Volume 2 Chapter 17

Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW

Volume 2 Chapter 17: Barbarian Village

Three days later.

The night in the Southern Wasteland was shrouded in deep darkness, with endless clouds covering the starlight and moonlight, making the wasteland seem even more mysterious.

Xu Qingfan stood quietly in midair on a cloud of green mist. Hundreds of mutated eagles rushed towards him, their dark bodies blending into the dim night, with only the fierce swooshing sound growing closer. On the ground beneath, the roars of beasts echoed continuously, shaking the skies.

Facing the attacking mutated eagles, Xu Qingfan’s expression remained unchanged, as if waiting for something. Finally, when the eagles came within a hundred feet, Xu Qingfan suddenly moved, swiftly flicking his ten fingers, releasing hundreds of Liuling Flowers that shot towards the approaching eagles. As the eagles collided with the flowers, loud explosions erupted, sending a dense gray mist spreading ahead of Xu Qingfan, unable to be dispersed by the strong night winds.

The violent explosions of the Liuling Flowers sent dozens of leading mutated eagles crashing to the ground, their bodies scattered in pieces along with black feathers and broken petals, adding to the chaos below. The offensive of the eagles stalled and their formation grew chaotic. As the mist from the Liuling Flowers spread through the sky, the eagles inside felt drowsy, unable to control their wings, and began to fall to the earth, the closest one managing to get within thirty feet of Xu Qingfan but posing no threat to him.

After dealing with the mutated birds in the sky, Xu Qingfan didn’t pause, his ten fingers danced again, countless Liuling Flowers appeared at his fingertips, drifting towards the Southern Wasteland with the wind, creating a stunning flower rain in the night sky that captured everyone’s attention.

When the Liuling Flowers touched the ground, a series of violent explosions erupted, and the thronging mutated beasts let out deafening roars of pain and anger. But as the mist spread, their cries grew sorrowful and despairing, becoming even more poignant amid the desolate and dim Southern Wasteland night.

However, Xu Qingfan remained unmoved. This was the fifth time he had done this in three days. The heart that was initially anxious due to the continuous slaughter had gradually become accustomed. He constantly reminded himself that these creatures under his feet were merely mindless beasts, sparing them would only lead to more harm to innocent people. With this thought, Xu Qingfan conjured countless Blowing Flame Flowers with his fingers again, which caught fire in the wind and poured down like a rain of flames onto the earth. Instantly, the ground beneath Xu Qingfan turned into a sea of fire, coloring the dark sky of the Southern Wasteland bright red. Meanwhile, the mutated beasts, lost in the mist, though engulfed in flames, could no longer muster the strength to roar.

After completing all this, Xu Qingfan did not linger, nor did he spare another glance at his feet, swiftly flying southwest on his "Three Meters Green Silk."

This was the third day of Xu Qingfan and Bao Wei’s group exploring the Southern Wasteland. Over these three days, the six of them had ventured thousands of miles southwest into the Southern Wasteland. What they saw confirmed Xu Qingfan’s words; the further southwest they traveled, the more frequent the encounters with mutated beasts and plants. In just three days, they had been attacked by four waves of mutated beast hordes. Strangely, the low-level demon beasts they encountered previously hadn’t been seen again, nor had they encountered any ordinary demon beasts. As for the elusive "Nine Demon Bead," there was no trace of it, leading Xu Qingfan to wonder if he had made a misjudgment.

Helpless due to the vastness of the Southern Wasteland, Bao Wei divided the group into four. Xu Qingfan, Lv Ziqing, and Shang Nianyao, whose skills had reached the Lingji Stage, searched alone in one direction, while Bao Wei took Xu Xiurong and Hou Wanjun southwest. In case of danger or any abnormal discoveries, they used a special tool Bao Wei gave them to communicate.

But an entire day passed, and they still hadn’t found anything.

"Could I have judged wrong? But the mutated beasts do get denser the further southwest we go," Xu Qingfan pondered as he used his Divine Sense to search the Southern Wasteland below. "If we go further, we’ll reach deep into the Southern Wasteland. Could the owner of the ‘Nine Demon Bead’ be hiding deep in the wasteland?"

As soon as this thought arose, Xu Qingfan shook his head to dismiss it. The magical bead could demonize ordinary humans, beasts, and even low-level demon beasts, it’s quite mysterious. But the Southern Wasteland’s depths were filled with Human Level demon beasts, often hosting Earth level and even heavenly level demon beasts. Confronted by these formidable demon beasts, even a Golden Core Stage cultivator could not be sure of escaping unscathed. Although the bead’s owner could control the low-level demon beasts affected by it, they would still be powerless against higher-tier demon beasts.

Just as Xu Qingfan felt puzzled in his heart, the flame-shaped badge hanging from his waist suddenly emitted a dazzling red light, then transformed into a red streak and swiftly flew off into the distance, beyond his control.

Seeing the strange change in the badge, Xu Qingfan was slightly taken aback, but he quickly commanded the "Three Meters Green Silk" to follow the badge as it sped towards the distance.

This badge was a magical tool assigned to Xu Qingfan by Bao Wei, called the "Fire Totem." It is a high-level human auxiliary device, consisting of a set of six badges: one main and five secondary. It can be used to quickly gather companions or to call for help, and the person holding the main totem can even sense the situation of others through this device, which is quite mysterious.

"Could someone be in danger? Or has someone found a clue?" Xu Qingfan pondered silently as he followed the badge flying away.

After about the time it takes for two sticks of incense to burn, the badge that had been leading Xu Qingfan suddenly lost its light and fell far behind a hill. Without hesitation, Xu Qingfan also descended slowly behind the hill by controlling the "Three Meters Green Silk." Upon landing, he saw Bao Wei putting the "Fire Totem" into his sleeve, while Lv Ziqing and three others were already standing quietly by the side. It was clear that Xu Qingfan was the last to arrive. Seeing that everyone was safe, Xu Qingfan felt relieved and knew that someone must have discovered clues about the changes in the Southern Wasteland.

"Please forgive me for being late, elder," Xu Qingfan said first as he landed, cupping his hands in salute.

"It’s nothing, you were the furthest away. It’s normal to arrive later, and it didn’t take much time," Bao Wei replied with a wave of his hand.

Seeing that Bao Wei wasn’t blaming him, Xu Qingfan asked, "Elder, why have you called us here? Have you found any clues?"

Bao Wei nodded slightly and said, "Come with me." With that, he rose on a cloud under his feet, lifting Xu Qingfan and the others gently to the top of the hill, and then pointed southwest, saying, "Look over there."

Following the direction Bao Wei pointed, Xu Qingfan and the others looked into the distance and saw faint lights flickering in the dim night sky of the Southern Wasteland, southwest of them. But because it was too far, they couldn’t see what the lights were, so they used the "Sky Eye Skill" to make the distant scene clear.

They saw, many miles away, a mountain stronghold made entirely of strange black wood, towering nearly ten stories high and covering many miles, exuding grandeur tinged with danger and mystery. The stronghold bustled with activity, appearing heavily populated. Occasionally, people with tall, dark-skinned figures and purple-blue flame totems on their foreheads walked among them; they looked exactly like the mysterious figures Xu Qingfan had seen before! Outside the stronghold, more of these figures rode mutated low-level demon beasts, patrolling and guarding the area, nearly a thousand in number.

The flickering lights were the torches held by these people.

"Are these the mysterious people you saw before?" Bao Wei asked.

Xu Qingfan nodded and said gravely, "They look very similar." His expression was serious, surprised at how powerful the enemy was. Without considering the strength of these mysterious people, even the low-level mutated demon beasts were stronger than ordinary late Inedia Stage cultivators.

"The ones I was tracking before look just like them. It seems they’ve all been corrupted by the ‘Nine Demon Bead’." Bao Wei’s face was equally serious. The one mastering the demon beads was incredibly strong, and even Bao Wei, with his Golden Core Stage cultivation, wasn’t confident he could handle them.

Suddenly, Xu Qingfan noticed numerous wooden totem poles standing outside the gate of the stronghold, each engraved with different ghostly images. One particular totem was especially tall, with ghost eyes glowing faintly green, looking very eerie. The other totems were much smaller, their ghostly images carved with knife marks, damaged beyond recognition, and splattered with blood, soaking into the naturally black wood to turn a dark red.

"It’s the Barbarian tribe! They belong to the Barbarian tribe!" Xu Qingfan said slowly upon seeing the totems.

"They’re from the Barbarian tribe? How can you tell?" Bao Wei asked curiously after hearing Xu Qingfan.

"From the totems of the wooden pillars in front of the village gate," Xu Qingfan said.

Then, Xu Qingfan told everyone about the Barbarian tribe.

Unlike the Xu Family Village people who came to the Southern Wasteland to escape the oppression of the worldly government, the Barbarian tribe are natives of the Southern Wasteland. Living in such a harsh environment, they are naturally fierce and warlike, cruel and love fighting. Actually, "Barbarian tribe" is just a general term used by the Southern Wasteland people for those native to the area. Within the Barbarian tribe, there are many smaller groups who constantly fight among themselves.

Unfortunately, despite their strong individual fighting abilities, the Barbarian tribe is an uncivilized race and continues to fight amongst themselves. As more people like Xu Qingfan’s ancestors migrated from Middle-earth to Southern Wasteland, fierce struggles broke out over the living spaces at the edge of Southern Wasteland, and eventually, the Barbarian tribe was overwhelmed and forced to retreat to the harsher depths of the Southern Wasteland.

As sightings of the Barbarian tribe became less frequent, Xu Qingfan thought they had perished in the depths of the Southern Wasteland. He was surprised to find so many Barbarian tribe people here.

These wooden pillar totems are symbols of the different deities worshiped by the various groups within the Barbarian tribe. When one group defeats another, they take the defeated group’s totem, destroy its carvings, bury it before their gate, and daub it with blood to show their strength. They believe this will increase the power of their deities. The more totems before a gate, the stronger they believe they are. At this Barbarian tribe gathering place, there are hundreds of totems at the gate—could this group have wiped out all other Barbarian tribe groups in the Southern Wasteland?

After Xu Qingfan finished introducing the Barbarian tribe, everyone was enlightened, and Bao Wei praised, "What excellent knowledge you have, young one. Even I didn’t know these things."

"You flatter me, senior. Few people in the cultivation world know about these matters, so it’s normal for you not to. I only understand these things because I lived in the Southern Wasteland since I was young," Xu Qingfan said with a faint smile.

Upon hearing Xu Qingfan’s words, everyone was quite surprised. The Southern Wasteland people are generally thought of as wild and unwise, but Xu Qingfan’s gentle and composed demeanor did not match that impression at all.