Chapter 421 - Black Eats Black
Chapter 421
Black Eats Black
Shao Xuan knew it was not a wild bird the moment he saw it. Shao Xuan had seen the birds in the tribe and Chacha, he knew what that look in its eyes meant. Especially when the bird was swimming around in the water. The look in its black beady eyes told Shao Xuan that it had some sneaky plan.
In the beginning, Shao Xuan wanted to follow this duck to see who was nearby. However, when he arrived, he realised the other party was not friendly at all. He knew that there was a trap ahead. Other people might not know but he could tell because he had set these traps before too.
Maintaining a distance, he was confident that he could escape if an attack happened. However, when the other party revealed themselves, he changed his mind.
He first dealt with the hidden guy and his trap, using this blow to strike fear in the rest of them. At the same time, he wanted to know the difference in his totemic power after activating the ornaments twice.
Right now, the robbers were killed. And the fat duck that lured him here was trapped in his hand.
The bright green duck’s eyes flashed. It wanted to quack but because he held it by its neck, all it could do was squawk an odd note.
It was obvious that it understood what Shao Xuan said. It was panicking.
The old man looked up in panic then hung his head again. “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you everything.”
The old man’s body shook hard. Stuttering, he told him about their origins. This was a person who feared death. Not much effort was needed to get him to tell Shao Xuan everything. He had planned to keep some secrets but after Shao Xuan scared him again, he stopped thinking and just kept begging Shao Xuan to show him mercy.
This old man had been banished to exile by a tribe in the forest because he had poisoned and killed someone in the tribe. Then, he stole gemstones from the tribe to trade with a slave master. He had planned to escape far away with his treasure. However, he had been targeted along the way and robbed. He almost died along the way so he escaped back into the forest. Thereafter, he couldn’t return to his tribe, and with his abilities, it was going to be difficult to survive in the forest.
Out of luck, he met a bunch of people risking their lives searching for Gongjia Mountain in the mountain. Since he was somewhat familiar with the place, he became a guide for the team.
After that, along the way, some of these people died, others were injured, some left. There were eight people left and this old man was one of them. The rest were not focused on looking for the mountain anymore. There was a change of plans– they robbed people who had found the mountain.
If they realised the person looked strong, they would not attack. However, when they saw ‘fat goats’, they robbed without hesitation. However, the people who came looking for the mountain were mostly very capable people. Although there were many successful raids, and these targets’ skulls became spoils decorating his house, people in their team died during the robberies too. Eight people dwindled to four. When the numbers dwindled, they became more cautious in choosing their target and did not attack easily. However, they were greedy and hadn’t had the chance to rob anyone in a while. Shao Xuan looked like an average guy and they did not see the Xia guy who was with him. This meant Shao Xuan must have found Gongjia Mountain. Either this or he must have killed the Xia guy. No matter what, this kid must have a lot of treasure with him.
Under the temptation of such benefits, they planned to kill Shao Xuan. They sent out their bait, which was the duck.
This duck was trained by the old man. He was good at training birds, he used to train birds in his tribe to steal stuff for him. It was because he was found out, that was why he was banished from the tribe. To prove that he was useful, he picked up his skill once again and set up a trap for the duck. After training it for half a year, it was an effective bait to lure people into traps. Strictly speaking, training a duck would take two to three years, maybe longer. The best method was to train it since it hatched. However, he had limited resources so he could only make do with what he had. Although it was quite extreme, and there was potential that this bait could turn against him, he did not hesitate to use it. He had to show the rest that he was useful too.
There were not many animals here and food was hard to come by. Anyone would be tempted by this fat duck.
Shao Xuan understood. It was no wonder this duck did not seem close to these people. It must have started to become defiant during the training.
Once he was done, the old man looked at Shao Xuan carefully. Would the young man let him live?
Shao Xuan stood up and looked at the old man shivering on the ground. “The people on these walls, they were victims of your robberies?”
“Yes…. yes,” the old man stuttered, then immediately added, “I did not do anything! They killed these people, it’s all them!”
Shao Xuan stared at him. The old man was so guilty he started sweating. Shao Xuan looked away and took a bunch of bronze tools before he left. These people had benefited from their victims. Medicine, treasures, weapons, there were all sorts of stuff here. It was a black eats black world, Shao Xuan packed everything up and left.
[TL note: black eats black= using an unethical tactic against an unethical party. ]