Chapter 349: Fiery Eyes
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Wu Zhiqi is a water demon! It had caused floods in the 9 regions and brought us suffering!"
Xia Qi exclaimed as he signalled to Wei and the rest of the warriors to tie the 3 leaders up. With a menacing glare, he looked at Fa.
"Fa! I believe your father is being misled..."
"That's right!"
The young man had a pure heart and could not bear to do evil. This was why his father did not let him join in the decision-making process.
Uncontrollably, Fa nodded his head as though Xia Qi was willing to spare his father.
"My father must be misled by the water demons!!"
"Mm, very well!"
Xia Qi smiled, "Therefore... you must prove your loyalty to your people, Fa! Are you willing to lead your warriors to take on the water demon?"
It sounded as though Xia Qi was deluding Fa.
"As long as you can accomplish that, I can not only release your father, I will also ensure that the Xia Tribe will support you in ascending to the appointment of division leader!"
Currently, the leader of the division was nominated by the previous leader and was a cycle by itself.
Of course, in the Xia Tribe, there was already a system where the father would pass down the appointment of leader to his son. Therefore, people already regarded the tribe as Xia Country.
However, among the divisions in Tortoise Mountain, they still chose their leader through nomination by the previous leader.
As soon as the young Fa heard Xia Qi, his eyes glistened.
"Dear noble messenger from Xia, I am willing to assist you in taking down the water demon to prove my loyalty to my people!"
As he knelt down, he gave up the bronze sword in his hands.
"No..."
Zhang wanted to say something, but before he could do so, Fang Yuan quickly went up to them and stuffed a ball of cloth in their mouths, rendering them mute.
"We are willing to follow you, young leader!"
The warriors of Shangzhang Tribe looked at each other. However, seeing that their leader was captured, they followed suit. They knelt down and presented their weapons as a sign of willingness to follow.
"Alright!"
Xia Qi laughed. "This will be the same for Douli Tribe and Lilou Tribe. Yuan! Lead the warriors together with Fa, and let them know our might! If they are willing to surrender, then allow them to follow us!"
"Yes!"
Fang Yuan agreed, and his mind was clear.
Capturing the leaders was just a method to convince the rest of the warriors to follow them.
They were still too weak to face the water demon. Furthermore, these warriors might suddenly go against them if one of their leaders managed to escape. Therefore, they had to move immediately and take down the other two tribes, while sowing discord between these divisions of Tortoise Mountain in the meantime. Afterwards, they could do anything they wanted!
As long as they quickly accomplished this, even if the leaders of the 3 divisions were to escape, they could no longer turn the tables.
Hearing this, Lu and Kang appeared desolate. They made a few mumbling noises but could not speak.
After all, they had already brought along their elite soldiers with them. Their divisions were now defenceless and if they were ambushed, they would surely lose and experience losses.
'This strategy can only be thought of by a dream master from the outside world. These people here are simple-minded and I'm afraid they will have to suffer!'
Xia Qi remained at Shangzhang Tribe to guard beside the few captured leaders, while Fang Yuan started to allocate the manpower he had to prepare for the attack. He silently sighed to himself, "In an instant, an army of 10,000 failed to stop us and instead became our helping hand. We are really in control of everything!'
"Yuan, if we manage to take down the other two divisions, remember to share the loots with Yang Tribe!"
Wei carried a huge bow behind her bag as her eyes glistened with excitement, which made Fang Yuan speechless.
Where was the demure girl as written in the books?
...
The sun rose.
The Shangzhang Division was bustling with activity.
Groups of warriors walked on the streets and their knives were still stained with blood. They carried severed heads by their sides which were proofs of their efforts.
Behind them, women were strung up with grass ropes. There were also meat and jars filled with treasures. These were all the valuables that they had looted.
It was a normal thing in this realm to attack other divisions and kidnap their people, to the point where the kidnapped women would be obedient to their kidnappers as though they were used to it.
"Messenger, this time, we have ambushed Douli and Lilou Divisions. It was a resounding victory and we've killed more than 100 of them, kidnapped over a thousand and reduced their houses to ashes!"
In front of others, Fang Yuan acted normal and reported to Xia Qi respectfully.
"Very well, let's split the rewards with our people, namely the women and the staples!"
The enemy's base was rather empty, whereas the attacking force was made up of elites and was even led by a dream master. There was no such thing as a failed mission and therefore, Xia Qi was decisive. "Also, let those warriors who are submissive join us. Sent messengers out to inform the other divisions in Tortoise Mountain... With this, the smaller divisions would not dare to come! By then, we can activate tens of thousands of people to help out in searching the Hui River and locate Wu Zhiqi!"
"That sounds good!"
Gazing at the satisfied Fa, Fang Yuan felt a little pity for him.
Although this young man had a little power, the only way he could hold on to it was to show his loyalty to the Xia Tribe and would likely have to resort to abusing his authority in order to maintain stability within his tribe.
Of course, all of this was none of his business.
On the spot, Xia Qi initiated the splitting of rewards fairly and everyone was satisfied.
"Yuan, do you think this cloth looks nice on me?"
Wei did not care about the other treasures. She was extremely happy with a few bronze swords and a piece of dyed cloth.
"It's very beautiful!"
Fang Yuan was speechless. Women were similarly vain in any time period and any realm.
"We are still some time away from informing the various divisions to gather their people..."
After splitting the rewards, Fang Yuan went to a straw hut and started to account for his treasures.
He was not interested in the many bottles of medicine. However, he had snatched a basket of oracle bones and ropes from a few temples as he knew these divisions had the inheritances of witches. Now that he observed his loot, there was nothing that he could understand.
"Although it might seem like a huge basket of oracle bones, the information in this basket might not even be as much as a few pieces of paper... This is creepy. If there were carvings on the oracle bones, I might be able to interpret them. However, these knots are hand-tied and I can't understand it at all. It seems like I will have to ask Xia Qi to let me have a few priest disciples to assist me in interpreting these..."
He casually picked up a grey piece of bone. There were a few markings made on it which resembled a human opening up his arms and walking towards the sun.
"This resembles something... Of course, more importantly, there is energy from this realm trapped within the cracks of the oracle bone..."
Fang Yuan ran his finger through the cracks of the tortoise shell and felt an ancient spiritual aura in it.
"The cultivation of witchcraft begins from one's physical body. These recordings are just a trigger to enable one to harness energy from nature to activate the bloodline in these people... From there, their abilities will appear on the physical bodies and they would become more powerful!"
"From how things are, it seems like all of these people in this realm are qualified to become witches. Of course, the people of Jiuli Division are the most suitable... After their defeat in the hands of the Sage, the entire Jiuli Division was wiped out and the survivors were either split from each other and reproduced with other people which diluted their bloodline, or they could still be hiding in the wilderness trying to survive the harsh conditions... If I have the chance, I must take a look at the inheritance of these witches!"
Fang Yuan flipped the oracle bones in the basket. Finally, as he picked up a red oracle bone, the energy in his body started to react.
"This must be the word for 'Fire'!"
Seeing how the engraved symbol resembled a ball of fire, Fang Yuan started to think to himself. "The quality of this body is unsatisfactory. However, with the increase in my magical energy, I am able to detect abnormalities in my blood. This is the foundation of being a witch. It seems like on Yuan's body, there are hints of fire-type witch's bloodline. If I can cultivate it to the peak level, can I become Zhurong, the Fire God?"
Zhurong the Fire God was a god from the South. She was rumoured to have the head of a beast and the body of a human and was covered in red scales. There were fire snakes in her ears and fire dragons beneath her feet.
"Of course, looking at my current cultivation, I believe I am too far off!"
The cracks in this oracle bone only had the spiritual aura of a fire witch and should not be used to generalise other witches.
However, Fang Yuan was a dream master! As long as he could initiate the cultivation and master the basics, he would be able to use his spiritual will to absorb the fire-type elemental energy from the surroundings to supplement his body.
With the supplemented elemental energy, the hint of witch bloodline in him started to strengthen and turn into a golden-red hue, shimmering under the sunlight.
"The bloodline is strengthened!"
After a long while, Fang Yuan stood up and felt that although there were changes to his body, he could not feel the changes.
As he walked to a water vat, he could see the reflection of a young man with big eyes and thick eyebrows. He had a muscular build and gave off a faint red glow.
On the sides of his eyebrows, there were streaks of red in the form of runes, and his eyes glistened as though flames were about to emerge from them.
"It seems like my bloodline and physical body has been strengthened, and I have gained some witchcraft abilities! Of course, my foundations are too powerful to begin with and this small boost from witchcraft should not affect me much..."
He twitched his eyebrows and took a glance at this stats window:
"Name: Fang Yuan
Essence: 48
Spirit: 48
Magic: 60
Profession: Dream Soldier Master
Cultivation: Illusionary Divine (4th Tier), Wu Zong (5th Meridian)
Technique: [Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique (Grade 6) (1%)], [Hundred Poison Golden Body (1st Refining)], [8 Gates Sword Array (5th Sword) (1%)]
Skill: [Medicine (Level 3)], [Botany (Level 5)], [Fiery Eyes (Level 1)]"
A new skill, Fiery Eyes? Could I possibly train it to become the Fiery Golden Eyes?"
Fang Yuan thought for a while as he focused on this new skill of his. With that, he obtained more information about it:
"Fiery Eyes (Level 1): The ability from the bloodline of a Fire Witch. It is able to nullify basic illusionary spells, traps and elemental energy. Currently, at Level 1, you will be able to form fire-type spiritual inscriptions."
"Fire-type spiritual inscriptions..."
He subconsciously felt his red eyebrows. "Are they talking about this?"
He quickly left the house and looked for Xia Qi.
"Eh? How did you start to cultivate in witchcraft so quickly? Is this the red eyebrows Fiery Eyes? It seems like the Zhurong Blood in this body is rather concentrated!"
Xia Qi was a little startled, but he did not mention the downsides of practising witchcraft.
Others would see it as a sin for him to possess witchcraft, but to him, there was nothing wrong with it.