Butcher quickly came back from his scouting mission and reported to the chief.
From the excited expressions on the faces of Butcher and the chief, Ye Xi understood what was going on. It seemed that the Earth Tribe truly had been greatly weakened by the upheaval.
Once he was done talking with Butcher, the chief walked back into the cave.
A little while later, the chief came out and announced to the entire tribe that Mud Mountain would attack the Earth Tribe tomorrow. The next morning, all of Mud Mountain’s Warriors moved out to the Earth Tribe.
The waiting tribe members busied themselves with their own work, occasionally glancing toward the jungle. Their eyes were both worried and expectant, and their minds were not on their work.
Unlike the worried tribe members, Ye Xi was very confident in the assault.
Thus, he found a large tree, seated himself against its trunk, and began to focus on his wood carving.
He planned to carve a patterned wooden teapot today.
Carving required focus and patience.
Ye Xi was very serious in his work, carefully making detailed slices with his knife.
It took some considerable effort, and as time passed, a teapot depicting a hunting scene gradually took form.
Whew! Ye Xi blew the wood flakes off the pot.
Ye Xi gave the teapot a satisfied glance. Though it was rather unshapely, the carving a little crooked, he had made a great deal of progress compared to his last few products.
Ye Xi placed the teapot aside.
Kaclack!
What was making so much noise?
Ye Xi searched for the sound and saw that Awl was chopping firewood.
Awl raised a stone axe, stared at the block of wood like he was staring at some mortal foe, and savagely swung. Kaclack! The round log was cut in half.
Ye Xi walked over and chuckled. “Did this piece of wood do something to you?”
Awl put down the axe and worriedly said, “It’s been so long. Why haven’t they come back yet?”
“The Earth Tribe is on its last legs from this upheaval. Are you worried that our tribe can’t beat them?”
Awl bitterly smiled. “I know, but what if there’s some accident… It would be fine if I were a Warrior and could go with them.” His voice began to dwindle away, and he bent down, picked up another log, and continued to chop firewood.
In truth, Awl could have become a Warrior long ago.
But he had been the most talented provisional Warrior of Mud Mountain in the last few decades. The tribe felt that using a mixed-blood Fiendbeast Core to trigger his potential would be a waste of Awl’s talent.
This was because the quality of a Fiendbeast Core would decide how far a Warrior could go.
If a mixed-blood Fiendbeast Core were used, one would probably spend the rest of their life as a Level 1 Warrior. Of course, there were also examples like Calm Bulrush, who had fortunately managed to live through a dangerous trial and break into Level 2.
If one used a pureblood Fiendbeast Core, one had a chance of breaking into Level 3, and even a tiny chance of Level 4.
But alas, the tribe had never had such high-quality Fiendbeast Cores, creating this long delay.
Ye Xi comforted, “At the start of the upheaval, didn’t the tribe kill a pureblood fiendbeast? That Fiendbeast Core will definitely be yours. You’ll definitely awaken into a Warrior this year.”
Awl was just about to reply.
A sharp whistle came from the sentry post.
The tribe members stopped their work and rushed to the clearing, turning in the direction of the sentry post.
Joyful laughter came from the jungle.
A moment later, the happy Mud Mountain Warriors emerged from the shrubbery.
The Warriors had blood stains all over their bodies and their weapons.
Their victorious figures radiated a barbaric and cruel energy that struck fear into all who looked upon them.
The chief stood in front of the rest of the tribe, and as they excitedly stared, he announced, “Starting from today, the Earth Tribe is no more! Our Mud Mountain has eliminated the Earth Tribe!”
He raised his head and heartily laughed.
“Yeeeah!”
They had really wiped out the Earth Tribe!
All the tribe members enthusiastically cheered, rushing up to hug the Warriors without any regard for the filth and blood covering them, excited beyond belief.
The victorious Warriors laughed and grinned, their barbaric aura instantly replaced by a foolish simplicity.
Ye Xi smiled at this ecstatic scene.
In stark contrast to the Mud Mountain tribe members were the fifty-some members of the Earth Tribe standing at the back, bound up in vines.
None of these hostages was a Warrior, and the majority were women and children.
No tribe would take a Warrior hostage. They were simply too dangerous.
According to past custom, the captured Earth Tribe members would have been brought back and eaten, but the shaman had made a promise to Ye Xi and announced that Mud Mountain would no longer eat humans.
The people of Mud Mountain did not dare to defy the will of the shaman, so they simply discarded the bodies.
The hostages all shivered, staring at the people of Mud Mountain with both hatred and fear.
Ye Xi internally sighed.
‘The strong eat the weak’ was an eternal principle, and it was even more true in this primitive society. Even someone like him who had come from a peaceful era was not so naive as to try to change this.
This was because civilization had always been established on blood.
But cannibalism was where he drew the line. As long as he still lived, the Mud Mountain people would starve to death before thinking about eating human flesh.
In order to celebrate their victory, the people of Mud Mountain lit up a giant bonfire and happily danced around it.
For any tribe, destroying another tribe was a matter worth celebrating.
For Mud Mountain, this victory was not just an additional fifty-some slaves. More importantly, they had seized the Fiendbeast Cores gathered by the Earth Tribe over many years.
What did Fiendbeast Cores mean? They meant Warriors!
What did Warriors mean? They meant more game and a stronger military!
From how happy the chief and the others were, Ye Xi knew that they had gained many Fiendbeast Cores from the Earth Tribe.
It seemed that Mud Mountain would have many more Warriors this year.
Amidst the celebration, an excited Warrior picked a woman out of the hostages and went into the jungle.
More and more Warriors began to drag women out from the hostages.
The tribe members watched them walk into the jungle and laughed.
This celebration lasted almost until nightfall.
Once they had returned to the cave, Ye Xi called over the chief and spoke a few words with him.
The chief had still been joyous and excited from the celebration, but when Ye Xi was finished speaking, his face became solemn. After some thought, he said that he would talk things over with the shaman.
On the next day, the chief gathered the entire tribe, including the fifty-some slaves, and made an announcement.
The people of Mud Mountain were in an uproar.
Slaves were slaves for life. It was unheard-of for slaves to become ordinary people.
But since the chief had made this announcement, the shaman had presumably agreed. Thus, while the tribe members privately conversed with each other, none of them objected.
The slaves from the Earth Tribe originally had downcast expressions, numb and reserved.
But as the chief spoke, their faces were stricken with shock, and by the end, they were in disbelief, the faint light of hope in their eyes.
At the very least, their future would not be completely dark.