Chapter 15: Malice
Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
An old saying goes: A walk after dinner makes one live longer. Not everyone can do this regardless of whether it’s right or not. Steelberg had gone back into the hole to continue his sleep after his dinner while Cessacioun remained lying on the ground. Only Moxinke were walking around. Practicing swordsmanship had brought him this fine body.
Suddenly, Cessacioun muttered: “Moxinke, you said … … How did you catch the back-feathered lizard?”
“Robbed it from the mouth of two human-faced eagles, what’s wrong?”
“Damn it!” Cessacioun jumped up in a panic and shouted: “Sunier! Sunier!!”
Before his voice died away, Sunier had rushed out from the woods and snapped: “Shut up! Don’t make any sound!”
Moxinke and Cessacioun were stunned. They both had thought Sunier was just an inexperienced huntress, otherwise she would never let Cessacioun to be the guider. But now both her imposing manner and grim eyes indicated that she was by no means a greenhand.
At this point, a sharp cry came from the high sky far to near. Han Jin looked up through the gaps between leaves and saw ten odd black dots circling in the sky.
“The human-faced eagles are coming back for revenge!” Sunier whispered: “Get into the hole, quick!”
The name ‘human-faced eagles’ warmed Han Jin’s blood. He recalled what Cessacioun had told him. The human-faced eagles were the fifth grade holy animals, which meant they were better food material and they contained better magic crystals. If it was not the second half of Sunier’s words, he would undoubtedly raise his arms and shouted: “Brethren, come on, kill them…”
But his anachronistic imagination ended in a flash, the next moment Han Jin had hidden himself in the hole with the others. Though he was not quite aware of the aggressivity of a fifth grade holy animal, he was sure: through the nervous expression on their faces, it was very fierce. Magic crystals would be there, the same would be for energy, but right now the most important thing was to protect himself.
This woods was located at the edge of the Tarasha mountains, thus the old trees there were not that tall and big. The hole they hid in was very small, so the five of them had to squeeze closely. Steelberg was the least lucky one. His face was only less than three inches from the butt of Moxinke.
Unlike Steelberg, Han Jin was nearly indulged in his mental masturbation. What a hot and luring body. This thought, he dared not to utter any sound. Their bodies were almost stuck with each other, his and Sunier’s. They could feel the warmth from each other’s skin and the breath from their noses. But Sunier’s eyes were still calm and cold.
As the saying goes: Lust comes after ample food and clothing. Han Jin was now quite full after eating half of the back-feathered lizard, and he was quite warm in this small and crowded space. It’s normal for him, as an ordinary man, to think of something dirty and lubricious in his mind. Though Sunier was not beautiful judged by her face, her seductive curves of the body was enough to capture a man’s heart. And the soft breath she let out gave out a fragrant smell like lily. All these made Han Jin hot all over his body. Moreover, visual effect was not that important in such a dark hole, one could close his eyes, but couldn’t stop his breath.
“Had the human-faced eagles found us?” Cessacioun said in an extremely low voice.
“I suppose not.” replied by Sunier in the same low voice: “the eyesight of human-faced eagles is not so good.”
“Sunier, have you seen how many are the human-faced eagles?”
“Almost fifty or sixty.”
“Are you sure?!” Cessacioun gasped with astonishment. He didn’t gauge the specific number of the human-faced eagles when he saw them through the leaves.
“It’s strange. We are still at the periphery of the warcraft forest, why there will be so many human-faced eagles?” Moxinke frowned.
“Did you do anything worse, Moxinke?” Han Jin whispered.
“Me? No!”
“You mean you just robbed a back-feathered lizard and they come here in droves for revenge?” Han Jin paused: “I guess you must have assaulted them indecently after you getting the back-feathered lizard.”
“Shut up!” Moxinke nearly howled.
The air of tension in this hole dispersed instantly. Cessacioun narrowly held his laughter and mocked: “It’s not their fault, Moxinke, you’ve gone too far.”
Moxinke stared at Cessacioun. His body moved a bit. Being squeezed by Moxinke deliberately in such a crowded hole, Cessacioun was nearly stifled, he let out a stuffy hum.
A glimmer of smile flashed in Sunier’s eyes, but she whispered: “Hush, that’s enough! The human-faced eagles are still above us.”
Hearing this Moxinke kept himself in line. They all waited in silence. An unknown time passed. The howl of the human-faced eagles went farther and fainter and finally dispersed in distance. Sunier got out of the hole noiselessly and then let out a long breath before she waved her hand to hint the others it’s safe now.
“What a painful lesson… Moxinke, the next time you intend to do evil please remember to do kill all the witnesses.” Cessacioun sighed after surviving the crisis.
“You… Okay, I will kill the witness right now!” Saying this, Moxinke stretched his hand and intended to grab Cessacioun’s arm. Suddenly Sunier raised her index finger to her mouth and said: “Hush! Listen!”
The others held their breath immediately and listened carefully, but nothing was heard.
“I don’t hear anything.” Moxinke shook his head.
“There are someone fighting over the mountain.” Sunier pondered for a moment and cracked a bitter smile: “As human beings we can’t identify the appearance among the same kind of holy animals, vice-versa. I suppose some hapless guys must have suffered for us.”
Moxinke and Cessacioun gazed at each other. It must be admitted that though they had different professions and experiences, they were both young men boasted with zeal and sympathetic feelings, and they were also conscientious and virtuous. Deep in their hearts the cold mark of interest had not been engraved by the passing ages yet. They stirred up this trouble, and now someone else had to bear the catastrophic consequence, this made the two more or less uncomfortable.
“What shall we do now?” Moxinke turned to Han Jin. Though he lied to the others about Han Jin’s identity, he didn’t do that without reason. These days’ experience had made him get to know Han Jin better and he’s more convinced of Han Jin’s wisdom, thus whenever they had trouble he would turn to Han Jin.
“How strong is a fifth grade holy animal?” Han Jin asked.
Moxinke pointed at Cessacioun.
“What?” Han Jin didn’t understand.
“I’m a warlock, a fifth grade professional.” Cessacioun said with smile: “In principle, the fighting capacity of a human-faced eagle is the same as mine… ”
Seeing that Han Jin was not acquainted with holy animals, Cessacioun started his explanation patiently. Holy animals can be divided into ten grades in general. And those superior to the tenth grade are the top grade holy animals. While the strongest holy animals that beyond the ranking standard are called supreme holy animals. The same are the professionals of human beings. The most powerful magicians are called the great magus, while the swordsaints ranked the top among the swordmen. Both of them possess the strength to confront a supreme holy animal.
The atmosphere seemed a bit strange. In fact Cessacioun was not a poor explainer, but this time his explanation was quite verbose, and sometimes he would repeat what he had said. On the other hand, Han Jin listened too carefully though he was actually a man that can understand a whole story just by some simple sentences.
Beside a tall tree at the edge of the Tarasha mountains, Moxinke sat lazily on the ground, wiping his sword. Sunier was playing with some leaves in her hand on top of the tree. They were all tired of watching the “play” put on by Cessacioun and Han Jin. None of them were fool.
They have reached a consensus inwardly though they didn’t say it. None of them decided to save those guys that were attacked by the human-faced eagles. Han Jin and Cessacioun were discussing the professional system on the mainland at this critical moment to hold off time, while Moxinke and Sunier did not ask again whether to save those guys or not, meant that they’ve given tacit consent to Han Jin and Cessacioun. None of them laid bare the fact for that they didn’t want to be considered as selfish or ruthless.
When the fighting sound over the mountain died away, Cessacioun also stopped his preachment. But something suddenly came to Han Jin’s mind. He asked: “Since human-faced eagles have such strong fighting force, how dare you to tease them, Moxinke?”
“I only snatched the back-feathered lizard from them. Didn’t mean to fight with them.” Moxinke replied casually: “And I attacked them sneakingly and suddenly. When I rushed to them, one of them was still in the hole of the back-feathered lizards, only half of its butt outside the hole, ho ho….. and I…” before Moxinke finished his words he shut up.
In front of him were two uncanny faces of Han Jin and Cessacioun. They uttered a meaningful “ah…” simultaneously.
“You two dregs! Your minds are so dirty!” Moxinke’s feeling mixed. He was both amused and annoyed.
“You are right and you should wipe your sword cleaner.” Han Jin sat next to Moxinke and laughed.
“Shut up and be serious!” Moxinke cast a glance at Sunier and lowered his voice: “Who do you think she is, an ordinary huntress?”
“Why are you suddenly interested in her?”
“Take out her space ring in front of us … … I thought she was just an ignorant little fool who never knows how dangerous the world is, but…” Moxinke said with a thoughtful expression in his eyes: “What do you think, Rapheal? You are cleverer than me.”
“To put it simply, she doesn’t think we will pose any threat to her.” Han Jin smiled.
“Humph! A treasure huntress!!” Moxinke sneered coldly.
“To tell you the truth, Moxinke, my true identity… I am also a swordman, and in fact…I am a swordsaint!” Han Jin said gravely.
“You? A swordsaint? Stop dreaming!” Moxinke threw his giant sword on the ground and said: “If you can run one kilometer with my sword, I’ll believe what you said.”
Han Jin laughed and picked up the sword. With his current energy, it would be no problem for him to run with it even ten kilometers. But he wouldn’t do that like an idiot. He waved his hand and said: “Don’t you believe me?”
“No, unless you run one kilometer with my sword.” Moxinke insisted.
“Since you don’t believe me, why do you believe her?” Han Jin smiled.
Moxinke was stunned by this question, then he said: “We saved her from the black ravens yesterday, didn’t we?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Han Jin said slowly: “I guess…It’s just that she is not good at fighting with those black ravens. When we rushed out, the ravens had already begun their attack, but, did she hurt? No! She was not hurt a single hair!”
“Then why will she go with us…”
“No need to think too much, as long as she bears no malice to us.”
“But can you be sure she bears no malice?”
“What do we have?” Han Jin was nearly exasperated at Moxinke’s way of thinking: “Will she want your shabby sword, or the magic crystals of black ravens? Or she just wants a husband from us because she’s too ugly to be married?”
“That’s possible!” Moxinke clapped his thigh: “She must want a husband from …”
“Could you please shut up! Even if she wants a husband, it’s none of your business since Cessacioun and I are here. You are quite ‘safe’ !”
“Ho ho…” Moxinke grinned: “Men like women’s pretty faces, but for women, it’s different.”
Han Jin was speechless.
But Moxinke didn’t want to spare him. He held out a clenched fist and asked: “do you have this?”
Then his chest protruded: “do you have this?”
And then he clapped his thigh: “do you have this?”
Han Jin stared at the sword in Moxinke’s hand with cold eyes. How much did he wish to chop the big fellow’s head with this giant sword! It’s not the first time that Han Jin wanted to smash Moxinke crazily.