Chapter 414: The Crag Eagles

The rock spirit replied, "Mt. Wanren reaches high into the clouds and stands over ten thousand meters tall. That's why it was called Mt. Wanren!

The crag eagles are a race of birdmen with human form. However, their wings don't sprout out from their back, but rather from where their arms would be, like bats. The eagles don't have arms, and their feet are like eagle claws. The males and females of the race look noticeably different."

Zhang Lie nodded and verified, "Are you sure the mountain pierces the sky, and is over ten thousand meters tall?"

"Of course! I've been to the mountain myself!"

Zhang Lie pointed straight ahead. "Could that be the Mt. Wanren you've mentioned?"

The mountain to which Zhang Lie pointed was hardly piercing the clouds; it had somehow grown slanted at a rather odd angle.

"I can't imagine they call that mountain Mt. Wanren any longer."

Because of how it had tilted, it wasn't more than seven thousand meters tall, if that.

Zhang Lie had long since guessed that something would have happened to the mountain in the intervening thirteen thousand years. Even an ocean on Earth could have dried up into an arid desert, let alone a mountain.

The rock giant scratched its head. "Let's see if there are any intelligent races in the vicinity who know what happened."

Zhang Lie folded his arms. "You were at the mountain thirteen thousand years ago! You know how rare long-lived races are, don't you? How do you expect to find one such race nearby?"

In general, long-lived races were those whose members lived for about five hundred years or more; the other races were considered short-lived. The sura and the humans were both short-lived races.

Despite his reservations, Zhang Lie had no better idea, and he went along with what the rock spirit had suggested. They wandered around the base of the mountain trying to find some intelligent life, only to see a few black shadows swooping down toward them.

Zhang Lie raised his head to see a few eagle-headed, human-bodied lifeforms. Their feet were eagle claws, and their arms were a pair of wings. Their feathers varied in color within a black-white spectrum: white, gray, dark gray, black. Ribbons of cloth were tied to their waist.

The largest of the lifeforms shouted, "Big blockhead, where do you come from? What are you doing here?"

The rock spirit whispered to Zhang Lie, "These are the crag eagles."

Beside the crag eagle who had spoken, his gray-feathered companion stared at the rock giant with piercing eyes before realizing something and panicking. "Brother, brother, something's very wrong! This is the rock monster our ancestors spoke of!"

"What?! A rock monster?!"

The crag eagles all began to panic when they heard the words "rock monster".

"Those rock monsters who eat us crag eagles whole?!"

"Those rock monsters who toppled Mt. Wanren?!"

"This is a catastrophe! The rock monsters are coming again!"

Zhang Lie asked the rock spirit by his side, "Just what did you do to these crag eagles all those years ago?"

The rock spirit scratched its head. "Nothing much, as far as I remember. We fought with them and left since they were stronger than we expected."

Zhang Lie's face was dark. "And yet you seem to have left an indelible expression on this clan."

The gray-feathered crag eagle shouted in panic, "Quick, we have to inform the clan head of the rock monsters' impending attack!"

The black-feathered crag eagle hollered over the cacophony, "Silence, all of you!"

The panicking crag eagles all calmed down as the black-feathered crag eagle turned back to Zhang Lie and the rock spirit. "Rock monster, I've heard too many tales about you ever since my childhood."

Zhang Lie whistled. "Looks like you're quite famous around here, eh?"

"I, Yu Huantian, don't believe that you rock monsters are so strong that you were able to topple Mt. Wanren!" He flapped his wings and generated what seemed to be a miniature hurricane, which he sent toward the rock giant.

However, that attack did nothing to the rock giant, not even leaving a scratch on the rocks that formed its surface.

1. Wan = ten thousand, ren = unit of length