Chapter 65: A Race That Also Suffered Misfortune
Chapter 65: A Race That Also Suffered Misfortune
The speed of the Mengji far surpassed that of the Geju. Riding on its back, the trio crossed the Ice Continent in less than a third of the time it would have taken on the Geju.
A day later, the Mengji arrived at Louis's destination: the depths of the Bashu wilderness. They were supposed to let it go at the edge of the ice field, but the Mengji was simply too fast and too stable. After riding it, the trio unanimously looked down on other creatures. In the end, under the "persuasion" of truth, the Mengji "voluntarily" worked overtime and gave the trio an extra ride.
Running for over a day without rest—this was a terrifying experience the Mengji would never forget in its life. If not for Louis's repeated healing, it would have died from exhaustion at the edge of the ice field that night.
At the edge of another jungle, Yelena stood on a large rock, gently stroking the Mengji's smooth fur. A moment later, as if she had thought of something, she turned to look at Louis. "Louis, would you like a coat or a scarf?"
At these words, the Mengji instantly froze.
Uta was flabbergasted by Yelena's words. "That's... that's not very nice..."
The Mengji shivered and, without even looking back, vanished from before them. Its speed was extremely fast, almost three times what it had been when it carried them. It was unclear whether it had been holding back before, or if the pressure of a life-or-death situation had pushed it to a new level.
Yelena seemed to have just realized what had happened. A subtle change came over her expression, a mix of amusement and exasperation. "I meant buying one for Louis that looks similar..." Although she was very skilled at tanning hides, she truly hadn't been thinking of killing the donkey after the grind was done.
To this, Louis nodded. "Of course, I want one."
The small interlude quickly passed. The trio followed Louis across a river and arrived before a cave.
"Do people really live here?" Uta asked subconsciously, looking at the bottomless cave before them.
Louis nodded, his expression complicated. "Yes."
The condition of this human subspecies was much worse than he had imagined. Perhaps they could no longer be a force in the future fight against the World Government. In Louis's Observation Haki, the number of people living inside was even less than the number of Lunarians on Baal. He had originally thought there would be eighty to a hundred people.
"Let's go." Louis took a deep breath, lit a torch, and took the lead, walking inside.
Soon, the three of them reached the end of the cave and walked out, following the light at the end.
What appeared before them was a paradise. Peach blossom trees, dozens of meters tall, were scattered throughout a valley surrounded by mountains. A river several meters wide flowed down from the top of one of the mountains and into an underground stream.
"So beautiful..." Uta's purple eyes were filled with the color of cherry blossoms as she subconsciously whispered.
Yelena looked at the massive houses and muttered to herself, "What big houses!"
As if just noticing their arrival, giant pastoral dogs, several meters tall, walked out from all directions and surrounded the trio. The giant dogs lowered their heads without making a sound, their huge beastly eyes firmly locked on the three of them, their long tails, which were usually curled up, now hanging down between their hind legs.
Louis raised an eyebrow. He felt that these dogs looked like they would actually bite. With their size, one bite could probably swallow a person whole.
Soon, the people living here also noticed their arrival. They were sturdy individuals, small giants with an average height of nearly 7 meters. They were the people he was looking for—the "Longbo," or rather, the Buccaneer race. They were the same race as Kuma's father. A long time ago, they had secretly fled to the vast Flower Country. To hide even deeper, they had taken the initiative to localize their name to "Longbo."
Louis didn't speak immediately, instead looking up at the surrounding mountains. Soon, he discovered a huge, deep pit on one of the stone mountains. He finally confirmed that this was the place he was looking for.
Back then, when the "old muscle-head" was just a "young muscle-head," he had flown over this area. He was shot down by the "old Buccaneer-head," crashing headfirst into the stone mountain and creating a deep pit.
Just then, several Buccaneers stepped forward and asked Louis and the others, "Which navy are you from? What are you doing here?"
To this, Louis spoke in a deep voice, "I'm looking for a man named Hughes Holden."
However, the several Buccaneers tightened their grip on their weapons, becoming even more vigilant. "We don't have anyone with a foreign-style name here!"
"..." Louis frowned, an ominous premonition in his heart. Behind him, Yelena and Uta silently became alert, ready to make a move at any moment.
The old Buccaneer that the muscle-head had spoken of... Could he be dead already?
Just then, the sound of a cane tapping the ground was heard, and a figure, very short and thin compared to the other Buccaneers, slowly appeared before them. This figure looked extremely old, walking with a cane, coughing with every step. He had only a few strands of graying hair left, and his yellowed teeth were almost all gone.
His arrival made the group of young Buccaneers flustered, and they subconsciously wanted to take him back. However, the seemingly frail old man, who looked like he could die in the next second, raised his cane and casually tapped a young man on the forehead.
Thud.
The young Buccaneer fell to the ground, his eyes rolling back as he fell into a high-quality sleep.
"..." Yelena's eyes widened. These abnormally tall humans were very strong, almost comparable to giants. Yet such a strong young man had been knocked out by a frail old man with a single tap.
The old man opened his cloudy eyes and came before Louis. He stood unsteadily and asked in a muffled tone, "You... looking for me?"
The old man's words made the other fifteen people's eyes widen in shock. This name was different from the name they knew for the old man.
Louis took a deep breath, his eyes meeting the old man's cloudy ones. "My name is Louis. I am here to communicate with your Buccaneer race on behalf of Amit."
Amit was the name of the quiet old muscle-head from the Calm Belt.
Louis's words, however, brought a look of confusion to the faces of the Buccaneers behind the old man, as if they didn't understand what he was saying.
A moment later, the old man before Louis spoke, his tone soft. "Amit... who's that?"
Louis silently pointed to the pit on the stone mountain.
The old man looked up at the huge pit, and he seemed to remember something. A light gradually returned to his eyes, and even his tone became clearer. "I see..."
"Are you a Lunarian?" The old man's gaze fell on the wings on Louis's back.
Louis nodded. "That's right."
Sure enough, the old muscle-head was right. Using his name is useless. Just point at the big pit, and it'll definitely work.
"Come with me, my friend who shares the same disease..."
The old man turned shakily, coughing with every step as he slowly walked toward a wooden house. Louis saw this and shook his head, infusing a bit of life force into the old man to make him feel better. The other party didn't have any major problems; he was simply too old, his body decayed.
Seeing that the tense atmosphere had dissipated, the giant dogs that had been surrounding the trio also became enthusiastic, sticking out their long tongues and coming over to nuzzle them, their tails wagging almost like propellers.
Just then, a few young Buccaneers approached the old man with puzzled faces and asked him a question. "The Buccaneer race... does that mean us? But aren't we the Longbo people?"
Their question made Louis fall silent. He hadn't expected that the Buccaneers here had almost forgotten their own origins.
He imagined that if he hadn't been born, if the Lunarians had really hidden in the sky island and the Calm Belt for one or two hundred years, would they really remember these things? After one or two hundred years, would they know they were Lunarians? Why they were on a sky island?
The thought sent a chill down Louis's spine.
...
The old man's movements paused. His cloudy eyes swept over the young faces, and he explained softly, "There are no Longbo people in the Flower Country."
"There are only the last dregs of a dying race, barely surviving under a false name..."
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