The Quest for Immortality Chapter 2679: Peculiarities (part 2)

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Previously on The Quest for Immortality...
Bi Jie confronted Dan Zhu and Mo Hua, suspecting Dan Zhu's benevolent act was a ploy to steal the Shugu Secret Store. Mo Hua fabricated a story about a curse within the Stone Palace to deter Bi Jie, claiming he had already eliminated the evil. Bi Jie saw through the deception, but his soldiers were too afraid of Mo Hua's influence to attack. Facing resistance, Bi Jie was forced to retreat, vowing revenge. Afterward, Dan Zhu and Mo Hua explored the Shugu Department's storehouse, marveling at its vast riches.

So it turned out that in the secret storehouse of the Shugu Tribe, there was actually such an extremely important batch of Barbarian Armor supplies.

Even the always steady Barbarian General Chi Feng couldn’t help feeling his heart burn hot.

Barbarian Armor was of immense importance to the Barbaric Tribes.

The Barbaric Tribes had large populations, and though in theory everyone was a soldier, once you excluded children, the elderly, the sick and disabled, lowly Qi Refining Cultivators, and some weaker Barbarian Cultivators, the number of those who truly qualified as proper "Barbarian Soldiers" actually wasn’t that high.

True "Barbarian Soldiers" were few, elites even fewer.

And if one wanted to forge even more elite Barbarian Soldiers, Barbarian Armor was indispensable.

Mass combat on the battlefield was different from individual duels.

On a battlefield of real blades and real spears, where flesh ripped against flesh, once everyone was tangled up in a melee, the differences in Cultivation Technique and Taoist Skill between Cultivators in the same Realm would no longer be that pronounced.

Especially once their eyes went red with killing, all those Spells and moves might not be as practical as a single highquality suit of Armor.

If your Armor was good, you could take a few more blades, withstand a few more Spells, and maybe you’d live.

If someone else’s Armor was a bit worse, they might die from just one or two blows.

The difference of a few blows was the difference between life and death.

Thus, if Armor was strong, Taoist Soldiers were strong; if Barbarian Armor was strong, Barbarian Soldiers were strong.

This had almost become an unwritten rule.

And this batch of Shugu Tribe secret stores before their eyes, if consolidated, could probably be forged into a full five hundred sets of Second Grade elite Barbarian Armor.

If they truly could gather five hundred Foundation Establishment Peak Barbarian Soldiers, put these suits of Armor on them, and train them into elite troops, they could practically roam a Third Grade Mountain Realm like a Wandering Dragon, "opening up territory" at will.

They just had to avoid frontal slaughter against the main forces of the great tribes.

As a Barbarian General who had campaigned for the Danque Tribe for many years, Chi Feng understood better than anyone the importance of these supplies.

He had truly fought in war, and thus knew that "five hundred Second Grade Peak elite Barbarian Soldiers" was a terrifying figure.

This was completely incomparable to those "ordinary barbarian army grunts" who were just dragged in to make up the numbers.

Chi Feng glanced at the slightly immature Dan Zhu and sighed inwardly:

"Young Master Dan Zhu truly is favored by heaven, with boundless good fortune."

On his very first expedition, he had gained such a huge haul of spoils of war; this truly was the capital for gaining a foothold and building a family fortune.

Chi Feng then couldn’t help looking towards Mo Hua, frowning as he pondered:

"If this youth who calls himself ’Mr. Witch’ truly is a Shaman lord blessed by the deity... wouldn’t that mean Young Master Dan Zhu really is the deitychosen child of destiny? The hope of our Danque Tribe?"

"This ’Mr. Witch’ coming to our Danque Tribe is truly the will of the deity?"

Barbarian General Chi Feng was quite shaken in his heart.

Ba Shan and Bachuan, however, didn’t think that far; they were simply happy for Dan Zhu.

If this batch of Barbarian Armor and supplies were transported back to the Danque Main Department, it would definitely count as a great merit, and the Great Chief would reward them quite generously.

The status of Young Master Dan Zhu would certainly rise with the tide, and in the future, he might really become the Great Chief.

The two of them, as his guard Elders, would also be counted as having rendered merit.

Ba Shan said, "Young Master, we’ll transport these back..."

Mo Hua, however, said, "They can’t be transported out."

Ba Shan was stunned.

Dan Zhu also sighed softly and nodded.

Clearly, he also understood in his heart that the Bi Fang Tribe definitely wouldn’t let this go.

These things had originally been what the Bi Fang Tribe coveted.

Now that the Danque Tribe had seized them, once they tried to transport them away, the Bi Fang Tribe would certainly think of every possible way to intercept and kill them halfway.

At that time, with the Danque Tribe out in the open and the Bi Fang Tribe lying in ambush in the dark, even if the Danque Tribe held the advantage in strength, they would still suffer serious casualties.

The Barbarian Soldiers all had Storage Bags, and putting one or two sets of Barbarian Armor in them wasn’t a big problem.

But here in the Shugu Tribe’s territory, there weren’t just Barbarian Armors; there were even larger quantities of armorforging raw materials.

Many of these materials came from the bones of Monster Beasts, massive in size, and without special smelting methods they were basically very hard to cut.

These materials were in fact even more precious than some finished Barbarian Armor.

Because a suit of Armor already forged might not be suitable.

But with raw materials, one could forge more and better Barbarian Armor.

And if they wanted to transport these armorforging materials away, they would have to use large Storage Chests to load them, and would still need manpower to carry them and carts to haul them; it was extremely inconvenient.

Along the way they would also easily fall prey to ambush and plunder by the Bi Fang Tribe, even massacres.

"Then now..." Ba Shan frowned.

Dan Zhu said, "We’ll first hurry and hold this Shugu Tribe secret department, then thoroughly tally all the Barbarian Armor, raw materials, and other supplies in this Stone Palace, pack them up into crates, and act according to circumstances."

After speaking, Dan Zhu looked towards Mo Hua.

Mo Hua nodded slightly. "What the Young Master says is very true."

...

The matter was thus temporarily decided.

The Danque Tribe’s Barbarian Soldiers split up: some garrisoned the valley, some tallied the storehouse, and some settled the prisoners.

Mo Hua, seizing this time, once again walked a circuit around the Stone Palace, and couldn’t help frowning in deep thought.

This Stone Palace could be considered "cleared"; everything appeared rather ordinary, yet Mo Hua kept feeling that in the details, there were many oddities in this affair.

First was the issue of the "Barbarian Slaves."

The Barbarian God had already fallen, becoming half an Evil God; Evil Thoughts shrouded the Stone Palace, and the clansmen of the Shugu Tribe, under the influence of these Evil Thoughts, had all developed the vicious habit of "eating" people.

Yet the "Barbarian Slaves" they had imprisoned were instead all quite normal, their minds unaffected.

This was extremely abnormal.

Why were the Barbarian Slaves unaffected by the Evil Thoughts?

Because they hadn’t "eaten" anyone?

Mo Hua frowned and shook his head.

No, that’s not right...

The two Golden Cores of the Bi Fang Tribe and their twenty elite Barbarian Soldiers hadn’t eaten anyone either, yet after entering the Stone Palace they still quickly became corrupted.