Battle

Night had fallen. The moon hung high, scattering sheets of cold silver light.

Under the bright moonlight, figures approached the cave where Yu Chen was.

Before they had gone far, the White Wolf witch riding atop a giant wolf looked at Poison Fang and frowned. "Is this some new sorcery developed by your Snake Tribe? Why do I feel a force here suppressing my connection to the totem?"

At this, Bald Crow extended a withered finger and gave it a slight hook. A stream of black mist shot from his fingertip, within it the fleeting phantom of a crow.

The black mist wheeled through the air and landed on an ancient tree. A large cat that had gone out at night to forage, failed to avoid the forces of the three tribes, and had been cautiously hiding nearby, fell from the tree.

Black mist coiled around it. Its once-glossy fur turned dry and yellow, while its flesh vanished for no reason. It looked as though it had been air-dried for a year or two, but Bald Crow had actually drained away its life force with sorcery.

Having consumed the large cat's life, Bald Crow let out a satisfied groan.

But the next second, he turned to Poison Fang. Obvious wariness showed in his formerly cloudy eyes as he said in a somewhat hoarse voice, "My worship of the totem has also been affected to some extent. There's something wrong with this place. Poison Fang, are you hiding something?"

"I don't know either!" Poison Fang's expression was no better. Facing the distrustful gazes of White Wolf and Bald Crow, he said coldly, "What are you afraid of? We swore, beneath the witness of our respective totems, never to deceive one another! If I had deceived you, I would surely suffer the punishment of the Three-Point Formation Totem. I'm perfectly fine right now—doesn't that prove I know nothing?"

The White Wolf witch glanced at Poison Fang, as if judging something. The next moment, she stroked the giant wolf beneath her and began chanting a string of tongue-twisting spells. Shadows crawled out from the giant wolf's own shadow.

These shadows swiftly transformed into translucent gray-white ghost wolves. Eerie ice-blue ferocity flickered in their eyes as they roared and charged forward.

Seeing this, Bald Crow gave two strange laughs. He stretched out his gaunt arm, shook his long robe, and crows crawled out from beneath its hem. They flew into the air, wandering through the forest as they slowly searched for Yu Chen's location.

Poison Fang, the only one left, did not make a move. As a witch from the Snake Tribe, he knew very well that all his methods were things Yu Chen had already played with and discarded. Whether scouting the way or launching a sneak attack, none of it could possibly escape Yu Chen's notice. Rather than waste magic power and energy, he might as well wait for White Wolf and Bald Crow's findings, then confront Yu Chen head-on.

"No!" The White Wolf witch's face was extremely grim. After her ghost wolves discovered Yu Chen's location, she had felt her connection to them rapidly vanish.

This loss of contact was not because the ghost wolves had been destroyed. It was an exceedingly natural change, like when she had previously tested the limit of the ghost wolves' scouting range; those that crossed beyond that boundary would lose contact with her.

That meant the totem's power there had been suppressed to the extreme. In a fight against Yu Chen, it would be difficult for them to receive the totem's aid.

"Hm?" Bald Crow was even more unlucky than the White Wolf witch. He had wanted to use the crows to curse Yu Chen, only for Yu Chen to curse him first. Though he had evaded the curse in time, he was still affected. His face slightly pale, he said resentfully, "Don't think about going in to fight him, and don't think about cursing him from afar. We have to force him out!"

The White Wolf witch sneered. "Easy for you to say. What method do you have?"

Bald Crow laughed strangely twice and lowered his voice. "Naturally, I have a method. It just depends on whether you're willing to do it!"

"What method?"

"Set fire to the mountain!"

"A Crow Tribe witch? He was a little stronger than the two I met a few days ago. If I hadn't comprehended part of the essence of the witch path in this instance world, and if my spirituality hadn't undergone further sublimation when Black Snake transformed into a flood dragon and was granted godhood, I really wouldn't have been able to suppress him so easily!"

Yu Chen pinched the spoils of battle, which had lost all their mysteries and reverted to a black crow feather, then turned to look in the direction of the three tribes.

I wonder what choice they'll make once they discover this place can suppress the totems' power. Will they come in, or force me out?

Yu Chen stood at the cave entrance and waited quietly. Suddenly, he sensed the forest's panic and pain. His eyes transformed into Snake Eyes, and he saw blazing heat continuously spreading from the direction of the three tribes.

Burning the mountain? That's even more ruthless than I expected. I wonder whether this was the Wolf Tribe's choice or the Crow Tribe's.

Within the Southern Barbarian Mountains, forests were extremely important resources. The Wolf Tribe's totem, for instance, also bore the title Lord of the Jungle, while the Snake Tribe's and Crow Tribe's totems had similar titles as protectors of the forest.

Nearly every totem cherished trees. Setting fire to a mountain was a taboo among taboos; even in battles between tribes, it was rare for anyone to resort to burning down the mountain.

Thus, upon discovering that the other side had set a fire and that the blaze was growing ever fiercer as it continuously spread toward his location, Yu Chen immediately understood that a totem must have acquiesced to this.

The only question was who had started it—the Crow Tribe or the Wolf Tribe.

Though the Snake Totem would love nothing more than to see me dead, its tolerance isn't that poor. After all, I conducted quite a few experiments in the tribe before, and I argued with it plenty of times. Although this sanctuary is unfriendly to totems, it isn't enough to drive the Snake Totem mad and make it choose to burn the mountain. The Wolf Tribe's and Crow Tribe's totems, on the other hand, have been worshipped for so long that they've grown accustomed to looking down from on high. They're more likely to lose their reason!

The totems' actions had already been within Yu Chen's expectations. Or rather, he had anticipated this scene when he expanded the sanctuary.

Although the art of establishing this sanctuary originated from sorcery, it had also been mixed with the Purify Heaven and Earth Spell, as well as material from the Yin Talisman Treasure Register and the Free and Easy Treasure Scroll.

Now, the witch-path aura within the spell had grown increasingly faint, while its divine-path aura had become increasingly rich. It was also becoming more and more unfriendly toward totems.

Do they see me as a competitor, or merely as a blasphemer?

As Yu Chen's thoughts shifted, his hands did not slow. A pattern emerged between his brows, containing a faint trace of draconic nature and slightly different from the other snake markings. He raised a hand and traced through the air. Threads of watery mist rose up, carrying shards of ice spikes as they swept toward the mountain fire.

This watery mist carrying ice-spike fragments was not merely a spell. More of it came from Yu Chen using his own spirituality to communicate with the spirituality of the surrounding mountains, rivers, grasses, and trees, drawing upon the power of underground watercourses and blending it with frigid yin energy.

Compared to ordinary sorcery, this technique still carried the aura of divine arts, but it no longer had any connection to sorcery that borrowed a totem's power. It was closer to an independent divine art.

This aura stimulated the totems of the three tribes even further. Bald Crow was the first to sense the totem's fury. "Damn it! This is blasphemy against the totems! He is coveting the totems' authority! We must find him at once and kill him. Only by using his blood and soul as an offering can we wash away the sin brought by this blasphemy!"

Compared to Bald Crow's furious roar, the White Wolf witch was even more direct and intense. Her body lowered slightly, her spine arched, and all four limbs landed on the ground. Her muscles began to swell, stretching her loose clothes taut. Her pupils abruptly contracted into pitch-black slits.

The exposed skin outside her clothes was swiftly covered in long snow-white fur. Ten sharp claws sprang forth, her upper and lower jaws thrust forward, and the crescent-shaped mouth split open to her ears, revealing rows of fangs. In the shortest time possible, she transformed into a werewolf with snow-white fur.