Chapter 550: The Last Witch
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Ancient Realm.
The feeling he got arriving at this place was very different from the last.
The world's defences were sturdy and had solidified into a tough wall that rejected all foreign visitors.
'The dream masters might be resourceful but they will find it extremely difficult to gain access to this world!'
Fang Yuan's willpower manifested into frost flowers that floated downwards in the air. His thoughts ran wild.
He had long been accepted by this world, which was akin to having a green card that allowed him to come and go without resistance.
'The Ancient One probably wouldn't be in the best state right now...of course, his gamble involved the abandonment of Da Qian in exchange for the Ancient Realm's acceptance.'
'The other dream masters could only hope to achieve this by paying a most painful price!'
'The last time I was here, there was a big war fought between the Xia Tribe and the Jiuli Tribe. Both sides suffered huge losses - the Xia capital sank while the Jiuli Tribe was vanquished...I wonder what the world is like today. Do the tribes of Fang Mountain still exist?'
The speed of cogitation was alarming.
In a blink, Fang Yuan's consciousness had fallen instinctively into another body.
"My head hurts!"
Fang Yuan flipped himself over and climbed out from a pile of corpses. He shook his head.
His last memory was that of numerous flags against the sky and blood and steel on the battlefield.
"Jie...is that the name of the body I've taken over?"
As the last bit of his consciousness adapted to this body, Fang Yuan stood up with a slightly heavy heart.
Bodies lay on the ground for as far as the eye could see and the ground ran red with blood. The setting sun cast shadows of a broken war chariot decorated by a half-burnt flag. The symbol on it was barely visible—a black swallow!
"Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"
Countless of crows circled overhead, delighted by the ghastly feast beneath them.
Dogs and jackals convened on the ground, their eyes darting about. They were uninvited guests.
"This war isn't over yet!"
Fang Yuan picked up a spear and looked at the bronze blade as he drew his own conclusions.
In this era, bronze was an essential resource in production and war. No matter how powerful the faction was, they would not be as wasteful as to leave their weapons lying around, not even the broken ones!
Unless...the war had not ended and this was only one of the battlefields!
"Bronze? Fine iron?"
Fang Yuan could see bronze swords and iron swords lying about. He shook his head.
"Seems like not much time had passed since the last time. At least iron hasn't made bronze obsolete yet!"
Regardless of whose body he had taken over, Fang Yuan had no intention of staying on. He took a cloak off one of the corpses and pulled it over himself. After Fang Yuan had retrieved a fine iron sword lying inside the chariot for himself, he quickly left the battlefield.
Fang Yuan's tall and muscular physique, coupled with the fact that he was armed, deterred the teeth-baring jackals from messing with him. Besides, there was more than enough food lying around.
"We have to find a place to settle down...also...although this body was only knocked unconscious, it has many little wounds that require medical attention!"
Fang Yuan rubbed his temples.
At this moment, pieces of memories, as well as some dregs of feelings, assailed his senses. He had no desire to fight on.
"The most important thing is to figure out the context of the war and which side this body belonged to. Otherwise, I might die without knowing anything…"
Fang Yuan walked away from the battlefield with a smile playing on his lips.
"Will intelligent species, no matter where and when, never be free from the shadows of war?"
...
This battlefield was located in the middle of a valley. As Fang Yuan walked deeper into the mountains, he felt much more at ease.
Although the area was teeming with venomous snakes and ferocious animals, there was no way a conventional army would be able to advance so deep in. His safety was largely assured.
As for small-scale forces, Fang Yuan would be able to dispatch them with no trouble.
"Splash!"
Fang Yuan had come across a gurgling stream and began to wipe the blood stains off himself. He was thinking more clearly now and worked to organise the memories of this body that he was in.
"Jie--a citizen of Shangyi, was part of a force tasked to invade Dongyi…"
Fang Yuan had accessed the most important information regarding his body's identity.
"Shang Dynasty? According to Jie's memories, Shangyi was a large city. Its founders were of godly blood. Later, Shang managed to defeat the last leader of Xia and claimed supremacy over all the tribes and cities in the land. Thus, it became the Shang Dynasty…"
Fang Yuan looked slightly confused.
"The Shang came after the Xia? Followed by a revolution led by King Wu? Wait a minute, among the 800 cities, there seemed to be one called Zhou…"
Fang Yuan could feel the weight of history bearing down on him.
"I wonder where the Ancient One ended up. He won't recover his powers so quickly and would be planning his next move while concealed in the shadows."
Fang Yuan became solemn as he thought about his target.
"He has no idea that I'd be following so close behind. This is the best chance to catch him unaware!"
The Ancient One had abandoned his old physical form so as to keep his life. He had thrown himself completely into the Ancient Realm and would never return.
He had only done it because he was confident that Fang Yuan would not dare to match his bet.
After all, even if Fang Yuan had acquired the armillary sphere as well as the coordinates of the Ancient Realm, he had to inject the entirety of his true aura like the Ancient One into the realm in order to avoid facing rejection.
Any rational dream master would never do that!
Hence, the Ancient One thought that he had lots of time to scheme behind the scenes.
However, what the Ancient One did not know was that Fang Yuan had long gained the approval of the Ancient Realm and was able to access the world without any trouble.
Both of them were now shrouded in darkness. Now they had to see who would emerge before the other.
"The War of Dongyi…"
Fang Yuan lapped up some of the mountain spring water as more memories surfaced in his head.
The Shang had ruled the world for 500 years at this point and bubbles of unrest were beginning to form. A new Shang King had just ascended to the throne and was a hero of the times.
The Yi in the southeast had revolted and the King had sent out his troops to deal with the turbulence.
Jie had lived in Shangyi at the time of the call-up to war.
Unfortunately, a flying rock had hit him on the back of his head on the very first battle of the war and he had keeled over.
If Fang Yuan had not dream-traversed to take control of his senses, he would have been dead.
"Strictly speaking, Jie has a rather good constitution!"
Fang Yuan examined his reflection in the stream. It was that of a tanned young man with thicks brows and large eyes. A brown cloak was draped over his muscular body.
What struck Fang Yuan most was the golden glint of light in his eyes.
"The blood of the witches is active in this world. It is its world after all…"
In actual fact, most of the higher-level bloodlines are intertwined with the soul. This gives rise to the possession of special abilities that are non-transferable, not even through blood transfusions or body switching.
Their true auras had been marked!
Thus, in the Purple Eye Realm, the Tantai family was unable to get rid of their curse through the possessor technique.
In this world, although Fang Yuan had a different physical form, the blood of witches continued to define his being.
"That's right!"
Fang Yuan cracked his knuckles.
"With this bloodline, I'll grow more rapidly than the other humans. I'll be able to strengthen my abilities and revive the divine technique of the witches."
Fang Yuan glanced at his stats board:
Name: Fang Yuan
Essence: 1.5 (100)
Spirit: 0.9 (100)
Magic: 5.0 (100)
Profession: ???
Cultivation: ???
Technique: ???
Skill: [Medicine (Level 3)], [Botany (Level 6)(Peak)], [Fiery Golden Eyes (Level 1)], [Body Seal (Ultimate form)]"
"Hmm? Even the Body Seal is here?"
Fang Yuan was slightly confused and looked at his belly.
A black mark with a shining purple spot in the middle of it had appeared.
"Is this the real thing...or is it an illusion?"
Fang Yuan shook his head and removed his doubts.
The Body Seal carried with it the original energy of the Demonic Heart. As with distinguished bloodlines, it was intertwined with his true aura.
This meant that if the seal broke one day and unleashed the Original Energy, Fang Yuan would never be able to escape its wrath even if he possessed another body.
No matter how many physical forms he took, he would die immediately with no exceptions!
All his methods of self-preservation would be rendered useless.
"Unless…"
Fang Yuan thought hard and had an idea.
"This sort of energy has a power that transcends the laws of nature! Is it an absolute truth? What kind of concept is this?"
Fang Yuan was deep in thought for a moment before his ears suddenly pricked up. He picked up a stone and threw it outwards with all his strength.
"Crack!"
The stone whistled through the air and landed deep into the bushes.
It had hit a dark figure at the back of its head and its collapsed onto the ground. Fang Yuan pulled it up by its ear.
"I was just thinking about dinner and here it is."
This unfortunate fellow was a grey rabbit. Its life was over the moment it had encountered Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan cut its throat to drained its blood and skinned it before he roasted it over on a spit.
"There are a few cultivation methods in the Ancient Realm. It is not a good idea to tap on the methods of the Xia Tribe because they carry with them the marks of the other worlds. Hence, my only viable path is probably to use the witch path."
After he had eaten his fill, Fang Yuan sat cross-legged and took in a deep breath.
The blood of witches coursing through his veins was amazing. It was actually gaining strength.
"After all, this is truly the blood of the witches. I will have to carry on their legacy…"
Although the Jiuli Tribe in the Ancient Realm had gone extinct, their bloodline, albeit diluted, lives on. Hence, most of the tribes carried Jiuli blood in their bodies to some extent.
From a cultural aspect, their civilisation had been assimilated. The tribe had been annihilated.
Now, Fang Yuan, who carried the blood of the witches as well as the weight of their legacy, was the last witch of this world!