Chapter 327: The Hunt is Urgent, Taming the Beast Fails

"Not of my kind, yet so utterly insane?"

Upon receiving the news, Ge Er Bu Han was so enraged that he slapped the head of the Witch Beast he was riding.

The Witch Beast's pupils flashed with ferocity, and feeling the pain, it attempted to resist, but the totem on Ge Er Bu Han's body flashed, immediately suppressing it.

The relationship between Witch People and Witch Beasts is like that of master and slave, possessing an absolute relationship of suppression with the totem as the bond.

"Hoo!"

Ge Er Bu Han took a deep breath; with the Poison Man causing such a stir, the nearby tribes were in complete chaos and could no longer dispatch manpower.

A plague had broken out in the tribe, and all experts above the level of Force and Blood Qi had to remain within the tribe to dispel the sickness and treat their kin.

If left ignored, the plague would spread to other tribes, inevitably causing large-scale deaths.

Even his younger brother, Ge'erbu'dan, had no time to go out to hunt down the Poison Man or retrieve the Witch Beast, instead remaining in the tribe to dispel the plague.

Currently, only he and the Fist Intent Puppet were on the road alone.

"Poison Man, is this the malice of the Zhong Yuan human race toward my Witch Tribe?"

The Witch Tribe had been exiled outside the borders for many years and had long since grown accustomed to the harsh environment, their bodies having reached a balance with nature.

Once they returned to the Fifty States of the Central Plains, facing a brand-new environment, subtle changes were bound to occur from the inside out.

Even though the bodies of the Witch People were robust, they were still helpless against the rejection of heaven and earth.

This large-scale plague was, in essence... acclimatization.

So-called acclimatization is, in the final analysis, the natural world's rejection of an intruder.

Ge Er Bu Han was a strong man among the hunters and also a rare wise man; he guessed the reason why this plague had arrived so fiercely.

Although the Poison Man's virulent poison was powerful, it was leveraging the Zhong Yuan environment's rejection of the Witch People's constitution, borrowing its momentum to act.

"It was going to come sooner or later; it's just as well that it flared up early this time."

Ge Er Bu Han patted the Witch Beast's head. "Go, find the Poison Man; its value is even greater now."

The virulent poison samples inside the Poison Man were extremely precious to the Witch Tribe and possessed very important research value.

If they captured it alive, severed its limbs, and placed it in a pottery jar to extract the poison, then reverse-engineered and neutralized it, wouldn't the resulting medicine be able to cure the tribe's acclimatization upon first entering the Zhong Yuan?

"Fist Intent Puppet, have the traces of the Liu family member not appeared again?"

The high-level martial artist's gaze and blood qi flickered; after a moment, he shook his head, indicating he had not found anything.

Ge Er Bu Han nodded and said, "The Liu family member's trail is broken, and I immediately encountered the Poison Man; is this not the fate spoken of by the elders?"

"Perhaps, once I capture the Poison Man alive, the Liu family member's tracks will appear again."

"Go, target: Poison Man."

What was the 'Poison Man'—the one the Witch People were gnashing their teeth over, who was actually the Lu Zhigang clone of Zhou You—doing at this moment?

"Hoo-hoo-hoo, roar!"

The massive, Bamboo Insect-like Witch Beast was huffing and puffing in anger; it had been toyed with by Zhou You for quite a while, and not a single one of its frantic attacks had landed on the target.

Such an unruly appearance only made Zhou You more interested.

He had thought that by grasping the power of the totem, he could easily subdue this Witch Beast, but now it seemed he had oversimplified things.

After he had deliberately let Ge'erbu'dan go, he had traveled a distance before opening the Poison Nest to release the Witch Beast.

This big guy was extremely violent and wouldn't behave even while inside the Poison Nest, constantly ramming into the surroundings in an attempt to break free.

Since that was the case, he would give it a good thrashing and tame it.

Alas, a Witch Beast is not a wild beast; having been tamed by a Witch Person once, the imprint in its body was heavy and deeply rooted.

After the Witch Beast was released, its first reaction upon seeing Zhou You was to attack desperately, the kind that would not stop until one of them died.

"Hard to tame?" Zhou You employed his Basic Lightness Skill, rising into the air like a withered leaf, dodging the forelimbs that hooked and slashed like scythes, and drifted lightly behind the Witch Beast's triangular head, kicking its steel-like shell.

His shoe burst on the spot, unable to withstand the force, and became tattered.

Zhou You looked at his tattered clothes and thought about finding an opportunity to go to Fucheng to have a few sets of martial artist's battle robes made.

In a clash of power at the martial artist level, the aftermath was sharper than a blade; ordinary fabric could not withstand it, so a martial artist's clothing was custom-made, expensive, and usually settled in gold.

The Witch Beast was kicked in the head and became even more furious; *creak*, the joints of its long body rubbed and bent, actually folding into a posture nearly doubled over, its triangular head slowly opening its mouth directly at Zhou You.

A green light rushed toward his face; he didn't know what the Witch Beast had spat out, but its piercing power was extreme, and the sound of the tearing wind made his eardrums ache.

Zhou You was in mid-air with nowhere to leverage force under his feet or around him, and it looked like he was about to be pierced through.

"Out of Nothing."

He brought his feet together and, miraculously accelerating, flew diagonally 10 meters away, dodging the green light's strike.

The Basic Lightness Skill, upgraded to Lv10, possessed the ability to defy common sense.

He took out the Poison Nest with a backhand motion and activated the talent Hunger; the next moment...

Amidst its clawing and gnashing, the Witch Beast shrank unwillingly and finally crashed into the Poison Nest.

The fist-sized Poison Nest, with its lifelike scaly texture, only increased in weight by a sliver after containing the massive Witch Beast.

This attempt to subdue the Witch Beast had failed again.

Zhou You was not discouraged; he put away the Poison Nest and continued on his way.

He was busy subduing the Witch Beast, but he hadn't forgotten his main business; there was still one-third of the journey left before escaping the territory of the Witch Tribe.

"Hmm, the nearest Witch Tribe has already been struck by the plague and cannot spare any manpower."

"If they still want to send people, they must come from further tribes; there isn't enough time, and they also fear the spread of the plague."

"In this way, the number of Witch People hunting me down has decreased significantly."

Zhou You received the feedback information, his pace swift, the thoughts in his mind even faster.

The source of the news was precisely the few Witch Tribe hunters he had let go that day.

He had shown mercy, not only implanting the virulent poison that spread the plague but also taking the opportunity to let the Blood Qi Gu of Bewildering Hearts lie in wait.

The 6 scouts were 6 seeds, infiltrating 6 tribes to become Zhou You's eyes and ears.

These scouts had extremely strong vitality and had now recovered one after another; led by Ge'erbu'dan, they were all busy dispelling sickness from their tribesmen for their master, and even though they gritted their teeth in hatred for him, they could not spare the time to participate in the hunt.

The information fed back from all sides was absolutely favorable intelligence for Zhou You.

However...

"Ge Er Bu Han, Fist Intent Puppet!"

There was bad news within the good news; the Sorcerer Tribe had not completely given up on hunting him down.

Ge Er Bu Han, an Intermediate Martial Master level elite scout who rode a Sorcerer Beast, had an overall strength that could not compare to a Senior Martial Master, but among the Intermediate Martial Master tier, he was absolutely an invincible existence capable of sweeping through all opposition.

The Fist Intent Puppet by his side was even more extraordinary.

During the great battle at Zunyang City, Liu Fengji's Personal Guard fell, and one of the 3 Senior Martial Masters had the misfortune of running into the Sorcerer Tribe's powerful Giant, being devoured by the opponent's Essence Energy, with all their life force and blood converted and manipulated into a Fist Intent Puppet.

A Fist Intent Puppet is someone whose life force, blood, and spirit have been scattered by a single punch, their body usurped to become a puppet that can only obey commands.

This was a walking corpse at the Senior Martial Master level, and it was absolutely obedient to the Sorcerer Tribe faction.

Even if it encountered its former master, Liu Fengji, it would strike to kill without the slightest hesitation.

(End of this chapter)