Chapter 440: Blade Tribe, Blade Crystal
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
Underneath the setting blood-red sun, an old man carrying a little child on his back walked along a sea of skeletons with a kindly smile on his face. Such a terribly contrasting image formed an intense visual impact on the minds of any who saw it!
Such a strange scenery had gone completely unappreciated. Those who would come here were all the lowest level of people in the society. Everyone was worrying about themselves, for the sake of eking out a living. No one had the time to sigh endlessly at the problems of others.
"Old fogey Mu, from the way you're smiling today, it looks like your harvest today wasn't bad! We've also been out here working hard for half a day already, it wouldn't be asking for too much for you to hand over a bit of road toll, right?"
Three men walked out from behind a grove of withered trees, blocking in front of the old man. The person leading the group had a long scar on his face, right down the middle, splitting his face into two parts.
A sharp knife about the size of a palm gleamed in his hands.
"You Li! What are you trying to do?!"
The old man's smile froze and he hurriedly put the little girl down. At the same time, his grip tightened over the hoe in his hands.
There were a few pieces of hard biscuits beside the little girl in the basket, and the little girl simply sat on the ground eating the biscuits with a curious and innocent look on her face.
"Simple, we'll take just one silver crystal as road toll."
The corners of You Li's lips curled upwards. Adding on his horrifying face, the little girl who did not even cry when seeing the mountain of skeletons immediately began to cry loudly.
"You Li! I've watched you grow up, and back then, when there was no food in your house, it was I! I who shared my own grain with your family, helping you all to tide over the difficult period!"
The old man pointed at You Li and scolded agitatedly as saliva flew out of his mouth. The more he looked at the young man, the more his heart ached.
The latter used to be such an obedient child when he was young. But in the end, he grew up to become the bully in the village. He'd long heard that the child's reputation outside was not good, but he'd never expected that Mu Qing would actually turn around and target him!
"Old fogey, did I kneel down and beg you to share your grains with my family? Besides, it's precisely because I remembered your kindness that while I'm asking for two silver crystals from the others, I'm only asking you for one," You Li said coldly as if there wasn't anything wrong with what he was doing at all.
"You... you!"
Mu Qing was so angry that his entire body was trembling with rage. He pointed his aged finger at You Li for half a day, but could only spit out those two words.
"Old fogey, don't be too agitated, you should be careful lest you drop dead if you don't breathe properly."
The other two young men also revealed cruel smiles as they said, "Haha, Big Brother, don't bother speaking so much nonsense with them. We've given them face, but they don't want it. Since they're not handing it over, we'll take it ourselves!"
The three of them came from two different villages. They were all the most troublesome bullies in their own village. In the beginning, they were just playing together, pulling pranks on others and scaring ordinary folks for a laugh. But as their courage grew, they directly banded up and started coming out to rob.
The laws of the empire didn't seem to have any uses here at all. Out here, no matter how big the crime, as long as one did not attack or kill someone from the empire's military, everything was fine. After all, this place was also a border for the lands of another species.
The three had tasted the fruits of success before, and could not stop. They were very careful, and would choose a soft persimmon to target every time. With their meager skills, they would be dead meat if they offended even a half-baked martial artist, not to mention a real martial artist.
"I'm not handing over the Blade Crystal, unless it's over my dead body!"
The old man brandished his hoe fiercely, his expression one of resolution. Blade Crystals were extremely difficult to find. Normally, it would be difficult to find one even with 10 days to half a month of effort. There was already no more grain in the house, and this Blade Crystal was equivalent to the final lifeline of the family!
"Pu-chi!"
"Damned old fogey!"
After a short struggle, the blade of a butcher's knife protruded from the old man's chest, dying his shirt red. A pockmarked youngster stood behind him, holding onto the handle of the butcher's knife.
The three heartless men easily found the grain-sized Blade Crystal in the sleeves of the old man, causing them to curse darkly as they spat on the ground. After complaining for some time about the size of the crystal, the three left.
The little girl remained seated beside the old man's body, crying inconsolably. A few vultures circled in the sky above them, and a few braver ones even landed on the dead branches of the surrounding trees as they stared downwards coldly, preparing to dig in on their grand feast.
"Let's go, we've earned a total of 28 Blade Crystal on this trip. There's no need to go and dig for this stuff so stupidly after all. We only need to wait here and pick up the peaches at the end."
You Li walked away with a cold smile on his face, beckoning for the other two to follow.
"Big Brother is wise! Those people have dug like idiots for so long, but in the end, they're just doing the hard work for us," the pockmarked faced youth said as he touched the knife in his hand.
"Anyway, we should still hurry up and return to the city. I heard that the empire is preparing to start a war with the Blade Tribe soon," the other youngster said with some worry.
"I thought that there haven't been any fights for 20 years already? Why is there a war so suddenly?" the pockmarked youth asked with confusion.
You Li smiled coldly and said, "The Blade Tribe are actually just lambs raised by the empire. After 20 years, the wool that'd been shorn off the last time has pretty much grew back again. Thus, it's about time to do some trimming again."
With the size and might of the empire, the Blade Tribe was just something that could be destroyed with the flick of a finger.
However, the Blade Crystals that the Blade Tribe produced were extremely popular in the empire. Thus, they could not directly slaughter the sheep. But if it was just trimming the wool a little, that was still acceptable.
On the other hand, this area was considered to be an area outside of the borders. The empire did not really care about it, and the soldiers sent here were all new soldiers. The new soldiers were all led by a few old soldiers, and this place was mainly treated as a training ground!
As for the soldiers that did not get kicked to death on the battlefield by the lamb while shaving its wool, they would instantly be transferred to a much larger and crueler battlefield.
The Blade Tribe was basically seen as private property of the empire. Whoever dared to disturb the Blade Tribe while they were weak after having their wool shaved would incur the rage of the empire!
This place was actually the deepest part of the wide flatland. Originally, this area was an incomparably huge canyon, acting as a natural border between the two lands. But after an uncountable number of years, it'd been filled up with the corpses of both sides long ago.
As the gorge filled with bodies, Blade Crystals would be produced from the bodies of the Blade Tribe warriors. After the battles finished, the army would always bring the Blade Crystals back immediately. However, it was impossible to be completely thorough with this process. There would always be some pieces that'd been missed.
Thus, the people here would follow the corpses wherever they went. And this time, the area was about two days walk away from the border customs.
The three quickened their footsteps at this point as they hurried towards the borders.
"Rumble!"
"Dong! Dong!"
The ground suddenly shook, and the sound of drums filled the air!
The three youngsters' expressions paled instantly. This was not an earthquake; this was a large army on the march!
Behind them were ancient trees towering into the sky. There were no leaves on the trees, and they looked like they had withered long ago. But as they looked back, the ancient trees seemed to have come alive as they danced and swayed devilishly.
Numerous large trees fell over, and the three's faces were filled with terror as they looked at the several hundred 10-zhang-tall gigantic beasts appear. These creatures had purple crystal-like bodies, and an immense pressure surged from their bodies.
"High-grade Blade Tribe soldiers! Run!"
The three immediately turned and ran. The Blade Tribe soldiers had actually come so close to the border without anyone noticing! And before that, none of them had the slightest inkling of their presence until they saw them! Only after seeing them did the sounds of their approach arrive in their ears!
'This is an exceedingly strange matter! It's a large-scale army, and furthermore, with so many large soldiers of that size, even if they are far away, they should have been noticed long ago!
The Blade Tribe soldiers were not even a thousand meters away from them when they finally heard the loud sounds ringing out. From the way it looks, it felt like their sounds had been masked by something.'
At this time, You Li suddenly feel as though he'd received an enlightenment. Even while running for his life, he'd actually managed to think of so many things!