Wen Ming
Wen Ming
He was wearing a shirt made from coarse, jute fabric, over-the-knee shorts made of the same material as the shirt, and a pair of sandals, woven from thin vines. His long hair were bound tightly behind his head with a pliable yet firm vine. All these simple clothes worn by him were strangely clean.
The man had an upright and foursquare face, with a pair of bright and focused eyes, giving a very generous and reliable feeling. When Ji Hao first saw this middle-aged man, he even sensed a trace of father-like, gentle and kind vibe from him, that he only had sensed from Ji Xia before.
This man was a bit shorter than ordinary Southern Wasteland warriors in shape, only taller than Ji Hao by a head. He could never compare to those over three to four meters tall Fire Crow Clan warriors in height. However, this man didn't seem thin and weak at all. On the contrary, when he stood up, every single move made by him would make Ji Hao feel an especially powerful and reliable sensation, just like a bear perambulating its own territory.
Ji Hao didn't sense any abnormal power or magic coming from this middle-aged man's body. He was just as simple and natural as all of those ancient trees and gigantic rocks all over the jungle. Even the sense of power released by a Fire Crow Clan first-level Novice Magus would be much stronger and more violent than this man.
Nevertheless, when Ji Hao looked at this man, he somehow caught the feeling that this middle-aged man was like a vast ocean, of which Ji Hao could not find out the breadth and the depth. This feeling that this man had been giving to Ji Hao was even deeper, more mysterious and unfathomable than the feeling given by Po when they first met.
A madly roaring gale rolled up a heavy rain, then slapping it down towards the ground along with a loud noise.
But still the entire body of the middle-aged man remained extremely clean, without a single stain of water or mud. Even more astonishingly, after he had held Ji Hao and Man Man with his hands, not a single drop of rain could fall on Ji Hao and Man Man's body anymore. The gale was still roaring and the rain remained falling, yet, by standing beside this middle-aged man, Ji Hao and Man Man both felt that this small space they had been standing in was sunny and warm, without any wind or rain.
Coo, coo...
A pigeon with white and black feathers flew out from the middle-aged man's sleeves, holding a grass in its beak, stood on the man's shoulder and started pecking carefully.
"Hehe, my little fella woke up." The middle-aged man held Ji Hao and Man Man up, carefully leading them to a towering tree beside the river, and made them sit down. He then took a fist-sized, black jade bottle out of a leather bag that was tied around his waist.
The pigeon curiously looked at Ji Hao, while slightly coo-ing.
Mr Crow ducked his head out of Ji Hao's cloth and weakly looked at the pigeon. These two birds looking at each other in the eyes, while letting out coos and caws from time to time.
The middle-aged man poured two thumb-sized round pills out from the black jade bottle, then pointed his finger at the two pills. Following his move, the two pills blasted out and turned into two wisps of green smoke, then drilled into Ji Hao and Man Man's body.
Ji Hao immediately sensed that his internal organs, which had felt like they were burning in fire, immediately cooled down. In the meanwhile, countless wounds on his internal organs started healing. Black, extravasated blood started seeping out of his body through his pores in very thin streams, and soon, a thick layer of black blood crust had appeared on his skin.
Man Man's little pretty face went twisted in pain and her shoulder started trembling. The wound that had reached her lung started squirming fast. Inside the wound, streams of green light and blood-red light were clashing and striking against each other. Blood quickly gushed out of the wound. Harm and healing, the two opposite powers were conflicting inside Man Man's body, bringing her an awfully great pain.
"It's the corroding power of the blood moon." The middle-aged man let out a scornful sniff, and said with a frown, "You didn't lie, it's indeed a group of monsters that had been chasing you. These damn bastards. Have they already become this unruly in the Southern Wasteland? Little girl, your Abba...hm, he is not in the Southern Wasteland, is he?"
Man Man stared at the middle-aged man in surprise and asked, "Uncle, do you know my Abba?"
The middle-aged man smilingly nodded towards Man Man, patted her head and said, "My name is Si Wen Ming, I do know your Abba. Back when you were born, your Abba had robbed me of a hundred pills of 'huang zhong li', and used it to strengthen your body. Haha."
Si Wen Ming rubbed his own nose while speaking, then pressed his big hand on the wound on Man Man's back. A thick yellow mist rose from his palm, right after which, the potent yellow mist drew out the blood-red smoke which had been trying to harm Man Man's body further. The yellow mist wrapped the blood-red smoke up and began rotating, and soon, the blood-red smoke lost its power and became a wisp of faint, cyan smoke, rose and dissipated into the air.
The power of the blood-moon had vanished. Man Man's wounds quickly healed with the nourishment of the green smoke. She opened her mouth and spat a few mouthfuls of blood out, after which she seemingly got all of her energy back all at once, and become even more energetic than Ji Hao.
Si Wen Ming dipped a bit of the blood that had been spewed out by Man Man with his little finger, then put the finger near his nose, carefully smelling it, and laughed out as he said, "Haha, yeah I was right. You surely are old Zhu Rong's daughter. Hm, if your Abba had been in the Southern Wasteland, the people who beat you into this probably would already been parched and made into firewood."
Man Man grabbed Ji Hao's sleeve, which had already become pieces of rags, tears gushing out of her eye sockets in streams. "Abba was not at home, so Man Man sneaked out to play...Old Yan died, and all of Man Man's guards... hmm... An evil Bi Fang Clan woman had ganged up with those monsters and murdered Old Yan!"
Ji Hao had been staring at Si Wen Ming, somehow, he felt that this name was so familiar.
Ji Hao's heart suddenly drummed when he heard the conversation between Man Man and Si Wen Ming. Was Man Man's father old Zhu Rong? The Zhu Rong family? Ji Hao spent quite an effort to control his emotions and keep himself from exclaiming out - Just as he thought, Man Man was the daughter of that legendary man, who was normally known as the dominator of the entire Southern Wasteland.
In the legends that the Fire Crow Clan kids heard from those Maguspriests, the highest dominator of the entire Southern Wasteland land was the Zhu Rong family. They were not humans beings but the God-kind, real Gods. In the legends, the leader of the Zhu Rong family was the Fire God, who was able to control all kinds of flame in this world, and was also the highest God of the South.
As far as the legend about God was concerned, Ji Hao had been retaining a noncommittal attitude towards it. The Zhu Rong family probably was an extremely powerful clan, and they had added the title of 'God' on themselves. However, he surely had always been very curious about the Zhu Rong family. Right now, Man Man, the youngest daughter of that legendary man, old Zhu Rong, was sitting beside him in reality, and crying so loudly.
Gently patting Man Man on her head, Ji Hao then said calmly, "Alright, Man Man, the evil woman, Jiang Yao, has already been killed by me."
Before his voice faded, a sharp, vicious scream abruptly came from the river, "You killed Jiang Yao! You damn little bastard! I, I will slice you into a thousand pieces! Damn! I didn't even get the chance to taste that delicious woman yet, and you blasted her out! I'm not interested in dead bodies! Not at all!"
Di Luo, who had had a punctured hole in the right side of his chest and was held by two three-eyed young men, rode on a metal centipede, rushing towards Ji Hao along the river. Behind the metal centipede, thousands of Jia Clan warriors, and ten thousands of slave warriors were yelling and shouting, approaching rapidly. Each of them had an extremely ferocious look.
"Just as you said, monsters! Well, I could have ignored them if they hadn't shown up, but since they have already rushed over, hehe..."
Si Wen Ming pulled out a black iron sword while laughing and simply pointed the sword tip forward, towards the troop led by Di Luo.
The ground within thousands of miles radius suddenly vibrated, while the sense of an incomparably great power flashed through the air. In the next moment, Di Luo, and the large groups of Blood Fang elite warriors following behind him, suddenly froze. Their expression went completely stiff and frozen. A natural, gentle breeze blew across, along with which, Di Luo and all of those Blood Fang warriors turned into wisps of smoke and dissipated in the air.
Following by a series of clangs, the armours, weapons, and all of their accessories had fallen on the ground.
Ji Hao and Man Man largely gasped with their mouths wide open, and couldn't let any word out for a very long while.