The Flames of War

The Bloody Totem Province bordered five other provinces; the old Earth Cry Province, the Fallen Cloud Province, the Golden Bull Province, the Blazing Forest Province and the Dark Marsh Province.

After processing his gains from his conquest against the Earth Cry Province and allowing the unrest to settle down, Yaan immediately set out, moving towards the other four provinces.

Once he had a total of six provinces under his command, with five of those provinces protecting the core Bloody Totem Province from outside forces, his foundation in this world would be secure enough that he could begin cultivating properly.

Yaan had a high degree of confidence that he would be able to reach the Peak Vital Qi Core Realm after annexing these provinces and plundering their riches. Many of these tribes had existed for far too long, they had accumulated a vast sum of wealth, there were also many hidden treasures that would shock others if they were revealed.

Once he reached the peak of the realm, Yaan had already decided that he would enter secluded cultivation, silently meditating and attempting to perceive the boundary to the Vital Qi Spirit Realm. He would need a long, uninterrupted period of time if he wanted to form his Spirit Soul. As for what he would do after that…he would need to figure something else out, but that was a job for the future.

The flames of war marched on.

The battles against the Fallen Cloud Tribe and the Golden Bull Tribe, the leaders of the Fallen Cloud Province and Golden Bull Province respectfully, were far less spectacular. These tribes each ruled their own province just like the Earth Cry Tribe, but unlike the Earth Cry Tribe, they possessed no 6-Star Realm warrior to contend against Yaan.

The Fallen Cloud Province was large, but sparsely populated. The fertility of the land was uneven, so there were many uninhabited regions, but other places flaunted an extremely high population density. The Fallen Cloud Tribe held a very loose control over the tribes in the province, and their power was not overly impressive, having just a single Late 5-Star Realm Warrior and two other 5-Star Realm warriors. This province fell into Yaan's hands with very little resistance.

Against the ever-growing alliance army, they did not even have the will to fight back.

The Golden Bull Province was the smallest of the provinces, but the Golden Bull Tribe was actually stronger than the Fallen Cloud Tribe. This tribe was ruled by an old monster with Peak 5-Star Realm cultivation, and the tribe's fighting spirit was truly monstrous. In fact, they actually learned of the Bloody Totem alliance army's movements before the army reached their province. They were prepared and fought back with their own army…

But they were defeated too easily under Yaan's might. In fact, they actually made things easier for him by gathering all of the powerhouses in the province together like this. Yaan slaughtered the strongest warrior in the province in a single move, hoping that it would crush their fighting spirit. Unfortunately, these crazy people only fought more maniacally after this, resulting in their further losses.

It was a shame that he was forced to kill multiple 5-Star Realm warriors whom could have become capable subordinates, but this was simply the way of war. The mindset of the people was different in each province, resulting in very different responses towards the alliance army's conquest.

The fight against the remaining two provinces was quite different. The Blazing Forest Province and the Dark Marsh Province had no rulers, meaning that the people were far from united.

The Blazing Forest Province was a large forest which seemed to attract endless heat from the sun year round. Because of this, forest fires were a daily occurrence. In fact, around one tenth of this forest was usually ablaze at any one time!

The tribes within the Blazing Forest Province had learned to live with this harsh environment, constantly travelling, always moving away from the fires in search of safer places. Due to this lifestyle, there were frequent battles over territories, resulting in deep rooted enmity between the various tribes, an enmity which would not be extinguished overnight.

The stronger tribes attempted to bring the province together in order to form an alliance army of their own, but they failed miserably. At the alliance's very first meeting, two tribes immediately broke out into an all out battle, triggering the bloodlust and anger of the other tribes, resulting in a massive war which led to huge casualties on all sides!

By the time Yaan arrived, the province had practically defeated itself.

The final target was the Dark Marsh Province. The tribes in this province did not even attempt to unite, they knew that such a thing was impossible.

The entire Dark Marsh Province was wet and dark, it was a grim place to live, and the few tribes that did live here abided by firm isolationist policies. They didn't communicate with one another, in fact, the meetings between the tribes in this province were limited to the few small scale skirmishes that took place now and again.

Such people were unable to join together. As such, when Yaan arrived in this province, some tribes took the initiative to greet him directly. These were the few that were aware of his ongoing conquest…the rest remained in the dark.

Those ignorant tribesmen soon found out about the alliance army's overwhelming might when Yaan came knocking on their front doors with his army in tow. One by one, these tribes were toppled. Some went down fighting, others submitted relatively early on.

Multiple tribes were almost completely annihilated, refusing to submit even in the face of a much greater power. This was true for every province, but it was more so the case for the Blazing Forest and Dark Marsh Provinces, which had grown accustomed to their freedom.

In the face of absolute power, most people would choose to lower their heads, even if they were normally courageous. But, there really were some crazy people out there, willing to fight to the death in a hopeless situation.

The majority of people were more reasonable though, they valued their lives and did not want to die such a pitiful, avoidable death. Because of this, Yaan gained a huge number of subordinates, from mortals through to Peak 5-Star Realm warriors.

Yaan did not immediately enter secluded cultivation, but monitored the situation within the new, expanded Bloody Totem Province. He did this by remaining in contact with various trusted subordinates - mostly Ga Shu and the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader.

Soon after the war against the five provinces, the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader underwent the ascension to the 5-Star Realm. She had rapidly improved her strength, rising from the Late 4-Star Realm to the Peak 4-Star Realm by using the recently looted resources. Yaan gave her whatever she needed to reach the 5-Star Realm, and as he expected, she succeeded in the ascension.

Rather than trusting his strongest subordinates with the most important jobs, Yaan was more inclined towards focussing on those he could control, no matter their current strength. So long as they could be controlled, and so long as they possessed sufficient talent and determination, he was willing to invest in their cultivation.

The Bloody Totem Tribe Leader had invested her all into Yaan, placing the hope of her tribe's future on his shoulders. She was a woman with grand ambitions, and by now, she could not back out of this arrangement. Her success was tied to Yaan's success, making her easy to control according to his will.

Ga Shu was another example of someone he could control, only Ga Shu was perhaps an even more valuable asset. Ga Shu was an Aztec with Peak 5-Star Realm cultivation, he was a person with power at the peak of the Foundation Step world! Not only that, but due to his wife's precarious condition, he could not leave the Greenwood Tribe, meaning that he could only agree to do as Yaan commanded.

Adding on to this the fact that Yaan was even providing Ga Shu with some rare medicines that he had obtained during the conquests, Ga Shu's loyalty was already very deep. Yaan could tell that even if these medicines were able to awaken his wife, removing Yaan's hold over him, Ga Shu would continue to serve him loyally…

No, Yaan had the feeling that if he could truly awaken the sleeping beauty, then Ga Shu's loyalty…would become one that would never falter.

Currently, Yaan had returned to the Earth Cry Tribe. The core region of the tribe was quite badly damaged during his battle against their 6-Star Realm ancestor, but over the past few months, it had mostly recovered from this collateral damage.

Yaan slowly walked across the grassy gardens surrounding the tribe's central hall. Ga Shu accompanied him, silently trailing a few feet behind, watching him with some interest.

The chaos created during the conquest of the five provinces had now mostly settled down, giving Yaan the chance to investigate something that he found intriguing. He noticed this odd phenomena when he first stepped foot into this tribe, but at that time, he did not have the luxury to investigate closely.

The Earth Cry Tribe was named as such due to the faint sound of crying which could be heard from below the ground. It sounded like the cry of an injured beast, but strangely, it was impossible to locate the specific point of origin of this sound. Even when he tried to investigate, Yaan still felt as if this noise was emanating from every spec of earth within the tribe.

He naturally asked the tribe's elders about this strange noise, but they were all just as clueless as him. All they knew was that the earth within their tribe had an extremely high fertility for unknown reasons.

Across the Blood Plane, the earth was filled with a power known as 'Spiritual Power', similar to the Spiritual Energy found in the atmosphere on the Qi Plane. Usually, lands with rich fertility became this way thanks to higher levels of Spiritual Power within the earth, but this was not the case for the Earth Cry Tribe. The Spiritual Power beneath Yaan's feet could only be considered ordinary, and yet, this earth was anything but ordinary…

The Earth Cry Tribe actually possessed 47 different elixir trees! This was a huge number for a tribe to possess, most other Rank 5 tribes only possessed half of this number. Elixir trees could not be moved easily, and they were extremely difficult to grow. They needed to be grown in optimal environments, which was why most tribes had so few of them.

If Yaan could learn the reason behind this land's rich fertility, he could potentially increase the fertility in all of the tribe's under his command! He had some time now, there was nothing immediately pressing to attend to, so he wanted to take this opportunity to invest in his future, before he entered secluded cultivation.

Unfortunately, nothing ever seemed to go smoothly in Yaan's life. Just a few days after he began his investigation, he was visited by someone conducting their own investigation.

His actions had finally been noticed. After killing a 6-Star Realm powerhouse, Yaan expected that he would draw some attention, but he still did not feel good when he realised that he had caught the attention of the Lunar Song Tribe, the ruler of the Kingdom of Lunar Song…

Once again, Yaan found himself face to face with an immortal.