Chapter 254

Fusang Tribe.

Their faith totem is a towering tree called the Fusang Tree, and in the Fusang Tribe's legend, this tree stands between heaven and earth, a giant tree that separates sky and land.

Later, as time passed, the Fusang Tree disappeared.

The Fusang Tribe are the descendants of those who once lived upon the Fusang Tree, children of the divine tree, unlike others.

Such self-praise naturally fails to win over some people.

For example, the people of the Xiongbei Tribe openly mock it, saying, "What nonsense about divine tree children—why not call them tree people?"

In fact, it's not just the Fusang Tribe; the Heishui, Tengshe, and Wujin Tribes have similar sayings, and some medium-sized tribes do too, just not so exaggerated.

In short, gilding one's face is basically standard procedure.

Only the Xiongbei Tribe is different—they have no interest in these things, talk only of the present, and their style is rather rough.

They are privately called "Bear People."

The Xiongbei Tribe doesn't care either, with an attitude of, "I am the Bear People, you lot of XX offspring can't even beat Bear People—losing face in public."

Among the five major tribes, Wujin and Fusang are on good terms, while Heishui and Tengshe have a decent relationship.

As for the Xiongbei Tribe alone, there is a sense of being excluded, but the Xiongbei Tribe itself has the largest population, and its strength is not inferior to that of the Fusang Tribe with two witches, so their situation is by no means difficult.

If this great witch truly comes from the Fusang Tribe, wanting to unite the many tribes of the northern wilderness, the biggest difficulty lies with the Xiongbei Tribe.

Conversely, once the Xiongbei Tribe is truly persuaded, the following matters will naturally fall into place.

And when the five major tribes unite, there must naturally be a hierarchy; the Xiongbei Tribe, proud and self-respecting, likely also wants to occupy the leading position.

After the great witch appears, naturally strongest, but it's also impossible to kill all opponents outright—doing so would be like cutting off one's own arms.

The five major tribes themselves all have the intention to march south and invade the Great You.

The friction and struggles among the five major tribes, however, do not amount to mortal enmity, so they devised a not-too-harmful method to determine leadership after unification.

This method is for each tribe to send out representatives to compete.

Five tribes, each sending out ten representatives, engage in combat, and may freely choose opponents from other tribes for one-on-one fights.

No interference during the fighting; victory is decided by death or by shouting "I surrender."

If the loser is not dead, they step down and may continue to participate in the competition.

Battles proceed one after another, with each tribe taking turns to issue a challenge opportunity, and the challenged party may not refuse.

Once refused, they may no longer take the field—equivalent to elimination.

Finally, when only one tribe's people remain after "killing," that tribe becomes the leader of the five major tribes—at least for this southern invasion of the Great You, they will lead.

After successfully occupying the Great You, what further developments occur will depend on each tribe's own abilities.

Before that, everyone must abide by the agreement.

As for those participating in the competition, the six "witches" will not take action; they will take turns in pairs holding the fort, ensuring that after someone shouts "I surrender," the loser does not die.

Sometimes retreating is also a way to advance.

The agreed-upon competition method is not simply about strength; stratagems like Tian Ji's horse race can also be employed.

It depends on how the five major tribes make their decisions.

Combat strength occupies an important part, but it is not solely determinative.

As for the witches, they will not meddle in this matter; though they come from different tribes, at this point their vision is surely long-term.

Moreover, if you are unfair, others can also be unfair.

This was originally meant to reduce internal strife, but in the end, if you resort to tricks, tit for tat, it might backfire and cause a rift—then, will we still invade the Great You southward?

The competition site is in the Fusang Tribe, which is roughly equidistant from the other four tribes.

Possibly the major tribes of the northern wilderness feel the news of the great witch's imminent appearance has already leaked, so they no longer hide it.

They openly launched the competition with great fanfare, aiming to race against time.

When the great witch does appear, there will be no need to waste more time—everyone prepares, and we can march south.

Nor do we fear any reaction from the Great You.

Of course, there is also the possibility...

"Master, it feels like we're being lured into a urn." Jin Gang rode on horseback and said, "Simply put, they're saying we've taken action—if you have the ability to destroy us, come on."

They have been traveling north all the way and have now arrived within the Fusang Tribe's sphere of influence, and much information is already known.

Jin Gang feels that this competition among the northern tribes, with all the top experts gathered, is fundamentally a yang plot—against the Great You immortal masters.

Those who can arrive here at the fastest speed are certainly not the Great You's great army, but only the Great You's immortal masters.

After arriving here and learning of the competition, the six witches will simultaneously appear in the Fusang Tribe.

Should the Great You immortal masters take action?

If not, they will watch helplessly as the competition decides the victor, the great witch appears simultaneously, the northern tribes unite, and they march south with arms.

If they act? That would be a glaring trap—stepping into it means only a dead end.

"Perhaps they'll even make 'us' the content of the competition—only those who can take 'our' heads will be victors." Tang Yuhan said.

The "we" she refers to is not just Tang Luo and the two others, but also the Great You's immortal master experts.

"Perhaps." Tang Luo said.

"Ah!" Jin Gang's face suddenly changed, he thought of something, and shouted loudly, "Master, do you think the news of the great witch's appearance might be false?"

"Oh?" Tang Luo slightly raised his tone, indicating doubt.

"Master, look—we have so far received no mission to stop the great witch's appearance; all along the way, we've only gotten a few tasks to weaken the tribes. Even here, we still haven't received any task." Jin Gang discovered the blind spot, "I suspect there may be no imminent great witch appearance. This is a scheme jointly plotted by the northern tribes, aimed at killing the Great You's immortal masters."

Under the current circumstances, whether witch or immortal master, each occupies an extremely important position in their respective northern wilderness and Great You.

In the northern wilderness, needless to say, even slightly weaker leaders treat the priests with utmost respect, honoring them as honored guests.

The status of the Great You immortal masters is not that high, but the Longya Dao Gate is indeed the state religion of the Great You.

The position of National Teacher is one beneath others, above ten thousand.

In suppressing demons and monsters, it can be said that they jointly ruled the realm with the Emperor of Great You.

Having lost several powerful immortal masters, Great You, in terms of top-tier strength, has nothing to block the Northern Wastes with.

To deal with the witches, we can only fill the gap with lives—and if the six witches are determined to flee, the army cannot possibly catch them.

So far, no missions have been received, and the situation feels somewhat strange.

Therefore, Jin Gang feels that this might just be a pure trap.

"It's also possible that the Great Witch has already appeared in the world." Tang Yu Han said something even worse than Jin Gang's guess.

"Exactly!" Jin Gang slapped his thigh, then felt a sudden toothache.

If it's truly the Great Witch appearing, the situation would be too dire.

Along the way, the three of them accepted three missions in total, all aimed at weakening nearby Northern Wastes tribes—these tribes belong to the radical faction of the warhawks, eager to invade Great You southward as soon as tomorrow.

Two of the tribal missions were relatively easy, similar to the time of "Cease War."

The third mission, during the ambush, the enemy had prepared, formed a battle array directly, with totem power condensing together, turning an ordinary cold-weapon army into a "Divine Demon Army."

Jin Gang fell into the array and nearly died outright—if not for Tang Luo's intervention.

Tang Luo broke the military formation; after Jin Gang opened his light to heal his wounds, he then faced the tribe's great priest, fought to a draw, and barely won, sustaining serious injuries himself.

If the great priest alone possesses such strength, what of the witch above him? And the Great Witch above the witch?

If the Great Witch has truly appeared, it's unlikely that a few divine demon wanderers conducting decapitation operations could defeat them.

We must surely unite the strength of Great You.

"With the master's strength, if there were no Great Witch, at worst we should also be able to lead our escape—but if there truly is a Great Witch..." Jin Gang thought silently.

"What you're thinking about is actually unnecessary." Tang Yu Han said, "We essentially have only two choices: advance or retreat."

What Jin Gang thought, Tang Yu Han had already considered.

And after considering everything to the end, it's exactly what she said—the two choices.

Even if one wanted to sneak in secretly to investigate, frankly speaking, there's not much difference between that and openly charging in.

The deployment of the Five Great Tribes of the Northern Wastes is a mix of real and feigned; unless one possesses some extremely exquisite and special means, it's impossible to infiltrate and scout their realities without alarming them.

However, Jin Gang doesn't have such means, nor does Tang Yu Han—both are typical combat-type divine demon wanderers.

As for Tang Luo, using the Merit Jade Lotus to maintain invisibility and silence consumes too much, making it unnecessary.

"That's right." Jin Gang nodded, "Master, what should we do next?"

"Of course, charge in and kill them until not a single piece of armor remains!" Tang Luo replied with heroic vigor, not surprising Jin Gang in the least.

"Good!" Jin Gang also roared, no longer holding back, following in the footsteps of Master Xuanzang, charging in to kill them until not a single piece of armor remains!

"Giddy-up!"

Tang Luo's steed flew forward.

The location of the Fusang Tribe is a remarkably extraordinary natural fortress, with a sunken pit in the middle and towering heavenly moats rising around it.

Like a volcanic crater, but the depression isn't that deep, and it lies above ground level.

According to the Fusang Tribe's legend, this is the trace left after the Fusang wood disappeared—not merely the work of nature's supernatural craftsmanship.

To enter the Fusang Tribe, there is only one spiraling upward path; the entire tribe is easy to defend but hard to attack.

"Someone!"

After galloping for a while, Jin Gang narrowed his eyes; not far ahead, a black-robed person stood with hands clasped behind the back, wearing a hood, revealing only a chin, making the face indistinct.

Jin Gang instinctively pulled the reins, slowing down.

This black-robed person is clearly coming for them.

At Jin Gang's side, Tang Luo, who had been riding in the middle, sped past on horseback without slowing, directly colliding with them.

"Wait—"

The black-robed person only managed to utter one character before being flung outward, crashing heavily to the ground and rolling several times before becoming motionless.

70 mph horseback collision into a person!

Jin Gang opened his mouth, having always thought himself the most reckless man—until he met Master Xuanzang.