Chapter 593 – Volcano
Although deaths have appeared among them, the Diamond Apes that have survived still pushed on. Some people might die, but their pride as the Royal tribe of the Beastmen gave them the motivation to not back down. They just buried their loved ones before resuming on their death march.
This scene jolted Zhao Hai, the Diamond Apes were truly worthy of being the Kings of the Beastmen. With such determinations, it wasn’t a wonder why their status was too great.
Laura and the others were similarly shocked, they cannot believe how an entire race would share the same obsession. They clearly knew that they would die, but they also knew that they were duty-bound to not come back, the Beast G.o.d’s Spear was just too valuable.
Zhao Hai calmed himself before having the Blood Ghost Staff proceed forward. With the number of corpses that he received getting more and more, he didn’t have the time to try turning them into Undead. He wanted to bring these corpses to the Prairie and give them a proper burial. They belonged to the Prairie, and it was proper for them to be buried there. In Zhao Hai’s mind, they already had the qualifications to do so.
Ten days after discovering the first Diamond Ape corpse, Zhao Hai had already stored about 10 thousand Diamond Ape corpses. The majority of these corpses were the elderly and children.
Zhao Hai didn’t explore other places right now, the trail of corpses were already his guide. As long as he follows them, then he would surely reach a destination.
After a month of flying around, the Diamond Ape corpses had already numbered to about five hundred thousand. This wasn’t a small number.
Most large tribes in the Prairie had about 1 million members. And for a huge warring tribe like the Tiger race, it might even be less. The more powerful the race, the more difficult it would be for them to multiply. Less powerful tribes, on the other hand, had great fertility.
Since the Diamond Apes were the strongest at their time, then it would be impossible for them to have very large numbers. By the time he reached 500 thousand corpses, Zhao Hai can no longer see elderly and children among them. Most of what he acquired at this point, were young and able men.
One must know that although Zhao Hai took a long time to collect these corpses, he was someone who was flying in the Icefield. Now imagine the state of these Diamond Apes, how long did they have to walk this way without stopping, how long did they kept their resolve? Zhao Hai doesn’t dare to imagine it.
It was very difficult for Zhao Hai to think about how these Diamond Apes were able to survive in such a climate. Their ability to penetrate this far into the Icefield was a monument to the tyrannical strength of their race.
After three days of flying, Zhao Hai discovered from the monitor that some black spots were spotted at a distance. He immediately enlarged the image and couldn’t help but get shaken. This was because he had discovered a mountain, but what’s most surprising in this mountain were the trees that were present. How could fully grown green trees be present here?
This might not be strange in the continent, but what shocked Zhao Hai was the fact that it was here, in the Northern Icefield. There was almost nothing here aside from snow and ice. Who would’ve thought that a mountain would be present here, and with a tree growing on it.
Zhao Hai immediately commanded the staff to fly to the mountain, while simultaneously collecting the corpses along the way. The number of corpses that he had received has now numbered to about seven hundred thousand.
Because he was still storing the corpses, Zhao Hai took a little over two days before he arrived at the mountain. At the same time, Zhao Hai discovered that the area close to the mountain was devoid of any Diamond Ape corpses.
This fact made Zhao Hai excited, it was just like what he had thought, the Diamond Apes didn’t die out. The tree in the mountain represented the fact that there was warmth present there, which would in turn allow a person to survive. It was possible for the Diamond Apes to thrive on this mountain. The absence of corpses in the surroundings meant that the surviving Diamond Apes had already retrieved them.
Zhao Hai was elated, he immediately had the monitor focus on the mountain. He wanted to know what this mountain was and see if there were people present.
Upon further investigation, Zhao Hai discovered something that made him excited. There were roads paved in the mountain! It was artificial, moreover, there were evidence that some people had walked on them.
With his excitement still present, Zhao Hai immediately came out of the s.p.a.ce and turned the Ghost Staff into a shuttle before flying towards the mountain.
After he came out, he had discovered that the temperature near the mountain was quite high. It had the same temperature as the middle of the day in the continent, no wonder a tree can survive here for so long, it was actually very warm.
The higher one gets to the summit, the temperature get warmer. Moreover, traces of activity can be seen, the roads looked to be constantly maintained, but Zhao Hai cannot see a single person yet.
When Zhao Hai was halfway up the mountain, he couldn’t help but stare. What he saw looked like a city. A stone wall was present, although it wasn’t very high, it was certainly something that a person had built.
Then Zhao Hai saw something move, it was a person. He immediately opened the monitor to look, and there he saw a leather-clad Diamond Ape Beastman.
Zhao Hai flashed into the s.p.a.ce and carefully looked at the city using the large screen. The city was not very big, it can probably house about 100 thousand people. The outer walls was made of large stone, it had a height of 20 meters, and a thickness of 10. On the walls, Diamond Apes can be seen on sentry duty while wearing their leather armor. Every Diamond Ape were next to their diamond ape partner, a beast 10 meters in height. These diamond apes were either sitting or lying down. They looked very docile, but Zhao Hai didn’t doubt their fighting prowess.
Another thing that made Zhao Hai surprised were their weapons. The weapons that the Diamond Apes were using were actually made of wood, they seem to have no ironware.
Their weapon looked like a thick wooden club, this club was no thinner that Zhao Hai’s arm. Moreover, it looked pitch black, but its appearance looked very st.u.r.dy.
Zhao Hai also noticed that the Diamond Apes seemed to be quite anxious. They were constantly looking for something in the distance. This made Zhao Hai feel strange, he didn’t understand why the Diamond Apes were anxious. Are there any enemies on this mountain? Even if there were, with the fighting strength of the Diamond Apes, what were they afraid of?
Zhao Hai also noticed that there were no gates on this wall. The whole stretch was made as solid as possible, there was no way out.
He was confused with such an arrangement. Even if the Diamond Apes had their giant partners to carry them, wouldn’t leaving the city be very inconvenient? Why would they do this?
While he was inspecting the walls, he discovered that there were traces of fighting present on it. The traces were very strange as well, some of it looked like it was caused by wild beasts, some looked like traces that a blade or a sword might make.
Then Zhao Hai s.h.i.+fted his gaze towards the city. The houses on this city were made of stone, and were of two stories, the lower one probably housed the diamond ape beasts. On the upper floor, there were some hay mats on the ground, each one occupied by a person. Anything else that was inside the houses were either made of stone or wood.
The city was quite lively, there were small Diamond Apes frolicking around the streets. Women of the Diamond Ape tribe were making leather armor, the elderly were making wooden clubs. These clubs looked just the same as the weapons that they were using. Some of the children used these clubs while learning how to fight.
Zhao Hai looked to another part of the mountain and discovered some magic beasts that were being raised. The beasts looked just like the blue eyed rabbit, but they were evidently bigger, about as big as a pig. There were a lot of these beasts, and they were part.i.tioned by wooden fences.
After further inspection of the mountain, Zhao Hai finally discovered how these people were able to live in this place, and why trees were growing here. It was because the mountain was actually a volcano, an active volcano. The crater on it summit was constantly spewing steam.
Because the thermal energy of the volcano was negated by the cold environment, it had allowed the Diamond Apes to survive in it. It seems like this place was where the Diamond Apes had ended up in.
But Zhao Hai can also see that the overall strength of the Diamond Ape tribe had been damaged severely. Their entire race was now reduced to about 100 thousand people, and that was including the old and weak. Moreover, they seem to have met an enemy here, otherwise the guards on the walls wouldn’t be looking so anxious.
Zhao Hai took a closer look at the mountain. The area of this volcano was very huge. There were also places where traces of people can be seen. At the same time, he also found out that there wasn’t only only mountain, there were actually 13 peaks. The outer parts of this group of mountains was the only one with traces of activity.
Zhao Hai turned to the other peaks and discovered why they were virtually unexplored. The place was too hot, the only lifeforms that were able to survive here were fire element plants. Most importantly, the volcano seems to be unstable, like it could erupt at any time.
However, there weren’t a lot of lifeforms that could be seen on the other peaks. There were some fire element magic beasts, but Zhao Hai can see that their levels weren’t very high. So naturally, these beasts weren’t the enemies of the Diamond Ape tribe.
After looking through the huge mountain, Zhao Hai decided to meet the Diamond Apes in order to acquire some information. If they had found the Beast G.o.d’s spear, then it was good, but if they haven’t, a heading would still suffice.