(Another update at nine tonight...)
Tang Changsheng made a circuit of Elephantwater City and found that the siege had long since been lifted. But the city was quiet, as though many of its people were gone. Even the disciples of Whitehead Island and the other Rogue Cultivators had disappeared.
"Could so many people have died here? No... if that were the case, every household would be wearing mourning."
As he pondered, he came upon a patrol. Delighted, Tang Changsheng approached them. The captain seemed to recognize him and hurriedly saluted. "Immortal Master, you're awake?"
"Where has everyone else gone?"
"The Tribal Stockade Barbarians were defeated! They were defeated! They're fleeing into the mountains now. Captain Li has already led our men out to beat the drowning dogs!"
The Tribal Stockade Barbarians were defeated? How?
Tang Changsheng had asked casually, expecting no useful explanation from a man of such low rank.
But the captain said, "The immortal master from the Primordial Yang Church—that's right, a master from your sect—stepped in and killed eighteen Tribal Chiefs in one stroke. The Tribal Barbarian Army collapsed, and Marquis Yue sent troops across the Suxu River to attack..."
"What?" Tang Changsheng could scarcely believe it.
Lu Yuanzhen was formidable, a Yang Spirit True Person. But Tang Changsheng would never believe he had charged into the Tribal Barbarian Army alone and slain eighteen Tribal Chiefs in succession!
An assembled army had a stern Military Aura that Gods and Devils feared and against which Dao Arts faltered. Besides, the Tribal Chiefs were hardly the sort of high-ranking figures found in that other world, where Dao Arts barely manifested—men too weak to truss a chicken.
Every Tribal Chief could draw on totemic power and wielded considerable strength. Each also had a host of Wizards under his command.
If