Chapter 245: The Youchao Clan Joins Ying

"Run!"

Boom—... The sea's roar kept coming, rolling like thousands of troops attacking them. A group of people ran toward the mountain of the Huang Jin Chao. Nan Qinghuan, worried that there were still members inside the clan, shouted, "Make everyone run up the mountain; this water will flood the Tribe."

"No, Goddess, I have to go back for my food…"

"I need to go back for my clothes."

Nan Qinghuan, angry, said, "Don't go. Whether life or clothes, both are important; get everyone up the mountain, now!"

The mountain peak is high; it should let us avoid this tsunami attack!

When the exhausted crowd finally reached the Huang Jin Chao mountain peak, the miners came to help, dragging the old, the young, the sick and the crippled up. Yet the seawater had already risen to the foot of the mountain, booming wave after wave.

Like the end of the world.

The sky grew very dim; nobody had ever seen a tsunami approach, and everyone was terrified into silence.

The mountain here is high, so the wave never crashed onto it, but… their Tribe was swept away by the sea.

"My home is gone…"

Boom— a massive wave surged, suddenly drowning the entire Youchao Tribe. The clan members sobbed, kneeling and clasping their hands, pleading for the Sea Witch to calm her wrath.

"Sea Witch, calm your wrath, calm it!"

Fortunately, they shouted early, and the clan members were saved.

But the home was gone… Youchao Xuan stood on the summit, watching his Tribe disappear into the water. His silver hair fluttered in the wind, and his blue eyes glistened with tears.

This was the place he had grown up in; it vanished in an instant.

"My home is gone, gone! What do we do now? Where will we rebuild the Tribe?"

High Priest A Gudda, seeing the scene, was stunned. "Sea Witch, we have been offering sacrifices every year—what have we done wrong? You are destroying our Tribe, Clan Leader, the Sea Witch is angry."

"Shut up."

A Gudda's wailing irritated Youchao Xuan; he stood there, his silver hair drifting in the wind, exuding a sorrowful aura.

He had watched with his own eyes as the Tribe was swallowed by the flood, never to be found again!

That place held all his cherished memories, yet… a single crystal tear fell, and he suddenly knelt on both knees, sobbing softly.

"Sea Witch, if you must punish, punish me—do not devour my Tribe."

Clan Leader Youchao Xuan wept; everyone knelt, and the place fell as silent as death.

Nan Qinghuan stood beside Ying. She wanted to counsel Youchao Xuan, but Ying held her back, "Let him calm down a bit."

The corner of her mouth twitched; she wanted to say something but merely nodded.

Fortunately, the tsunami wasn't a super‑tsunami; the undersea quake had likely ceased, and the wave soon lost its force, but wherever it had reached turned into a boundless sea, leaving nothing behind.

The wreckage of the houses floated on the sea, telling the history of this place.

Luckily the peak was high enough; the seawater couldn't climb up, and gradually it began to recede.

Ying had never seen a tsunami, so he naturally didn't understand what was happening.

He reached out and grabbed Nan Qinghuan's arm, his face full of curiosity. "Qinghuan, what on earth is going on?"

That day, the crimson setting sun bled.

The Youchao Xuan Clan encountered a once‑in‑a‑century tsunami, which devoured their Tribe.

Fortunately, Nan Qinghuan discovered it early and led them to retreat; otherwise everyone would have been swept in.

The Youchao Tribe faced extinction.

The seawater receded quickly but did not reveal any island; the Youchao Clan's Tribe was completely swallowed, buried in the ocean.

"Sea Witch, calm your wrath, calm it!"

High Priest A Gudda began preparing the Ritual, shaking the Scepter in his hand back and forth, muttering incantations they could not understand.

Nan Qinghuan saw the clan members despondent, praying for the Sea Witch's forgiveness. She shook her head. "We should have noticed earlier; that huge fish that surged up was a warning. The undersea quake caused the seawater to tilt and backflow; the fish was smashed to death and thrust up. The fish you saw died because of this tsunami. The quake makes the water tilt and gather, which is why this happened. Youchao Xuan, don't be sad—as long as a person lives, they can create anything; only when life is gone is everything truly lost."

She looked at the kneeling, self‑blaming Youchao Xuan with a pang of sympathy; the ancients could not comprehend such disasters, calling them heavenly calamities, punishments from the Heavenly God, so Youchao Xuan was deeply sorrowful.

He blamed himself, wondering where he had offended the Sea Witch to suffer such a fate. Though Ying didn't grasp the talk of earthquakes, he agreed with Qinghuan's words. He walked to Youchao Xuan's side, patted his shoulder, and said, "Youchao Xuan, Qinghuan is right—while a person lives, they can have anything."

ChaoJi also wept, and everyone gazed at the submerged island where they had lived for centuries, never imagining that one day the sea would engulf their home.

She cried uglily, never having wept so before; even if Youchao Xuan rejected her, she hadn't cried, but now… her home is gone—where can she find peace? This is a top‑priority matter!

ChaoJi's words made the sorrowful clan members look to him; indeed, he was the Clan Leader, and they would listen to him.

Encouraged by Ying, Youchao Xuan wiped the tears from his eyes and suddenly stood up; for the first time, he felt the weight of the people on his shoulders pressing him to the point of breathlessness.

He looked at his clan members; they all stared at him expectantly, awaiting his plans.

After calming down, he calmly accepted the reality.

He turned his gaze to Nan Qinghuan. "Goddess, do you know when the seawater will recede?"

He still hoped to rebuild the Tribe once the water receded; fortunately, none of his people had died in this disaster, so he still had a chance to reconstruct the Tribe.

They possessed the skill to build houses; as long as he asked Ying for help, everything would be restored.

He felt optimistic!

Nan Qinghuan understood his intention; her expression was complex as she looked at the seawater below, still churning but having receded a bit, yet… it remained difficult.

Youchao Xuan, you whose family has lived by the sea for generations should know that places soaked by seawater are hard to clean up. Moreover, the tsunami's arrival shows the seabed here is unstable; even if the water recedes and we rebuild, it may return years later to plague our descendants. Are you sure you still want to build the Tribe here?

These words made Youchao Xuan give a bitter smile; their Tribe had no tradition of launching campaigns, always staying dutifully in the land they first settled.

They had never seized anyone else's land.

"But we have nowhere else to go besides here."

Youchao Xuan was sorrowful; after a moment of silence, Nan Qinghuan said, "Don't rush. Solutions are made by people; there will be a way to settle you. Ying, have them prepare food; the old and young here must be hungry."

The clan members were exhausted, starving, and barely escaping death; their yearning for life and fear of the future tugged at hearts.

Ying, with a single command, ordered food to be prepared.

Twilight hung low, and a blazing Bonfire rose atop the mountain peak.

That night was very sorrowful for the Youchao Clan; they saw with their own eyes their home being washed away by the sea, yet they could do nothing.

Fortunately, Ying arranged for people to look after the clan members; the few hundred of them, weary, lay down on the ground here and fell asleep.

But Youchao Xuan could not sleep; he sat alone on the hilltop, watching the Tribe being submerged.

From behind came Nan Qinghuan's voice, "Youchao Xuan, come eat some sweet potatoes; the ones I baked are fragrant."