Chapter 213: The Delegation
The guards were gobsmacked when they saw Hui Yue launch himself on top of their Queen, and many of them hoped that Hui Yue would be instantly killed by Wan Qiao as she would never lower herself to be a mule for some young man. However, these guards were deeply shocked when they heard her beautiful laughter ring out as the woman took to the skies. The young man was leisurely hanging on to her golden feathers underneath him, and a tickle appeared in his stomach as the speed was so much faster than anything he had ever experienced before. Even Velocity Flow could be considered as slow as a turtle in comparison to the speed with which she flew into the skies.
The other magical beasts with wings flew into the air much like Wan Qiao, yet none of them were capable of matching her speed, and after having flapped her wings a few times, the massive One-Horned Jasmine Eagle had to turn back and circle around the other beasts so they could follow behind.
On the ground were all the beasts incapable of flight, and they all traveled as quickly as their legs allowed. All of them aware that they would arrive after the birds, but even so, none of them took it easy as they all rushed towards the location pointed out by Wan Qiao earlier.
Hui Yue was very excited about the trip, although he was a human he set off to hunt feeling no pity for this delegation. What he did feel was sadness for the villages which had been overrun by them. He felt sadness for the beasts which were now migrating to new locations or had been taken prisoner by the humans.
Hui Yue’s eyes grew cold as he remembered the friendliness he was met with when he entered one of the villages. Although, they thought he was a Saint they were still polite and friendly towards him. They allowed him to stay without anything in return and even gave him their best food. Imagining that this village would suddenly be ransacked and the villagers taken prisoner caused him great sorrow.
Looking at the human on her back, Wan Qiao was greatly surprised to see his determination and ruthlessness within those ice blue eyes. His unwavering determination about defeating this delegation.
Hui Yue had been within Shenyuan for a long period of time, and although many of the guards looked at him with displeasure none of them had truly mistreated him. They all took his training seriously. He knew that the reason for their seriousness was due to Wan Qiao, but none the less he was satisfied with how his personal strength had risen during the time he had been in Shenyuan. This was greatly thanks to the guards who had fought him.
The speed with which the group flew was astonishing. The forest just flew by underneath Hui Yue, and it did not take long before they had long since left the grounded magical beasts behind as they flew rapidly towards a mountain range.
This mountain range was the one which separated Shenyuan from the outside world. The distance they traveled was as long as the one Hui Yue had traveled alone. When he pushed his way through the wilderness, it had taken him more than a month, yet now the same distance was traveled in a few hours at a speed which was clearly not Wan Qiao’s fastest.
As they got closer and closer to the mountain range, Hui Yue and Wan Qiao flew to the ground where the One-Horned Jasmine Eagle once more took human shape.
What they landed within was what used to be a village. Every house was burned down, and the only thing left standing were a few black wooden poles half eaten by the flames. The ground was filled with blood and littered with parts of corpses.
Hui Yue’s eyes were filled with hate and killing intent as he saw how even small children had been killed. How was this in any way a delegation, it was clearly a declaration of war. Looking at Wan Qiao, Hui Yue saw how the woman’s shoulders were trembling. Golden light gathered around her hands and within moments, the flame left her hand and burned the many corpses littered on the ground. Moving towards the town’s center, one could see a giant stone was erected as a memorial. A large flame was carved from the stone, carved by the help of the golden mist energy belonging to Wan Qiao.
“They were here not long ago,” Wan Qiao said with a very bland voice; a voice devoid of all emotion. Within her eyes a flame was burning, a flame of anger and hate. She was the Queen of Shenyuan; the strongest amongst the many Lords of the Forest and she ensured that everyone lived in safety. Whenever delegates like these appeared, it was her job to ensure that they never returned again. That they never returned to tell what they experienced within Shenyuan.
When Lan Feng lived in this plane thousands of years ago, humans and magical beasts had coexisted together, sharing the ground and the cities. Sadly, something happened. Something which tore a large canyon between humans and magical beasts causing the latter to flee into Shenyuan where they nurtured themselves and kept far away from the humans.
But human nature was controlled by greed. It was not enough for them to possess three kingdoms. Many times scouts and delegations were sent into the unwelcoming forest of Shenyuan only to succumb inside, killed by the beasts who wished to stay hidden.
It was not one kingdom, in particular, who wished to overtake Shenyuan. All of the kingdoms sent delegations towards the unexplored lands, but no matter how many they sent, none returned. Once upon a time, they decided to send a delegation which included all three kingdoms, but the result was the same. This delegation had been far larger than any of the previous ones numbering an astonishing thousand men, but as soon as they entered Shenyuan the Lords of the Forest stood firm, and together they destroyed the delegation within mere minutes.
As a Lord of the Forest one had to always be ready to accept challenges from other Saints. This meant that only the strongest of the strong were allowed to become a Lord of the Forest, natural selection was constantly occurring. How could the kingdoms who sent out a mere delegation ever think they could possibly return.
Af first the delegations were considered mere middle dantian experts, however, now they were solely Kings, Emperors, and every now and then Saints.
Due to this, Wan Qiao always went on these trips. Always ready to take on the strongest and ensure that not even one man would be allowed to make it out of the forest alive.
Hui Yue was without a doubt the weakest one present. Every guard who moved towards the village were all King ranked or above while he was still merely a Duke. However, Wan Qiao had trained him to fight higher ranked experts each and every day making him capable of defeating most Kings.
When he was fighting the guards he knew that if he lost, and he lost a lot, then he would at most get a beating. It was not a life and death battle something which Wan Qiao wished for him to fight in. This was the reason why she brought him along.
Looking at him Wan Qiao was astonished. When she first met him, he was coming to sell a medicinal pill. Lan Feng had hidden his aura to the best of his ability, but in spite of that someone who had known Lan Feng previously would without a doubt recognize him. As she had, but at the same time found that his aura was mixed with a human one.
Wan Qiao was not satisfied with Lan Feng. The bird never listened to her when she tried to train him, nor did he follow her guidelines when she gave him any. Instead, he felt as though a woman had no place to tell him how to act, something which caused the two of them to butt heads often.
Seeing that he was still alive, Wan Qiao had been filled with mixed emotions. One was shock and astonishment; another was anger and indignation. It was not until she stole some of his blood that she truly understood that although this person was Lan Feng, he was also not Lan Feng.
The blood she took back then belonged to a human boy of the age of ten, however, this human boy had the same aura as Lan Feng. This left only the possibility of a soul contract.
When Wan Qiao found out that this was a fact, she rushed back to Shenyuan and started to prepare. Prepare for the day Hui Yue came to call on her. She expected it to happen, but she never expected it to happen this soon. The fact that it did made her ecstatic.
The sooner he arrived, the easier it was to mold him. During these few months, the young man had already increased his physical strength a ten-fold and had increased his battle prowess especially when in his wolf-man form.
Shaking their heads, both Hui Yue and Wan Qiao stopped thinking about other things, instead, they once more looked around the village which now was a memorial ground for the dead villagers. The two exchanged glances before they both started moving in the direction the delegation had gone.
Determining the right direction was no hard feat. The delegation counted more than a hundred cultivators, and none of them did anything to hide their actions. They all butchered their way through the forest, killing beasts and plants alike.
Following them were footprints of beasts, it was obvious that this delegation had taken some of the villagers prisoner. This was something which made both Hui Yue and Wan Qiao see red; both of them were eager to save the villagers, and to teach the delegation what happens to humans who enter Shenyuan.
As Hui Yue and Wan Qiao made their way through the forest more and more guards joined them. None of them were fast enough to keep up with Wan Qiao, however, now they were joining one after another and the group grew larger and larger, all of them rushing after this delegation.
“We will catch up with them tonight,” Wan Qiao said, as her eyes narrowed and her killing intent billowed outwards. A killing intent which was as strong as the one concealed within the red mist of the wolf-man inside of Hui Yue.
As more and more guards arrived, her killing intent grew larger and larger, and eventually, every magical beast with lesser intelligence, those who could not take human shape, were doing everything they could to flee from this group of blood-thirsty magical beasts. All of them felt their beastly instincts to protect their territory, so they increased their speed. They were rushing as fast as they could towards the delegation who was butchering their way through the beast’s beloved land.