Volcanic Age

The ruler of the cannibalistic tribe, the High Priest, couldn't contain his anger. It hadn't been that long since prey had entered their territory. They assumed it was an attack from another tribe, but they were mistaken.

They were martial artists from the Central Plains. The meat of martial artists wasn't very tasty. They had been training their muscles to take on attacks, so their flesh was tough. They also had a strong, gamey smell, making it difficult to eat.

However, their true value was in their hearts, intestines, and brains. Although those organs were not tasty, eating them would bestow strength upon the tribesmen.

Those organs were particularly useful to the High Priest, as they would increase the strength of his sorcery. Thus, he grew hungry upon seeing martial artists from the Central Plains.

He had ordered his people to attack and capture them. He was in the middle of the necessary ritual to consume those martial artists, but to think that he'd be interrupted!

"Who dares interfere with the sacred ritual?!"

They were under attack.

"Find out who they are!" shouted the High Priest.

The warriors moved in response to the High Priest's orders.

"Hmm?" The High Priest's anger subsided, and a cruel smile spread across his lips.

If the attacks were from another tribe, he would punish his people for allowing them to interrupt the ritual. However, he felt better upon hearing that the attacks were from the Central Plains.

"What a surprise. The God of the Southern Jungles is looking out for us." At first, he thought that they were attacking with at least two hundred, or even a hundred, people, but he burst out laughing upon seeing their numbers.

"There's not even thirty of them? What crazy bastards. The martial artists of the Central Plains truly are arrogant. Hahaha." The High Priest laughed boisterously as if he wanted the intruders to hear him.

However, his laughter was actually intended for the people trapped in a cage in the distance.

"Did you hear that? There aren't even thirty of them! Just wait; I'll soon have you reunite with your people!"

The thought of having more food made the High Priest whistle with joy.

***

Snap!

Zhou Xuchuan snapped his fingers in front of him.

"Hmph!" A large-framed tribesman snorted and stepped forward.

It was dark, so Zhou Xuchuan hadn't been able to see them until now. The members of the cannibalistic tribe had unique features. Their skin looked healthy and tanned; perhaps it was because they were usually exposed to sunlight.

Their bodies were also covered in indecipherable patterns.

The tribesman before him had his upper body exposed to the air, and his muscles looked perfect, as if they were the great work of a sculptor.

Moreover, his most striking feature was his eyes.

Zhou Xuchuan felt like he was staring at a hungry beast waiting for its prey.

"I, the warrior—"

"If you're going to talk about honor or something, then stop. I can't be bothered to remember the name of a man who eats human flesh or shit like that," Zhou Xuchuan remarked, twirling his sword in his hand. Р

"Kekeke!"

"Keke!"

The surrounding tribesmen burst out into laughter due to Zhou Xuchuan's interruption.

It seemed that they weren't taking the situation seriously at all. It was like they were watching a hunt.

The insulted warrior's pride was hurt. His face flushed crimson, and his eyes turned bloodshot.

"Ha!" The large-framed tribesman exclaimed. He believed that there was no need for further conversation, so he moved quickly. He was surprisingly agile despite his size.

Zhou Xuchuan stared quietly at the oncoming tribesman.

What is he? A First Class expert? A Peak expert?

Zhou Xuchuan could sense the tribesman's cultivation realm just by looking at the latter's aura. It wasn't just the tribesman, but the nearby tribesmen seemed to be at the same level of strength as the large-framed tribesman.

As expected, the law of the jungle reigns here. The Southern Jungles resembled the Demon Cult—an organization that believed in the law of strength—the weak were devoured, and the strong survived by devouring the weak.

The Southern Jungles had fewer people than the Central Plains, but due to the law of the jungle, their experts were considerably superior compared to the experts of the Central Plains.

Thump, thump, thump.

Zhou Xuchuan's pulse quickened, and his blood flowed freely throughout him. His hands seemed to harden, and he was filled with the elation before a great battle.

Thud!

Just as the large-framed tribesman reached Zhou Xuchuan, the latter's figure shot forward.

"…!"

The large-framed tribesman's eyes widened. He was agitated and furious, but his instincts allowed him to grasp what was going on.

No!

The figure before him looked like weak prey, but for some reason, the prey disappeared right as he blinked and reappeared right in front of his nose. The prey was so fast that he couldn't keep up with it.

In fact, only a few people in the tribe could rival the prey's speed.

Alarm bells rang in his head, and his instincts told him not to approach recklessly.

However, it was already too late for him.

Before he could stop his legs from going any further, a ray of light manifested in front of him, and it drew a diagonal line across him.

Squelch.

The large-framed tribesman's vision was split diagonally before slowly sliding down to the ground—no, it wasn't just his vision. His entire body was split diagonally, and both parts were falling to the ground.

Zhou Xuchuan reached the large-framed tribesman in the blink of an eye and swung his sword diagonally, splitting the large-framed tribesman into two.

"Ha!"

However, Zhou Xuchuan wasn't done yet.

He sheathed his sword again and slashed upward.

Hum!

A resonant sword hum echoed, and faint violet wisps of qi gathered around his blade.

Boom!

A thunderous boom echoed as air itself was torn apart not by Zhou Xuchuan's sword but by his fleshly body. Zhou Xuchuan had kicked off of the ground, lunging forward at astonishing speeds.

Zhou Xuchuan's legs contained great explosive power, allowing him to move faster than a typhoon. At the same time, his sword moved in a straight line.

"Ah!" The four tribesmen nearest to Zhou Xuchuan inhaled sharply at the sight and stared wide-eyed at the latter. They were surprised by Zhou Xuchuan's unbelievable movement speed, but that was all they could do.

The price for getting caught off guard was massive, and they had to pay that price.

Squelch!

A refreshing, crisp noise echoed, and the arm of the tribesman closest to Zhou Xuchuan was severed cleanly.

Swish!

However, Zhou Xuchuan's attack was not over yet. After completing the strike physically, the sword qi followed afterward.

The tribesmen's habit of moving in groups had become an obstacle. The tribesman standing right behind the first tribesman walked right into the sword qi.

"Ugh!"

A long line of blood was drawn across his chest. His skin was lacerated, and the flesh beneath was gouged out. The scattered blood turned into a mist that bloomed eerily in the air.

Zhou Xuchuan swung his sword, bowing away the blood that was about to splatter onto his face with a sword wind.

"AAAAH!!!" someone screamed in agonizing pain. There was no need for Zhou Xuchuan to turn around to know that the scream had come from the tribesman whose hand had gone flying just now.

Swoosh!

Zhou Xuchuan spun on his right foot, and a Jungle Blade pierced the ground where he stood not too long ago. A deafening explosion reverberated as soon as the blade pierced the ground, and the loud noise battered Zhou Xuchuan's eardrums.

Boom!

Poison needles from the northwest!

Zhou Xuchuan caught the subtle movements of the tribesmen around him. His pupils moved up, down, left, and right at a frightening speed, and his heightened senses enveloped his surroundings like a net.

"Come!" Zhou Xuchuan exclaimed. Then, he grabbed the tribesman with a severed arm by the throat and used him as a human shield. Several poison needles flew in from the northwest and pierced the human shield.

"Tang Family!" Zhou Xuchuan exclaimed.

"I know."

Tang Hui took out a ball the size of a child's head from her arms.

It was an ordinary-looking black ball.

"I'll show you the power of the Tang Family."

Ping!

Tang Hui exerted strength and lobbed the ball into the skies.

It seemed that she added a spin to the ball before throwing it, as it was spinning beautifully in midair. Strangely, its movement wasn't rough at all despite the rapid spin. The ball descended gently and slowly as if it were on a waterfall.

As soon as it descended before her chest, Tang Hui used all of her might to smack the ball with a double palm attack.

Tang!

"Wait a minute, that's not—" Zhou Xuchuan was terrified to see the flying ball. It reminded him of the Tang Family's secret weapon during that war.

"Heavenly Thunder Sphere (天雷球)."

BOOOM!

The ball exploded and erupted into flames in the midst of the cannibalistic tribesmen. The loud explosion shook both the heavens and the earth. To make matters worse, the explosion propelled thousands of needles in all directions.

"Ugh!"

"Argh!"

"Agk!!!"

The desperate screams of the cannibalistic tribesmen echoed here and there.

They were engulfed in flames and impaled with needles.

The needles weren't regular, ordinary needles, and the powerful explosion had pressurized them into spheres that exploded inside the cannibalistic tribesmen upon impact.

The destructive might of the needles was immense. They even pierced and shattered the bones of those unfortunate to get hit in the bones.

The attack was so powerful that it literally shook the heavens.

If there were other members of the Righteous Faction present, they'd be infuriated and say that this was no longer a martial art.

The Heavenly Thunder Sphere has already come out? Why? Zhou Xuchuan couldn't help but feel flustered as the heat of the flames licked his skin. His expression betrayed his complete and utter bewilderment. I thought Heavenly Thunder Spheres were developed during the Era of War and Chaos, which was after the Great War of Good and Evil?

The Tang Family had invented the Heavenly Thunder Sphere, but the Righteous Faction—no, the entire murim, would find it difficult to make the decision to use it.

While poison arts and hidden weapon skills could barely be considered on the same level as martial arts, the Heavenly Thunder Sphere was just an explosive. It was a weapon that incited disgust in those who worshiped martial arts.

After experiencing several crises during the Era of War and Chaos, the Tang Family was alarmed to the extent that they ended up developing the Heavenly Thunder Spheres and using them on battlefields.

At the time, there were many discussions about it, specifically about whether one ought to use it or not.

"Don't make that kind of face; I only brought it here for an experiment. And I only used it because they're ruthless brutes. Using something like that in the Central Plains is too far, even for me," Tang Hui explained upon seeing Zhou Xuchuan's confused face.

She assumed that Zhou Xuchuan was disgusted by the Heavenly Thunder Sphere.

"It's indeed as powerful as he said. However, it's not very cost-effective."

"He?"

"Young Master Zhuge. When I was staying with the Gold Will Merchants, I asked your younger brother about this and that, and he kindly told me what I wanted to know"

So it was you!

Now that he thought about it, the Tang Family had indeed shown a lot of interest in Zhuge Shengji back then. After all, weren't they the buyers of the Multiple Fire Lance Launcher's blueprints?

It seemed that Tang Hui had gone to Zhuge Shengji to ask about mechanisms without confiding her intentions to the young man.

Zhuge Shengji was a man obsessed with mechanisms, so he had to have been excited upon hearing of Tang Hui's interest and had ended up telling her many things.

"U-ugh…!"

"D-devils…!"

"They're devils! They're monsters!"

The Heavenly Thunder Sphere struck around forty to fifty people.

More than half of them died, and the other half were left seriously injured.

The cannibalistic tribe was no longer as leisurely as before. They glared at the group with eyes full of fear, caution, and rage.

"You man-eaters are really calling us devils?" Zhou Xuchuan shook the dust off of his clothes and cast a dumbfounded gaze at the tribesmen.

"How ridiculous." Tang Hui furrowed her eyebrows.

"This isn't the time for a conversation!" Yuan Dashi shouted. He could feel the encirclement closing in on them.

"We'll make a breakthrough here!"

Tang Lian clenched his fist and raised it above his head.

"Aaaah!"

"Follow the miss!"

"Show them the terror of the Tang Family!"

The cannibalistic tribe was overwhelmed by the Heavenly Thunder Sphere, while the morale of the Tang Family skyrocketed. They were trembling in excitement at the might of their Ancient Family.

"Let's go!" Zhou Xuchuan shouted. He wanted to finish things up, and his shout echoed like the Shaolin Temple's Lion Roar.

"Roar!"

Zhou Xuchuan had decided to leave the flanks and the rear to the Tang Family warriors. His job was to charge up ahead and eliminate the tribesmen on their way.

Swoosh!

"Agk!"

"Ugh!"

The tribesmen were strong, but they were only equivalent to the Peak Realm experts of the Central Plains. Moreover, they specialized in fighting in the forest rather than in open areas, so they couldn't unleash their full strength.

Zhou Xuchuan took advantage of that weakness and dug deeper into their midst.

"We're over here!"

"Save us!"

Zhou Xuchuan was finally on the other side of the temple, and he saw a cage in the middle of the temple.

There seemed to be people from the Central Plains trapped in the cage made out of iron bars, and Zhou Xuchuan assumed that they were members of the Diancang Sect.

"Huh?" Zhou Xuchuan said unknowingly. His vision technique allowed him to check the faces inside the cage, and he saw a familiar face among them.

The other party also stared in surprise at Zhou Xuchuan.

"The Seventh Young Master of Diancang?"

"Great Hero Zhou?!"

The other party was the warrior Zhou Xuchuan had met in the Poisonblood Valley, and the two of them had even hunted down the Seven-Horned Serpent.

The familiar face belonged to none other than the Seventh Young Master of the Seven Young Masters of Diancang—Duan Hecheng.