Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
A temporary camp was quickly set up. Han Jin and his friends all agreed it would not be wise to continue on. There was no end to a man’s greed, and God knows how many more mercenaries wanted to try their hand at the three dragon crystals. The attack yesterday was not the first, nor would it be the last!
It would be better to stay put instead of engaging the enemies in unfamiliar territory. The mercenaries who accepted the black task would eventually have to find them. In Han Jin’s stolen words, “Even if we can’t decide when the battle will happen, we can still choose the battlefield!”
However, the Red Vanguards were in an awkward situation. Han Jin and his companions didn’t limit Edwina and Julia’s freedom, but it was different for Gibran and his followers. They couldn’t even step outside of the camp, nor did they dare to. Gibran felt guilty every time he saw Edwina and Julia’s stern faces. He tried to talk to them, but it always ended in dejection.
Gibran wasn’t content with simply leaving either. He knew in his heart that if he even dared to take one step back, he would never be able to redeem himself. He must convince Julia to forgive him!
Once the camp was set up, magi sentries needed to be placed nearby. Han Jin again witnessed the absurd power of a magus. He knew from past observations that Cessacioun needed a few seconds to finish a magic sentry, and after finishing a dozen, he would need to meditate for several moments so he could replenish his magic power. That wasn’t to say Cessacioun only had enough magic power to establish a dozen magic sentries though. He too had gained a lot of experience throughout the past year, and had learned to always meditate after his magic power dropped below a certain point in order to keep himself at peak performance. That way, he would be ready for battle at any time.
Yalina, however, casted magic sentries like she was playing a game. Without any gestures or meditation, she simply cast the spell as she walked. The enormous swath of magic sentries almost covered the entire hill!
Han Jin personally asked Reg whether anything could sneak up on the camp at this point. Reg only shook his head and refused to talk. Finally, after much pressing, Reg muttered that if every magician on the continent was like Yalina, there wouldn’t be any point for thieves to exist.
After the sentries were set up, everyone’s mind finally calmed down. There wasn’t anything left to worry about either, since everything in a ten kilometer radius, be it human or holy animals, would be instantly detected. Yalina had even established a small magic defense matrix in the center. The camp didn’t even look like a camp anymore, but more like a fort!
But the young men had too much energy in them, and despite the plan to stay in place, it was impossible for them to sit quietly all day. Since there wasn’t anything entertaining to do, all they could do was focus all their energy on cultivation. Besides, Moxinke’s constant hard work set a great example for them.
One day, Han Jin sat in his little wooden shed and waited for everyone to attend the meeting. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t like the wooden shed at all. Since everything had been built by Sunier, there were colorful flowers everywhere he looked, while the air was filled with a faint fragrance. On the contrary, the weather outside had already turned cold and the wild flowers in the forest had already started to thin. Han Jin had always wondered how Sunier had managed to defy nature and made all these things bloom.
There was a raised pile of dirt in the corner which was Han Jin’s bed. The bed was covered in soft grass that looked like a blanket, which, somehow, also had flowers on it. But having flowers on the bed served little purpose. Han Jin wasn’t fat, but he still weighed at least over a hundred pounds. It should be pretty obvious how those fragile flowers would look like after a night of sleep.
The walls to the east and west had mirrors. Han Jin had mentioned that he only needed one mirror to make sure he still looked human, but Sunier had insisted on having two. This way, he could look at both sides of his head. Han Jin seriously considered having a serious conversation with Sunier just because of the mirrors. When they had been arranging the loot that they had gotten from the dragon, Sunier had said that her space ring was completely full. It wasn’t until today that Han Jin realized, with the two mirrors he had in his shed and the two mirrors she had in hers, she still had room for at least four mirrors in her space ring!
Han Jin was a pragmatist and believed there was no reason to put mirrors in the space ring. Almost anything else would be better! Even the bone chips of a dragon would be more worth the space!
Besides that, there was also a small spring in the middle of the shed. The water was clear, but the flow was small – only large enough to form a one square meter pool in the center before flowing out of the grass curtain which served as a door. Sunier had chosen to build Han Jin’s shed here specifically because of the spring.
In Sunnier’s eyes, this shed was beautiful, but to Han Jin, it was far from it. First of all, it was too humid! According to the Daoist concept of Wuxing, humidity served no purpose when it came to cultivation. Besides, it was weird for a man to live inside a shed covered by flowers all day!
Unfortunately, Sunier would fondly clean up his shed everyday. Looking at her busying herself, he could only swallow his complaints.
The front curtain opened, and Cessacioun and Reg walked in. After a bit, Sunier arrived too, and then, Moxinke, who was drenched in sweat. But the moment he stepped inside, Sunier forced him back out to take a shower first.
The last one to arrive was Yalina, with Asa following behind her. By the time she showed up, everyone was already seated on the few rocks around the spring. A piece of wood was placed on top of a rock as a temporary table, and Han Jin and his companions were sitting around it. There was only one seat left.
Yalina clearly hesitated for a moment. Cessacioun instantly understood, and walked to the seat beside Reg, who squinted his eyes but kept quiet. At first, he had felt bad about it, but by now, he was used to it.
Yalina sat down lightly, and Asa stood behind her; not because everyone was ignoring him, but because there simply wasn’t enough space for more people.
“You called us for a meeting. Is there something wrong?” Yalina lightly asked.
“Mhm.” Han Jin paused for a moment: “How many days have we waited for?”
“Seven,” Reg answered. He had always had a strong sense of time and replied instantly.
“In my opinion… simply waiting for her might not work,” Han Jin said.
Yalina blanked for a moment. “You were the one who decided we should wait here! Now… you want to leave?”
“No, we still have to wait.” Han Jin shook his head. “What I mean is that we should send a few men back to the Isolated Cliff City and make some preparations.”
“Preparations? I think we have prepared enough!”
“Let’s put it this way. Look at Moxinke. He doesn’t even have proper soft armor. What should he protect himself with in battle? Just his fighting strength? And Cessacioun, the only passable equipment he has is that wand…”
“Passable?” Yalina’s gaze landed on Cessacioun’s wand.
Cessacioun’s face turned red as he slowly pushed the wand under the table. It was an absolute joke, and Han Jin’s “passable” was only relatively speaking. How many things would be considered “passable” by a magus’ standard?
“Which is why I have decided to send someone back to Isolated Cliff City,” Han Jin slowly said. “Last time, we acquired a sizeable loot, and according to Cessacioun, there are many alchemists in the city. We happen to have a lot of raw materials which we could pay for them to make into armors! With how big that dragon scale is, I think we can all get an excellent enchanted armor.”
Han Jin had finished speaking, but he got no reaction. In fact, everyone’s faces looked strange. Cessacioun had straight up covered his forehead and looked like he was in pain, Sunier had bit her lip, and Yalina was looking at him with a half smile.
“What?” Han Jin blanked. He had made the plan after careful consideration. Of course, he had also hidden part of the truth. They must return to Isolated Cliff City, or they will soon run out of food and other necessities! The goal of returning to the Isolated Cliff City was to collect more magic crystals. Even though his cultivation of Dan was complete, and he had gone from being barely able to absorb a fourth-grade crystal to being able to absorb a fifth-grade magic crystal without much effort, there was still one problem. He didn’t have many fifth-grade magic crystals left!
Earth Bear and Treefolk’s magic crystals were both eighth-grade, while the Flash Leopard and the Giant Lizard they had captured only had sixth-grade ones. The dozens from Gale Wolf were indeed fifth-grade, but he had used all of them already. Back in the underground city, he had robbed the Holy Crown City’s caravan for a lot of stuff, including three hundred or so sixth-grade fire element magic crystals, and sixty or so sixth-grade water element magic crystals. But all of them were in the goddamned sixth-grade!
Fifth-grade magic crystals had about a hundred Jia of energy, which he could easily absorb. Sixth-grade magic crystals, however, had nearly a thousand jia’s worth of energy, which was too risky to safely consume. Even if he did achieve the state of Xuan, there were still too many problems he had to worry about!
A mere one level different was enough to push him to a desperate state. Luckily, he did possess some common sense. Otherwise, he probably would have tried to break the magic crystal!
“When you talked to me about the alchemist, you just wanted them to make enchanted armor for us?” Cessation asked in a strange tone.
“Mhm, is there anything wrong?”
“Ahem…” Asa coughed: “My Lord, our Headmaster… was one of the creators of the Triumphant Song Magus Armed System…”
“Really? How impressive!” Han Jin smiled. This was a situation in which his keen sense served the wrong purpose. Since he had always thought about a sentence’s motivation and subtext before the actual words, he had subconsciously thought that Asa was just trying to boast about Yalina. He had subconsciously gone along with it, but when he had finally processed what Asa had actually said, he froze. “One of the creators?”
