The second day.
Shen Can got up and habitually cleaned the Ancestral Temple, had breakfast, and then headed to the Witch Hall to check on his disciples.
Inside the Witch Hall.
A few disciples looked dispirited, yawning one after another.
"Master."
Seeing Shen Can enter, everyone greeted him, and those who were chatting quietly fell silent.
A few people looked towards Huo Chong.
Huo Chong approached Shen Can, "Master, my fellow disciples and I have been dreaming these days of a dark shadow wanting to help us become true witches."
"Hmm."
Hearing this, Shen Can was immediately displeased.
No wonder things were off; turns out the trouble was coming for his disciples.
"When did this start?"
"Master, it started for me five days ago."
"For me, it was four days ago."
The disciples began sharing their dream experiences, each on different days.
"Why didn’t you mention it earlier?"
Faced with Shen Can’s question, nobody dared to raise their heads.
At first, they didn’t take it seriously; it was natural for witch apprentices to dream of becoming real witches.
After having similar dreams repeatedly, they began talking among themselves.
Through their conversations, they realized they were all having the same dreams.
Shen Can calculated, realizing the first dream occurred the day he broke through the Celestial Vein.
Yesterday, he didn’t cultivate; he spent the whole day reading classics, hoping to find traces of the Sacrificial Artifact in the texts from the Xiaoyang Witch Pouch.
Spending the whole day reading relaxed him.
The dreams might be linked to this relaxation; otherwise, his powerful Divine Sense could not be affected.
"Don’t work today, go home and rest."
Sending the disciples off to rest, Shen Can had already formed a judgment about the situation.
Damn it, the Blood Witch had brought trouble all the way to the Blazing Flame.
The targeting was remarkably precise, aimed specifically at witch apprentices.
Cheap trickery, the Blood Witch is known for this.
His disciples, with average talent, would inevitably get dragged into trouble unnoticed.
Should a blood witch appear in a tribe, it’s considered fortunate.
The Upper Lake Division is a living example, a thousand-mile-long dyke destroyed by an ant hole.
The critical moment was his breakthrough of the Celestial Vein, showing a total lack of respect.
At nightfall.
Outside the disciples’ quarters.
Shen Can sat grandly on a stone chair.
He intended to see who was tampering with his newly established Witchcraft Path.
Such deceitful methods were hard to detect; another tribe might not have survived unscathed.
When a revered witch of a tribe becomes a blood witch, the consequences are predictable.
The night was deep and dark.
In the Great Marsh.
The Tuo Lord’s head re-emerged, spitting out the Soul Sacrifice Nightmare Bead.
As the witchcraft incantation was recited, strands of black gas drifted with the wind, heading towards the Blazing Flame Race Territory.
"Do you want to become a true witch?"
The breeze stirred in the Great Marsh, waves lapping, and a crocodile head blended with the water, a pair of dark golden eyes watching the Blazing Flame Race Territory.
It was now the sixth day.
Soon, very soon.
As long as they waver, they will fall.
It bet that this small tribe, under its inducement, wouldn’t last ten days.
Such a tiny tribe couldn’t escape its grasp.
This was the Wilderness of Yongyi; there wouldn’t be any pesky busybodies meddling, would there?
The Tuo Lord kept spewing blood energy into the bead, merging the released black gas with the night.
...
"So it’s this thing!"
Three miles from the clan land, in the water, Shen Can saw the crocodile spitting out the black bead.
Transformed into the Kui Ox form, Shen Can doubled his perception in the water, finally catching this trickster.
The crocodile looked familiar, like the one outside the Upper Lake Division.
However, the one outside Upper Lake Division was a Crocodile Man, a Blood Witch.
And this one seemed more like a pure beast.
"Splash!"
With a thought, the turbulent water suddenly surged, and a towering water dragon rose tens of feet high, crashing down towards the crocodile.
"Lingyu Water Control Technique!"
At the moment the water dragon rose, the Tuo Lord sensed the disturbance; it was also an expert in water magic, unable to ignore the water’s fluctuation.
But its reaction was too slow.
The water dragon fell from high above, crashing down like a mighty river onto the Tuo Lord’s back, forcing it to roll away, with waves splashing around.
"Oh no... it’s you Lingyu Bo Division again!"
The Tuo Lord roared in anger, with a tone of helplessness.
It still bore Witch Nails given by the Lingyu Tribe.
It was just a Tier Three Tuo Dragon; even if it was a Blood Witch Sacrificial Master, couldn’t they let it go after so many years?
"Damn Lingyu, when will it end!"
As the Tuo Lord cried out, a large foot covered in Kui Patterns and scales emerged from the water, kicking the Tuo Lord.
Boom!
Golden light burst from the Tuo Lord’s body; the gathered water tide was dispersed by this kick, leaving a deep footprint on its back.
"It’s not Lingyu!"
After taking a kick, the Tuo Lord reacted with a howl.
"A rival!"
Both had scales; it was obvious someone wanted to snatch its desired fief.
This made it even angrier.
Now even a lowly Tuo was subjected to such disrespect?
The Tuo Lord fiercely swung its long snout, churning up waves that formed a ten-zhang long super-crocodile in the water, attacking Shen Can.
"Go!"
In the water, a dark radiance emerged, and a Witch Nail pierced through the head of the water-formed crocodile, shattering it into countless cracks.
Taking advantage, Shen Can approached the Tuo Lord again.
His Kui Ox transformed form certainly couldn’t compare to a real Kui Ox, but purely in terms of physique, it emanated the spirit of a Kui Ox.
The scale armor born from his blood energy emitted a dark violet hue; though not single-footed, stepping through the water brought forth a sound like thunder.