Totem

Bald Crow fell to the ground. The White Wolf Witch did not dare step forward. Helpless, Poison Fang slowly exhaled strands of mottled, ethereal mist from his lungs. Faint colored radiance flowed within it, concealing dim snake shadows in the fog, invisible to the naked eye.

"Poison Fang! Such an outdated trick, there's no need to show it off, is there?"

To Yu Chen, Poison Fang's method was practically antique. Without even looking at it, he extended a finger and tapped the air. The mist surrounding Poison Fang immediately boiled, and the snake shadows within twisted free of Poison Fang's restraints before fiercely stabbing toward four vital points—his brow, throat, heart, and lower abdomen!

"Great Shaman! Don't look down on me! I haven't made no progress these past years either!"

Poison Fang shouted, and the mottled mist around him became even more chaotic. The snake shadows within were stirred and exploded one after another. Clumps of mist slowly dissipated amid the smoke, leaving only a wisp of Yu Chen's aura lingering without dispersing.

Poison Fang chanted a shamanic spell, and the lingering aura was swallowed by the mist. The next moment, the mottled fog seemed to gain a will of its own and began closing in on Yu Chen.

"Hmm! Thinking to use poisonous mist to corrode my control, then giving it a trace of spirituality to entangle me—you do live up to the name Poison Fang. Still, I've seen your progress! You're just too weak!"

Just as he had during training years ago, Yu Chen first commented on Poison Fang's innovation in shamanic arts. Then he stepped forward, extended his palm, exchanged four or five blows with Poison Fang in midair, and sent him sprawling with a single slap.

Then several snake shadows entwined and merged into the grass and trees, preparing to bind him hand and foot.

"Don't even think it!" From Poison Fang's attack to his loss of combat strength, only the blink of an eye had passed. The White Wolf Witch had no time to react. But Yu Chen could not be allowed to bind Poison Fang. Knowing she could not match Yu Chen's combat rhythm, her pupils began to contract and her fur took on an eerie sheen. She abandoned her own consciousness and allowed the beastly nature within her to take control.

In this state, the White Wolf Witch's attacks became savage and direct. No longer caring about defense, she relied instead on her tough hide and thick flesh, as well as her ability to recover swiftly even when injured, launching a frenzied assault on Yu Chen.

Her long, ferocious nails gleamed coldly beneath the moonlight. Combined with the White Wolf Witch's speed, increased by another thirty percent, they were like ten sharp blades dancing back and forth through the air, filling one with dread.

The White Wolf Witch suddenly appeared beside Yu Chen. One hand shot out and swept at his waist, carrying a thick stench of blood on the wind.

"This shamanic art is pretty good! But letting beastliness replace humanity means losing far too much reason. It also means there are far too many openings to exploit!"

Facing this swift attack, Yu Chen had no time to dodge, but he did not care much. Patterns like snake scales emerged across the bare skin of his upper body, and his body became light and nimble. As the claws fell, his upper body swayed with the foul wind like a frail willow bending before the breeze.

Having easily avoided the claw, Yu Chen's feet did not slow. Rather than retreating, he advanced, swiftly arriving before the wolfwoman. With a wave of his hand, threads of yin energy gathered, moonlight congealed, and merged with the fierce gale, transforming into a vast blade radiance that came crashing down.

The White Wolf Witch's intent to continue her mad assault was forcibly altered by instinctive fear. She raised both hands, trying to use her coarse fur to block the descending blade radiance.

But Yu Chen's Snake Shadow Blade, like the Demon-Slaying Blade, grew more terrifying at close range. Even though the White Wolf Witch could draw upon the totem's power to protect herself, she could not completely offset the Snake Shadow Blade's force.

Accompanied by the sound of something snapping, the White Wolf Witch was sent flying. When she got back to her feet, her arms—comparable to divine weapons—already hung limply at her sides.

Whoosh! A fierce gust rose, and Yu Chen, who had just broken the White Wolf Witch's arms, was sent flying by a snake shadow.

After turning several times in midair, Yu Chen landed lightly on a tree branch. Before he could steady himself, pitch-black crow feathers rained down, their surfaces gleaming with a distinct metallic luster. Yu Chen went limp, then kicked off with his feet and slithered swiftly down the trunk like a snake, using the branches and leaves to evade most of the feathers.

The few crow feathers that landed on him were knocked away by the radiance rising from the scale patterns.

Straightening up, Yu Chen saw the snake marking between Poison Fang's brows blazing brightly. Poison Fang stared at him with vacant eyes, while the scales on his cheeks gradually spread toward his brow and thickened.

On the other side, Bald Crow had also changed drastically. His formerly decrepit body was covered by feathers over more than half its surface, turning him completely into something half-man, half-bird. Enormous wings grew from his back, his lips hardened into something like a beak, and the fingers of his withered hands became longer and thinner, like a crow's claws.

Finally, the White Wolf Witch, whose arms Yu Chen had broken, began to emit cracking sounds from her arms. Dense life force circulated as her injuries rapidly recovered.

Seeing this scene, how could Yu Chen not know that the totems of the three great tribes had personally entered the fray? He loosened his muscles and bones, then smiled. "You've finally decided to act yourselves? Perfect. I've improved quite a bit lately. Let's see, within my domain, how much of a gap remains between you and me."

"Hisss..." Poison Fang let out a string of sounds. It was the Snake Tribe's totem making one final attempt to persuade Yu Chen.

"Enough! Spare me? Give me a chance to return to peace? If you had no intelligence, I might believe you. But now, is it returning to peace, or climbing into your belly? No..."

Looking at Poison Fang, whose consciousness had been occupied by the totem, Yu Chen sneered. "As you are now, you probably don't have the nerve to swallow me whole. After all, your spirituality isn't that much greater than mine. If you swallow me, it's not certain that you'll be the one left alive in the end!"

Faced with Yu Chen's mockery, the Snake Totem manifesting through Poison Fang's body immediately let out a furious roar. His whole body flattened against the ground, his hands and feet crawling rapidly as his chest and abdomen nearly brushed the earth. His scales expanded and contracted, and amid the whistling wind, he crawled toward Yu Chen at astonishing speed.

"You know shamanic arts can't defeat me, so you want close combat?"

Yu Chen burst into laughter and charged forward. As the two tangled in battle, the Wolf Totem finally suppressed the lingering blade radiance within the White Wolf Witch. Riding the white wolf, it sprang fiercely to Yu Chen's side and joined the Snake Totem in restricting Yu Chen's room to move.

The Crow Totem occupying Bald Crow's body stood in midair, staring at Yu Chen with wide eyes. Every feather on its body stood erect, while waves of ominous aura curled around it. Bald Crow's eyes were not actually large, but under the Crow Totem's control, they were stretched so round that they looked exceptionally eerie, as if the two eyeballs might fall from their sockets at any moment.

Yet if someone looked closely, they would discover dark red fluid constantly welling up from the depths of Bald Crow's pitch-black pupils. Strands of black vapor rose and entwined, forming Yu Chen's image.

But after every lengthy period of gathering, just as Yu Chen's shadow was about to take shape, an inexplicable change would suddenly occur. In a flash of azure radiance, it swiftly vanished without a trace.

"Caw! Caw! Caw!" Repeated failures to seize Yu Chen's aura enraged the Crow Tribe's totem. Bald Crow, under its control, let out shrill cries. At last, he dove down fiercely and joined the battle.

The Crow Totem's arrival immediately disrupted the battle's original rhythm, and all three were somewhat unaccustomed to it. Of course, the one most uncomfortable was the Snake Tribe's totem.

Yu Chen had watched this fellow's intelligence take shape. It had not been born long ago, and though it possessed the memories of many warriors, when it came to actual combat, Yu Chen could still see many flaws.

It had only managed to suppress Yu Chen just now because of the Wolf Totem's aid. Now that the Crow Totem had joined in, both the Snake Totem and Wolf Totem made a momentary mistake.

Yu Chen seized the opportunity, grabbed Poison Fang's wrist, and gave it a light shake.

As Poison Fang could not help letting out a scream of agonizing pain, the joints in his arm dislocated from Yu Chen's shake. Though the Snake Totem reacted in time, half of its body still lost all sensation.

The Wolf Totem did not care in the least. It focused only on the opening Yu Chen had exposed. Sharp nails extended as it clawed at Yu Chen's neck.

Yu Chen flipped his palm, and the Snake Shadow Blade appeared once again. The Wolf Totem retreated in fright, its hands dancing through the air as its sharp nails whipped up gusts of bloody wind, shredding the falling blade radiance.

At last, the Crow Totem also noticed the problem, but it had no time to react. The Yin Snake Chain and Fire Snake Dart had already struck again, attacking the Crow Totem from front and rear.