The Hidden Myth of Ji Dara - Chapter 74

“That is because it is hidden within these Dark Lands, and is a secret that no one must ever know…”

“They have numerous farms within the Dark Lands where Qi stones are being harvested from, and from the one I came from, we are over 2000 there, and there is a supposed 300 Qi Sea and 200 Qi Creation farms all over the Dark Lands called the Tier 1 and 2 QI Farms; all filled with innocent adults and children” The First Elder revealed…

“It’s alright, there is no use in telling me anymore than you have already said; after all, it’s not like you truly expect me to help one million people such as yourself from such a predicament…” Dara interrupted;

“Even healing such sheer amount of people on its own would definitely kill me, not to talk of the fact that we would obviously have to battle the experts protecting these farms and for all I know, they would be as strong as you are…”

Dara continued and the First Elder shook his head to confirm the latter part of in Dara’s statement;

“Furthermore, I am not so impetuous to go against the Imperials of an entire kingdom with my mediocre strength, and I don’t want to live all my life on the run either…”

“My tribe just abandoned me and my sister to our deaths about 6 months ago, and I am not ready to squander the life she died saving…” Dara added;

“Hu! I’m sorry about your sister and actually trying to lure you into helping us…”

“I have simply lived this way for too long, and I would rather die than continue on to kill whatever has fresh blood just to keep myself alive a bit longer…”

“They would even have us kidnap and bring over humans back to the hideout which they would abuse before turning them into one of us…”

The First Elder finally realized that he was actually asking too much from a ten year old and bunch of experts who have at most opened only their Eight Great Meridians; after all, even a Peak Qi Sea stage experts would not dare make such an outrageous statement…

“Can we talk?”

The burly guy with folded arms whose name was Ji Chen signaled to Dara and the other guy who happened to be named Ji Wang, as they all moved deeper towards the back of the village;

“What did you mean by what you said earlier?” Ji Chen asked;

“I said a lot of things earlier, which one in particular are you referring to?”

“The part about the tribe abandoning you and your sister to die…” Ji Wang also paid attention to the discussion;

“I see… So you all didn’t know about the heinous deeds your village chief and his son did to I and my sister…”

Dara frowned in hatred when he remembered everything that happened, as he began to narrate everything that happened from the mission the village chief had given them, to the entire plan, and as well as the betrayal from Ji Hai and the possible conspiracy that might be behind the entire situation;

“That’s impossible!”

Ji Chen refused to believe that the tribe he had so much belief in would actually do such a horrible thing to one of its members, and even little tribe members as well;

After all, it was one thing if it was happening amongst the elders, or perhaps bad blood amongst the younger generation, but from the tribe chief to simple kids like Ji Dai and Dara was something worse than ugly…

“You think it’s impossible…”

“Then why would your village chief mobilize such a massive amount of force against someone as simple as I am?”

Dara asked and Ji Chen once again went deep in thought…

If it was just to bring back Min Hong, then they didn’t need to send that much manpower;

“What about the other two that were raining arrows on us?” Ji Wang asked;

“They were the ones who saved me when I drowned within the valley, and the two of them combined aren’t even as strong as me…”

“It doesn’t make any sense; why would the village chief then personally lead such manpower against you?”

Ji Wang couldn’t get a grip on a plausible explanation on what was going on with their last mission which  had felt a little off since the beginning, because not only did the village chief refuse to tell them where they were going or what specifically they were going there to do…

“I guess you don’t intend to return to the tribe again right?” Ji Chen asked;

“No I don’t…”

Ji Wang on the other hand felt a little disappointed because he really wanted to be close friends with Dara especially after all he had helped him save his little sister just in time, but here he was telling them that he wasn’t going to be returning to the clan…

“You all had better leave this place, because we were told not to return empty handed; which means, if we don’t return, those people would probably send another batch of Obun’s to come check out what is going on here…” The First Elder spoke from the side in the distance;

“We cannot return empty handed either, otherwise, they would send another batch to come raid this place once again…” He added;

“What do you mean?” Ji Chen asked as he looked to the First Leader;

“We were sent here not to only feed, but to bring back people who could be used for farming Qi stones, and if we don’t return on time, they would know something has gone wrong, and in a bid to keep everything secret, they might probably return to raze this place…” He explained;

“Can we move over to your resident instead?” Ji Wang asked;

“What!?”

“No way!”

“I barely know you guys and how do I know if you all won’t stab me in the back just like they did to I and my sister a while ago!?” Dara rejected their idea instantly;

“They would dare not do that as long as I and the rest of my men are around!”

The First Elder chipped in once again as the Ji trio were stunned…

Was this Obun Elder just trying to insinuate that he also wanted to join Dara’s group?

“Nice move, hateful beast!” Ji Chen bellowed;

“You have grown calm enough to talk when we humans are discussing… It’s like you want us to slaughter you all!” Ji Wang added;

“Based on what you guys did to him and his sister, I would say your all are not so different from us, and mind your tone, if he was not here, all of you would be on the way bac to the farm by now!”

The Obun Elder blurted back in return as Ji Chen and Ji Wang noticed Dara wasn’t speaking, and seemed to be lost in thought;

“Don’t tell me you are really considering it!?”

Ji Wang bellowed as if that would jolt Dara back to his right senses, but Dara didn’t even bat an eyelid at his noise as he kept brooding over it…

He had rushed over here because he didn’t want the innocent children and toddlers in the tribe to die gruesomely or turned into a resource factory, and if he decided to return, then him coming down here would have been useless, and whilst he had no issues with the children, he didn’t trust anyone amongst the grown ones either…

He also couldn’t take all the children whilst leaving the grownups here, asides from the fact that they might not trust him enough to let him leave with them, he would also be undertaking a massive workload and responsibility by doing so, and he didn’t think only him, Uncle Min and Aunt Lin would be able to care for all of them…

Thus, the only option he  had left was to take all the remaining tribesmen back to the plateau, and that would be surrounding himself with potential enemies, and the Obun’s weren’t safe either, because who knew if all they were doing now was just to trick them into believing they were truly unfortunate before slaughtering him and his saviors…

‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend…’

‘I’d rather have both of them around; that way both parties would be busy keeping tabs on each other and have little time for I, Uncle Min and Aunt Lin…’

Dara thought to himself before making a decision;

“That’s the only wat this can work, is either everyone comes with me or no one does…”

Dara revealed his intentions as the First Elder revealed a sneering grin which not only caused Ji Wang and Ji Chen to fume, but also feel disappointed that everything had come to this, due to their village chief being an inept ruler…

“Alright, so how do you plan on doing this?”

Ji Wang asked; they had no choice in this matter because not only was their village defenses wrecked, their adults have all died also leaving only them the youths, and their younger siblings, who have never even held a single weapon in their lives;

Thus, staying there would just be akin to placing their own heads on a chopping block themselves…

“First, we do the numbers…”

Dara replied as they all returned to the village square where they have all gathered, and after about five minutes, the total numbers were already determined;

There were only about 50 teenage humans, and that was also including Ji Wang and Ji Chen;

Then about 100 hundred toddlers who were between the ages of 4 and 12…

On the Obun’s side however, they were all simply counted as a whole since they are all adults turned monsters; and there were about 200 of them left, and that was including the First and Second Obun Elder’s…

Dara calculated everything and realized that if they expanded the resident, then it should be able to accommodate them all, after all, they were only about 350 people…

“Alright, we are moving out right now!” Dara announced as they all began to march out of the village…

They made a flat platform with all the wood they could find within the village, as they all moved out of the village with all the food and resources left in store as well as the remaining three wild beasts that were in their pen…

But just as they all left; a little distance from where Dara, Ji Wang, Ji Chen and the First Elder had just discussed was a right turn, and at the end of this turn was a door, and this was the same door that led to where his father and mother was;

But since the only ones who knew the place existed are dead, it couldn’t be helped that Dara was just less than ten meters away from finding his real parents…