Chapter 147

He had already killed the Grand Sage, but he had no intention of becoming the Grand Sage. Instead, he deliberately used the Grand Sage's death to frame Cyno, and finally ran to the desert to mingle with this group of desert mercenaries.

What was the point of him doing this?

I don't understand it at all.

Another question is, where did the girl who was with him go? She also has the ability to control trees. Alhaitham wondered if she also had other abilities like Li Yue. With such terrifying abilities, one was right under his nose, while the other was completely missing. What kind of trouble would she cause?

However, Li Yue did not explain to Alhaitham; he simply led Alhaitham to continue doing things.

After subjugating this tribe, Li Yue led the two tribes to begin annexing the next tribe.

The same challenge was issued to experts, but the opposing team, seeing Li Yue's appearance, mistook him for a scholar and only sent one person, who was instantly defeated. They then sent several people, who were still instantly defeated. Finally Li Yue subdued everyone with one hand.

This situation kept repeating itself, and within just two days, Li Yue led his initial small tribe to devour nine other tribes, becoming a large tribe with nearly twenty times the original number of people! By this time, even without Li Yue's presence, this tribe had become an undeniable force in the desert!

245. Tanit tribe

The desert became chaotic.

The desert was already chaotic, but now it has become even more chaotic because a huge tribe has suddenly risen to power in just a few days. Such a large tribe that has risen so suddenly cannot be hidden.

The other desert tribes made a few inquiries and found out what had happened: a very weak tribe, after changing to a new leader, began to frantically devour other surrounding tribes. In just a few days, it had absorbed nine tribes and become a large tribe.

A large tribe with such a large population can be considered a dominant force in the desert.

This situation greatly worried other large tribes in the desert, who feared that this newly emerged large tribe would launch a war of annexation against them and swallow them up.

And as it turns out, their fears were justified!

After Li Yue led Camus's tribe to annex many surrounding small tribes, they set their sights on the large tribes. At this point, Camus's tribe had become a large tribe, and there was no need to annex the small tribes anymore. As long as they annexed the remaining large tribes, the remaining small tribes would come to join them on their own initiative. The desert mercenaries were much better at assessing the situation than the rainforest people.

Among these target tribes is the largest, the Tanit tribe.

The Tanit tribe is a large tribe that has occupied an ancient ruin left over from the King Deshret era as their camp. Because it is located in a canyon, they do not have to build their camp on the desert like other tribes, enduring the scorching sun every day.

Not only do they not have to worry about being constantly scorched by the sun, but there is also an abundant water source below the canyon where they are located. So abundant is their water source that they can even use it to raise crocodiles to help them fight.

This kind of treatment is comparable only to a few other tribes that can establish camps in desert oases, especially since those tribes do not yet have crocodiles. Therefore, the Tanit tribe is considered the largest tribe in the desert.

Therefore, Li Yue immediately set his sights on this largest tribe.

Incidentally, this Tanit tribe is also the tribe that Jeht will join in the future—a disgusting tribe full of betrayal and scheming.

Interestingly, the Tanit tribe was one of the three major tribes under the God of Flowers. When Li Yue learned about this background, she thought that the Tanit tribe was indeed brought up by the God of Flowers, and that each of the God of Flowers's subordinates was more and more abstract in their thinking.

Whether it's Zhen Ling or the human tribes under his command, they're all mentally unstable.

However, no matter how impulsive he was, Li Yue still had to go through the motions. Since he wanted to make the desert great again, he definitely had to make a trip to the Tanit tribe.

Under Li Yue's leadership, they had already annexed a large number of tribes and marched in a mighty army across the desert, heading straight for the Tanit tribe.

Such a commotion was too great. After all, there was nothing to hide in the desert, and it was easy to be seen at a glance. Thus, the sudden march of this newly formed and huge tribe attracted the attention of all the mercenary tribes along the desert route.

Seeing such a massive tribe making such a fuss, the smaller tribes naturally followed to see what was going on. They had been worried that they would be swallowed up by this suddenly rising giant tribe, but now it seemed that this newly risen giant tribe was ignoring them and moving on to a more distant place.

The Sumeru Desert is vast. In the game, it's only a tiny bit, and you can traverse the entire desert in less than an hour. However, in the real Sumeru, it would take many days to cross the entire desert.

Fortunately, the tribes of desert mercenaries are mainly concentrated near the oasis, so the distance is not particularly far.

After half a day of forced march, the already large tribal contingent, along with a large number of mercenaries from smaller tribes who had followed out of curiosity, finally arrived at the outskirts of the Tanit tribe.

When the mercenaries on guard outside the Tanit tribe saw so many people suddenly appear, they immediately returned to the canyon and informed the elders of the tribe.

"Elder Babel!"

"What's wrong? What happened that made you so flustered?"

Seeing the mercenary's panic, Elder Babel calmly inquired.

At this time, Babel was only an elder and had not yet become the matriarch of the Tanit tribe. The Tanit tribe was a female-led tribe, possibly because of their worship of the God of Flowers. After the death of the previous matriarch, the Tanit tribe was currently ruled by nine elders, Babel was one of them.

Not long ago, she had all the other elders killed, and the person responsible for killing the elders for her was the simple- Jeht who later joined the tribe.

Currently, Jeht has not yet returned to the Tanit tribe, so Babel has not yet become the true matriarch, and the tribe's power is still divided among the nine elders.

Back to the present, facing Babel's question, the mercenary answered breathlessly.

"A large number of mercenaries are coming from the west side of the canyon!"

"A lot of?"

"That's right, they look like there are more people than our entire tribe, a huge number!"

The mercenary answered quickly.

"I see, it seems they've arrived."

Babel learned yesterday that there was a huge tribe in the desert that had been established by annexing many small tribes. She wondered if this huge tribe would take action against a large tribe like Tanit. However, she did not expect that the day after she received the news, the other party would come to her door.

She knew about the rules of this tribe's annexation of other tribes, but knowing that was one thing, she also understood that resolving the problems in this world was not so easy.

"Go and inform the other elders about this matter. This is a major event concerning our Tanit tribe, and all the elders need to be present."

"Yes!"

The mercenaries who received the order immediately went to find the other elders in the tribal camp, while Babel quickly gathered the mercenaries together and headed to the outskirts of the camp. She did not want them to rush directly into the Tanit tribe's stronghold.

Soon, all the elders gathered, and all the combat mercenaries of the entire tribe also came together. They stood above the valley where the tribe was located, watching the mercenary army approaching from the distant desert, each with a worried expression on their face.

"Babel, what's going on?"

Elder Breda was not quite aware of the current situation. He looked at the mercenary army in the distance with a puzzled expression and asked Babel a question.

Babel looked at the mercenary army in the distance, his expression also very solemn.

"This is a new tribe that has risen in the desert in the last few days. This tribe started out small, but it has grown rapidly by constantly annexing other tribes. And now, they are coming to annex our Tanit tribe."

246. Annexation of the Tanit tribe

"To annex our tribe? How could that be possible? Which tribe are they from?"

"They are not a tribe that worships the God of Flowers, but a tribe that worships the King Deshret."

The rainforest people mostly worship the Dendro Archon, or the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. The desert people, on the other hand, have two kinds of faiths because there were two gods in the desert in the past. One is the King Deshret, and these people are mostly male-dominated mercenary tribes. The other is the God of Flowers, such as the Tanit tribe, which is a female-dominated mercenary tribe. But no matter whether they believe in the King Deshret or the God of Flowers, they are all mercenaries in the desert.

However, compared to the mercenary tribes that worship the King Deshret, the mercenary tribes that worship the God of Flowers are downright dark.

The darkness within the Tanit tribe is even more terrifying. In order to rise to power, the people of this tribe will assassinate their own people, eliminate dissidents, and even sacrifice anyone for it. Their goal is to become the oracle of the legendary God of Flowers, or rather, to obtain the supreme status under the worship of the God of Flowers.

Compared to the tribes that worshipped the God of Flowers, the tribes that worshipped the King Deshret were practically naive and innocent. They only wanted to take revenge on the God of Flowers, whom they believed had killed the King Deshret. However, after learning that the King Deshret was not killed by the Dendro Archon, they readily admitted their mistake and were even willing to help Nahida regain power.

"Hmph, the King Deshret's tribe actually dares to try and devour our tribe that worships the God of Flowers! They're dreaming!"

Differences in beliefs meant that, although they were all desert tribes, there was virtually no possibility of them annexing each other. This was because their customs and rules were different, and their fighting strength was not weak either. For the past thousand years, they simply could not annex each other.

"That's right, we are a tribe that worships the God of Flowers, and the King Deshret's tribe will never be accepted by us."

Upon learning that the other party was from the King Deshret tribe, the elders immediately expressed their disdain.

Babel couldn't help but speak up as he listened to the elders.

"But I heard that the other side is very strong. They have conquered other tribes and succeeded on the first try every time."

"Very strong? How strong?"

The elders looked at Babel, Babel then revealed the information he possessed.

"Their strongest warrior will publicly challenge the strongest warrior of the opposing tribe. After defeating the strongest warrior, he will strike again and defeat all the remaining powerful warriors, forcing them to join his tribe single-handedly."

"How is such a thing even possible?"

The elders all expressed their disbelief.

"Even the warriors in our tribe who have mastered ancient powers cannot fight against the entire tribe's powerful warriors by themselves. Who does he think he is, a sand worm or Scarab Beast?"

"When I received the intelligence, I also expressed disbelief, but the other side did indeed conquer and annex many tribes quickly. Even if I didn't believe it, there was nothing I could do. Now that the other side can gather so many desert mercenaries, it shows that they do indeed have such capabilities."

Babel crossed his right arm over his chest and spread his left, looking helpless.

"However, considering that there may be other possibilities, elders, you may try to have your falcons test it out."

"This is something that needs no introduction from you, Babel. It's something that definitely needs to be done. How could our Tanit tribe be swallowed up by a barbaric tribe that worships the King Deshret!"

"That's right. Since they want to compete through a duel, I'll send my falcon up to test their abilities."

The entire Tanit tribe gathered together, waiting for the arrival of the mercenary army on the other side.

The mercenary army quickly reached the opposite side of the Tanit tribe. Li Yue's tribe stopped, and the smaller tribes that had followed Li Yue's tribe to watch the show also stopped. These smaller tribes left the main force of Li Yue's tribe, ran to the side, became third parties, and began to watch.

"It seems that some of them are not part of the same group."

The elders of the Tanit tribe breathed a slight sigh of relief when they saw a portion of the mercenary army taking a spectator's stance.

After all, facing so many people at once, if the other side denies the duel and chooses to charge directly with their army, they will definitely have to go through a fierce battle. If such a worst thing really happens, then the fewer people on the other side, the better. Therefore, it is quite good for the Tanit tribe to send out a portion of their people.

After Li Yue's mercenary army stopped, Chief Camus, who had initially followed behind Li Yue, stepped forward.

"I am Camus, the first clan leader under Lord Aizen! Please come out and speak, matriarch of the Tanit tribe on the other side!"

"They're calling for our mistress to come out. Who could it be?"

Babel smiled as he looked at the elders around him.

"I'll do it."

Elder Theya stepped forward.

"Ha, when did it become Theya's turn to represent the mistress?"

Breda sneered as she spoke.

"I should represent the Tanit tribe."

"Breda, what you said can also be applied to yourself."

The elders immediately began arguing about who could speak to the other person in place of the mistress.

Although such a scene is bizarre, it is quite normal in the Tanit tribe, because many of the nine elders want to become the matriarch, who holds the highest power in the Tanit tribe.

Tanit's side started arguing about who could represent the matriarch, while Camus, the clan leader on Li Yue's side, couldn't help but mock the argument.

"Hey, really? Does your Tanit tribe not even have a matriarch?"

Camus actually knew about the situation of the Tanit tribe; they all lived in the desert, and everyone naturally knew this. It was precisely because he knew this that he spoke up and mocked them.

"If all else fails, you might as well just admit defeat. After all, how can a tribe without even a matriarch possibly stand up to Lord Aizen's leadership?"

"You bastard, don't be so arrogant!"

The elders heard his voice and Wrath stepped forward, wanting to represent the conversation.

Babel was the only one who didn't take a step forward. She looked at the group of elders and laughed, not recognizing them.

"What a bunch of useless people, actually pushing forward at a time like this."

"Fine, fine. Since you've all taken this step forward, I'll just assume that your Tanit tribe doesn't have a matriarch and can only rely on a few guys to pretend to have one."

Camus was incredibly arrogant.

"Alright, enough with the small talk. Let me explain our purpose: we've come to annex you."

"Don't talk big. Do you have the ability to annex us?"

Camus grinned.

"Considering that we are all tribes in the desert, there is no need to fight with all of us. After all, that would only cause useless casualties."

"The rules are simple. Our Lord Aizen challenges your Tanit tribe. Whether it's the strongest one or the strongest team, as long as you can defeat our Lord Aizen, we will submit to you. However, if all of your people lose, you will have to surrender to our tribe and become part of our tribe."

"So, are you ready to take on this challenge?"

"Catch!"

The elders spoke in unison.

247. Initial unification of the desert

A flash of white light appeared, and only Li Yue remained on the desert. The last Tanit tribe warrior beside him also fell. Around Li Yue, there was already a group of fallen desert mercenaries, and these mercenaries all had the same title: Falcon.

"Impossible, my Falcon... how could this be...?"

The elders of the Tanit tribe stared in disbelief at the fallen falcons.

After accepting Camus's challenge, Li Yue, wearing glasses, stepped forward alone. When the elders saw the glasses on Li Yue's face, they immediately made the same mistake as everyone else before them: they mistook Li Yue for a scholar and sent out someone at random, who was then instantly defeated.

Shocked, the elders dispatched their elite falcons to besiege Li Yue.

The so-called Falcon is an orphan adopted by the elders from outside. They are brainwashed and trained from a young age to become their most loyal assassins, just like the falcons released by hunters when they hunt. They are also the elders' most prized creations.