The Prodigies War

When daybreak was nearly about to arrive, the scale horse finally reached its limit after an entire night of running. All four hooves staggered and it crumpled onto the ground, panting heavily.

Lin Xun flipped off the horse and stably landed on the ground. He could not help but feel a wave of shame wash over him when he gazed at the profusely sweating scale horse. His single-minded focus on escaping had left the scale horse exhausted, making him feel somewhat indebted to it.

“Sorry, brother horse.” Lin Xun retrieved some aeth resources and shoved them towards the scale horse, finally smiling a little as he watched it happily chomp down.

The scale horse was a ferocious beast, but it became extremely docile after being tamed. It was also absolutely necessary for any future trips between the Qingyang Tribe and Feiyun Village.

Lin Xun also found a spot to rest, took out a bottle of aeth-infused water, and gulped a big mouthful. Only then did he retrieve the purple jade sash he had taken from Liu Yukun’s corpse.

It was a valuable storage artifact. Not only were there numerous elegant runes carved onto its surface, but it also had pearl and jewel fragments embedded all over it. It was definitely more luxurious than the usual high-end product.

However, in Lin Xun’s opinion, such decorations felt very hollow. If it was him, he would never make his storage artifact so eye-catching because it would only end up drawing the wrong attention.

He opened the purple sash, revealing the storage space inside. Lin Xun was surprised to find only a single foot by foot square copper chest in the large space. There was nothing else besides it.

Although slightly disappointed, his gaze could not help but be drawn to the copper chest.

The chest had an age-old luster and four runes had been inscribed onto its four corners: a cloud rune, a landscape rune, a mythic beast rune, and a sun moon rune. Mysterious rune arrays had also been drawn onto its four sides which gave off cryptic and heart-palpitations auras.

“It seems to be a rune array that specializes in sealing.”

Surprise flew across Lin Xun’s eyes. Although he could not fully decipher the runes at his current level, he could roughly tell from their auras that they possessed sealing power!

Only rune masters could carve rune arrays. Who would invest such a gargantuan effort to carve a specialized sealing rune array on a mere bronze chest?

The costs involved would be insane!

However, this also told Lin Xun that the bronze chest must have been constructed to seal an extremely valuable treasure.

At this thought, Lin Xun’s heart stirred. Anyone could tell that Liu Yukun was no ordinary person at a glance, and his group had been frantically pursued by the giant golden beast last night. Could the bronze chest’s contents have led to this chase?

What was hidden in the bronze chest?

Lin Xun continued to inspect the chest and gasped moments later. He had discovered an extremely frightening rune restriction around the chest’s lid.

A rune restriction was an array used to forbid things, and was something only those called rune grandmasters could set up!

A rune grandmaster was a more respected and superior existence than a rune master.

Not only did the bronze chest have a specialized sealing array, but there was also a rune restriction around its lid. The value of this chest alone had reached an astronomical number!

What kind of treasure was sealed in this bronze chest?

Unfortunately, Lin Xun had no way to open it. Let alone him, even a rune grandmaster would be powerless without knowing the true essence of the rune restriction.

“Never mind, I can always wait for an opportunity to open it in the future.” After contemplating for a long time, Lin Xun ultimately gave up. He might currently be a little better than a regular rune apprentice, but he was still not a proper rune master. It was a tall order for him to open the box.

It was actually rather simple to be acknowledged as a rune master: single-handedly complete a rune array. However, a rune array was not easy to draw. It was very difficult without at least Spirit Dipper stage cultivation.

A True Martial stage cultivator just didn’t have sufficient aeth power and spirit sense to draw an entire rune array.

Of course, this only applied to ordinary cultivators. There were always special existences in this world that surpassed common sense.

For example, Lin Xun had once heard a drunk Mister Lu let slip that he was already able to proficiently draw a complete rune array at the True Martial eighth layer, allowing him to become one of the youngest rune masters back then.

Since Mister Lu could do it, Lin Xun believed that he could also achieve the same as long as he worked hard.

Lin Xun quickly put aside his thoughts and took the bronze chest out of the sash.

Thud!

He was immediately shocked by the chest’s insane weight, which was at least ten thousand pounds. The moment he tried to take it out, it heavily slammed into the ground, creating a slight depression.

This only made Lin Xun increasingly certain that some amazing treasure must be sealed in the chest.

He then shifted the chest into his storage ring without any hesitation and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

After resting for two hours, the scale horse recovered its strength. Lin Xun checked their bearings before beginning the journey again.

The pair did not encounter any dangers this time. When they passed by a volcano, Lin Xun made a special pitstop to throw the purple jade sash into the churning lava.

He would never keep the sash on him and did not touch a single jewel on it. He did this to prevent potential repercussions.

Although it was a valuable treasure, it was, after all, something that had belonged to Liu Yukun and might contain some lingering trace of him. If this was somehow discovered by the faction behind him, endless troubles would surely follow.

……

Sunset Plain.

This was a plain in the Three Thousand Great Mountains, which was surrounded by mountains on three sides. If a person headed north from the plain, he or she would eventually reach Donglin City, which lay on the Ziyao Empire’s southwest border.

A river flowed down from the mountain range, snaking through the plain like a jade sash as it irrigated numerous rich aeth fields.

The Qingyang Tribe was located on the Sunset Plain.

If someone researched the tribe’s origins, they would discover that it was originally a tribe of mountain people. However, as the Ziyao Empire expanded its borders, the Qingyang Tribe was colonized and became part of the empire’s territory. It was now rare to find any descendants of the original Qingyang Tribe mountain people.

Rather than a tribe, it was more apt to call the place a bustling town. It was also a foothold that connected the Ziyao Empire, Donglin City, and the Three Thousand Great Mountains.

Most of the beast skins, fur, bones, spirit medicine, aeth resources, and other produce of the Three Thousand Great Mountains would first gather in the Qingyang Tribe before flowing into Donglin City.

Due to its unique location, numerous merchant groups from various places in the empire and adventurers would select the Qingyang Tribe as their base of operations.

This was how the Qingyang Tribe had reached its current state.

In the evening, the setting sun bathed the land in a beautiful glow.

A travel-weary scale horse arrived in front of the Qingyang Tribe.

Tall and thick walls were built around the Qingyang Tribe to defend against savage beast attacks from the mountains. There were city gates on the north and south sides of the walls which allowed people to enter and exit.

As the scale horse approached, the guards stationed on the two sides of the gates were finally able to see the thirteen-year-old youth in gray clothes and the sack which was as tall as a person.

One of the guards walked forward and said, “It costs three copper coins to enter.”

“Alright.” Lin Xun dismounted. Smiling, he retrieved three copper coins and handed them over.

The guard nodded and waved his hand to permit Lin Xun entry.

The Qingyang Tribe was a messy mix of characters and there were no strict rules or laws. It was akin to a temporary accommodation where new and old faces would appear and disappear every day.

No one would be satisfied staying here their whole lives. After all, the Qingyang Tribe in the Three Thousand Great Mountains was a far cry from the flourishing Ziyao Empire. It was too backwater and dangerous; anyone who lived here always had to be on guard for savage beast attacks from the mountain.

Lin Xun led the scale horse through the city gates and disappeared into the busy streets.

The guard watched Lin Xun leave and suddenly waved his hand to call over a man dressed in black, who had a protruding mouth and cheeks. The guard instructed in a low voice, “Go inform the Wu Corporation manager that Feiyun Village's Lian Rufeng’s steed has appeared. Tell him exactly what you saw just now.”

“Sure.” The man nodded and hurriedly left.

“Wu Corporation has waited so many days only for a single boy to show up. It seems that he will be the only way they can find out what happened to Wu Henshui.” The guard contemplated for a while before shaking his head. These matters had nothing to do with him. He was only tasked to report some news.

Lin Xun was unaware that someone had already taken notice of his entry into the city. He walked along the street, advancing through the busy crowd.

There were many people and it was very lively.

Strong men dressed in leather were doing manual labor, transporting various goods. Several peddlers were lined up on both sides of the street, selling unique produce from the mountains such as plants, herbs, animal skins, ores, and other similar products.

Well-dressed merchants could also be seen from time to time, riding their carriages through the streets. There were also weapon-carrying cultivators hurriedly traveling through the crowds.

Row upon row of stone buildings lined both sides of the street: restaurants, medicine stores, weapon shops, inns, merchant associations, brothels…and all kinds of businesses.

As the saying went: though the sparrow was small, it still had all its vital organs. Although the Qingyang Tribe was not large by any standards, it definitely won in the busy aspect. Various people moved amongst the crowd, painting a picture of a bustling town.

This was the first time Lin Xun had entered such a populated place and a mixture of feelings involuntarily surged within him. There was curiosity, amazement, excitement, and many others.

Lin Xun had grown up in a prison mine, and the first place he entered in the Ziyao Empire was the poor and remote Feiyun Village. No matter how mature he was, Lin Xun was still a thirteen-year-old boy. As such, the vibrance and hecticness of the town overwhelmed him for a time.

If a mere Qingyang Tribe was already this lively, what kind of grand sight awaited him if he were to enter one of the Ziyao Empire’s cities?