Chapter 1129: Powerful Mysterious Man
Translator: Lordbluefire
“Sister An, the Gray Rock Tribe’s hunting team[1] that we’re ambushing has Brother Sun with them!”
After Murong Mingyue saw Sun Mo, she immediately left the area she was responsible for keeping watch on and went to inform An Xinhui.
“What?”
An Xinhui was surprised.
“This is troublesome.”
Mei Ziyu furrowed her beautiful brows tightly.
After she had entered the game, she had lost contact with Sun Mo and the others. Murong Mingyue had been the only one who was with her. As they had arrived close to the Red Rock Tribe, they had relied on her medical skills to be able to stay here temporarily.
A few days later, they had run into An Xinhui, Li Ziqi, as well as Xie Enhui during a hunting trip. As they didn’t know what the condition for clearing the game was, they decided to settle down in the Red Rock Tribe for the time being.
During this time, they hadn’t given up on searching for Sun Mo. They didn’t expect to encounter him in such a situation.
“Are we able to avoid killing?”
Li Ziqi’s head was aching.
“There’s definitely no way!”
Murong Mingyue was more vicious. “We can only coordinate from the outside and inside, helping Sun Mo to fight against the Red Rock Tribe.”
The Red Rock Tribe’s great prophet had said that they needed to offer the blood and life of the Gray Rock Tribe’s people as a sacrifice to the Fire God to be able to appease the Fire God’s fury.
This was a contradiction that couldn’t be resolved, so both parties would definitely fight it out to the bitter death.
“Let’s just play by ear and help out Sun Mo and the others!”
During this time, An Xinhui’s life in the Red Rock Tribe had been neither good nor bad. However, for Sun Mo’s sake, she could only let them down.
“This is the Black-White Game. Winning is the only thing to think of. We don’t need to feel guilty!”
Murong Mingyue emphasized this. For Sun Mo’s sake, it didn’t matter if they had to let the entire Red Rock Tribe perish.
…
The timing chosen by the Red Rock Tribe’s hunting team to launch an assault was really crafty. It was the time the Gray Rock Tribe’s people were just done preparing dinner and also when everyone was at their most relaxed state.
Thankfully, this time around, there was An Xinhui’s group alerting them in advance. At the first instance they heard the order to attack, An Xinhui’s group started shouting.
“Sun Mo, enemy attack!”
“Mistress?”
Lu Zhiruo became spirited and perked her small ears.
“Hui Yan, there’s an enemy attack! Let’s charge toward the right first!”
Sun Mo bellowed loudly. This was also the direction An Xinhui’s voice came from and there’d be people helping them out.
“What are you guys up to?”
The Red Rock Tribe’s aboriginals who were in charge of watching over this area with An Xinhui’s group were shocked.
Murong Mingyue swung her blade and slashed them. She had seen Sun Mo retreating over to this side and naturally had to kill a way out for him.
“I’m sorry!”
An Xinhui fought a bloody battle with her blade.
Finally, both sides met up.
The sneak-assault plan by the Red Rock Tribe’s aboriginals had failed. They didn’t choose to continue to fight head-on but retreat.
“Sun Mo, are you guys alright?”
Mei Ziyu was worried.
“Good!”
Sun Mo’s gaze swept past everyone and placed additional emphasis on the little sunny egg. Although she was a little skinnier, she wasn’t injured. Hence, Sun Mo felt at ease.
“Teacher is now the Gray Rock Tribe’s great prophet!”
Lu Zhiruo boasted proudly.
“Prophet, these are…”
Hui Yan came over.
“They are my friends and students!”
Sun Mo explained.
Hui Yan quickly greeted them. If it wasn’t for their warning, their side would have lost a lot of people again.
Everyone packed up their stuff and continued to go on their way again.
…
“Great Chieftain, Pharmacist Mei and a few of them have betrayed us.”
The group who had failed the ambush knelt before the Red Rock Tribe’s great chieftain, lowering their head, waiting to accept their punishment.
“Get up!”
The great chieftain didn’t blame them.
He had both hands behind his back and looked calmly in the direction of the volcano.
All the Red Rock Tribe’s aboriginals were silent like the winter cicadas.
Although this great chieftain hadn’t taken over the tribe for long, he had brought them tremendous development. The refining of bronze weapons, especially, had brought the tribe a tremendous surge in their battle prowess.
…
Dawn came and the group set off once again.
Even though An Xinhui had informed them that the Red Rock Tribe’s aboriginals had set up an inescapable trap and it’d be impossible for them to succeed, Hui Yan had no other choice.
“Everyone, be prepared. There’ll definitely be a round of killings at the volcanic crater!”
Hui Yan was ready to fight it out to the death.
“Xinhui, do you know the enemies’ defense setup?”
Sun Mo had great anticipation. If An Xinhui knew that, then it’d save their side a lot of trouble.
“I don’t know!”
An Xinhui and the others had just joined the tribe, and they’d definitely not be allowed to take part in such confidential planning.
Just as Sun Mo was feeling regretful, Murong Mingyue smiled.
“But we’ve secretly looked at their plan before.”
Murong Mingyue’s group had to join the hunting team. Therefore, they thought of ways to understand the battle plan as well as look at the map secretly. Otherwise, what would happen if they were treated as cannon fodder?
There were five paths to head to the volcanic crater. Out of which, three of them were a great detour and could be ignored directly because everyone was lacking in time at the moment.
Two more paths remained. One of them was easier to travel on but would also be a detour. The other one was shorter but harder to travel on.
“They feel that under pursuit and being in a state of having insufficient supplies and heavy casualties, you’ll definitely pick the more difficult but shorter route, wanting to get things resolved as soon as possible.”
Murong Mingyue divulged, “That’s why the great chieftain has dispatched more people here.”
“Hehe, thanks to the blessings from our ancestors, we’re sure to win now.”
Hui Yan was overjoyed. He had the hunting team advance quickly.
The Red Rock Tribe was stronger than the Gray Rock Tribe, but their forces weren’t twice as many. Even if all of them were activated, it’d be impossible for them to dispatch forces on both paths. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to guarantee an advantage in numbers. Therefore, there’d at most be a few people sent to keep watch on the other paths.
They were going to clinch this round.
Two days later, the group arrived at the foot of the volcano and then started to climb up.
They could feel the ground trembling slightly, and there was faint black smoke coming out from the volcanic crater, drifting into the distance and turning the white clouds black.
“Hurry up!”
Hui Yan urged.
The plantations that grew on the volcano had become a lot sparser.
“Oh my!”
Lu Zhiruo suddenly let out a cry and knelt on the floor.
“What’s the matter?”
Sun Mo felt worried.
“My grass shoes broke!”
The lucky mascot pouted and then looked toward the volcano peak. “Teacher, I don’t feel too comfortable. It’s like something unlucky is going to happen.”
“What?”
Sun Mo’s heart skipped a beat.
“When I had such a feeling in the past, I’d always encounter something unlucky.”
Lu Zhiruo furrowed her little brows.
“We’ve come all the way here. Even if it’s a mountain of daggers or seas of flames before us, we should try to blaze through it.”
Murong Mingyue consoled her.
She was someone with an inspiring character. When troublesome things occurred, it was useless to feel worried. Therefore, she’d face things with composure.
In the worst case, they could just try to fight a way out.
“Chieftain, get everyone to pay more attention to the surroundings!”
Sun Mo reminded him.
“We have information. Don’t panic!”
Li Ziqi consoled her.
After another half a day, everyone arrived at a slightly more spacious area. From here, they could already see the volcanic crater, and there was even hot air gushing toward them.
“Work a little harder!”
Hui Yan encouraged. But at this moment, a long and resounding horn signal rang out.
“What’s going on?”
Everyone was very surprised. They looked up and saw many elephants that were like small hills, appearing on the very top, looking down toward them.
“We’ve fallen for a trap!”
An Xinhui’s countenance instantly turned bad.
“What’s going on?”
Murong Mingyue didn’t understand. Why did the enemies appear here? That shouldn’t be how things were!
“Everyone, my welcome ceremony is considered grand, right?”
A mysterious man wearing a black hood that covered his head and face was riding on an elephant. He appeared in Sun Mo’s sight with over ten of the tribe’s warriors by his side.
The moment he spoke, Zhou Zerui and Xie Enhui were stunned. It was because he had spoken in the Nine Provinces’ common language.
“Who are you?” Zhou Zerui reproached. “Take off your hood!”
From his view, the players of the Black-White Game were all students from the Black-White Academy. To think that someone was trying to be funny. How could they tolerate this?
“Don’t be agitated! I’m not a student from the Black-White Academy!” The mysterious man smiled. “And who said that only your school has the Black-White Star Disk?”
Everyone was too astonished that they fell silent, not knowing what they should say.
“Why is it that you seem like you knew long ago that we’ll take this route?”
Murong Mingyue’s brows furrowed tightly. These elephants moved clumsily and should have been dispatched here many days in advance, even before the Gray Rock Tribe’s members had appeared.
Moreover, looking at how the mysterious man was acting, it was clearly not a guess between the two options.
This meant that they had been toyed with.
“I was the one who had lured you into taking this path!”
The mysterious man seemed to be looking at Sun Mo with great anticipation. “Great Teacher, have you guessed anything?”
“When you saw An Xinhui and the others, you knew that we came in too. Therefore, you guessed that it’s likely that we’re in the Gray Rock Tribe.”
Sun Mo analyzed, “Hence, you went to the great trouble of coming up with a plan but didn’t let An Xinhui and the others hear about it. This will make them want to find out about the battle plan.”
“Go on!”
The mysterious man did a gesture for Sun Mo to continue.
“You didn’t let An Xinhui and the others make a move in the first sneak assault. This is to avoid us coming into contact too early as well as to drive us to move in this direction. And on this side, there are An Xinhui and a few of them lying in ambush.
“If An Xinhui sees us, she’ll definitely meet up with us. At the same time, they won’t suspect that they’ve fallen into a trap. It’s because they know that there are a few groups of people you’ve sent out to kill our hunting team, and they were just here by coincidence and came across us.”
The mysterious man stuck out a thumb.
The more natural the plans seemed, the fewer coincidences there were, the less they’d be doubted.
An Xinhui and the others were all smart and didn’t need Sun Mo to finish his words before they realized the entire process. Their countenances instantly flickered between green and red.
It was from embarrassment and fury. They had been too careless.
“The things that followed are simple. To cast in the ice stone, we’ll definitely need to head up the volcano. Then, which route to take will become the most important problem. An Xinhui’s group had secretly looked at your battle plan and knew where the forces were dispatched to. Therefore, we’ve chosen the opposite route and naturally stepped into your trap.”
Sun Mo shrugged. It was a complete loss on their side.
When they were still leisurely looking down on the aboriginals, they were already trapped.
Pa pa pa!
The mysterious man clapped. “You’re absolutely right. As expected of the new rising star in the great teacher world. You really live up to your name!”
“Seriously? This uncle is so amazing?”
Lu Zhiruo was surprised.
“This is bad!”
Li Ziqi was very troubled. She had been with this great chieftain for a few months. To think she hadn’t realized that he was such a scheming guy?
Could it be that he had intentionally acted so carefree to hoodwink her?
If that was the case, it’d be too terrifying!
“I’m just seeing things in hindsight!”
Sun Mo smiled bitterly. It was very easy to deduce the reason based on the results. There was nothing to be praised about. “I don’t know how you entered this game, but our goals should be the same, right? Why don’t we work together?”
“Alright! Then you can kill all of the Gray Rock Tribe’s members!” the mysterious man suggested.
“Why isn’t it for you to let us enter and throw in the ice stone?”
Sun Mo asked.
“Firstly, the condition to clear the game might not necessarily be to appease the volcano. Secondly, I don’t need others to teach me how to do things! You either abide… or die!”
The mysterious man’s tone was very calm, not intentionally giving off threats. However, Sun Mo’s group seemed to sense a strong killing intent coming from him.
What was a major character like?
This was it!
“Are you an important figure in the Dark Dawn?” Zhou Zerui interjected.
“I’m the Dawn Sovereign!” The mysterious man smiled.
“This joke isn’t funny!”
Xie Enhui sneered but was just trying to console herself. If the mysterious man was really the Dawn Sovereign, then everyone should hurry up and flee for their lives!
“Alright, let’s spare the crap talk and start the fight!”
The mysterious man was no longer interested in chatting with them.
“One last question. How did you become the great chieftain?”
An Xinhui felt very curious.
She had tried it before, but it was very difficult. It was because these aboriginals were very repulsed against outsiders.
“I saw that these aboriginals are very respectful toward Teacher Sun. He probably had the chance to be the great chieftain. But it’s a pity he’s too benevolent.”
Even though the mysterious man hadn’t given a straightforward reply, the answer was clear. He had assassinated their great chieftain and then introduced the bronze refining technique as well as elephant taming technique, forming an elephant cavalry. These had allowed him to get to this position.
“Do it!”
The mysterious man ordered.
Those elephants immediately charged forward. There were bamboo carriages on them, with three aboriginals riding in them.
There was one rider, one shield-bearer, and one archer.
“Let’s retreat, there’s no way we’d be able to win!”
Sun Mo suggested.
“No!” Hui Yan decided to go all out. “Everyone! Use witchcraft! We’ll battle it out to the death!”
“Teacher Sun, let me correct you. My plan wasn’t derived blindly. I knew since long ago that you’re in the Gray Rock Tribe.”
The mysterious man divulged another small secret.
Sun Mo was struck by understanding. When he first met Gu Xiuxun and the others, a few of the aboriginals surrounding them had escaped. He didn’t manage to kill all of them.
Many Ancestors Praying Rituals rang out. Then, the members of the Gray Rock Tribe transformed into beast forms. They bellowed away, charging forth.
“Hmm? Witchcraft? Interesting!”
The mysterious man watched coldly from the side.
“This guy calls me Great Teacher Sun. As expected, he’s also a great teacher!”
Sun Mo signaled to An Xinhui and the others with his eyes, getting them to conserve their strength and not to go all out.
There were more of the Red Rock Tribe’s aboriginals here and they had elephants too. If they were to deal with the Gray Rock Tribe of the past, the Gray Rock Tribe would definitely be crushed one-sidedly. But now, the Gray Rock Tribe could transform into beasts.
The height of the elephants’ backs that was over three meters wasn’t an issue to these beastmen. All of them just jumped up directly and engaged their enemies in close combat.
The colliding weapons, agonizing cries, and enraged bellows gathered and formed a bloody melody.
At every instant, someone would fall in battle.
It seemed that this deadly melody had awakened the volcano from its slumber, and it was starting to erupt.
Rumble! Rumble!
The ground trembled and strong smoke spurted out from the volcanic crater.
The Red Rock Tribe’s aboriginal immediately dropped to their knees, feeling unsettled. They kowtowed and prayed to the Fire God.
“Retreat!”
The mysterious man saw that both sides were equally matched and didn’t wish to fight out a prolonged battle. Therefore, he gave the order to retreat.
“Hurry up and move!”
Hui Yan didn’t take care of the corpses but instead led the injured and quickly headed for the volcanic crater.
“Sun Mo, I keep having the feeling that something isn’t right!”
Mei Ziyu was worried.
Wasn’t this Hui Yan too heartless?
[1] Although ‘hunting team’ was used here, it’s actually referring to the offering team.. The author had used ‘hunting team’ when referring to the ‘offering team’ later on.