I'm Just a Beast Tamer

Chapter 103: Chapter 101: Another Defeated Grandmaster

By trespassing on Jiang Zuo’s property, they had accidentally achieved their long-sought revenge against Wei Jichang.

But when it came to finding the treasured ore deposit, the siblings were at a loss.

Their father hadn’t managed to find it through prospecting either; he had only left them a single piece of information.

The siblings would have to find the exact location of the treasured ore themselves.

However, the mines on Fire Mist Island were all controlled by the major gangs.

Not only did the siblings have no idea how to search, but even if they did know how to prospect, they still couldn’t freely enter and exit the various mine shafts.

With no other choice, the siblings decided to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

To learn how to prospect for ore.

It was their only hope for gaining access to the gangs’ mine shafts. Moreover, without understanding prospecting, they would have no way to conduct their search.

They certainly couldn’t ask an outsider for help.

Prospecting involved more than just finding ore; it also included the crucial element of mine shaft safety.

The major gangs would usually hire several experts at once. Each would prospect independently, and a decision would only be made after synthesizing everyone’s reports.

However, after they began learning to prospect, the siblings realized it was far more difficult than even Cultivation.

Their parents had only gradually mastered the skill after many years of working with Jade Stones and mineral deposits.

With no other choice, the siblings could only bite the bullet and study.

It was only because they were both at the Blood Exchange realm that they could find anyone willing to teach them. Had their skills been any lower, they wouldn’t have been able to find a tutor no matter how hard they tried.

Even so, it took them many years before they could be considered proficient.

At first, they thought that once they learned to prospect, success would be just around the corner.

But that wasn’t the case at all. Reaching this point was only the beginning.

Their father had once left them a clue.

But with so many years having passed, the gangs’ mine shafts had changed drastically.

The clue was long since obsolete.

They had also considered starting with the mines Wei Jichang had access to, but after spending a great deal of time, they still came up empty-handed.

It seemed the treasured ore was not in any of the mines controlled by Wei Jichang.

With no other choice, the siblings could only search one mine shaft at a time.

But they couldn’t just enter the gangs’ mines whenever they pleased; they could only gain access when a gang needed their services and invited them in.

It wasn’t completely impossible to get in at other times, as the gangs’ management wasn’t particularly strict.

But sneaking in was of limited use, and they couldn’t do it often for fear of being discovered.

In what felt like a flash, twenty years passed them by.

But those twenty years were not without results.

They had already locked onto a few of the most likely locations; a little deeper investigation was all that was needed to confirm their suspicions.

However, with the sudden change in circumstances, the siblings were running out of time.

Once war broke out, regardless of who won or lost, they could forget about entering the mines again for a long time.

Especially if the Cyan Seagull and Flying Eagle Kingdoms won the war; Fire Mist Island would surely be cleared out.

Twenty years had passed. The siblings were getting older and couldn’t afford to waste another decade.

The siblings decided to take a risk and accelerate their progress.

...

The Cyan Seagull and Flying Eagle Kingdoms were not about to be fooled by a few words from Zhou Ruhai and his men.

The delay in deploying their troops was only because the two kingdoms wasted a great deal of time debating how to go about it.

If it had been only one kingdom, a large army would have already been pressing at their borders.

Nevertheless, after three months of squabbling, the combined army of the two kingdoms finally arrived, full of menace.

If the two kingdoms had joined forces for an all-out assault, there was no way Zhou Ruhai and his allies could have possibly resisted.

But the Cyan Seagull and Flying Eagle Kingdoms, having fought major battles over a single fishing village in the past, were hardly peace-loving nations.

The countries bordering them had no shortage of their own disputes with the two kingdoms.

Knowing the two kingdoms were preparing to make a move, Zhou Ruhai had secretly paid a visit to their neighbors long ago.

To the neighboring countries that were hostile to them, the prospect of the two kingdoms losing a chunk of land and a large source of income was a welcome one.

They also seized the opportunity to stir up minor trouble, preventing the Cyan Seagull and Flying Eagle Kingdoms from daring to redeploy too many soldiers from other fronts.

Most nations’ armies were stretched thin, never in surplus.

Especially for a conflict that arose without warning, there was no other option but to reassign troops from elsewhere.

One side was hastily reassigning troops, while the other had been preparing for years.

Wangxiang Sea City held a considerable advantage, especially when it came to experts.

As a Grandmaster, Lu Shengyuan was unstoppable. No one in the allied army of the two kingdoms could stand against him when he made a move.

In the first battle, Zhou Ruhai’s irregular army achieved a resounding victory.

The two kingdoms urgently dispatched reinforcements, and only then did the fighting become a back-and-forth struggle.

Jiang Zuo had already gotten the news, but Zhou Ruhai wouldn’t let him make a move yet, not wanting to alert the enemy prematurely.

According to Zhou Ruhai’s plan, he intended to force a Grandmaster from one of the two kingdoms to enter the fray.

Then, Jiang Zuo would have Great Black strike, catching the enemy completely off guard.

As long as they could kill one of the enemy Grandmasters, the battle would be more than half won.

To this end, Zhou Ruhai asked Jiang Zuo to create the illusion that he disliked war and was leaving Wangxiang Sea City.

Otherwise, the Grandmasters from the two kingdoms might not fall for the trap.

Jiang Zuo naturally had no objection.

If Great Black could defeat another Grandmaster on the battlefield, he was sure to reap another huge amount of Beast Taming Reputation.

By then, his name would likely spread throughout the Cyan Seagull and Flying Eagle Kingdoms as well.

The persona Jiang Zuo had established on Fire Mist Island was that of a kind man who disliked fighting.

Having not left Fire Mist Island in twenty years, Jiang Zuo just treated it as an outing and went along with Zhou Ruhai’s plan.

He led Great Black and his large flock of Seated Mountain Eagles out of Wangxiang Sea City in a grand procession, departing right in front of the allied army.

Meanwhile, in a remote location up ahead, another large black dog that Zhou Ruhai had prepared was waiting.

As for Great Black, he would secretly return and wait for the right moment to strike.

The whole process was a bit of a hassle, but for the sake of Beast Taming Reputation, it was a hassle he was willing to endure.

Otherwise, Jiang Zuo could have just sent Great Black to attack them directly and settled the matter easily.

But no matter how impressively Great Black performed inside the enemy’s camp, he wouldn’t gain much reputation.

The only proper way was to perform miracles in front of his own side and build a legend.

...

With a Grandmaster like Lu Shengyuan, Wangxiang Sea City had a huge morale advantage over an enemy that lacked one.

After Lu Shengyuan once again killed one of their generals, leading to a crushing defeat and forcing their army to retreat.

The Cyan Seagull and Flying Eagle Kingdoms knew that letting this drag on would only lead to increasingly severe losses.

After a quick consultation, the two kingdoms decided to dispatch their respective Grandmaster-Generals.

As for the hostile neighboring nations, they might take action.

But a decision to attack an enemy couldn’t possibly be made in the blink of an eye.

Even after a decision to act was made, it would still take a significant amount of time to actually launch an offensive.

As long as they finished things up quickly on their end, it wouldn’t be a problem.

And with two Grandmasters joining forces, failure was an impossibility.

Lu Shengyuan of Wangxiang Sea City had only recently become a Grandmaster.

In contrast, the Cyan Seagull Kingdom’s Grandmaster, Fu Haiqing, and the Flying Eagle Kingdom’s Grandmaster, Sha Daoliang, had both been Grandmasters for many years and were not far from reaching the level of Dark Force Grandmaster.

The two of them joining forces against a single Lu Shengyuan was a guaranteed victory.

"This terrain doesn’t allow for any special formations. You and I will lead the charge. Let’s just smash our way through."

"That Lu Shengyuan is supposedly still in Wangxiang Sea City. Since we’re working together, we can’t let him escape. Killing him will solve all our problems."

Fu Haiqing was huge and powerfully built, with an intimidating aura.

He gazed at Wangxiang Sea City and spoke in a deep voice.

"Of course."

Sha Daoliang was much smaller, appearing like a gaunt, wizened old man.

Most Martial Artists were powerfully built; normally, a First Generation Grandmaster would not be so gaunt.

But this was due to the Cultivation Technique Sha Daoliang practiced.

Despite his gaunt frame, his defensive capabilities were astonishing. His muscles were as hard as iron.

Even the huge Fu Haiqing would be at a disadvantage if he fought Sha Daoliang for too long.

Sha Daoliang naturally agreed with Fu Haiqing.

Where there was one rebellious Grandmaster, there would soon be a second. It was best to crush them early, before they became more difficult to handle.

"We’ll break through the side wall!"

With the two Grandmasters leading the way, the massive army surged forward.

With no expert to hold them back, Grandmasters of Fu Haiqing and Sha Daoliang’s caliber could move freely within an army of thousands.

The moment the battle began, the gang army led by Lu Shengyuan was steadily pushed back.

"Die, you rebel!"

Both Fu Haiqing and Sha Daoliang wanted to end the battle quickly.

And once Lu Shengyuan was dealt with, the gangs of Wangxiang Sea City would be nothing more than a disorganized mob, easily crushed.

As the two Grandmasters charged toward him, Lu Shengyuan was unable to hold them off alone and found himself in constant peril.

But just then, a black shadow shot out from within Wangxiang Sea City.

’A big black dog?’

With their incredibly sharp eyes, both Grandmasters perceived the true form of the black shadow.

The rumors they had heard instantly flashed through their minds.

Until this moment, they had never taken those rumors seriously.

A Grandmaster couldn’t last a single exchange against a large black dog whose Cultivation was at the Transforming Force realm!

It was only because so many people in Wangxiang Sea City knew Jiang Zuo, and because everyone repeated the tale, that the locals had gradually gone from disbelief to firm conviction.

But to anyone outside of Wangxiang Sea City, it was an utterly impossible fairy tale.

After all, the story was so absurd it was impossible to imagine without witnessing it firsthand.

It was only because Zhou Ruhai and his allies were biased by their own knowledge that they assumed the two kingdoms would be wary of Jiang Zuo and not dare to dispatch their Grandmasters.

In reality, they had never even considered Jiang Zuo.

Even when the soldiers saw Jiang Zuo leaving with the big black dog and a large flock of Seated Mountain Eagles, they merely thought he was a decent beast tamer.

But the moment they saw the large black dog, Fu Haiqing and Sha Daoliang knew they were wrong.

’The rumors were true!’

’Watch out for that big black dog!’

A chill ran down both their spines as they faced this formidable foe.

But Great Black was much stronger now than he had been a few years ago; he was far beyond what the two of them could handle.

In Great Black’s eyes, the two of them were no different from Lu Shengyuan.

If Great Black went all out, he could kill them in two moves.

However, Great Black remembered Jiang Zuo’s instructions. He pretended to engage the two Grandmasters in a ferocious, back-and-forth battle, one that seemed to darken the sky and shake the very mountains, drawing gasps of shock from the spectators in Wangxiang Sea City.

Only then did he strike decisively, severely injuring both Grandmasters.

The count of Grandmasters defeated at Great Black’s paws instantly rose by two.

Furthermore, following Jiang Zuo’s plan, Great Black deliberately allowed Sha Daoliang to escape, capturing only Fu Haiqing.

At the same time, several Seated Mountain Eagles took flight from within Wangxiang Sea City, joining the fray and wreaking havoc on the battlefield.

At a spot on the coast a considerable distance from Wangxiang Sea City, Jiang Zuo watched the massive influx of Beast Taming Reputation with great satisfaction.

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