Chapter 345: Caravan Daze
After that little incident with a kidnapped baby hippo, the Zhen Clan Caravan finally began it’s journey to Pearl Tusk Harbor and it was…boring.
It took about a week to walk to Pearl Tusk Harbor from Stone Claw City uninterrupted, but going by caravan carts cut that time to at least half. However, that still didn’t change the fact that this ride was essentially a long ass road trip.
“Nothing but sand…cactus…tumbleweeds…was that a cow skeleton?”
“I think that was a Tri-Horned Beast skeleton.”
“Huh.”
One would assume the caravan would be attacked by bandits what with all of the juicy loot they were carrying, or attacked by packs of wild beasts looking for a meal since several of the carts were pulled by tasty oxen carrying tastier aether medicines.
However, nothing of that sort happened.
Maybe the bandits were deterred by the fact the caravan was guarded by multiple Grandmasters and an Aether Lord.
Perhaps the aether beasts didn’t want to fight the Raijin Hippo and other aether beasts of the 4th grade and below.
Or maybe it had to do with a rumored four-armed Amazonian bug woman kicking ass and taking name while accompanied by a pair of presumed lovers, but who knows.
Regardless, most of the carvan’s trip was uneventful, but that didn’t mean things weren’t interesting for the people riding in the caravan.
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=Can you blame them? We technically have enough elite warriors to overturn a small nation.=
=Ehhh, didn’t we say that about the Storm Queen last time?=
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“Come on, break already….GAH! What the fuck is this tooth made of?!,” Yang Bao cursed as he tried to break the Spatial Tooth he just acquired.
Having witnessed all of the loot Zhen Liu extorted from Victor in a front row basis, Yang Bao was now more determined than before to crack it open and see if his luck was just as good.
“How the fuck did that kid manage to do it without using any aether?!”
Unfortunately for him, it hadn’t been going well.
Yang Bao had tried almost everything at this point including the usage of hammers, aether arts and having one of the larger, friendly aether beasts to stomp on it.
Unfortunately for him, the hammer broke, the aether arts did nothing and the aether beast just managed to embed the tooth deeper into the ground. Thankfully they had a shovel for bathroom reasons.
Yang Bao was just about to chuck the tooth out of the cart and forget about it, when all of a sudden, one of his friends walked in on him mid-throw.
“Yang Bao? What are you doing?”
“Huh? Oh, hey Mu Gao,” Yang Bao greeted as he placed his arm back down.
Yang Bao and Mu Gao were pair of outter disciples that had joined the Zhen Clan at around the same time and became friends as a result, hence why Yang Bao was okay with the man showing up into his cart without much fuss or worry about him learning about the tooth right now, hell, maybe he could help.
“What are you holding?”
“Oh this? Well, remember the day before yesterday when that Fourth Young Master from the branch clan kicked in that dude’s teeth?”
“The Spatial Beaver guy? Yeah, started reading about them too. Turned out we had books on rare aether beasts on this thing.”
“Okay, will need to borrow that later, but, I managed to pocket one of the teeth that that guy managed to kick loose and I’ve been trying to crack it open and-”
“Hold up,” Mu Gao interrupted, “you’ve been trying to what?”
“Crack this thing open so I can see what’s inside it.”
The moment Yang Bao answered Mu Gao question with this confirmation, the latter looked at him with absolute shock.
“What?”
“Uh…quicker to show you.”
From his side, Mu Gao produced a book that had the title, “Spatial Aether Beasts Volume 1”. He quickly skimmed through the pages until he landed on the part about Spatial Tooth Beavers and then showed it to Yang Bao, taking care to point towards a particular passage.
“Read this real fast.”
“Huh?”
Curious about his friend’s statement, Yang Bao took the offered book and looked over the passage.
“Due to the strange abilities of Spatial Tooth Beavers being able to store practically any material known to mortal kind, their teeth are ten times tougher than diamonds, as such it is advised that only Aether Grandmasters with specialized tools that channel their aether properly, Anima Wielders of the third lock or Aether Lords who don’t… need to…huh.”
“Yeah.”
Yang Bao re-read the passage a couple more times before silently closing the book and handing it back to his friend.
The two of them then proceeded to stare at the tooth in Yang Bao’s hand, realizing it was less of a treasure trove and more of a…lit powder keg.
“…”
“…”
“Think we can give this to the Fourth Young Master without him lashing out at us in rage?”
“Maybe…?”
“…after dinner?”
“After dinner.”
Those two would find out later that Zhen Liu was actually okay with them trying to break the tooth themselves, and would go on to do a favor for them by breaking open the tooth for them.
The contents of the aforementioned tooth was a bottle of second grade aether pills, which he gave to them.
“Consider it a reward for your persistence and then realizing that sometimes the right thing to do was to ask for help,” he told them.
“Does he not realize the value of this stuff?”
“I think he does, but like…do you know any Aether Lord that gives a shit about grade 2 pills?”
“Good point.”
It should be noted that he didn’t correct them on their presumption of his rankings, but that didn’t matter.
In their hearts, they marked Zhen Liu as being “Big Bro”.
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<[Core of Mercy] has been created. [Core of Gratitude] has been created. Please use them at your earliest convenience.>
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“Hey, we left Mini back at Stone Claw, right?”
“Uh yeah? We saw Lucille take her back with her in like the blink of an eye. Why?”
“Ok, swear to the heavens, I thought I saw her running around the camp last night.”
“What?”
“Yeah man, I was just sitting around, roasting some meaty looking mushrooms and a Steak Worm I found and then bam! She rushes right pass the fire and took one of my mushroom skewers. I was so shocked by her sudden appearance I just sat there stunned.”
“Wow. I can’t believe it.”
“Right?”
“You ate a Steak Worm without me? I’m hurt.”
“Ye-wait, what?”
(Un)fortunately, those two would never learn the truth that Mini the baby hippo was actually present at the camp, thanks to the help of a certain young master they swore fealty to, and a magic key he kept in his pockets.
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[You sure you want to take over this dude, Nepherage? He doesn’t exactly seem the type to be the most perceptive to your core.]
[Not…bold…enough…]
[My affinity matches up with his pretty well, so it should be fine. Besides, haven’t you heard of the old adage?]
[What adage?]
[Beware the wrath of a gentleman.]
[Huh…you stole that from a book, didn’t you?]
[Maybe…]
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“Groink!”
“Yeah, yeah. I know Xiao Bao, I know. You’re not a big fan of the heat, but we’ll get to Pearl Tusk Harbor soon.”
“Oink!”
“No Gigi, you guys can only get one apple a night, you know the rules.”
“Squee!”
“That means you too, Juniper”
As the premier master of swine based Aether Beasts, Zhen Xi was in charge of making sure that the Giant Boars the clan employed as beasts of burden were properly cared for and well-groomed.
While others scoff at the idea of using Gisnt Boars such, what with the existence of oxen and horses, Zhen Xi would just laugh and say that there’s nothing more loyal than a properly pampered pig.
“And with that…,” Zhen Xi said as he finished filing down the last hoof of the last boar in their caravan, “We are done for the evening. Rest well now my fine porcine friends. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Oink!”
Zhen Xi stretched himself out as he made his way away from the boars and back to his own cart, ready to take a nice long sleep after a small nightcap.
However, at the midway point between the pigs and his cart, he paused.
‘Huh? Why do I have this sudden feeling of forebod-.’
*KAPOW*
‘What the-?!’
Before he could even finish his thought, a strange blast of energy struck him from the back of his head as a feeling of warmth overcame his body.
‘D-did…did someone just shoot me in the back of the head?! Wait…shoot?’
Zhen Xi’s body staggered for a brief moment, as his mind was heading…elsewhere.
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‘One down, three to go…’
