Chapter 288 – North

Laura looked at the monitor and said to Zhao Hai, “Brother Hai, do you think they’d figure something out?”

Zhao Hai smiled lightly, “Impossible, the most they could see are nothing but hoof prints of some Fighting Bulls and Jackals, remember the way I left the scene, there is nothing left there but grass.”

Laura nodded, then smiled, “What do you think will happen when they see the area? With the sudden disappearance of more than 5,000 people. What speculations would be in their minds?”

Zhao Hai showed a faint smile, “It’s hard to say, from what it looks like, they would be possibly be looking for clues in the surroundings for quite a while. Now that we have nothing else to do, let’s just behave inside the tent.”

Zhao Hai’s action this time was too sudden that West Wonder King hadn’t even thought of them. What he knew presently was that the Herculean Bulls’ area where they worked at was only a half-day’s distance away from his camp. But, in general, if a horse ran very fast, it would be possible to reach the camp in an hour.

But around the camp, there were 5,000 Fighting Bull cavalry. These 5000 Fighting Bull cavalry, when in frontal charge, would surely be able hold wind against 3000 Herculean Bulls.

With such numbers, West Wonder King is confident that even if the strongest Tiger or Lion cavalry on the prairie would attack them, their clan member of 5,000 men could still keep up for an hour, they would have bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive.

But a faction sending thousands of cavalry to a camp which is only a half-day travel from his camp while beign unnoticed is impossible. Therefore he believed that the Herculean Bulls cannot escape.

However, what he didn’t expect is that in this world a person such as Zhao Hai would exist, one who has the capability to use the power of the Space to completely eliminate his 5,000 cavalry while also departing quietly.

Because he haven’t got any idea that Zhao Hai’s method exists, West Wonder King felt stifled, he didn’t know who he was facing against. For his 5,000 cavalry to simply just vanish is too strange, while leaving no trace at the scene except for some bloodstains. There was almost nothing left worth noting to see.

No trace, except for some tents around which looked like they even hadn’t been disturbed. It looked like they were attacked by a heavenly general, suddenly landing from the sky, trampling his camps flat, then rounded everything up before flying away.

Getting zero leads, everyone from West Wonder King’s camp developed headaches. In the end there was nowhere for West Wonder King to send his troops to. West Wonder King can only go to the Prophets in their tribe.

There were prophets in tribes like West Wonder King’s. At the moment there were currently 5 prophets in West Wonder King’s camp all of which were from the Water Buffalo Tribe.

It is said that in the entire cow-headed race, if one were to be prophets, they were generally of the Water Buffalo clan, because other branches of the cow-headed race cannot produce prophets most of the time. Other races’ prophets couldn’t come to the cow-headed race, this is a beastman tradition. Except truly big warrior clans like the Lion Race and Tiger race, who have prophets of diffferent races, ordinary warrior clans would use their own race’s prophet produced in their branch clans.

This time West Wonder King went to find the prophets for nothing but the prophecy for the future of his camp. He didn’s ask who saved the Herculean Bulls because the prophets weren’t gods, it’s impossible to prophesize about those.

One of West Wonder King’s five prophets was one who became very well-known amongst the beastmen. His name was Blue Jack of the Water Buffalo tribe, he began his debut quite early on in his life. He was best known for having a successful prophecy a few years ago. He prophesized that the beastmen prairie would have a great drought, and indeed, on that year the prairie did have a drought. This made him instantly famous amoungst the entire beastman prairie.

Actually, Beastmen Prophets were not that mysterious. The main thing they use to combat were Beast Soul Tablets, just like how human magicians use their own conduit like staffs. And when prophesizing, among 100 prophecies, they could correctly guess five or six times. Quite a bad rate but the beastmen still believed them regardless, much like how the ancient Chinese believed in fortune-telling.

This time, West Wonder King gathered all the prophets in his tent. He looked at them and said, “Prophets, the situation of this tribe, I believe you already knew more or less about it so I won’t say anything more. What I want to ask of you is to predict the situation of my tribe in the future. If our tribe won’t have a good future, how then should we avoid the disaster, I ask the prophets for help.”

Amongst those gathered, Blue Jack undoubtedly has the highest authority. He took the lead in gining West Wonder King the greetings, “The prince is too polite, sharing the worries of the prince is our duty-bound matter.” Blue Jake wore a cotton robe which looked like a black magician’s gown. He had wrinkles on his face, clearly showing that he’s the opposite of being young. His hand is holding a cane which seems to be made from magic beast bone, white but not pale in color but white like pure jade, very beautiful. Hanging on his neck were skulls, 18 of them, these skulls were not genuine but are instead made of bull horns and is made to be black. Oftentimes he’d trace his hands on them making him look gloomy and grim as if he’s not a beastman but a human black magician instead.

In all honesty, West Wonder King never liked Blue Jack, he thinks that Blue Jack is gloomy. But he had to recognize Blue Jack’s real skill therefore he can only depend on Blue Jack heavily.

As soon as West Wonder King heard Blue Jack’s voice, he nodded and replied, “Very well, then gentlemen please.” He said as he prepared a few items for the several prophets.

Two things were extremely crucial to a prophet’s prophecy. The first is the skull of a magic beast and the second is the blood of the beast. If the prediction is very important, they could even use their own blood.

Presently, five skulls were placed on the ground. These skulls were not of Argali, but the skull of bulls. In a beastman’s view, the higher level the magic beast skull is, the more accurate the prediction would be, so this time West Wonder King presented high quality bull skulls.

Next to the five bull skulls were five bowls of blood, this was also a bull’s blood. The prophets knew that this was prepared for them so they each took one set and then went towards the brazier in West Wonder King’s tent. They put the skull in the brazier before they closed their eyes and started mouthing off incantations,.

These incantations were the type that only beastmen prophets could learn. The prophets believe that this language is used to communicate to the Beast God and receive instructions from him, therefore all prophets must study this language.

Soon, the prophets picked up the the bowls filled with blood then poured the blood onto the skulls.

Afterwards, the prophets took out the skulls inside the brazier and carefully looked at it. After some time, the prophets placed the skills down and then turned towards West Wonder King. West Wonder King looked at the prophets before him and said, “Prophets, tell me, no need to be polite about it.”

The prophets’ expression were quite unattractive, “Prince, from the result of this time’s prophecy, we fear that the situations of your camp is not good.”

Other prophets also told the same thing save for Blue Jack. West Wonder King saw that Jack was not speaking, he quickly asked, “Blue Jack, what is your judgement?”

Blue Jack also shook his head, “Not very good, our West Wonder King camp will encounter a great calamity, but there is a way to resolve it.”

Upon hearing what Blue Jack had said, West Wonder King’s face changed its complexion, he quickly said, “I Invite Prophet Jack to speak clear words.”

Blue Jack said, “From today’s prophecy, if we want to overcome this calamity, there is only one way judging from what can be seen on the skull. Its that there is a means of safety in the north, but as to the specific meaning I do not know. Perhaps to take refuge in the north, or perhaps there is a special person we need to assist in the north.”

West Wonder King knitted the eyebrows on his head, he looked at the prophets one by one, but no other prophet spoke any more words. West Wonder King frowned, he did not understand what this ‘north’ meant.

To say the north, that place is too big, and is isn’t quite possible for them to take refuge in the north. Its impossible for a camp of 100,000 people to go and migrate during winter. Completely impossible to go, but to think of it, there is a special person in the north, because the Fighting Bull clan is in that direction, does this mean that they should take refuge with the Fighting Bull clan?

Actually, this idea of Blue Jack is already on West Wonder King’s mind. He had long wanted to go back to the Fighting Bull clan, therefore it reflected on his current actions. He made the Herculean Bull’s princesses into slaves and he also set up a trap for the other Herculean Bulls who may want to attempt rescue. These actions represent his willingness to side with the Fighting Bull clan.

However, he had long been in opposition with the chieftain of the Fighting Bulls. It could be said that many in the camp has had grudges against the Fighting Bull clan. If he directly said that he wanted to side with the Fighting Bull clan, the people in his camp wouldn’t agree. So he put out many actions to tell the people in the camp that he wanted to side with the clan.

But he could not say this idea plainly since he didn’t have a concrete reason. But now, with Blue Jack’s prophecy, it gave him a good reason to use the prophecy to tell the people that siding with the clan is the decision of the Beast God. This way the voices in opposition would lessen considerably.

But West Wonder King didn’t think that there was another entity in the north other than the Fighting Bull clan, the Herculean Bulls were also in that direction. The Herculean Bulls fled to the Mastiff territory which is in the northern direction as opposed to the Herculean Bull’s main camp.

Perhaps West Wonder King hadn’t thought about this because, in his opinion, the Herculean Bulls are done. They were a completely hopeless tribe who won’t be able to recover, they were simply out of his consideration.