The Ring: Sell Dung Beetles in Junction

Chapter 448: History of the Horned People

In the cave where the Horned People are hiding, they are making careful preparations to attack the city of Ensis.

Prepare weapons, prepare maps, prepare attack plans.

"Prepare a map? Where is the map?" Wuming heard the attack plan of the Horned Man, smelled the scent and reached out.

With the map drawn by the local Horned People, I should finally not get lost again.

Wuming asked for a map and returned to his little corner where he was recuperating, ready to identify the area carefully.

I unfolded the map and found it was unexpectedly simple.

It is more like freehand painting than simple. Many landmarks are painted in a sloppy and wild manner, making them difficult to recognize, and the roads are also unclear.

Not much better than the map given by the Lone Prison Knight.

"Is the map of this place so crudely drawn..." Wuming murmured in a low voice, somewhat shocked. After a moment, he understood that it was precisely because he was a local that he did not need to be so standardized. The landmarks and characters used also tended to be traditional for the locals, without considering Wuming, a foreigner.

"Too closed, too uninternational. Don't they consider others at all?" Wuming said indignantly and drank another big bowl of scorpion soup.

Wuming now drinks three bowls of scorpion soup every day, and plans to use his tongue and eyes to analyze the recipe of scorpion soup. Wuming believes in his ability to analyze.

The only problem is that the scorpion soup tastes so good that I forget to analyze it every time I drink it. I swallow it in one gulp and forget everything. I regret it every time I finish drinking it, and lament that my memory is getting worse and worse.

After Wuming finished drinking the soup, he realized that he had forgotten the analysis again and silently put the bowl on the ground.

There would be a little boy who would collect the dishes and chopsticks. He was responsible for Wuming's food and daily life. The boy was also a horn man, with an inconspicuous hard horn on the back of his head and a very thin body.

The little boy saw Wuming put down the bowl and came over to pick it up.

Wuming looked at the bowl and suddenly realized:

"That's not right. If there's no recipe for this soup, then how is it made?"

The little horned man replied, "This was sent from Barrett, where there is a grandmother who can make soup."

"Barrett...where is that?" Wuming asked.

The little horned man saw a map spread out in front of Wuming, so he moved closer, took a look, and pointed to a place with his tender finger.

"It's not far." Wuming touched his chin.

Compared to the distant and unmotivated city of Ensis, Wuming was more interested in this Barrett.

Wuming was thinking about how to sneak away to Barrett during the chaos, and noticed that the little horned man was holding the bowl and staring at him.

"Don't look at it, kid. Go and do your own thing." Wuming waved his hand and sent the child away.

The little horned man held the bowl, stared at Wuming, and spoke:
"Master Yuto."

"Um...oh, you called me, what's wrong?" Wuming said.

"You are not a horn man?" said the little horn man.

Wuming was startled, and quickly cast a soundproofing magic between his child and the Horned Man who was discussing fiercely how to attack Ensis City in the distance.

After the soundproofing, Wuming turned to the little horn man and said:
"I'm a horn man."

Wuming is very confident: "Before I got the recipe, I was a horn man."

The little horned man stared at Wuming with his clear eyes without saying a word.

Wuming couldn't stand being looked at and became discouraged:

"Well, I'm not a Horned Man - how do you know?"

"You know even less than I do." The little horned man pointed at Wuming, "The questions you ask are all stupid."

"This is not my fault. Didn't I say at the beginning that I wasn't a horn man? No one believed me." Wuming began to shift the blame, trying to put the responsibility on the group of horn men next to him, "But they didn't see it, but you, a kid, saw it."

"I don't know, maybe it's because my horns are small?" The man with little horns asked hesitantly.

"Are smaller horns smarter?"

"The bigger the horn, the smarter it is," said the little horn man. "That way it can communicate better with the gods."

"Then how come you are the only one who figured it out?" Wuming asked.

Wuming looked at the group of people who were obsessed with revenge and thought that perhaps their desire for revenge had blinded their reason.

The little horned man said, "Maybe it's because horns can lower people's rationality. In the past, there were practitioners with horns as big as yours, but because of improper practice, they went astray and became a disaster. The adults also say that those who can remain rational when the spirit descends are the most powerful."

"I thought it was caused by experience, but it turned out to be a physical cause?" Wuming looked sideways, "Your technical route is too dangerous."

The man with small horns said, "It may be because the people with big horns focus on the wider world, so they don't pay attention to the details. For example, your mouth doesn't look like the mouth of a mythical beast, although it is also quite pointed."

Wuming looked at the little horn man:
"You have good observation skills. You discovered it but didn't tell anyone else? Why did you tell me directly?"

"I have never seen anyone like you. You seem very strange." The little horned man said, "The adults are seeking revenge and cursing Messermo and his minions every day, but you seem unwilling to seek revenge."

"I'm not a horn man, why would I want revenge?" Wuming said, "I don't even know that Messermo, although I think that Messermo is a waste."

The little horned man said: "I have also seen other people in the Shadow Land, but none of them are as leisurely as you. I have also seen the invading army from afar, but they are not so leisurely. You are very unique."

"I'm not from the Shadow Land." Wuming said.

The little horned man's big eyes widened and sparkled, as if he had heard some myth.

"Outside the Shadowlands?" the Little Horned Man asked. "What does it look like?"

Wuming approached the little horned man and said, "Tell me first, what is the situation with Messermo? I didn't dare to ask before, for fear of being exposed."

The little horn man poked his chin with his finger and thought for a while:

"The adults said he was a hateful invader, the child of the evil woman Malika, the instigator of the burning, killing and looting, and the archenemy of the Horned People."

"Malika's child?" Wuming frowned, "Someone from the Golden Tree?"

"Oh, yes, they are from the Golden Tree. The Golden Tree is the enemy." The man with the little horn seemed to suddenly remember and added.

"Why are you acting like you're reciting a text?" Wuming said.

"This is the knowledge passed down from generation to generation by the adults," said the little horned man. "Everyone said that we must not forget this blood feud, and we must not forget that we were once the masters of this land."

"Generations..." Wuming pondered, "How long has it been since this golden tree invaded you?"

"I don't know." The little horned man shook his head. "Anyway, that's what the grandparents said. They said that their grandparents told them the same thing. I heard that there's an old lady in Barrett who has lived for a long time. She's been alive for a long, long time. Maybe she knows."

"So long?" Wuming said, "The people at the Golden Tree do have a long life expectancy, so—"

Wuming looked at the little horned man and said, "After so many years, why haven't you been wiped out?"

In Wuming's opinion, the war between the Horned People and the Golden Tree was a one-sided one. If such a one-sided war had continued for so many years, the Horned People should have been exposed and destroyed. How could they still have the strength to resist?

"I don't know." The little horned man said, "But the adults often move around, saying that we can't gather too many people at a time. We have to spread out and harass the invaders. This will make them tired and panic, and they will constantly fight each other and finally defeat them."

"Defeating the people of Golden Tree... that's hard." Wuming picked at his bandage. In his impression, there were many tough guys on Golden Tree's side.

"Many uncles and aunts never came back." The little horn man said, "The adults said that they have all become guardian spirits and will bless us to win."

Wuming remembered something and asked the little horn man:

"What about your parents?"

The little horned man shook his head: "I don't know where my father is. I was dug out from my mother's pierced and burned body."

The little horned man spoke calmly, with a pair of clear eyes, as if he was talking about someone else. He pointed to the top of his head:
"It's a pity that my horn is not big enough to see my mother's guardian spirit. I heard that those chosen great horned warriors can look directly into the soul and see the guardian spirits above people's heads."

The little horned man looked at Wuming curiously:

"Do I have a guardian spirit above my head?"

Wuming stared at the little horned man's head for a while and said:
"You know I'm not a real Horned Man, right? I can't see anything. You probably have to wait until you find a real chosen Horned Warrior."

Wuming retracted his gaze. There were indeed tiny souls hovering around the horns of the little horned man. But they were obviously broken and not in shape, and more like resentful souls. With madness and resentment, they kept gnawing at the horns and drilling into the brain. They really didn't look like guardian spirits.

The little horned man was a little discouraged: "The adults said that the remaining beast warriors were hidden in the tower by Marika using shadows."

"You are still young, there is still a chance." Wuming touched the little horned man's head and wiped away the vengeful spirits near the horns.

The little horned man's eyes turned: "By the way, since you are not a horned man, do you have a name?"

"No, I'm Wuming." Wuming said, "I forgot my name a long time ago. What about you? Do you really have no names?"

The little horned man said: "The adults said that now is a time of crisis, and it is the time when integration is most needed. We are all horned people, there is no difference."

After saying that, the little horned man looked around and whispered in Wuming's ear: "I named myself Nalim, which means river. There is a blue coast where the river flows to the south. It is very beautiful and nice to see."

"River?" Wuming was alert. "If there is a river, then are there boats?"

"It seems so." Nalim, the little horned man, recalled.

Wuming picked up the map and handed it to him: "Where?"

Nalim slid his finger across the map, identifying the direction and then pointing to a location.

That is probably the location of the Dragon Cave. It seems that this is the only way to get to the Blue Coast.

"Well done." Wuming touched Nalim's head.
Nalim blocked the nameless dragon claw hand:

"I've answered so many of your questions, it's my turn to ask you."

"You say." Wuming said, "We businessmen will not refuse equal exchange."

Nalim said: "What is it like outside the Shadow Land? Is it really like what the adults said, a hellish scene under the rule of the golden tree?"

Wuming raised his eyes and thought about it. The previous border area did not seem to be a good place.

"I don't know." Wuming said, "When I arrived at the border, the border had already been torn apart by war, and there were indeed many casualties everywhere. But now it's much better, and there are not so many people fighting."

Wuming raised his thumb and pointed to his forehead proudly:

"I'm not bragging, I have contributed a lot to this."

Being too proud, the dragon claw of his thumb failed to retract and pierced through the bandage and stabbed straight into his forehead, spurting out blood.

"Oh! That's amazing." Nalim's eyes widened and he clapped his hands. "How did you do that? Can you end the war here?"

"This..." Wuming hesitated, "I don't know the situation in Shadow Land, but I only have a part of the credit for stopping the war in the border area. The biggest reason is that after hundreds of years of fighting, everyone is tired and doesn't want to fight anymore."

Wuming looked at the horn man who was still thinking about how to take revenge in the distance:
"I don't know how many years you have been fighting this."

The little horned man said, “The adults say that Messermo has been invading us for more than a thousand years.”

"That's too exaggerated." Wuming was shocked, "It shouldn't be that long."

More than a thousand years, Wuming felt that a dynasty only lasted that long. Considering that the Xiaojiao people were just hearsay, Wuming thought that this might be exaggerated.

"Invasion..." Some doubts suddenly arose in Wuming's mind.

Wuming was very sure that the border area was a place without shadows, and there was not even a single record of it, as if it did not exist at all in history.

When he actually stepped on this land, Wuming could also feel the desolation and decay here. This was a kind of decay different from the previous border area. The decay of the border area was presented by the corrupt immortals, while here, it was presented by no one.

The group of soldiers that Wuming encountered before were the ones that Jiaoren mentioned as the soldiers of Messemo and the black knights of Messemo. Even so, it took a long time to encounter such a group.

In other words, the Golden Tree invaded this place, but did not occupy it. No wonder it has not squeezed the Horned People to the point where they can't survive for so many years.

What is the purpose of the golden tree? What is the purpose of Malika?
Wuming always felt that something was not right here.

After the invasion, why did they hide this place and not use it at all? This is such a waste.

Wuming read something unusual from the story of Nalim the Little Horned Man.

Either the Horned Man was lying and there was something else going on. Or Marika had a special purpose, and the Golden Tree's invasion had some purpose that Wuming couldn't understand at this stage.

Wuming asked the little horned man: "The golden tree invaded here, why did you hide here?"

Nalim shook his head: "I don't know. I've never thought about it."

"You, you should think more." Wuming poked Nalim's horn.

Nalim covered his horn and said, "I was overthinking. I was thinking about the outside of the border. Let's talk about the outside of the border. What does it look like? Are there any special products? Does the golden tree outside also use fire and piercing to torture people? Or are there other means? The adults said that they will catch horned people outside and cut off our horns. There are also burying alive, locking in sewers, and torture instruments. What do the torture instruments outside look like? Are they also like curved arcs?"

Wuming frowned when he heard this:
"Why are all your imaginations about the outside world like punishment?"

"Are these all fake?" Nalim was surprised. "Are the adults lying to me?"

"No... it can't be said to be false." Wuming recalled, "But you can't just focus on these."

Wuming said seriously: "Let me tell you, the border area is very large. Such a large area will be very diverse and have everything."

"for example?"

There was so much to say that Wuming didn't know what to say for a moment. Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Wait." Wuming said and began to touch her breasts.

The sharp dragon claws pierced into the chest and entered the cavity.

After a moment, Wuming took out a crystal from his chest.

"Hey, this is our caravan's promotional video." Wuming said, "It shows our products in all aspects. Although it may not allow you to see the entire border area, it is enough to let you see all the products in the border area, and it also shows the origin of some products, which should allow you to see more."

"Oh!" Nalim became excited, grabbed the crystal, put his eyes close to the crystal, admired it, and uttered exclamations from time to time.

"Don't let anyone see it." Wuming reminded him, "At least don't let anyone else see it before I get the recipe for the scorpion soup, or else it'll ruin my plans."

Nalim was speechless and just nodded subconsciously.

(End of this chapter)