Festival Beyond the Celebration, the Impact of the Deception

Despite the minor incident on the first day, the Glory Festival proceeded smoothly as in previous years.

Players fought and died against wild beasts, and the stench of blood began to spread throughout the Venue.

However, this year's Glory Festival was indeed different—besides the smell of blood, rumors and gossip also spread.

The battles are not endless, and not every contestant will necessarily clash immediately upon meeting.

And whenever they get into "casual conversation," "greetings," or "information exchange," they inevitably end up talking about what happened on the first day of this year's Glory Festival.

"Have you heard? A Rakshasa has infiltrated this Festival."

Is it reliable?

"The news came from the Healing Place; more than a dozen people are saying it happened, so it shouldn't be a pre-arranged plan!"

The conversations continued, one after another.

Naturally, these repeated conversations were not limited to the Glory Festival itself.

No matter how barbaric this world may be, or how warlike and straightforward the races of the Blood Country may be, their leader would not be so foolish as to be completely indifferent to a widely publicized and seemingly significant emergency.

On a gentle slope outside the Glory Festival Venue, inside a white animal-hide tent, ten large cushions were placed.

In front of each cushion lay a bountiful feast of wine and meat.

In the very center of that tent was a huge, lizard-like skeleton with a beast's head, which occasionally spoke out.

"Contestant from the Copper Mountain Tribe, number 139, is dead!"

"Fire Flow Tribe contestant, number 275, is dead!"

"Individual participant 336 has killed two 'Swift Wolf'!"

One news flash after another arrived, but the ten men sitting on the cushions, wrapped in animal skins and looking like important figures, remained calm.

Three barbarians, six Blood Warriors...

There's also a Half-Demon!

Without a doubt, they were representatives from the Ten Great Tribes of the Blood Country.

Each Glory Festival is hosted by one of the Ten Great Tribes.

This Festival is a good opportunity for ordinary tribal forces to enhance their "status" and demonstrate their tribal strength.

However, this was not the case for the Ten Great Tribes.

For these outsiders, the Player, there's something quite counterintuitive: in the Glory Festival, the Ten Great Tribes don't always dominate the top ten spots.

In fact, it's not uncommon for the top three finishers in a particular Glory Festival to come from medium-sized tribes or obscure small villages.

The reason is quite simple...

The reason why the Ten Great Tribes are the Ten Great Tribes is not because of the individual bravery of any one warrior.

Rather... the entire tribe was very brave.

They don't need to send their bravest warriors to compete every year.

On the contrary, the Ten Great Tribes will try to recruit the warriors who ultimately emerge victorious.

Every warrior who achieves a ranking will establish a very good relationship with one or two of the Ten Great Tribes —along with the power and influence they come from.

This is also one of the most important manifestations of elevated status.

Based on this, these Ten Great Tribes naturally send three "notaries" each year, and also send important figures from their tribes as representatives to the vicinity of the Glory Festival.

Although it is not written into the Rule and regulations, it has become an important part of the Glory Festival because it is so customary.

This white tent is one of the best symbols of the Glory Festival.

These representatives came to the vicinity of the venue, naturally hoping to get firsthand information about the "Glory Festival" as soon as possible.

Usually, they would find those who got the most kills quickly among these text messages.

But this time...

Their primary concern is no longer the players!

Among the crowd, the representative of the Bronze Casting Tribe, an extremely tall and sturdy Blood Luo, spoke to the beast bone.

"Hey, Jiang Rong, any new developments regarding the Rakshasa?"

The question received an immediate response.

"No!"

"Everything is operating as usual. There are rumors that a Rakshasa and a 'Notary' are fighting at the Healing Place... but Shuo has not reported any deaths."

"I didn't go to the Healing Place to fight the Rakshasa, so we can infer that it's just a rumor and misinformation."

"After all, the notary 'Feng Qiao,' who was responsible for providing support from the outside, did not enter the venue."

A deep male voice responded from within the animal bones.

And the one who responded was, of course, the real Venue "notary," Jiang Rong!

Upon hearing the answer from the notary from their own tribe, the representative of the Bronze Casting Tribe breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hasn't it appeared yet...?"

Among the ten representatives, the only one who was neither a Bloodlust nor a barbarian, but Half-Demon who looked like some kind of bird-man with a sharp beak and feathers covering his face, spoke.

"It's really strange. Is this Rakshasa real or fake? After all, how could a race that hasn't been seen for ten thousand years and is supposed to be extinct suddenly appear? Could it be some kind of mass hysteria?"

"After all, based on the current rumors, it's only said that the Rakshasa was disguised as Human Race... Perhaps a certain Human Race contestant was too powerful, leading to a misunderstanding!"

The representatives of the remaining nine tribes all looked at it.

"Representative of Mountain Green, you were invited back by the leader of Mountain Green in recent years to assist in managing the tribe, so you probably don't know much about the Blood Country," a Blood Luo representing the Toothbone Tribe slowly spoke, answering this "outsider." "Although it is true that the Rakshasa disappeared a thousand years ago, our Blood Country, as the former core territory of the Rakshasa race, has preserved a large number of records about the Rakshasa."

"All the information that has been released so far matches the 'real Rakshasa'."

"Moreover... based on those fragmented intelligence reports and messages, regardless of who that Rakshasa fought at the Healing Place, he revealed some secrets that our tribe's records cannot explain!"

"For example... the origin of the Blood Luo clan."

"According to what he said, when the Glory Festival was first held by Rakshasa, in addition to competing for rankings... one could also obtain the purification of 'Rakshasa Bloodline Power'!"

"Even if a foreign race wins, they will be granted the power of the Rakshasa Bloodline!"

"Furthermore, according to a report from a Blood Demon at the outer registration point, he encountered a guy who called himself a Rakshasa—the guy claimed that 'Rakshasa' requires transformation!"

"This so-called 'transformation' might be related to something like the concentration of 'Bloodline'!"

When Xue Luo finished speaking, the three barbarians didn't react much, but all six Xue Luo nodded in agreement.

They all thought of this when they heard the compiled rumors.

Even if most of the Blood Luo's high-ranking members consciously ignored this point, they had at least wondered why, despite being closely related to the Rakshasa in the records, they seemed more like humans!

"I think... what this guy said happens to explain many of the questions that our Blood Rakshasa Clan has always had."