Chapter 749: Osha's Present

Translator: TransN Editor: Meh

The moment Rubaka Bloodwhip got out of the bed, he heard the news about the change in the ownership of the small oasis in the northwest.

"Really?" His brows furrowed. Although he had also seen glimmers of fires in the oasis, he had not expected Howling clan would be obliterated over one night. He tried to think of a newly established clan that possessed such impressive power but could not name any.

Rubaka patted his concubine lying next to him to usher her out. After the woman wrapped herself up in a blanket and withdrew, he turned to his men and said, "Fill me in."

"Yes, Mr. Chief. According to the people who fled from the oasis, it appeared the fire wasn't caused by the challenger lurking there but was actually a fire from heaven induced by the Father God..."

"Nonsense!" Rubaka coughed out a spittle. "Those cravens just blame everything on Three Gods when they come across trouble. I'm going to hang all of them above the gate of Iron Sand City!"

The clansman replied hesitatively, "but... I sent someone to the camps at the small oasis this morning. What they found seemed to be consistent with the description... There're many holes as black as pitch in the ground. Corpses and fragments of building materials are everywhere. It doesn't look like a simple arson."

"Fragments?"

"Yes. Men were torn to pieces as if a huge sandworm or burrow scorpion had plodded on the campground." The clansman was careful to choose his words. "Most people who stayed in the camp died miserably, while those who went to seek pleasure outside fought back. Yet they were vanquished even before they saw their rivals."

"In other words, those fools were ambushed and all ran for life without even approaching their enemies? So what now? Haven't they even figured out which clan took the small oasis?" Rubaka started to suspect whether he had been too generous to the watchdog. He had made a great effort in persuading them to work for him, but their performance was indeed disappointing. Could it be possible that they had lived too comfortably for so long that meat and mead had made them more drunken and lecherous than he desired them to be?

"My men are investigating and we should soon receive some information from them." The clansman hesitated for a moment and then said, "I heard some refugees say that they've seen many northerners."

"Northerners..."

Hearing this, Rubaka began to take this matter seriously.

He walked to the window, naked, and looked in the northwestern direction. The fires had been extinguished long before. He could only see tendrils of dark smoke rise into the air at a distance.

Although Howling clan was drawn over to his side and served as his watchdog through the joint effort of both Ironwhip and Bonegrinding clans, he did not care much about their survival. After Rubaka settled down in Iron Sand City, he came to understand that the challenger system was actually more a safeguard established by the six clans than a qualification test.

A holy duel was simply a small fight, whereas battles provoked by challengers for the ownership of the small oasis could be considered as a full-fledged war. It was common for two small clans to drown each other in blood, for the oasis was a fat piece of meat that every clan who wished to strengthen their power drooled for, even if they did not plan to set foot in Iron Sand City. No matter which party eventually won, the victory usually cost dear and both parties would need a considerably long time to recover.

During the time when challengers were recuperating, big clans could easily convince those small clans to work for them as watchdogs through either bribing or duress. It was particularly easy to persuade those who believed that the compromising was just temporary and that they would sooner or later challenge the big clan to another duel. Practically, in the end, none of them managed to toll the holy bell of Iron Sand City.

Because by that time, new challengers would emerge and struck out the old watchdog.

In this way, big clans were able to remain in a relatively secure position without being consumed by the war.

Now, since Ironwhip had risen to the fourth place on the ranking, it was unlikely that challengers would seek him as their rival even if they planned to start an immediate duel. That was why the change of the ownership of the small oasis had not really alarmed him.

But the appearance of northerners had changed the whole story.

Queen of Clearwater, for instance, had created quite a big commotion in Iron Sand City. In fact, many people yearned for the evergreen land in the north and were even willing to reduce to slaves or sellswords to live there. The departure of two potential challengers had once left the small oasis unmanned and thus attracted many people who wanted to rule this land to start Divine Challenges. It was the chaos created by this temporary disorder that made Rubaka's clan the fourth biggest one.

What game are they playing this time?

"Keep an eye on those people and let me know what's exactly happened." Rubaka turned around and instructed his clansman. "Which city are those northerners from? How many of them? What weapon do they carry? What do they want? I want to know all of these!"

"Yes, Mr. Chief!"

Perhaps it was time for him to discuss the matter with the other big clans.

The rule in the Southernmost Region was that no outsiders should meddle in their affairs!

…

Nonetheless, Rubaka Bloodwhip received a piece of incredible news in the afternoon.

"What did you say? Osha clan?"

"That's what they say. The banners in the oasis have all been replaced with ones with the sigil of Osha clan. I also saw Princess Osha who was traded as a slave. She's now a Divine Lady and is calling on her clansmen. There're a lot of people responding to her call!"

How… can this be possible?

Rubaka was not ignorant of the kingdoms in the north. A Divine Lady was viewed as a representation of evil in Graycastle. Their social status was even lower than that of a slave girl in Sand Nation, not to mention a Divine Lady slave. He wondered how she won the support from northerners and returned to the Southernmost Region to exact her revenge along with her northern followers?

Rubaka smelled sheer folly but was also a little rattled by the news.

Mojins had been forced to confine their activities to the desert up until now not because they preferred the desert as their dwellings, but because they did not have the capability to confront Graycastle. If Osha clan supported by northerners planned to wage a war against Iron Sand City, all the clans would come together to fight back. If they, however, only intended to weed him out, would the other clans help Ironwhip?

The answer was there.

Damn!

Rubaka smashed the wine glass to the ground and stomped on it. It instantly broke to pieces.

"If you want to avenge your father's death through a holy duel, then I'm right here waiting for you!" Rubaka said within himself insolently. "Northerners may have finer weapons and they might outnumber us, but when it comes to a duel, Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan are the most valiant warriors! I'll let you know the taste of despair!"

Just at that moment, another clansman entered the hall. "Mr. Chief, Osha clan has sent a present to us."

"What?" Rubaka felt his temples throbbing. "A present?"

"Yes. It's right in the yard."

"Take me there." He ground his teeth.

…

It was a huge wooden box, as tall as a grown person, its width half of its height. The box, which was assembled by a few ordinary planks, with an iron nail staked at each corner, looked nothing unusual from the outside.

"Where's the courier?" Rubaka asked.

"Already gone."

"How many of them?"

"Well... only one."

"Only one?" He raised his brows and kicked the box. The box rolled over on the ground, producing loud clanks and clinks. Obviously, there was something in it. Yet based on the weight of the box, the stuff seemed to be pretty light as though the box were hollow.

Rubaka wondered if there were torn limbs and flesh, or human skins in it. Apart from a bluff, he could not think of anything else.

Rubaka commanded coolly, "Take it to Stone Castle. Let's see what game they're playing."



Chapter 750: An Unexpected Thunder
Translator: TransN Editor: Meh

After his men opened the wooden box, he saw the "present" in it.
It was a coffin.
A finely crafted coffin.
The coffin was hemmed with luxurious gold foil, decorated with beautiful lacquer paintings. The pattern on the coffin's lid was a black short whip, which was exactly Iron Whip clan's sigil.
Rubaka Bloodwhip stiffened before breaking into a half-sneering smile
"That's it? I thought they would give me something scarier than this." He shook his head. "I was expecting a head, ears or a man's skins... which is how Iron Sand City normally handles this kind of matter. A coffin? The Southernmost Region doesn't need such a frivolous thing!"
The dead here would all be dumped in the desert, buried in scorching sands and eventually reduce to skeletons. No matter how prominent and distinguished he once had been, death made them all equal.
Only people from the north needed those awkward wooden cases.
They seemed to like locking themselves up in this cage of eternity after their deaths.
"The whore of Osha thought this would frighten me?" Rubaka breathed heavily. "Perchance she's forgotten how a Sand Nation usually makes threats after being a slave in Graycastle for so long."
Nonetheless, the humiliation made Rubaka's blood all rush to his head.
"Get me the ax!" he yelled.
Soon a clansman entered with a huge cast-iron ax on his shoulder. The hilt of the ax was nearly of a man's height, its glinty black blade as big as a man's skull. Although Rubaka was the chief of Iron Whip clan, his favorite weapon was this giant, heavy battle ax. It worked perfectly for slaughtering desert beasts and beheading his challengers.
Nothing could possibly compete with the absolute power of this ax. Once being hit, the person would die instantly at a single blow even if he was wearing an armor which northerners typically wore.
The ax had also tasted the blood of Osha clan, including women's and children's.
Rubaka had forgotten to tell Drow Silvermoon that those exiles did not make their trip to Endless Cape because he had taken a detour aforetime and arrived there ahead of them. They had all been slashed in the desert.
He did not fear retribution but simply enjoyed killing.
A coffin?
Get lost.
Rubaka coughed out a spittle and howled. He held up the battle ax, aimed at the coffin lid patterned with the iron whip and then gave it a full swing...
"Crack!"
A number of sparks flew off the blade as if it had hit something hard like iron or stones.
The coffin did not split in half as he had anticipated. From the vibration of the hilt, Rubaka knew the pretty wooden case was actually stuffed with items rather than being empty!
But it was too late.
Following the sparks, a streak of dazzling light came out of the coffin and soon lit up the entire hall. The lit area expanded immediately as the light spread and flared out.
Rubaka, however, did not see any of these.
When the light flitted across him, his eyes and tongue were torn to bits by the strength of rapidly expanded airwaves. Subsequently, his head, limbs and inner organs were all torn apart...
All the residents in Iron Sand City witnessed an incredible scene when they heard a ground-shaking bang.
Flames and smoke escaped from the bottom of the stonewatch of Rising Sun like raging underground fire; the garden wall was practically wiped out by a giant visible hand. The whole stone castle sprang up abruptly before it collapsed in the heavy smoke.
First, the wall sank, followed by the pillars and the roof. As more stones fell off, more smoke erupted from the ground. In the end, a column of smoke rose out of the crumpled stone castle, soared into the clouds, and then finally blended with the overcast sky.
"A Tower of Babel" seemed to be suddenly erected in Iron Sand City
...
Thuram in Oasis Tavern also witnessed the explosion. He did not understand what the story Iron Axe had told him earlier exactly referred to until a moment ago.
The coffin filled with snow powder, the weight reduced by the Divine Lady, the flint closely attached to the lid and the lanyard connected to the ceiling... All of these would trigger a roar of thunders no matter how the coffin was opened. Whether by force or through a regular procedure, the explosion was inevitable. Although he had no knowledge of snow powder or lanyards, he understood what a thunderbolt was.
Thuram could imagine how frightful this unexpected thunder was, for the blast, although distant, could be heard somewhere several miles away, and the column of smoke could be even detected at the bloodstained place.
If the coffin was truly the cause of such a horrific scene in Iron Sand City, it was very likely that the chief of Iron Whip clan had already died.
The only thing that Thuram had failed to predict was that Iron Axe actually took action on Iron Whip clan, the fourth strongest clan, prior to the duel, not to mention the vengeance was inflicted in such a blatant way.
"You..." He stared at Iron Axe, who remained unperturbed, in astonishment, failing to articulate his sentence.
Iron Axe explained nonchalantly, "Rubaka Bloodwhip profaned the holy duel back then. He also failed Three Gods' expectation. How can I have a fair fight with a guy who has been disqualified at the Land of Fire? Rubaka and his clan are all cowards. I've never treated them as my rivals since the beginning."
"But... Ironwhip is essentially a big clan..."
Iron Axe shook his head. "That's exactly why I let them die in this way rather than allow them to die with honor in a ring. Plus, Osha clan won't violate Three Gods' rules. Once our rivals yield, we'll lay down our weapons and exempt them from death." He paused for a second and then said, "Think about it. Were you the chief of Ironwhip, what would you do when you're informed that Osha clan has come back?"
Thuram instantly understood what Iron Axe meant.
It was true that a person who had once broken the rule was very likely to commit wrongdoings again. A person who disobeyed Three Gods' rules would cause incessant trouble. Even if he attempted to reverse his defeat eight years ago through a holy duel, he would probably keep harassing and framing his rivals before and after the fight. It would be better to completely destroy him than constantly having your eyes peeled.
"But... if Rubaka didn't open the coffin or destroy it, your plan would have failed." Thuram blurted out his last question.
"The chief of Ironwhip were in nature aggressive and savage. He liked to destroy and slaughter. It's as easy to read his mind as to read a monkey's." Iron Axes curled up his lips into a smile. "Plus, the coffin full of snow powder was just the very beginning of my plan, an appetizer, so to speak. Even if Rubaka luckily survived, there was much more awaiting him... Now it seems that Three Gods won't protect a traitor."
Thuram shuddered at these words.
He had sworn to Three Gods when he had pledged fealty to Drow Silvermoon and the new Osha clan.
Iron Axe's last sentence was also a warning to him.
"Now we can crack into the business." The mixed-blood patted Thuram on his shoulder, utterly unabashed. "The reason I've picked you is that you know everything about Iron Sand City. People in the oasis told me that there's nothing about the desert that you don't know."
"It's simply because I've been living here for a long time and heard a lot of stories." After witnessing how the watchdog had been defeated overnight and how the explosion had brought upon Iron Whip clan a swift destruction, Thuram showed more respect to Iron Axe, Princess Osha and Graycastle that supported them. "I'll tell you everything that I know in detail."
Iron Axe inclined his head. "Very good. If you want to win the holy duel, you have to first thoroughly investigate your rivals... Let's begin with warriors from various clans and their Divine Ladies."