With the Wei Family's newly reinforced three Flying Boats, they loaded everyone aboard and fled through the air, increasing their speed by more than tenfold at once.
In less than half a day, the six Flying Boats had traveled five thousand li and discovered the first barbarian settlement.
It lay in a bend of the river, a settlement built by a barbarian tribe upon the plains within the riverbend.
The northern barbarians primarily lived as nomads, settling wherever there was water and grass. At this bend in the river, influenced by the waters, even in the present winter with heavy snow swirling through the air, some half-withered, yellowing grass and vegetation still grew. It was well suited for the barbarians to settle through the winter.
Moreover, the river flowing through this place had already had its ice broken apart by the barbarians, allowing them to catch large quantities of fish for the settled barbarians to eat through the winter. It was indeed an exceptionally fine place to live.
Liang Zhaohuang and the others arrived aboard their Flying Boats without making the slightest attempt at concealment, immediately alarming the many barbarians in the settlement below.
At once, the entire settlement descended into chaos. Some barbarians ran about in panic, while others seized bows and arrows and shot at the Flying Boats in the sky.
Yet very soon, a burly barbarian man clad in tiger skin emerged and let out a deep, furious roar, instantly cowing the panicked barbarians.
It was plain to see that this man had to be the leader of this settlement.
Then, at the man's shouted orders, every barbarian in the settlement rushed toward its center.
There stood a crude white-bone altar. All the barbarians dropped to their knees around it, continuously kowtowing and praying.
At the same