Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The mountain people were warm-hearted, they had prepared a lot of local specialties for Hao Ren and company before they set off their journey. Despite of the oversize backpack behind Y’zaks’ back which suggested they wouldn’t be short of supply, the mountain people insisted they accept the gifts saying it was their custom of bidding farewell. Overwhelmed by friendliness, Hao Ren gave in.
But thanks must go to Becky who had formed a good relationship with the mountain people. The mercenary lady was highly respected among these foreigners. Her explanation was simple. "It’s easy to understand the mountain people—kindness for kindness, hatred for hatred. It’s very much similar to who I’m. So after a few times of giving them favour, we become friends."
Never she was thought of possessing such a rustic and simple side to her mercenary life.
After leaving the village, the group kept going without further delay. They went at full steam for several days.
Going on a journey night and day on the vast steppe was torturous, but the beautiful alien scenery along the way was a comforting distraction. It was kind of a journey of a life time; even for Vivian and Nangong Wuyue who were well-travelled were in high spirit, not to mention Lily—she was absolutely like a duck takes to water, she would ride on a horse sometime, and ran together with Y’zaks at the rear of the convoy with horse on her back some other time. What a journey!
Hao Ren felt if they didn’t manage to find some places of human, Lily was going to retrogress to her pre-evolution state—she had got down from the horse back and ran on her four limbs, trying to outrun her horse.
It was a scene too unbearable to watch.
"You lot are interesting." Becky looked over her shoulder seeing Y’zaks was running in full-steam while the werewolf maiden was racing against her own horse. She had eye-witnessed all the weirdest things she had never seen before in her life these few days. "Just asking: are you guys surely mages?"
"Totally." Hao Ren had answered this same question for a thousand times, he could now basically lie in your face and you would think it was the truth. "Lily took the wrong drug during an alchemical experiment..."
"Didn’t you say that she was struck by lightning during an experiment?"
"Err... yes, she was struck by lightning while having her drug. And her head was pinned in the door too."
Vivian spoke to Nangong Wuyue in heavy breathing. "Suddenly I feel like I shouldn’t have bullied Doggie. I’m going to treat her nicely."
Lily had no idea what these heartless fellows were discussing about. She gamboled happily for a while before pulling up beside Hao Ren, then agilely leaping onto the back of the horse again. She grabbed and shook Hao Ren’s shoulder. "Landlord! We’re coming to the bottom of the mountain!"
Like an over-excited child, Lily yelled in cheers before getting down again on her feet, pulling up alongside the horse and hopped back on again. The entire actions looked frighteningly dangerous but to her it was just a piece of cake. No doubt she was weird personality-speaking, and had amazing blood-line, her kenetic ability was second to none among the group of five. Though Y’zaks would win hands-down in terms of brute strength, the title of real master of skilful fistfighter belonged to Lily.
Unfortunately this maiden hadn’t been able to apply her talent in the right place.
Hao Ren was almost being shook off the horse back but he managed to stabilise himself. As he looked up, he could already see the mountain range ahead of them—in fact the mountain range had appeared in the horizon some time back, but it still took them a few more hours before they reached the foothill.
The mountain range was the famous ‘Dragonspine Ridge’ in the western part of The Kingdom of Holletta. It got its name from its endless spine-like shape stretching from the west of The Kingdom of Holletta into the steppe. The range was a natural barrier which was impossible to go around if they were to go to the Beinz Blood Lake.
As the other side of the mountain range was where the sacred Beinz Blood Lake located, people of Holletta had spent enormous amount of effort and resources boring tunnel as well as building highlands highways connecting both sides. An expensive always-on teleporting points were installed in some critical places—mainly to connect the sacred buildings such as cathedrals on both sides. The church and the royalty had spent a fortune just to ensure they had constant access to the sacred place. They initially planned to circumvent the mountain range at the south of the kingdom and then passed through a newly constructed tunnel from there, but in order to catch up the ‘alien woman’ who was two-day ahead of them, they made an impromptu decision while they were in the village of the mountain people to cut across the barrier through the ancient trail near the edge of the steppe.
The latter was a shorter route but would take equal amount of time to get across. This was because even though taking the tunnel meant they had to go around the range at the south of the kingdom, it was relatively easy; in contrast, despite the ancient trail was just a cut across the range, the terrain was rugged and complicated, it wasn’t a shortcut in reality. Anyway, both routes had little difference in the eyes of the mercenary veterans.
Becky was a Tier-two mercenary. Though young, she had passed various tests, naturally she had some real skills. Before the lock-down of the Beinz Blood Lake incident, she had scaled the mountain range several times—mostly for money. So she was taking the lead in this expedition. She led the group to a col which was inconspicuous and could easily be missed by rookies. There she found the upslope ancient trail.
"Be careful here." Everyone had got down and walked. Becky was pulling her horse and walking in front. "It’s said that this place’s a historical site of an ancient civilisation. And there are some very weird monsters in the mountains. Though they’re not hard to deal with, it wouldn’t be fun to meeting them here. The place isn’t ideal for any kinds of engagement."
"It seems ancient civilisations were every where." Nangong Wuyue muttered. The barren mountains were blocking the warm air from the steppe. And at this altitude, there wasn’t that much humidity present, the siren was in bad mood because of the dry air. "What wrong had they done?"
"Something that had angered the Goddess." Becky laughed. "Legend has it that Dragonspine Ridge was created by Eloken, a human magic-emperor, using a forbidden incantation. That’s why the abrupt rise on the steppe. My grandpa said the creation of this mountain range had disrupted the creation blueprint of the Goddess. And the reason of this barrier was he disliked the cold wind from the plain west. That’s how... err—"
"*sshole?" Hao Ren interrupted.
"Yeah, that’s how *sshole these ancient mage-emperers were." Becky nodded. "It’s a very apt word. My grandpa said that the mage-emperors of all the ancient civilisations were arrogant lot, all the mages during that time were arrogant; Sanur, the mage-emperor of werewolves, had created the Volcano of Dusk; Lorissa, the elf queen—also a mage-emperor—had trespassed into God’s territory and created a semi-eternal tree of life which kept itself alive in eternity by sipping nutrients from the holy spring of the Goddess; Darian, the mage-emperor of Blood Clan, was the originator who incited the encroachment of the authority of God to create a perfect life."
"Whoa... that was crazy." Hao Ren marvelled at the creativity of the mage-emperors. He began to think what could’ve happened if these ‘crazy scientists’ appeared before Raven 12345. He thought for a long time and inevitably came to his conclusion that Raven 12345 would’ve left it to her subordinates to clean up the mess because it was too troublesome...
"Dragonspine Ridge was the creation of Eloken and the power of this king of the earth still remained here." Becky was foaming in her mouth while relating the stories that her grandpa told her. She continued. "Legend has it that the strange rocks that attack people were possessed by the broken spirit of Eloken. We’re better not to bump into them; though they aren’t a threat they’re very annoying, and hard."
"Boom—"
As Becky’s voice trailed off, a thunderous sound came from the mountains.
The one thousand eight hundreds ‘hoax early-warning indicators’ in Vivian body went off at once. She was afraid bad luck coming her way again.
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The mountain people were warm-hearted, they had prepared a lot of local specialties for Hao Ren and company before they set off their journey. Despite of the oversize backpack behind Y’zaks’ back which suggested they wouldn’t be short of supply, the mountain people insisted they accept the gifts saying it was their custom of bidding farewell. Overwhelmed by friendliness, Hao Ren gave in.
But thanks must go to Becky who had formed a good relationship with the mountain people. The mercenary lady was highly respected among these foreigners. Her explanation was simple. "It’s easy to understand the mountain people—kindness for kindness, hatred for hatred. It’s very much similar to who I’m. So after a few times of giving them favour, we become friends."
Never she was thought of possessing such a rustic and simple side to her mercenary life.
After leaving the village, the group kept going without further delay. They went at full steam for several days.
Going on a journey night and day on the vast steppe was torturous, but the beautiful alien scenery along the way was a comforting distraction. It was kind of a journey of a life time; even for Vivian and Nangong Wuyue who were well-travelled were in high spirit, not to mention Lily—she was absolutely like a duck takes to water, she would ride on a horse sometime, and ran together with Y’zaks at the rear of the convoy with horse on her back some other time. What a journey!
Hao Ren felt if they didn’t manage to find some places of human, Lily was going to retrogress to her pre-evolution state—she had got down from the horse back and ran on her four limbs, trying to outrun her horse.
It was a scene too unbearable to watch.
"You lot are interesting." Becky looked over her shoulder seeing Y’zaks was running in full-steam while the werewolf maiden was racing against her own horse. She had eye-witnessed all the weirdest things she had never seen before in her life these few days. "Just asking: are you guys surely mages?"
"Totally." Hao Ren had answered this same question for a thousand times, he could now basically lie in your face and you would think it was the truth. "Lily took the wrong drug during an alchemical experiment..."
"Didn’t you say that she was struck by lightning during an experiment?"
"Err... yes, she was struck by lightning while having her drug. And her head was pinned in the door too."
Vivian spoke to Nangong Wuyue in heavy breathing. "Suddenly I feel like I shouldn’t have bullied Doggie. I’m going to treat her nicely."
Lily had no idea what these heartless fellows were discussing about. She gamboled happily for a while before pulling up beside Hao Ren, then agilely leaping onto the back of the horse again. She grabbed and shook Hao Ren’s shoulder. "Landlord! We’re coming to the bottom of the mountain!"
Like an over-excited child, Lily yelled in cheers before getting down again on her feet, pulling up alongside the horse and hopped back on again. The entire actions looked frighteningly dangerous but to her it was just a piece of cake. No doubt she was weird personality-speaking, and had amazing blood-line, her kenetic ability was second to none among the group of five. Though Y’zaks would win hands-down in terms of brute strength, the title of real master of skilful fistfighter belonged to Lily.
Unfortunately this maiden hadn’t been able to apply her talent in the right place.
Hao Ren was almost being shook off the horse back but he managed to stabilise himself. As he looked up, he could already see the mountain range ahead of them—in fact the mountain range had appeared in the horizon some time back, but it still took them a few more hours before they reached the foothill.
The mountain range was the famous ‘Dragonspine Ridge’ in the western part of The Kingdom of Holletta. It got its name from its endless spine-like shape stretching from the west of The Kingdom of Holletta into the steppe. The range was a natural barrier which was impossible to go around if they were to go to the Beinz Blood Lake.
As the other side of the mountain range was where the sacred Beinz Blood Lake located, people of Holletta had spent enormous amount of effort and resources boring tunnel as well as building highlands highways connecting both sides. An expensive always-on teleporting points were installed in some critical places—mainly to connect the sacred buildings such as cathedrals on both sides. The church and the royalty had spent a fortune just to ensure they had constant access to the sacred place. They initially planned to circumvent the mountain range at the south of the kingdom and then passed through a newly constructed tunnel from there, but in order to catch up the ‘alien woman’ who was two-day ahead of them, they made an impromptu decision while they were in the village of the mountain people to cut across the barrier through the ancient trail near the edge of the steppe.
The latter was a shorter route but would take equal amount of time to get across. This was because even though taking the tunnel meant they had to go around the range at the south of the kingdom, it was relatively easy; in contrast, despite the ancient trail was just a cut across the range, the terrain was rugged and complicated, it wasn’t a shortcut in reality. Anyway, both routes had little difference in the eyes of the mercenary veterans.
Becky was a Tier-two mercenary. Though young, she had passed various tests, naturally she had some real skills. Before the lock-down of the Beinz Blood Lake incident, she had scaled the mountain range several times—mostly for money. So she was taking the lead in this expedition. She led the group to a col which was inconspicuous and could easily be missed by rookies. There she found the upslope ancient trail.
"Be careful here." Everyone had got down and walked. Becky was pulling her horse and walking in front. "It’s said that this place’s a historical site of an ancient civilisation. And there are some very weird monsters in the mountains. Though they’re not hard to deal with, it wouldn’t be fun to meeting them here. The place isn’t ideal for any kinds of engagement."
"It seems ancient civilisations were every where." Nangong Wuyue muttered. The barren mountains were blocking the warm air from the steppe. And at this altitude, there wasn’t that much humidity present, the siren was in bad mood because of the dry air. "What wrong had they done?"
"Something that had angered the Goddess." Becky laughed. "Legend has it that Dragonspine Ridge was created by Eloken, a human magic-emperor, using a forbidden incantation. That’s why the abrupt rise on the steppe. My grandpa said the creation of this mountain range had disrupted the creation blueprint of the Goddess. And the reason of this barrier was he disliked the cold wind from the plain west. That’s how... err—"
"*sshole?" Hao Ren interrupted.
"Yeah, that’s how *sshole these ancient mage-emperers were." Becky nodded. "It’s a very apt word. My grandpa said that the mage-emperors of all the ancient civilisations were arrogant lot, all the mages during that time were arrogant; Sanur, the mage-emperor of werewolves, had created the Volcano of Dusk; Lorissa, the elf queen—also a mage-emperor—had trespassed into God’s territory and created a semi-eternal tree of life which kept itself alive in eternity by sipping nutrients from the holy spring of the Goddess; Darian, the mage-emperor of Blood Clan, was the originator who incited the encroachment of the authority of God to create a perfect life."
"Whoa... that was crazy." Hao Ren marvelled at the creativity of the mage-emperors. He began to think what could’ve happened if these ‘crazy scientists’ appeared before Raven 12345. He thought for a long time and inevitably came to his conclusion that Raven 12345 would’ve left it to her subordinates to clean up the mess because it was too troublesome...
"Dragonspine Ridge was the creation of Eloken and the power of this king of the earth still remained here." Becky was foaming in her mouth while relating the stories that her grandpa told her. She continued. "Legend has it that the strange rocks that attack people were possessed by the broken spirit of Eloken. We’re better not to bump into them; though they aren’t a threat they’re very annoying, and hard."
"Boom—"
As Becky’s voice trailed off, a thunderous sound came from the mountains.
The one thousand eight hundreds ‘hoax early-warning indicators’ in Vivian body went off at once. She was afraid bad luck coming her way again.
