Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1608 - The Santi Tribe
Chapter 1608 – The Santi Tribe
With time running out, the four left the campsite at once and headed for their assigned patrol zone.
Nanmen Shan held the highest cultivation, so the group naturally followed him as their squad leader.
“Your job is to patrol. If you run into people from the Santi Tribe, blow this immediately,” the man responsible for handing out assignments said as he placed a strange flute into each of their hands. Once the flute sounded, the note would carry over an astonishing distance, and the campsite would receive the warning immediately.
“Deacon, what if we run into danger outside?” someone from another squad asked.
Liu Wuxie’s group stopped on the spot. They wanted that answer just as much as anyone else.
Serene Peace Star was a primitive planet packed with hazards, so danger naturally lurked everywhere. It didn’t resemble those massive planets crowded with humans, where trouble rarely surfaced under normal circumstances.
“We’ve cleared out the surrounding astral beasts. Aside from the Santi Tribe, there is rarely any danger around,” the deacon replied using a couple of curt sentences.
Even so, Liu Wuxie caught a faint evasiveness in the deacon’s tone, as though he hid far more than he admitted. Years had passed since the last large transfer to this planet, and disciples rarely returned, which made the truth obvious. Those missing disciples had died on the Serene Peace Star.
Once they stepped outside the campsite, the squads fanned out in different directions.
Nanmen Shan led them through the barren mountain range. Heat radiated from the rocks underfoot, and it was scorching enough to make each step feel heavy. Without reaching the Primal Origin Realm, they couldn’t fly, so aside from Nanmen Shan, the other three had no choice but to move on foot.
“I think the deacon is hiding something from us,” Sun Yizhou said after they put distance between themselves and the camp.
“I think so too,” Liao Yongming agreed immediately. Liu Wuxie had barely spoken from the start.
“I suspect there are other dangers on this planet aside from the Santi Tribe,” Nanmen Shan said with a deep frown. He felt the deacon had stayed silent because he feared they would lose their composure.
“What should we do then?” Sun Yizhou asked. He had the least courage among them, and his eyes kept darting around as if death might lunge from the shadows at any moment. He didn’t want to die on the Serene Peace Star.
The sect had promised enormous rewards if they completed Serene Peace Star’s assignment within the required timeframe. Those rewards could push them straight into the Primal Origin Realm, and that promise drew disciples here in wave after wave.
“What’s there to fear? If it’s truly something dangerous, shouldn’t we avoid it?” Nanmen Shan snorted with disdain. They could always run if danger appeared, and they could blow the flute the instant they encountered the Santi Tribe. With that decided, they continued forward.
“Meng An, why aren’t you saying anything?” Sun Yizhou asked as he walked alongside Liu Wuxie. He had noticed how Meng An stayed unusually quiet along the way.
“I suspect that the Santi Tribe attacked our campsite because we’re mining the astral crystals. With the palace lord’s intelligence, it’s impossible for him not to know the devastating impact on the Santi Tribe if we hollowed out the Serene Peace Star. Yet, he still chose to provoke them deliberately,” Liu Wuxie said after a brief pause.
The moment those words left him, Sun Yizhou froze, and Nanmen Shan and Liao Yongming stiffened as well. All three turned to stare at Liu Wuxie as if he had just pulled a blade in the dark.
“Meng An, you’re trying to say that there’s something else that we didn’t know about?” Nanmen Shan asked, shock flashing in his eyes. He couldn’t believe they hadn’t considered it sooner.
The Immortal Slaughter Palace rarely acted like this, killing the goose that laid the golden egg and starting a war over astral crystals.
Most major sects negotiated with the local race before mining a world, and serious conflicts like this remained rare. The Heavenly Dragon Sect and the Grand Unity Sect both controlled countless planets with many local races living on them, yet they coexist peacefully after reaching an agreement.
“It’s just a wild speculation, and maybe the Santi Tribe simply hates humans,” Liu Wuxie said with a dry chuckle, even as he wanted to dig deeper into the matter.
He didn’t know the true feud between the Santi Tribe and the Immortal Slaughter Palace, and he didn’t dare claim certainty. He decided to wait until Tian Can arrived before he investigated further.
No matter what the truth was, Liu Wuxie still had to destroy the veins on the Serene Peace Star. If he crippled the veins here, he believed he could land a massive blow on the Immortal Slaughter Palace.
They fell into silence again, and six hours passed before they finally reached their assigned patrol zone. The conditions improved slightly here, with the heat easing off, and sparse vegetation clung to distant rocks.
“There’s a stream here,” Liao Yongming said, pointing ahead at a narrow ribbon of water. The environment looked decent, where they could rest.
Nanmen Shan studied the surroundings for a moment before he narrowed his eyes. “Someone’s been here before,” he said, then added, “Stay sharp!”
Each squad had to patrol for five days, then return to the camp to rest while another squad took their place.
“Let’s go take a look over there,” Liu Wuxie said, pointing ahead. A massive stone rose in the distance, and its summit would give them a much wider view. He needed to understand Serene Peace Star’s situation as quickly as possible because the feud between the Santi Tribe and the Immortal Slaughter Palace clearly ran deeper than simple mining rights, and something else hid beneath the surface.
He might even use the Santi Tribe to strike the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s campsite. A bold, reckless plan began to take shape in Liu Wuxie’s mind, and he couldn’t afford to waste time while the cracks on the Heavenly Dao Book continued to widen.
He had nearly convinced himself that someone inside the Immortal Slaughter Palace had discovered his existence and had already begun to sever his heavenly dao. That meant he had to reach the Immortal Realm as soon as possible to perfect his heavenly dao.
Right now, his greatest obstacle was finding a way to contact the Santi Tribe and earn their trust. Nanmen Shan and the others at his side, he couldn’t split off freely, and he also couldn’t simply kill them without causing trouble he couldn’t explain. Experts in the camp would inevitably suspect him.
Even so, he didn’t fear them. He felt confident that even experts at the Quasi-Immortal Realm couldn’t keep him trapped. But once his cover broke, his entire plan would collapse.
Nanmen Shan and the others didn’t stop him as he used his movement technique to reach the massive boulder quickly. He activated Ghost Pupil and pulled the surrounding landscape into his vision.
Serene Peace Star proved far more complicated than he had expected. His brows locked together the moment he caught sight of a terrifying astral beast flashing past in the distance, and that astral beast looked far larger than the skeleton he had seen back in the camp.
“Meng An, what did you see?” Sun Yizhou asked.
“Nothing much. Just endless strange rocks,” Liu Wuxie replied as he leapt down from the boulder and withdrew Ghost Pupil.
Ghost Pupil could reach far, capturing everything within a radius of tens of millions of meters. He hadn’t sensed much danger on the ground, nor had he spotted any astral beasts nearby, which only deepened the mystery of how the patrolling disciples had vanished.
Night settled, and they built a bonfire. They took turns to keep watch while others rested.
Liu Wuxie volunteered for the first watch and let the other three sleep. Once darkness fully fell, countless strange lights appeared across the mountain range, hovering like ghost flames in the air.
He reached out and caught one, only to realize it wasn’t an insect at all, but a leaf burning on its own. Trees still dotted the mountain range, and at night, their fallen leaves ignited the moment they touched the ground.
The phenomenon felt undeniably strange, and Liu Wuxie didn’t take it too seriously at first. Yet as time passed, the burning leaves multiplied, and they lit the night sky more and more.
Nanmen Shan and the other three slept like dead logs.
Liu Wuxie walked farther out, then returned to the same boulder and activated Ghost Pupil again to stare into the distance.
Fireballs rose into the far-off sky. The leaves hadn’t ignited by themselves. Someone had burned something in the distance, and the wind carried the burning leaves across the mountain range.
“The Santi Tribe,” Liu Wuxie murmured. He felt certain the large bonfire belonged to the Santi Tribe. He dropped from the boulder, glanced at the three men sleeping like dead logs, and casually waved his hand, pressing them into a deeper sleep.
With Liu Wuxie now at the ninth-level Earth Immortal Realm, his might could decide exactly when they would wake up.
He pulled out several array flags and planted them around the area to prevent intrusion. The concealing spiritual array would hide them even if someone passed close by.
After finishing his preparations, Liu Wuxie used his movement technique and shot out like a meteor, vanishing into the mountain range as he set out to scout the Santi Tribe at night.
Tian Can would arrive on the Serene Peace Star soon. With the means of a quasi-immortal, crossing an astral domain wouldn’t take long.
Liu Wuxie streaked through the mountain range like thunder, crossed tens of millions of meters in only fifteen minutes, and then sensed a familiar aura along the way.
“Greetings, Master!” Tian Can said as he landed in front of Liu Wuxie.
“Is everything handled?” Liu Wuxie asked. Tian Can had escorted a large group to the Thousand Islands Sea Region, costing him time.
“Everything is handled. The Nalan Clan sent people to the Thousand Islands Sea Region to seize Peach Blossom Island, but they have all been wiped out,” Tian Can said, reporting everything to Liu Wuxie.
After Liu Wuxie left the Thousand Islands Sea Region, the Nalan Clan had grown restless and dispatched a large force to seize Peach Blossom Island. Tian Can had appeared out of nowhere, and killed every last expert the Nalan Clan had sent.
That slaughter had finally forced the Nalan Clan into obedience. They pieced everything together and concluded that Liu Wuxie had left a quasi-immortal behind in the Thousand Islands Sea Region, which meant they no longer dared to venture deeper.
“You stay inside the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron while I head to the Santi Tribe,” Liu Wuxie said. Bringing Tian Can along would only complicate things, because Tian Can’s Quasi-Immortal Realm cultivation would inevitably alert the Santi Tribe if he approached openly.
He could keep Tian Can inside the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and bring him out only when the situation required it.
After Tian Can vanished into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, Liu Wuxie continued, and fifteen minutes later, a massive tribe came into view. Yet calling it a tribe almost felt wrong, because it resembled an entire race gathered into one sprawling settlement.
The Santi Tribe’s settlement covered a massive area, and unlike the Giant Clan, they looked nothing like humans and still moved on all fours to this very day.
The settlement stretched across millions of square meters, and Santi Tribe members filled it. Beyond this, more Santi Tribes likely existed elsewhere, making this only one branch among many.
Large Giant Archaic Rats surrounded the tribe as they fed on strange plants. Peculiar trees with triangular leaves stood planted all around the settlement, and those trees mainly existed to feed the Giant Archaic Rats.
