Chapter: Chapter 443
*Gulp Gulp Gulp*…
Yellow flames licked the transparent, small test tube, heating the liquid within to boiling point. A girl with black hair stood beside the test tube, holding a wooden board and diligently recording the experimental results.
Beside her, a girl with white dog ears sat on a wooden stool, looking flustered. Her hands were clenched tightly around her knees, her face etched with anxiety.
Seeing the black-haired girl’s focused demeanor, she opened her mouth as if to speak, but hesitated, intimidated by the eerily quiet atmosphere in the room.
After a long while, the black-haired girl waved her hand, extinguishing the flame suspended in mid-air. She then removed the test tube from the rack and placed it into another wooden box. Having finished, she turned to the restless, dog-eared girl. “What is it, Yin Ya? Did you need something?”
“Um, there’s still no news on Gang Gu and the others who were captured. The envoys sent by other tribes to negotiate with Gang Qiang Tribe haven’t returned with any messages either…” Yin Ya said quickly, seizing the opportunity to speak.
Her childhood friend’s whereabouts were unknown, and many of her tribesmen had been captured along with her friend. How could Yin Ya not be anxious?
Five or six days had passed since Gang Qiang Tribe had made their move to capture people. Yin Ya already had a bad feeling, believing her friend might no longer be alive.
“Oh, that matter.” Lycidia’s eyelids twitched. She had no impression of that beastman and naturally wouldn’t pay much attention to it.
Whatever schemes Gang Qiang Tribe was up to was Linglong’s problem to worry about. She, Lycidia, only needed to focus on understanding the effects of the golden divine blood she held.
It was rather unfair for her, the Empress of the Demon Race, to get involved in the internal conflicts of the beastmen race, wasn’t it?
Providing Linglong with some behind-the-scenes help was already good enough. Directly assaulting Gang Qiang Tribe’s stronghold to rescue a beastman she was completely unfamiliar with? Lycidia wasn’t a saint; what was the point of doing such things?
She might as well spend that time thoroughly researching the golden divine blood.
“Birth, aging, sickness, and death are unavoidable. Just consider him to have been bitten to death during a hunt,” the Demon King’s daughter said unceremoniously.
“Is there really no hope?”
“Five days have passed, and the war between Bone Wing and Gang Qiang has reached its peak. The news I’ve received is that Gang Qiang Tribe has gone mad… Your tribesmen, to put it bluntly, might have already died on the battlefield as cannon fodder.”
As she spoke, Lycidia pointed to the wooden box containing vials of golden liquid. “Do you see these things? Drinking these can greatly enhance a beastman’s strength in a short period, but the price is that the beastman’s vitality will be directly overdrafted, and they might not even live to see the end of the battle.”
“Those tribesmen were likely captured by Gang Qiang Tribe to be used as consumables.”
Then why do you have these liquids in your hand? Yin Ya was confused. Was Lycidia in league with Gang Qiang Tribe? Or did she snatch them from Gang Qiang Tribe?
Sensing the doubt in Yin Ya’s eyes, Lycidia cleared her throat twice, interrupting Yin Ya’s wandering thoughts. “I accepted a commission from Bone Wing Tribe to find a safe way to utilize this golden liquid. If I succeed, this golden liquid will truly become a powerful, usable potion.”
Bone Wing Tribe? When did Lycidia connect with Bone Wing Tribe? Yin Ya, who had been worried about her tribesmen, stared at Lycidia blankly. It felt as if she had only been offline for a few days, and things had already changed so drastically!
She was finding it hard to keep up!
“Bone Wing Tribe? But we have conflicts with them…” Yin Ya gestured wildly, and it was clear that her thoughts were a little chaotic at the moment.
Reaching out to pat Yin Ya’s dog head, Lycidia gave a mysterious smile. “You have conflicts with them, but I have no conflicts with Bone Wing Tribe, you know.”
Moreover, Bone Wing Tribe didn’t even take Yin Ya’s tribe seriously. The perceived major conflicts that Yin Ya believed existed were just minor stratagems on Bone Wing’s side to conceal their strength.
When Linglong learned of those so-called conflicts, she awkwardly admitted that she had casually picked a nearby, weaker tribe, and it just happened to be Yin Ya’s tribe.
The image of weaklings fighting each other was something Bone Wing Tribe could create to lull Gang Qiang Tribe into a false sense of security while secretly developing their own strength.
The conflicts between the two tribes were so minor that no one had died. The most serious injury was a broken forehead from a stone, a minor wound that wouldn’t even be considered an injury among beastmen.
“Speaking of which, Yin Ya, what do you know about Bone Wing Tribe?”
“Weren’t we talking about our tribesmen!” Yin Ya retorted, somewhat annoyed.
“Didn’t we just finish discussing that?” Lycidia tilted her head. “There’s no saving them. You should burn some incense for them to have a good time down there, and pray they get reincarnated into a better life.”
“Isn’t that a bit too absolute? Maybe they’re not dead yet?”
“Young lady, the possibility is exceedingly low. Don’t you see that Gang Qiang Tribe has even started proactively attacking nearby small tribes to capture people? If they had enough manpower, would they need to do something like this?” Lycidia counted on her fingers, elaborating on Gang Qiang’s recent actions for Yin Ya. “Your tribesmen were the first to be captured. A few days ago, Bone Wing Tribe fought a major battle with Gang Qiang Tribe. I estimate that most of those first batch of people died in that battle.”
Because of that battle, the Gang Qiang Tribe’s army had a large number of beastman warriors who had consumed divine blood. Those warriors moved stiffly, their eyes vacant, and their individual combat capabilities were completely incomparable to the imposing beastmen from the beginning.
However, their excessive physical strength still troubled Linglong. In the end, they managed to break through Gang Qiang Tribe’s defensive line by dragging out the time until the divine blood’s effects wore off.
It was obvious that the beastman warriors who had consumed divine blood were in an abnormal state. After hearing Linglong’s description, Lycidia immediately concluded that those beastmen might have been brainwashed or mentally controlled, although the level of brainwashing and mental control was rather low, not as potent as Lycidia’s.
If Lycidia were to perform the action, not only would the combat power of those beastman warriors not decrease, but it would also increase significantly.
After all, Lycidia had a foundation in mental magic, and later obtained the divine seat of the God of Dreams. In the spiritual realm, she could be considered a grandmaster. Brainwashing these beastmen with extremely low mental defense was as easy as taking a stroll after a meal.
This was why she had suggested that to Linglong in the first place. For her, brainwashing some beastman warriors was at most a leisurely pastime.
“However, there is still a possibility of survival. The number of special beastman warriors appearing in that army is fewer than the beastmen who were captured. As for where the rest of those beastmen went, I don’t know,” Lycidia paused, then continued. “Of course, I think those poor souls might have been sold off as goods. Even if you knew their whereabouts, Yin Ya, you wouldn’t be able to retrieve them.”
When the dog-headed merchant was discussing the price of divine blood with Linglong earlier, he had explicitly offered to exchange the captured people for divine blood, even offering a discount if captured people were used for the exchange. It seemed like a deliberate attempt to guide Linglong to use captives in exchange for divine blood.
The beastmen had their own common currency, but there was rarely an opportunity to use it on the borders of the great plains. Everyone was more accustomed to bartering. Generally, slaves and food were two things that everyone liked.
But that dog-headed merchant clearly preferred slaves. A slave was worth several times more than food of equivalent price to him.
If it were the chieftain of another tribe, they might have decided to exchange them on impulse. After all, those captives were not citizens of their own tribe, and keeping them would waste food. Those fellows might also rebel, so it would be better to exchange them for divine blood potions.
However, Linglong did not think so. She rejected the proposal without even considering it. Perhaps she believed her charm could conquer these originally hostile beastman warriors.
Lycidia naturally agreed with Linglong’s idea. Her reasoning was even simpler: if these people desired slaves so much, then she absolutely would not let them have their way. Who knew what these fellows intended to do with such a large number of slaves?
With a brief thought, Lycidia could come up with no less than ten evil rituals that used life as a driving force.
Considering the forces behind those merchants and the divine blood they sold, Lycidia had good reason to suspect that these fellows intended to free the deity behind them.
Although she had seen the corpse of that large bird at the time and could confirm that the large bird was truly dead, who could guarantee that this fellow wouldn’t fake its death? Perhaps after swallowing a pile of beastmen, the large bird would revive.
In fact, Lycidia had considered causing some disruption and interfering with the merchants’ actions, but after much deliberation, she gave up the idea. She was here on vacation. She had been quite exhausted from scheming against deities in the past few days. Since the beastmen race was at a disadvantage this time, she decided not to get involved.
Whether the beastmen lived or died was none of her business. She had no enmity with that large bird, and it wouldn’t come looking for her first if it revived, would it?
With this thought in mind, Lycidia chose to “lie flat.” She stayed at home doing research. When she had time, she would visit Linglong to chat and hatch small schemes. Normally, she stayed at home to cultivate her relationship with Bai Ling, living a fulfilling life.
Fighting? Lycidia was a peace-loving girl who disliked bloodshed.
“This is the price of weakness. If you were stronger than Gang Qiang Tribe, you could have used force to snatch those tribesmen back in this situation,” Lycidia patted Yin Ya’s shoulder. She liked this dog-eared girl, so she was willing to spend some time guiding her.
“Weakness? Then how can I become strong?”
“To be frank, Yin Ya, your talent does not lie in combat. Your wisdom is your greatest weapon.” Lycidia said this, not wanting to deceive Yin Ya.
“Wisdom?”
“Yes, in many situations, having a sharp mind is true strength. Wisdom allows you to defeat enemies far stronger than you.” The Demon King’s daughter nodded and quietly drew some abstract patterns on the wooden board. “Your ancestors and mine were far weaker than those beasts, yet in the end, it was those ancestors who had the last laugh, wasn’t it?”
Yin Ya’s mouth opened, wanting to refute Lycidia, because according to beastmen legends, their ancestors were the sons of great gods and possessed unrivaled power.
But seeing Lycidia’s serious expression, Yin Ya wisely decided not to say anything, waiting for Lycidia to finish her long discourse. Her intuition told her that after this lengthy explanation, Lycidia would point out a direction for her, a direction that could allow her to seek revenge.
As expected, after a very long and elaborate explanation, Lycidia said to Yin Ya, “Would you like to be a minor advisor or something at Bone Wing? I’m somewhat familiar with the goddess of Bone Wing, and she has quite a good opinion of you.”
It was this direction of revenge that left Yin Ya completely baffled. To avenge Gang Qiang Tribe, she was to join Bone Wing Tribe, which originally had conflicts with her own tribe?
This was truly difficult for the simple-minded Yin Ya to accept.
In the thoughts of this classic beastman girl, conflict was conflict. The enemy of an enemy was not necessarily a friend. Cooperating with another enemy to avenge a grievance was completely unacceptable!
“But Bone Wing Tribe also injured people from our tribe!”
“Silly child, they were holding back. If they had truly dealt with you seriously, your small tribe would have been annexed long ago.” Lycidia patted Yin Ya’s head with a look of affection, as if patting her pet dog. “Besides, can’t you learn something from Bone Wing, then return to build your own Silver Fang Tribe, and finally accumulate strength to reverse the situation and defeat the current Bone Wing Tribe with the same methods?”
“Ah? That’s too…” Circles appeared in her eyes, and Yin Ya was already somewhat dizzy. What Lycidia said seemed to make some sense, but doing so was such a shameless act!
Stealing someone’s skills and then biting them back was something that only despicable scoundrels would do!
As a young generation of the beastman race bathed in the glory of the Great God, Yin Ya wholeheartedly resisted such behavior!
Seeing Yin Ya’s brain enter a frozen state, Lycidia touched her chin with a slightly bitter expression. She was beginning to doubt the old dog-headed man’s judgment of people. Could such a pure girl like Yin Ya truly lead the weak Silver Fang Tribe to survive in this cruel world?
It felt a little too difficult.
