It’s a Long Way to the Top

All the clans leaders at the table and followers sitting in the audience became noisy after receiving this news. After a few minutes, a few of these clan leaders at the table had enough, and exerted pressure using their bloodline to cause everyone to quiet down.

"Chief Onyxclaw, is this report correct?", Razortalon inquired.

"Of course, my own men wouldn't submit false reports to me", the old crow responded in a harsh tone."

"Did your scouts witness what the rabbits were selling their corpses for?", an ugly man asked in a polite manner.

Razortalon was curious as well, but was put off by the one asking the question, Gorewing, chief of the vultures.

"Chief Gorewing, once you find out, I recommend that you tell your people to be more cautious in the future", Onyxclaw laughed before calming down, "My shouts discovered that the rabbits were trading the corpses for crates filled with vials."

Everyone's eyes narrowed as murmurs and whispers could be heard throughout the room.

"Poison", Razortalon almost spat when he voiced his suspicions, "Looks like this rabbit king is planning on attacking the wolves."

It was well known that wolves used superior pack strategies to fight, but also that their bloodline powers enhanced their strength, stamina, and senses, especially the sense of smell.

Razortalon grabbed his Qphone, opened the chat room he had with Chief Bloodclaw, and began typing a message to warn his ally. Everyone watched as he took a few minutes to interact with the small artifact, and when Razortalon raised his head Chief Ironspurs asked, "Chief Razortalon, why did the image disappear, and what did you just do?"

"Chief Ironspurs, as I've explained before, this artifact has many functions", Razortalon replied, "Not only can it recorded and display images, it can send messages to other people with the same artifact."

Even though Ironspurs tried to hide his expression, Razortalon could still see hints of surprise on his face for moment.

"So you are saying that Chief Bloodclaw already received your warning?", Ironspurs questioned him, "Is it possible for me to take look at this artifact?"

"I don't mind", Razortalon replied knowing what the chicken wanted to do, "I should let you know that each artifact is linked to its owner by blood and spirit, so even if you ran away with it, you couldn't operate it. And if you wiped my mark of it, you couldn't activate it."

Ironspurs felt like he been seen through, but played it off as he inspected the artifact, "I would never do such a thing to you. Is it possible for us to travel to Sun & Moon island after this? I would very much like to purchase one for myself and my elders as well, this artifact would change the battlefield forever."

"I will be happy to accompany you there", the eagle told Ironspurs, "Once we get this business of the rooms and stones settled, I will head back to pick up my younglings along with the wolves, bears, and foxes."

"Of course", Ironspurs smiled as he handed the Qphone back to Razortalon, "We did get off track, shall we finish reporting the news and the meeting?"

Everyone seem to agree, so the other clans continued to brief until everyone had done so. With the meeting completed, all the clans took off and went their own way, except for the chickens.

"Proudfeather, take everyone back and prepare", Ironspurs commanded his troop, "I will take the elders to get these 'Qphones' and come back. Our attack on the snakes will have a higher chance of success if we can get our own now."

"Yes Chief", Proudfeather answered.

Ironspurs morphed into his true body and took off, his elders following him into the sky.

Wei Huoran was in his simulation space workshop, forging an ingot of alloyed metal. If one could look around the room, they would see a large screen on the wall displaying a series of blueprints from left to right. The top of the screen had a header written that said, 'Current Nonviable Projects' and the first schematic on the left look like a building sized mech. Notes were scribbled in a column next to the drawing that mentioned the flaws: too big, too slow, too weak, requires too much materials, verdict - project on hold until materials and enscriptions can make viable.

The next schematic was around three meters tall, but if one looked at the column to the right, they would see many of the same flaws written down. The verdict however was different, 'impractical' was written next to this design and it seemed that this would never have hope of being made. To the right, another design was next and if anyone from Earth saw it, they would recognize this design was inspired by a certain avenger. It was human sized, but had many more attachments on it compared to the original design where Qi batteries had to be installed. The column to the right read as follows: too slow, too weak, not enough space to fit all the enscription required, uses spirit stones inefficiently, verdict - nonviable, on hold until better materials located and better array formations are researched.

Huoran was practicing his forging technique on different alloy ingots of different mixtures, when a screen opened close to his position. He stopped what he was doing, and answered the call.

"Secretary Su", he replied sharply, "Has something happened important enough to interrupt my training?"

"Yes, I believe so Boss Wei", Su answered.

"Just a moment then", Huoran said as he cancel his current training and left the simulation space. He sat down in his favorite chair and took out a bottle of tea before looking back at the screen.

"Please proceed, Secretary Su", he told her.

"I received a priority message from Chief Razortalon informing me that we will have a guest soon", Su started her brief, "Chief Ironspurs is traveling our way and according to the Chief Razortalon, Ironspurs is suspected of carrying the Stone of the Rooster."

Huoran was surprised, "This is big news, I will arrange the formation to intercept him then, Please continue."

"Yes, Boss Wei", Su replied, "The Golden Peony have made an agreement with the ministry, and are about to send Lord Merchant Tan back to make arrangements. Speaking of people leaving, the artisans of the Nanying continent have completed their custom classes and will be returning to their perspective sects or homes. I have been told that a new group of artisans will be coming to replace them, and that the first group plan on returning for advance training once the initial upgrade to their homes are completed."

"Excellent", Huoran remarked, "I'll get ready and go send both groups off then."

"I'll inform them of your visit then, Boss Wei", Su responded, "The last item I have is from Chief Ironclaw, he sent us the images of the suspected room and altar. He is asking for your master to attempt to translate the runes, and promises to bring materials and spiritual plants if he accomplishes it."

"Send it to my inbox and I'll give it master after I'm done sending everyone off", Huoran instructed her, "I might as well talk to you now that you're here. Miss Su, I've noticed that you haven't taken your days off or time off for cultivating since you started working for me. Your contract had these benefits written into it, and I'm concerned about why you haven't used them yet."

Su had an embarrassed look on her face, "I haven't found the right candidate to train yet, and it's not a big deal if I'm doing the work right now."

"No, Miss Su!", Huoran firmly said to her, "I haven't done well enough since it's gotten to this point. You have two weeks to send me candidates, or I'll do it myself."

"Yes, Boss Wei", Su said guiltily.

"I will get ready for our guest leaving now", Huoran told her as he ended the call.

Chief Jaeger Bloodclaw was looking at his Qphone as he read the message from Razortalon. He called his elders over, and held a meeting with them.

"Everyone, we are going to delay our trip to the dog nation", Bloodclaw said, "I just received word that the Springpaw army has acquired large amounts of poisons from Grimtooth snake clan, and are currently traveling here."

The elders all stood in panic and one elder said, "We have to quickly activate the protective formation before they arrive."

"We will, but not yet", the wolf chief replied, "Prepare the new artifacts, the talismans, and have the protection array formation on stand by."

The elders that had traveled with Jaeger had a realization and smiled, while the rest continued to have confused and concerned looks on their face.

An older wolf spoke to the other elders, "Come with me brothers, you will see what the chief is talking about. The rest of you should go to the array formation control disk and prepare."

Longfang and his brother wolves didn't go on the last trip with the elders. Now they were stationed at certain locations on the mountains with a strange artifact and a stack of talismans each. The instructions they had received was very simple, when the order is given, load the talismans into the artifact, and activate it.

To say the least, they didn't understand what was going on, but they still listened to orders. Soon enough, the wind shifted, and Longfang could smell the scent of the rabbit army approaching. He sent a message talisman to the nearest elder and an hour later a howl was heard around the mountain. Before giving everyone their location assignments, a code was established for communication, and this first howl told everyone to wear their mask.

Everyone at Longfangs location put their masks on, and loaded the artifacts that were given to them. Half of the wolves had large buffalo sized artifacts with five legs and a large straight horn, the other half had eagle sized artifacts that flew and held a crystal rod under its belly.

As the rabbits grew closer, two howls were heard all over the mountain, so Longfang and the others used their blood essence to activate the mask and all the artifacts. The larger artifacts moved in position, and then each leg drilled into the ground. The smaller artifacts started to float, rising higher into the air until they were just above the tallest trees.

Longfang and his brothers were shocked as this sequence of events occurred, because inside the mask they could see the view of the smaller artifacts.

Three howls were heard forty-five minutes later, and the wolves who were responsible for the larger artifacts took out the control disk and activated the attack command.

The flying artifacts started to shift positions and they scanned the enemy locations. Once they stopped, the larger artifacts scared the wolves as each one shot out a small talisman that arched through the air before activated over the head of the invaders.

Longfang was in a daze at the scene in front of him as some talismans burst into giant fireballs, others released chain lightning, exploding Ice spheres that rains ice spears in all directions, and wind blades. Just as he snapped back to reality, all the larger artifacts launched another volley. Occasionally, a smaller flying artifact would dart forward and fire a red light from the crystal rod it carried, but after an hour, all the artifacts went silent. A series of howls were heard indicating victory as more wolves added their voice in celebration.