Chapter 163: Flower Hawks

Yangxin Palace Hall

In front of the empress, there was a bowl that contained medicinal herbs and other ingredients. It gave off a very strong bitter smell that could make one knit his eyebrows.

The bitterness of this medicinal soup was powerful enough to conceal the scent of other dishes. Regardless of what one did to it, it still gave off a powerful bitter smell.

After drinking the bowl of medicinal soup, the empress’s face flushed slightly red. Her stomach felt scorching hot, as though there was a ball of flames in it.

After a while, the heat from her stomach dissipated, spreading throughout her body. The empress opened her eyes, took a piece of candy from Hong Luan and placed it in her mouth.

“Let him in,” the empress ordered coldly.

After a while, Feng Hou walked briskly into the palace hall and greeted the empress, “Greetings, Your Majesty.”

“Take a look!” The empress used two fingers to pick up a piece of paper beside her and threw it towards Feng Hou. A white streak shot across the air and slowed down before it flew into Feng Hou’s hand.

Feng Hou lowered his head and looked at the contents of the paper. It was Tao Jiyuan’s report of the situation on Mount Damo.

“Unbelievable!” Feng Hou exclaimed after reading it. Burning and cooling the mountain had increased the iron output by three times. If they could increase the manpower and burn the mountain from different positions in turns, the iron output could be increased by five times.

With 250 kg of iron produced in a single day, they could forge at least fifteen weapons. In a year, they would be able to forge roughly five thousand weapons. In two years, they would have ten thousand weapons. This would solve the desperate situation that Dayao was in.

With the situation changed this way, the preparations for the weapons of the twenty thousand newly recruited soldiers were already halfway completed.

Other than making ironware, the iron from Mount Liucui could also be used to forge weapons. This could slightly fill the shortfall of weapons. The remaining shortfall could be settled by trading with some families in the Yun Nation and some in the Chen Nation. As such, there wasn’t much shortfall left.

“Congratulations, Your Majesty. It’s really providential good luck. Deputy Prefect Ren has done Dayao a great meritorious service this time around. I would like to recommend him for a promotion or a reward.”

The fact that Ren Baqian was able to increase the production output of Mount Damo’s mine by so much really exceeded Feng Hou’s expectations. That Deputy Prefect Ren seemed to be rather capable after all.

He no longer took objection to Ren Baqian meddling with the affairs of Department of Military Arms.

“Don’t let anyone know about this. You will be in charge of gathering manpower for cutting trees and transporting wood to Mount Damo. Don’t delay this matter, otherwise you will be punished severely,” the empress said coldly.

“I will do as you bid,” Feng Hou replied.

After Feng Hou was dismissed, the empress said, “Summon Hong Bao.”

After a while, Hong strode into Yangxin Palace Hall with a sack in his hand. Then, he kneeled down on one knee and said, “Your Majesty, I’m lucky not to have let you down.”

At the same time, he opened up the sack and revealed a box within it. The box was filled with lime and a human head.

“Clean it and show it to me.” After the empress finished her sentence, someone immediately took the box away. After a while, the head was presented to the empress.

The empress took a close look at the human head.

The face of a dead man is very ugly, but it does look exactly like him…

A feeling of distress suddenly appeared in the empress’s mind. She waved her hand and said, “Settle it.”

“Hong Bao, tell me the situation in detail,” the empress asked again.

“We followed him all the way to Great Xia. After we had determined his route, we waited for him at Broken Dragon Canyon…”

After listening to Hong Bao, the empress realized that the death day of Seventh Prince happened to be the night before Ren Baqian brought her to Earth.

…

There was a total of fifty winged cavalry that followed Ren Baqian and his counterparts into Mount Liucui this time around. Including Ren Baqian, Teng Ji, and Tao Jiyuan, there would be a total of fifty-three people. At this point in time, most of them had already split up. Some of them had gone to hunt for food in their surroundings. After all, a single flower hawk wasn’t enough for everyone to eat.

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Ren Baqian found a spot and sat down to rest. He fiddled with a cloud crystal in his hand. This was his biggest gain from this trip.

At this moment, Ren Baqian heard a mournful bird cry coming from the sky. It was sharp and powerful, appearing as though it could pierce one’s eardrums.

“It’s coming.” Teng Ji stood up and peered into the sky with a saber beside him.

“What’s coming?” Ren Baqian raised his head and looked at the sky. He saw a small black spot hovering above. Apparently, the deafening mournful cry was coming from it.

“Flower hawks usually form pairs. When one dies, the other also won’t want to live alone. Its mate is here,” Teng Ji stroked his saber and explained. He did not look at all nervous.

A flower hawk wouldn’t be too much of a threat if it wasn’t carrying out a surprise attack.

In fact, flower hawks couldn’t be considered a powerful creature in the Sixty Thousand Mountains. They were merely rare and elusive.

Everyone else raised their heads, took a look at the sky, and continued with their work. Clearly, they were all completely unconcerned.

After listening to Teng Ji’s words, Ren Baqian felt a slight pity for the flower hawks. He found these kind of animals that couldn’t live a solitary life to be rather touching. It was exceptionally easy for young men and women to develop attachment to such animals.

“Waiiiiiiil!” A mournful cry resounded through the air again.

“The flower hawk is descending.” Ren Baqian suddenly felt the flower hawk was becoming bigger.

Very soon, Ren Baqian’s observation was confirmed.

The flower hawk became bigger and bigger in his vision. When the flower hawk reached three hundred meters above the ground, Ren Baqian could already feel its might.

After making a spin in the air yet again, following which, the flower hawk abruptly dived towards Ren Baqian and his counterparts.

Yes, it was diving towards them. It did not have any intention of leaving here alive.

It kept on increasing its speed as it surged towards them with all its weight propelling it downwards.

“Sir, don’t move,” Teng Ji cautioned. As the flower hawk became a brown-colored blur, Teng Ji jumped eight meters into the air with his saber.

Whoosh. A rain of blood descended from the sky once more. A body that was perfectly cut into half, along with some innards, fell from the sky.

“I will be drenched in blood and innards again if I don’t move.” By casting a single glance at Teng Ji, Ren Baqian knew what was he going to do. Immediately, he ran to one side in haste.

Even though the flower hawk had just now surged towards them in an oblique flight path, it was now dropping down vertically. It appeared that Teng Ji had split it into half from its head onwards.

This could be seen from Teng Ji’s vertical jump as well.

When Ren Baqian saw half of the flower hawk’s body whizzing closer and closer to him, he cursed, “Goddamnit.”

If he had stood at his original spot, nothing would have happened. Now, half of the flower hawk’s body was crashing towards him.

“Sir, be careful!” A winged cavalryman near Ren Baqian was shocked by this scene. The flower hawk’s body was crashing towards Ren Baqian at an extremely fast speed. Even though it had been cut in half, it still carried a huge amount of force. If it hit an aboriginal, nothing much would happen. However, if it hit Ren Baqian, he would have at least a few broken bones and tendons.

A few winged cavalry guards surged towards Ren Baqian. One of them jumped into the air and gave the flower hawk’s body a kick, creating an explosion of blood. With its meat smashed into smithereens, the body flew off in another direction.

“Phew!” Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, Brother,” Ren Baqian thanked that winged cavalry and wiped off the blood on his face. Then, he ran off to wash his face and hair.

By the time he returned, the flower hawk had been disemboweled.

“Are there any?” Ren Baqian quickly asked.

“No, there’re only some crushed stones.” Everyone knew what Ren Baqian was asking about. They immediately showed him the things that they extracted from the flower hawk’s body. It was just a handful of crushed stones.

Cloud crystals were something that could only be encountered serendipitously.

Ren Baqian felt it a slight pity.