The girl was Bai Ling. At that moment, she was terrified as she watched the tribe's Grandpa perform the sacrifice and saw the faces of her fellow tribespeople all as pale as hers, their fear barely concealed.
"Blood Moons come once every three years, only after all the snow on Wu Mountain has melted. By then, there are enough beasts to offer in sacrifice, and disaster can be avoided... But this time, it came so much earlier... This..." Bai Ling bit her lower lip and looked around, growing even more frightened.
At that moment, Su Ming was in the Fire Lava Cave, wholly focused on refining medicine with Powder Refining. Sweat covered his body as he stared fixedly at the Wild Cauldron stone furnace, constantly adjusting the strength of the flames as he watched.
Before long, a muffled boom came from inside the Wild Cauldron. Su Ming smiled bitterly and wiped away his sweat. He knew he had failed again.
"Mountain Spirit Powder is quite a bit harder to make than Dust-Clearing Powder..." Su Ming shook his head and opened the Wild Cauldron. A plume of green smoke rose from within, carrying a pungent smell.
He sighed and was about to continue when he suddenly felt the blood and qi in his body churning, as if they were beyond his control. He froze, frowning as he looked around, but saw nothing amiss.
"Strange..." Su Ming scratched his head and pondered for a moment before resuming his Powder Refining.
At that moment, in another part of Wu Mountain, the Black Mountain Tribe was vastly different from the Wu Mountain Tribe and the Black Dragon Tribe. Though the Black Mountain Tribe was also filled with tribespeople, the fear in their eyes as they looked up at the sky was tinged with a bloodthirsty excitement.
Roars poured from their mouths. The Barbarian Warriors were not the only ones doing it—even ordinary tribespeople joined in. Their roars gradually merged into one, a wave of sound rolling through the air.
At the very center of the crowd stood a small hill made of countless red stones. A gaunt old man in a black robe stood atop it. His gaze was cold as he watched the Blood Moon in the sky, a cruel smile curling his lips.
"In ancient times, the Fire Barbarian Tribe dwelled upon this boundless earth. They wielded power enough to shake the heavens and commanded the flames of the world. In rage, they could burn the firmament; in fury, they could overturn the cosmos! Their fame was so great that even those outside our Barbarian Tribe feared them.
"They were one of the eight great tribes of the Barbarian Tribe in those days!" The gaunt old man spoke in a hoarse voice, sounding at once as if he were muttering to himself and proclaiming the tale to heaven and earth.
"But this tribe sought to seize the Heavenly Artifact and incurred the Barbarian God's punishment. For nine days, nine hours, and nine breaths, every member of the Fire Barbarian Tribe who was not a Barbarian burned to ashes, their souls scattered!
"Yet the Fire Barbarians were so powerful that, even after such a calamity, the Barbarians among their tribe did not die. Instead, they sought to rebel against the Barbarian God and establish themselves as Barbarians! As the Barbarian God was about to punish them with a great divine art and wipe them out completely, the Fire Barbarian Lord of their tribe fought the Barbarian God!
"The battle shook the heavens. Though the Fire Barbarian Lord died in battle, before his death he unleashed a technique so fearsome that even the Barbarian God dreaded it. It sheltered every surviving Barbarian of his tribe and made them immortal!" A strange light gleamed in the gaunt old man's eyes. He raised his right hand, and black qi immediately coiled around his withered fingers, turning into one hideous ghostly shadow after another.
"But he was wrong. Though he had made the Barbarian Warriors of the entire Fire Barbarian Tribe immortal, the Barbarian God used a method forged once in ten thousand years to strip all the immortal Fire Barbarians of their human forms and turn them into Blood Moon Wings!
"From then on, they were condemned to a lightless world, stripped of their minds, left as nothing but bloodthirsty Moon Wings! Their resentment and hatred, their fury and grief, became a towering tide of grievance. Once every three years, they redden the moon and turn it to blood, allowing them to emerge just once!
"Today, I, Bi Tu, Barbarian Duke of the Black Mountain Tribe, will help you!" The gaunt old man let out a chilling laugh. He bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood. At the same time, the hill of countless blood-red stones beneath his feet exploded with a boom, sending the stones flying into the sky.
Black Mountain Barbarian Duke Bi Tu's body floated strangely in midair. He spread his arms, his face alight with madness and excitement.
The countless red stones spun rapidly through the air, forming an enormous pattern: a circle with a crescent moon inside, all of it blood-red.
"Moon Wings, awaken! Emerge early from your long slumber!!" Bi Tu spat out another mouthful of blood. It turned directly into a blood mist and flowed into the enormous pattern in the sky. The pattern boomed, then suddenly burst apart, sending vast clouds of red mist rolling in every direction.
At that moment, the entire land of Wu Mountain suddenly trembled. The shaking was unmistakable, as if the earth were splitting and the mountains crumbling. An uproar erupted at once within the Wu Mountain Tribe—and the Black Dragon Tribe was no different.
Su Ming felt the same tremor in the cave on Black Flame Peak. His expression changed. Amid the shaking, he faintly heard weak roars coming from deep within the cave. His heart jolted. He immediately abandoned his Powder Refining, backed away, and crawled toward the exit. The moment his head emerged from the small opening, he nearly cried out in shock: he saw the Blood Moon in the sky!
"Blood Moon!!!" Su Ming's face turned deathly pale.
At the same time, a dense, bloody stench poured from Black Flame Peak. Su Ming did not dare hesitate for even a moment. He knew about the Blood Moon and had even secretly calculated when it would appear.
But he had never imagined it would come early!
He immediately turned and crawled back into the cave. Knowing there was nowhere to hide outside, and that he had no time to escape, he went berserk, taking out the Bone Horn and rapidly gouging into a nearby wall. The roars from deep within the cave grew clearer by the moment, with other faint sounds mixed among them.
Su Ming's eyes were bloodshot. Fortunately, he knew this place well, and the Bone Horn was exceptionally sharp. In moments, he had dug out a hole. He immediately scrambled inside and used the stones he had carved out to block the entrance, paying no attention to the scorching heat in the makeshift hole.
The instant he climbed into the hole he had dug, a wave of red mist roared out from deep within the cave. It filled the entire cavern, then rushed out through the exit passage. Su Ming heard the shrill cries with perfect clarity.
Outside, beneath the light of the Blood Moon, the five peaks of Wu Mountain roared like erupting volcanoes, spewing vast amounts of red mist.
The mist seemed to have lain within the five peaks of Wu Mountain all along. Now that it erupted, it seemed to blanket the sky. On Black Dragon Peak, mist seeped from cracks all over the mountainside, and even more burst forth from the place where Su Ming had obtained Black Dragon Saliva. Had he been there to look closely, he would have seen clearly that the places where the Black Dragons had chased him over the years—places they had never dared enter and had always gone around—were the very places where the mountain spewed the most mist!
The same was true of the other peaks, especially Black Flame Peak, where the eruption of mist was astounding. As the fog billowed, a humming filled the air, mingling with the sound of countless wings beating. Together, they formed a terrifying song of death!
One red shadow after another burst out from the five peaks with the mist, their sharp cries echoing across heaven and earth. The red shadows were strange beasts, each with a pair of wings, red eyes, six limbs, and a human face. Their expressions were wild with bloodlust, and they were no bigger than a palm.
They were the Moon Wings!
They swarmed in dense, endless masses, numbering at least tens of thousands. They blanketed the sky and earth, then charged amid their sharp cries toward the Black Mountain Tribe, the Wu Mountain Tribe, the Black Dragon Tribe, and every place in the mountain forests where beasts could be found.
They had no minds and were filled with grievance. They thirsted for blood and knew only cruel slaughter and the devouring of blood. The blood of the Barbarian Tribe drove them especially wild. They might even ignore the beasts and head straight for the Barbarian tribes instead.
The Wu Mountain Tribe erupted into chaos, panicked screams echoing everywhere. Chen Xin's face was pale as she clutched Bei Ling beside her. Bei Ling was just as white-faced.
Lei Chen was in a terrible temper. He had gone to look for Su Ming at the first opportunity, but could not find him. Now, as worry gnawed at him, the scenes in the sky filled him with dread.
The Barbarian Warriors quickly quelled the panic among the frightened ordinary tribespeople. Gradually, everyone in the tribe turned their attention to the burning wooden platform, where a figure stood with his head raised toward the sky.
Grandpa's face was pale, though the firelight hid it from those around him. His pupils contracted as he watched the red mist in the distance and heard the faint, frenzied roars.
"How could this happen... Not only did it come early, but there are so many more of them... In past years, there were only a few thousand..." He drew a sharp breath, then immediately shouted without hesitation.
"Ordinary tribespeople, hide at once! Barbarian Warriors, bring out all the stored meat, cut open your wounds, and wait for my command!" Grandpa's body trembled faintly. He lowered his eyes to look at the tribespeople, then closed them.
The same scene was unfolding in the Black Dragon Tribe. Bai Ling watched the tribespeople around her listen in terror as Grandpa issued one command after another, and fear deepened in her eyes.
She would never forget what had happened nine years ago, when she was still a child. She had watched one of her playmates get seized by countless Moon Wings as they were leaving. Amid the child's shrill cries, he vanished into the mist, dragged into Wu Mountain. All that awaited him was a slow death.
The Blood Moon was faintly visible through the mist, while red shadows streaked through it, drawing closer by the moment. The vast swarm of Moon Wings split into three groups and headed straight for the three nearby tribes.
The Grandpa of the Wu Mountain Tribe stared fixedly at the sky. The instant the Moon Wings arrived, he swung the Bone Staff in his right hand. The sea of flames beneath him surged outward with a roar, instantly enveloping the entire tribe. Yet the flames were strange: they did not burn the trees or the houses. Instead, they seemed unreal, as if they did not exist, as they surrounded the tribe.
"Throw out the meat!" Grandpa growled. In terror, the Barbarian Warriors among the tribespeople immediately hurled one bloodied beast after another into the sky.
The update was late... I got up late today, at 12:30. It was all because the couple next door had a fight last night and started hitting each other—thud after thud, a real fierce, miserable scene.
All I heard was the woman cursing. Not a sound from the man... just blows.
Before you continue