Like a tide, the four other tribes retreated. The Green Willow Tribe soldiers started to cheer and celebrate with ‘hey-ha’ noises soaring to the sky.
Leftover Dog walked to Qin Yu while gasping for air and asked, “Now, can I live?”
Qin Yu was expressionless. “I can only decide whether you die. Whether you live is not up to me.”
Leftover Dog was slightly blank as he gave Qin Yu a thumbs up, “You’re formidable indeed.”
He walked out to the distant plains with his crooked body, like a lone wolf that had been gravely wounded. However, looking at his silhouette now, no one dared to underestimate or belittle him.
Those who were familiar with the wilderness knew that wounded wolves were the most terrifying. Before they died, they would try to bite their enemies’ throats at all costs!
In the team of Desolate Area cultivators, in one of the carriages, White Iris looked at Leftover Dog who was now far away and raised her eyebrows. She had an eager expression in her eyes, but in the end, she took a deep breath and suppressed the urge in her heart.
Pa –
The loud sound of a slap rang out, and White Iris was directly hit with such force that she landed on the ground. The space in the carriage was completely separated from the outside world and no one could use their divine sense to hear or see what was going on inside.
White Iris touched her cheek and knelt on the carriage floor, “My Lady, I was not lying, my sword can only kill people; it’s unable to hold back at all.”
Rourou was expressionless. “If that was not the case, you would already be dead!” She raised her hand and slapped White Iris hard again.
Blood seeped out from the corners of White Iris’ mouth, yet she did not dare to wipe it away as she struggled to kneel properly.
“Remember, in this team, whether anyone lives or dies is up to me. Even if it is just a dog, you are not qualified to do anything about it.
“Just now, thankfully you suppressed your urges instead of trying to make a move. Otherwise, I would have killed you.” Rourou’s gaze was icy, and it was also filled with disgust. She used one leg to forcefully kick White Iris, “Remember what happened today. If there is a next time, I will extract your brains with my hands!”
Whoosh –
Rourou disappeared.
White Iris coughed out blood. She struggled to get up as she went to a corner of the carriage and curled up into a ball. There was no hatred in her eyes at all. She raised her hand and gently caressed her face which was swollen from Rourou’s beating, and she mumbled to herself, “My Lady, one day, you will understand that everything I do is for you…even if I die, I would never let anyone harm you…even if you are the one trying to harm yourself.”
The team continued on their journey and Qin Yu returned to the carriage. He saw that Rourou was using a white piece of gauze to examine her palm. When she saw that he had returned, she merely raised her head to just give him a glance before continuing what she was doing.
Qin Yu sat down and thought about it for a while before saying slowly, “The person White Iris killed was a cultivator from that clan.” He was sure about it even though he had only taken one look at the other party. Then, Black Pagoda, Heavy Mountain, Long River, and Purple Forest had so boldly defied orders from the Holy Land, and this only goes to show how powerful their backing was.
It was no wonder that Prajna was so cautious. Everything had an explanation now.
That clan was able to seize control over the southwest fragmented area from the West Desolate, which showed how powerful they were. It was a no-brainer that they would already have a scheme in place in the Western Barbarian Territory. After all, the West Barbarians posed the biggest external threat to the West Desolate currently.
There was a saying that went, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. This was a very simple thing to understand.
As for why that clan would secretly mobilize the four other tribes, it was probably because they had noticed Qin Yu’s precarious position in the West Desolate.
Not to mention that clan who had definitely infiltrated the West Desolate, there were countless people in the Imperial Capital who wished for Qin Yu to die.
For example, the Later Ye Family.
Selling information about Qin Yu and even taking the initiative to stage a collaboration with that clan was not too far-fetched; only then it would be possible for them to succeed at ‘exposing’ his identity.
Of course it was impossible for White Iris to have really killed that cultivator from that clan. At most, he would only have been heavily injured. However, she had ruined Qin Yu’s plans. Originally, he wanted to capture that person and make use of him in the West Desolate.
After all, those Old Four Claws in the Imperial Palace were now hiding in the wilderness. On one hand, they were protecting Qin Yu, but on the other, they were monitoring him as well. As long as they detected the presence of that clan, the conflict between the West Desolate and that clan would intensify.
Of course, White Iris’ actions were not without their benefits. At the very least, it destroyed the possibility of Qin Yu’s identity being ‘exposed’. After all, he could now lock onto that clan’s aura. Who knew if they had the capabilities to see through the fact that there was something wrong with Qin Yu’s crafted identity?
Rourou said, “White Iris’ sword is indeed only capable of killing people; she was unable to hold back.” After a slight pause, she revealed a cold smile, “Therefore, she took the initiative to be the first to kill in that battle. You didn’t notice it so you can’t blame her.”
Qin Yu nodded and voiced out his concerns, “I don’t blame her completely. After all, it is very likely that White Iris’ actions have helped me. However, the appearance of that clan is something that I can make use of. Do you have any way to let the Old Four Claws notice this?”
Rourou shook her head, “They have probably brought a very powerful and hidden treasure from the Imperial Palace with them. It is fully integrated into this world, and unless they choose to release their aura, it is difficult to find them in my current state.”
It was difficult, but not impossible. However, doing it would exhaust too much of Rourou’s power. It might even cause the seal on her own body to break.
Qin Yu sighed, “If that’s the case, then we can only act as we go along. Since that clan has already made their move, they would not back down that easily. In the future, there will be more opportunities to deal with them.”
Rourou nodded, throwing away the white gauze in her hands. A flame appeared from thin air and burned the piece of gauze to ashes. She had a hint of disgust in her eyes.
Qin Yu felt that something was strange, but intuition told him not to ask too many questions.
The rest of the journey was rather smooth. Once they entered the Green Willow Tribe, everything that they needed had already been taken care of.
Qin Yu got down from the carriage and had a brief chat with Prajna and the Tribe Leader. Neither of them stayed behind for long as they insisted that the Marquis needed to rest early since he had a long journey.
Evidently, the Green Willow Tribe had put into a lot of thought constructing the campsite. They prepared a style of courtyard that was commonly seen in the West Desolate. Even though it was not as majestic and luxurious as the one in the mine, it was still very refined.
The Green Willow Tribe seemed to have gotten some information from the Golden Crow Tribe. In the area that was dedicated to the Desolate Area cultivators, there was a huge empty space that could be for the two large trees that served Rourou.
Rourou seemed to be very satisfied with this arrangement. The two trees jumped off from the carriage, each picked a space, and rooted themselves onto the ground. Then, their bodies started to grow in size.
Just like before, Rourou walked into the treehouse and lay comfortably on the reclining chair made from branches. She yawned before quickly falling asleep.
Qin Yu looked from afar at the two trees that were very busy right now and then at Rourou who had fallen asleep. His eyes appeared like he was deep in thought.
He ordered everyone not to go near the treehouse. Rourou slept for three days and three nights before she walked out of the treehouse groggily.
Qin Yu could sense this, so he stopped his cultivation, left his courtyard and walked towards the two big trees.
When he saw Rourou, the first thing he said was, “How do you feel now?”
Rourou looked at Qin Yu before raising her hands to rub her temples. Then she slowly lowered her hands back down and said, “I’m alright, I feel much better after sleeping.”
When she saw that Qin Yu had nothing else to say, she added, “So what if I’m not alright? What can you do? Are you going to tell me to eat these Desolate Area cultivators or those barbarians from the Green Willow Tribe?”
Qin Yu touched his nose but did not say a word.
Rourou laughed and said, “Men. They’re just full of shit; whoever dares to believe what they say will be unlucky!”
Qin Yu helplessly said, “You can’t generalize us like that. There are many men in this world, and nine out of ten of them are bad, but there are always those one or two good men…”
He was then harshly interrupted by Rourou who scoffed, “If you dare to say that you are one of these good men, I will chase you away right now and you can forget about eating and drinking here.”
Qin Yu instantly shut his mouth and did a ‘zipping’ motion. His eyes were bright.
He drank from a few wine fruits on the way back. However, he truly missed the culinary skills of the ‘root people’.
Ever since they returned to the Imperial Capital, he had not gotten to enjoy it.
Hiss –
I can’t think about it, my saliva is dripping!
Rourou rolled her eyes at him, probably thinking that Qin Yu was a good-for-nothing. She waved her hand, and the ‘root people’ obeyed her orders and instantly began to cook. Very quickly, they prepared a table full of delicacies.
Qin Yu consecutively plucked three wine fruits, and when he was just about to pluck his fourth, he was stopped by Rourou’s glare. She frowned as she said, “Do you want to die?”
Qin Yu understood what she meant. With his current limits, he could only drink three wine fruits at once.
Hehe, it was a rather big improvement from before. It seemed that entering another cultivation realm brought about bigger changes than he thought.
That’s right, I have to cultivate whenever I have the time, so that I can improve to the next step as soon as possible. When that time comes, I’ll be able to eat and drink even more!
Rourou’s eyes were about to roll into the back of her eye sockets, probably feeling shocked and speechless from what Qin Yu was using to motivate himself.
However, these small things were like a drizzle to him, unable to ruin his appetite.
Just like before, Rourou only occasionally used her chopsticks to eat the dishes in front of her. Mostly, she was holding onto a wine fruit, drinking from it slowly sip by sip.
Qin Yu, on the other hand, did not stand on occasion. With one sip of wine, he took three mouthfuls of food. He ate happily like a deity.
He ate and drank as much as he could!
He was not feeling very well anymore, but he still drank the wine to the last drop before he got up shakily. “Uh…you should rest well, I’m going to leave first.”
Rourou’s eyes were half-closed as she responded with a grunt. She leaned backwards on her chair, and naturally, the dexterous branches quietly cleaned up the mess in front of her.
After changing into a more comfortable position, Rourou was lying down on her side as she watched Qin Yu leave. Her eyebrows started to rise.
“Where exactly is the problem?”
She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep. However, before Rourou really fell asleep, her divine sense of the whole world reached its peak.
It was a pity that like before, Rourou was still unable to find out what was wrong.
It was as if there was an extremely thin curtain in front of her that she could not see, covering her eyes. It was not heavy, and light could pass through it, but it still made everything blurry and she could not tell what was real and what was not.
……
The team of Desolate Area cultivators settled into the Green Willow Tribe. The first thing that they did was to return everything that they owed the tribe to them, even though the tribe insisted that they were not in a hurry to get anything back. They even tried to hint that they could remove whatever debt was owed to them, as long as Marquis Chongwu was willing to lend them his assistance.
Without him, their totem would not have transformed.
The Golden Crow Tribe’s totem, the Golden Crow, was now very powerful. Many barbarians who went to visit the Golden Crow Tribe were green with envy when they saw this.
For the Green Willow Tribe, their Divine Willow that had almost died due to being struck by lightning back then and had only one remaining branch left, had also become extremely powerful after being revived once again.
It was said that even though it was still in its newborn state, it had given the Green Willow Tribe the same amount of benefits as it did back then before it was destroyed.
One must know that the newborn state and mature state of barbarian tribe totems were completely different from one another. At the mature state, they were tens of times stronger than they were at the newborn state.
This also meant that the Green Willow Tribe’s totem, the Divine Willow, had advanced!
It might have been a coincidence that the Golden Crow Tribe’s totem evolved and Marquis Chongwu might have had a hidden agenda in saving the Green WIllow Tribe’s totem.
However, now that both totems had advanced, was there even a need to doubt Marquis Chongwu?
Earlier, Black Pagoda, Heavy Mountain, Long River, and Purple Forest had joined up. No one dared to say anything against them. However, now that they had retreated, the situation stabilized once again. If they still sat by and did nothing instead of asking for Marquis Chongwu’s assistance, it would be equivalent to waiting for a death sentence to be levied on them by their tribe totems!
It was said that in some big tribes with even stronger totems, some Tribe Leaders were given a death order. If they were unable to invite the Desolate Area cultivator Marquis Chongwu to their tribe, they would be eradicated!
Whatever it was, in the Green Willow Tribe now, it was very lively.
The old Tribe Leader also felt what the Golden Crow Tribe Leader Cutuo had felt last time. It was a painful and happy feeling, but if you have the guts, you should just take whatever gifts are being handed to you!
