Chapter 45: Tracking the Stone

"Hope? What hope?"
Yang Xuan's face looked unpleasant. He suspected that the old man in front of him might actually be crazy.
"Grandpa here is a wizard."
Without waiting for Grandpa to answer, Arong beside him said, "He can read a person's fortune. Whenever our tribe makes a significant decision, we always ask Grandpa to take a look first."
"Wizard?"
Yang Xuan was slightly shocked. After hearing what Ah Long said, he looked at Grandpa again and found that the old man's behavior, speech, and dress did indeed resemble that of an old wizard.
“Speak up, outsider.”
Just a moment ago, Grandpa was dancing and screaming non-stop, but suddenly he calmed down and looked at Yang Xuan, asking, “What brings you here to find me?”
Is this old man crazy?
Yang Xuan looked at Grandpa with a puzzled expression and was somewhat absent-minded.
Ling Chengfeng quickly stood up and said, "We want to know how to get from here to Tang Valley in the fastest way possible."
"Are you going to Tang Valley? And you need the fastest way?"
Grandpa was taken aback.
"Yes."
Ling Chengfeng nodded.
"Hmm..."
After a moment of contemplation, grandpa suddenly said, "I do know a way that can get you to the Black Tooth Country in just half a day or so."
A-Long was surprised and exclaimed, "Grandpa, this can't be possible!"
"The Black Tooth Country?"
Yang Xuan snapped back to reality and asked, puzzled, "Where is the Black Tooth Country? We're supposed to go to Tang Valley."
"The Black Tooth Country is close to the Tang Valley, but not too far away."
Aron turned around and said this, then asked Agong, "Agong, why have you never told me how to get to the Black Tooth Country in half a day?"
"Because this method is almost impossible to succeed."
Grandfather answered like this.
Before Yang Xuan could speak, Long was even more anxious than the three of them and asked eagerly, "What method?"
"Go find the Mothbird."
"What! The Mothbird? Who knows where they are!"
"So, this method is almost impossible to succeed."
The conversation between Grandpa and Arong soon had a result, and Arong, who was originally excited, suddenly became disheartened and lost his interest in continuing to ask questions. Grandpa also fell silent.
"May I be so bold as to ask a question?"
Seeing that both of them had fallen silent, Yang Xuan interjected discontentedly, "What is this 'extinction of the Mongolian Bird' that you're talking about?"
"It's a legendary type of bird. It's said that their nests are located near our country of Jie Xiong."
A Long explained, "But no one has ever discovered the traces of the extinct species of bird."
A legendary bird, perhaps?
Yang Xuan furrowed his brow and asked, "Can this bird get us to Blacktooth Country in half a day's time?"
"Of course."
Grandpa nodded and said, "The speed of the Mie Meng bird can be compared to that of the Biyi bird. If it is willing to take you for a ride, you can cross the entire Flowing Sands territory and reach the Black Tooth country in just half a day."
Yang Xuan continued to ask, "So where do we go to find it?"
"Didn't I already tell you, the extinction of the Mie Mong bird is a fact,"
A Long took over the conversation and waved his hand in frustration, "I have searched within a hundred-mile radius, but I have never seen a Mie Mong bird. It's probably been extinct for many years."
"No, the Mongolian lark hasn't gone extinct, they still exist."
Grandpa shook his head and turned around: "Just wait a moment."
Then, a few people saw Grandpa walk over to a pile of high and dusty boxes, and began to rummage through a pile of clutter as if looking for something."
"Strange, I can't find it. I remember it was in...ouch!"
Grandpa was searching around and suddenly the box in front of him fell over, knocking him to the ground and burying him under various items that spilled out of the box.
"...A Long, aren't you going to save people?"
A few people watching nearby were stunned. They looked at the trembling old man moving about in the debris, and Yang Xuan, Lu Xiaoqi, and Ling Chengfeng immediately looked up at A Long.
"Ah? Oh right! Grandpa...I'm here!"
After a brief commotion, with the help of Alon, Grandpa struggled to get up from a pile of debris and suddenly his eyes lit up.
"Ha! Found it! This is it."
Grandfather bent down and picked up something from the ground, and walked quickly to Yang Xuan and the others: "With this thing, you can find the Mie Meng bird."
说着，阿公摊开手掌心，一颗晶莹剔透的水晶石正平躺在他手心之上。
"What is this?"
杨玄盯着水晶，一脸好奇。
“寻踪石。”
阿公笑了笑，说：“这是当初一位旅者留下来的，我之所以知道灭蒙鸟能带你们在半天内赶到黑齿国，也是哪位旅者告诉我的。”
Grandpa handed over the tracking stone while talking.
"Tracking stone? Traveler?"
Yang Xuan received the tracking stone and observed it curiously.
Looking closer, he found that the crystal stone was transparent and contained a compass-like device with a small pointer and several directional indicators.
"Hmm, with this tracking stone, you can find the Thunderbird,"
Grandpa nodded, a smile on his lips: "That's what the traveler told me back then."
"Oh?"
Yang Xuan looked at the motionless pointer inside the tracking stone and asked curiously, "So Grandpa, you've had this tracking stone for so many years, but you never tried to find the Thunderbird?"
"Yes, Grandpa, why didn't you tell me about this?"
Dragon looked at Xuan in envy as he held the Tracking Stone, complaining, "You know I love exploring the most, if you gave me this, I would have found the Extinction Bird a long time ago."
"Useless."
Grandpa shook his head and pointed to the Tracking Stone in Yang Xuan's hand with a smile: "The traveler only gave me the Tracking Stone as a gift, but never told me how to use it."
“When I was young, I once wandered around with this tracking stone, but the pointer inside the stone never moved. I even suspected that the stone was broken, so that's why the traveler gave it to me as a gift.”
"Bad, bad?"
"Uh, possibly."
Hearing this, the hope that had just ignited in Yang Xuan's heart was instantly shattered.
What the heck! This old man is completely unreliable!
"So, besides this Tracking Stone, I also have an ancient map here."
Grandpa seemed to have known that they would be disappointed, so he quickly pulled out a parchment scroll and said: "This map records the location of the lair of the extinct Mongolian Bird. However, this map is over a thousand years old, so the information on it may not be accurate."
"To sum up, these are the only ways I can help you."
"For the remaining issues, you have to figure them out on your own."