The Blood Moon Begins

He waited outside the leather tent for a long time before being told he could enter. Only then did he walk inside with a respectful expression, and half an hour later, he left the place with a look of wild joy, bowing respectfully as he departed.

Inside the purple leather tent sat two men. Both were elderly with graying hair, yet their eyes were sharp and piercing. Before them lay a very ordinary small bottle, which was empty.

One of the elders, dressed in white robes, held a Medicine Stone between his fingers. After staring at it intently for a long while, a flash of brilliance crossed his eyes, followed by surprise and hesitation.

He pondered for a moment, held the Medicine Stone to his nose to sniff it, and closed his eyes slightly. After a long while, he snapped them open.

"Just as he said, it truly possesses that incredible effect! I have been in the Fengzhen Tribe for so many years and have never seen such medicine. Furthermore, looking at its appearance, it does not seem to be an ancient medicine; there are no traces of time upon it. It was refined not too long ago! What on earth is this..."

"It is a pity that so much time has passed, and that Evil Barbarian is not someone to be trifled with. Otherwise, we might have been able to learn the origin of this item," the other elder said slowly.

"Do not act rashly. The person who could produce such a treasure is likely either a high-level Blood Condensation Realm practitioner or an outsider, an Evil Barbarian of the False Dust Realm. Brother Zhou, I shall take this treasure back to the tribe. Perhaps the Barbarian Duke of our Fengzhen Tribe will recognize it." As the white-robed elder spoke, he placed the Medicine Stone into the small bottle with extreme care, then waved his right hand, and the bottle vanished instantly.

"That is as it should be," the elder opposite him nodded.

"This item is too important. I shall take my leave first and will inform you if there are any results." The white-robed elder stood up, bowed to the man surnamed Zhou, and hurried out of the purple leather tent. With a single step, his figure distorted, transforming into a patch of white mist that surged toward the sky and vanished in an instant.

As the sky began to brighten, within a vast grassland some distance from the tribal market, lay an incredibly imposing tribe. The size of this tribe was like a city, surrounded by six smaller tribes similar to the Wu Mountain Tribe. At its very center stood a massive mud-stone city!

This city was majestic, like a giant beast looming over the land. The number of tribesmen within the city alone exceeded several thousand, far beyond anything the Wu Mountain Tribe could compare to.

As for the six tribes outside the mud city, they were direct subordinates—some had been conquered outright by the Fengzhen Tribe, while others had come seeking protection due to various accidents, eventually becoming part of the Fengzhen Tribe.

The Fengzhen Tribe was a medium-sized tribe, though a weaker one among them. After all, the area around Wu Mountain was a remote corner in the eyes of the entire Barbarian Tribe. Yet, it was precisely because of this that the Fengzhen Tribe had become the overlord of the vicinity, ruling over all directions, receiving tribute from countless small tribes, and serving as the only tribal member with connections to higher-level powers.

At this moment, as the morning sun began to peek over the distant horizon, a patch of white mist sped over. It condensed outside the mud city, transforming into the white-robed elder.

The elder's expression was grave as he immediately entered the mud city. Along the way, every Fengzhen tribesman he encountered stopped and bowed respectfully.

In the center of the mud city stood a pitch-black altar. It was pentagonal in shape and stood ten zhang high, carved with various bird and beast totems, exuding a primitive aura.

The white-robed elder stood bowing beneath the altar. A moment later, a gentle voice drifted down from above.

"Shi Hai, what is the matter?"

"Reporting to the Barbarian Duke, Shi Hai discovered a medicine never seen before at Zhou Ran's tribal market. This medicine possesses an incredible effect..." The white-robed elder took a deep breath and spoke in a low, heavy voice.

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

The white-robed elder raised his right hand, and a flash of light appeared. A small bottle materialized, seemingly drawn by some strange power, and floated upward toward the altar.

The surroundings were silent, save for the occasional wailing wind that whipped at the white-robed elder's robes. He stood there motionless, waiting in silence.

After a long while, the gentle voice rose again, but this time, it carried a trace of shock!

"There is only one pill of this?"

"Only one," the white-robed elder replied immediately.

"I have never seen such a medicine... It contains a structure I do not understand... and it is clearly freshly refined... Who went to the market to trade it?" The gentle voice carried a hint of gravity.

"It was an Evil Barbarian," the white-robed elder said in a low voice.

"Find him. Use all your power to find this person! Tell him that if he joins my Fengzhen Tribe, I will grant him the status of an honored guest!" The gentle voice rose abruptly.

The white-robed elder took a deep breath and respectfully agreed. Although he had judged the medicine to be extraordinary, he had not expected the Barbarian Duke to want to recruit this person as an honored guest of Fengzhen. The status of an honored guest was extremely noble; aside from the chieftain, the Barbarian Duke, and a few others, it was enough to stand on equal footing with the leaders of various departments.

Following the white-robed elder's departure, this decree began to be executed by the entire Fengzhen Tribe, casting a wide net to search for the man they believed to be an Evil Barbarian!

Meanwhile, Su Ming was in his own dwelling within the Wu Mountain Tribe, having made a secret decision. At dawn the next day, he left the tribe alone. After stepping into the jungle, he sped toward Black Flame Peak.

Familiar with the path, Su Ming leaped through the jungle. Since his cultivation had reached the second level of the Blood Condensation Realm, his body's agility and speed had increased significantly. Even Lei Chen would have to exert his full strength to barely keep up. Now, in the familiar jungle, Su Ming moved even faster, reaching the foot of Black Flame Peak by noon.

He leaped up, climbing Black Flame Peak until he returned to his powder-refining cave. Su Ming set down the woven basket he had been carrying, which was filled with various herbs he had prepared for this refining session.

Xiao Hong was not in the cave, likely out playing. Su Ming scanned the cave to ensure there were no signs of anything amiss, then sat cross-legged on the ground. He focused on circulating the blood within his body, and with the flickering of the ten blood lines, his body reached its peak state.

Faintly, Su Ming even felt a sense of impending breakthrough, as if the eleventh blood line was about to condense.

"When Grandpa helped me with my true Barbarian Awakening, he said I would soon reach the third level... It hasn't been long, and I already feel an abundance of blood and qi... The Ancient Barbarian Technique is truly profound." Su Ming opened his eyes, a flash of brilliance passing through them as he recalled the moment his body had secreted black, filthy substances.

"I might as well delay the refining and push through to break the second level in one go!" After a moment of contemplation, Su Ming took an item from his robes—the Sky Rock Grass. After glancing at the herb, he first swallowed a Dust-Clearing Powder, then plucked a leaf from the grass, chewed it, and swallowed it.

He closed his eyes and began to meditate again. A moment later, sweat poured from his body, and as blood-red light scattered, the eleventh blood line faintly began to emerge.

Several hours later, a muffled sound came from within Su Ming's body. The eleventh blood line had successfully condensed, and a surge of even stronger blood and qi power erupted from him.

Su Ming opened his eyes, which shone with a bright light.

"Blood Condensation Realm, third level!" he muttered as he stood up. With a face full of excitement, he stretched his body before taking the herbs and, following the methods in his memory, began the process of refining the Mountain Spirit Powder.

The current Su Ming was no longer the ignorant boy from a few months ago. He was already quite skilled in the art of powder refining and had gained experience using the flames here. As the temperature rose, Su Ming simply took off his leather tunic, baring his upper body. Beside the Wild Cauldron stone furnace, he would occasionally sniff the herbs or crush them with his hands before tossing them into the cauldron.

Time slipped away unnoticed. Outside, the sky grew dark, and the mountain forest gradually fell silent; even the sounds of birds and beasts faded until they were imperceptible.

As the sky darkened, a bright moon hung high. However, the moon this night was vastly different from usual; its color was significantly redder. At a glance, it looked as if a Blood Moon hung in the sky.

This strange phenomenon seemed to cast a bizarre aura over the land, especially around the Wu Mountain area. The sounds of birds and beasts vanished almost entirely, and even their faint cries ceased abruptly, as if they dared not make a sound.

In the forest at the foot of Black Flame Peak, a red shadow flickered by. That shadow was Little Monkey. Its expression was grave, its eyes filled with vigilance. It looked up at the red moon from time to time, a look of panic flashing across its face.

As it moved forward, it hesitated. Not knowing that Su Ming had already returned, it immediately changed direction. Instead of heading toward Black Flame Peak, it flashed away and hid somewhere in the jungle, disappearing from sight.

As the sky grew darker, the color of the moon became increasingly vivid and red. In the end, as far as the eye could see, the entire Wu Mountain seemed to have turned red.

At this very moment, faint roars drifted from within Wu Mountain, growing increasingly intense as time passed until, eventually, they echoed far beyond the mountain itself.

The roars seemed to carry an endless resentment, causing the hearts and minds of those who heard them to tremble, as if their very souls were being shaken; if one listened for too long, it felt as though the blood in their veins were burning, inevitably stirring a sense of terror.

The echoing roars reverberated between heaven and earth, seemingly reflecting the Blood Moon in the sky, shrouding the entire Wu Mountain in an eerie, mysterious atmosphere.

That night, the three tribes near Wu Mountain remained on high alert. Within the Wu Mountain Tribe, the ordinary clansmen, protected by the tribe's Barbarian Warriors, had long since returned to their dwellings and dared not venture out, while all the Barbarian Warriors stood guard under the personal leadership of their chieftain.

Grandpa stood at the highest point of the tribe, upon a platform constructed from giant logs. He held a black bone staff in his hand, gazing into the distance, a flicker of worry crossing his eyes.

He had sensed Su Ming's departure, but he had not expected that today would be the night of the Blood Moon, which occurred only once every three years. Furthermore, this Blood Moon had arrived several months earlier than in previous years, and this strange phenomenon left him feeling deeply unsettled.

"Fire!" After a long while, Grandpa suddenly spoke. Immediately, the tribesmen gathered beneath the giant log platform placed torches into the base, causing the structure to burst into a roaring blaze. Though Grandpa stood amidst the flames as if engulfed in a sea of fire, his expression remained calm as he murmured a strange incantation.

It was not only the Wu Mountain Tribe; at this moment, in another direction, the same scene was unfolding within the Black Dragon Tribe. The Black Dragon Tribe's Grandpa, draped in wide robes with disheveled hair that made it impossible to distinguish gender, held the skull of a strange, single-horned beast high above his head, emitting a piercing, shrill sound from his throat.

Among the Black Dragon tribesmen not far away stood an exceptionally beautiful young girl. Her face was pale as she looked up at the Blood Moon in the sky.