Chapter 140 An Encounter
A short while later, Ji Zhuang came out of the room.
Jiao Jue was drinking his newly acquired spiritual tea in the hall when he saw Ji Zhuang about to leave, and he knew that Ji Zhuang must be going to find Ji Rong.
He squinted and sneered, "Ji Zhuang, tell that idiot to return all the treasure he embezzled yesterday intact."
Upon hearing this, Ji Zhuang felt a chill run down his spine. He nodded and dragged Ji Rong, who was sitting on a feather cushion counting treasures with Gu Qingqing, from the next room.
After being dragged into the room, Ji Zhuang closed the door and said nervously, "Little sister, don't make Brother Jinlong angry. Hand over everything quickly."
Ji Rong's eyes darted around, and she said obsequiously, "Big brother, we're just helping you sort things out. I'll get them right away."
Then she quickly dragged Gu Qingqing, who was holding the plate, over as well. The bird and the fox, each with their own items, quickly restored the plate of treasures.
Jiao Jue placed the plate under his claws, not even glancing at it, and said coldly, "Lord Canghe has a gift list."
Gu Qingqing and Ji Rong hurriedly shook their heads and said, "Big brother, it's all here, we really didn't take it."
Jiao Jue said, "It seems I've been too kind to you all."
He lifted Ji Rong upside down with his claws, looked around, and seeing that there was nowhere to hang her in the room, he threw her back to the ground.
He said coldly, "You stupid bird, how dare you try to steal my treasure? Have you not wanted to eat these past few days?"
Then, pointing at Gu Qingqing, he said, "You say you are a young lady of the Fire Fox Clan, but you don't look like a scion of a great clan at all now."
Gu Qingqing covered her head with her claws, huddled in the corner of the room, and remained silent.
Amyo wanted to go out, but A-Xiao pulled her back into the inner room.
"Amyo, Lord Jinlong and the others are just playing around, don't go out and cause trouble," A'xiao said to Amyo.
"But Lord Ji Rong..."
Ah Xiao interrupted Ah Mu, saying, "They often do this. You'll get used to it after you see it more often, just like I did."
As soon as A'xiao finished speaking, Ji Rong got up from the ground, shook her feathers, wrinkled her face, and said to Jiao Jue, "Brother Jinlong, you paid for it, wouldn't it be a waste if I didn't go and eat it?"
When it was time for dinner, Ji Rong secretly followed the other cultivators and sat at the end of the table.
Seeing that the bird had some self-awareness and didn't try to cause any more trouble, Jiao Jue let it go.
Two days later, the boat stopped at the ferry closest to the Canglan Mountains, and Jiao Jue led Ji Rong and his party off the boat there.
They followed the river into the mountains, this time to see how the tribes living there lived.
As soon as they reached the foot of the mountain, they saw a group of ordinary shamans who looked like Amoo, and they were turning over the ground.
Ji Rong and Ji Zhuang then got down. Jiao Jue glanced back, shrank in size, wrapped itself around Ji Rong's feet, and said, "Go and ask if we can stay for a couple of days."
Ji Rong and Ji Zhuang then carried the Wu tribesmen across one narrow path after another, filled with the smell of tiger stench, and swaggered forward.
When the shamans saw Ji Rong and Ji Zhuang arrive, their eyes showed wariness, but they were not afraid. Ji Rong said to A'xiao, "Tell them."
A'xiao then tried to communicate with them in the language of the Celestials, but their communication was not smooth. The two sides had different accents, so they could only speak and gesture.
So Amyo joined the difficult conversation.
Ji Rong sized up the group of people; they did not have any golden marks on their foreheads.
After a while, A'xiao said, "Lord Ji Rong, they moved here on their own five years ago with the divine chariot of the Canglan Divine Lord."
Ji Rong asked in surprise, "How could they possibly cross mountains and rivers like that?"
Upon hearing this, A'xiao began to speak and gesture. After a while, A'xiao said, "They said they came with the Youqiong Demon King, that they are a descendant of the Youqiong Demon King, and that their food comes from the Youqiong Demon King, so they cannot entertain us."
After exchanging words for a while, a burly middle-aged man came bounding over from a distance, lifting his strong thighs.
He hopped up to A'xiao and asked in broken demon language, "What business do you have with the Youqiong Demon King's vassal clan?"
Ji Rong thought for a moment, pointed at Amu, and said, "I saw that you look like the young lady our master found, so I came to ask."
The man stared at Amu for a moment and said, "Never seen this place before. This is not a place for sightseeing. It is the territory of the Youqiong Demon Emperor's vassal clan. We still need to cultivate the land. You should leave here quickly."
Upon hearing this, Ji Rong and Ji Zhuang exchanged a meaningful glance. They were quite familiar with each other.
Ji Rong immediately pulled Gu Qingqing along, and together with Ji Zhuang, they transformed into their Dharma bodies, turning over the soil beneath their feet with a few claws.
Ji Zhuang, who was quite skilled at turning the soil, carefully sifted through the soil and removed the weeds.
Ji Rongchao said to the man, "What other land needs to be tilled? We'll till it for you." She then pointed to Amu and said, "We used to till the master's land, but later the master bought oxen, so we stopped tilling the land and let the oxen till it."
The man stood there, unsure what to say, so Ji Rong said, "If you won't say anything, then we'll help you cultivate this entire area."
"Qingqing, did you bring your belongings?" Ji Rong asked Gu Qingqing.
"Of course." Gu Qingqing took out a storage ring from her tail, took out two pieces of refined iron, threw one to Ji Zhuang, and put the other on herself. She shouted to the people, "Stay away, we're going to start turning the soil."
In less than half an hour, the vast wasteland was cleared into squares, and the land was thoroughly plowed.
The burly man pointed at the iron plate on Gu Qingqing's body and asked excitedly, "What is this?"
Gu Qingqing pointed at Amu and said, "Her elders beat her. What, didn't you do the same?"
The man immediately became awkward and shy.
Gu Qingqing knew that the other party was interested when she saw it, and she said, "This is not a difficult item to make, but mine is too heavy for you to use."
"If you want to learn, we can sit here for a while. You can take some clay and make a rubbing of this, then you'll know how to make it when you get back."
The man's eyes lit up immediately, and he said, "How can this be? Please come to our lodgings and let our clan treat you well."
With that, he bowed respectfully and led Ji Rong and her party into the mountains.
Jiao Jue saw that there were rough traces of array formations everywhere, and the air was still filled with different smells of tiger stench.
When they reached a stream, the man stepped on a stone on the ground, and a huge rock moved a little further in.
The man pointed to the gap and said, "Please follow me, everyone."
Ji Rong and the others had no choice but to shrink their size and go inside.
Passing through the crevice in the rocks, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a cluster of low thatched huts nestled among the trees, with wisps of smoke rising from their chimneys.
Seeing that the thatched huts were quite small, Ji Rong said, "Your huts are probably not sturdy. Let's sit here. Hurry up and call someone over. Once you've traced the outline of this iron sheet, we'll be leaving."
The man then told his tribesmen who had returned to build a fire on the ground, boil water, and start cooking.
Ji Rong noticed that most of these people had no cultivation, yet they were cooking low-grade spiritual grains.
Before long, several elderly men followed the middle-aged man over, and they bowed down to Ji Rong and his party as soon as they saw them.
Gu Qingqing tossed the sheet of refined iron in front of them and said, "You guys can make it."
The elderly men were so excited that they quickly went to dig up some mud to mix with the soil.
During this time, Ji Rong led Amu and other members of the Wu tribe to follow an old man around, while Gu Qingqing and Ji Zhuang disassembled one of the iron plates. While teaching the strong man how to make a copy of the iron plate, they inquired about the situation here.
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