Versatile Mage c1-2021, page 600
The group continued to move up the tree. Luckily, Mo Fan's Space Element was a lot stronger after his mentality reached the fifth stage. Otherwise, things would be a lot worse while the Hillmen were ambushing them in the dark!
---
Zhao Manyan panted heavily. He was absolutely worn out.
He barely had energy left after helping the group pass the demon sparrows' territory safely. The group was on the run again before he could even rest up. His energy was seriously depleted.
Any Mage would feel extremely uneasy when they ran out of energy, especially when on a giant tree where a powerful creature could show up at any second...
"The Hillmen are below us, and unknown creatures are above us. We are seriously going to die at this rate. Damn it, I thought about the possibilities of dying on a battlefield, in a city, or at sea, but I never thought I would die on a f**king tree!" Zhao Manyan grumbled.
He had run out of energy. He could only grumble and complain to vent the enormous pressure he was feeling.
Mo Fan was still doing fine. After all, he was mostly using Basic and Intermediate Spells, reducing the consumption rate of his energy.
"They seem to have stopped chasing us," Lingling told everyone.
Zhao Manyan looked down and saw the Hillmen crouching on the branches below them, watching them. They looked like they were too afraid to pursue any further, even though they were unwilling to let their prey go.
Zhao Manyan did not feel any relief from seeing that. Anyone who had been in the wild would know that when the demon creatures stopped pursuing suddenly, it did not mean the demon creatures had suddenly decided to spare their lives, but that there was something even scarier waiting for them ahead!
"What are you waiting for? Keep going up!"
"But what if there's something even scarier up there?" Zhao Manyan protested.
"Scarier my ass!" Mo Fan was reluctant to believe that their luck was that bad. He immediately climbed higher with the girls.
Zhao Manyan's timid character was exposed as soon as his energy was depleted. The Hillmen were very intelligent, indeed. They knew Mo Fan and his crew were almost at their limits, thus they did not give up on their pursuit.
They managed to run away from the Hillmen after climbing a few hundred meters up the tree. However, the Hillmen did not seem to have any intention of leaving. They stood there waiting on the branches, as if they knew the humans would eventually come down again.
Mo Fan greatly detested these Hillmen. He swore he would kill every single one of them once his energy recovered!
---
"It's too quiet here," Lingling said softly.
The view was the same in all directions. They were surrounded by huge leaves and intertwining branches. The branches were like a huge, complicated maze. They could no longer tell which one was the main trunk of the tree. It was very dark too, as the light of the stars was not bright enough to illuminate their surroundings, leaving everyone on their toes.
A sound gradually approached, followed by a gust of wind with a rotting odor. It sounded like a creature snoring.
Everyone looked around them, trying to figure out what the creature was.
Mo Fan was able to see clearly at night. He looked ahead and saw a creature with a lizard's head but a leopard's body fast asleep at a fork of two branches. It was totally unaware of the presence of the intruders.
Mo Fan did not dare speak. He slowly pointed his finger at the fork, at the deadly-looking creature mostly covered by branches and leaves.
Lingling was an absolute genius. She could tell what the creature was just by looking at the outline of the creature's face. She said with an extremely soft voice, "It's a Four-Lives Salamander Tiger, a powerful Commander-level creature. It spends most of its time sleeping, but it's very dangerous when it's awake!"
"Does that mean it has four lives?" Zhao Manyan asked worriedly.
"Exactly, it's a very strange life form. It only needs to sleep for a day to fully recover even after suffering life-threatening injuries. As a result, the Four-Lives Salamander Tigers dare to provoke any creature. They aren't afraid of challenging those that are stronger than them, including Ruler-level creatures!" Lingling said.
"We are lucky that it's sleeping. It doesn't seem to be bothered by us."
"We should really thank the Heavens for that. Let's find somewhere safe before it wakes up," Zhao Manyan said.
Zhao Manyan was like a different person after he ran out of energy, like a little rat desperately trying to survive on the streets…
---
Everyone was tiptoeing as they continued up the tree, trying their best to stay away from the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger.
They were holding their breath while moving up the tree, fully focused. For some reason, their hearts were pounding heavily. They were afraid the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger would suddenly wake up!
Suddenly, they heard an inharmonious sound.
They had almost left the area when they saw a tiny Hillman making its way up to the branch. It then ran over to the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger under the gazes of Mo Fan, Zhao Manyan, Guan Xixi, Liu Xiaojia, Lan Luo, Liu Xiaojia, and Chen Yi, who were all staring at it with wide eyes!
At that particular moment, both Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan felt like there were thousands of llamas galloping in their hearts!
{TL Note: Llamas are called " (cao ni ma)" in Chinese. It sounds similar to the curse " (cao ni ma)" which literally means "f**k your mother".}
The little Hillman rushed up to the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger's mouth and started making noise. It kept crying out loudly, even though it was extremely scared.
The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger woke up right away. It opened its mouth and swallowed the little clown that disturbed its sleep promptly!
The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger barely felt the Hillman that it had just eaten. The Commander-level creature had extremely sharp hearing. As soon as it woke up, it lifted its gaze and stared right at Mo Fan and his team, who were already quite a distance away...
"F**k this shit!" Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan cursed at the same time. They all knew how cunning and vicious the Hillmen were, yet they never thought they would do something so shameless.
They had sent one of their own up to die just to wake the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger up. Was it really fair for demon creatures to have such intelligence?
"What are you waiting for? Keep running, are you waiting to celebrate New Year here!?"
"Come to me, quick!" Mo Fan yelled.
The others realized what Mo Fan's plan was when they saw a silver light circling him. They quickly stuck close to Mo Fan.
The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger was terrifyingly quick. It was able to move at maximum speed despite the complicated branches and leaves that were in the way. It was approaching the group so quickly that it looked like an illusion!
"Blink!" Mo Fan completed the Advanced Space Spell. The silver Star Constellation encapsulated everyone.
They quickly vanished into the tunnel of Space as soon as it opened up.
With a brief flicker, the group vanished into thin air, reappearing at a spot around three hundred meters away.
Mo Fan did not lower his guard, as he was afraid that the creature could still catch up to them. He immediately drew another Star Constellation!
The energy he needed to teleport seven people twice in a row was insane. Mo Fan already felt his head spinning, a sign that he had overdrawn his energy!
Luckily, they had managed to escape from the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger. The creature would have a hard time finding them with the leaves and branches limiting its vision.
None of them dared make a sound. They even held their breaths as long as possible. There was no sign of the Commander-level creature after ten minutes. They finally let out a relieved sigh.
"Those f**king sons of b**ches, I swear I'll kill them all after we have all recovered!" Zhao Manyan stomped and yelled furiously.
Mo Fan was disgusted by what the Hillmen had done, too. It was his first time encountering such a shameless species. If the undead attacking the Ancient Capital were as intelligent as the Hillmen, the Ancient Capital would have fallen long ago!
Either way, Mo Fan shared the same thoughts as Zhao Manyan. He had an urge to just charge down the tree and slaughter every single one of the Hillmen!
"Let's hide here for now. The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger isn't as aggressive. I don't think it's going to chase us relentlessly. Mo Fan, use your Shadow Element to conceal our presence. The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger is not as sharp at night," Lingling said.
"Mm, let's rest up. We should be fine after recovering our energy."
"We should be around three thousand meters high now?" Guan Xixi wondered aloud. She was talking to Chen Yi, but the girl was staring at the night sky with a blank expression instead.
"What's wrong, Chen Yi?" Guan Xixi asked worriedly.
"I...I think I've seen this before..." Chen Yi said seriously. However, she shook her head and corrected herself, "I've seen something similar before!"
"Hardly anyone knows about the existence of this Giant Purple Sacred Linden. We wouldn't even have found it if it wasn't for the Hillmen," Mo Fan interjected.
"It's a drawing, I've seen a similar drawing… I remember now! It's in my grandmother's house. She has a drawing like this in her house. The leaves that reach the sky, the branches that are wide like roads, and the starry sky in the distance!"
Chapter 1299 - The Importance of Sound Mages
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Yi had seen a similar sight before. It was in the drawing in her grandmother's bedroom!
"Does that mean your grandmother has been here before?" Mo Fan asked, surprised.
Even though the Giant Purple Sacred Linden was stunning, it had long been dominated by demon creatures, especially flying species. There was no way a plane would have passed by the area, so not many people would know about the existence of the Giant Purple Sacred Linden. To his surprise, Chen Yi's grandmother had found out about the tree before the authorities of the Magic Association, the military, and the government!
The question was... if she knew about the Giant Purple Sacred Linden, why didn't she tell anyone? Even if it was just a piece of information, it would attract the attention of countless people to come and look for it!
"It seems like we're quite in luck. We somehow found the right place." Chen Yi was clueless about how her grandmother knew about the Giant Purple Sacred Linden. They would have to ask her grandmother some other time!
The group finally had a chance to catch their breath, hiding in Mo Fan's Shadow Magic. The place was deadly silent for the rest of the night. Perhaps it was because the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger was good at maintaining its territory, or most creatures living on the tree had strict routines. Despite trying to stay alert, they soon fell asleep, overwhelmed by fatigue.
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A long drawbridge connected the inner and outer slopes of Mount Kunyu. The military had stationed soldiers to guard the drawbridge on one end.
Currently, thousands of people had gathered at the slope close to the drawbridge. They mainly consisted of Hunters planning to earn some quick money. The outer slopes of Mount Kunyu were known to have a lot of Giant Purple Lindens. If they were lucky enough to find a few of the trees, they could easily earn up to a million yuan. Even inexperienced Hunters had a chance to earn some money, so they could not wait to enter the outer slopes to search for the demon crests!
"Why aren't you letting us in? What are we waiting for? I've come all the way from Guangdong Province just to earn some money, and now you're stopping us from going in. What do you mean by this!?" a man yelled furiously.
The man had come to Yantai from Guangdong Province, which meant he had traveled across half of China just to come here. He thought he was going to make bank, but the government and the military were stopping people from crossing the bridge.
"He's right, why didn't you stop the Hunters that went in first? Why do we have to wait so long here!?"
"It's not fair!"
"Are you purposely keeping us here because they have bribed you!?"
Thousands of people were yelling angrily. The officials were having a hard time controlling the situation. Some Hunters at the front of the line were about to use violence after they were provoked by the others.
Things would gry out of control as soon as people started using magic. Even though it was rare to see independent Mages getting into a fight with the personnel of the Magic Association, the government, or the military, as the saying went, "stopping a man from earning money is like killing his parents". The Hunters were on the verge of losing their tempers!
"Who's causing a scene here!?"
An imperious voice exploded like a deafening thunderclap as the Hunters were about to lose control. The words echoed in everyone's ears like the chimes of a bell. The Mages immediately felt their ears ringing and their heads spinning. They could not even cast a single Spell in their current state!
"It's...it's Nie Lengshan!"
"My ears are hurting!"
It took a while for the sound affecting the people to disappear. The Hunters at the front saw a man in his thirties with wings on his back landing in front of the drawbridge. He was glaring coldly at the Hunters who were on the verge of losing control!
"Nie Lengshan, don't you dare use your identity and strength to put pressure on us. We just want to make some money, but these assh**** are blocking us here because they were bribed by the Hunters that went in first! They even came up with such a bad excuse..." the Hunter at the front of the queue snapped.
"Open your goddamn eyes and tell me what these are!" Nie Lengshan casually tossed a bag onto the ground.
The bag was tied very loosely. Something fell out of it as soon as it hit the ground.
The Hunters immediately looked at the bag and saw tusks covered in blood scattered across the ground. One of the Hunters went forward to empty the bag. He found the head of a Hillman inside!
"A huge number of Hillmen have shown up in the outer Mount Kunyu. They are using the demon crests as bait to hunt greedy idiots like you. More than two hundred people have died! These are the photos of the dead that some of the Hunters that returned gave to us. Take a look at them yourselves!" Nie Lengshan took out some photos to back up his claim and tossed them into the crowd of Hunters.
Most of the Hunters were convinced as soon as they saw the head and the tusks of a Hillman on the ground. However, their faces paled when they looked at the horrible corpses of the people that had been brutally killed by the Hillmen.
There were lots of photos, each displaying a horrible sight. Some relatively young Hunters among the crowd even vomited!
"If you still want to head inside, I won't stop you. We just happen to need a bunch of reliable Hunters to help us deal with the Hillmen. These brutal Hillmen torture humans to entertain themselves. The outer slopes of Mount Kunyu are too close to Yantai, we will not allow the Hillmen to set up their territory here!" Nie Lengshan declared. His voice was loud and clear to everyone.
"Hillmen...Hillmen are Warrior-level creatures, and they are good at working together, too. I think we'll pass," a middle-aged Hunter said.
"We only came to join in on the fun, so we'll pass too. Hehe!"
"We'll be going since it's so dangerous. We can find somewhere else to hunt demon creatures too. Am I right?"
Most Hunters did not have the courage to face the Hillmen. In just a few moments, the majority of the Hunters that were demanding to enter the outer Mount Kunyu left. The Hunters that stayed were either confident in their strength, or were part of a strong Hunter Group!
"Brother Nie, feel free to tell us if you need our help. Our Leopard Head Hunter Group might not be as reputable as you, but we won't show any mercy when it comes to killing demon creatures either," a bloke wearing a leopard head cap said.
"We do need your help to solve a serious problem. Commander Sun has already led his squad to the Valley of Yu Grass. I have come back here to request reinforcements," Nie Lengshan said.
"Everyone in our team is an Advanced Mage. If there really are Hillmen in there, as Mages of Yantai, we are more than willing to help," a m.a.t.u.r.e woman in her thirties said.
"Very well, come with me."
Of the crowd of over three thousand Hunters, only around three hundred were willing to take on the Hillmen. That being said, everyone that chose to stay was an elite. Their help was much needed!
"What happened, exactly?" the leader of the Leopard Head Hunter Group asked.
"A strange phenomenon occurred. The Dandelion Grass in the mountain is all flying in the same direction, and that place turned out to be the perfect hunting ground for the Hillmen. Ninety percent of the Hunters that entered the mountain have made their way to the valley. We have no idea how many Hillmen are inside the Valley of Yu Grass. We have to kill the Hillmen as quickly as possible. Otherwise, almost eighty percent of the Hunters are going to die in there!" Nie Lengshan informed them.
"There should be at least four thousand Hunters who went onto the outer slopes. Are the Hillmen really that scary? Can they really kill thousands of Mages?"
"They could only kill a few hundred at most with some tricks, but that won't be the case if all the Hunters went into the sea of grass!"
------
The experienced Hunters did not believe the Hillmen could pose that much of a threat. However, they were astounded after they followed Nie Lengshan to the valley covered in grass higher than their heads!
They would completely lose track of anyone that walked into the grass. The Hillmen were able to conceal themselves perfectly within the grass. Even if the members of a team were sticking closely together, the Hillmen could still find a chance to attack those that were slightly separated from the team. They finally understood why Nie Lengshan was taking it so seriously!
"We've already sent out an emergency alert to summon every Sound Mage in Yantai and the nearby cities. We only managed to gather seven of them," Commander Sun Yi sighed.
