The Blood Moon Begins

He waited outside the leather tent for a long time before he was told he could enter. Only then did he step inside, his expression respectful. Half an hour later, he left with wild joy on his face, still wearing a respectful air.

Inside the purple leather tent sat two old men. Both had graying hair, but their eyes were bright and keen. Before them sat an ordinary little bottle, empty.

One of the old men wore a white robe. He held a Medicine Stone between two fingers and examined it intently for a long while. A glint passed through his eyes, mingled with surprise and hesitation.

After a moment's thought, he held the Medicine Stone beneath his nose and sniffed it. He closed his eyes slightly, then suddenly opened them after a long while.

"Just as he said, it truly has an unbelievable effect! I've lived in the Fengzhen Tribe for all these years, yet I've never seen a medicine like this. And from its appearance, it doesn't seem to be an ancient medicine. There are no traces of age on it; it was refined quite recently!

"What is this, exactly..."

"Unfortunately, a long time has already passed, and that Evil Barbarian is no easy mark. Otherwise, we could have learned where it came from." The other old man spoke slowly.

"Don't act rashly. Whoever can produce such a treasure is either a high-level Blood Condensation cultivator or an outsider—an Evil Barbarian of the False Dust Realm. Brother Zhou, I'll take this treasure back to the tribe. Perhaps the Barbarian Duke of the Fengzhen Tribe will recognize it." As the white-robed old man spoke, he carefully placed the Medicine Stone in the little bottle. Then, with a casual sweep of his right hand, the bottle vanished without a trace.

"That's what we should do." The old man opposite him nodded.

"This is far too important. I'll take my leave first. If I learn anything, I'll come back and tell you." The white-robed old man rose and bowed to the man surnamed Zhou. He hurried out of the purple leather tent, and with one step, his figure twisted into a cloud of white mist that shot into the sky and quickly disappeared.

As dawn broke, a vast grassland lay some distance from the Tribal Market. There stood a mighty tribe, so large it was like a city. Six tribes like the Wu Mountain Tribe surrounded it, and at its very center stood the enormous Mud Stone City!

The city was imposing, like a colossal beast looming over the earth. Its inhabitants alone numbered more than several thousand—far beyond anything the Wu Mountain Tribe could compare to.

The six tribes outside the city were direct affiliates. Some had been conquered by the Fengzhen Tribe, while others had come seeking shelter after unforeseen troubles and eventually become part of it.

The Fengzhen Tribe was a mid-sized tribe, though one of the weaker ones among its peers. After all, the area around Wu Mountain was a remote corner of the Barbarian lands. Yet that very remoteness had made the Fengzhen Tribe the local overlord, ruling in every direction and receiving tribute from countless small tribes. It was also the only tribe in the region with members able to make contact with those of a higher rank.

Just then, as the first rays of the sun rose on the distant horizon, a cloud of white mist sped over. Outside the city, it gathered and took the shape of the white-robed old man.

His expression was grave. He immediately entered the city. Along the way, every member of the Fengzhen Tribe he encountered stopped and bowed respectfully.

At the center of Mud Stone City stood a pitch-black altar. It was pentagonal and ten zhang tall, with bird and beast totems carved into it, giving it a primitive feel.

The white-robed old man stood respectfully at the foot of the altar. A moment later, a gentle voice drifted down from above.

"Shi Hai, what is it?"

"Reporting to the Barbarian Duke: while at Zhou Ran's Tribal Market, I discovered a medicine I've never seen before. It has an unbelievable effect..." The white-robed old man took a deep breath and spoke in a low voice.

"Oh? Bring it here for me to see." The gentle voice from the altar drifted down.

The white-robed old man raised his right hand. A flash of light appeared, and a little bottle materialized in his palm. As though drawn by some strange force, it floated slowly upward and toward the altar.

All around was silent. Only the wind whimpered now and then, stirring the white-robed old man's clothes. He stood motionless, waiting quietly.

After a long while, the gentle voice spoke again, but this time it held a trace of surprise.

"There's only one?"

"Only one," the white-robed old man replied at once.

"I've never seen a medicine like this... There's a structure within it that I don't understand... And it was clearly refined quite recently... Who traded it at the Tribal Market?" The gentle voice carried a note of gravity.

"An Evil Barbarian," the white-robed old man replied softly.

"Find him. Use every means at your disposal to locate him! Tell him to join the Fengzhen Tribe, and I'll grant him guest status!" The gentle voice rang out abruptly.

The white-robed old man took a deep breath and respectfully accepted the order. He had realized that the medicine was extraordinary, but he hadn't expected the Barbarian Duke to want to recruit its maker as a guest of the Fengzhen Tribe. Guest status was an extremely prestigious honor. Aside from the chieftain, the Barbarian Duke, and a handful of others, its holder could stand as an equal to the heads of the various offices.

When the white-robed old man left, the Fengzhen Tribe began carrying out the order. Like a great net spreading wide, they set out to find the man they believed was an Evil Barbarian!

At that moment, Su Ming was in his own house in the Wu Mountain Tribe, quietly making up his mind. At dawn the next day, he left the tribe alone. Once he reached the forest, he raced toward Black Flame Peak.

He knew the way well, bounding through the forest. After reaching the second layer of the Blood Condensation Realm, his body had become more agile and much faster. Even Lei Chen would have to go all out just to keep up with him. Now, in this familiar forest, Su Ming moved even faster. By noon, he had already reached the foot of Black Flame Peak.

He leaped up the mountain and climbed until he returned to his Powder Refining Cave. There, he set down the woven basket on his back, which was packed with all the herbs he had gathered for this Powder Refining.

Little Red wasn't in the cave; she had probably gone out to play. Su Ming swept his gaze around the cave and, after making sure nothing seemed amiss, sat cross-legged on the ground. He focused on circulating the blood within his body. As his ten blood lines flickered, his entire body reached its best condition.

He even vaguely sensed that he was on the verge of a breakthrough, as though an eleventh blood line was about to condense.

"Grandpa helped me truly awaken as a Barbarian and said I'd soon reach the third layer... It hasn't been long, yet I can already feel my qi and blood brimming over... The Ancient Barbarian Technique really is wondrous." Su Ming opened his eyes, a glint flashing in them. The memory of black filth oozing from his entire body that day surfaced in his mind.

"Then I'll put Powder Refining aside for now and break through the second layer in one go!" After a brief moment's thought, Su Ming took something from his robes: Sky Rock Grass. He looked at it, swallowed a Dust-Clearing Powder pill, then plucked off one leaf, chewed it, and swallowed it.

He closed his eyes and resumed meditating. A moment later, sweat seeped from his body, and as blood-colored light scattered around him, the eleventh blood line seemed ready to emerge.

Several hours later, a muffled sound came from within Su Ming's body, and the eleventh blood line condensed. A stronger force of qi and blood burst from him at once.

Su Ming opened his eyes, which gleamed brightly.

"The third layer of the Blood Condensation Realm!" he murmured, rising to his feet with excitement on his face. After stretching his body, he took up the herbs and began refining the Mountain Spirit Powder according to the method he remembered.

Su Ming was no longer the ignorant boy he'd been months ago. He had grown quite skilled at Powder Refining, and he had also gained experience using the fire here. As the temperature rose, he simply took off his leather jacket, baring his upper body. Beside the Wild Cauldron stone furnace, he sometimes held up an herb to smell it and sometimes crushed it by hand before tossing it into the cauldron.

Time slipped by unnoticed. Outside, dusk settled, and the forest gradually fell quiet. Even the calls of birds and beasts dwindled until they could no longer be heard.

As the sky darkened, the bright moon rose high overhead. But the moon that night was quite unlike any other; its color was much redder than usual. At first glance, it looked as though a blood moon hung in the sky.

This strange sight seemed to cloak the earth in an eerie aura, especially the area around Wu Mountain. Nearly all the birds and beasts fell silent. Even their faint cries abruptly stopped, as if they didn't dare make a sound.

In the forest below Black Flame Peak, a red shadow flashed past. It was Little Monkey. Its expression was grave, its eyes full of wariness. Now and then, it glanced up at the red moon, fear flickering across its face.

As it moved, it hesitated. Not knowing that Su Ming had already returned, it immediately changed direction, no longer heading for Black Flame Peak. In a flash, it disappeared into the forest and hid.

The darker the sky grew, the more vivid the moon became. In the end, as far as the eye could see, all of Wu Mountain seemed to turn red.

Just then, faint howls echoed from deep within Wu Mountain. As time passed, they grew louder and louder, until they finally sounded beyond the mountain.

The howls seemed to carry endless resentment. Their sound made the heart tremble, as though it could shake the soul itself. Listen for too long, and it felt as if the blood in one's body were burning, stirring a fear that was hard to suppress.

The howls echoed across heaven and earth, seeming to answer the blood moon above. All of Wu Mountain was shrouded in an eerie mystery.

That night, all three tribes near Wu Mountain remained on high alert. In the Wu Mountain Tribe, ordinary members returned to their homes early under the protection of the tribe's Barbarian Warriors and did not venture outside without good reason. The Barbarian Warriors, meanwhile, guarded the tribe under the chieftain's personal command.

Grandpa stood at the highest point in the tribe, on a platform built from enormous trees. Holding a black bone staff, he gazed into the distance, a hint of worry flashing through his eyes.

He had noticed that Su Ming had left, but he hadn't expected that tonight would be the Blood Moon night that came once every three years. This time, the Blood Moon had arrived several months earlier than usual. The strange occurrence left him even more unsettled.

"Fire!" Grandpa suddenly called out after a long while. The tribe members gathered around the foot of the platform hurriedly thrust their torches beneath it, and the wooden platform was instantly engulfed in flames. Grandpa stood amid them, as though inside a sea of fire, yet his expression remained calm as he murmured strange incantations.

The Wu Mountain Tribe wasn't alone. In another direction, the same scene unfolded in the Black Dragon Tribe. Their Grandpa wore a loose robe and had his hair hanging down in disarray, making it impossible to tell whether he was a man or a woman. He held aloft the skull of a strange beast with a single horn, and shrill, piercing sounds rang from his mouth.

Among the Black Dragon Tribe members standing nearby was an exceptionally beautiful young woman. Her face was pale as she looked up at the blood moon.