Chapter 876: Canglu Tribe

A caravan composed of over thirty people was moving alone across the boundless grassland.

There were not many vehicles, only seven or eight, but the leather-clad people riding horses nearby were all young and spirited, and a few were even children of eleven or twelve.

At the very front of the caravan was an old man in gorgeous attire, riding a yellow steed.

This old man wore a fiery red fox-fur hat, his forehead had wrinkles like knife carvings, his face was slightly purple, and his waist was tied with a three-colored brocade belt representing his status. This was the mark of a tribe leader.

This place was already the southern part of the Tianlan Grassland. This was a Tuluo team heading to the Holy Temple to pay tribute.

"Tianlan Grassland" was the Tuluo people's name for the Mulan Grassland, because the Tuluo people had always believed in the legendary "Tianlan Beast" and regarded it as the guardian god of their clan, raising it for generations, so the grassland had this name.

Originally, the Tuluo people only occupied the southern half of the Tianlan Grassland, but since defeating their mortal enemy, the Mulan people, in a battle in the center of the grassland thirty years ago, they had occupied the entire vast grassland. Their power naturally skyrocketed, and there were no rivals left on the entire grassland.

Of course, the Tuluo clan was so huge that there were countless tribes within it. From small tribes of hundreds of thousands of people to super tribes with hundreds of millions of people, they were spread across the entire grassland. And because many people made contributions in the last Holy War, quite a few new independent tribes emerged.

Some of these tribes were not small, while others were even more insignificant, with populations of only tens of thousands.

The "Canglu Tribe" where the old man belonged was such a micro-tribe that had split off from a large tribe. Although it could be called a tribe, in reality, the entire tribe only had seventy or eighty thousand people.

The old man was named Ying Lu. When he was young, he fought with extraordinary bravery and had defeated several small Mulan tribes in the Holy War, capturing many nobles, which gave him his current status. But now he could not withstand the ravages of time, and coupled with the hard work of these years, although he was only fifty-something, his body already presented a state of old age.

It was currently noon. The old man looked at the scorching sun in the sky, then turned his head to look at the young children in the caravan behind him, and let out a long sigh.

Logically speaking, no matter how large or small a tribe was, it had to have a certain number of Immortal Masters enshrined within it. Otherwise, if they encountered natural or man-made disasters or monsters, ordinary mortals would be completely unable to resist.

But their newly born small tribe could not attract any Immortal Master at all; even the lowest-tier Immortal Master was unwilling to station in such a small tribe.

After all, for Immortal Masters, it was better to join a larger and wealthier tribe to provide sufficient resources for their cultivation.

Some small tribes could still possess some low-tier Immortal Masters, but these Immortal Masters were either born in these tribes themselves, or their own cultivation aptitude was inferior, and large tribes were unwilling to enshrine them, so they had no choice but to stay.

The Canglu Tribe where the old man belonged had not yet had the opportunity to cultivate its own Immortal Masters, so whenever they had matters, they could only hire low-tier Immortal Masters from neighboring tribes to help. But these Immortal Masters also demanded extremely high prices; a few actions would cost a small half of the entire tribe's income for a year, which made the already not-wealthy Canglu Tribe even worse off.

Fortunately, the Opening Spirit Day, which came once every twenty years, was finally approaching.

Having long been concerned about this matter, Ying Lu naturally could not let it go. He immediately led several tribe disciples who had been tested to have spiritual roots to a Tianlan Holy Temple nearest to their tribe.

The Tianlan Holy Temple was originally built only to enshrine the Tianlan Holy Beast, but after so many years of evolution, it had become a holy land in the hearts of the Tuluo people and a place specifically for cultivating low-tier Tuluo Immortal Masters.

Each Holy Temple had several high-tier Immortal Masters responsible for teaching some basic cultivation paths. Once they achieved something, those with inferior aptitude returned directly to various tribes to be enshrined by the tribe, while those with potential were taken as disciples by those high-tier cultivators and specifically cultivated.

Mortals who had not undergone the Opening Spirit ceremony were strictly forbidden from being taught immortal arts by high-tier Immortal Masters privately.

These holy temples are not numerous, numbering only sixty or seventy, but they are evenly distributed throughout the entire grassland. Each one is almost the center of a vast area, surrounded by thousands of tribes of various sizes.

As the only Holy Temple in the area, the larger the tribe, the closer they were to the Holy Temple, while the Canglu Tribe was assigned to a very distant place because it was too small. It would take a full three months of travel to go from the tribe to the Holy Temple.

Having no choice, Ying Lu had led the team out of the tribe four months ago.

Speaking of which, during the last Opening Spirit Day, although he had already made the tribe independent, he could not gather enough tribute, so he could only watch it pass by.

This time, Ying Lu was unwilling to miss it again no matter what.

Even if the entire tribe had to tighten their belts for the next few years, he wanted his tribe to have its own Immortal Master.

However, carrying tribute to cross such a vast grassland was extremely dangerous for these people.

After all, the tributes were all things of great use to Immortal Masters, and almost all of them were extremely precious to mortals. Many people with evil intentions took this opportunity to rob weak teams, and even some Immortal Masters with crooked minds might take action. This was a common occurrence during the Opening Spirit Day every year.

Tribes closer to the Holy Temple were a bit better; they were always afraid of the Holy Temple's name and did not dare to be too presumptuous.

But for tribes like theirs that were far away, it was extremely dangerous.

I heard that last time, a medium-sized tribe in this area had a nearly thousand-year-old spiritual herb in its tribute. As a result, after the news leaked, the entire team disappeared mysteriously on the way to the Holy Temple. Not a single shadow could be found.

As a result, many people rumored that a high-tier Immortal Master from some large tribe was jealous of this treasure and killed people to seize it. The people of the Holy Temple were naturally angry about this, and I heard they sent Immortal Masters from the temple to investigate, but I don't know why it just faded away.

So this time, although the tribute was gathered, without an Immortal Master to hold the line, the leader of the Canglu Tribe had been unable to eat or sleep since they set off.

And during this period of the Opening Spirit Day, the Immortal Masters of various tribes were all busy accompanying the team to the Holy Temple. Even with spirit stones, no one was willing to be hired. Occasionally, there were a few wandering Immortal Masters, who were also hired by several larger nearby tribes with heavy money.

As the leader of the weakest tribe, Ying Lu could only stare blankly.

Thinking of this, the old man sighed and couldn't help but look back at the caravan behind him.

Among the seven or eight vehicles behind, four were filled with tribute, and the horses pulling the vehicles were all carefully selected steeds from the tribe. These vehicles also had the foresight to be made of the tribe's strongest red birch wood. Of course, to avoid attracting attention, the surfaces of all vehicles looked tattered and extremely old.

However, it was fortunate that these measures were taken; otherwise, something might have happened long ago.

Even so, when they met a small group of wild wolves last time, the team almost suffered casualties.

But to break out of the wolf pack, the caravan had to abandon the two slowest vehicles to arrive here safely.

Although those two vehicles didn't have anything valuable, they were filled with most of the food for their group for the next two months. It seems they have to stop on the road for the next few days.

I remember that in two more days of travel, there would be a canyon nearby.

There were few people there, so maybe there were some wild cattle or sheep, so they could hunt some prey first.

Thinking of this, the old man turned his head to touch the hardwood bow hanging on the saddle, a look of contemplation appearing on his face.

"Eh! What is that?" A crisp female voice suddenly came from beside the old man, full of surprise.

This was a delicate girl who had been following closely behind the old man.

This girl was named Ying Shan, fifteen or sixteen years old, a younger generation of Ying Lu, and also one of the few in the tribe tested to have spiritual roots. She was naturally deeply favored by Ying Lu.

The old man was startled when he heard this and hurriedly raised his head to look.

As a result, not far ahead, in a dense bush, there were indeed bursts of azure light flickering, and there seemed to be something inside. And he remembered very clearly that before he turned his head just now, there was no such light in that direction.

The old man felt a chill in his heart.

As a tribe leader, he was naturally not unfamiliar with the spiritual light emitted when Immortal Masters cast spells.

Could it be that an Immortal Master really wanted to take action against their poor team?

Ying Lu felt his heart sink, suddenly raised a hand, and the team behind him stopped abruptly. Others also saw the azure light in the bush, and couldn't help but reveal a few traces of panic and vigilance.

The old man tried to remain calm, pulled the reins, stood still, but various thoughts raced through his mind, racking his brains for a way to protect himself.

But after a moment, the old man discovered something wrong.

Although the azure light in the bush flickered non-stop, no Immortal Master appeared, and no immortal arts were issued.

Ying Lu's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly looked carefully at the bush. These bushes were densely packed and a person tall, so he couldn't see anything clearly.

"Tu Meng! You go over and see if there is really an Immortal Master there," the old man said suddenly after flickering his eyes a few times.

"Yes, Clan Leader!" A strong young man with a fierce face in the caravan was startled when he heard this, but hurriedly agreed, then dismounted and walked carefully toward the bush twenty-something zhang away.

When he was only five or six zhang away from the place of the azure light, the young man hesitated for a while, then subconsciously stopped his steps.

"I don't know which Immortal Master is here? We are from the Canglu Tribe and have come to pay our respects to the Immortal Master," the young man seemed to have some status in the Canglu Tribe, so his words were polite, and his face revealed a respectful look.

But there was still only spiritual light flowing in the bush, and no sound was emitted. Seeing this, the young man couldn't help but look back at the old man.

The old man thought for a while, then nodded silently. The young man felt a bit more confident in his heart and walked toward the front quietly.

When he walked to the front of the bush, the young man hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and reached out to separate the bushes in front of him.

===== CHAPTER 877 =====