Death

Ghost Qi? Yu Chen raised an eyebrow at the descending black aura.

Ghost Qi differed from Yin Qi, Sha Qi, turbid qi, and other primordial energies of heaven and earth. It was a semi-artificial primordial energy, one that was basically impossible for nature to nurture. As Yu Chen understood it, Ghost Qi was born when the final thoughts of living beings at death mingled with Yin Qi. It was further shaped by concepts such as fear and death, making it very difficult to classify.

Yet one thing was certain: limited by the fact that a dead person's thoughts could not linger long in the world, the Ghost Qi circulating in nature had either accumulated and settled over countless years or gradually taken form under the influence of a particular environment.

The Ghost Qi wielded by the Crow Totem now had clearly been created through some special method, much like the Ghost Qi cultivated by ghostly entities.

As for how many people had died during the gathering of this Ghost Qi, Yu Chen had no way of knowing. He could only conclude that since it had gathered Ghost Qi, the Crow Totem had chosen a path devoted solely to death.

Devoted solely to death, huh?

Yu Chen could understand that.

Animals like crows were somewhat similar to foxes. They had not been purely symbols of negativity from the very beginning; the meanings attached to them had constantly changed with the passage of time. Traditions of the Book of Documents recorded: "When Zhou was about to rise, a great red crow bore seeds of grain in its beak and gathered atop the royal house. King Wu rejoiced, and all the high ministers rejoiced as well."

In the legends of the Southern Barbarian Lands, crows bore several rather mismatched titles: bird of death, bird of warning, bird of prophecy, and bird of auspiciousness. These titles both foretold the Crow Totem's potential and indicated the directions in which it could advance.

But regrettably, aside from the title bird of death, none of the other paths suited a totem that needed to protect a tribe.

The Southern Barbarian Lands were not peaceful. Resources were limited, there was little land suitable for cultivation, and agricultural techniques were backward. Much of a tribe's food still came from hunting.

That was also why, even after Yu Chen left the tribe as its former Great Serpent Shaman, he remained so revered by the Snake Tribe.

Before he had taken power, most people went hungry. Every winter, a great many who had lost their ability to work would enter the deep forest alone, never to return.

In such an environment, neither a bird of warning capable of sounding alarms nor a bird of auspiciousness that brought good fortune could lead a tribe toward ever better survival. On the contrary, the bird of death, which could sense the vitality of living creatures, weaken enemies, and bring them the terror of death, suited the Crow Totem best.

But correspondingly, compared with warning, prophecy, and auspiciousness, the bird of death possessed the weakest spirituality!

Yu Chen flung out the Snake Shadow Banner. Stream after stream of mist rose up and devoured the descending Ghost Qi. The Crow Totem let out a piercing cry, and patterns that exuded a cold, sinister aura, like crows, appeared upon the Snake Shadow Banner, suppressing the snake patterns on its surface.

Watching the Crow Totem seal and erode his magical artifact, Yu Chen merely smiled indifferently. His hand seal shifted, and tiny seal-script characters emerged one after another where he had stepped moments ago.

Rune Water—Runes at Every Step!

Yu Chen had given this move its name in his heart. Put simply, it relied on the Rune Water granting him the ability to draw runes in empty space, along with the trait he gained after forging his divine soul: the ability to freely activate hundreds of talismans around it. Each time he landed, he planted a rune seed where his foot touched down.

The auras of these rune seeds were exceedingly faint, and the primordial energy stored within them was also very thin. Since they dispersed every moment, they could only serve as triggers. Had the Crow Totem cultivated authorities such as warning or prophecy alongside its main path, it might have discovered them. But since it was the bird of death, then...

"Heaven and earth's natural order, foul qi scatters apart; within the cavern lies mysterious emptiness, vast and radiant Great Origin..."

The rune seeds transformed into seal-script characters and rose with radiance. From Yu Chen's Daoist sanctuary not far away, an aura was stirred. Following a faint connection in the unseen, it descended, forcibly opening a temporary Daoist sanctuary within the Crow Totem's territorial range.

The pure, sacred radiance made the Crow Totem's incarnation extremely uncomfortable and further disrupted its link to the main body. It could not help flapping its wings, stirring gust after gust of frigid wind carrying the aura of ill omen and death, leaving crack after crack in the clear radiance.

At the same time, the Crow Totem's power in the surrounding earth continuously gathered inward.

The seal-script characters formed from the rune seeds shattered one after another, and the temporary Daoist sanctuary woven from those characters shook without cease. Threads of black aura rose through the gaps in the sanctuary's clear radiance, transforming into crow claws that clawed at Yu Chen's ankles.

Are you staking your life on this? Yu Chen smiled. As the former Great Serpent Shaman, how could he possibly have neglected to study the power of totems? And as his understanding deepened, Yu Chen had come to profoundly understand the source of totemic power.

In their initial stages, totems basically existed by relying on the power of wishes. The area their power covered was only the tribe's settlement and the places where it usually operated, extending at most a few hundred meters beyond that. Only after a totem acquired the traits of an earth deity would it undergo a meteoric surge in strength. At that point, the power contained within a totem came from the strength of that land and the faith of its living beings.

Yet because they merely possessed the traits of earth deities rather than being true earth deities, totems would usually store more than half their power within the earth, drawing it over only when needed.

What was breaking through the temporary Daoist sanctuary at this moment was precisely the power the Crow Totem normally stored in the earth. Drawn forth by the incarnation, that power continuously attacked Yu Chen, intending to kill him completely.

Yu Chen leaped into the air, breaking free of the black aura's restraints. With a sweep of his long sleeve, he murmured, "Heaven and earth's mysterious origin, root of all qi. Cultivated broadly..."

Golden Light—Xin Blade Curse!

Within his sea of consciousness, the Golden Light Mantra and the Xin Blade Curse lit up in succession. With the Golden Light Mantra as the primary force and the Xin Blade Curse as support, blades infused with the power of the Golden Light Mantra flew from Yu Chen's sleeve and swiftly slashed toward the Crow Totem.

"Caw!" A cry rang out. Black aura brimming with ill omen emerged from the Crow Totem's body, forming a curtain that floated before it and blocked the golden blades one after another.

"Xin is Yin Metal. Yin is inherently gentle and yielding, adept at absorbing! You've lost!"

Yu Chen landed, golden light circling his body and blocking the black aura creeping toward him. When he looked up, two streams of golden light that had been stopped by the black curtain suddenly broke through its defense. One transformed into a fire serpent that burned the black aura around the Crow Totem, while from within the other burst a little white snake that pierced through the eye in the Crow Totem's brow.

"Just as expected! The bird of death truly doesn't have much spirituality! And its brain doesn't seem very big either." With a turn of his hand, the Azure Light Mirror appeared in his grasp. He gave it a gentle shake toward the Crow Totem, which was continuously dissipating yet trying to reform.

Azure Spirit Treasure Light descended. The black aura scattered, becoming a brilliantly colored crow feather that fell to the ground.

Yu Chen beckoned, and a snake shadow flew forth, catching the crow feather in its jaws before coiling around his wrist so that he could examine it.

The quality is somewhat better than last time. It should be a feather from when it died! He casually drew several seal-script characters, sealing the spirituality within the crow feather. Yu Chen returned to the Daoist sanctuary to rest briefly. After clearing away the excess aura within it, he carried the Wolf Totem's aura to the other side of the sanctuary.

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