The newcomer was a Celestial Meridian Realm warrior.
A man from the Shanghuang Tribe.
The faint yet palpable pressure of blood and vitality emanating from him forced the tribespeople in every cave to keep their mouths tightly shut.
Huo Tang stepped out of his cave and faced the approaching warrior, shielding the entire tribe behind him.
"Huangshi, the flood has only just passed. Instead of guarding against plague insects in your own tribe, what are you doing here in Blazing Flame?"
Huangshi sat cross-legged atop the Mountain-Cleaving Kui, his gaze sweeping over the Blazing Flame Tribe's caves. Only after hearing this did he retract his eyes.
"Did you fish anything out of the floodwaters?"
"Huangshi, any wild beast washed out by the flood belongs to whoever retrieves it. Isn't it a bit much for you to come knocking and demand it?"
"Does my Shanghuang Tribe lack a few wild beasts?"
Huangshi snorted. "Huo Tang, I'll be blunt. Have you seen any fragments of a Third-Order Iron Wood Ship?"
"Iron Wood Ship?"
Huo Tang froze for a moment, shock appearing in his eyes. "Your Shanghuang Tribe built an Iron Wood Ship?"
Huangshi leaped straight down from his mount and walked around Huo Tang toward the caves.
As he walked, he pulled a smooth fang from his robes. Stopping at a cave entrance, he called out while looking at the tribe's children.
"Little brats, tell me whether you found any huge, huge pieces of wood. Whoever tells me gets this Green Fang Wolf fang."
"Huangshi, you..."
Huo Tang stepped forward.
"Huo Tang, I'm only asking. If your tribe truly picked up wreckage from an Iron Wood Ship, my Shanghuang Tribe can trade other resources for it."
Huangshi tossed the fang in his hand. "Even if you Blazing Flame Tribe kept that thing, you couldn't use it. Where would you find the ability to cut through Third-Order Iron Wood?"
Having said that, he looked again at the children in the tribe.
"Come on, come on. Whoever speaks first gets it."
"We found wood."
The smooth, lustrous fang of a wild beast held enormous allure for children. A child immediately spoke up, and his parents could not cover his mouth in time.
"Haha, tell me where you put it."
Huangshi continued using the fang to entice the child.
He immediately got the location.
The Blazing Flame Tribe had a cave specifically for storing firewood.
Huangshi headed straight into the firewood cave, but he came back out not long afterward.
"Huo Tang, your Blazing Flame Tribe can't handle Third-Order Iron Wood. If you truly obtain it, hand it over, and you can exchange it for resources from my Shanghuang Tribe."
After jumping back onto the Mountain-Cleaving Kui, Huangshi looked down at Huo Tang from above.
"It's fine if you didn't retrieve any before. But if you find Iron Wood from now on, don't hide it away. Otherwise, it won't end well for either of our tribes."
With that, Huangshi tugged on his mount's reins. The second-order Mountain-Cleaving Kui sprayed dense Killing Intent from its nostrils, turned, and ran down the mountain.
Smacking sounds rang out from the caves. The children who had rushed to answer just now were having a miserable time of it, their bottoms getting thrashed as they wailed loudly.
"He didn't give me the fang."
The child cried as he shouted.
"His words are no different from farts. He even tricked children. He wasn't even willing to give up a mere Green Fang Wolf fang. Even if we found it, we wouldn't give it to him."
Some tribespeople grumbled indignantly. The people of the Shanghuang Tribe were far too rude; they simply did not regard Blazing Flame as worthy of notice.
"Chieftain."
Several Mountain Opening Realm tribespeople who had remained in the tribe came out. Huo Tang waved his hand, signaling everyone to disperse and return to their tasks.
Though they were all lesser tribes, there were still differences between lesser tribes.
Among the wilderness mountains and towering peaks without an upper tribe to rule them, Shanghuang was the most overbearing in the area.
Huangshi's blood and vitality were stronger than his. There was nothing he could do; they could not afford to provoke him.
Outside the ancestral temple cave.
Shen Can returned to his cave.
Most of his attention had been on that Mountain-Cleaving Kui mount. If he could eat it, he felt that he could advance to the Mountain Opening Realm.
Worthy of being the chieftain. One look at that weathered face told him the wind and frost had not passed over it for nothing.
He had predicted in advance that the Shanghuang Tribe would come.
It seemed that fragment of the Iron Wood Ship was truly a good thing.
A single Celestial Meridian Realm warrior from the Shanghuang Tribe had come to their doorstep and left the Blazing Flame Tribe with no temper at all. The other side was simply stronger; there was nothing to say about that.
Keep a low profile for now. When the chance came, strike back.
The appearance of the Shanghuang Tribe warrior caused a stir within the tribe, but Shen Can had long since lain down on his stone bed, deducing a Stone Splitter Realm beast-blood neutralizing medicinal formula.
With the second-order witch medicine formula he had previously forced himself to deduce, coupled with the basic witch doctor knowledge he had diligently studied over the past few months, this deduction was much easier.
Having returned to the path of witch doctors, you already possessed some understanding within you. At a glance, you spotted the problem in the medicinal formula.
While Shen Can was carrying out his deduction.
Inside the chieftain's cave, the lamplight flickered. In the somewhat dim cave, Huo Tang's expression could not be clearly seen.
A hunched figure entered from outside the cave.
"A-Tang, Huo Lei and Huo Pan both succeeded. They've advanced to Mountain Opening."
Joy could not be suppressed on the old man's face.
The ancestors were blessing them.
First came the improved body-tempering fist art, then the improved plague-curing witch medicine formula. The tribe seemed to have gained a great stroke of fortune.
The improved fist art had even allowed every tribesperson who attempted to advance to Mountain Opening these two times to succeed.
Hearing that they had succeeded, Huo Tang finally let out the breath he had been holding.
By this count, the tribe had gained five Mountain Opening Realm warriors in merely two months, bringing the total number of Mountain Opening Realm warriors to eighteen.
The entire Blazing Flame Tribe, including infants still in swaddling clothes, had a total population of 2,177.
Among them were 179 Stone Splitter Realm warriors.
Of the original Mountain Opening Realm warriors, four were already advanced in age. Like Huo Yun before him, their blood and vitality had long begun to decline.
Even if they fought desperately, they could only unleash Mountain Opening Realm combat power one more time.
The tribe did not have clearly defined elder positions like the larger tribes did. Among the tribe's four elderly Mountain Opening Realm warriors, Huo Yun and Huo Yu were equivalent to the tribe's elders, assisting in handling the tribe's affairs.
As for the remaining two, their minds had long since begun to fail them.
Thus, Chieftain Huo Tang, Huo Shan the hunting team leader, Huo Xian of the ancestral temple, and the two elders Huo Yun and Huo Yu formed the helm of the Blazing Flame Tribe.
"Don't spread word of Huo Lei and the others advancing just yet."
Elder Huo Yun nodded and left.
The heavy rain had stopped, but danger had arrived as well.
Of course, danger also brought opportunity.
The sudden addition of five Mountain Opening Realm warriors allowed Huo Tang to see an opportunity.
Great disasters were followed by great epidemics. This was experience accumulated over the years. Even if a tribe had prepared in advance, plague insects could slip through every crack.
Once their luck ran out and plague insects paid them a visit, even the largest tribes would suffer calamity.
Now, the tribe had gained more Mountain Opening Realm warriors, as well as an improved plague-curing witch medicine formula.
If this plague-curing witch medicine formula truly worked—no, as long as it was even a little more effective than the plague-curing methods of other tribes—it would be an opportunity for the Blazing Flame Tribe.
Huangshi of the Shanghuang Tribe had come not merely for the Iron Wood Ship fragment, but also to investigate the situation of the nearby tribes.
If any tribe showed weakness, the Shanghuang Tribe would make its move.
This had happened before.
Why didn't the Shanghuang Tribe attack directly? The reason was simple: every tribe that could establish itself had a Heaven Vein Warrior guarding it.
Taking Huo Tang himself as an example, if the Shanghuang Tribe truly dared to attack, then even if he had to die, he would drag a Heaven Vein Warrior of the Shanghuang Tribe down with him.
Though the Shanghuang Tribe had several Heaven Vein Warriors, it could not afford such losses.
Losing one Heaven Vein Warrior to annex a crippled tribe had no meaning whatsoever.
The best method was to keep an eye on an injured tribe, just as one watched an injured wild beast, and take its life while it was sick.
That was the environment of the Great Wilderness. The moment you showed weakness, others would devour you.
The Shanghuang Tribe's strength was truly lamentable. Before the floodwaters had even completely receded, a Celestial Meridian Realm warrior had already crossed three thousand li to arrive.
If it had been their own Blazing Flame Tribe, they could only send Mountain Opening Realm warriors out. To be safe, the area they investigated would extend no farther than three hundred li.
Still, there were several tribes within a radius of three hundred li.
Before you continue