Book 4: Near Blood - 165: Uhayan Pool
“Impatience is the biggest barrier to success.” Bayan’s assistant, a warrior named Kaska that had high-tier Totemic Inscriptions, cautioned him. “Please be patient and wait. Astin will let us know soon enough.”
“I hate waiting!” Bayan howled with dissatisfaction.
Even Kaska sighed. Bayan was just too impulsive and reckless. He was indeed extremely powerful, but his temperament made it impossible for him to become the new chieftain. Case in point - Danba had used his impulsive tendency to defeat him early on in their conflict.
Hopefully, this mission wouldn’t also be ruined by his impulsiveness.
Kaska was very clear that Danba disliked Bayan. The sole reason he had kept Bayan by his side was because he needed the strength and support of the Head Chieftain.
In other words, this was a political compromise.
For this reason, Kaska believed that Danba wouldn’t kill Bayan. If Bayan died, Danba wouldn’t get anything out of it.
But for some unknown reason, Kaska’s subconscious was sending him uneasy signals.
Was the situation really that simple?
Given how intelligent Danba was, did Kaska really believe that he had a solid grasp of the situation?
What if Danba had an even deeper plan?
This idea suddenly sprouted in Kaska’s mind.
Unfortunately, the Ferocious Race weren’t particularly great thinkers, and all this thinking was making him uncomfortable.
Ahh, just forget about it. Why think so much? As long as he took care of his own business, that was good enough.
Kaska tried to ease his suspicions with these thoughts as he gave up on that nearly miraculous analysis of his.
This was the Ferocious Race; they might have moments of intelligence, but they were far and few between, not to mention that it was impossible for them to last long.
Their wait only continued.
It had to be said that the Ferocious Race’s ability to sense Origin Energy was simply too shoddy.
Even though Bayan and his subordinates were hidden quite a ways away, the powerful Origin Energy fluctuations coming from there should have been sensed by any normal Light Shaking Realm cultivator a long time ago.
However, to the Ferocious Race, their garbage ability to sense Origin Energy made it so that they were completely unaware of the ongoing battle, even if this group had three Temple Warriors.
That was, until a fiery arrow shot high into the sky.
“It’s here!”
Bayan was obviously incredibly excited now that the long-awaited signal had finally come.
“CHARGE!” he turned around and howled at the other Ferocious Race soldiers.
Five hundred of his most trusted subordinates howled in response and fearlessly charged towards the swamp.
They hadn’t hidden themselves close to the swamp, but they weren’t very far either. Given the Ferocious Race’s incredibly powerful physical bodies, they quickly reached the marshes. However, they found that the ambush location was completely deserted. There was nothing there.
“What’s going on?” Bayan’s eyes were about to fall out of their sockets. “Where are Shi Mingfeng and Astin?”
All of the Ferocious Race soldiers glanced at each other. They weren’t sure what was going on either.
“Look, over there!” a Ferocious Race soldier suddenly yelled out loudly.
Everyone glanced in the direction that the Ferocious Race soldier had pointed in and saw Shi Mingfeng standing there.
He stared at them, his gaze filled with anger.
“Astin!” He grimaced. Up to then, he had been hoping Su Chen and his suspicions were wrong, but upon seeing the Ferocious Race soldiers, his heart was filled with anger.
“Human!” Bayan licked his lips. “It seems like you guys are prepared.”
“Better prepared than you could ever have imagined,” Shi Mingfeng replied.
He raised his hand slightly, and Bayan watched as the swampy ground before him suddenly began to bubble.
Foul-smelling black mud began to rise to the surface of the swamp, as if something beneath the surface was moving.
“What is this?” Bayan asked, stunned.
Kaska retreated a few steps. “We should back up a little bit.”
He didn’t know what it was, but if the human was prepared for them, then whatever was about to happen next would probably not be good for them. Kaska at the very least understood this principle.
He wanted to pull Bayan aside, but Bayan’s curiosity kept his feet rooted to the ground.
He replied, “I don’t sense any kind of powerful aura.”
As the son of the Gravel Lizard Tribe’s Head Chieftain, Bayan had a finely honed combat intuition regardless of his stupidity. This was one of the reasons he had been able to survive this long even though he was dumb.
“I don’t sense any powerful auras either, but I still feel like we’re better off getting out of the swamp as soon as we can,” Kaska said anxiously.
“You mean a few sentences from those guys are enough to scare you off?” Bayan smiled ferociously. “I came here to kill Su Chen. No matter what, I cannot retreat before I see this main character for myself.”
This was the crux of the issue. Even though Shi Mingfeng had proclaimed that he was well-prepared, Bayan didn’t retreat. Who knew if the opponent was merely trying to pull the wool over his eyes? Before personally experiencing how terrible the situation was, it was impossible for him to retreat.
When he saw this, even Shi Mingfeng couldn’t help but sigh with amazement at Su Chen’s calculations.
His words were absolutely correct. The Ferocious Race were still the Ferocious Race; even if they knew they were running headfirst into a trap, they would still do so valiantly.
The swamp continued to bubble as more and more mud floated to the surface. This process wasn’t very long, but it wasn’t short either. It was more than enough time for an alert person to escape, but it wasn’t fast enough to scare off someone itching for a fight.
“Capture him!” Bayan yelled as he pointed at Shi Mingfeng.
“ROAR!” All of the Ferocious Race warriors howled in response as they charged at Shi Mingfeng.
As he watched the wave of Ferocious Race individuals charging in his direction, Shi Mingfeng muttered, “Everything is going exactly according to Su Chen’s plan.”
Flying axes began to shoot past Shi Mingfeng, interrupting his train of thought.
Shi Mingfeng, however, didn’t seem to react. The mud in the swamp began to bubble even more fiercely before it rapidly built up to form a wall that stopped all of the flying axes in place.
It didn’t stop there, as the bubbling of the swamp only grew more vigorous. A moment later, columns of mud shot into the sky with a loud “BOOM” sound, scattering mud everywhere.
This mud didn’t seem like anything to the Ferocious Race, but an excited expression appeared on Shi Mingfeng’s face. “Indeed, this is actually the Uhayan Pool! It’s the Uhayan Pool! Hahahaha, I never expected to see something incredible like this here!!! Many thanks, Su Chen!”
As he spoke, the mud in the Uhayan Pool began to take form, turning into a massive mud colossus.
“ROAR!” With a loud howl, the colossus charged towards the Ferocious Race soldiers and unleashed a vicious punch.
A violent wave of energy burst forth, and a rapid flow of fierce energy washed over the Ferocious Race soldiers, sending many of them flying. The ten or so at the very front immediately died of shattered bones and crushed organs.
“Uhayan Pool!” Kaska yelled in shock.
“What is that?” Bayan still hadn’t reacted yet, and he turned around to ask Kaska.
Kaska yelled loudly, “Quickly, leave this place!”
Bayan still wanted to say something, but at that moment, he suddenly felt that something was off.
He turned around and saw that Shi Mingfeng’s body was beginning to grow larger, and his strength dramatically increased as he quickly broke through the limitations formerly limiting him.
In that instant, Bayan felt like he wasn’t facing a Light Shaking Realm cultivator but rather a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator.
“Damn!” Bayan yelled.