568: Making Moves on All Fronts

Making Moves on All Fronts

Several months passed by as the beast-kin rebuilt themselves, forming a greater and grander city. While the little villages were nowhere to be seen, there was still the large chasm created by the Devouring Goose and the skeleton of the beast itself laying on the ground. All of the meat had been stripped off and even the bones had cracks in them, drained of their marrow.  0

It could be said that they had grown by leaps and bounds, benefitting greatly from this. 

Within the center of the city, where the elders of the tribes gathered, they were all busy discussing many affairs. There were numerous documents before them, loudly reading them out and looking to the others for opinions. 

"All of the beasts' corpses and their cores have been accounted for. They have already been distributed to the three divisions. Once we break down the Devouring Goose's body, we can continue with creating weapons and armor for everyone."

"The construction of the new homes is nearly complete. After this, we can divide each tribe into their respective areas."

"There doesn't seem to be any problems now. All three divisions have become smaller but our strength practically doubled. We have a wealth of materials now and food is no longer an issue."

"If that's the case, we should look out towards the Savage Lands."

"The Reclamation Division is already at it, clearing them by the droves. We already have the entire Preservation Force focused on watching the area. In the span of a few weeks, they've gone through most of the South. They might even try to hunt another Beast God if one appears." 

Slowly, their conversations were shifted towards the next step, pushing back against the Savage Lands. 

"We're growing quite quickly, do we really want to expand so aggressively?" 

"There isn't a choice. We have the opportunity, we have to take advantage of it."

"Hmm, but the North. Those ominous clouds that the White Lion pointed out have vanished but... we should be careful about that area. Ruishi Wang, I know that you want to explore that area. However, I think that we should still focus on the ruins."

Everyone turned a bit quiet as they looked towards him. However, Ruishi Wang didn't seem very much bothered by it, looking at them with a nonchalant expression. 

"If that is the case, I do not have anything to say. My hands are already full with other matters and I'm sure the same goes for you all", he said. 

"I see. Then we'll put the North for another time." 

Everyone continued their work after this little exchange, reading through reports and discussing things until an interesting piece of news came. 

"It seems that the White Sword's Remains has crumbled, It looks like a mess but there may be things we can salvage from there.  Certainly! That old goat seemed to have found clues regarding that organization he was talking about. According to him, those two places are connected." 

"We should send them there, no?" 

"They've already left. He got ahold of the report before any of us even had a look at it."

"I see. Then move on, like Ruishi Wang said, our hands are full on other matters."

"Right, right. Okay, next, a few of the other ruins have been cleared as well. The Expedition Division has been hard at work..."

As the discussions continued, there was one who seemed quite focused on something else. Using a fan to cover the lower part of her face, Huxian Qie, gazed at Ruishi Wang, who didn't seem to notice at all.

"Hmph, that old bastard probably has something in the works right now", she thought. 

Narrowing her eyes, she waved her other hand, calling for her attendant and whispering orders into their ears. 

"Send a few of our emissaries, make sure to watch his clan and report any strange movements to me." 

The attendant nodded and walked away quietly while the fox-kin continued to eye him for a few more seconds. Certainly, plans were underway and she was not the only one to have made moves. There were several other elders, secretly planning and securing information. 

As far as their goal was, however, that was something only the elders knew themselves. 

While all of this was occurring, the Zodiacs were well on their way towards the White Sword's Remains, or at least what was left of it. 

With Zhu Xie at the helm, they were relaxing on this new ship. It was much larger and quicker than the last one, equipped with a larger cabin that had much comfier seats and other facilities. 

"Ah when you decided to fly straight into the Devouring Goose's eye, I thought that maybe you might still be alive but then it exploded. I still can't believe you survived that! And you have another ship, not to mention, it's even more luxurious! Just how lucky are you?" 

Qiang Rong looked at the boar-kin, playing with his staff which was now half its size. The monkey-kin had a smile on his face, no doubt feeling energized and well-rested. 

"Hahaha! You should've seen the faces of the Red Dragon and White Lion, I don't think I've ever seen their eyes and mouths get so big when they saw me."

Zhu Xie laughed to which, Ao Qin and Ruishi Lei had a look on their face.

"Hey, who would've expected that you'd survive that? I thought you died! Rallied the entire Reclamation Division to not let your death be in vain!" said Ao Qin. 

"Wait, really? You never told me that? Do you think I could meet them?" 

He turned towards the dragon-kin with an excited expression. 

"Okay, alright, stop it you all. Let's get to the matter at hand. The White Sword Ruins! It collapsed! How can such a thing happen?'

Speaking from the back, Lao Yang got off his seat, walking up while looking at the others. The goat-kin walked with his cane, turning towards the Four Claws as if looking for an answer. 

Unfortunately, Niu Hong and the others just shrugged. 

"We've only been inside once and nearly lost our lives", said the ox-kin, "Perhaps the Dragon of Swords is loose?" 

"No, the reports said nothing about it. The scouts didn't know what happened either. When they arrived, the ruins were already destroyed but they saw no sign of life or anything. There wasn't even a beast nearby."

Lao Yang stroked his little goat beard, thinking about this mystery. 

"Hmm, whatever the case, we'll find out soon enough. I learned quite a bit about the Order of the Astral Sword in the archives. It seems that they were some sort of shadow organization, pulling the strings towards many things. To think such a miraculous group exists! It is neither human, demon, or beast but a combination of all three, a gathering place of the strong and the wise. It seems that aside from the White Sword Remains, they have three other hidden locations but there are only bits and pieces regarding that", he said. 

The goat-kin continued to stroll from one end to the other end of the captain's cabin. 

"It seems that they have one in each direction, the North, East, South, and West. This one of course being the East", he said. 

Ao Qin raised a brow at him.

"Should we not inform the others of this information?" he asked. 

Lao Yang chuckled and nodded. 

"Of course, I did. I shared it with a few trusted people. As long as they find any ruins with a similar white sword to this one, If I recall, I believe a few people from Reclamation have already found the one in the South. They might be clearing it as they speak."

The dragon-kin looked at him with even larger eyes. 

'Wha- how?"

He couldn't help but utter this one word and Lao Yang just chuckled. 

"Hehehe, never underestimate an old goat, especially this old goat."

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