Chapter 52

**New August, new journey, seeking monthly votes, collections, and red tickets...**

The Su Clan's Wushi Manor's team for selecting tribal youths happened to arrive at the Heishan tribe today. Wugong Zongtu and Gu Hu, among others, naturally rushed to the valley entrance to welcome these distinguished guests.

"What a formidable presence!" Gu Jianfeng and Chen Xun walked together, seeing the flag-bearing warriors who looked ordinary, wearing black robes over their armor. However, when they reined in their horses and held their flags horizontally at the valley entrance, they gave an impression of being deeply rooted and unshakable. Gu Jianfeng couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.

Chen Xun had spent over a month with Su Tang and had a good understanding of the martial cultivation system in Canglan. He observed that the flag-bearing warrior sitting on a large scaly horse had clear and bright eyes, indicating he had just advanced to the Seventh Level of the True Yang Realm, equivalent to the Seventh Level of the Savage Martial Blood Change.

However, his aura and the scaly horse beneath him were integrated, standing like a mountain, exuding a solemn and lethal aura that was no less intense than that of Gu Hu, who was at the peak of the Ninth Level of the Savage Martial Blood Change. Chen Xun secretly felt that the legacy of noble clans and sects was truly not something the primitive tribes could compare to.

Chen Xun had also undergone several months of arduous cultivation in the Lake and Marsh Wilderness, deepening his understanding of the Savage Martial cultivation.

The realm is a difficult gap to cross. The Ninth Level of the Savage Martial Blood Change and the True Yang Realm are both at the Foundation Establishment stage. Above the True Yang Realm is the Rebirth Realm, and above that is the Heaven Yuan Realm and the Yuan Dan Realm.

A difference of one realm can be bridged with countless lives; a dozen or more high-level Savage Martial practitioners might not be able to defeat a newly advanced Rebirth Realm strongman. If the difference is two realms, the disparity is like the difference between heaven and earth, with the weaker side being like ants, having no room for struggle.

Within the same realm, the differences in cultivation levels are not as clear-cut. The cultivation of mystic arts, magical treasures, mystic weapons, and armor, as well as the understanding of mystic arts and combat experience, greatly influence overall strength.

Ordinary Savage Martial cultivation, especially after enlightenment, involves the refinement of skin, bones, tendons, and blood, all the way to the Blood Change and Bone Marrow Change stages. Many of these stages are simply the refinement of blood, qi, and spirit, and reaching the peak of the Ninth Level, it becomes difficult to advance to a higher cultivation realm. In reality, each level of refinement is far from reaching its limit.

Even if they enter the Canglan Academy, it is extremely rare for tribal youths to truly break through the peak of the Ninth Level of the Savage Martial Blood Change and advance to the Rebirth Realm, becoming a Heavenly Savage. However, the difference between entering and not entering the Canglan Academy is significant.

Canglan warriors like Ge Yi, who are at the Ninth Level of the True Yang Realm, have undergone arduous cultivation of mystic arts and secret techniques. Their physical strength far surpasses that of ordinary Ninth Level Savage Martial practitioners. They can even use low-level spells, and they wear powerful mystic weapons and armor. Their mounts are as strong as high-level Savage Martial practitioners, making their overall combat strength unimaginably powerful.

This is the fatal allure that drives the primitive tribes to send their youths to the Canglan Academy; not to mention, after ten years of cultivation, they can bring the mystic arts they have learned back to their tribes for inheritance.

Chen Xun and Gu Jianfeng arrived at the valley entrance with Zongtu and Gu Hu, only to see a long caravan of camels and horses stretching for a mile along the east bank of the Wild Horse Creek, with about five to six hundred people accompanying the caravan.

Apart from the twenty-odd black-robed armored knights protecting the left flank of the caravan, slowly riding their horses, most of the five to six hundred people accompanying the caravan carried weapons and armor, looking formidable in combat.

"How so many people?" Chen Xun and Gu Jianfeng exchanged glances, both seeing the confusion in each other's eyes.

Chen Xun thought that besides the team from the Su Clan's Wushi Manor for selecting tribal youths, it might also include the first batch of merchants from Canglan City who set out in the spring and entered the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge.

At the front of the caravan, Ge Yi was also wrapped in a black robe to shield against the wind and snow, slowly riding his horse next to a large copper carriage, speaking to someone inside through the window.

Chen Xun followed behind Grandfather Zongtu and Gu Hu, and could see the man sitting inside the copper carriage, with a clear and handsome face, wearing a spotless white fox fur, his age indeterminate, but giving an otherworldly and transcendent impression.

As the man spoke to Ge Yi and glanced over, Chen Xun felt a chill, giving the impression of a solitary and cold mountain, unreachable and unapproachable.

Even from such a distance, the man's cold and piercing aura was like a sharp blade out of its sheath; in comparison, Ge Yi seemed dim and unremarkable.

No matter how one looked at it, Ge Yi was absolutely a peak Ninth Level True Yang Realm strongman, having experienced countless battles, his aura of slaughter making even the bravest hesitant to stand before him.

However, Ge Yi was overshadowed by the man's aura, indicating that the man was definitely a Rebirth Realm strongman, even if his cultivation was not yet as high as Su Tang or the Wushi Deputy Commander Su Qingfeng.

Chen Xun remembered that a few months ago, the Wushi Deputy Commander Su Qingfeng had said that Ge Yi would personally come to select people after the spring. He thought this man might be the leader of the merchant caravan.

Chen Xun did not want the Canglan Su Clan to notice that his cultivation had greatly improved compared to half a year ago, so he收敛气息往阿公身后躲了躲, but saw the man in the copper carriage's gaze suddenly fall on Grandfather, making Grandfather's back stiffen as if he had been targeted by a venomous snake.

The man then sneered and withdrew his head back into the copper carriage. Chen Xun saw Grandfather's previously relaxed and wrinkled face turn frosty, and he asked in a low voice, "Who is that man?"

"He is the Ghost Xi Chushi Lou Li." Wugong Zongtu, who did not expect to see Ghost Xi Lou Li here, felt a chill run through his heart.

Chushi is the title for the leader of the Savage Martial tribe. The Black Python tribe, with only a thousand members, naturally did not have such a position.

Thirty years ago, the Black Python tribe had nearly twenty thousand members, living and thriving on the fertile land along the White Wolf River in the southern slopes of the Python Tooth Ridge. After the last Heavenly Savage, Zong Shouyang, fell, the Black Python tribe rapidly declined and fragmented, with many members fleeing north and west into the wilderness. Only Zongtu and a small group of members moved to the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge, struggling to survive.

To speak of the Black Python tribe's blood feud, the Su Clan's history is so distant that it is no longer mentioned, but the blood and tears shed by the Black Python tribe due to the Ghost Xi have not yet cooled.

However, seeing Ghost Xi Chushi Lou Li sitting in the copper carriage, Chen Xun was puzzled:

The Ghost Xi tribe occupies the fertile land in the southeastern slopes of the Python Tooth Ridge, although under the control of the Su Clan. But what does the merchant caravan from Canglan City have to do with the Ghost Xi? Why does it seem that Lou Li is the leader of the caravan, and even Ge Yi follows his orders?

**\***

Ge Yi and his team escorted the merchant caravan, traveling from Canglan over mountains and through valleys, taking more than a month to reach the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge, enduring much hardship along the way.

The Heishan tribe was their first stop in the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge. Seeing Wugong Zongtu, Chen Xun, and others from the Black Python tribe, along with Gu Hu from the Heishan tribe, waiting at the valley entrance to welcome them, Ge Yi was quite surprised. He dismounted and walked over, asking:

"Did Wugong know we would arrive at the Heishan tribe today?"

Ge Yi had escorted the merchant caravan through the low hills on the eastern slopes of the Python Tooth Ridge, leaving the southern Waji tribe, and had not encountered any primitive tribes along the way. Seeing Wugong Zongtu waiting at the valley entrance, he felt both surprised and suspicious, wondering if someone had seen their caravan and escaped their scouts.

This would be a fatal oversight for the Wushi Manor's elite troops.

Seeing the surprise in Ge Yi's eyes, Wugong Zongtu narrowed his triangular old eyes and explained:

"Today is truly a coincidence. The Black Python and Heishan tribes have been feuding over minor issues for years, but now both tribes have decided to put aside their differences and reconcile. I came to the Heishan tribe today to apologize for the Black Python tribe's past offenses, and coincidentally met General Ge and Chushi Lou Li..."

Seeing Gu Hu also looking reconciled, Ge Yi was even more surprised, thinking that perhaps some unknown stories had unfolded in the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge during the harsh winter.

As for the enmity between the Black Python and Ghost Xi tribes, Ge Yi pretended not to know. He had a good impression of Chen Xun and smiled faintly, asking, "Xun, are you going to join us to Canglan this time?"

"Xun will need General Ge's care in the future," Chen Xun said flatteringly, but noticed that while the Canglan warriors in black robes had stopped at the valley entrance, the merchant caravan's camels and horses, as well as the large copper carriage in which Ghost Xi Chushi Lou Li was sitting, continued north along the east bank of the Wild Horse Creek, showing no intention of stopping.

Chen Xun was puzzled: Could it be that the Heishan tribe is not the first stop for the merchant caravan in the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge?

Continuing north from here, it would be another thirty to fifty miles before entering the Lake and Marsh Wilderness.

The Lake and Marsh Wilderness, with its melting snow and ice in the spring, is difficult to traverse. The region is sparsely populated, with fewer tribes than in the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge, and is filled with venomous insects, snakes, and wild beasts. Unless the merchant caravan intended to travel two to three thousand miles to the Xi Ridge...

At first glance, Ge Yi didn't notice any change in Chen Xun from a few months ago, but when he saw Chen Xun looking at the continuing northward caravan, he felt a hidden sharpness in Chen Xun's deliberately concealed aura, and his eyes had reached the realm of divine light. He asked in surprise:

"It's been only a few months, but your cultivation has advanced so quickly!"

"In the winter, while chasing a wild deer, I accidentally entered the Lake and Marsh Wilderness to the north and almost got trapped on a solitary mountain. Fortunately, I found a Stone Snake Lotus and took it, barely surviving the ordeal. After that, I found myself advancing to the Seventh Level of the Blood Change..." Chen Xun and Su Tang's story in the wilderness was only known to Grandfather Zongtu, Zongsang, and Nanliao in the Black Python tribe. To explain his rapid advancement in cultivation over a few months, he had to fabricate another story.

The Stone Snake Lotus, as a fourth-grade spirit medicine, can indeed cause a rapid advancement of two to three levels in cultivation if one can withstand its powerful medicinal force. With assistance, one might even directly reach the peak of the Ninth Level of the Savage Martial Blood Change.

When Chen Xun first met, he was only at the Fifth Level of the Savage Martial Blood Change, yet he dared to venture deep into the Python Tooth Ridge to battle a Green-Eyed Hawk, and even killed one and injured another in the dense forest, leaving a deep impression on Ge Yi.

Ge Yi believed Chen Xun's explanation. The deep wilderness and mountains are never short of spirit medicines and opportunities; the key is whether one has the luck to seize them.

Chen Xun's claim that he and his father got lost in the deep Python Tooth Ridge four years ago also suggested a certain family background, as ordinary primitive tribes would not likely recognize a spirit medicine like the Stone Snake Lotus.

Ge Yi also felt a bit regretful. A spirit medicine like the Stone Snake Lotus, which Chen Xun's current cultivation level could not fully refine, was already a great stroke of luck to survive the boiling medicinal force without dying. If he could have obtained this Stone Snake Lotus, he might have directly broken through the peak of the Ninth Level of the True Yang Realm and advanced to the Rebirth Realm.

Gu Hu had already confirmed that Chen Xun had advanced to the high-level Savage Martial Blood Change, but did not know what kind of opportunity Chen Xun had encountered. Hearing Chen Xun mention "Stone Snake Lotus," which even the experienced Ge Yi from the Wushi Manor was impressed by, he could guess its value.

Seeing the caravan continue north, Wugong Zongtu also showed some concern and asked Ge Yi, "General Ge, are these all merchant caravans from Canglan City?"

"Indeed, after General Su returned to Canglan, everyone knew that the trade route to the Northern Mountains was open. The Ghost Xi tribe was the most enthusiastic, and they prepared early in Canglan City with other merchant houses. Coincidentally, Chushi Lou Li returned to the Python Tooth Ridge after the spring, so we traveled together..." Ge Yi said.

Not only Grandfather Zongtu, but Chen Xun also did not believe Ge Yi's explanation.

Apart from the black-robed knights from the Wushi Manor, the nearly two hundred camels and horses in the caravan carried various complex flags, indicating that they were from different merchant houses in Canglan City, forming a caravan to the Northern Mountains.

The Ghost Xi tribe, as one of the super tribes that have submitted to the Su Clan, also has a merchant house in Canglan City. This time, they might have sent a team with a large amount of goods to join the caravan, but it was unnecessary for the Ghost Xi Chushi Lou Li to personally escort them to the Northern Mountains of the Python Tooth Ridge.

A discerning person could see that Lou Li was actually the temporary leader of the caravan.