Whoosh! Whoosh!
The pond was already close to the tribe's eastern wall, and the place where Wu Zhiqi had made his move was also near the eastern wall.
The instant his figure was exposed, flaming arrows rained down from the wall.
Along with the flaming arrows came burning fire spears, giving off a thick smell of grease.
"Wood dipped in Beast Oil? What a bunch of bumpkins."
Wu Zhiqi was naturally somewhat afraid of fire, and he swiftly shifted about to dodge the falling fire spears.
Primitive things like wooden spears, he had only ever seen them in the clan records before.
What a joke. Who but savages still used wood?
The firewood and mushrooms drying on the rooftops were ignited as well.
The raging flames tore ever more brightly through the darkness.
Amid layer upon layer of firelight, all manner of roars and footsteps sounded without end.
Chaos had broken out. Good—chaos was exactly what he wanted.
What defenses could a bunch of savages possibly have? Their vigilance had already surprised him enough.
Wu Zhiqi muttered an incantation, and a water dragon coiled around his body as he charged toward the nearby houses.
The more chaotic it became, the happier he would feast.
Whoosh!
Wu Zhiqi had barely moved when he heard something slicing through the air.
With a jolt, he hurriedly rolled aside. An arrow buried itself in the ground before him.
On a distant rooftop, Huo Tang gripped a powerful bow, his gaze brimming with killing intent.
"Heavenly Vein?"
Wu Zhiqi steadied himself, utterly unconcerned.
In such a large tribe, what use was one Heavenly Vein? Could he protect all the old, weak, women, and children?
How many times could he stop him?
Yet after several exchanges, Wu Zhiqi flew into a rage.
Three figures kept leaping and darting across the rooftops, powerful bows in hand and aimed at him. No matter how he moved through the lanes, he could not perfectly evade all three of them.
Not one Heavenly Vein—three Heavenly Veins.
"Good, very good. This tiny savage tribe actually has three Heavenly Veins. I underestimated you."
Wu Zhiqi rolled up a faint glow and darted even faster between the houses and passageways, leaving the arrows far behind him.
"Mayflies! Let's see how many warriors your little tribe has to stop me!"
Wu Zhiqi had seen plenty of small tribes like this before. Having eighty or a hundred warriors would already be impressive.
What could these few warriors do in such a large tribal settlement? Could they carry several thousand tribesmen on their backs?
So long as he seized a few women and children, the encirclement against him would naturally collapse, and the little tribe would be shrouded in fear of him.
After knocking away several people who came to surround him, Wu Zhiqi burst into laughter.
"Form up!"
At that moment, he heard a roar rise from within the tribe.
"What a joke. How could a little tribe with only a few people understand what it means to form—"
Suddenly, Wu Zhiqi's movements came to an abrupt halt.
Beside the bonfires illuminating the tribal settlement, figures leaped up from all directions onto high ground.
There were dozens of bonfires in the settlement. Each had at least a dozen people around it; altogether, there had to be several hundred.
"A small tribe has several hundred warriors?"
The thought flashed through Wu Zhiqi's mind, and he hurriedly leaped down from the wall.
Firelight burst continuously in his wake as Wu Zhiqi fled about. Whenever he tried to rush into a house, fiercer arrows greeted him.
Clusters of watery light and firelight exploded throughout the tribal settlement.
Wu Zhiqi was in a wretched state, his body marked by many blackened burns.
If not for the reinforcement of his Ling Yu bloodline and Water-Type Witchcraft, he would likely have long since been burned to ash.
Three Heavenly Veins.
Several hundred Stone-Splitters.
They were ganging up on one witch. This was fucking shameless.
And this formation had clearly been drilled beforehand.
Otherwise, how had the bonfires been lit, people rushed onto the rooftops, and fire spears soaked in grease the moment he was discovered?
This tiny savage tribe was really putting on this whole damn performance.
Were they suffering from persecution delusions or something?
Wu Zhiqi fled in panic toward the pond.
He still had a chance.
He was a Water Elementalist who cultivated the Ling Yu Water Manipulation Manual. What could a tiny savage tribe know about true witchcraft?
On the tribal mountain.
Shen Can observed the encirclement from above. In less than a quarter of an hour, that fellow had been surrounded and sent scurrying like a rat with its head in its paws.
As his gaze shifted, he spotted the pond.
"Uncle Huo Qi, have the tribesmen come with me to move the Mafeisan here. Pour it into the pond."
"Quick!"
The pond to the northeast had been the hiding place Wu Zhiqi had scouted out beforehand.
He had originally intended to eat some Blazing Flame tribesmen every day, hide in the pond during daylight, then come out again at night.
With the talent of his Ling Yu bloodline, even if this tiny savage tribe overturned the mountain, they would never find him.
Who could have imagined that aside from their weapons being a little primitive, this tiny savage tribe was fucking proper in every other regard?
Why were several hundred warriors holed up in this godforsaken place where birds didn't even shit?
Waiting to defend against him?
Plop! Plop!
As fire spears fell into the pond with splashes, Wu Zhiqi twisted and dodged his way to the edge of the pond, muttering an incantation.
Ripples began to spread across the surface. Streams of water rose up and collided with the falling fire spears and flaming arrows.
The power of his Water-Type Witchcraft instantly surged severalfold.
Taking the opportunity, he leaped into the pond.
"You mayfly savages, let me show you what true witchcraft is!"
Half-submerged in the water, the scales around Wu Zhiqi's body glimmered with faint light. Ripples rolled across the surface, waves surged like a tide, and circles upon circles began to rise.
Splash!
All of a sudden, Wu Zhiqi felt his limbs go limp, and his half-submerged body sank downward.
His hand trembled as he cast his witchcraft, and the water he had just raised came crashing back down into the pond.
"Hey, hey, hey..."
Wu Zhiqi violently shook his head. Why did he suddenly feel dizzy?
Something was wrong with this water!
Someone had drugged it.
Drugged their own tribe's pond?
Were they insane?
The instant Wu Zhiqi's mind froze, he gave a violent shudder and frantically tried to shoot out of the pond.
Forcing himself to stay alert, he dodged most of the fire spears, then clawed his way out of the water on all fours and started scrambling toward the tribal mountain.
Buzz!
In an instant, a formed stream of water stabbed toward Wu Zhiqi's lower back.
His entire body was limp, leaving him unable to react at all. He let out a scream and rolled away, crashing into the rock wall. Then a heavy kick struck him, sending him flying before he smashed back into the pond.
"Drugged... sneak attack... savage despicable... glug..."
"Pour it in, pour more!"
Outside the pond, Shen Can blew on the finger he had used to stab the man in the kidney and called for the tribesmen to keep pouring Mafeisan into the water.
From the moment firelight illuminated the tribe, he had guessed the origin of the fish-faced, human-bodied creature.
But could a monster capable of changing between a human and a Ling Yu really still be considered human?
"Put out the fires. Treat the injured tribesmen."
Huo Tang gave the order, then led a team of archers to form up around the pond, their arrowheads trained on the water.
Some of the tribesmen kept dumping Mafeisan into it with loud splashes.
Wu Zhiqi struggled twice after falling in. Later, he floated up, his body twitching as he tried to control himself, but not a single part of him would obey.
"A-Can, keep him alive."
Shen Can nodded.
If they had not needed him alive, he would have ordered the tribesmen to spear this fellow to death already.
The appearance of someone from the Ling Yu Tribe here was alarming.
Yet with strength like this, he was at most a Second-tier Witch. It simply did not match the famed reputation of the Ling Yu Tribe at all.
Before long, Wu Zhiqi was fished out. While unconscious, he had reverted to human form.
"Break all four of his limbs."
Crack!
Crack!
The sounds of bones shattering rang out one after another, and unconscious Wu Zhiqi let out a pained hiss.
All four limbs had been crippled. The Mafeisan probably deserved some credit—such grave injuries had not even woken him.
"Prepare a fire room. Move the Third-Order Beast Tendon and the remaining Mafeisan into it."
Inside the cave, the bonfire blazed fiercely and waves of heat rolled through the air.
A stone pillar stood in the center of the cave. A circular groove ran around the outside of the pillar, filled with Beast Oil.
Third-Order Beast Tendons pierced through Wu Zhiqi's shoulders atop the stone pillar. His limbs hung limp as he slowly opened his eyes and saw a bonfire burning before him.
The pain throughout his body and the lingering effects of the anesthetic left him trapped in a state half real, half dreamlike.
Where was this?
He soon remembered. He seemed to have discovered a savage tribe and prepared to eat his fill.
Then...
"Despicable!"
Wu Zhiqi cursed instinctively.
Feeling around again, he found himself firmly restrained. His shoulders and back had been pierced through, and the bones in all four limbs had likely been shattered.
He had actually been captured by a savage tribe.
Was there something wrong with this tribe...?
From the moment he entered, they had beaten him until he fled in disgrace, and they had even drugged the pond.
This little tribe had absolutely set him up. He could not swallow this humiliation.
"You're awake?"
Shen Can and Huo Tang walked up before him.
"Mayflies, I am a Ling—"
Pfft! Shen Can raised his hand, and a stream of water stabbed into Wu Zhiqi's lower abdomen.
Pain in one place dragged pain from his entire body with it. Wu Zhiqi's face twisted as he glared at Shen Can. "You were the one who stabbed me in the lower back while I was fleeing!"
"Yeah. The Lingyu Water Control Art is really useful."
As he spoke, Shen Can raised his hand. Without even chanting a witch rune, a wisp of water vapor gathered between his fingers into a stream.
"You, you, you... How do you know the Ling Yu Water Manipulation Manual?!"
Wu Zhiqi's eyes widened round with disbelief.
This was the foundation upon which the Ling Yu Tribe stood. It had been passed down for three thousand six hundred years.
"I learned it from you. What's the big deal? I got it at a glance."
Wu Zhiqi froze, opening his mouth to spit at Shen Can.
You learned it at a glance? Why not just say you created the Lingyu Water Control Art yourself?
Unfortunately, Shen Can's slap arrived first.
"Name. Species."
"Why did you remain nearby after the floodwaters receded?"
"Though I do not know where you obtained a method to cultivate the Water Control Art, how could savages as insignificant as mayflies like you possibly be worthy to interrogate—"
"Ah!"
Shen Can raised his hand and drew out a stream of water, stabbing it into the other side of Wu Zhiqi's lower back.
Then he reached out, gripped the arm whose bones had been shattered, and began kneading it.
"I'll talk, I'll talk... My name is Wu Zhiqi, a Ling Yu Exile... I... Ah!"
But Shen Can acted as though he had not heard a thing, handing Wu Zhiqi's other arm to Huo Tang.
"Come on, take a deep breath. Pain is normal."
"Ah... Awooo..."
Before you continue