Letters

Inside the Jackalmen Tribe.

The Pan Family Three Brothers searched through the tents one by one, eventually entering the largest tent.

It was the tent where the Jackalmen Tribe's chieftain, Kuang Tu Blood Axe, lived.

The three entered the tent and rummaged through everything, searching for anything valuable.

Pan Lang opened a wooden chest inside the tent and found several letters. He opened one and read it carefully, his expression growing solemn.

"Third Brother, what are you looking at?"

Seeing how absorbed he was, Pan Hu leaned over and asked curiously.

He remembered that Third Brother couldn't read, didn't he?

"There's writing on this, but I don't know what it says."

Pan Lang scratched his head.

"If you can't read it, why have you been staring at it for so long?"

Pan Hu rolled his eyes and took the letter from Pan Lang.

"I've told you to read more. You don't even know your letters."

Pan Hu lectured his younger brother as he read.

"I hate reading. Hunting's way more fun."

Pan Lang muttered under his breath, then noticed Pan Hu's expression turn very serious.

"Big Brother, come look at these letters!"

After reading the one in his hand, Pan Hu opened a few of the others and glanced through them. His face darkened.

He raised the letters and called to Pan Xiong.

"What's so interesting about letters?"

Pan Xiong walked over as he spoke and took them.

He skimmed through them casually, but their contents soon made him take them seriously. He read carefully, his expression growing more grim, disbelief filling his eyes.

"How could this happen? It can't be!"

He muttered as he read.

"Big Brother, what do the letters say?"

Seeing his elder brothers react this way after reading the letters, Pan Lang asked curiously.

He had never wanted so badly to know how to read.

But Pan Xiong didn't answer him. Instead, he said, "If Lin Feng sees these letters, I'm afraid... Sigh!"

He let out a long sigh, unsure how to put it.

"Maybe we should secretly tear these letters up, so Lin Feng won't..."

Pan Hu suggested cautiously, but felt it might not be right and stopped himself.

"No! These letters have to go to Lin Feng. He deserves to know the truth!"

Pan Xiong said firmly.

"What do the letters say?"

Pan Xiong and Pan Hu's conversation left Pan Lang utterly confused, and he couldn't help asking again.

His curiosity was like a little cat, constantly scratching at him.

"Sigh! Second Brother, tell Third Brother what they say."

Pan Xiong sighed.

Lin Feng finished checking the three systems he had just unlocked and exited them.

The Jackalmen had been completely dealt with. It was time to call off the operation.

Just as he was about to gather the players, he saw the Pan Family Three Brothers approach, their expressions complicated.

Pan Xiong was holding several letters.

"What's with those expressions?"

Lin Feng asked curiously.

"Lin Feng, take a look at these."

Pan Xiong handed the letters to Lin Feng.

Confused, Lin Feng took them, opened one, and began to read.

The more he read, the darker and colder his expression became.

After finishing the first letter, he opened the others. His face had turned so grim it looked ready to drip with water.

"Where did these letters come from?"

He asked in a low voice.

"From the Jackalmen chieftain's tent," Pan Xiong said. "Lin Feng, you have to believe us. We knew nothing about this."

"I know."

Lin Feng nodded and looked toward the Baimu Tribe, a cold glint in his eyes.

The letters in his hands had all been written by Baimu Sheng, chieftain of the Baimu Tribe, to Kuang Tu, the Jackalmen chieftain!

The earliest letter was from Baimu Sheng, expressing a desire to become friends with Kuang Tu and sending him a large quantity of food.

In the second, Baimu Sheng told Kuang Tu where the Ying Clan Tribe was and promised to give him a large amount of food as payment if he was willing to help attack it.

The third thanked Kuang Tu for attacking the Ying Clan Tribe and sent the promised food.

In the fourth, Baimu Sheng gave Kuang Tu the approximate location of the valley and told him to send people to search it.

Lin Feng looked at the letters in his hands.

No wonder Kuang Tu had sent a Jackalmen squad to search near the valley!

Baimu Sheng had been behind it all!

Most likely, on the first day Lin Feng had taken the players out hunting, they had run into the Pan Family Three Brothers. After returning, the brothers had told Baimu Sheng about it, and that was how he learned their approximate location. He had sent the Jackalmen to search for them and wipe them out!

Of course, Lin Feng believed the Pan Family Three Brothers had nothing to do with it.

First, he trusted them.

Second, if they had known about it, they wouldn't have handed him the letters.

But what he couldn't understand was why Baimu Sheng had done this.

What did Baimu Sheng stand to gain from the Jackalmen wiping out the Ying Clan Tribe?

"Big Brother Pan, thank you for giving me these letters."

Lin Feng put them away and thanked Pan Xiong.

The Pan Family Three Brothers were members of the Baimu Tribe. After finding the letters, they could easily have torn them up in secret and made the truth disappear forever.

But they hadn't. They had given the letters to him instead.

"Lin Feng, I'm ashamed and sorry for what Baimu Sheng did. I apologize."

Pan Xiong looked deeply ashamed.

He was a member of the Baimu Tribe. With its chieftain having done something like this, he felt he could no longer face Lin Feng.

"Big Brother Pan, this isn't your fault. I'll settle the score with Baimu Sheng sooner or later!"

Lin Feng gritted his teeth.

He was a man who knew the difference between right and wrong. He wouldn't take his anger over Baimu Sheng's actions out on the Pan Family Three Brothers.

"Big Brother, Baimu Sheng is despicable. I don't want to go back to the Baimu Tribe!" Pan Lang said, full of contempt for Baimu Sheng. "Why don't we join Lin Feng's tribe?"

After learning what Baimu Sheng had done, Pan Xiong felt the same disgust and contempt for him. Hearing Pan Lang's suggestion, his eyes lit up.

Exactly! Why shouldn't they leave the Baimu Tribe and join Lin Feng's?

The three brothers had depended on one another since childhood. They had no relatives in the Baimu Tribe and were completely alone.

Lin Feng's tribe had been joined by those powerful Humans who had drifted here across the sea, and the tribe was strong as well.

What reason did they have to stay in the Baimu Tribe and serve a scoundrel like Baimu Sheng?

"Lin Feng, can the three of us join your tribe?"

Pan Xiong looked at Lin Feng and asked.

They wanted to join, but it was still up to Lin Feng to agree.

"Of course!"

Lin Feng said.

A tribe needed more than just players to grow. It also needed more locals.

Especially Humans.

He was more than happy to have the Pan Family Three Brothers join.

By evening, Lin Feng led the players back to the valley.

When they had left, there had been only Lin Feng, Wind Wolf, and thirty players.

On the way back, there were only twenty-three players, but they had also gained Ying Zhan and five others, the Pan Family Three Brothers, and four Wood Race members.

The players were intensely curious about the Wood Race members. Their eyes never left them along the way.

They wouldn't have returned so late under normal circumstances.

But after killing Kuang Tu, Lin Feng had wondered whether the Jackalmen squad that had gone hunting might return to the tribe. So he led the players in an ambush at the Jackalmen camp.

They waited for more than two hours before the hunting party finally returned.

The outcome went without saying. There weren't enough Jackalmen for each player to get one.

Only after wiping out the returning Jackalmen squad did they set off back to the valley.

When they arrived, Lin Feng had everyone rest in the Outer Valley, then took Ying Zhan aside.

"Brother Ying Zhan, weren't you asking the whole way here where they came from?"

Lin Feng gestured toward the players, who were gathered in the distance, laughing and joking.

"Now I'll tell you. They're all Skyfallers!"

He told Ying Zhan with a solemn expression.

"Skyfallers?!"

Ying Zhan stared at Lin Feng in surprise.

What were those?