On top of one of the Hundred Horses Carriage.
Traveling in their highest speed of 160km/hour, Zhang Wu Ji is having his first high-speed trip over to the Lotus Flower City because he was commissioned with a special task. This was also the first time for him to operate alone for a proper mission that was issued from the Mystic Engineer Establishment.
As he looks at the direction they were heading, Zhang Wu Ji's mind return to a few hours ago when he was still in a conversation with the Headmaster Windchaser.
"I know what you're thinking, but I will be honest to you... You will need to perform some deeds as a Celestial Designer in order to win my approval for you to obtain the blueprints for the Metal Bird!" this sentence is what the elder said before telling him to accomplish a few tasks on behalf for the blueprints.
For his first task, he needed to travel to the Lotus Flower City to give the residents assistance in handling an uprising of Wild Beast in the forest nearby. Situated at the closest town to the north of the county, the Lotus Flower City is always under the siege of Wild Beast because the Bamboo Forest is located right on top of them.
For the Seven Star County, it was Southern Bamboo Forest, but for the Willow Timber County, it became the Northern Bamboo Forest. This forest spanned across the whole northern area from the Lotus Flower City, covering over 70km across the Lotus Flower City.
Although the Siege is something intolerable, this is also the best time for the residents to preserve their supply of fresh edible meats varies from wolves, apes, bulls, reptiles, and a few insects. All of this edible meat will be arrange and allocated differently before kept under the management of the Lotus Flower City, where the city possesses a total of six rings capable of keeping 10 tonnes of meat stay fresh until next year's Wild Beast Siege.
About 30 hours of travel, he finally reaches the Lotus Flower City. This city carries the same building style like the Peony Flower City, but only void of the Mystic Engineer Establishment in the top of their mountain. The moment he entered the city, Zhang Wu Ji's arrival is received by a group of guards positioned inside the city itself.
They introduced themselves as the Ash Wolves Chasers Team. The name of their leader is Bai Lang, an 11th Stage Inner Qi Warrior. The others include Bai Lu and Bai Hu, the younger brothers of the team leader, at their 7th Stage of Inner Qi Fighters, Pang Hui, Lin Fan, and Mao Cai, in their 5th Stage of Inner Qi Fighters. They're a ten members team operating as one of the hunter's groups in this city.
Except for the six of them, there were four more members. Three of them were Celestial Designers in Training, while the remaining is a cook in her 2nd Stage Inner Qi Fighter. Their duties are related to the support, harvesting, and cooking, which is different from the six main fighting force members.
After a short introduction, Zhang Wu Ji enjoyed the first meal cooked by their only female member of the team. Only after having a stomach with good foods the team prepared themselves to enter the Northern Bamboo Forest, with their heading aimed at the nest of Ashen Fur Wolf, an 8th Stage Inner Qi Fighter Wild Beast.
The Ashen Fur Wolf is not a threat by themselves, but the wild beast loves to live together in packs. A small pack can have one to two leaders, and a bigger one may have five to six leaders. The smaller pack can have ten to twenty members, while the bigger one usually comes in between fifty to a hundred wolves.
While it was a simple mission to complete for them, it was best to be cautious about their surrounding. It is important that the team make note of all the signs that indicate the Ashen Warrior Wolf did not appear within the pack. The Ashen Warrior Wolf is not a threat alone, except its strength reaching 12th Stage of Inner Qi Warrior. But the only danger when the Ashen Warrior Wolf appears is because it can control the other Ashen Fur Wolves!
"Aooouuuuu!" a wolf cry is heard the moment they entered the Northern Bamboo Forest's outer perimeters. Due to the sensitive season at this time, most of the wild beast usually gathered in the deeper forest already started to come out from hiding.
Like a werewolf howling for the arrival of the moon, this season was their hunting season, where each year, the beast in the forest will turn ferocious in order to sate their thirst for human blood.
"Left!" one of the Celestial Designer reported the reaction from his seismic tool in hand. It was something similar to an earthquake detector, but this tool is used to detects wild beast and not human. As an important member of the team, how can somebody with low cultivation have no uses for the team?
Taking out their throwing weapons, the three members in their 5th Stage of Inner Qi Fighter chased their target. Minutes later, a soft chime from a bell is ringed, indicating that their task is completed. The small bell also indicates that the three Celestial Designers and the chef are safe to walk around now because no other targets are spotted nearby.
Moving closer to the corpse of the Ashen Fur Wolf, one Celestial Designer and the chef work together to handle the meat, pelt, and innards of the beast before they stores all the remains in a different bag. Because most of their Spatial Stone can only be used once or twice, the storing process has to be done after they collected the amount needed for the storage.
At the same time, Zhang Wu Ji made use of the White Blood Jade to absorb all the available blood when they cutting open the corpses. Moving together in a very organized manner, the group of ten members quickly reaches the first suspicious location that may turn out to be the Ashen Fur Wolf's nest.
When the seismic tool went closer to the spot, it started to vibrate without stopping. The team members that saw this reaction smiled with the edge of their lips reaching their ears. The group withdraws a different set of weapons but noticed that Zhang Wu Ji already missing from their team.
"Shit! Where did brother Wu Ji goes?" Bai Lang whispers to his teammates, but none of them have an answer that he wanted to hear. They inspect their surrounding for some tracks but soon heard a cries came from a dying Ashen Fur Wolf.
With their head raised over the dense foliage, they noticed an appearance of a male in his black long robe. Seven Stars pattern is sewn on the shoulder to indicates his identity. But this wasn't important at all by this time. What was important is, how did he get down there from such a high position?
Their question soon answered when a hovering Flying Sword is seen in mid-air, taking over the position of stepping stone before one reaches the ground. When they noticed this simple fact, five fighters join the battle, while the remaining one stays behind to protect their supporting members.
"Brother Wu Ji, this Bai Lang really need to give you a thumb's up! I did not expect that as a Celestial Designer like yourself, you actually possess such a great fighting strength!" Bai Lang praised him as soon as he came down from the uphill.
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"It was nothing. I am lucky to not let them caught my attack." Zhang Wu Ji replied humbly as he stabs at one of the Ashen Fur Wolf in the head. After leaving the dead wolf aside, Zhang Wu Ji took an agile move to hovers in the air for a half second, but that's enough for him to land two attacks on the wolves head.
Only ten minutes is needed for them to slaughter the group of thirty wolves. And this results was after putting aside the younger cubs that yet to learn how to hunt. After cleaning everything within the nest, the group took turns to went back up from the hole. This is also where Zhang Wu Ji's Qiyue Flying Sword shines because of the issue with transportation.
Their hunting trips go well for the first day before the Bai Lang make a call to end their first day of hunting. It was twice as dangerous when hunting at night if it were to be compared with hunting when daylight, which is also the reason why Bai Lang made this call.
After returning to the Lotus Flower City, the supporters prepare to do their work as usual. As the treasurer, merchant, purchaser, and stock controller of the team, the four of them are used to handle all the preparations while the fighting forces get their rest or drinks.
Pulling Zhang Wu Ji along with their childish antiques, he joined them for a drinking session before a few collapsed and have to be drag into their bed before the other remaining members left for their own. As a special guest invited by the Headmaster Windchaser, Zhang Wu Ji is given the best accommodation and luxurious treatment, with more foods, wines, and even materials or female companion if he requested.
But instead, he did not take his rest and went straight into the City Forge to request for a few materials and a spot for him to hammer the metals. Waving his hand across the airflow of the furnace, Zhang Wu Ji simply injected a few percentages of Fire Element into the fire to increase the speed of the furnace get ready.
One needs to seriously praise the management of the whole Willow Timber County, for preparing not only the processed materials but even their powder ashes or other parts that left from smelting the materials. Here, brimstone powder, salt crystals, and charcoal (mixture of Fur Charcoal, Wood Charcoal, and Coal) mixture are available to be purchased anytime.
Regretfully, it was quite expensive. But it was normal, especially when he was in the county with the highest amount of metal and mineral produce is used per annum. To begin with, Zhang Wu Ji only paid two million gold coins for the sake of purchasing some materials and renting a spot for him to work his tools, but who knows, after looking at the available blueprints in the store, he ended up spending all his wealth to purchase a copy of all available blueprints.
He ends up with 11 blueprints richer, but also fifty million gold coins poorer. Although in his ring, pouch and many parts of his body still filled with wealth, but they must be sold or purchased first before he can turn them into pure currency, either pills or coins.
Still, with all the materials in his hand, Zhang Wu Ji end up forging another five more Qiyue Flying Swords and exhausted all his level 6 Beast Cores and High-Quality Crystals. The remaining materials were used to craft two Yuan-Tie Hand Cannons before he left the City Forge and return to sleep.
Considering his option at this moment, Zhang Wu Ji went to sleep and meditates. He refilled the amount of stored energy in the Incense of Condensation and Incense of Element for eight hours, before he awake from his slumber and return to the team for their hunt once again. What's surprising for him is the next morning when he wakes up, his strands of Fighter Qi increased again, allowing him to advance into the 6th Stage of Inner Qi Fighter with 509 strands of Fighter Qi.
Unlucky for him, the hunt they conducted mainly focused on looking for the Ashen Fur Wolves, making Zhang Wu Ji failed to land his hand on any of the Level 6 Beast Core. Without the relevant material for him, it will be impossible for Zhang Wu Ji to forge more Flying Sword for the preparation to sell them.
It was not because the Level 8 Beast Core is unusable, but the differences in materials may results in a less refined weapon, not because his skills are lacking, but the harmonization between the material is important. Else, why won't the blueprint mention any enhanced version or side material he can similarly prepare?
For his second night, Zhang Wu Ji can only spend his time cultivating instead, because he no longer has anything else can be done in the City Forge. He might produce some Spatial Stone for free to the fellow members as a Formation Master, but that was nothing special, especially each city is fitted with a First-Grade Spatial Stone Producer Machine.
This machine is also one of the self-made machinery forged by the Master Windchaser himself. By providing a sufficient amount of Inner Qi into the Machine, one can activate the machine to engrave the pre-made inscription on the stone slab to turn them into a Spatial Stone without the need of a Formation Master.
When he saw this machine for the first time, Zhang Wu Ji knows that this is where his answer lies for the question about where did the Spatial Stone from Master Su come from. Luckily, he already arranged his people to pay more attention to the Orchid Bandits, making the city is safe from any threat even if he wasn't around.
Plus, with most of the building in the City already upgraded into the Masonry Bricks, their durability to withstand attack is even better. Especially the Apprentice Hall that now assembled by a minimum guess of 20,000 Masonry Bricks. a durability point of one million... may take more than one Inner Qi Lord to make a dent on it.
Closing his eyes, Zhang Wu Ji spends his night once again...
[Status: 25%]
In his third day of hunting, this is where everything begins to become different. With the shortage of Ashen Fur Wolves for them to hunt, their party now changed their targets into the 7th Stage Hairless Copper Ape and the 6th Stage Fire Spitting Lizards. This two kind of Wild Beast is not their ideal targets due to their low price but at the same time, it wasn't a good choice for them to do so.
The reason is due to the circle of rules, which govern the strong and the weak.
As an example, If a group of cultivators that can barely handle Fire Spitting Lizards ends up with no targets to hunt, what will their choice of selection be? If they left, the day will end as non-profitable exploration. If they continued, perhaps a few members will lose their life due to hunting something else over their qualification.
Bound under such a rule, the Ash Wolves Chaser Team can only hunt the numbers of this two Wild Beast moderately without getting overboard with their actions. But thing soon changed when the team suddenly encountered a large group of Ashen Fur Wolves! The experienced team immediately noticed what is wrong, especially when surrounding them is the wolves with blood around their jaws.
"One of the team must be met with misfortune here! We have to escape, or else, we will be put in a situation worse than death!" as the leader of the team, Bai Lang immediately makes a decisive choice to retreat completely without looking back. If someone with his amount of experience is alerted with this scene, how will it be a small matter?
But!
The question is...
"Will the Ashen Warrior Wolf allows them to leave?"
"Aouuuu!!!" a cry three times louder than the first howl Zhang Wu Ji heard before ringing in their ears. A two meters tall figure that walks with its four legs steps closer to the team while drooling with anxiety. Without even the need to explain this Wild Beast's existence, everyone present in the spot here knows that;
"This gigantic wolf is the scary Ashen Warrior Wolf!"
With a heavy slam on the ground, the beast releases a strength of an 11th Stage Inner Qi Warrior! Winds around them distorted because of the explosion of Warrior's Qi, while the Ashen Fur Wolves started to surround the team of ten members, leaving them no spot to escape.
"I will handle the Ashen Warrior Wolf's attack! The others will support Bai Lu and Bai Hu to cut open an escape route! If the situation becomes critical, activates the Willow Crossbow!" Bai Lang shifts his weapon from a basic grade sword into a higher quality sword and defended himself with a shield on his left. Instantly transforming from a fighter to a Defender, Bai Lang charged into the attacking range of the Ashen Warrior Wolf to taunt it.
But instead of changing its attention, the Ashen Warrior Wolf howls and gave the order to attack all surviving human and initiates the fight between the Wild Beast and Humans. No longer having his part of fun using the Iron Thrusting Dirks in both hands, Zhang Wu Ji changed his weapon into the Longfeng Jade Ruler, where the twenty air blades started to come out once more to meet their opponents.
The move was a simple one, but to executes so many air blades, how long will a cultivator need to train before able to create such a scene in a battle? While it puzzled Bai Lu and Bai Hu, Bai Lang is unfazed by the surprise and warned his two younger brothers to come back into their sense. With one additional fighter in their ranks, the percentage of success to breakout from this dangerous situation become higher than their expectation.
"ROAR!" the Ashen Warrior Wolf found a weak spot in between of Bai Lang's defense and tried to land killing strike on its opponent in an attempt to not let the food run away from his mouth. Put in this situation, unless the godness of luck stands at his side, this attack will surely kill him in a single strike.
"BAM!" an Iron Ball fly through the resistance of the air as it gets close to the Ashen Warrior Wolf in the moment of half a second! With his secret weapon is used, Zhang Wu Ji protected Bai Lang from losing his life at that moment.
Sadly, their expectation failed to bear the fruit of success.
With a quick reflex, the front paw of the Ashen Warrior Wolf swings downward on the incoming Iron Ball, pressing it down on the ground before adding its own version or growl while staring at the despicable human.
"Alright. We're in deep shit now." Zhang Wu Ji throws his hand cannon down on the ground and prepared to escape because the Ashen Warrior Wolf's attention is directed to him!