“For the Crow Divinity!” This was the end of the funeral dirge sung by the nearly one thousand Tribe members within the s.h.i.+eld. Outside the s.h.i.+eld, their fellow Tribe members roared as they fought on, laughing madly.

“For the Crow Divinity!” murmured Meng Hao. He lifted his right hand, and a cold glow appeared in his eyes. He suddenly looked at Zhao Youlan, who was still fleeing under the protection of the Nascent Soul Elders.

Her face was extremely pale, and the Nascent Soul Elders around her had looks of extreme vigilance.

Meng Hao looked at her coolly, then looked away. It seemed she would be able to escape calamity this day. He did not have the same advantages from earlier; therefore, it would be too difficult to slay her right now.

Meng Hao’s body flickered as he shot into the force of nearly three thousand enemy Cultivators. The Lotus Sword Formation rotated next to him, sending out the power of Time. Everywhere he went, time seemed to flow by, and all Spider Branch Cultivators caught within the range of the formation suddenly grew older. Their faces instantly filled with astonishment.

This time, Meng Hao truly did cause a ma.s.sacre. He donned the blood-colored mask, then waved his hand, sending the Time Sword Formation toward a group of seven or eight Core Formation Cultivators. They instantly grew old, and their eyes faded. It was like a wind had blown over to extinguish the flame of their life.

Meng Hao waved his hand again, and the shocking light of the Blood Finger could be seen. Anyone who touched it felt their blood decaying, and then they exploded into death.

Meng Hao took a few more steps forward, then pointed out with his left finger, stabbing it into the forehead of a rampaging Spider Branch Cultivator.

He killed neatly and efficiently. With the wave of a sleeve, he summoned what remained of his neo-demon horde. Ten thousand neo-demons roared out to join the chaotic battle. They fought side by side with the members of the Five Tribes. As the sound of the funeral dirge continued to echo out, they fought to the death with the Spider Branch!

The Black Bat did not exhibit any of the strangeness it had in the previous battle. Its eyes glowed coldly as it disappeared in a flicker, to reappear behind a Spider Branch Cultivator. It wrapped its wings around the man, who struggled with astonishment. Two sharp fangs plunged into the Cultivator’s neck, and the man’s flesh instantly withered up.

Every time it did this, a b.l.o.o.d.y glow would appear in the eyes of the Black Bat, and its strange aura would grow a bit stronger. In the beginning it sought out the weakest Cultivators, but gradually, its gaze began to fall on early Core Formation Cultivators.

When Meng Hao occasionally looked over at it, it would suddenly restrain itself, and not reveal any hints about what it was doing. However, it didn’t take long before Meng Hao caught onto the vigilance being shown by the Black Bat in this regard.

“There’s definitely some big mystery regarding this creature!” thought Meng Hao. Now was not the time to think about such matters though. After confirming that the brand connecting him to the bat was still intact, he continued on with his extermination of the Spider Branch Cultivators.

Within this chaotic battle, it wasn’t just the Black Bat who fought dazzlingly. Big Hairy, his fur s.h.i.+ning like silver, descended into the fighting like a silver moon. The cloud of Demonsquitos spread out, their vicious mouthparts guzzling fresh blood.

The red crocodile who was now the shape of a Flying Rain-Dragon, as well as the gigantic lizard, and all of Meng Hao’s neo-demons experienced a sort of baptism by means of the fighting. Every one who survived only continued to grow stronger.

Fueled by the madness and ferocity of the Five Tribes members, a stunning ma.s.sacre was underway. The Spider Branch Cultivators’ morale plummeted. Once Meng Hao joined the battle, the tide clearly turned in the favor of the Five Tribes.

When the neo-demons appeared, the Spider Branch experienced an unprecedented feeling of devastation. It didn’t take long before only one thousand were left from the original force of three thousand. Blood soaked the ground, and the reek of gore filled the air.

It was then that a miserable shriek could be heard from up above. Except for the two Nascent Soul Cultivators protecting Zhao Youlan, the rest of the Spider Branch's Elders were now locked in deadly combat with the Five Tribe’s seven Nascent Soul Cultivators. Just now, the cry had come from one of the Spider Branch Elders.

He was a middle aged man whose face was currently ashen. His pupils constricted as he retreated backward, a ma.s.sive wound on his chest, within which his beating heart was actually visible. Directly in front of him was the Crow Gloom Grand Elder, his hair disheveled, his body covered with serious injuries. His shocking expression was one of madness, like that of a wild beast.

A boom filled the air as the Crow Gloom Grand Elder’s body suddenly exploded as another of the Spider Branch Elders took advantage of the situation to exterminate him. However, before he died, he lifted up his right hand, within which was the severed head of the middle-aged Nascent Soul Cultivator.

This was the first of the Spider Branch Nascent Soul Cultivators to die in the battle. His death immediately caught the attention of the remaining thousand Cultivators down below. As of this moment, it seemed that any remaining will to fight was now completely gone. All of them began to do everything in their power to flee.

It was like tide waters. Their faces filled with panic as they gave up attacking and focused completely on defense and full-speed flight. Even the remaining Nascent Soul Cultivators up above seemed to have lost their will to do battle, and were about to flee.

Although the Five Tribes now had the upper hand in the battle, the price they had paid was an incredibly heavy one, far more than what could be made up for by capturing the Spider Branch.

Therefore… how could they possibly allow the Spider Branch to flee?!

“Kill them!”

“Kill them!!”

Their eyes red and filled with both frenzy and the comfort of revenge, the Five Tribes shot in pursuit. Many of the Tribe members still had tears streaming down their faces.

All the Tribe members, both the ordinary Cultivators and the Nascent Soul experts, joined in the chase. Meng Hao had no way to understand the pain they felt from of the loss of their friends and family. However, what he could feel, was the desire for revenge. For some reason, this also made him think of the Ji Clan!

Suddenly, another of the Spider Branch’s Nascent Soul Cultivators died. Hundreds of other Cultivators were being slaughtered by Meng Hao’s neo-demons and the other Five Tribes Cultivators.

They were like an avalanche, completely unstoppable!

It was at this moment that all of a sudden, a raindrop fell onto Meng Hao with a light plopping sound. The color of this raindrop was somewhat strange. It was violet, and as soon as it landed on him, it stained his garment, soaking through to touch his skin.

As soon as the raindrop hit him, he stopped in his tracks. The place where the raindrop had hit him felt cold. The cold aura seemed as if it had the power to exterminate life force. However, it was only one drop, so as far as Meng Hao was concerned, it was harmless.

“Violet rain?” he thought, frowning. He looked up into the sky to see some random raindrops falling down from up above.

“Don’t tell me that because so many people have died here that the aura of blood and hatred has merged together and transformed into clouds? Is that where this violet rain is coming from?” After a moment of thought, he suppressed his doubts. Looking around, he saw that scattered raindrops were falling, not just on him, but on the bodies of others. Even some of the Spider Branch Cultivators were getting hit.

It didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary, but for some reason, Meng Hao couldn’t shake the feeling that the rain had the power to exterminate life force. The thought of it swirled in the back of his mind.

Zhao Youlan also noticed the rain.

Earlier, she had been biting her lip as she watched her fellow Tribe members dying. There was nothing she could do, unfortunately. No order from her could secure victory in this battle.

The fighting had descended into chaos. Then the funeral dirge began, and Zhao Youlan understood. The Spider Branch… was suffering a complete defeat.

She felt as if her heart were tearing apart. What stuck out most in her mind though, the figure which had shocked her more than anything in her life, which had caused her trial by fire to become a complete failure, and had almost killed her… was of course Meng Hao.

However, it was then that a drop of violet rain landed on her face and then slowly flowed down her cheek. It felt cold, and caused a tremor to run through her body. Without thinking, she reached up to wipe away the raindrop. When she looked down at the water on her hand, she frowned and suddenly looked even more anxious.

“Violet rain?” She gaped in shock.

The violet rain was very light, and was quickly forgotten by everyone except for Zhao Youlan and Meng Hao. Zhao Youlan had the same feeling that he did. Something about this rain… seemed strange. All of a sudden, their gazes met across the vast battlefield, and they could see the vigilance in each other’s eyes.

“It’s not him.”

“It’s not her.” Meng Hao and Zhao Youlan could both sense each other hesitating. Their gazes separated, and it was in that instant that….

Suddenly, sharp sounds could be heard coming from off in the distance. This was not the sound of a funeral dirge, but rather, war bugles. The sound instantly lifted the spirits of the Spider Branch Cultivators. Their will to fight suddenly surged up again, and they lifted their heads to the sky and roared.

Even the Spider Branch Nascent Soul Elders up above could not conceal their excitement. The two Elders next to Zhao Youlan heaved sighs of relief. Only Zhao Youlan seemed taciturn as she looked up at the sky.

Off in the distance could be seen a black streak that looked like seawaters as it whistled through the sky toward them. Up above, seemingly standing within the black seawaters, was an enormous red scorpion, emitting a shocking cry.

“The Scorpion Branch!” cried the High Priest, who was currently locked in battle with the Crow Soldier Tribe Greatfather. When the Greatfather saw what was happening, his pupils constricted and he gasped. His expression was now filled with profound grief. If it weren’t for the Exotic Heartdevil Flower, the Five Tribes might have been powerful enough to hold out through this war. But, now….

In mid-air, the members of the Five Tribes ceased their pursuit and began to group together. Their faces filled with madness as they look off into the distance at the approaching scorpion!

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This chapter was sponsored by Juho Parikka and Nitish Markandeye