บท 206: Wait for Me to Die
Yaan sat within a temple in the centre of the Bloody Totem Province. This temple did not belong to any tribe, it was his own personal abode.
Even though the temple was built in the middle of an empty plain, a plain known to be inhabited by demonic beasts, it was certainly the safest temple in the entire province.
Ga Shu designed the temple itself for Yaan since he had some experience in architecture. As a cultivator, designing something like this was simple. Yaan made some alterations to the blueprints to suit his tastes, then built the entire building by summoning the materials and manipulating them with his Vital Qi.
After the temple, he added a river, flowing around the temple. There was a single bridge leading over the river, towards a cobblestone path which cut through the scenic gardens towards his front door.
This entire residence was protected by a powerful formation. Yaan designed this formation himself, something that became simple to him after he gained experience in destroying dozens of large-scale tribe protection formations.
He built the formation to suit himself, meaning that he was its sole master. The formation specialised in concealment. It made it such that even 5-Star warriors would struggle to find the temple, even if they walked straight past it.
The formation also possessed offensive and defensive capabilities, but the most important part was its detection ability.
Yaan designed this formation by using his reveal truth spell as inspiration. When this formation was being controlled by him, it could detect an immortal approaching from afar, even if Yaan himself was not paying attention.
Aside from Yaan, two others were also here currently; Ga Shu, and his wife, Freya.
During Yaan's last period of cultivation in the Sky Piercing Tower, before he emerged and sent the surrounding lands into absolute chaos, Ga Shu used the Rank 6 medicine 'boundless vitality water' to awaken his wife.
Freya was a gentle woman, but she was also firm and unyielding. She was soft spoken, but she showed no fear when facing Yaan, which was extremely uncommon. Perhaps this was the fearlessness of a person who knew that death would soon be upon them, or perhaps, Ga Shu's wife was simply an impressive woman.
Ga Shu was able to spend a blissful year of peace with his wife before the war began.
Feeling indebted to Yaan, Ga Shu devoted himself to protecting the Bloody Totem Province, doing whatever it took in order to attain victory. Somehow, he still made time to see his wife every day, so despite the difficult situation, he found joy in every waking moment.
And now, after Yaan resolved the issue of the 22 provinces, Ga Shu accompanied him as his personal guard. Freya joined him; even though she was sick, she was a 5-Star warrior after all, she was quite powerful.
Like Ga Shu, she felt indebted to Yaan. When she last fell into that coma, she had honestly believed that she would never wake up. Now that she was able to accompany her beloved husband in her last few years of life, she didn't know how to repay her benefactor.
Both Freya and Ga Shu knew the sort of demonic figure that Yaan was, but neither of them cared in the least. These days, they were able to spend time together, peacefully and blissfully, all whilst repaying their saviour for the favour. What could they possibly have to complain about?
The two sat outside, enjoying these blissful moments together.
Even though Freya had been woken from her slumber, her condition was far from remedied. Her illness was too strange, Ga Shu had spent over 200 years studying it, yet he still did not understand it very well at all. He only knew that her illness was continually devouring her vitality, making it impossible for her to advance her cultivation.
It was only thanks to the Rank 6 medicine, 'boundless vitality water', that she was able to awaken. This medicine supplied her body with a large amount of vitality, essentially 'feeding' her illness and reducing the damage inflicted on her own vitality.
Unfortunately, her condition was still deteriorating, and now that she was awake, her health was worsening at an even higher rate. The pair had discussed this matter together, and in the end, they decided to make the most of these days they were able to spend together.
Freya could extend her lifespan if she returned to her slumber and conserved her vitality, but what use would that be? Rather than living for longer in a coma, she would prefer to spend her last years awake, with her husband.
"Sigh, I hope that lord is able to fix his condition…" Ga Shu sighed deeply, casting a glance towards the temple with a concerned expression.
He thought back to the time one month earlier, when Yaan had arrived in the Moon Note Province.
The Moon Note Province was ruled by the Moon Note Tribe, one of the Lunar Song Tribe's strongest branch tribes. This province was also responsible for causing the Bloody Totem Province no end of troubles. Compared to the other tribes which only engaged the Bloody Totem Tribe in battle with immense reluctance, the Moon Note Tribe had no such apprehension.
The Moon Note Tribe could not start a war against the Bloody Totem Province directly, but they could force the other tribes in the province to fight.
The battle strength mobilised by this province was the greatest out of the 22 provinces, and as such, Ga Shu had taken command of the war on this front. Ga Shu was now the strongest cultivator in the Bloody Totem Province below Yaan himself, he was able to hold off the Moon Note Province's advanced, but only just.
When Yaan arrived in this province, he had already killed hundreds of millions of people. He sought out Ga Shu whilst still exuding a terrifying killing intent.
Others assumed that he had simply killed far too many people in a short period of time, and whilst this was true, Ga Shu knew that Yaan's condition wasn't so simple. He was barely managing to hold back the slaughterous desire in his heart, as if a strange power was driving him to act crazily.
It had been one month since Yaan finished dealing with the 22 provinces. The first thing he did was to create this temple, then immediately secluded himself within.
The temple itself no longer exuded an overwhelming killing intent, so it was clear that Yaan had regained some degree of control. Even so, Ga Shu felt worried.
He genuinely wanted the best for his benefactor. Ga Shu had no ulterior motives, he was simply grateful towards Yaan for providing him with the chance to spend this time with his wife.
"I'm sure that lord knows what he is doing." Freya smiled gently, taking hold of her husband's wrist. "He took far too many lives, anyone would feel boundless killing intent after doing something like that."
"I hope that's really all it is…" Ga Shu sighed and shook his head.
In the next moment, the pair stopped speaking, because Yaan's voice echoed out from the temple.
"Ga Shu, Freya, I have a visitor. Wait outside until we are done."
The two exchanged a glance. They looked around briefly, but they couldn't see anyone, nor could they see any traces of this 'visitor'.
Ga Shu immediately thought back to the old man from before, the person that turned out to be an immortal from the Lunar Song Tribe!
Silently, the pair clasped their hands respectfully in the temple's direction, then left the temple grounds, moving outside of the formation.
Ga Shu said nothing, but he clenched his fists together tightly.
'Too weak…I am still too weak! I cannot help my wife, I cannot even guard my benefactor! The Immortal Step…I must absolutely reach the Immortal Step!'
Within the temple, Yaan opened his eyes, calmly observing the Lunar Song Tribe's Third Immortal King. Although Yaan was calm, a suppressed killing intent still lingered within his being, something that didn't go unnoticed by the muscular old warrior.
This killing intent existed for multiple reasons. Firstly, Yaan had simply killed far too many people within a short period of time. Anyone would feel a staggering level of blood-thirst in their heart and mind after doing something like this. In fact, many weaker willed people could even lose their minds after killing so extensively.
There were multiple examples of this happening in the War Flower Empire. In this empire which promoted war and bloodshed, there were many warriors that had committed atrocities even beyond what Yaan had done. There were many records of these warriors losing their minds, unable to bare their own sins.
Of course, Yaan also had to deal with the slaughter aura. The Fiend Foundation that he developed as a child continued to affect him even now; whenever he killed, his body naturally absorbed the slaughter aura. Yaan could now see the slaughter aura released by the beings he killed, and he could even control it to some extent, but he could not completely stop it from flowing into his body and dantian. At most, he could control and slow its movement, allowing him to refine the aura at his own pace.
But these two things were not the main cause of Yaan's condition. After spending the past month refining the slaughter aura and trying to stabilise his worrying condition, Yaan could more or less confirm that the problem was coming from his soul.
He came to this conclusion by a process of elimination. The issue did not originate from his body, dantian or sea of conscious. All of these things were affected by the slaughter, but they were not the root cause. As such, the only remaining possibility was the soul!
There was also the dao soul, but Yaan's understanding of the dao soul was too weak. He could only ignore this possibility, because if his dao soul really was the problem, there was simply nothing he could do.
And besides, it made sense for the issue to be with his soul. Back when he formed his Vital Qi core, he displaced the slaughter attribute from his Qi, transferring it to his soul. Ignoring everything else, this alone proved that there should be some sort of slaughterous power residing within his soul!
Yaan hid the slaughterous feelings within him to the best of his ability, but he was unable to conceal it entirely. The degree to which he was now affected by this blood-thirst had reached an extreme point, making it difficult for Yaan to restrain himself.
The old immortal stared at Yaan deeply. Yaan was using illusions to conceal the truth, but the immortal could still feel the immense desire to kill contained within his being. In fact, just looking into Yaan's 'calm' eyes was enough to tell anyone this; that calmness was restraining an unimaginable killing intent!
"They call you 'Red Demon'…I now see why. Such killing intent, so powerful that it could take over your rational mind at any moment, you truly are a demon."
Yaan remained silent, not giving in to the immortal's provocation. The word 'demon' had different connotations on the Blood Plane compared to the Qi Plane. A Qi Plane 'demon' was a demonic path cultivator, but on the Blood Plane, 'demon' was often used to refer to tyrannical leaders, or war mongers who frequently engaged in devastating wars.
Of course, 'demon' could also be used to describe demonic race beings, this was true on both the Qi Plane and Blood Plane.
Clearly, this word was quite fitting for Yaan.
Seeing that Yaan did not react to his words, the old immortal sighed internally. When he saw Yaan's unexpected condition, he had hoped that perhaps, he could provoke him into doing something irrational, like attacking him here and now.
Immortals were not allowed to act against mortals, this was the war flower law. Even if a mortal attacked an immortal, they could not retaliate. This might seem strange, but the idea of a mortal attacking an immortal was absurd to begin with, it was like a fly attacking a lion.
But, if he could provoke Yaan into attacking him, then he would have justification to mobilise the Lunar Song Tribe's main forces against the Bloody Totem Province. He did not plan to do this right now, but it would be good to have this option available to them in future.
In the end, Yaan did not attack a single branch of the Lunar Song Tribe during his rampage across the lands. Even when he battled in the Moon Note Province, he ignored the Moon Note Tribe and attacked the tribes underneath them which had contributed the most to the war.
Yaan did not wish to see all-out war with the Lunar Song Tribe. All he wanted was a period of peace, allowing him to cultivate without needing to worry about external matters.
The Lunar Song Tribe had not directly attacked Yaan, but nor had Yaan directly attacked them. Because of this, the situation was not completely irreparable, despite the heavy losses experienced by the Lunar Song Tribe's subordinate forces.
"You cannot kill me without breaking the war flower law." Yaan stated bluntly.
The old immortal frowned, but he remained silent. Being spoken to like this by a mere mortal did not sit well with him, but he knew that what this person said was the truth.
Normal Foundation Step cultivators could not even threaten Yaan at this point. Even if they sent droves of vassal tribes after him, in the end, they would only be rushing to their deaths; it would simply be a waste.
Perhaps a 6-Star warrior could threaten him, but where would they find a 6-Star warrior willing to fight a monster like him?
Anyone who reached the Nirvana realm would keep it a secret from as many people as possible.
Only their own Lunar Song Tribesmen would actually inform these immortals that they had reached the Nirvana realm, but they obviously wouldn't send their tribe's potential future immortals to their deaths like that!
Yaan had defeated a 6-Star warrior in the past, that was enough to dissuade the Lunar Song Tribe's immortals from attempting to use a single 6-Star warrior to kill him.
They could potentially force multiple Peak 5-Star warriors to step into nirvana, but even then, it seemed highly unlikely that they would actually be able to kill the monster known as the Red Demon.
They had already gathered all the information on him that they could, they had analysed his abilities thoroughly. Based on the vast power he had shown, it would be extremely difficult to kill this person unless an immortal acted personally.
And that was only based on what he had shown.
Yaan knew that he had shown enough strength to give him the ability to negotiate with the Lunar Song Tribe's immortals.
"Naturally, you want me to die." Yaan spoke slowly. "So, how about you just wait?"
"Hmm?" The old warrior raised an eyebrow. "Wait? Wait for you to die?"
"Right. Wait for me to fail my immortal ascension. Even though my empire is a sore sight for you immortals of the Lunar Song Tribe, I can't truly threaten you until I become an immortal and my tribe becomes Rank 7. Isn't that right?"
The old immortal remained silent, but what Yaan said was correct.
The Kingdom of Lunar Song had existed for over 30,000 years. For 30 millennia, the Lunar Song Tribe had maintained their rule, enduring through the rise and fall of countless tribes and provinces below them.
The Bloody Totem Province's expansion was quite uncommon, even when looking at the kingdom's entire history, but in the end, it was not a serious concern.
There were over 700 provinces in the Kingdom of Lunar Song, whilst the Bloody Totem Province was made from a combination of 28 former provinces. On top of that, the Bloody Totem Province had only existed for a short few years, it did not have the stability of a large scale kingdom.
The Bloody Totem Tribe was now a huge influence compared to other Rank 5 tribes, but it still couldn't compared to a Rank 7 tribe.
Their expansion was an annoyance, but they did not consider the Bloody Totem Tribe to be a threat…what truly bothered them, was Yaan.
They were worried that this sort of person might actually become an immortal!
He possessed such incredible strength whilst being a mere Rank 4 cultivator. Wasn't this sort of legendary warrior exactly the type that would often end up becoming an immortal?
The old immortal laughed darkly, grimacing as he stared at Yaan with undisguised killing intent.
"You expect us to simply watch as you expand your influence? You expect us to watch as you continue to grow stronger, eventually becoming an immortal?"
Yaan nodded.
"Yes. Because I cultivate the Four Paths Cultivation technique, a technique which has never been successfully cultivated to immortality. Leave me alone, and I will leave your main tribe, your branch tribes, and your direct vassal tribes alone. You will bet on my eventual failure, I will bet on my eventual success. As an immortal, I'm sure that you must have the patience to sit back and wait for at most a few hundred years…"
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