To welcome the arrival of the Eastern lunar New Year, the Yin Clan's midnight blood feast was especially grand and extravagant.
Freshly harvested materials from all kinds of rare Demonic Beasts and demonic birds were meticulously prepared by top chefs. Countless precious medicinal herbs had been mixed into the ingredients, each one a rare treasure capable of greatly nourishing blood qi and strengthening one's origin.
At the blood feast, aside from eating and drinking, the various elders of the Yin Clan brought out all kinds of rare treasures and weapons to bestow upon the younger members of their own branches. The more contributions a junior had made to the Lineage over the past year, the more rewards they received. The treasures these elders brought out also represented their prestige, so rare and wondrous treasures appeared one after another, dazzling the eyes of the Yin Clan's juniors.
When the blood feast ended, Yin Tianjue represented all the elders of the Yin Clan in distributing New Year's money to every Yin Clan Juvenile present. This followed an ancient Eastern custom: a Spring Festival gift bestowed upon the Yin Clan's Juveniles. Every Juvenile received the same amount.
Yin Xuege received one hundred freshly minted gold coins. Each coin weighed one liang, making the hundred coins weigh ten jin in total. These gold coins were accepted everywhere, whether in human city-states or among the various Blood Demon Lineages.
After the lively and boisterous blood feast ended, Yin Xuege, surrounded by numerous guards, arrived at the Yin Clan's central restricted grounds. At the foot of the Heaven and Earth Tower, he had all his accompanying guards wait outside before entering the tower alone and hurrying to the highest level.
The eastern sky was already bright, and the Blood Mist Barrier below had been activated. Rising several hundred meters above the Blood Mist Barrier, the Heaven and Earth Tower basked in golden sunlight. Feeling the abundant heat in the sunlight, Yin Xuege felt as if his entire body were filled with strength.
The nine elders of the Yin Clan had already been waiting there. Aside from Yin Tianjue and Yin Tianmie, who stood before their own coffins, the other seven elders had slumped around without a shred of dignity. Some leaned against their coffins, while others simply sat on their coffin lids. They each held delicate celadon wine jars and gulped down mouthfuls of aged wine from the East.
"Ah, homesickness!" Yin Tianjue gazed thoughtfully toward the direction of the rising sun. "It's been many years since I returned to the ancestral land and paid respects before our ancestors' graves. One day, my Yin Clan will return openly and honorably to the ancestral land and truly hold a grand ancestral worship ceremony!"
"I wonder whether our Yin Clan manor still exists today." Yin Tianmie sighed mournfully. "Since that day, we've never been able to return and take a look. I still remember planting a Bloodbud Begonia beside my father's grave before leaving home. I wonder how large it has grown by now."
Yin Xuege remained silent. He was too young to understand the thread of sorrow in these elders' hearts. Besides, he had grown up in the Yin Clan City-State and had no impression whatsoever of that ancient and wondrous ancestral land in the East. Even though the Yin Clan was steeped in Eastern traditions and rules, Yin Xuege truly had no impression of the East.
Yin Tianjue raised a wine jar and drained it in one gulp, then tossed the jar directly down from the highest point of the Heaven and Earth Tower. The head-sized jar fell downward and eventually struck the blood-red Blood Mist Barrier. A ripple of bloody light spread out, and the jar instantly turned into a wisp of black ash, which was blown away without a trace by the high-altitude gale.
"East, we'll return one day sooner or later!" Yin Tianjue inhaled deeply, then clasped his hands behind his back and looked solemnly at Yin Xuege.
"We called you here because of the news you told me last time!" Yin Tianjue narrowed his eyes and gestured to the other elders beside him. "Normally, for the annual ancestral worship ceremony, any one elder could climb out of their coffin and preside over it. But this year, all nine core elders of the Lineage, along with the other Heaven Generation elders, have appeared. That's all because of the news you brought us!"
"The Jiang Clan!" Yin Xuege suddenly understood.
"That's right, the Jiang Clan!" With his hands behind his back, Yin Tianjue began slowly pacing around his coffin. As he walked, he said in an unhurried voice, "I don't know what the Jiang Clan's situation is now, but when my Yin Clan left the East, the Jiang Clan was one of the five top Immortal Clans in the Eastern Cultivation World."
Yin Tianmie added from the side, "You Juveniles may not know much about the ancient history of the East. But in the Eastern Cultivation World, the Jiang family was truly a colossal power with an Ancient Era inheritance. Their ancestor, Jiang Taigong—hee hee—was someone who had once controlled the Immortal Tribulation!"
Yin Xuege stared blankly at Yin Tianmie like a quail in a thunderstorm. He knew very little about the myths and legends of the East, because the Children's Hall had never taught them such things. The Eastern Cultivation World, Jiang Taigong—he had never heard of any of it!
Yin Tianjue came around from behind his coffin. Somehow, he had produced another celadon wine jar. He slapped off the sealing clay and began gulping down the wine. After three swallows, he looked at Yin Xuege with a beaming smile and exhaled heavily, reeking of alcohol. "The Jiang Clan has come, so we awakened all the elders and senior elders of the Lineage. This isn't merely because you're a Sunwalker!"
"We want to use the Jiang Clan as an entry point and exchange for a chance for our Yin Clan to return to the ancestral land!" Yin Tianmie narrowed his eyes, his gaze flickering. "Ever since the Era of Dharma Decline began and we transformed into the Blood Demon Physique, we've had no chance to return to the ancestral land. We haven't received any news from the Eastern Cultivation World. At one point, we even thought they had all vanished because the spiritual energy had collapsed!"
Yin Tianjue drained another jar of wine and, with no regard for public decency whatsoever, tossed the jar from the Heaven and Earth Tower again.
"Whatever the Jiang Clan came to the West to do, they're still alive, and they've even sought out the Grand Arbiters of the Great Berlin City-State. As the lords of a hundred thousand li of surrounding territory, and as the strongest Yin Clan of the Blood Demon lineage, we have to do something." Yin Tianjue's eyes abruptly turned a bizarre scarlet, while his pupils became sun-bright golden, shooting out dazzling golden-red rays.
"We have to do something. This is an opportunity!" Yin Tianjue smiled strangely. "First, let's see what the Jiang Clan wants to do. If there are benefits, and those benefits are worth our intervention, then we'll act without hesitation! If the benefits are merely ordinary, then we'll befriend the Jiang Clan's people and build a relationship with them!"
After taking a deep breath, the scarlet in Yin Tianjue's eyes faded back to normal. A trace of gentle warmth suddenly surfaced in his gaze. Looking at the red sun in the East, he sighed softly. "After all these years, I wonder... is she still well?"
Yin Tianmie impatiently barked from the side, "Big Brother, stop thinking about that woman! She refused to leave with us back then, which proves she never cared about you! With her cultivation at the time, she must already be dead! What are you still pining for?"
Yin Tianjue gave an aggrieved snort and jabbed a finger fiercely toward Yin Tianmie's nose. "You people don't understand!"
An elder nearby, already drunk to the point of swaying, suddenly snickered. Shaking his head, he said, "Big Brother, what do we need to understand? One lovesick fool is enough. As for the rest of us, countless young women and beautiful married women have cried and begged for our favor. All we need to understand is that we should give the Yin Clan plenty more direct-descendant bloodlines. That's enough."
The group of Yin Clan elders began laughing wildly without the slightest dignity. Their laughter was shrill and grating, practically a demonic sound piercing the ears. It shook Yin Xuege until his head spun and his vision blurred, and he nearly vomited.
Unable to keep his face, Yin Tianjue shrieked angrily several times before finally suppressing his jeering brothers. His old face slightly flushed with embarrassment as he turned around, pulled three fist-sized blood pearls from his sleeve, and handed them over.
"Yin Xuege, we've formulated a plan—'Startled Insects'!" Yin Xuege took the three blood pearls. Feeling the terrifying power hidden within them, the corners of his eyes began twitching violently. Yin Tianjue continued, "The so-called Startled Insects means startling all the bull demons and snake gods lurking in dark places underground, forcing them all to emerge so we can see everything clearly."
"These three Mysterious Yin Blood Thunders were refined by us old fellows from the blood malice extracted from three hundred years of tainted blood, combined with the power of heavenly thunder. Their might is immense, so take them for protection!" Yin Tianjue said coldly. "Your mission is to lead an Yin Clan hunting party three days from now, gradually devouring the Great Berlin City-State's territory, sweeping its outer strongholds, and capturing as many Blood Servants and Blood Slaves as possible!"
With the collective decision of the Yin Clan's elders, the mighty Yin Clan began moving like a fierce horse that had just been lashed viciously with a whip.
After three brief days of preparation, a vast Yin Clan hunting party led by Yin Xuege filed out through the main gate of the Yin Clan City-State. The scale of this hunting party was unprecedented. It was the strongest hunting party the Yin Clan had ever dispatched.
Yin Xuege wore a blood-red battle robe refined by the Yin Clan's Internal Affairs Hall, with a jet-black half-armor covering his upper body. Standing inside the carriage he rode in, he gazed through the transparent floor-to-ceiling windows at this astonishing hunting party.
A hundred Flying Magic Chariots floated three chi above the ground, slowly advancing while being pulled by more than a thousand Night Netherblood Leopards. Each Flying Magic Chariot was eighteen meters long and roughly six meters wide, carrying a hundred fully armed Yin Clan Warriors.
These Yin Clan Warriors were all elite. Even the weakest possessed the strength of a Night Warrior, while the ten-man squad leaders were all at the Baron level. The centurions were Viscounts, and the commanders of a thousand were Counts! Even without counting the Yin Clan experts beside Yin Xuege who were disguised as ordinary soldiers, this was already an extremely terrifying armed force.
This was merely the direct military strength of the Yin Clan. Outside the hundred Flying Magic Chariots was a full thirty thousand Blood Servant Warriors riding Unicorn Blood Beasts. These Blood Servant Warriors were all humans. Like the Fallen within the Great Berlin City-State, they yearned for the Blood Demon Clan and hoped to receive the Blood Demon Clan's bestowed essence blood, thereby transforming into ageless and undying Blood Demons!
These Blood Servant Warriors who had willingly pledged themselves to the Yin Clan were all elites chosen through brutal selection. They uniformly wore battle armor forged for them by the Yin Clan. Aside from a standard Crystal Weapon issued by the Yin Clan, they were equipped with all kinds of powerful firearms manufactured by humans during the Era of Dharma Decline.
After all, to the Yin Clan, crystal was an extremely precious cultivation resource. They could not waste too much of it on these Blood Servant Warriors. The Crystal Weapons issued to them were only for use in case they encountered powerful enemies. When capturing Blood Servants and Blood Slaves, they relied more on the various weapons manufactured by humans.
Apart from these armies marching on the ground, a full hundred Hell Three-Headed Dragon Eagles glided slowly forward through the high sky. Each three-headed dragon eagle carried ten elite Blood Puppets led by a Yin Clan Baron!
These Blood Puppets were terrifying monsters created by the Yin Clan using Western puppet arts and Eastern corpse-refining techniques. They feared neither sunlight nor blades and bullets, possessed immense strength, and recovered with astonishing speed. Combined with the fortress-like heavy armor specially forged for them by the Yin Clan, these Blood Puppets were the Yin Clan's most terrifying assault force.
The Yin Clan had managed to establish itself in the West and make the other orthodox Blood Demon noble families deeply wary yet helpless against them. These terrifying and evil Blood Puppets had contributed at least half the credit.
This enormous hunting party advanced in grand fashion. Watching the force entirely under his command, Yin Xuege felt his blood surge and nodded repeatedly. Such authority, such power—the stewards of the Children's Hall had not always instilled precisely this understanding in him? Only by possessing such authority and power could one pursue the aspirations proper to a member of the Yin Clan!
Wumu, also clad in a layer of heavy armor, removed his helmet and crouched beside Yin Xuege, gnawing noisily on a massive beast leg. The fellow still retained his intense primitive bestiality. The beast leg had not undergone any cooking whatsoever, and as Wumu gnawed at it, blood dripped continuously from the flesh, filling the entire carriage with the stench of blood.
Those riding in Yin Xuege's Magic Chariot were all experts of the Yin Clan's Nameless Generation and even Earth Generation. One by one, they looked at Wumu, whose entire face was smeared with bloody flesh, and gently shook their heads, their eyes filled with disdain!
Whether Blood Demons or werewolves, they were all members of the Western dark faction and enemies of humanity.
But the Blood Demon Clan prided itself on being an elegant nobility. They looked down on these crude, savage werewolves whose habits were no different from beasts. As for Wumu, besides his savage bestiality, he was also a typical foul-mouthed man. During these days, his stinking mouth had offended countless people within the Yin Clan. If not for their regard for Yin Xuege, someone would have driven him from the Magic Chariot long ago.
The massive force swept grandly out of the Yin Clan's territory, passed through towering mountains and deep ridges, and arrived at the plains beyond.
The Yin Clan had long since formulated a thorough battle plan. The Yin Clan Warriors inside the hundred Magic Chariots did not deploy. The thirty thousand Yin Clan Blood Servant troops riding Unicorn Blood Beasts let out sharp whistles and split into several hundred groups of varying sizes, charging toward a human settlement on the eastern side of the Great Berlin City-State.
Along the way, these Yin Clan Blood Servant troops deliberately made enormous disturbances. They lit one huge bonfire after another across the plains, then covered them with thick wet grass. Hundreds of black columns of smoke immediately shot into the heavens.
They also hurled human-made bombs with deafening blasts everywhere. The thunderous explosions rolled into the distance, frightening the mercenary teams from the Great Berlin City-State who had ventured out hunting into fleeing in disarray!
These mercenaries who left the city to hunt various Demonic Beasts and demonic birds for profit had no more than a hundred people in their largest teams. How could they dare fight this Blood Servant army of the Yin Clan? Whether in individual strength or equipment, they were worlds apart from the Yin Clan's Blood Servant troops!
Still, some unlucky human mercenary teams failed to evade them in time and were surrounded by the Blood Servant army commanded by Yin Xuege. After a brief exchange of fire, the mercenaries despairingly laid down their weapons! Against the Blood Servant army alone, they would still have fought desperately and tried to break through and escape. But when they saw the Hell Three-Headed Dragon Eagles gliding lazily overhead, they completely lost the courage to resist!
Yin Xuege's massive force swept past the edge of the Great Berlin City-State. At its closest point, one Blood Servant squad came within less than twenty li of the city walls.
After capturing several thousand unlucky mercenaries and farmers along the way and binding them with ropes to the backs of the Magic Chariots to be dragged slowly forward, Yin Xuege's army spent three days on the journey. After giving the Great Berlin City-State ample time to respond, they finally arrived at Fanlu'er City, more than seven hundred kilometers from the Great Berlin City-State.
This was one of the Great Berlin City-State's settlements. Fanlu'er City had a population of more than a million and was a city whose main industries were fish and mineral resources.
A vast lake stretching nearly a thousand li lay beside Fanlu'er City. It was rich in all kinds of delicious lake fish and shrimp. Nearby was also a range of mountains containing a natural Gold Dust vein and several important metal veins. These mineral resources were enormously valuable to the Great Berlin City-State—much like the Great Berlin City-State's metal walls, which stretched for thousands of li and stood a hundred meters high. Most of the metal used to build them came from Fanlu'er City.
Yin Xuege's massive force came roaring along the way, not only making no attempt to conceal its movements but deliberately causing an enormous commotion.
Thus, by the time they leisurely reached the outskirts of Fanlu'er City, Fanlu'er City had already become a sturdy fortress. All the gates on the metal walls, which rose dozens of meters high, were covered by heavy armor plates. Countless defensive weapons were densely arrayed across the walls. More than a hundred thousand soldiers and militia had gathered there, staring at the vast Yin Clan army outside with traces of panic and despair.
The low rumble of war drums rang out, and the Yin Clan's thirty thousand Blood Servant troops formed an attacking formation outside Fanlu'er City. Dozens of heavy Mortar Cannons with astonishing calibers were dragged out from behind the Magic Chariots and lined up less than ten li from the city walls.
A raggedly dressed farmer, trembling in terror after being captured by the Blood Servant army along the way, approached the city walls of Fanlu'er City carrying a white flag. Standing below the walls, he shouted loudly, "Honorable sirs from the Yin Clan say that you should lay down your weapons and surrender! The sirs promise that if you lay down your weapons and do not resist, you will not be killed!"
"Everyone who dares attack the sirs will be killed, and their relatives will all have their blood drained!"
The farmer was answered by a fist-sized fireball whistling down from the city wall.
Amid his agonized screams, the fireball struck the farmer's body. Flames engulfed him and burned him as he rolled repeatedly across the ground. Only after quite some time did the farmer finally die, his heart-rending wails coming to an end.
******
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Pighead is exhausted! (To be continued)
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