NOVEL NEXT Chapter 89 Totem Network
An hour later, a patch of monstrous clouds overlaid a land of a hundred miles; a few indiscernible silhouettes stood in the midst of the clouds. Their eyes glared like lanterns, looming in the clouds as their sights scanned the Savanna Wasteland entirely, looking for traces of Jun Sixie.
“Lord Gu Hongzi, I’ve spotted something!”
Those glowing eyes stopped abruptly and a sonorous voice came from the middle of the clouds, “The corpses of Bei Shisong’s monster beasts are in front of us.”
“Corpses of Bei Shisong’s monster beasts? How many of his monster hyenas and monster wolves are there?”
“Reporting to the great city lord, a total of fifty-six of corpses.”
“Fifty-six? Not a single one escaped? That means….”
The monstrous clouds had an upheaval as it dived down from the sky and contracted abruptly, Gu Hongzi’s figure slowly appeared with the resolution of the clouds. He stood in front of the dead bodies with a baleful look, his face was darkened. All of a sudden, he walked forwards and reached a clump of mashed meat.
“Bei Shisong is also dead.”
Gu Hongzi lowered his sights and looked at the minced body, he closed his eyes slowly only to open them a few moments later, “Although Bei Shisong is not very strong, he is smart and brilliant, a sly and cunning monster. It wouldn’t be easy to kill him even if was facing against an opponent stronger than him. But the one who felled him was actually weaker than him. The murderer must have lulled Bei Shisong into believing that success was within his grasp, the murderer must’ve been able to destroy his Sabre Blade Array through an opportunity presented to him in Bei Shisong’s complacency. A little leak would sink a great ship, a moment of negligence could inflict huge damage; Bei Shisong was defeated and now is just a pile of dead meat.”
By just looking at the corpses, he was able to surmise nearly the whole sequence of the battle, it was indeed true that Zhong Yue had lulled Bei Shisong in complacency only to seize a chance to attain an opportunistic victory.
“Whoever killed Mister Bei is very smart … and very sly.”
Behind Gu Hongzi stood a few monster paragons, they were also measuring the battlefield with their eyes, trying to deduce the development of events that led to this tragic conclusion. One of them lamented, “Mister Bei was an intelligent monster, who knew he would die in the hands of a nobody of the human Qi Practitioners. Lord, shall we follow the tracks?”
“This person has been gone for at least an hour, from the footsteps the murderer left behind, it wouldn’t be easy to chase up anymore.”
Gu Hongzi examined the dragon claws left behind by the Xiang Dragons along with the surrounding soil, he estimated the time since Zhong Yue had left, shaking his head and saying, “It’s is likely that this person is aware of us chasing from behind. He wouldn’t be wasting time in his escape; he must’ve traversed quite a distance already. At this rate, even I wouldn’t be able to catch up before the murderer reaches the Great Wilderness. All of you can choose to chase after the murderer if you like, but my cooperation in the matter ends here.”
The monster aces looked at each other before abruptly dashing out in unison, riding the monstrous clouds towards where Zhong Yue has headed.
“Idiots, even if all of you manage to enter the Great Wilderness, there’s still nothing any of you can do.”
Gu Hongzi shook his head, he turned around and headed back to Gu Xia City as he whispered lowly, “The Great Wilderness is filled with talents; whoever killed Bei Shisong and saved Jun Sixie, I’m afraid his attainments would not be in the least bit inferior to the Swords Gate four young successors. Great Wilderness, Hei-hei, it is indeed the fated nemesis of the monster race. Thankfully, these humans can’t maintain peace for long, they will always be plagued with internal struggles for power, even in times of peace. If it weren’t for their unquenchable thirst for conflict that would even lead them to turn on themselves, their collective power would’ve most likely continued to grow unbridled until they eventually became a waiting calamity for the monsters..”
Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen, the Great Sun Golden Crow controlled the two Xiang Dragons and bolted out, the dragons’ speeds were getting quicker and faster, even comparable to flying in the air.
Jun Sixie was curious, she kept furtively glancing at Zhong Yue while thinking to herself, Junior Martial Brother Zhong hasn’t eaten anything for days, not any food nor any medicinal pellets. Plus, he had just survived such a through a bone-rattling battle, he should be on the brink of exhaustion and his psyche should be seeing depletion. But how is his psyche still so abundant, it even seems as if he is still in his peak form?
A sturdy body was the foundation for a strong psyche, hence, one must consume enough nutrients from meals to sustain the state of their bodies. Other than a good visualization art, medicinal herbs and pellets were indispensable in strengthening the psyche.
To the Qi Practitioners, whether it be tedious legwork or intensive combat, their psyche would be greatly consumed; especially for individuals like Zhong Yue, after going through such an arduous battle, he still had to continue visualizing the Xiang Dragons in escaping for his life; the consumption of psyche would undoubtedly be immensely vast.
For someone who had just cultivated to the stage of Rebirth Qi Practitioner, it would be impossible for his psyche to be able to sustain the consumption rate.
Even for the strong and formidable cultivators like Jun Sixie, successively going through countless fights would fully deplete her psyche and leave her at the brink of despair. In fact, this was the exact situation she found herself in when she was ambushed and forced to fight until her psyche was entirely depleted.
Despite Zhong Yue having just survived such a vicious battle and still traveling a great distance in his escape, but his psyche still remained at its peak. Jun Sixie could not help but feel curious.
No wonder he says that he doesn’t need any medicinal pellets.
It was not even half a day’s time before they’d already entered the Great Wilderness; mountains stood aloft and high like time-frozen sea waves, forming a natural barrier that demarcated the Savanna Wasteland from the Great Wilderness.
Zhong Yue released the Xiang Dragons and visualized the Jiao Dragons, after all, the maneuverability of the Jiao Dragons were much better suited to the woods and mountains and between the ridges and cliffs. Although the two of them had entered the Great Wilderness, they dared not let their guards down, Swords Gate was located at the center of Great Wilderness, a distance that was still fifty thousand miles away from them.
The surroundings comprised of mountains terrain, it was natural for their speed to be slower than on the flatlands. In addition, the boundaries of the Great Wilderness were relatively feeble, if the monsters were to invade, even the Four Ken Beast of Swords Gate would probably not notice them.
“Monster aces are here, in the Great Wilderness!”
Zhong Yue could sense the indistinguishable aura of the monster race pervading area behind him. He furrowed his brows in consternation as he sensed that they were strong … way stronger than Bei Shisong – they must have been the aces of Gu Xia City.
“They even followed us into the Great Wilderness, how audacious are these monsters!”
He continued on deep into the mountain woods, slowly, traces of human activity emerged in the surroundings; it was a small tribe among the three thousand human tribes inhabiting the area. The one they encountered appeared to only be a relatively smaller one, having a population of around a few ten thousand.
“Junior martial brother, slow down.”
Jun Sixie opened her mouth abruptly and said, “This tribe has a totem and an altar, let us head in and pay our respects to the totem.”
Zhong Yue was curious; although he could not understand why he followed her instructions regardless. The two of them dismounted the Jiao Dragons and entered the human tribe; the tribal chief quickly came forward and welcomed them into the tribe’s stronghold.
“It’s Goddess Sixie, why is the goddess so heavily wounded?” although the tribal chief was not a Qi Practitioner, he recognized Jun Sixie and rapidly inquired in concern about her sorry state.
Jun Sixie explained to him her purpose in coming and the tribal chief was shocked, he quickly ordered his men to prepare the altar. The altar was placed in the middle of the stronghold, on the platform, a totem pillar made of wood that could only be covered with six men wrapping their arms around stood tall in the center of the altar, it was engraved with fantastical totem carvings all around.
As Jun Sixie struggled to get up, her wounds reopened and blood squirted out again. Immediately, the tribesmen came forward to support her by the arm and sent her up to the altar.
Jun Sixie bowed at the totem pillar and paid her respects, the marvelous totem carvings on the pillar started to move, slowly formed into a specter with a nose, eyes and ears until a human face could be discerned, with the exception of the fact that it was engraved with elegant carvings. The totem pillar had turned into a human head capable of speech, it opened its mouth and solemnly inquired, “So it’s Goddess Sixie, what do you seek from me?”
Jun Sixie bowed in response, “I’m severely injured, and the paragon figures of the monster race are in pursuit. They have now infiltrated the Great Wilderness and are not far behind. May senior martial brother notify the elders to send some men over and stop them down.”
The countenance on the totem pillar suffused in shock, he quickly answered, “Please, shall the goddess continue on moving in avoidance the monsters, I will now notify the elders, they will rush over very soon!”
Jun Sixie expressed her gratitude and continued, “Thank you senior martial brother. May senior martial brother also notify the tribal Qi Practitioners of Jun Shan Clan, and tell them to rendezvous with us at the Weiyang Lake.”
The shock on the totem pillar’s face faded away, Jun Sixie and Zhong Yue once again mounted atop the Jiao Dragons and left immediately. Jun Sixie smiled and explained, “Junior Martial Brother Zhong, we can communicate with Swords Gate from any tribe of the Great Wilderness, so long as there exists a totem pillar. Reach out to the totem pillars and get in touch with the master of the totem pillar, you can then spread the word out. Now Swords Gate is aware of our situation, it shouldn’t be long until the elders assign reinforcements over to block the monsters’ advance.”
“So the totem pillars can also be used like this?”
Zhong Yue was amazed, as his “cultivation speed was too quick”, he was unfamiliar such seemingly rudimentary matters such as this, he said, “There are three thousand clans scattered all around in the Great Wilderness, even if not every one of them was to have the totem pillars, but it was still incredibly amazing. We can form an efficient and widespread network for communication with such a system in place.”
As of now, Jun Sixie had relaxed by a lot, she smiled and responded, “Some of the big clans have more than one Qi Practitioner, hence, the more Qi Practitioners a clan has, the wider their networks can extend. There will be no less than ten thousand totem pillars spreading across the Great Wilderness! In addition, there are some temples in the Great Wilderness with altars and totem pillars in them, they can be used in times of emergency. The network in Great Wilderness can definitely cover the whole hundred thousand miles of land! Junior martial brother, if you have any troubles, you can just approach any of the temples and get in contact with Swords Gate.”
Zhong Yue was surprised, these were things whose existence he was never even aware of until today, it was only now that he finally attained an elementary understanding of the magnitude of Swords Gate’s strength within the Great Wilderness.
“Senior martial sister, why did the Qi Practitioner from before refer to you as Goddess Sixie?”
Her face blushed red as she answered bashfully, “This is the work of the lechers, they say that I’m the princess of Jun Shan Clan, and with the fact that I have a beautiful appearance; they ended up calling me goddess….”
Zhong Yue remarked, “It is indeed true that senior martial sister is beautiful, your elegant body, jade-white skin, and your slim and slender waist is so soft … the only thing is the fact that you eat a little bit too much.”
Jun Sixie flared her sights at him as her eyes seemed to spit fire, “If you dare speak of that again, I will mince you into mashed meat! Also, don’t talk to others about my ‘elegant body, jade white skin and soft waist’! Or otherwise, people might think that I’ve been taken by you!”
“Taken what?” Zhong Yue was baffled.
Jun Sixie was frustrated from embarrassment and anger, “Just, don’t talk about it!”
All of a sudden, Zhong Yue stiffened up his face and turned all solemn, he said, “Senior martial sister, about me helping you in the monster land, I would also plead you not to mention it to anyone else other than ourselves.”
Jun Sixie’s face also lost all vestiges of her previous awkwardness, she suddenly thought of Zhong Yue’s alter ego – a dragon territory lord under Gu Xia City. If she were to reveal to the world that she was saved by Zhong Yue, the monsters would most probably take note and eventually deduce his true identity.
“It is true that this must be kept a secret, junior martial brother, don’t you worry.”
The monster experts were still hot in pursuit, even with the two’s onerous efforts of covering any traces of their presence, they still failed in losing the tail of the monsters.
Fortunately, the mountains were steep and precarious replete with luscious woods – it wouldn’t be easy for the monsters to find them.
In between, Zhong Yue and Jun Sixie came across another two tribes with considerable size. Through the totem pillars, they reported their status and location to the elders. Another few hours passed until the reinforcements finally came, they swiftly clashed with the monster experts and shortly after, the battle ended.
Weiyang Lake eventually came into their visions, there were already many Jun Shan Clan Qi Practitioners standing above the lake, concentrating their sights in search of their ‘goddess’, even the old clan leader of Jun Shan Clan weren’t exempt from such an enterprise.
“The goddess is back!”
Suddenly, a Qi Practitioner with especially good eyesight noticed a Jiao Dragon slowly walking out from the woods, and on its back, was their goddess, Jun Sixie. In his surprise and exuberance, he quickly yelled out to the others.
All of the Jun Shan Clan Qi Practitioners quickly rushed over to her. Jun Sixie slid down from the dragon’s back and said with a smile, “Junior martial brother, you are also badly hurt, we have Yuling Paste in our Jun Shan Clan, why you don’t come over and get yourself healed … junior martial brother?”