Chapter 1067, The Grand Clock

Translator: Silavin

 

The mornings in the primitive forest always arrived early. It brought with them an oppressive, sweltering heat.

 

Gang Guo and his group were roused by the warmth at the crack of dawn. After a brief tidying up, they pressed on with their journey.

 

They intended to reach the Flame Dragon Tribe before midday. Since setting out from their own Tribe, they had been moving without pause.

 

The plan from the very beginning had been to return to the Dark Scorpion Tribe before the snow season arrived, which meant no spare time for breaks.

 

As the moments slipped by one after another, the Dark Scorpion Tribe’s people soon arrived at the area where the Flame Dragon Tribe had been constructing their walls.

 

They did not recognise what they were looking at, however, and the entire group came to a standstill.

 

The Flame Dragon Tribe’s walls had not yet completed their full encirclement, so the group had only come upon the wall from the side.

 

“What is this? Why is there a huge pile of stones here?” Gang Guo found the structure profoundly strange and furrowed his brow. “No. This pile of stones looks strange. Could this be the work of the Flame Dragon Tribe?”

 

He examined the wall with careful scrutiny. It was not exceptionally tall. It was no more than two metres or so, easily cleared with a single leap.

 

But this arrangement of stones unsettled him. It was for no other reason than the fact that they had been stacked with extraordinary perfection.

 

Thick, broad stones had been laid one upon another without the faintest visible gap between them.

 

Gang Guo reached out and pushed. He found it completely immovable. This was clearly no ordinary pile of stones simply resting one atop another.

 

“I’m not sure what this is either. I forgot to ask the last time we were here. We did see it on our previous visit though, and I remember…” Bo furrowed his brow as he studied the stone wall.

 

“Remember what? Say it.” Gang Guo had no patience to spare him.

 

“I remember that these stones didn’t seem to extend this far before. When we came last time, this wall only reached as far as that large tree up ahead.”

 

Bo pointed without hesitation to a large tree in the distance to his left. The reason he remembered it so clearly was simply that the tree itself was truly immense.

 

It stood out starkly amongst the dense primitive forest, and Bo distinctly recalled that the stones had only reached as far as that tree on their previous visit.

 

“So these stones are indeed the work of the Flame Dragon Tribe. But how… how is it done?” Gang Guo furrowed his brow.

 

“Boss, as long as we follow these stones we’ll reach the Flame Dragon Tribe before long. We can ask once we’re there.” Luc spoke up quickly.

 

“Move out!” Gang Guo was already more than a little impatient.

 

The group advanced towards the entrance of the Flame Dragon Tribe carrying many questions, Gang Guo most of all.

 

The nature of his doubts, however, was something different. He was deeply curious about the stones. However, the words Bo had said weighed heavily on his mind as well.

 

Gang Guo was suspicious.

 

He was beginning to suspect that all of this was not the work of the Dark Scorpion Tribe.

 

According to the intelligence received previously, Ga and Gai had already taken control of the Flame Dragon Tribe, and their immediate priority would have been to stabilise the Tribe’s situation.

 

So, Gang Guo reasoned that they would have had no spare energy to direct people to continue stacking these stones. Besides, these stones were not the kind of thing that could be piled up carelessly.

 

There was certainly some secret at work here, and that was the root cause of Gang Guo’s mounting unease.

 

At the same time, he was beginning to harbour doubts about whether the Flame Dragon Tribe had truly been brought under control, and he resolved to observe everything closely once he was inside.

 

What Gang Guo did not know was that every movement his group made was being watched by the Flame Dragon Tribe.

 

Shu Feng beat his large brown wings and surveyed everything from the sky.

 

He quietly stowed his telescope and flew towards the entrance of the Flame Dragon Tribe, ready to report everything he had seen to Yan Jiao.

 

*Flap flap…*

 

Ten minutes later, Shu Feng landed at the entrance of the Flame Dragon Tribe and delivered his full report without delay.

 

“Their pace is faster than expected. How long do we have until they arrive?” Yan Jiao asked.

 

“Roughly just over an hour. Chieftain, we can begin making preparations.” Shu Feng said at once.

 

The people of the Flame Dragon Tribe now had a firm grasp of time. When they had first been taught to read, the concept of time had been introduced alongside the written word.

 

The Flame Dragon Tribe no longer measured time by the burning of one campfire or two. By now, nearly every member of the Tribe operated according to a twenty-four hour system.

 

There was no particular mystery to it: the Tribe’s higher-ranking members had each been issued a wristwatch or pocket watch.

 

Currently, a grand clock was placed on the exterior of the Tribe’s Yong’an Building. This was actually an item Su Bai had received from the System’s Daily Check In.

 

Since Su Bai was teaching the Flame Dragon Tribe the concept of time, he ought to distribute clocks or watches to everyone.

 

That, of course, was not practical. The System could not produce that many.

 

But the grand clock had neatly resolved the problem. Placed outside the Yong’an Building meant that anyone passing through it could read the time at a glance.

 

“Good. Continue watching them and act according to our plan.” Yan Jiao gave a firm and serious nod.

 

“Understood.” Shu Feng beat his wings and lifted off from where he stood.

 

“Chieftain, leave their leader to me. I will capture him without fail.” Sha Hong spoke with complete conviction.

 

The cat eared woman rolled her shoulders. It had been quite some time since she had last had a proper workout.

 

A Mid-Stage Totem Warrior had now presented herself at precisely the right moment, and Sha Hong was absolutely determined to test herself.

 

Every day in the Tribe, she had been eating well and resting well. Naturally, this was while following the specialised training programme the Shaman had designed. After doing this routine for so long, Sha Hong’s capabilities had been climbing steadily.

 

“And as for the other Mid-Stage Totem Warrior. Ban Ye, are you confident you can capture him?” Yan Jiao asked.

 

“I don’t know how strong I am right now, but since the Shaman has helped lift the agonising pain that came with unleashing my Totem Power, I am confident I can bring him down.” Ban Ye looks quite different these days. He was visibly taller, with a palpable, forceful pressure radiating from him. He could now be called a proper Mid-Stage Totem Warrior.

 

“Good. As for the rest of you, you know what to do. Show no mercy.” Yan Jiao continued.

 

“Don’t worry, Chieftain. I won’t let a single one of them interfere with Sha Hong.” Ye Jiu said without a moment’s hesitation.

 

The wolf eared girl gave her recurve bow a light shake. Her aim had consistently ranked at the very top of all their training.

 

Ye Jiu was confident she could take down any target before they had the chance to unleash their Totem Power.

 

Ga too loosened her limbs and stretched. It had genuinely been a long while since she had moved freely, not since that battle in the forest.

 

And now she held a far more formidable weapon in her hands, a recurve bow, the kind she had seen the Flame Dragon Tribe use during that battle.

 

She counted herself fortunate to have one of her own, and today, it would be the perfect time to test its might.