Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

When Li Yao and Wu Mayan reached the camps of the Burning Sun Tribe and the other two tribes, the sky in the east of the city seemed to be burning.

The thousands of qi-trainers of the Burning Sun Tribe were all fully armed. Many of them still had bandages on their heads, and yet they’d all unsheathed their weapons and summoned their spiritual gas, suggesting that they were ready for a total war.

Yan Xibei was floating here and there on his True Qi wheelchair, screaming and shouting, trying to soothe the simmering atmosphere.

The Giant Axe Tribe and the Feathered Snakes Tribe received the news of Yan Zhengdong’s murder, too. They were greatly surprised, and, not knowing what the situation was, prepared themselves for battle, too.

The Giant Axe Tribe turned into a black swamp again. The brightly shining axes formed a forest of steel so dense that one would be chilled to the bones just looking at them.

The Feathered Snakes Tribe, in the meantime, had become an ocean of animals. The animals were apparently much more disobedient than people. All the shrieks and squeaks made the area even messier than before.

The qi-trainers of Furious Bears City were crowding to the area, but they did not dare take any action now that the situation was unclear.

The Heaven Wolves Tribe and the Silver Moon Tribe, although having been in a good relationship with the Furious Bears Tribe, found themselves unable to pick a stance when they heard such a horrible accident that the chief of the Burning Sun Tribe had been murdered.

“Xiong Wuji, you killed my father. The Burning Sun Tribe will not stop fighting until all of us die! War! Total war!” Yan Chihuo, Yan Zhengdong’s youngest son, was standing on a heavy tank and screaming in outrage, with a white cloth tied to his forehead.

Yan Chifeng, the eldest son of Yan Zhengdong and the best expert in the younger generation of the Burning Sun Tribe, was wearing a white cloth on his head, too. However, he remained silent in the heavy tank.

Inside the heavy tank was a long desk covered by a white sheet in the shape of a human. Brown stains of blood were left on the white sheet.

Xiong Wuji was standing on another heavy tank. He bellowed first to silence everybody, before he opened his mouth again solemnly. “Brother Yan Chihuo, we will definitely investigate your father’s misfortune in Furious Bears City until the truth is found out. But I don’t have either the motivation or the capability to kill Chief Yan. Please don’t act recklessly and do things that satisfy your foe and hurt your friends!”

“Xiong Wuji, stop being pretentious here. Everybody thought that you were a big hero, the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau!

“Screw you!

“I didn’t know you were so cunning and sordid until today!”

Tears in his eyes, Yan Chihuo pointed at Xiong Wuji and shouted, “You and my father had a big fight in the meeting yesterday. Late last night, my father went to visit you to discuss things, only to come back furious! My father was up all night. He’d been sighing and saying that he knew a big secret about you. The six tribes would be divided if the secret was told, but he would feel guilty if he kept it a secret!

“As it turned out, my father died miserably on the bed this morning. Who else could’ve done this except you? Who else?

“Today, the chiefs and elders of all the tribes are here. Please reveal the true face of the ambitious schemer for justice!”

Gu Lei, chief of the Giant Axe Tribe, leapt to the heavy tank Yan Chihuo was in. He apologized to Yan Chifeng first and asked the son of the deceased to lift the white sheet so that he could observe Yan Zhengdong’s fatal wound. He then raised his voice and shouted, “Yan Chihuo, it is truly an unprecedented event in the thousands of years of history of Iron Plateau for a chief to die abruptly during the meeting of six tribes!

“However, there are still many points about the matter that call for our attention. We must not jump to any conclusions.

“The conflict between Chief Yan and Chief Xiong took place in front of many people, which is undeniable. The two of them discussing secretly late at night and ending on bad terms might also be true. You said that Chief Yan had to his knowledge Chief Xiong’s top secret. I believe you, too!

“However, are such reasons enough for Chief Xiong to act toughly in his own territory and kill the confidant? It does not seem very plausible.”

The chief of the Feathered Snakes Tribe, in the meantime, had stepped on the heavy tank, too, with two pythons as stairs. She also checked the cause of Yan Zhengdong’s death.

Then she shrieked, “The Feathered Snakes Tribe has always been a good friend to the Burning Sun Tribe. The Furious Bears Tribe is definitely responsible for the neglection of safety measures, which caused Chief Yan to be assassinated in Furious Bears City.

“However, if Chief Xiong really wanted to keep Chief Yan’s mouth forever shut, he wouldn’t have chosen such crude methods, would he?

“Everybody saw how intense his relationship with Chief Yan was yesterday. If Chief Yan was killed, he would definitely be at the top of the list of suspects!

“If the investigation proves Chief Xiong to be the murderer, the Feathered Snakes Tribe will surely stand with the Burning Sun Tribe and seek justice for you even at the cost of total war!

“However, groundless speculation does not seem enough for us to start fighting each other!

“Try to calm down for a moment. We’ll look into the case carefully. The true murderer, whoever they are, must not be let go of!”

“Indeed!”

Xiong Wuji declared, “It’s true that Chief Yan and I didn’t see eye to eye. But why on earth would I kill him just like that in my main city? Besides, I was heavily wounded in the battle of apocalypse and just put on an artificial arm. How was I capable of killing Chief Yan without alarming anyone else?”

Yan Chihuo gnashed his teeth. “Because of my father’s old age and the wounds he suffered when he was young, he was far less vigorous than he appeared to be. However, to preserve his face, he always bulged his flesh by expanding his spiritual gas when he was out to pretend that he was still healthy. In fact, his capability plummeted long ago. Also, he suffered internal injuries in the battle of the apocalypse!

“Even if you don’t act in person, there are at least a handful of experts in the Furious Bears Tribe who can kill my father quietly in an ambush!

“As for the reason you killed my father with such crude methods, that’s because the secret my father knew about you is too shocking, and if it was revealed, you would be discredited and doomed forever. Therefore, you had to kill him immediately, however risky it was!”

Xiong Wuji bellowed, “He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick!”

The chief of the Giant Axe Tribe and the chief of the Feathered Snakes Tribe frowned at the same time. “Yan Chihuo, do you have any solid proof?”

Yan Chihuo’s eyes glanced over the faces of the two chiefs like magma. He suddenly burst into strange laughter that was even nastier than wailing. He roared to the sky, “Xiong Wuji, you are truly a distinguished schemer, considering how you’ve been fooling everyone! It’s too bad that the wheels of justice grind slowly but surely. A sleazy man such as yourself won’t get your way for long! Proof? Alright. Let me ask you. Why on earth have you been insisting on getting in touch with the space residents?”

Xiong Wuji replied immediately, “For the future of Iron Plateau, of course!”

Yan Chihuo’s face had been fully twisted, as he yelled, “More like you’ve been spellbound by the witch Sha Yulan!”

Everybody was whispering to each other when they heard Yan Chihuo’s words.

The qi-trainers of the Furious Bears Tribe, having been berated by Yan Chihuo for a long time, were more than angry. They all took the chance to curse back.

Even the chiefs of the Giant Axe Tribe and the Feathered Snakes Tribe were shaking their heads slightly.

The chief of the Giant Axe Tribe said in a low voice, “Ah Huo, that’s entirely irrelevant. The thing about Sha Yulan and Wu Mayan has been settled in the arena. It’s not a tradition of the Iron Plateau natives to go back on our words.”

“Yes!”

In the battle formation of the Giant Axe Tribe, a tower-like muscular man more than 2.5 meters tall suddenly walked out of the crowd. He waved his giant axes and shouted at Yan Chihuo, “That year, the three tribes gathered in Furious Bears City and made a deal with Chief Xiong to settle the matter with three battles. If he won them all, we would seek no more trouble and consider the woman and her child ordinary members of the Furious Bears Tribe!

“As it turned out, Chief Xiong defeated me, ‘Mountain-cutting Hatchet’, in front of everyone in the arena!

“Now, you are calling that woman a witch again. Aren’t you slapping my face?”

The qi-trainers valued their credits more than their life. Since they had promised to not harass Sha Yulan anymore if they were defeated in the arena, they would not say anything against her again in public however discontented they were inside.

Yan Chihuo’s accusation of ‘witch’, on the other hand, had violated the taboo. Even many people in the Giant Axe Tribe and the Feathered Snakes Tribe were booing him.

“Brother Yan Chihuo!”

Xiong Wuji held his head high and announced furiously, “Previously, the Burning Sun Tribe, the Feathered Snakes Tribe, and the Giant Axe Tribe gathered in Furious Bears City and demanded Sha Yulan and her child be banished from Furious Bears City. We swore in the name of the ancestors of the six tribes that we would sort everything through three battles. If I won all of them, everybody would stop nitpicking the identity of Sha Yulan and her child; if I failed any of the three battles, they would be banished to the desert to live on their own!

“The result was that I was fortunate enough to win all the three battles. The two of them had been regarded as ordinary members of the Furious Bears Tribe ever since.

“Now, you are calling Sha Yulan a witch. Do you want to overrule the result of the battles?

“As for your indictment that I was spellbound by Sha Yulan…

“Hahahaha. What’s wrong with that?

“Now that so many qi-trainers of the six tribes are gathered here, I would like to announce to everybody that…

“It’s true that Sha Yulan and I are in love with each other. With everything coming to this far, I will take her as my wife for the rest of my life!”

His declaration almost blew more than half of Furious Bears City into the sky like an enormous crystal bomb!

“Ah!”

Wu Mayan shouted and pinched Li Yao’s waist hard.

The young man had known that his mother and his foster father were in a close relationship, but he did not expect his foster father to be so audacious as to declare his proposal in front of more than a hundred thousand people!

The qi-trainers of the tribes were all dumbfounded, especially those from the Burning Sun Tribe, the Giant Axe Tribe, and the Feathered Snakes Tribe.

They had thought that they had located Xiong Wuji’s weakness, but now that he had put forward such a straightforward declaration, they suddenly felt lost and didn’t know what to do next.

Li Yao found Sha Yulan in the crowd. She was dumbfounded, too. Her face was red, her body was shuddering, and she was already on the brink of passing out. There was no telling whether she was overly scared or overly happy.

Xiong Wuji squinted, his voice suddenly turning sharper than ever. “Brother Yan Chihuo, Sha Yulan is the woman I love most, and a member of the Furious Bears Tribe. I want you to apologize to her for your insulting words!”

The daunting aura of the 99th level of the Refinement Stage was fully released, as if a tornado was rising up from the ground. Xiong Wuji suddenly turned more horrifying than ever!

Yan Chihuo’s face turned pale. He suddenly took a step back and swallowed. Then he said that, “Alright. I apologize. It was wrong of me to say that. Sha Yulan is definitely not a witch!”

Everybody was dazed again, especially those familiar with Yan Chihuo.

Yan Chihuo suddenly changed his tone and shrieked, “I thought that Sha Yulan, the ‘witch’ from space, had been deceiving our Chief Xiong with pillow talk and finally planted the idea of meeting space residents into your head!

“I was wrong. Very wrong!

“I didn’t know until this morning that Sha Yulan is indeed not a witch. She is just a poor woman whom you have been using as your camouflage!

“You were never spellbound by her!

“Since the very beginning, long before she arrived in Iron Plateau, Xiong Wuji, the ambitious schemer, has been planning to get in touch with space residents. Everything has been within your control. Her arrival merely gave you a perfect excuse for your cause!

“All this time, the Burning Sun Tribe, the Feathered Snakes Tribe, and the Giant Axe Tribe believed that Sha Yulan beguiled you and that you were confused because of her. In fact, it was never the case!

“The truth, and the biggest secret that my father discovered, is—”

Yan Chihuo pointed at Xiong Wuji’s nose, his fingernails pale and his fingertips shivering.

Xiong Wuji’s expression suddenly turned extremely weird. The aura around him became sharp beyond his control.

Coldness beamed out of the eyes of the chief of the Giant Axe Tribe and the chief of the Feathered Snakes Tribe. They made a step forward simultaneously and shielded Yan Chihuo.

“Xiong Wuji, you never saw this coming, did you?”

Yan Chihuo laughed out loud. “You thought that your secret would be safe forever after you killed my father, but you didn’t know that my father passed on the secret to me smartly before his death!

“Chiefs, elders, and seniors of all the six tribes of Iron Plateau!

“Brothers and sisters of the six tribes!

“And the qi-trainers in the Furious Bears Tribe who have been fooled by Xiong Wuji!

“Listen to me carefully!

“The man standing right before your eyes, the greatest hero on this planet who has slain a calamity-level beast on his own, known as the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, Xiong Wuji…

“…is actually a space resident!”