Chapter 246: Returning to Civilisation
When Yaan suddenly appeared from seemingly nowhere in the midst of the silent forest, all heads turned sharply towards him.
With a faint smile, Yaan waved his hand, rapidly crafting tables and chairs from the surrounding trees, leaves, vines and rocks.
It was crude, but who had the mind to care about such a thing right now?
Everyone hastily took a seat. In total, there were 12 5-Star Realm elders, along with Yaan himself.
These were all of the surviving 5-Star Realm elders living in the tribes within the core Bloody Totem Province, the original Bloody Totem Province!
There had been far more in the past, but they had been killed by the Lunar Song Tribe…
"I had something to deal with and was forced to leave, but even if I had stayed, what could I have done?" Yaan spoke plainly, directly confronting all of their grievances, questions and uncertainties in one go. As he swept his gaze around, nobody was able to muster up the courage to place the blame on him out loud, even if they had done so in their hearts multiple times during these past few months.
"W-well, Immortal Lord Ga Shu-"
"Ga Shu is not here right now. I don't know when he will return." Yaan cut in flatly, seeing no need to hide this.
Everyone paled. They had all been placing their hopes on Ga Shu's return! If Ga Shu came back to them, they would have an immortal backer in the Bloody Totem Province!
It's not that Yaan was too weak, but he was an exile, forbidden from interfering with all tribe matters. He could not help even if he wanted to…
"You all seem to be missing the most crucial detail here." Yaan smiled lightly as he slowly looked at each of the 12 warriors.
"Hmm?" An elderly warrior raised an eyebrow. "And what is that, Lord Red?"
"Well, let me ask you all this…is my return a secret known only to you few?"
"There were…a few others." The Bloody Totem Tribe Leader spoke slowly, swallowing as she understood Yaan's meaning whilst the others did not. "But they were all sworn to secrecy, they-"
"If word gets out that I have returned alone, without Ga Shu, the Lunar Song Tribe's immortals might directly attack me." Yaan cut in, looking around this group coldly.
Rui had warned him to keep a low profile when he returned to the kingdom, but unfortunately, Yaan's mind had fallen into lunacy at that point. He knew that he was noticed by at least a few individuals, and even though Rui had wiped all of their memories concerning Yaan's return, his presence had been detected by certain tribal formations.
"Impossible!" The elderly warrior from before adamantly shook his head. "The war flower law explicitly forbids the direct attack on any of the empire's mortals, by any of the empire's immortals! Ah…empire's mortals, meaning…."
Seeing that the old man, and everyone else, had finally understood, Yaan smiled and looked around again.
"I have been exiled from my old tribe, and I can never again join or create a new tribe. In essence…I cannot be considered a true citizen of the empire. I cannot be certain, but it's possible that the Lunar Song Tribe immortals are no longer restricted from attacking me directly." After saying this, Yaan paused and turned towards the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader.
"I want you to find every single individual who could possibly know of my return, and bring them to me. Also, you will remove all traces of my return from the various detection tribal formations in the province which registered my presence."
"May I ask what you intend to do with everyone who has been made aware of your return, Lord Red…?" A younger female elder asked cautiously.
Now that Yaan was no longer a member of their tribal alliance, he had no reason to play nice with them…and he did not have a good track record when it came to being kind to outsiders.
"You don't need to worry so much, I have a method to erase specific memories from your minds. So long as you cooperate, it will be painless and harmless." Yaan replied bluntly, not sugar-coating his words.
He was forcing them to let him erase their memories. Everyone felt bitter, but they didn't really have any other choice, did they?
Yaan knew that he was probably being excessively cautious, but he was dealing with immortals here, he didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.
It was unlikely that the Lunar Song Tribe immortals would choose to kill him directly, even if they were no longer restricted by the war flower law, because Ga Shu was still a factor. Even if he wasn't around right now, was it worth enraging an immortal just to gain vengeance against an exiled mortal who posed no further threat to their kingdom?
Yaan was like a worthless person to them now. He could not act recklessly, and there was no point in targeting him. Exiling him from the tribunal system essentially guaranteed that he could not progress like before…
Or at least, that should be the case, but nobody believed that Yaan had returned to this temple just to idle about until he eventually died from old age. He definitely had his own plans, and that fact made everyone feel wary.
They just hoped that he didn't plan to break the war flower law whilst dragging them all down with him…
For now, Yaan had no such plans, and as always, he pursued his cultivation without a second thought. The year spent travelling alongside Ga Shu resulted in the pair accumulating many valuable things, both natural resources, and loot taken from the slaughtered wild-land inhabitants. With this, Yaan was able to continue engaging in trade, keeping everyone from the Bloody Totem Tribe happy, and even incentivising them to once again bring him an ongoing stream of prisoners.
After a month flew by, Yaan had settled into a new routine.
At first light, Rui would cast the Duality of Sanity soul spell on him, dissipating the horrible slaughterous feelings in his soul, and allowing him to operate with a sound mind for half of the day.
He dealt with various business partners during the day, purchasing captives, sometimes exchanging resources and buying information. He was keeping an eye on the Lunar Song Tribe, but it seemed that his previous actions of removing all knowledge of his return from the minds of all but five trusted elders in the province had paid off.
Well, either they hadn't noticed him, or they just didn't care about him anymore. Either way, Yaan was being left alone for now.
When night came, 12 hours after Rui cast the soul spell in the morning, his sanity underwent a rapid, dramatic change.
Yaan had carved himself out an underground cavern, protected by scores of formations, all to prevent him from escaping into the outside world during these 12 hours.
The amplified lunacy was far too much. In that state, he could not control himself at all.
It was also during this period of overwhelming slaughterous desire that he killed all of his captives.
The average strength of captive that he was now receiving was not very impressive. He was sent people once every few days, usually consisting of hundreds of Rank 1, 2 and 3 warriors, a couple dozen 4-Star Realm warriors, and a 5-Star Realm warrior on occasion when he was lucky.
After a month of killing these warriors with insignificant strength, he hadn't progressed at all; he was still 3% away from achieving the Royal Slaughter Soul!
Another month passed by, and then another…
Not much changed in this time, either for the better or for the worse. Ga Shu was still missing…it was unknown whether he was alive or dead, leaving Yaan feeling troubled.
His only reason for staying in this place was to wait for Ga Shu. Ga Shu was a 7-Star Realm Immortal with strong, reliable and tested loyalty towards him. Yaan doubted that he would be lucky enough to find another follower like this for a long, long time.
But if Ga Shu was alive, why would he be taking so long?
It was possible that he had been injured badly and was forced to seclude himself to recuperate…
Or, he was dead.
**********
On the throne within the Primordial Mountain's War Hall, the Blood Plane Lord tapped his fingers on his armrest sharply, creating a loud, jarring sound. The progression of the current events was too slow for his liking, and he could not even intervene yet, leaving him with nothing to do, other than waiting around.
He had never been a patient man; he would rather seek out a battle than wait!
"Too slow!" He growled. "Ever since that immortal servant of his vanished, he has been cultivating far too slowly! At this rate, it will take him another 300 years just to form an Imperial Spirit!"
"The Aztec cannot return to him shortly. This pace is indeed inadequate, we must intervene." The Primordial Sage responded.
"Oh?" The red haired man perked up excitedly. "Intervene how? Send the Fragment of Mind?"
"Not yet. We will incite an inter-kingdom war."
"I see…a good plan. But will such a war be too much? That abomination is still just a mortal after all…could this war engulf him within its flames of chaos?" The red-haired man asked seriously.
"So long as the stage is set correctly, little can go wrong."
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