Chapter 121: Prince
Along with a loud noise, a large number of troops slowly walked out of a large-scale transportation magic formation that was located near Ji Hao.
On a gigantic, four wheeled carriage, large amounts of jade and gold pieces, and other treasures had orderly been placed. Large groups of sturdy, fully armed warriors were standing on both sides of the carriage with long spears held in their hands. Everyone looked at Ji Hao with curious faces.
Compared to those guards surrounding Ji Hao, the most appropriate word to describe Ji Hao’s body shape would be ‘tiny’. The shortest one amongst these guards had reached over four meters length, the hilts of their spears even were as thick as Ji Hao’s thigh.
Tens of tall and strong guards had circled around Ji Hao, the tiny kid, and were holding their spears towards Ji Hao’s body. This scene looked like a group of vicious dragons were bullying a week baby sheep.
Not only were the warriors who had been guarding the carriage staring at him in schadenfreude, but everyone that had noticed Ji Hao were staring as well.
Although everyone was curious about what was happening, no one made any sound, the presence of Ji Hao had caused a chaos on the square. All of the people remained quiet and silent, and kept walking in or out of those transportation magic formations, without anyone trying to come over to see what was going on.
Connected to what this elderly man had just said, Ji Hao instantly realised how strict the rules of this Zhu Rong Country were.
Ji Hao slowly raised his hand, showed Man Man’s tablet, and said in a deep voice, “I didn’t sneak in, I came for Man Man.”
Pausing for a second, Ji Hao continued word by a word, while staring at the elderly man, whose facial expression had suddenly become extremely weird, “If I am not mistaken, her full name should be Zhu Rong Man Man.”
Along with his voice, a red light flashed across the tablet, following which, a great fire-power was released from the tablet.
The serious-looking old man suddenly laughed out, deeply bowed towards Ji Hao and said, “Ah, ah, you are the young master, Man Man’s friend. Please forgive me, we had some misunderstanding. Can I ask what did you, our honoured guest, come here for, and is there anything that we can do for you?”
Tens of guards quickly drew their long spears back, saluted to Ji Hao simultaneously, and walked away in a line. While they were doing all this, none of them had said a word, and their movements were orderly and accurate, similar to a group of robots.
Another few men who were wearing similar red cloaks like the elderly man, came over one after another, and greeted Ji Hao with smiles. Ji Hao had not yet completely understood what the tablet that was being held in his hand meant, but these Zhu Rong Country’s servants certainly understood it well.
The tablet Ji Hao had just showed was one of the life-saving tablets that the Fire God, Zhu Rong, had given to his blood children. Every single one of these tablets contained a drop of Zhu Rong’s spirit blood, with corresponding spells, and these tablets could release all kinds of great powers.
In the Zhu Rong Country, these kinds of tablets were called the ‘Fire God’s Order’. What they were representing was the will of Fire God himself. Anyone who dared to disobey the will of the holder of these kinds of tablets would end up miserably.
Ofcourse, apart from the highest status and power of the Fire God himself, Man Man had earned the respect from all of these servants. Who didn’t know that the top ranking scary kid among the entire Zhu Rong Country was Man Man?
“I came for Man Man, take me to her,” said Ji Hao while putting the tablet back into the leather bag, tied around his waist.
“Okay, okay, just as you wish.” The few servants bowed deeply to Ji Hao again and spoke. The elderly man then straightened his body and waved towards the air, and followed by this move, the fiery dragons which were hundreds of zhangs long, with their entire bodies wrapped in blazing flames, slowly descended from the air.
The fiery dragons lightly landed on the ground, glanced at Ji Hao with its tank-sized, red pupils, then let out a deep roar.
Ji Hao eyes popped open, while staring at this fiery dragon in both shock and surprise.
Dragons had always been a legendary and mysterious animal, which had a special status in Ji Hao’s heart. Now, real dragons, with five claws, were quietly standing right in front of him. It was not a legend, not a picture, it was a real dragon. It had deer’s horns, a snake’s body, an eagle’s claws and a cyprinoid’s moustache. Mysterious spell symbols were flashing across its thick scales from time to time. Behind its gigantic head, a sphere of flame was fluttering in the air. It had real hair that was giving a strong and horrifying sense of stateliness, which only belonged to the dragon-kind.
Ji Hao raised his hand, hesitated for a second, then patted this fiery dragon’s forehead.
Along with a sizzling sounds, a wisp of smoke puffed out from Ji Hao’s palm. The scale on the dragon’s forehead was extremely hot, even hotter than glowing red iron board, by hundreds of times; even though Ji Hao had activated the Fire Crow’s bloodline power, and his hand had special defensive magics, the skin on his palm was still all burned.
Ji Hao smiled embarrassedly. Seeing that Ji Hao had been burned, the faces of the elderly man and all of the guards who were following him became serious again.
After quite a while, Ji Hao tried his best to hide the shock, and said calmly, “I didn’t thought it would be so hot...How, how do you ride on these dragons?”
Another while later, a guard who had just leapt down from the dragon’s back said, “Our honored guest, when we ride its back, it will intentionally cool its body down, but except the body part we are riding on, all the other parts of its body will remain as hot as usual.”
“Our honoured guest, do you need to put some ointment on your hand? We have special ointments for all kinds of burns, no scars will be left on your skin.”
About ten minutes later, Ji Hao rode on the fiery dragon’s back, with his face filled with embarrassment, and his hand covered in a thick layer of ointment that emitted a nice herbal scent. He was accompanied by the elderly man and a group of guards, while flying fast towards Man Man’s palace.
The fiery dragon’s flying speed was especially fast, even a lot faster than adult fire crows, but even so, it still took more than half a day to fly to Man Man’s palace, from out the broad square. Within this half a day, the fiery dragon had carried Ji Hao and the others for at least tens of thousands of miles.
In the territories of Zhu Rong Country, the country of God, erupting volcanos were located everywhere while bubbling lava streams were flowing over the ground.
However, countless plants that had natural affinity for high-temperature environments, were thriving in these volcanoes and lava. Therefore, apart from the volcanoes and the lava, the ground was also covered in dense foliage. Looking down from the sky, glowing red lava and flames, and waves of blooming flowers contrasted finely with each other, creating a magical and especially beautiful scene.
Man Man was the youngest daughter and the favourite child of Zhu Rong, the Fire God. That was why she had occupied a personal territory, which had a radius of ten thousand miles in the center area of the Zhu Rong country. Thousands of palaces of different sizes and breathtakingly beautiful gardens were distributed amidst the vast mountain ranges and the jungle. All of these palaces and gardens were Man Man’s personal properties.
Apart from these palaces and gardens, Man Man also had a troop of elite divine guards who were guarding her personal territories every day and night.
The elderly man, whose name was Ying Zhu, had been talking to Ji Hao about Man Man’s territories all the way. From a long distance, Ji Hao finally saw that a magnificent palace, which was at least miles long in area, was floating above a gigantic volcano that had lava continuously gushing out of its vent.
A huge, horizontal inscribed board, which was wrapped in blazing flames, was hung above the front gate of this palace. Three incomparably crooked characters had been written on that board - Man Man’s Palace!
Ji Hao gazed at the board and felt speechless. Was this written by Man Man herself? It was way too ugly, and even went beyond description.
While Ji Hao was silently taunting Man Man’s writing skills, a stream of fiery light darted over sideway, and quickly overtook the fiery dragon that Ji Hao and the others had been riding on, blocking their way.
Appearing in front of Ji Hao, was an enormous fiery phoenix that was carrying a handsome young man, who had red hair and held a glass of liquor in his hand. The young man smilingly looking at Ji Hao and started talking.
“Hm? Is Man Man having a guest?”
“Little kid, I’m Man Man’s seventh brother, my name is Zhu Rong Tianming”
The young man then slightly raised his head, and continued with a proud and disdainful tone, “You can also call me Prince Tianming.”
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TL Note: Tianming’ was transliterated from Chinese words 天命, means god’s will.