With a slight squeeze, he crushed the Wind-Thunder Xingyuan Ape, bursting it into a cloud of blood mist.
Behind him, dozens of Witch-Human Race warriors moved as one.
Their beasts' hooves and claws shattered the ground as the rune-covered warriors shot into the ape horde like arrows loosed from a bow. The apes, none of which had even reached the True Immortal realm, were torn apart, smashed, and flung aside like paper dolls.
In the blink of an eye, all the dozens of Wind-Thunder Xingyuan Apes were dead.
Blood spattered the ruined stone houses, mingling with the dried, dark-brown stains until old and new were indistinguishable.
Chiyou leaped down from the black-and-white behemoth's back.
He walked over to the child's skeleton, crouched down, and looked at it in silence for a moment.
Then he gently picked up the broken little finger bone, examined it in his palm, and carefully returned it to its original place.
"They were human," he said quietly.
A warrior stepped forward behind him. Looking at the ruins and the ape corpses strewn across the ground, he asked, "Big Brother, these beasts..."
"These were just a bunch of small fry." Chiyou stood, his gaze sweeping beyond the ruins to the north, where there were more signs of Wind-Thunder Xingyuan Ape activity.
He could smell the lingering scent in the air, thick and undispersed—a sign that a larger group had gathered nearby. "Since we're here, let's clear out all the ones in the area."
Without another word, he swung himself onto the black-and-white behemoth and charged north, toward the stronger scent.
Dozens of warriors followed in silence, their beasts' hoofbeats ringing through the mountain forest in a rapid, heavy clatter.
After that, a fighting force of unknown origin appeared along the southern frontier of the Southern Jambu Continent.