Chapter Three: The Rock Tribe

    The Rock Tribe was located on the opposite side of the vast continent, at the highest point of the Qiushui Mountain Range. There, the mountains were filled with freezing fog all year round, and the silver wrapping looked like a world colder than snow and ice.

    It was difficult for everyone to find the Rock Tribe, and the people of the tribe also rarely came down from the mountains. They rarely traded with other tribes, so when the merchants came with their treasures, most of them came back disappointed. Many people began to wonder if the Rock Tribe still existed in the world.

    Even so, the admirers continued to come in droves, so persistent were they, simply because of a tantalizing legend…… Legend has it that the Rock Tribe possesses a marvelous miracle - a holly well made of purple and black crystals piled up on the side. It was said that when they came here and made a wish on the holy well, what they wanted, objects of steel that could not be forged by ordinary blacksmiths would then appear from the holly well.

    While this sounded exactly like the magic of the False Gods, the people of the Rock Tribe claimed it was a gift from the True Gods, not a deal with False Gods or digital demons.

    "Lord Lei Xun, we need to find the Rock Tribe." That day when Kun said this, the wind blew his silver hair, which was a vivid interpretation of his callowness. But his confident cadence made his words particularly persuasive.

    It was two days ago, but the scene before we left was vivid in my mind. When Kun and I reached the edge of the tribe, my father's eyes, which had always been reluctant to dwell on me, seemed to stare at me for a while, no longer with contempt and belittlement, but with a look that I had never seen before. I was surprised to see something in his eyes that I had never seen before - worry and care.

    As the crowd gathered at the edge of the tribe to witness the farewell ceremony, the tribe's most venerable elders lit a huge furnace supported by thirty-three crossed-walking whale bones. The fire shone through the exquisitely carved pattern on the stove.

    My father led the crowd in a pious gesture of worship and prayed for the protection of the gods.

    When the fire stopped, Kun and I set out.

    Curling smoke gradually blurred the figure of the people, I looked at my father, and I looked forward to seeing my father stretched out his hand to say to me "Good Luck."

    But my father did not do so, and eventually, his mouth was silent as usual, and the tender eyes that had belonged to me for a short time disappeared.

    Everything would be much simpler if Kun was able to use the magic iron he was traveling on.

    Countless dark nights, as I sat alone on top of the glacier, I had seen many False Gods descend and fly again in that thing.

    The magic iron looked like a silver iron dragonfly, with four streams of clear light wings and a long tail. An arc-shaped glass cover replaced the position of the head. The flowing blue halo around the body also made me fascinated and curious.

    I don't know if it was because the people of the Rock Tribe loathe the False Gods even more than we did, or if it was just plain to demonstrate sincerity, Kun told me that we must climb the Qiushui Mountain by ourselves.

    We headed for the mountains together in a huge camel, a slow, bad-tempered beast with its long neck up, nibbled at the leaves along the way. If I didn't push it, it would stop dead in its tracks.

    I wondered if this big-bellied guy could evolve a "meat peak" to store food. If this big-bellied guy could evolve a "meat peak" to store food, would that make him concentrate more on being a carrier?

    "It's funny, this is my first time riding an animal."

    At this time, Kun’s face unexpectedly appeared a quite comfortable smile. This smile was clear and bright, the bumpy humpback did not affect his eyes to enjoy the scenery at all.

    "I'd rather try your magic iron."

    Looking at Kun’s enjoyable face, the newfound courage even made me say such treacherous words.

    Probably due to the absence of my father's stern eyes to follow, I became unbridled. This was also a taboo, as a person blessed by the True God, went so far as to think of boarding the False God's evil vehicle. If this happened in the tribe, it would surely get my father's punishment.

    " Those who are favored by the transport will often be too easy to show up and earn the host's grudges, and this is especially true in tribes where human contact is rare, so we had to climb the mountain religiously."

    It seemed that my thoughts could not escape Kun's eyes.

    Strangely, looking at Kun’s eyes, quiet and peaceful, I would have a feeling of being willing to be seen through by him.

    "I don't understand. We're got a pretty tempting offer here. Why don't we use the magic iron to tell the Rock Tribe earlier?"

    " You'll see, ask your heart again, maybe next you'll know the answer up." The corners of Kun's mouth pulled up slightly in a mysterious arc.

    However, I realized nothing…… When the conversation was difficult to continue, Kun closed his eyes. It seemed to instantly enter the dreamland, and the mysterious smile was frozen on his exquisite face.

    As dusk fell, the Sky Tower of the False Gods was showering pink frosted floccules on the earth. The setting sun, through the pale pink mist, made the sunset appear far and near, and its dense sunset clouds cast on the glacier, made the world look like a fairy tale.

    We reached the base of the Qiushui Mountains in the dark night, and the cold moonlight illuminated it in a ghastly white light.

    I looked at the frozen mountains that were almost perpendicular to the earth in front of me. When I thought of the next step I would take, I suddenly shivered, and the icy wind seemed to have pierced me through.

    When I did climb, the truth was really colder than the air, and the Qiushui mountain range was especially steep. On the dangerous slopes at the base of the mountain, there was still a chance to catch my breath, but now that I was halfway up the mountain, it would have been impossible for me to stop for a moment. My body was pressed against the rock, and the slightest movement of my limbs could lead to a fall.

    "Don't you want something to eat?" Kun looked at me, who was already struggling to walk, and asked with concern.

    "No."

    Probably the cold had long since numbed me, and apart from the cold and the extreme tiredness, I couldn't feel anything different.

    "That's good. I forgot to bring food, too." Kun apologized half-jokingly.

    Also sticking to the glacier, under Kun's frosty white skin, there was a slight reddish color, and there is a trace of blood color similar to that of a mortal.

    As I reached the top, the temperature seemed to plummet, and the vapor from my breath turned instantly into tiny ice crystals. My eyebrows and hair were covered with a layer of white I had a layer of white frost on my eyebrows and hair.

    “Don't sleep!”

    Just as I was feeling deeply heavy and losing consciousness, there was a faint sound in my ears of Kun's yell.

    "Look, it's almost there!” Kun reached out his hand at this time and pulled up the shaky I.  After climbing up for hundreds of meters, I finally reached the top of the mountain. I was shocked by the scene in front of us —— a waterfall dropping a kilometer suddenly appeared in front of us, the torrent from top to bottom exited the smell of corrosion and acid, sulfur? It dawned on me that what was falling over the waterfall was a solution to death.

    "It seems we must go back." No creature can go through the "gate" which was made by Sulfur Falls —— no wonder everything about the Rocka Tribe was legendary.

    Even if the eyes of the Kun were still as confident as before, my common sense had drawn a full stop on this trip.

    "Why go back? We're already here." Kun smiled at me with soothing eyes. Then he looked at the Sulphur Falls with a smile.

    I followed the eyes of Kun, a crimson boat was flying down from the Sulphur Falls, I could not believe my eyes……

    The boat, studded with rivets, was protected from sulfur by carefully stacked metals. It steadily descended, relying on the black-gold iron cables hidden in the waterfall……

    "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

    A group of bearded dwarves descended from the boat. The leader wore an iron helmet with talons on it, and his thick eyebrows were joined together, looking particularly stern.

    I supposed they were the warriors of the Rock Tribe, and though they looked shorter than the men of the plains, they were strong and imposing.

    "No wonder I detected a metallic reaction in the mountains. It turned out to be False God who came uninvited. Why are you going to all this trouble? Why don't you just fly over?"

    The bearded dwarves of the Rock tribe looked jokingly at Kun, the expression of the dwarves showed their dissatisfaction.

    "Lord Zulu, we have come to destroy the tower of the False Gods. I represent not my people, but the remaining remnants of justice in these cold times. So perhaps you can let go of the trouble my unchosen birth has caused you."

    Kun elegantly and unrestrained waved his slender arm, the glass scroll appeared in the next moment in his hand.

    The bearded dwarf, whom Kun called Zulu, looked carefully at the symbols on the glass scroll in front of him, and the dwarf, who looked so rough, was more patient than my father. When the dwarf's thick eyebrows tightened into a knot, and slowly unfurled, his mouth also gradually appeared an imperceptible smile.

    "It seems to make sense."

    "Come out, we have a visitor today." Zulu waved his hand in the air a few times.

    Suddenly, a light illuminated the thin air, and the steel giant hidden in the waterfall of sulfur suddenly revealed.

    The diminutive warriors were sitting on their ironclad warriors. After a mechanical roar, they came out of the waterfall. The great sword of the iron giant fell to the ground, and where it landed, the ground was deeply smashed with a sharp depression.

    "And this is?" It was then that the dwarven chief discovered my presence.

    "He is the son of the chief of the Su Xia Tribe. Before you, the Su Xia Tribe had agreed to my request. The cavalry warriors of the Su Xia Tribe will be an indestructible force." Kun pulled me in front of him and solemnly introduced to him.

    "Traitor of the man in heaven, you should have come to me for such a good deed first!"

    The bearded Zulu's eyes shifted again from me to Kun, whom he glanced at with mock anger.

    "Yes, my Lord, in theory, I should have come to you first, but the hordes who had lived in seclusion in mountains still used what our False Gods used…… Well…… Magic. If I take your ironclad warriors and try to convince the other tribes, they will suspect more of a trap."

    Kun deliberately spoke the word "magic" with a tone of deep meaning.

    "Unbridled! There are only levers and gears in our iron giants, they are directly controlled by humans, not hellish creatures possessed by digital demons, and False Gods. You've misjudged me!"

    I wonder if Kun has revealed the secret the Rock Tribe has been harboring. The bearded leader's anger was kindled, and the Dwarven chief's dark face looked bright with the blush of his anger.

    "It's a fundamental difference! I repeat, our mechanical giants are under human’s direct control! No need for digital demons!"

    "But Sir, your ironclad warriors do look a lot like the first Demon Mech of the False Gods, don't they?" Kun pointedly out directly.

    The anger that had nowhere to be unleashed made the corners of the dwarf chief's mouth twitch.

    "Machinery is the tool of human beings, to achieve more for human beings, even if the ironclad warriors and Demon Mech of the False Gods look very similar, but we Rock Tribe still have the bottom line of human beings, unlike you false God, we human beings will never connect the soul with the digital demon!"

    Kun seemed satisfied with the dwarven chief's answer and said slowly, "This is very good. Perhaps this will be a good opportunity for the world to see again the values believed in by the Rock Tribe. This time your tribe will be the vanguard of the whole human army - the first to storm the heavens of the Man's army!"

    "Really? I can't wait to do it." The bearded Zulu’s eyes brightened, but he did not want to lower his pride. "But I still have to think about it!"

    "You can take as long as you like. Take your time. But get the boy something to eat first. We've been traveling for two whole days……" Kun looked back at me, smiling, and slowly said: "This is a good start, Lord Zulu……"