In the forest, a group of about five hundred people was traversing through the forest. A group of armoured guards protected a few of them in the middle.
Among the people in the middle, there were two people who were dressed particularly conspicuously. The two of them were actually wearing silk clothes with silver patterns that reflected light from time to time. Compared to the sorry state of the others, although the two of them looked tired, they were still considered neat.
"Master Qi, how much longer do we need?" asked the leader of the group, turning to the middle.
Of the two people who were being protected in the middle, the older one was holding a square plate in one hand. On the square plate were a few pieces of jade. He stroked his beard with the other hand and said, "We will arrive within ten days."
The leader let out a long sigh of relief. "That's good."
Even though they were prepared, when they really entered this forest, they were almost always on edge and did not have a good night's sleep. They were afraid that they would be eaten by the ferocious beasts hiding in the dark or be dragged away by those strange plants. This forest was much more dangerous than the forest they had entered on the other side of the sea!
When they first entered, there were about eight hundred of them. Now, there were only about five hundred left. The remaining three hundred had become fertiliser for the plants or food for the fearsome beasts.
This was even after they had avoided most of the dangers with the guidance of the two Yi family members. If it had not been for the two Yi family members and they had entered the forest alone, the number of people who would still be alive could be counted on one hand.
"Let's take a break. There are no major dangers around here," said the man with the plate.
The surrounding guards let out a long sigh of relief. They could finally rest. However, although the Yi family said there were no major dangers, they still had to be careful of the small dangers that could pop up at any moment. If they were too careless, any small danger could cost them their lives.
"Master Yue, do you really not know what those insects look like?" While they were resting, Mu Yao, the leader of the team, asked the only Gongjia member in the team, who was also a master blacksmith. Unfortunately, the new king did not like Gongjia Yue. Gongjia Yue was not doing too well. If it weren't for the Mu and Yi family's protection, Gongjia Yue might not be able to continue living a luxurious life. He might not even be able to find the materials to forge.
Not far away, Gongjia Yue's hair was all white. He was not young anymore and used to have a lot of authority in the Gongjia family. Unfortunately, before the new king ascended the throne, Gongjia Yue had mocked and ridiculed him. He had never been nice to him. As soon as the new king ascended the throne, he took away many of Gongjia Yue's resources and gave them to other Gongjia craftsmen. After all, there was more than one craftsman in the family. The Gongjia family's craftsmen, who worked hard all day, couldn't gather much resources. Most of the resources were given by the nobles of the Royal City. Perhaps they could last for a few years but after a few years, they wouldn't be able to continue.
After Gongjia Yue lost power, the Mu and Yi family continued to support him. That was why Gongjia Yue did not fall into dire straits. The Mu and Yi family's support came with conditions. They hoped that Gongjia Yue could make better weapons. Rock Hill City's main target was the Mu and Yi family in the Royal City. No wonder the two families were so anxious. They wanted to use this opportunity to win Gongjia Yue over.
Gongjia Yue also planned to use this opportunity to turn things around. He had enjoyed a luxurious life for many years and it did not feel good to lose power. If he could handle this well, it was not impossible for him to return to his old life.
In terms of craftsmanship, Gongjia Yue was considered a master. When he was young, he had been to Xia Valley like Heng and read the secret records left behind by the Gongjia ancestors. That was why he knew what Heng knew.
Yanjiao and Rock Hill City had found the green-faced fanged beasts so they knew how good the weapons were. Although it was better than other metal weapons, it was not good enough to satisfy the Mu and Yi family.
Since the green-faced fanged beasts didn't work, they would try to find the legendary insect. There was very little information in the Gongjia ancestors' notes but wasn't the Yi family there?
As a result, the two sides worked together, and after paying some price, they finally got the location of the insect. Then they gathered people, bypassed the main battlefield by the sea, and avoided the territory of the Flaming Horns tribe, which they had conflicts with before, and came to this forest.
"I've never seen that insect before. There were only words in the notes, no pictures. Our ancestors called them star butterflies." Gongjia Yue had given this answer many times. That was all he could say because he didn't know what the star butterflies looked like. He didn't even know what the larvae looked like.
"The only thing I'm sure of is that we need to find the larvae before they turn into butterflies. We need to extract their blood and bring it back." Gongjia Yue's eyes flashed with passion. If he could make a better weapon, he would definitely be able to turn the tables around! How many years had it been? No one in the Gongjia family had been able to reproduce the information recorded in the notes.
"Don't worry, it's still a long time before the larvae turn into butterflies," said Yi Qi confidently.
"I'm worried that someone might have followed us. If someone did, wouldn't we be letting them off easy? Plus, the people following us might disrupt our plan. "Mu Yao voiced his concern.
"Don't worry, we've shaken them off." Yi Qi's face was arrogant. He used his divination abilities to point out the team's location and the time of each mission. They managed to shake off a group of people each time. Now, they could no longer sense anyone following them.
Sitting next to Yi Qi was another young man from the Yi family. Strangely, he looked very young but had white hair at his temples. Unlike Yi Qi's calmness, he was anxious and uneasy. He had a bad feeling about this.
"Uncle, we still need to be careful," said the young man.
"Yi Zong, are you doubting my abilities?" Yi Qi was unhappy with Yi Zong's words. He was about to say something when his brows furrowed. Ignoring everything else, he tapped the plate in front of him. The glowing jade rolled for about five minutes before stopping.
"Master Qi, did something happen?!" asked Mu Yao and the rest hurriedly.
"It's fine. I don't know who stole the Yi family's divination skills, or maybe it's a piece of trash that escaped from the Yi family. How dare they use divination to find out where we are! Hmmph! You want to fight me?! "
He scoffed arrogantly, expressing his disdain for the person who tried to find out where they were.
"Then what now?" Mu Yao looked at Yi Qi.
"That person can no longer find out where we are," said Yi Qi casually. "It's just something the Yi family's juniors do when they're messing around."
"Someone knows where we are through divination?!" Yi Zong was shocked. His eyelids twitched as he thought of something. He hurriedly picked up his plate and grabbed a handful of golden sand from a clay bowl held by a slave. He sprinkled it on the plate.
The fine golden sand spontaneously separated into stripes on the square plate. At first, it was fine. The fine sand moved normally, either approaching the jade on the plate or avoiding the jade on the plate. However, not long after, this kind of change suddenly stopped. With a soft "pu" sound, the golden sand in the square plate scattered messily.
"I can't find out where they are!" exclaimed Yi Zong.
Usually, if the other party used divination techniques to track them, they could use the Yi family's secret technique to track the other party's location. Of course, they could also stop the other party from following them, just like what Yi Qi had done earlier. But there was a variable. If the difference in strength between the two parties was too great, it could result in a one-sided suppression. For example, the other party couldn't track them through divination. This was why Yi Zong was shocked. He was already one of the best in the Yi family's younger generation, but he couldn't find out where the other party was.
Yi Zong's expression changed. His usually calm face was conflicted. "It's like this again!"
It was as if there was a layer of fog blocking his divination. Every time he tried, the result was a mess. The jade array was very messy and he couldn't find anything.
Yi Zong had experienced this before. It was a terrible memory. Every time he thought back to it, Yi Zong felt like a pair of hands were stopping him from moving forward. In other words, he had hit a bottleneck.
In the past, there had been members of the Yi family who had encountered the same situation and couldn't move forward. If they couldn't break through the bottleneck and were stuck at this point, they would stop moving forward for the rest of their lives. The Yi family would also give up on them.
Although Yi Zong had encountered the same situation, he was still a rare genius among the younger generation. The Yi family didn't give up on him and even tried to help him break through. But to no avail. This time, Yi Zong told his family that he was stuck at a bottleneck and couldn't break through. That was why he followed them here. He wanted to take it as a training trip and hope to get a chance to break through this bottleneck.
He didn't expect to encounter such a situation again!
Yi Zong picked up the jade from the square plate and turned it in his palm, deep in thought. After a while, he said to Yi Qi, "Uncle, can you predict the other party's movements?"
"Are you doubting my ability?" Anger flashed in Yi Qi's eyes. Yi Zong couldn't divine because his ability was limited. Yi Qi was ranked in the top ten of the Yi family. How could he encounter the same situation as Yi Zong?!
Yi Zong ignored Yi Qi's obvious anger and insisted, "Uncle, please do it again."
"Fine! I'll do it for you! "
Yi Qi suppressed his anger and picked up the jade from the plate to begin the divination.
But soon, more and more sweat appeared on Yi Qi's forehead. His hand holding the jade began to tremble as if he couldn't hold it steady.
Yi Zong's face twitched as he watched from the side. Finally, he closed his eyes. He already knew the result of this divination.
Poof!
The golden sand on the plate scattered.
Yi Qi's face was pale. His fingers were still tightly holding onto the jade, but his eyes were fixed on the remaining golden sand in the square plate as if he couldn't believe this result.
"How is this possible? How can this be?! " Yi Qi's lips trembled. "Not only can we not know where they are, but we also failed to stop them!"
There was dead silence in the group. Mu Yao and Gongjia Yue stared at Yi Qi in disbelief. They thought they were hallucinating.
What?!
Even Yi Qi couldn't track them?! Even their attempt to stop them had failed?! Did this mean the other party could still track their movements through the divination?!
"Who has this ability? Even you can't stop them! "Mu Yao couldn't think of anyone else. Could it be someone else from the Yi family?
"I know who it is," said Yi Zong slowly. Compared to the others, Yi Zong was much calmer.
The Yi family rarely used the word 'guess' because they weren't sure of their abilities. Only when they couldn't get a definite result would they say 'guess'. But now, Yi Zong had said it so calmly!
"Who is it?" asked Yi Qi, ignoring Yi Zong's choice of words.
"It's the Yanjiao man, Yanjiao Shao Xuan!"
"Impossible!" Yi Qi denied immediately. "That's the Yi family's technique, I sensed it just now. I don't know exactly what technique it is but it's definitely the Yi family's technique!"
"Although I don't know how that person mastered the Yi family's divination technique, I think the person who is tracking our movements through the Yi family's divination technique is Yanjiao Shao Xuan!"
Yi Zong had suspected that the Yanjiao people had the ability to perform divination back then when he was hunting down the Yanjiao migration team. But at the time, he didn't think it was the Yi family's technique and guessed that it might be another tribe's divination technique. The Yi family wasn't the only tribe who could perform divination, but the Yi family was definitely the tribe with the strongest divination technique!
Now, Yi Zong, who was stronger than him, had already said that it was the Yi family's technique. But Yi Zong could sense that this was the same situation as the one he encountered back then. Then, when the Yanjiao tribe migrated, it was highly likely that the Yi family's divination technique was used. Unfortunately, with his current abilities, he couldn't figure out which technique it was.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Yi Qi repeated. He couldn't believe that a tribesman who wasn't part of the Yi family could have this kind of ability. This was a slap to the Yi family's face.
If Yi Zong knew what Yi Qi was thinking, he would have told him that this slap had already happened back in the Royal City. It was just that no one had noticed.
"Let's hurry!" Mu Yao shouted as he stood up. Since someone already knew where they were, they had to find the larvae and take their blood before they arrived!
At this moment, in the forest, somewhere far away from Mu Yao's team.
Shao Xuan looked at the knot in his hand. It wasn't smooth this time, it felt like someone was tugging at the rope to stop him from tying it. But in the end, he still managed to complete it.
Calling Chacha, who was pecking at a snake, over, Shao Xuan said, "Stop playing. Hurry up and eat. They should know we're coming."
"Let's hope they don't do anything rash," Shao Xuan said, looking into the distance.
He already knew what kind of insect they were looking for. However, the place it lived was too special. It was an important territory for the mountain eagles!
Every place where ferocious beasts gathered, there was a delicate balance between the two species. If the balance was broken, would those people be eaten by the huge mountain eagles or the ferocious beasts? Or eaten by the mountain eagles?
There seemed to be only one result.
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