Divine light flashed in the Flowerfoot Wizard's eyes, along with a glimmer of anger. "Come back and speak to me like that when you've become Hong Sheng!"
In a Tribal Stockade, only the leader could bear the stockade's name. In other words, he was telling Tang Changsheng to wait until he succeeded as leader.
Before Tang Changsheng could answer, the warriors behind him began cheering. "Hong Sheng! Hong Sheng! Hong Sheng..."
The Flowerfoot Wizard's face darkened. By the rules everyone acknowledged, a wizard could not strike at the leader of any Tribal Stockade.
The Hongdong warriors' cheers were an acknowledgment of Tang Changsheng as their leader. That stopped the Flowerfoot Wizard's retort in its tracks.
"If we don't get justice today, we'll take it back with the weapons in our hands!" Tang Changsheng declared. No one understood better than he did the importance of fighting for a just cause.
Sure enough, the Hongdong warriors roared, "Justice!"
"Justice!"
"Justice!"
Some were already itching to attack. Taking back half the Flower-Foot Barbarians' hunting grounds was all well and good, but how could it compare to swallowing their entire Flower-Foot Tribal Stockade?
Victory had come so easily that the Hongdong warriors had forgotten the Flower-Foot Barbarians still had over a hundred warriors. Their strength was no less than Hongdong's; in fact, they were considerably stronger.
But war was fought on morale, especially when men clashed with cold steel. An army of a hundred thousand could be chased off by a few thousand...
The Flower-Foot Barbarians had suffered blow after blow. Their leader and his son had burned to death, and they had just lost a battle. Now even their wizard had come to negotiate, only to be denied any respect. Their morale had sunk to rock bottom, and fear was beginning to take