The Grave and the Ambush

The child stared with trembling fear at the youth seated atop the blackjaguar before him. In his young eyes, this youth was a truly important figure—someone so mighty that the entire tribe was afraid of him.

“Qingshi.” The youth dismounted from the blackjaguar, walked directly over, and took the child’s hand.

“Come with me. To your sister’s grave. We’ll pay our respects.” Ji Ning held Qingshi’s small hand. The boy was too stunned to resist, and Blacktooth and the other tribesmen naturally dared not speak up.

And so they walked through the tribe, arriving at the large burial ground behind the settlement.

Once more, they stood before that grave.

“Chuncao, I’ve come.” Ji Ning had prepared some offerings, purchased when he passed through a tribe along the way. He carefully placed them before the grave, speaking softly. “Jiang He of the Riverside Tribe is dead. The Winged Serpent of Winged Serpent Lake is dead too. All your enemies are dead.”

Blacktooth and the others started in shock. The Winged Serpent great demon was dead too?

“Qingshi should be your only remaining brother.” Ji Ning pulled the dazed boy forward. “I swear before your grave that I will raise Qingshi well!”

The child Qingshi was still confused, but his father Blacktooth was overjoyed. “Thank you, young master!” Blacktooth himself was merely the chieftain of a small tribe; what kind of future could he give his son? But if this noble young master of the Ji Clan was willing to help, his son’s prospects would be utterly different.

“As long as you don’t object.” Ji Ning glanced at Blacktooth. “I’ll be living at Winged Serpent Lake for some time. If you want to see your son, come find me there.”

“Yes,” Blacktooth said respectfully.

“Qingshi, kowtow to your sister.” Ji Ning looked at the boy beside him.

“Mm.” The child knelt and knocked his head three times against the ground.

Ji Ning waved his hand. “All of you, withdraw.”

“Yes, young master.” Even Qiuye retreated with the others, and Blacktooth led Qingshi away as well. Only Ji Ning remained, alone in this desolate, silent graveyard.

“Just the two of us now.” Ji Ning took out a bamboo tube and drank wine. “Your young master will talk with you a while longer today. It may be a long time before I can visit again.”

…

Ji Ning sat before the grave, drinking fruit wine and talking to Chuncao. Half an hour slipped by.

“Hm?” Ji Ning’s brow furrowed. As a Fiendgod-level being, his senses were extremely sharp. He could easily detect the faint tremors in the earth. “Several thousand soldiers… about twenty li away. Several thousand soldiers gathered twenty li from here? Could a tribe be attacking Blacktooth?”

Tribes warred against each other all the time. The Ji Clan generally turned a blind eye.

“Blacktooth was a traveling merchant, a man of many connections,” Ji Ning mused. “Since founding this tribe, no one has attacked him. Why would a tribe come now, and with several thousand soldiers?”

“I’d better take a look.” Ji Ning rose.

Whether for Chuncao’s sake or Qingshi’s, he couldn’t stand by.

The Ji Clan turned a blind eye to such matters, but if he personally intervened, the subordinate tribes would naturally obey.

Ji Ning walked through the tribe toward the main gate.

“Young master.” Mo Wu and Qiuye hurried after him.

“Young master.” Blacktooth followed with some of his men. Ji Ning barked, “There are several thousand soldiers advancing about twenty li from here. Two to three thousand, I think. Your Blacktooth Tribe should prepare immediately.”

Blacktooth was startled. “Two or three thousand soldiers? Impossible! A tribe that can mobilize that many soldiers has to be huge. Such a tribe wouldn’t bother with us. Our Blacktooth Tribe has barely a thousand men, women, and children in total. We’re not worth such a deployment!”

“I say it is, so it is.” Ji Ning shot him a glance and said no more.

“Yes.” Blacktooth dared not argue. He shouted, “Quick, quick! Enemy attack! Assemble!”

“Oooom…” The low sound of a war horn soon echoed through the entire tribe. Every able-bodied man, and even the elderly and women, grabbed swords, spears, and knives. The children hid themselves.

…

Ji Ning stood at the main gate, gazing into the distance. The entire Blacktooth Tribe gripped their weapons and held their breath, watching the distant forest.

Gradually…

They could sense the footsteps. After all, two or three thousand soldiers marching couldn’t move silently. This only deepened Blacktooth’s shock—Ji Ning had estimated the distance and numbers long before anyone else could sense them.

“So many.”

“So many soldiers.”

The Blacktooth tribesmen were stunned. From the distant forest, figures poured out like a tide. The leading ranks were all clad in armor. The steel flood surged forward, chilling the Blacktooth tribesmen’s hearts.

“Halt!” A single command. The three thousand soldiers gathered half a li from the Blacktooth Tribe’s main gate.

“Blacktooth Tribe, listen up!” A burly, bald man at the front of the formation bellowed. “We are the Blazingwing Tribe! Open your gates and surrender, and you may live. Resist, and we will kill every last one of you who fights back. The rest will be sold as slaves!”

His voice echoed through the air.

Panic seized the Blacktooth Tribe.

“What do we do?”

“So many soldiers. Thousands.”

“It’s over.”

“Isn’t the young master of the Ji Clan here with us?” The Blacktooth side had lost all morale. The tribe was newly founded, formed from refugees who had fled here, with little loyalty. They had fewer than five hundred able-bodied warriors, while the enemy had three thousand!

Once fighting began, they would be crushed immediately.

“Honored warriors of the Blazingwing Tribe.” Blacktooth stepped forward and called out, “May I ask why you have come to my Blacktooth Tribe? Whatever your demands, I will do my utmost to satisfy them.”

“Enough nonsense!” The bald man at the front roared. “Surrender, or fight!”

Ji Ning frowned and glanced at Mo Wu. Mo Wu nodded, stepped forward, and shouted, “Our young master, Ji Ning, is here! The leader of the Blazingwing Tribe, come forth and pay your respects!”

…

“Come forth and pay respects!” “Come forth and pay respects!” “Come forth and pay respects!”

The echoes rolled through the mountains, causing commotion in the Blazingwing ranks.

In the center of the formation, a cluster of mounted leaders.

“Young master Ji Ning?”

“The Ji Ning from the Riverside Tribe?”

“Who else would dare demand our leader come pay respects?” The Blazingwing high command was shocked. Blazingwing was a large tribe of over twenty thousand, but it had no Xiantian cultivator among its ranks, so it had reached its expansion limit and dared not grow further. Compared to the Riverside Tribe, it was clearly inferior.

The Riverside Tribe wasn’t far away. News of the events there had spread over the past month. The Blazingwing high command knew all about Ji Ning.

“Chieftain.”

“Chieftain.” They all looked at the black-bearded man in front.

A young man with loose hair beside the black-bearded man said in a low voice, “Just a Ji Clan disciple. Tribal warfare is none of his concern. Attack.”

“Attack!” The black-bearded man shouted.

“What?”

“What? Attack?”

“Chieftain!”

The high command was dumbfounded. They couldn’t believe their chieftain, usually so shrewd, would be so foolish. The chieftain should know very well what the name ‘Ji Ning’ meant. If it were an ordinary Ji Clan member, that would be one thing, but this was the Ji Ning who had made even the Riverside Tribe bow its head!

“Kill!” The three thousand warriors were ordinary tribesmen. They didn’t know the meaning of the name ‘Ji Ning’. Hearing their chieftain’s order, they roared and charged forward.

“Kill!”

“Charge!”

Like a steel flood, the armored front ranks led the way, followed by those in animal hides. The ground trembled, and the sky itself seemed to darken. The Blacktooth tribesmen were stunned. Some shouted, “Surrender! We surrender!” “It’s over.” “Run for your lives!”

…

At the main gate, Ji Ning watched the dark tide rushing toward him. He was puzzled. “My name should be known to any decent-sized tribe by now. Especially after what happened at the Riverside Tribe, news should have spread across all of Ji Clan territory. Why did that black-bearded chieftain still order an attack?”

Ji Ning wondered.

The Blacktooth Tribe was small, with little wealth. Mobilizing three thousand soldiers to attack it was strange in itself. And even after learning his name, they still attacked—even stranger.

But the Blazingwing Tribe had ignored his name. For the sake of the Ji Clan’s prestige, he had to act. And there was Chuncao and Qingshi to consider.

“Hmph.”

Ji Ning leaped from the main gate, soaring through the air like a great bird. As he leapt, roaring torrents of water appeared around him, surging like a burst dam. The endless waves rolled forward, crashing into the three thousand soldiers.

“Waves!”

“Where did all this water come from?”

“A Xiantian cultivator! A Xiantian cultivator!” The three thousand soldiers panicked. Their morale shattered. They all knew that controlling water, fire, or poison was the power of Xiantian great demons or cultivators. A Xiantian being could slaughter three thousand men with ease.

Indeed, Ji Ning did not wish to slaughter. He only used the water to knock them over. If he had chosen to freeze them or burn them alive, the outcome would have been very different.

“Whoosh!” Ji Ning himself shot half a li in a single bound, landing directly beside the black-bearded man. He grabbed the man by the throat.