Chapter 41

Today's monthly votes haven't reached five hundred yet. I've already prepared the extra chapter and the two guaranteed chapters for tomorrow... tapping the table waiting for the votes! PS: Fan Le Di and the brothers have set up a [Great Wasteland Barbarian VIP Group: 385122373]. For details on how to join, see the pinned post in the book review section...

Sutang, carrying a vague sense of melancholy, drifted southward, crossing the Python Tooth Ridge into the Canglan Wasteland.

Although the northern part of the wasteland beyond the Python Tooth Ridge was still in the grip of ice and snow, the ice and snow in the Canglan Wasteland had quietly melted. The streams and rivers crisscrossing the wasteland had begun to thaw, with floating ice blocking the river channels, causing spring water to flood and inundate the area.

The primitive tribes living on the high mountains and hills, after enduring the harsh winter, gradually sent hunting teams deep into the waterlogged areas to hunt and prepare for the spring sacrifice.

The hundreds of tribes in the Canglan Wasteland were all under the control of the Su family. Although they did not fully comply with every order, they absolutely dared not harm the children of the Su family.

Crossing the Python Tooth Ridge and traveling south for nearly two thousand miles, one would reach Canglan City. However, for Sutang, whose cultivation had recovered to the peak of the True Yang realm, it was just a four or five-day journey.

Seeing the tall and majestic city gates of Canglan open, Sutang felt a sense of familiarity. Reflecting on the hard training she endured in the wasteland over the past winter, she felt both fear and an infinite sense of nostalgia.

What was she nostalgic for?

Thinking of Chen Xun's face, which still had a hint of childishness but was mature, Sutang felt a warm feeling in her heart.

People entered and exited the city in a steady stream. Merchant caravans, having endured the lonely winter, began to carry goods out of the city gates, heading deep into the Canglan Wasteland to trade with the primitive tribes.

Sutang thought that perhaps before long, the merchant caravans from Yunzhou to the east of Tushan would also cross the thousand-mile Tushan and enter Canglan City.

Just as Sutang was about to enter the city, she suddenly saw a hundred miles north of Canglan City, in the deep mountains, clouds swirling, with low-altitude, scaly clouds faintly emitting a golden light.

"Ah, the Ancestor has emerged from seclusion?" Sutang exclaimed, as that was where the Su family's ancestral tomb was located.

Her cultivation had not yet fully recovered, so she could not sense the spiritual energy changes a hundred miles away. However, seeing the birds gathering on the mountain peak, she knew that a large amount of heavenly and earthly spiritual energy was gathering there, causing the golden-scaled cloud phenomenon.

Apart from the Ancestor, Sutang did not know who else could cause such a phenomenon during normal cultivation.

Sutang immediately abandoned entering the city and instead followed the snow-covered path north of the city, heading towards the deep mountains where the clouds were swirling. At the same time, several long rainbows shot out from Canglan City, heading towards the direction of the ancestral mountain.

"Clan Master, Fourth Uncle, Ninth Uncle, Thirteenth Uncle..."

Sutang's cultivation had not yet recovered, so she could only follow the mountain ridge, watching the several long rainbows flying over the mountain peak. From the appearance of the rainbows, she recognized that those leaving the city were all important figures in the clan.

When she arrived at the ancestral mountain, panting, she saw the Ascension Cloud Altar on the mountain peak, where the Clan Master, Fourth Uncle, Ninth Uncle, Thirteenth Uncle, and others were standing beside the Ancestor, all of whom were important figures in the clan.

Seeing her clan relatives, the hardships she endured in the wasteland no longer needed to be suppressed. Sutang raised her hand and called out, "Ancestor, Clan Master!"

"Huh!"

Sutang stood below the cloud altar, and the Clan Master turned to look at her. In an instant, he transformed into a long rainbow, descended from the cloud altar, and opened his clear, bright eyes to examine her, asking in surprise, "Why are you so seriously injured?"

"I encountered a vicious ape in Xijun and was injured by it. I barely managed to return to Canglan," Sutang said.

"Let's talk about it later..."

The Clan Master released his spiritual energy, condensed the cloud, and lifted Sutang's feet, flying her to the top of the cloud altar.

Seeing Sutang's divine soul shattered and her cultivation fallen to the True Yang realm, everyone was greatly shocked, not knowing what had happened to Sutang during her journey in the wasteland. However, they were more concerned about the changes in the golden-scaled cloud at the top of the sky.

Sutang then saw the Ancestor standing among the crowd, no longer absorbing the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy, but the golden-scaled cloud phenomenon at the top of the sky had not dissipated, subtly causing the mountains to tremble.

The golden-scaled clouds within a hundred miles even showed signs of further gathering, with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth surging towards the opposite stone cliff—so dense that it had condensed into clouds. A vague figure was sitting cross-legged in the niche of the stone cliff, absorbing this massive amount of spiritual energy, but it was unclear who it was.

"Who is it?" Sutang asked, confirming that someone in the clan had broken through the peak of the Qingyang realm and entered the Rebirth realm, but she did not know who had made such rapid progress in the few months she had been away from Canglan.

"It's Wuyang..." The Ancestor, with white eyebrows like frost, saw that Wuyang had passed the most difficult stage and was now absorbing a massive amount of spiritual energy to reshape his Rebirth body, so he calmed his mind and turned to Sutang.

"Really? Wuyang is only sixteen years old, and his soul sea anomaly is even harder to break through the True Yang realm than my Crystal Heart..." Sutang was deeply surprised when the Ancestor said Wuyang was cultivating in the niche on the cliff, originally thinking that if Wuyang could enter the Rebirth realm before the age of thirty, it would be considered rapid cultivation. She never expected that in the few months she had been away from Canglan, Wuyang's cultivation had made such rapid progress.

"This is all thanks to your Thirteenth Uncle bringing back a mongoose cat treasure bone from the Python Tooth Ridge, which finally allowed us to gather the spiritual herbs needed to refine the Illusory Nine Dragon Talisman..." the Clan Master said with a smile.

"Has Wuyang already refined the Illusory Nine Dragon Talisman?" Sutang asked in surprise, her face showing shock. The Ancestor had practiced for hundreds of years and only carried two talismans, and she never expected that one of them had been refined by Wuyang. No wonder Wuyang could so easily break through the True Yang realm.

It was thanks to the supreme power contained in the Illusory Nine Dragon Talisman that Wuyang had entered the Rebirth realm.

"Wuyang has not yet entered the Tianyuan realm, and it is still early for him to truly refine the Illusory Nine Dragon Talisman," the Ancestor's frosty eyebrows trembled slightly, and he sternly warned those around him, "The fact that Wuyang's soul sea contains the Illusory Nine Dragon Talisman is a clan secret. Even the golden-scaled cloud phenomenon caused by Wuyang breaking through the realm today must not be leaked. We will say that it was caused by my emergence from seclusion..."

The Clan Master nodded and then said to the deputy commander of the Xuwu Battalion, Su Qingfeng:

"The Python Tooth Ridge hiding a mongoose cat bone is indeed profound and unfathomable. It seems that the Python Tooth Ridge must be well managed, but we must not provoke the Xuanhan Sect too much. The Xuwu Battalion can recommend Uropygian descendants to enter the Imperial Academy to show our favor, which is necessary. Our clan indeed needs to win the hearts of the tribes in the Python Tooth Ridge to block the Xuanhan Sect's claims, but you must remember that the Uropygians are our clan's thousand-year enemy. Even if they are now weak, we cannot be complacent..."

"Su Qingfeng will remember the Clan Master's words," Su Qingfeng said solemnly.

Everyone knew the Clan Master's cautious nature, but when Sutang heard this, her heart trembled.

The Ancestor had not been involved in clan affairs for many years, so he was not particularly concerned about the Clan Master's instructions to Su Qingfeng. His dim old eyes, now shining with solid golden light, released a strand of spiritual energy, which he transferred into Sutang's mystic acupoint, probing for a long time before asking, "Why didn't you return to Canglan earlier with such serious injuries?"

Sutang's injuries from fighting the vicious ape were far more severe than others could imagine. If not for Chen Xun, she would not have had the ability to return to Canglan alone. However, hearing the Clan Master's suspicions about the Uropygians, she did not dare to reveal the truth.

Wuyang's entry into the Rebirth realm, which had caused the clouds within a hundred miles to gather, had already made the Ancestor and the Clan Master so surprised, viewing him as the most promising candidate to enter the Tianyuan realm within a hundred years for the Su clan. If they knew that Chen Xun, born from the Uropygians, with only the sixth level of martial strength, could cause the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within three or four hundred miles to gather, with the ability to regenerate flesh from bones and shape a body with spiritual energy, would they not have ill intentions towards Chen Xun?

Sutang immediately concealed the fact that she had met Chen Xun, only saying that after fighting the vicious ape, she had struggled to return to Canglan, thinking that other matters could be discussed after Chen Xun arrived in Canglan...

"Why are you so careless? You and Wuyang are the most promising candidates to enter the Tianyuan realm in a hundred years for our clan. With this injury, your realm may fall behind Wuyang," the Ancestor frowned and said, "Starting today, you will go into seclusion here to cultivate. Do not return to the city until you have fully recovered..."

**************

Chen Xun naturally did not know what had happened in the deep mountains north of Canglan City, two thousand miles away. After leaving the isolated mountain stone fort, he wandered in the wasteland for several days before reluctantly turning south to return to the Uropygians.

A day later, Chen Xun reached the north bank of the Wild Horse Creek, seeing dozens of primitive people, wrapped in animal skins, standing on the Wild Horse Creek, using stone axes to chop through the thick ice layer.

The leader was a young man, about sixteen or seventeen years old, nearly two meters tall, with a chest