Chapter 42 – Counterplan

The spying-crow silently transformed into a wisp of black smoke and dissipated in the air along with the whirling wind.

Back in the Cold Stream Valley, Ji Hao leaped from the ground, darted up to Qing Fu, put his mouth near her ear, preventing others to overhear them, and whispered what he saw through the spying-crow’s eyes in the river valley.

Qin Fu was recovering the energy of the badly injured Fire Crow Clan’s warriors with her cyan coloured ‘Thorns of Life and Death’ needle.

When she heard what had transpired in the river valley, she stopped healing and slowly stood up, while massaging her waist. Her eyes shimmered with a profound cold light.

“Hao, go get your Abba; we have some work to do,” said Qing Fu.

The sun slowly moved across the sky and went under, behind the hills in the west.

The sky was adorned by countless little stars.

Multicoloured starlight, formed a smoke-like glow, visible to human eyes, and descended from the sky. Countless creatures, living in the jungle, raised their heads and absorbed the power contained in the starlight.

Now and then, loud and imposing roars reverberated from the depths of the valley.

Ji Hao was sitting on the branch of a tall, majestic tree. Next to him was a girl, who sat on the back of a red leopard. This was none other than his friend Heng Luo, a nymph, also known as the “goddess” of the forest. She was carefully spreading poisonous liquid onto hundreds of long arrows.

A jade jar, the size of a human head, was placed in her lap. The jar contained a light-cyan, crystal-clear, poisonous liquid, which emitted a dim herbal smell. Under the starlight, some tiny spell symbols emerged from the surface of the liquid, twisting like little snakes. It caused a beautiful glow to flash across the liquid, disappearing quickly.

“Hao, I thought your Amma only knew how to save people! I never knew that she could make such powerful poison!”

While speaking, Hong Luo dipped a leaf into the liquid and dripped a drop down.

The drop of poison fell on on the jade-like shoulder of Stone, who was standing under the tree. The poison burned a hole through his shoulders, while emitting a faint, cyan smoke, instantly.

“Booze…,” growled Stone annoyed.

He pressed his stone-made hand onto a huge rock, which crumbled into dust. Next up, he pressed it back on his damaged shoulder. The hole, created by the poison drop, healed instantly, without leaving as so much as a scratch.

Treeman lifted his enormous head, while a rustling sound could be heard coming from his trunk. It seemed as if he was trying to say something, but no one was able to understand him. Finally one of his branches bended, without breaking, and dipped into the jar. The branch contained a drop of the poison and moved towards a huge hole in the tree, which basically functioned as Treeman’s mouth.

Strands of black smoke, along with a sizzling sound rose from within Treeman’s mouth. He began to tremble in pain and the few leafs hanging on his branches, drooped. He glanced at the jar, his eyes filled with reverence, and muttered: “Qing Fu…Magusreists…woman…scary!”

Suddenly the branches and leaves above Ji Hao began to shake. A nearly thirty foot tall, muscular ape, jumped down heavily. His entire body was covered with black fur and in his hand he held a huge wooden stick.

The ape pointed at Ji Hao, grinned and mumbled: “Hao… You kid… booze… I… stronger… I want double of stone’s booze… Hao… I won’t go crazy drunk this time… You…got to give me more!”

Mr.Crow quietly landed on Ji Hao’s shoulder and cawed gently. Ji Hao waved his hands and said in a resolute tone: “Of Course, as long as you guys help me get rid of my enemies, I‘ll supply the best booze and grilled meat, as much as you want!”

“Mr.Crow, thanks.” He then patted Mr.Crow and said in a low voice.

Mr. Crow had spent the whole day traveling across the forest, bringing the strong non-human friends of Ji Hao to him. Heng Luo, Stone, and Treeman, were all strong creatures, even stronger than ordinary Senior Magi like Ji Ying and Ji Lang. If they didn’t have that much strength, it would have been impossible for them to beat Jiang Yao so hard, a couple months ago.

As for that black ape, he was the most powerful among Ji Hao’s friends. Even if Heng Luo, Treeman ,and Stone combined their powers, they couldn’t rival the black ape.

It was a pitch-black night.

Near the entrance of the Cold Stream Valley, three blood-stained heads of beasts were placed aligned, on a jade altar. In each of the heads a cyan, wooden knife had been stuck.

Qing Fu was standing in front of the altar, with all of her ten fingers bleeding. She was drawing a series of odd spell symbols, using her own blood and whispering a mysterious spell. Her beautiful face was shrouded by a weird, faint, white fog. The fog was rising and falling around her body, blurring her slim silhouette. It made her look like a ghost, which was existing in both this world and another, mysterious yet spooky, world.

Small, grey whirlwinds came from every direction, swirling towards the valley.

Following Qing Fu’s whisper, about seven minutes later, thousands of grey whirlwinds, in different sizes, appeared from the forest. They circled around the altar, causing the air to freeze. Soon, a thin layer of ice appeared on the surface of the Cold Stream, freezing even the plants nearby.

Ji Hao was staring at Qing Fu, while rubbing the red leopard’s fluffy tail, and said: “Hey evil girl, didn’t you just say that you didn’t know my Amma can make such powerful poison? Even I didn’t know my Amma is so good at these mystical ‘spirit magic’.”

Bang!

Along with a bang, a immense green fire spurted out from the ears, eyes, noses and mouths, of all the three beast heads on the altar, simultaneously. The green flame growed bigger and bigger, slowly forming a ferocious face. Soft yet creepy sounds came from the jungle, after which a heavy fog surged out from the jungle and flowed through the plants like water.

Some weird figures emerged from the fog, they opened their mouths widely towards the sky and swallowed the starlight power.

Every hair on Ji Hao’s body stood erect. He gazed dumbfounded at those, unbelievably mysterious, beings and couldn’t say even a word.

The Fire Crow Clan’s Magusreists normally didn’t know much about how to communicate with those mysterious beings of the jungle. They, instead mastered all kinds of different witchcrafts, which could directly cause great harm to enemies.

Though Ji Hao had been learning Magusreists’ witchcraft since he was a little kid, he had never seen anything like this.

“The phantoms of the jungle and the gods and the ghosts of the mountains, rivers, caves ,and marshes, please accept my gift, please respond to my request.”

Qing Fu whispered the spell and started dancing in a strange ritm around the altar.

Ji Hao felt like there were thousands of invisible figures dancing along with his mother. Small gusts of wind blew out from under every leaf and grass.

Ji Xia arrived and walked towards the altar with a sombre face. Behind him, were thousands of Savage Warriors, who were captured by Ji Xia and his subordinates, during the day. Every one of them had taken Qing Fu’s drug, losing consciousness, and followed Ji Xia like walking corpses.

“We offer these lives to you, the gods and the ghosts in this jungle,” Qing Fu said. She then pulled out a cyan, wooden knife and waved it in the air.

Ji Xia pulled out an axe and swung it toward those Savage Warriors. The next moment, tens of human heads were sent flying high into the air, blood sprayed up and covered the night sky.

All of the grey whirlwinds, which were circling around the altar, rushed up and drained the blood. Those Savages’ bodies shrunk rapidly, turning into ashes within the span of few breaths and were blown away by the wind.

Within few breaths, thousands of Savage Warriors were all drained and turned to ash, not leaving even a trace of blood.

Suddenly, Ji Hao let out a sharp whistle and waved his hands towards Qing Fu and Ji Xia.

“Abba! Amma! I saw them!”

A red light flashed through Ji Hao’s pupils. Tens of miles away, seven spying-crows had the same red lights flashing through their pupils.