Chapter 2826 – Sudden Change
Translator: Silavin & Danny
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
When Yang Kai woke up, he was no longer in the Tree Cave, but in the wilderness.
Pain lingered in his head and when Yang Kai recalled what happened earlier, he felt his heart palpitate.
Although he just became a Shaman Master and could finally use his Divine Sense, his strength was far beyond that of a Shaman Master. Given that Senior Qing could cause him to faint with just a tap of a finger by sending something to his Soul, it must have been a truly massive amount of information that was beyond his ability to currently bear.
There was no time for Yang Kai to examine carefully what information Senior Qing had passed though as, when he looked around, he was met with a pair of clear, bright eyes.
After being stunned for a short while, only then did Yang Kai question, “Why are you here?”
The petite young girl shrugged her shoulders, and replied, “Grandpa Qing asked me to explore the outside world with you. He said I’ve always lived in Frost and Snow City, and I was too unfamiliar with the outside world.”
“Is this the ‘favor’ he wanted to ‘entrust’ to me…?” Yang Kai touched his chin as he mumbled to himself.
Previously, Senior Qing remarked that he needed a small favor from him, and also mentioned that he wanted to entrust something to him. Looking at the current situation, it seemed that Senior Qing wanted to entrust Tiea to him. Sixteen years ago, Tiea was abandoned beneath the Evergreen Divine Tree, and Senior Qing was the one who raised her. However, Tiea and Senior Qing were different in the end. Tiea could not just stay in the Frost and Snow City forever, but her identity was too sensitive, so she would be an easy target if she were to travel alone.
Nevertheless, it would be different if Yang Kai took care of her.
Before he passed out, he seemed to recall Senior Qing mentioning Tiea…
After clearing his thoughts, Yang Kai also felt relieved.
Tiea was a Shaman Grandmaster, and she should be no worse than himself in terms of strength and ability so he did not need to really take care of her. The reason Senior Qing wanted her to travel with him was probably just to let her gain some experience.
“Where are we?” Yang Kai got up and looked around with a puzzled face.
Tiea answered, “Grandpa sent us out using his Soul Clone. We are now five hundred kilometres east of Frost and Snow City.” While speaking, Tiea also pointed to the side.
Yang Kai turned to look and saw an Evergreen Tree as tall as a man standing on the roadside, exuding an aura the same source as Qing’s.
Yang Kai raised his eyebrows and examined the Evergreen Tree with interest.
Tiea continued, “You don’t have to worry. The people in Frost and Snow Clan have no idea that you’ve left. They most likely still think that you are in your Tree Cave.”
“Senior Qing is impressive.” Yang Kai praised.
Tiea smiled lightly, “It’s Grandpa Qing after all!”
Her admiration towards Senior Qing was obvious from her words. Turning to Yang Kai, she asked, “Where do we go now?”
“Let me see…” While speaking, Yang Kai took out the map that was given to him by the Village Chief, and after searching for a while, he found his current location and gained his bearings.
When he left the village in the winter, he promised the Village Chief that he would return when spring came.
Now that spring was near, and his goal of travelling for cultivation had been achieved, it was time to head back. Blue South Village was a remote and untraversed place, which was a great location to cultivate in retreat. It would not be too late to explore the world when he regained his peak strength one day.
“Can you fly?” Yang Kai put away the map and glanced at Tiea.
Tiea chuckled before she chanted a spell and a pair of vibrant wings sprouted from her back. It was as though she had transformed into a beautiful butterfly, dancing and fluttering around gracefully.
Yang Kai retracted the amazement in his eyes before leading the way with a flicker.
This was Tiea’s first time leaving Frost and Snow City and she had always been very curious about the outside world, so her beautiful eyes constantly darted from left to right while a jubilant look filled her face, as if everything in the world piqued her interest.
However, she did not disturb Yang Kai and instead just enjoyed the scenery along the way on her own, exclaiming in amazement from time to time.
On the other hand, Yang Kai was digesting the information given to him by Senior Qing while travelling.
Initially, he thought that it would only be a profound Secret Art, but the more he read it, the more shocked he became because the information was not as simple as just a single Secret Art, but rather a tremendous amount of information that seemed to include the essence of Senior Qing’s entire life.
Although Senior Qing was a Monster Tree and had been guarding Frost and Snow City all year round, never leaving his current home, his life span was thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years, so during the passage of that much time, even the seas had shifted and the mountains had transformed, but Senior Qing remained unchanged.
He had seen all kinds of people, experienced the changing of eras, and watched the development of whole epochs from beginning to end.
His knowledge was wide and profound, essentially the epitome of the whole Ancient Time.
The information that he infused into Yang Kai was all his knowledge and experience. The most important message was not Secret Arts and Shamanic Spells, but the essence that he achieved from his endless life.
But… why?
Yang Kai was not convinced that he deserved such a precious gift from Senior Qing for just doing him a small favour.
Even a Great Emperor would be moved to receive such a gift, because it was greatly beneficial to one’s future cultivation. As long as this knowledge could be fully absorbed by him, Yang Kai’s future cultivation path would be smooth.
Yang Kai was sure that this must be the greatest benefit he received from this trip into this Sealed World. There was nothing else that could compare to it.
Thanks to the Village Chief’s efforts to teach him, Yang Kai was familiar with these Ancient Characters. Otherwise, he may not be able to absorb this knowledge at all. He silently rejoiced in his luck. It was indeed true that having an old man in the family was as good as having a treasure. If the Village Chief had not insisted before, perhaps Yang Kai would not have studied the Ancient Characters.
Yang Kai was so immersed in comprehending the knowledge along his journey that he did not even notice the passage of time. He just wanted to quickly find a place to completely absorb the knowledge given by Senior Qing in retreat.
However, no matter how long a journey was, there would always be an end. Furthermore, he was only returning to Blue South Village. Back then, it took him a longer time to travel because he was not strong enough to fly. Nevertheless, now that he could fly all the way back, he almost reached his destination in five days.
Yang Kai returned to his senses and he could not help feeling some joy in returning to his hometown, which he secretly found funny too.
On the other hand, Tiea seemed to be a little nervous, “Will the people in your village hate me and chase me away? Should I disguise myself?”
Since they were so far away from the Evergreen Divine Tree, they could not make use of Senior Qing’s blessings. Thus, Tiea could not always appear as a burly man; however, as a Shaman Grandmaster, it was not difficult to master a disguise technique. With her cultivation, once the Shamanic Spell was applied, no one in the village would notice anything off about her.
She chattered endlessly, like an ugly daughter-in-law who was about to see her father and mother-in-law, causing Yang Kai to laugh lightly, but just as he was about to answer, he suddenly frowned and looked forward.
The next moment, Yang Kai’s face changed and he accelerated rapidly, leaving Tiea behind.
“Hey…” Tiea shouted in annoyance as she had no idea what was going on, but she soon realized that something was wrong, because there was smoke rising everywhere from a village not far ahead.
How could there be so much smoke when it was not the time to make a fire to cook?
Frowning, Tiea felt an ominous premonition in her heart and sped forward to catch up without another word.
Soon, Yang Kai and Tiea landed in the village. Tiea looked around, and sighed.
The village had clearly been attacked. There were ruins everywhere and the ground was painted a dark red colour. Given the state of the dried blood, the incident should have happened a few days ago.
Such weak villagers were easy targets. Many villages were destroyed like this every year among the whole Barbarian Race.
Tiea sighed, “This wasn’t done by wild animals, this is done by people.”
Although she did not investigate thoroughly, it was obvious as there were no footprints of beasts on the ground and no signs of half-eaten corpses. Therefore, this couldn’t have been done by wild animals.
“And the battle ended pretty fast. Either there was a large number of attackers, or the attackers were extremely powerful… It’s more likely to be the latter.”
Even though Tiea had scant life experience, as a member of a Nomad Clan in the Ancient Barbarian Race, tracking and evasion were her instinctive abilities. As such, she could see a lot of information from what remained in the village.
“Does your village have any enemies?” Tiea asked.
Yang Kai shook his head and spread his Divine Sense wildly around like a tide.
Tiea’s eyes were filled with shock when she sensed the power of Yang Kai’s Divine Sense.
His Divine Sense actually seemed to be much stronger than hers.
Shortly, the light in Yang Kai’s eyes turned solemn as he darted towards a certain direction.
Tiea did not know what he was going to do, but she still kept up with him.
Not long after, they came to a stack of firewood. Yang Kai stretched out his hand to remove the firewood one by one and found a hole covered by a wooden board. After removing the wooden board, several frightened and pale faces were exposed underneath.
They were all children, about seven to eight of them, the eldest only ten years old while the youngest was no more than four or five.
After seeing Yang Kai’s face, the eldest Barbarian kid revealed a pleasantly surprised look and cried out, “Brother Ah Niu!”
“Come out first!” Yang Kai reached out his hand to him and the eldest child nodded before lifting the others out one by one towards Yang Kai.
It did not take long to rescue all of the kids out of the hole, but because they were frightened and had not been eaten for a long time, they all looked quite unwell.
“What happened? Who attacked the village?” Yang Kai asked while looking at the eldest child.
“The Village Chief said that they are from the Bone Devouring Clan.” The Barbarian kid bit his lips, shaking uncontrollably as he recalled the scene a few days ago.
“What!? The Bone Devouring Clan?” Yang Kai’s face changed drastically.
Tiea’s expression turned solemn in an instant too.
Each Clan of the Barbarian Race had different characteristics because of their different living environments and Secret Arts. For example, the clansmen from the Raging Flame Clan were aggressive in fights, while the clansmen from Wood Spirit Clan preferred flexible methods.
As for the Bone Devouring Clan, they were well recognized as the bloodiest and most ferocious clansmen.
No other Clan could compete with them for this title, because their clansmen would even butcher members of the Ancient Barbarian Race as food to fill their stomachs.
In other words, they were a cannibal Clan! When they lacked food, they would even kill each other to feed their own clansmen, so nothing needed to be said about how they treated outsiders.