The family they are going after next is actually a Demi Giant family that was cursed by some other god who is a subordinate of Hou Yi.
They were cursed and banished to this place. These Demi-Giants have no elemental affinity, they are pure warriors with large bodies. Their bloodline purity is around sixty three percent and currently they worship Hou Yi because, their god died.
As for why they suddenly migrated, it is because, they heard about a prophecy that the key to their curse being lifted and them being able to get out of this realm will be present there.
They created a small town in a valley where they settled. The town is completely governed by them and the main source of attraction for the people are the merchants that come there for doing business with the Demi Giants.
After all, the Demi Giants who didn't even have an elemental ability, might as well be one of the strongest exisitences in the realm, even though they don't have any particular territory in this place. They are biggest suppliers of the treasures, beast products and other resources that are available in the frozen fields of this planet.
They don't rule the whole realm and they don't even rule the planet they are in, their only goals are to maintain an easy and proper way of survival and to find a way to break their curse.
It was said that the natural laws completely stop them from moving away from this planet, if they enter the worm holes, the spatial turbulence will kill them.
Sam couldn't help but suspect Hou Yi, after all it is not exactly a coincidence when it happens two times. The prophecy for the Hob Goblins and now these Demi Giants, both are powers of Hou Yi.
But since the gods are not meddling, then he must be playing within the rules.
Sam didn't care much anyway. Since they are inside the valley of this town, there is no need for him to worry too much, as long as their location is available, it is all okay for him.
But this time he decided to piss Hou Yi off even more than the last time for making him travel more than needed.
Soon, they reached the vicinities of the valley.
Sam looked at the valley from far away as he tried to analyze the structure and terrain to see if there is any advantage he could take.
Meanwhile, he let the team enter the town and gather some intel.
While Sam is busy doing this, the Demi-Giants that is currently in a meeting. The head of the Demi-Giants looked at the rest of the family and said.
"How are the preparations for the defenses of the valley? Is the formation ready to be activated?"
"Yes, lord. The formation was connected and it would surely awaken the hidden power in the valley at any moment, even the frontline defenses are made.
We managed to construct everything according to the blueprints. No matter who attacks the valley, we can definitely hold them back and send them back."
"What I want is not sending them back. I want them o stay here. I am telling you, the person that comes to attack us has the thing that could make us escape this realm. The only way for us to do is make sure that we kill every intruder and make them stay here for eternity.
They will stay in this valley of death for the long time to come." The lord replied sternly and the elder sat back down silently.
"How are the Ice cannons doing? Are they ready?"
"Yes, lord. The Ice goblins are working day and night. They will deliver them by tonight and will help us in the operation. Their payment was also done."
"The Ice cannons are important, the prophet said that the other party has many tricks up their sleeves, we need to be prepared. They can strike anytime now."
As they are discussing, an attendant ran into the room without any etiquette or propriety and whispered something in the ears of the lord.
When the lord heard it, his widened in surprise and immediately dismissed all the elders and only let a few elders stay.
He sent the attendant away and gave some instructions of the Elders before sending them away too. He walked to the ice statue of Hou Yi in the room and bowed to it before sitting in meditation to calm himself down.
Meanwhile, Night Ghost and the rest of the team are currently looking through the town as they talked with different merchants doing business.
Even though the town is small, some exclusive merchants will come here to do business with the Demi Giants, since they are from the foreign lands, some people from the surrounding locality brought a bunch of their local produce to advertise if the foreign merchants like this, they will buy and along with that, the people from different localities in the surroundings can also buy each others products creating a small market and there is a lot of information they could gain from these people about the rest of the family.
At this moment, Night Ghost is drinking some liquor and talking with the crew of a Foreign merchant who came to do business with the Demi Giant.
But as he sat there, he sensed something and immediately ducked down, a hammer was swung past his earlier position as it hit the wall and half of the bar was destroyed with a single attack.
Night ghost frowned and stepped away from him, before saying.
"My friend, is this some misunderstanding. We don't have any enmity."
He looked at the Demi Giant that swung the hammer and said.
"What is your name?" The Demi Giant asked as she shook his hammer and walked forward.
"Is this some sort of Demi-Giant Ettiquette I am unaware of?" Night Ghost as he dusted off some dirt on his robes.
"I asked you what your name is." The Demi-Giant angrily slammed the hammer and the strike hit Night Ghost even though he is a fair distance away.
He got pissed and unleashed his ghost directly making the third strike stop. He lunged forward as he landed an upper cut on the Demi-Giant's Giant chin.
The Demi-Giant's teeth were broken as he fell off of his feet. But that is not the end, blood came out of the orifices and he died on the spot.
Because, Night Ghost is a Late stage Astral Plane Transcendent while the other guy is only a middle stage Astral Plane Transcendent.
Night Ghost looked at the surroundings and immediately ran off to check up on his other teammates.
Similar incidents repeated in other areas. Saber monarch, Sia and Gran, Five elemental King, everyone was attacked except Kiran and some of them gave out more information than the one that attacked the Night Ghost.
Some of the team members killed their opponents and some of them didn't and escaped the city before leaving to the forest nearby.
When they reported to Sam, he was surprised.
"It seems like the prophecy didn't just state that we are going to attack them, it seems like they even left some clues on how we look and what our names are.
This Hou Yi is becoming more and more unruly. He is pushing his boundaries more than he should." Sam speculated.
But Tamas said with a smile.
"I think we don't need speculations boss. I brought one of them, why don't we get the direct information from the soul?"
Sam nodded and Tamas finished the action quickly, the new information is really similar to what Sam guessed.
Except that the clues regarding their descriptions not just stopped at their appearance, but also their powers, their elemental affinities and their cultivation strengths. That is why they managed to send people with exactly equal cultivation, it is just that they never calculated the Night Ghost's breakthrough.
And from the looks of it the information is quite fresh and recent.
Sam is sure that this is Hou Yi or one of his follower's doing.
This is really getting out of hand.
"Since they already knew we are here, why bother? Let us just meet them head-on."
Sam selected the tribe's name in the list directly.
Hou Yi appeared in the Demi-Giant's temple and explained the situation and as usual, he went on and on about killing Sam.
As soon as he said that, the Demi Giants complied.
And their actions shocked not just the team, but also the people that are currently inside the town.
The Demi Giant family announced the complete lockdown of the town and nobody is allowed to come in or go out for a while.
They even issued an order that everyone who is an Astral plane Pre-transcendent cultivator of the middle stage of higher is being currently drafted into their forces temporarily and they should fight with the Demi-Giants.
Along with that, they activated a bunch of formations.
The whole valley is covered with a dome that looked like transparent ice and ice goblins came out of a hidden camp within the valley along with a bunch of cannons mounted on the wall.
The whole city immediately went on being defensive in just an hour.
