Mysterious Box (Thanks to Sparrow Sheep Rain for the Bobo Milk Tea! Thank You!)
After this incident, the group's progress accelerated considerably. In just two days, they had already crossed Mount Yu, Mount Qufu, and Mount Juyu.
After collecting a considerable amount of gold and jade from these mountains, the Kurama lost interest in them.
This left Su Yu speechless. Even the greedy Kurama had lost interest in gold and jewels.
That's right. Most people in the group have developed a resistance to these things by now. After all, nobody can stand seeing them everywhere every Tenten, right?
At the Mount Fuyu, the group, exhausted from a long day, planned to get some rest tonight. However, the impatient young master Malfoy dragged Goyle and Crabbe to a riverbank with fishing rods, intending to catch some fish. They wanted to try the sweet and sour fish that Su Yu had personally cooked last night, which was delicious.
"How much longer do you think we have to walk?" Bored, Cho Chang teased the Kurama in his arms, then looked up at Su Yu, who was lying in Daphne's arms with his eyes half-closed.
"Soon. If you're already tired of the scenery, we can speed things up tomorrow. We should be able to reach Nanyu Mountain in about half a month." Su Yu answered Cho Chang's question with feigned seriousness, while secretly and gently stroking the soft object beside him.
"Slap!" Su Yu, who had been slapped by Ka-jie, quickly pulled his hand back.
"Actually, it can be even faster, if you're willing..." Su Yu quickly pretended to be nonchalant, as if he hadn't done anything!
"Do you have any ideas?" Cho Chang asked, quickly moving closer and tugging at Su Yu's sleeve when she heard that Su Yu indeed had a solution.
"I can just use Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique to take you there by high-speed rail. It'll be a quick trip. The only problem is that I can't summon other creatures. Otherwise, summoning a larger bird would be even faster."
"Look what we've caught! A dog that's alive underwater!" Malfoy exclaimed in surprise as he discovered that he had actually fished a dog out of the water!
Callis and a few others who loved to join in the fun rushed over after hearing Malfoy's voice, snatched the net from Goyle's hands, who was still standing there in a daze, and started helping Malfoy catch fish.
Before long, George and Fred worked together to scoop up a lively Yi Fish.
This fish had the head of a dog and the body of a fish. It had been pulled ashore and was quite ferocious, its mouth wide open as if it wanted to devour the people in front of it.
"This little thing is pretty fierce." Callis teased the Yi Fish in front of her with a twig, then turned to the people in the room and shouted, "Is it time for an extra meal tonight?"
At the same time, far away in the Northern Classic of Regions Within the Seas, near the Ghost Country, the Japanese soldiers of the Mahoutokoro were hiding in a dark cave, having not eaten anything for two days.
Team leader Kikuchi Tadao lay listlessly on a Taiseki. He had been devastated Mahoutokoro the loss of six people in the past few days. After all, they were still just a group of seventeen or eighteen-year-olds. The fact that they hadn't huddled together and cried in the face of such a bloody scene was already a testament to their resilience.
"Baka! Can I go on like this?!" Tsuruta Gihei, who was already dizzy from hunger, propped himself up to stand up. "I think it's time to open the box the teacher gave us when he came in!"
"But Tsuruta-kun, our teacher warned us that once that box is opened, we can only live for a year at most! I haven't lived enough... I don't want to die..." Todo Shinsaku a ball, his voice trembling with sobs.
"But how long can we live like this?" Tsuruta Gihei retorted indignantly to Todo Shinsaku. "Stop being so soft-hearted! For the glory of our Great Mahoutokoro! And for the glory of our Empire!"
"Let's vote." Kikuchi Tadao opened his eyes, took out the mysterious box, and placed it in front of the group. "We have fourteen people left. The minority shall obey the majority. Let's begin."
At the edge of the Northwestern Great Wilderness, the fractured Mount Buzhou stands diagonally between the gray and gloomy sky and earth.
The once towering pillar has been ripped open by a huge crack that runs across the mountain, exposing the rugged, reddish-brown rock face, which is riddled with ravines from lightning strikes and collapses. Debris has piled up along the cliff face and rolled down to the mudflats that are silted up by the Cold and Heat Water.
The ground was covered with withered white wood and broken jade fragments. Dust was swirling in the canyon, carried by the west wind. Yellow fog obscured the sun, making the sky dim and gloomy.
Phoebe and her friends walked with difficulty on the rugged and winding stone path. Their high heels were long gone, and now all of them had their feet wrapped with homemade hay and animal skin. Their silk school uniforms were tattered and hung in strips on their bodies.
"Captain Phoebe, where are we now..." A girl from Beauxbatons touched her dry, cracked lips; she was almost too weak to walk any further.
"Hang in there, we should be able to reach the gate of Mount Buzhou in a day or two. After going around Mount Buzhou, we can reach Gai Mountain Kingdom in another two or three hundred miles." Phoebe had long been unable to hold on. With her young lady's personality, how could she possibly endure this kind of environment? If it weren't for her sense of responsibility as the captain urging her to continue, she would have already given up and announced her withdrawal from the competition.
Durmstrang Institute has announced its withdrawal from the first match, becoming the first academy to forfeit it. Poor Krum, although he and his Champion were struggling to survive in the wilderness in the land of the Corpse of Nü Chou in the Western Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas, they hadn't been reduced to giving up the match.
But their luck was just too bad. A group of people were cooking over a fire in an open space late at night, and that open space was home to a Thousand-Li Giant Crab that hadn't yet reached adulthood. What they love most is when strangers come to land on their backs or cook, and then suddenly get up, shake them off, and eat them one by one.
When the colossal Thousand-Li Giant Crab, as large as a mountain, stood up and brandished its two pincers, ready to devour the Durmstrang Institute students, Krum stepped forward. He waved his staff and continuously used Dark Magic to harass the crab and save his companions. But that was all he could do. The Thousand-Li Giant Crab's shell was no joke; his magical attacks were practically useless against it.
Seeing that things had gotten out of his control, Karkaroff, watching from the sidelines, had no choice but to tell Headmaster Dumbledore, with a heavy heart, that Durmstrang Institute was forfeiting the first match in order to prevent any student casualties.