tell me we’re about to reach there, right?”
Yuan Zhan wiped the snowflakes on his face. His growing short hair had turned white. Yan Mo didn’t know if it’s because he’s an ability user, this guy didn’t feel cold, even now he’s still not wearing anything on his feet. every time Yan Mo saw his bare feet, he would feel his body get colder.
“The food we got is running out, we need to hunt. Going to that mountain with the goats from here would take one day. I’m going to take half of the team there to hunt and take the rocks. I’ll leave all the food to you guys, you take the other half of the team to the new land and wait for us to come back with the prey and rocks. Next the other half will go over there.”
“Did you already plan to do this from before?” So he didn’t let them carry a lot of food that would drag them down.
“Yes.”
“I don’t know how to get there.” Yan Mo frowned.
“Look up ahead, did you see the earth pillar? I also put in a lot of grass on the top.” Yuan Zhan pointed somewhere ahead.
Yan Mo looked to the distance. Now that Yuan Zhan pointed it out, Yan Mo really found a towering earth pillar, it’s rounded at the bottom and sharp at the end, looking like a thorn. Greater parts of thorn was covered by snow, but the upper half was still visible. This should be the first version of territorial landmark, huh?
“Did you piss around that pillar?”
“Of course.” Yuan Zhan said confidently.
Yan Mo muttered, “…I just knew you’d do that.”
Yuan Zhan couldn’t tell if he was getting praised or mocked, he acted like he didn’t hear it. “There are no terrible beasts around the area from here to the pillar. The other half of the team left for you should be enough to get everyone over there safely. But remember, never change your route no matter what you encounter later, just keep going straight down this path.”
“You’re really sure there’s no fierce beasts and dangerous wild packs? maybe you didn’t see them before and now…”
“I’m not sure.”
Yan Mo immediately suggested, “Maybe we should all go to that rock mountain?”
Yuan Zhan suddenly showed a strange smile. “I can’t say for sure you won’t encounter fierce beasts on your way, but I’m certain that the route I’m taking will have them. It’s winter and there’s so little food, many carnivores around here are eyeing those mountain goats.
Yan Mo went silent for three seconds then said four words, “Bye, see yourself out!”
Yuan Zhan left with a loud laugh. He didn’t think that his Priest-daren was cowardly and scared of dying, he understood something about this man now and knew that he just disliked troublesome stuff.
After a short break, Yuan Zhan left all the food and took half of the men to the rock mountain with the goats at faster speed. In order to make it easier to transport things later, they also took the big wooden board.
Among the A’wu warriors left behind, there’s a group leader called Huhu. Huhu went to Yan Mo and expressed that he will follow Yan Mo’s orders from now on.
“Go!” Yan Mo didn’t spend his breath on useless words. He pointed at that thorn-like earth pillar and took the lead to walk to it.
Huhu had been trained by Er Meng and naturally wouldn’t let Priest-daren walk in front of everyone and face danger. He immediately arranged everyone and the formation changed, putting Yan Mo and the three kids in the middle of the formation.
Along the way Yan Mo prayed that they wouldn’t come across terrible beasts or hunting beasts. It’s unclear whether his prayers worked, or his beast repellent came to effect, or if the beasts didn’t want to come out during winter and didn’t want to run over here that had no prey even if they came out, three whole days passed without seeing any wild beasts that would pose them much danger.
Of course, they still came across some lone beasts on their way, they even saw an old wolf. The old wolf ran away when seeing their large number. Other wild animals that ran too slowly were caught by the A’wu warriors to stuff their own stomachs.
In order to not get followed by beasts following the bloody smell, they would bury the internal organs and bones they can’t eat deep under the snow after each hunt. Yan Mo also spread beast repellent powder that smelled bad so that the things wouldn’t be dug out by beasts with sharp noses.
When the group of people reached the earth pillar that was half buried in the snow and Yan Mo declared that they had reached the land of the future tribe that mountain god Jiu Feng had designated for them, A’wu people let out a relieved and happy cheer.
They didn’t dare to shout too loudly, for fear of leading beasts to this place.
Under Yan Mo’s instructions, fifteen A’wu warriors shovelled the snow and levelled the ground for setting up the tent and fire pile.
The night passed by silently.
The next day, Yan Mo walked out of his tent and looked at the surroundings while enduring the cold air.
The field he could see was very wide.
On the north was a very vast plain, or grassland, he could see vague shapes of mountains far up north.
To the west, there was a grassland, behind that grassland was a little range of mountains that went up and down. And behind the small mountains was a large stretch of forest that he couldn’t see the end of.
To the east, there was an eye-catching large lake that seemed to stretch to the horizon and looked like it was an inland sea. There were big and small islands scattered in the middle of the lake. Around the lake were tall and short trees and bushes.
And the south was where they had come from that had salt lake, plains and forests.
He couldn’t see it from far away, but when he got closer he found that the higher plains of this area also had some small lakes and small streams of varying sizes. According to the streams’ direction, they should all converge to the large lake below.
Below the highlands near the western forest, he could see a sizable river encircling the mountain.
There’s also a big river on the north, but Yan Mo couldn’t be sure, the thing reflecting light in the distance looked like a river to him.
No wonder Yuan Zhan chose this place. Even he felt that this place was a well-situated land with abundant resources, lush surroundings and strategic advantage. If this land was situated in his original world, it would’ve been occupied and opened up long ago. Only in this other world with more beast than human could this land stay a virgin territory no one had developed.
Although this land looked good, there’s bound to be many difficulties for starting from nothing at all.
And if there are no humans at such a place with abundant food, then there would be fierce beasts at the top of the food chain in their place. Yuan Zhan had indeed found traces of such large beasts around here.
Fortunately, those beasts hibernate during winter. Although it’s hard to break the ground in winter, they had to do it now.
He didn’t know how long winter would last here, anyway, they had a lot of things to be done before spring arrived.
They are the first group to arrive here, Er Meng would lead the remaining A’wu people to migrate twenty days later by following the marks they left. Yan Mo didn’t ask them to do this, nor did Yuan Zhan ordered them to, this was the result of the whole clan discussion including the clan leader and their shaman.
After Yan Mo surveyed the surroundings, he took a deep breath and turned to face his tribesmen. He called Huhu over and started assigning people to their works. As the priest, he couldn’t just sit around and wait for Yuan Zhan to bring the rest of the people and the prey back, he needed to settle these people down and do works that could be done right now.
At the same time, on a high mountain, in a magnificent temple.
“Lord Priest, did you find Princess Dofilde?” A very handsome and tall man wearing a dark armour hurriedly asked the forty something middle aged man.
The middle aged man was wearing long garments made of linen. He sat cross legged on a cattail hassock and a massive transparent crystal was set in front of him on a slant.
The crystal had a base that seemed to be made from gold, made into a strange animal shape. The workmanship was very delicate and imposing.
The younger man pressed for an answer again and this time the old man slowly opened his eyes.
The middle aged man seemed to be extremely tired, his expression was weary and his eyes were bloodshot. His voice was deep but gentle, “I found her.”
The younger man was elated, he quickly pressed again, “Where is she?”
The middle aged man’s voice seemed more and more laborious, “The land we never stepped on, the other side of the Father God Mountain.”
“So far away?” The younger man anxiously walked in circles then turned to him after two circles. “Then, now… is she still alive?”
“The guardian spirit told me, Her Highness is still alive.”
“Really, that’s good, it’s good as long as she’s alive.” The younger man seemed to be very happy. “I will tell this good news to His Majesty.”
The younger man was so excited that he even forgot to say thank you to the priest, and just left in a hurry like that.
The middle aged man watched the man leave. The corner of his lips raised, showing a smile full of mockery.
“Lord Yehe.” A big man with long hair over his shoulders came out from the screen behind the priest. “Do you think His Majesty will send people to rescue the princess?”
“Of course he will.” Yehe laughed faintly. He said with his back facing the man, “His Majesty has so many daughters, but only this one is his blood daughter. If only just for the succession of the throne, he will send people to bring her back.”
“Then it seems I will have to go there myself.”
“Your grace,” Yehe suddenly called out to the tall man while still staring at the crystal in front of him. “No one had ever been to the other side of the Father God Mountain. If you’re going there yourself, you must be careful. That land is the land of barbarians.”
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