He felt the killing intent before the attack even materialised. And then, a massive claw came from the left. He pivoted to the back, Shadow Cloud Steps carrying him out of reach as the ground where he had stood exploded into flying dirt.
The attacker, who had been a human just a moment ago, was now going through a transformation. His arm had already turned into a giant bear claw, but now, the rest of him was also going through a transformation. Bones cracked and reshaped, skin went dark as muscles swelled grotesquely beneath it, and then coarse brown grew all over.
Despite the details, the entire process took place in a heartbeat, and then next moment, a towering humanoid bear stood before him, ritualistic patterns still glowing across its massive torso, looking like rather cool tattoos.
'Would my own transformation look like this as well.' He wondered, his thought going back to the Primordial Beast Core in his possession.
Then, he didn't have any more time for idle thinking as two bull-headed humanoids appeared on his each side and charged from his left and right, their horns lowered, their hooves pulverising the ground with every step.
Their coordination was unnervingly precise, and he could only imagine that they must've trained extensively for this move. Alas, before the two of them could crush him in between their attacks, Li Yuan used Shadow Cloud Steps once again and blurred away.
The two collided head-on and and the impact detonated like a thunder, flattening all the ground around them in waves of force. And he shuddered to think what would've happened had he been caught in that attack.
'Not bulls then.' He thought, as he didn't know of any bull that butted heads like this. 'Some kind of Yak Spirit Beast?'
The two Yak humanoids looked surprised that he wasn't caught in their attack. And he had no idea why. The attack was a bit slow after all. Even without Shadow Cloud Steps, he probably still would've dodged it. Though he would've definitely been caught by the aftermath shockwaves.
Still. This was annoying. He did not want to fight these people.
"Has anyone here ever heard of the concept of talking before trying to cave in someone's skull?" he called out, voice light despite his tightening focus.
His words were answered by the bear humanoid, in the form of a deep roar that reverberated throughout the entire valley visibly. The sound slammed into him and his eyes widened in surprise as his meridians felt like they'd been hammered. His Qi disrupted instantly, and his vision swam as he tried to keep standing.
'Some kind of mind or soul attack.' He wondered through the disorientation. 'No, neither. Some kind of Qi-Disrupting attack. And not a technique either. Perhaps a Spirit Beast inherited technique.'
By the time he came back to himself, he noticed that the Yak-humanoids were charging at him again. Except this time, a strange Qi covered their forms, and the speed of their charge had increased significantly.
He already knew that blocking such a charge would be foolish. So, he focused inwards. Sword Intent erupted through his will and severed the lingering disorientation threading through his Qi, slicing apart the invisible interference until his Qi circulation was smooth again.
Then, he twisted sideways, Shadow Cloud Steps straining as one horn passed so close it shredded the edge of his sleeve. He managed to dodge the attack, but the shockwave from their impact threw him away like ragdoll.
He managed to catch himself in time to see six black darts streaking toward him at beyond supersonic speed. A green coating at the point of those darts suggesting some kind of venom.
He did not retreat or dodge, and instead, his Infinite Micro Slash Domain unfolded around him like an unseen sphere. Thousands of micro-sword intents materialised, and the as darts entered the invisible boundary, they were shredded and turned into metallic dust before they could even reach his skin.
The six Qi Condensation warriors who had stayed behind and taken this chance to ambush him faltered at that, their confidence shaken by the display of a single Qi Condensation cultivator fighting against 3 Foundation Establishment and 6 Qi Condensation Tribesmen and holding his own.
He gave them no chance to recover as he used the Veil of Borrowed Heaven and vanished from their sight and senses. Panic rippled through their formation as they looked around, searching for him. He appeared behind them, ready to attack, only to sense another large amount of Qi gathering nearby.
He looked in time to see the Bear let out another roar. The Qi disrupting shockwave rippling outward in all directions. He noticed that, it disrupted the two Yak-humanoids' Qi as well. But that they recovered near instantly from it.
'Maybe they simply practiced together till they gained resistance.' He thought as he channeled his Sword Intent outward, and cut off the Sound Shockwave before it could reach him, nullifying the attack before finally launching slashes at the 6 Qi Condensation tribesmen.
They let out agonised grunts as they all simultaneously fell down, their leg muscles having been cut off at multiple places by him. It was not a crippling blow, and a healing pill would restore such damage in no time. But it would certainly take them out of the fight.
Or so he'd thought till all six of them quickly reached for the dart launchers in their side belt.
'Well… these tribesmen certainly are resilient if nothing else.' He thought as he launched a few more sword intent attacks, cutting off their arm muscles before moving on.
The Bear-humanoid was next, and he noticed that it now looked a little groggy and unsteady on its feet. 'Some sort of backlash from using the Sound-Qi twice in such short intervals?' He guessed before he cut off its leg and arms muscles as well.
The bear-humanoid let out an agonised roar, and then fell over. Its transformation coming off as it turned back to its human form.
He removed the Veil and revealed himself, pressing his sword to the tribesman's throat. Stopping him from making any further moves.
Li Yuan had previously accepted the inheritance from their fallen prince. A treasure that would certainly change the trajectory of his future cultivation greatly. Knowing that, he certainly could not exterminate the remnants of the Fallen Prince's people willy nilly.
He was no saint. But he was not the kind of person who repaid gratitude with enmity either.
He looked up ahead and saw that the two Yak-humanoids had frozen at the sight of their leader defeated and held as hostage. He met their gazes and stared at them for a moment, before he backed off a few steps and sheathed his sword.
"I only want to talk," he said evenly.
One of them snorted, and then spoke up. His voice thick and distorted by an inhuman throat. "Black Crane Tribe seeks no peace with scum from Golden Sun empire."
"Black Crane Tribe," he repeated thoughtfully. "Are you the tribe that settled South of these mountains? He asked, and noticed the sudden worry on the tribesman's inhuman face as he realised that he'd just given away free info.
Silence stretched between them as the Yak-humanoid seemed unwilling to speak anymore, worried about giving away more information, so he spoke up instead. "These mountains are now under the protection of my Li family," he said. "I would prefer coexistence with the Black Crane Tribe instead of a war that would bleed both sides dry."
The Yak-humanoid stomped forward a step, nostrils flaring. "We seek not peace," it growled. "We seek war."
Only to get bonked on the head by his fellow Yak-humanoid the very next moment. The first guy looked indignant while the other ignored him and moved forward.
"We'll take your words of peace to our chief." He said as he cautiously stepped forward and picked up their injured, barely conscious leader. Seeing that he didn't attack them, he moved over and picked up two of the Qi Condensation cultivators, gesturing at his fellow Yak-humanoid to do the same.
The other guy hesitated and kept glaring at him the entire time before he too picked up the remaining four with surprising gentleness and then retreated. Their forms vanishing into the tall grass as they fled.
"You should have killed them," Zi Mo's voice came from beside him the very next moment. "Or captured them for interrogation. Letting them go was foolish."
He shrugged. "If someone wants peace, then they must extend the hand first." He said. "Besides, I have no idea how to interrogate people."
"I could've interrogated them for you." She said, looking at him with a complicated gaze. "Do you truly believe these barbarians are even capable of peace?"
"I do. After all, they're humans like us. Just born in a different circumstance and culture." He replied. "Besides, if nothing else worked, I could always punch them until they become my friend, Dattebayo!"
He was only partially joking. Because part of the reason why he wanted to have peace with the Barbarian tribesmen was because there were multiple such tribes littering the southern border of their empire. And some of them were incredibly strong. So if it came to war and he did end up eliminating the entire Black Crane tribe, then he feared that the other tribes might unite against his family.
At that point, even should he be present to aid them, his family would still end up slaughtered.
Zi Mo gave him a strange look at that, before turning her gaze toward Rou Lin who sat on the ground some distance away, her face pale and her breathing heavy as she worked to incorporate the effects of the healing pill she'd consumed.
Some distance away from her, the spirit beast she had been fighting lay impaled upon a jagged shard of ice, clearly Zi Mo's own handiwork after Rou Lin could no longer keep fighting.
"You're too kind for your own good." She said with a sigh and started walking away, only for him to catch her wrist and stop her before she could leave.
Zi Mo stopped in her tracks and turned to look back at him. "What?" She asked, giving him an annoyed look.
"That interrogation technique. Is it something you can teach me?" He asked. After all, there were demonic cultivators in this world as well, and he had no doubt that sooner or later, he would run into them. At that point, having a technique like that would be useful.
"Not until you join the Snow Peak." She replied. "Even then, you might not be able to learn it, as it's a Yin technique that targets the Soul. And Soul Techniques are incredibly difficult to learn."
She then pulled her hand away. Or tried to do so at least, and gave him an annoyed look when he didn't let go of her hand. "What?" She asked again, giving him an annoyed and somewhat flustered look.
"Come with me." He said, as he finally let go of her wrist. He moved over to Rou Lin, the girl letting out a yelp as he picked her up and threw her inside his Ancient Spatial Ring. Finally, he turned and headed deeper into the Ashen Ridge Mountains.
After the fight, he had looked at the Halos of the fleeing Barbarian Tribesmen, and gained some rather useful information.
The Black Crane Tribe had not worked so hard to eradicate the last 8th grade family that came to live here for nothing. In fact, even the 2nd Grade beasts that attacked this place during the last Beast Tide were lured to this place by the Black Crane Tribe at a great sacrifice.
And they had all done so, for a single treasure that they'd managed to find at the bottom of one of these mountains. In fact, the 9 Barbarian Tribesmen who attacked him had been left behind by their chief to guard that place. Alas, in doing so, they not only lost the fight but were also about to lose the treasure they had been protecting.
After dismantling the 1st Tier Formations that hid and protected the place, he and Zi Mo entered the underground cavern.
"I had no idea Barbarian Tribes could even use Formations." Zi Mo commented as she followed in his footsteps, using her ice ability to freeze any traps that hindered their path.
"Me neither. Maybe they caught a Formation Master from our Empire and forced him or her to work for them." He offered.
"And you still want to befriend these people?" She asked derisively.
"Are you going to tell me our people won't do worse if we caught them?" He asked and Zi Mo had no answer to that.
Eventually, they reached the bottom of the cavern, and he heard Zi Mo's sharp intake as they saw a Spirit Lake at the centre of the Cavern. But it was not the Spirit Lake that drew such a reaction from her. But what floated on its surface.
Heavenfall Core Lotus.
A rare spirit herb in the world that grows upon a Spirit Lake, absorbing all the energy released by the lake for its own cultivation. It takes 300 years to mature, and once consumed, it could increase the chances of a Peak Foundation Establishment Cultivator breaking through to Golden Core by 50%.
"It's a mature Heavenfall Core Lotus." Zi Mo said, her voice barely above a whisper as she gazed at the spirit herb with naked greed.
"That it is." He said as he bent down and started dismantling the Formation that had been placed around the Spirit Lake to hide the Heavenfall Core Lotus' aura.
And yes, the Lotus had indeed matured. Meaning it was ready for consumption. He could only assume that the Black Crane Tribe had no one at the Peak of Foundation Establishment. Or that they were looking for more treasures to further increase their chances of breaking through to Golden Core before they consumed the Lotus.
Once he had dismantled the Formation, he waded into the water, and reached the centre before, gently, he harvested the large flower from the top.
He was unsure if a Spirit Herb of this level could even be replanted. But like hell he wasn't going to try. After all, he still had 4 Low-grade Spirit Lakes in his Ancient Spatial Ring that weren't being put to much use. He could use one of them, or maybe even all four of them to regrow this herb.
With the Lotus in hand, he swam back out and then offered the Lotus to Zi Mo. "Here." He said with a smile and took great joy in the way Zi Mo's eyes widened as she all but gawked at him.
"You're giving this to me?" She asked, as her hands twitched, clearly wanting to take the Heavenfall Core Lotus but holding her greed back with sheer will.
"I wouldn't have brought you here with me had I not intended to do so." He replied.
"But… why? This place belong to you, and you were the one who found this Lotus. Plus, you could use it to aid in your own breakthrough to Golden Core." She said reluctantly. "To me, this herb would at best, save a decade of cultivation time. It's not even certain if I'll be able to break through to the next minor realm with it."
"Because you've helped me immensely by coming over and showing your support for my family." He replied, still holding out the Lotus for her. "This is the least I could to to repay that favour."
"So that's all it is? Repaying the favour?" She asked, looking rather disappointed now.
"Maybe." He said, and then slowly leaned in, and when she didn't back away, he placed a soft kiss on her lips. "Or maybe it's because I've taken a liking to you and want to help you."
Zi Mo touched her lips and then stared at him, stunned and speechless.
"Now. Are you going to take it or what?" He asked. And Zi Mo stared at the Lotus for a moment before she leaned in and pulled him in for a deep kiss.
He didn't hesitate to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her in, enjoying the way her large and soft breasts squished against his chest.
They finally broke the kiss and Zi Mo stared into his eyes for a long moment, as if searching for something. Finally, she broke the eye contact and turned her gaze toward the Heavenfall Core Lotus and gently took the herb from his hands.
"Consume it quickly before its medicinal effects leak out." He said, and sent Zi Mo inside his Ancient Spatial Ring, where she could cultivate beside the recovering Rou Lin.
With that done, he touched his lips unconsciously and a faint smile formed on his face. Then, the magical moment passed and he realised he was still in the underground cavern. Utterly alone.
With the possibility that the Tribesmen might return with greater reinforcement, he used Veil of Borrowed Heaven and quickly left the place, returning back to his clan with the good news that the Ashen Ridge Mountain Range was finally clear of any 2nd Grade Beasts.
With the additional land and the two Mid-grade Spirit Lakes they took from the Qin family, they already had their hands full of things, and he doubted that they would be able to migrate over to Ashen Ridge Mountains anytime soon. At least not until the empire fulfilled its promise and gave them those 10 Foundation Establishment Pills.
But it's better to have the option available to them and not need it than the other way around.