Chapter 194 - Earth Cry Tribe
The Bloody Totem Province alliance army had only been in the Earth Cry Province for a couple of hours, but the first gruelling massacre was already underway.
Their opponents didn’t stand a chance. How could a few elders from two different tribes possibly contend against the entire alliance army, consisting of half of the Bloody Totem Province’s elites?
Yaan was the first to jump in, targeting the elders on one side.
The two sides’ elders were stood around half a mile apart from one another, they clearly did not trust those on the other side. They would distance themselves even further apart, but they didn’t want to move so far away that the opposing tribes’ elders could interfere in the battle below without them noticing.
There were five 4-Star warriors in the group Yaan attacked, whilst the other side had four. Seeing that Yaan had chosen this group, the other warriors in the alliance army charged towards the four terrified old men half a mile further along.
CHI!
There was simply no tension in Yaan’s battle. The moment he arrived before his opponents was the same moment that their heads flew. The four slashes of his sword were so rapid that only a single sharp piercing noise could be heard.
4-Star body temperers were not so easy to kill, though. After forming their vital core, a body temperer could survive so long as their core was intact, along with a small amount of their flesh. The best way to kill a body temperer was to either destroy the core, or to remove it from their body entirely.
Yaan made it a habit to almost always harvest the vital cores of his felled enemies where possible.
Yaan had clearly improved during his recent period of cultivation. His sword arts had developed further, getting closer to becoming a complete general sword art.
His cultivation had also improved. His vital energy was now at 22%! This was only a 6% improvement compared to before, but his rate of growth was astounding when considering that other Rank 4 cultivators would take tens of years to achieve such progress, not to mention that Yaan’s Four Paths Cultivation technique was more difficult to push forwards.
Qi refiners required talent and lengthy periods of time to progress. Body temperers needed resources; so long as they possessed sufficient resources, a body temperer’s progress could potentially be ten times faster compared to Qi refiners!
But Yaan followed neither path. Ordinarily, anyone cultivating the Four Paths Cultivation technique should experience the difficulties of both body tempering and Qi refining, needing a surplus of resources as well as an extended period of time to progress through each stage. However, Yaan also possessed the fiend foundation, allowing him to overcome the Qi refining need for long periods of time, replacing this need with slaughter!
If Yaan tried to cultivate like an ordinary Qi refiner, he would never make any progress. At this point, his Qi refining talent was simply insufficient for him to cultivate normally, no matter how long he meditated for.
Anyway, orthodox Qi refining was basically impossible on the Blood Plane, the atmospheric spiritual energy did not permit such a practise.
Yaan glanced to the side, watching as the four old 4-Star warriors were completely overwhelmed by the swarm of battle-ready elders from his army. This was their first chance to prove their worth, and with so many others supporting them from behind, they were completely fearless going into this battle. It was no surprise that the four elders died miserably under the colossal wave of 4-Star opponents.
After confirming that there were no other 4-Star individuals in the vicinity, Yaan’s gaze slowly drifted downwards.
The fearful expressions of tens of thousands of lower realm cultivators stared up at him. They all possessed either Rank 2 or Rank 3 cultivation. Some were 2-Star or 3-Star vital energy cultivators, others cultivated their physical body to the Silver, Gold, Mythril or Obsidian Class. Most pursued some combination of the two paths, as was standard practise on the Blood Plane. A few people had astral tattoos, but this was less common.
This was a large scale war between two Rank 4 tribes, but it was not a war which would determine the complete dominance of one tribe over the other, otherwise there would be more 4-Star elders present.
Yaan’s gaze became cold. He would not show mercy to these people, as showing mercy to his enemy was the same as being vicious to himself. It was unlikely, but there was a chance that someone amongst these countless people might possess a long-range communication treasure.
If he allowed them to live and they then went on to report the alliance army’s presence back to their tribe, and that tribe informed the Earth Cry Tribe, then wouldn’t that simply be laughable?
Life was cruel, especially to the weak. These people had done nothing to Yaan or any of his subordinates, but regardless, they needed to die.
Whoosh…
Yaan entered the crowd silently. He did not say anything, but the moment he moved, the other 4-Star warriors followed after, all with heavy killing intent in their eyes. They had all grown up in the harsh environment of the War Flower Empire, they had all killed an unspeakable number of people…they all understood that there was no room for mercy when it came to war.
Those who were too weak willed to do the unspeakable could never achieve greatness in this empire. It was well known that every single kingdom was built on top of a mountain of bodies. Every single immortal in this empire ascended to their position by climbing this mountain of bodies, using the deaths of countless living beings to walk further along their own path!
Yaan killed indiscriminately. He killed everyone within his vicinity, without even looking at the people he cut down. As the bodies piled up and the blood flowed endlessly, it almost felt surreal, how he was able to extinguish so many lives with so little effort…he began to feel as if he was merely chopping down trees in a forest.
These tens of thousands of lives became a simple number, but Yaan did not keep track of this number. At first, his heart was filled with ruthless killing intent, but gradually, the burning killing intent cooled down, leaving him only with a cold feeling.
His heart had already grown numb to the killing. Yaan had never enjoyed killing, in fact, he did not like it at all. He always felt a faint pain when he killed, but this pain in his heart had been sustained for far, far too long, and now, it was like his natural state of being. Because of this, Yaan overlooked his own aversion towards these horrendous acts, incorrectly believing that he had finally stopped feeling any sort of emotion towards slaughter.
This further cemented his belief that he had no heart…that he had no need for a heart.
Not long later, Yaan stopped. He looked around, realising that there was nobody left to kill.
After straightening himself up, Yaan flew back into the air.
“Continue.” He spoke plainly, then flew ahead, leading the way once again.
Yaan’s demeanour returned to normal, but the other warriors had now tasted the first blood of the Earth Cry Province, their expressions remained ferocious and filled with battle intent. They may have been forced to submit to Yaan and join this expedition, but they couldn’t help but feel their blood boil when fighting within an army on this incredible scale! With so many competent comrades backing them up, they felt empowered like never before, ready to take on the world!
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There were several more occasions wherein the alliance army needed to act prior to reaching the Earth Cry Tribe. Each time, they slaughtered every single person they came across, regardless of their status or power. Some plead for their lives, some tried to flee, some were brave enough to fight back in a suicidal last battle of their lives.
But in the end, they all died.
Before they even reached their target, the Earth Cry Tribe, the alliance army had already massacred nearly two hundred thousand people along their way.
By the time they reached the Earth Cry Tribe half a month later, the killing intent that had accumulated within their ranks was palpable in the air. Yaan realised that perhaps, his plan to attack the Earth Cry Tribe before they noticed the alliance army’s presence was not actually possible, since this killing intent could now be felt from many miles away…
Regardless, even if the sneak attack would not work, he had successfully built up his army’s momentum. With such powerful battle intent enveloping every single one of them, they would certainly fight well in the coming battle
Yaan went ahead of the main group, leaving the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader to lead the alliance army. Of course, Ga Shu was also present to control the situation in case anyone stepped out of line, but that was unlikely to happen at this point.
Unless Yaan was dead, not one of these people would dare to offend him.
He arrived at the Earth Cry Tribe one day ahead of the main group. He wanted to dismantle their tribe protecting formation before the others arrived, that way, their victory would be swift and decisive.
Yaan concealed his presence as he stared down at the Earth Cry Tribe. The tribe was quite strange in that the entire place was hidden from the world under what appeared to be a giant mound of dirt. This was clearly no ordinary mound of dirt of course, it surpassed most mountains in size.
The dirt making up this mound was continually moving, falling in landslides, but also rising up the edges, rolling upwards to the peak.
This was caused by the tribe’s protective formation. Yaan’s eyes shone brightly, intrigued by this formation which was quite different from those he had encountered until now. This formation did not possess much power of its own, but it manipulated the surrounding earth, using the compressed enriched land as a shield to defend its borders.
This formation could not be dismantled easily, simply because the formation itself was protected by a colossal wall of moving earth. In order to even reach the formation, it was necessary to break through the earth mound first.
Yaan did not make any hasty movements, continuing to stare down with a bright gaze. The thick earth could not block his vision, but it did hinder his senses, causing his progress in analysing the formation to slow down.
This was still an impressive result. Others would not be able to see past the earth mound. Even 5-Star warriors could not see past this mound with their spirit sense! The reason for this was that this was no ordinary earth, it was the compressed lower soil dragged up from deeper underground by the formation. This soil was already rich in various energies, and after it was compressed, then further enriched and strengthened by the formation, it had the effect of being able to block spirit sense from passing through.
Yaan’s gaze was supported by his dao of illusions, a mere mound of earth could not stop him. His gaze shone brighter as he squinted intently down below, now able to see through the mound with greater clarity as he put more effort into his analysis.
Like the Burning Lotus Tribe’s formation, this formation had limited detection abilities, whilst its concealment ability was non-existent. It was heavily focussed on defence, but this defence would become an overbearing offence if any intruder rashly attempted to break through the dirt wall.
“Hmm…” Yaan pondered as he watched the movement of the dirt.
He continued to watch for 12 hours. He was patient and showed no signs of urgency, because in the end, Yaan knew that he could just break through with brute force if he needed to. However, doing that would immediately alert the Earth Cry Tribe, whilst the alliance army would be unable to follow in after him until he dismantled the formation from the inside.
If Yaan had to fight against the entire Earth Cry Tribe alone, he would not have time to dismantle the formation.
It would be easier if he could find a better way. If he invaded alone, he would be forced to slaughter all of the 5-Star warriors within, but if he entered with his subordinate force, he had a chance to convince them to submit.
Killing was beneficial to his cultivation, but long term, gaining these people as his subordinates was the better move.
After another eight hours passed by, Yaan’s eyes finally lit up.
He had found a way in, but he did not act. Instead, he waited until the others arrived four hours later.
The moment Yaan saw the first hint of the alliance army in the far distance, he made his move. He wanted to break through this formation before the Earth Cry Tribe became aware of the alliance army’s presence, though in reality, they might already be aware.
Yaan understood that his plan to sneak attack had failed the moment he stepped past the outer layer of dirt, entering the rumbling depths of the moving earth.
As soon as he entered the mound and stabbed into a certain rolling rock, the movement of the earth changed, suddenly collapsing inwards towards him!
Yaan was not discouraged, he had already expected that this might happen. Clearly, a competent person was currently controlling the formation. They could not sense Yaan’s presence, but they were able to feel the damage he inflicted upon the formation!
Within the Earth Cry Tribe, the tribe leader was sweating heavily.
“The Red Demon is formidable indeed! No wonder he was able to subdue the Star Plain Province so easily with strength like this, he found the fault in the earthen rumble formation so quickly!”
The Earth Cry Tribe leader was an elderly man, wearing pristine white beast furs. His lengthy hair and beard were well groomed, but he began to look slightly dishevelled as he grit his teeth and hurriedly controlled the formation to target Yaan as the other elders watched him in worry.
He was the strongest person they had available in their tribe right now! The ancestor was in seclusion, but the tribe leader was still a Peak 5-Star warrior. He could definitely handle this…right?
Bang!
Yaan shattered the rocks and boulders which were catapulted towards him from within the moving dirt dome.
After he stabbed into a certain rock, he opened up a position within the downwards movement of dirt. He stepped into this tunnel, rapidly dropping down whilst fighting off the tribe leader’s attempts to crush him to death.
Before long, he dropped below ground level. He continue to follow the downwards tunnel, until he reached an enormous spiral of dirt far below ground. The dirt was rotating and creating immense pressures, resulting in the dirt and rocks forming upwards currents, creating the scene of the soil moving upwards across the surface of the dome.
Before the tribe leader could react, Yaan slashed at the spiral of dirt with a shocking level of strength!
Boom!
The entire tribe rumbled, causing the citizens to cry out in alarm.
The moving earth dome stopped, then a moment later, the earth all dropped to the ground.
At this moment, the alliance army finally arrived.
When Yaan reappeared above ground, he looked back at the stunned looking warriors. Seeing them all frozen in shock, he frowned and yelled out:
“What are you waiting around for? Attack!”
With that, he rushed forwards, casually chopping down at the formation as he went.
Bang!
A giant hole opened up in the formation, but it did not collapse. However, with the formation temporarily damaged, the earthen dome was unable to re-establish itself, the tribe was now completely exposed!
But the Earth Cry Tribe was no pushover.
Soon after Yaan entered the tribe, the tribe leader stood up tiredly. He had been controlling the formation from a golden chair within the tribe’s central hall, and now that it had been damaged, he suffered backlash and sustained an injury. Right now though, he could not care about this.
His expression was solemn as he turned to the others.
“Everyone, we must protect the tribe! Ancestor is in seclusion right now…we must not disturb her! It is imperative that we prevent the Red Demon from disturbing her cultivation!”
Some nodded with serious expressions, but most looked confused. Even in this situation, they could not disturb the ancestor’s cultivation?
However, nobody dared to argue with the tribe leader, he was not only the oldest of everyone present, but also the most powerful!
When Yaan entered the Earth Cry Tribe, the first thing he noticed was the faint sound of crying, like that of an injured beast, faintly emanating from the ground below him. He could not locate the source of the crying, it actually sounded as if it was spreading upwards from every spec of earth!
But Yaan instantly forgot about this strange noise after flying for just a few seconds in the tribe. He suddenly moved his gaze towards a certain location.
Just now, he had felt something. He felt…
Danger!
His gaze seemed to pass through countless miles, attempting to locate the source of the unexpected feeling.
Just what could cause Yaan to feel danger?
Yaan immediately flew towards the source of this strange feeling. At first, the feeling was only like an illusion, but to Yaan, this illusion was certainly real. As he drew in closer and closer towards the source, his expression became serious.
“Red Demon! You sure are arrogant, to attack-”
Whoosh…
Yaan flew straight past the tribe leader, ignoring him entirely. In fact, he ignored the entire group of elders, stopping just above the golden tribe hall and staring down with an intense gaze.
The elders became completely soaked in cold sweat. Just now, he had flown straight past them, but they were completely unable to stop him!
Yaan’s gaze pierced through the hall, ignoring the concealment formations, reaching the depths below…
The tribe ancestor opened her eyes in shock. Her neck whipped back and she stared upwards, meeting Yaan’s gaze.
The gazes of the two individuals were unobstructed by the buildings and earth between them, and the formations could not block their senses. Both of them felt shocked, but before long, Yaan became guarded, and the Earth Cry Tribe Ancestor stepped out of her secluded chamber, appearing in the air above ground.
The moment Yaan saw this person, he immediately understood why it was that he could feel a strong sense of danger emanating from her body.
‘Nirvana realm body temperer!’