61 An Exiled Tribe (1)
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Greenland Firesilk Plant [Unranked]
Condition: Seed / one of the three specialized plants found in Yan Emperor Grassland
Maturity: 7 days in a natural condition (60 hours if nourished by Spiritual Thread)
Harvest: 12 Firesilk balls with 24 seeds embedded within
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Item Description: Known for their volatile temperament, the Greenland Firesilk Plant produces what known as Firesilk Cotton when their bulb explodes open. Lovely while still attached on the plant, the Firesilk Cotton turns extremely sensitive to the flame when removed. While the Firesilk Cotton can be used in various applications, the wood itself is the best quality product to be made into compressed wood with high resistance to explosives. This plant's quality is too low to be graded.
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"With this kind of resources in hand, making an explosive to be used in war won't be an impossible dream. But I'll have to see how viable is this material before fully applied the soldiers."
"And with three new platoons trained by Ka-Ba, I hope they'll get ready for war earlier because once we started mining at the cave, the Donghai-Orcs is going to take action. Although their skills might be questionable, a swarm of ants still capable of taking out an elephant."
Mu Qing Lang's preparation closely resembled the act of somebody afraid of death that he arranged more soldier than he needed. To him, this was not wrong at all looking at how easy can the flow of a war change against him.
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Day Sixty-Nine.
With Han Yu leading his platoon, 100 workers hired from Mushan Village followed his lead to the cave located in the Yulan Mountain Forest. Of course, Mu Qing Lang followed them with Yulin handling the Shuiyuan Grey Donkey with fifty settlers from Eastern Changzhou to help in preparing meals, counting their contribution, and other menial tasks.
The previous seven days also gave Mu Qing Lang the chance to expand his exploitation on Prairie's Baneseed Plant. With a maturity period of ten hours, Mu Qing Lang successfully let his people collected a total of 19 batches of berries from the plant for him to process all of them into Solid Methane Fuel.
In total, there are 380,000 berries converted into 380 units of Solid Methane Fuel for the ten days consumption. While the outside of the cave will use stacks of straws as their source of a campfire, the inside will only use Solid Methane Fuel to reduce the possibility of Carbon-Monoxide Poisoning.
Plus, Mu Qing Lang ordered the beginner craftsmen to work with the bamboo and created fifty bamboo stove with metal on its base to hold the Solid Methane Fuel inside. Because the bamboo stove had an opening on the top, it can work both ways like a small cooking stove and also as a lantern inside the cave.
The protected mobs of people reach the cave in the afternoon, with the four squadrons making the way under Han Yu's lead. As for the fifth squadron, Mu Qing Lang arranged them to stay guard outside in case the Donghai-Orcs is here.
With the two previous survivors acting as the guide, they found the correct passageway almost immediately. To make sure there's nobody is lost inside this cave, Mu Qing Lang had Han Yu lead a squadron further to the wrong junction, and close them if it was a dead end or leading to somewhere without resources.
It did not take them too long to reach the first chamber, about three kilometers width from one end to another. It was about two hundred meters in height, and when the bamboo stove is lit to extend their vision, a shocking discovery brings shiver into their entire body.
Above them is an entire nest of Eight-Legged Stalkers, at least more than twenty of them. In term of appearance, they cover some similarity to the tarantula spider. But that was all that can be taken into comparison.
In term of size, the Eight-Legged Stalker is two meters from head to its silk spinner, one and a half meter long each of its leg. When fully expands, it can easily reach three meters wide and stands above Mu Qing Lang's line of sight.
"Ma... Master! Be careful!" proving himself fit to be the platoon leader, Han Yu immediately unsheathed his sword and stands two steps beside Mu Qing Lang to provide him with protection.
"Sii... Sii... The brightness brought by multiple bamboo stoves made the sight became clear to them. While at the same time, it caused the Eight-Legged Stalker discomfort for having a sudden light came into their life.
Worst of all, the bamboo stove is two to three times brighter compared to the torches used by the Orcs. Such discomfort made the nest of Eight-Legged Stalkers furious and went everywhere within the chamber. As long there's a hole connecting to other places, it will be crowded by the Eight-Legged Stalkers.
And the passage they came is no exception. The spiders evaded the light and ran, almost like a mover trying to mow down whatever on their path as they went away.
"Defend the people!" Mu Qing Lang tapped on Han Yu's shoulder to remind him to act. His order as the leader of all present activated the four squadrons to start moving.
"Master, how about..." Han Yu turned around to see what his master wanted to do, but he caught no one in his sight when he turned his head around.
Mu Qing Lang was the fiercest person in this chamber. Since Luoli started to make several weapons for the army, he had chosen one to suit his own needs. This weapon is made from a blend of Confer Stone and Water Gravel, which strengthen its frame at the cost of heavier weight.
But the weight was also one of the requirements in his demand.
An arm's length blade shaped into a squarish baton, a handle long enough to fit two palms, with a rounded pommel at the tip. The weight of this weapon should not be less than fifty kilograms. Furthermore, Mu Qing Lang ordered not one, but two of the same armament.
This weapon is known as (Jian) back in his previous life, used by none other than Qin Qiong, one of the door god inherited through folklore from Ancient China until his death. The weapon was shaped like a sword, thick like a stick, and prism-ed to increase the number of flat surfaces used in weapon-fight.
"What is that? Sword but not a sword, stick but not a stick." Han Yu eyes shine in curiosity as he stares at Mu Qing Lang's weapon.
"Yargh!" Mu Qing Lang charged at the incoming Eight-Legged Stalker, with a swing straight onto one of the front legs.
"Si!!!" the cries alerted the other spiders, but it was not enough. Mu Qing Lang turned himself around, borrowing the force to land another strike on the spider's head this time.
Instead of calling him a fighter, he looks much more similar to butcher. The only differences are instead of the whole cow or boar, his target is a carapaced spider taller and broader than his own size.
Since the cry did not grab the attention of the others, Mu Qing Lang thrust his [Jian] to the bottom of the spider before forcefully throwing it up in the air. Another round of borrowing force from a turn, Mu Qing Lang struck both of his weapons heavily on the spider, throwing it to one of the corners.
"Next!" Mu Qing Lang hunted them amidst their confusion. While they attacked his men, Mu Qing Lang chased them from behind. The [Jian] works like a dog-beating stick, miraculously educating the Eight-Legged Stalkers like puppies.
Any of them that got beaten by his weapon obediently sat at the corner, waiting for a decree from this overlord. If he wanted them to die, then they'll die as he wished.
"Ahem..." the fight continued until a coughing sound came from one of the passageways leading further inside of the cave. Slowly, the footsteps from the darkness came closer to them, and finally reveal itself.
It was a human spider, something similar to an Arachne in the human's folklore. But again, it was different. This creature shows herself with two pairs of legs on her back. Adding up with her pair of arms and legs, it was eight in total.
Even somebody that never seen a spider before knowing this creature before them is a spider.
"Why would this lord attack our tribe and tried to force us to leave this cave?" the female human spider kneeled at least twenty to twenty-five steps away from Mu Qing Lang before she asked for a reason.
"I am Mu Qing Lang, chief of Eastern Changzhou. I believe that this must be a misunderstanding between us," he replied with a gentler tone seeing how the female human spider kneeled before she starts talking.
"This lord, please give our tribe a way to finish our last moment of life here hidden from the Yulan Emperor. We, the banished, will no longer dare to make our ugly appearance seen outside of the sun." the female human spider said.
"Are you the queen of the spiders?" he asked.
"Answering to this lord, Yes."
"This nest of Yulan Confer Spiders is the last few drops of blood left. I hope milord willing to let us die thoroughly here and let us leave..." the queen spider said.
"I don't know who is this Yulan Emperor and I'm sure there's no longer such a person exist. If you're willing, we will not mistreat your tribesmen when we're mining here. Furthermore, it is up to you to choose what to do outside or inside here." Mu Qing Lang replied to her plea.
"Yulan Emperor is no longer out there? Impossible... That's a very daring word you've tried to say... Who are you?" the queen spider asked.
"Me? I'm the future hegemon controlling the four zones, Changzhou Warlord, Mu Qing Lang."
