First War on the Blood Plane

Yaan stared down at the Aztecs' recovering Rising Sun Tribe silently. This tribe had suffered from the all-out surprise attack of the Bloody Totem Tribe one year earlier. Although the surviving tribesmen hated the Bloody Totem Tribe to death, they were forced to swallow their grievances for now, focussing on the restoration of their tribe.

It had only been one year since then, but the tribe had recovered by an impressive degree. They lost millions of tribesmen in that dreadful battle, reducing their numbers by almost 30%. In any society, a sudden 30% decline in population would have a huge impact on the day to day functionings of nearly everything, but the Aztec leaders were able to bring the people together, working towards the restoration of their homeland.

Their efforts were extremely impressive, and by now, no remaining damage nor signs of battle could be seen. Of course, there was still much hidden damage lingering across their society, but nothing that could be seen at a glance.

"Their effort is impressive, but in the end, futile." Yaan spoke calmly, before glancing back at the various 4-Star Realm warriors behind him.

The tribe leader stood closest to him, whilst the five great elders of the tribe, the five Peak 4-Star Realm warriors, looked towards him apprehensively.

The previous day, when the tribe leader visited them one by one, informing them that this 'child' had not only been accepted into the tribe, but that he would be in charge of all offensive war affairs from now on, they were naturally shocked and unwilling to accept it. They thought that the young tribe leader had gone insane…until Yaan revealed his power.

All it took was two words for them to fall into line.

"Follow me." He had said.

He didn't say anything special, but his words contained ripples of dao. Not only that, but his aura shot up to a terrifying height in an instant, before vanishing, as if it had never existed in the first place.

Yaan was simply too far beyond these 4-Star Realm cultivators. Even though his cultivation level was also Rank 4, he cultivated the Four Paths Cultivation Technique, so his strength was far beyond just this.

But most importantly, Yaan had achieved immortal stage dao comprehension in the dao of illusions. Even though he was yet to master the pseudo-domain, and had only managed to manifest it previously after pushing himself to the brink of collapse, his level of dao comprehension alone was now enough to heavily suppress most Foundation Step cultivators!

The five great elders could not even estimate his cultivation level, but they knew right away that they were not his match. They were unable to resist this child, and they could not even use the war flower law to threaten him…because he had already been accepted into the tribe by the tribe leader!

The war flower law protected all tribes from rogue individuals, but tribes were not protected from their own tribesmen! In fact, the war flower law did not deal with a tribe's internal matters at all.

As such, it did not matter that Yaan had only just made his first public appearance in the Bloody Totem Tribe, it didn't matter that the other tribe elders all felt wary and uncertain towards him. He was officially a member of the tribe; this had been publicly acknowledged by the tribe leader, so now, Yaan could even massacre the entire Bloody Totem Tribe if he felt like it.

But he would not do that. He had decided to make use of the Bloody Totem Tribe as his tool of war.

Even though he was strong, Yaan was only a single person. Since he had decided to attack the Rising Sun Tribe, slaughtering their powerful cultivators to further his own cultivation, he needed these other people to deal with the clean up.

Actually, the Rising Sun Tribe's higher ups were too weak to be of much use to Yaan's cultivation, but their tribe still possessed elixirs that were useful for him. Aside from that, he was already thinking long term…

Since he had joined the Bloody Totem Tribe, Yaan intended to elevate this tribe into a larger, more dominant force. The Rising Sun Tribe was his first stepping stone on the way towards this goal.

Unhurriedly, Yaan raised one hand into the sky. As he dropped his hand, he uttered a single word.

"Go."

It was somewhat lacklustre for a battle cry, but then again, Yaan was not particularly trying to raise his side's morale, nor did he care about improving their confidence in his success.

To Yaan, this could not even be considered a battle; it was simply cultivation.

Whoosh!

As his arm dropped down, Yaan's aura suddenly exploded outwards. This aura was terrifying, and yet, it was completely impossible to discern his cultivation level from it.

This was the terror of an illusion dao expert!

Whether or not the magnitude of this aura was real or false was unknown. In fact, it was as if Yaan could manipulate what was real and what was false to his own desire, turning illusion into reality!

The Bloody Totem Tribe Elders grit their teeth, but they still charged forth, not daring to linger when Yaan had already issued the command.

It wasn't just the five great elders who had experienced Yaan's overbearing presence; every 4-Star Realm Realm warrior in the tribe, meaning every single tribe elder, had also met this unusual robed child. One half of those elders stayed back at the tribe to defend their homeland, but the other half joined Yaan today in launching an attack against the Rising Sun Tribe!

After rushing past him, they couldn't help but glance back, wondering what his plan was in dealing with the Rising Sun Tribe's protection formation.

Their assault one year ago might have seemed abrupt, but it came about after decades of researching the Rising Sun Tribe's protection formation in secret! Because of this period of patient study, they were able to sneak past the formation without the Aztecs being alerted.

But since then, the formation had been repaired and altered, they could no longer use the same method as in the past!

So, how would they get past this formation? Naturally, as they approached the tribe's perimeter, the warriors slowed down and glanced back at Yaan…only to find that he was no longer there.

BOOM!

Suddenly, everyone's heads whipped back towards the front. Their eyes widened as they stared at the unbelievable scene before them.

The formation…had been broken through by sheer force!

Yaan stood there with a sword in hand calmly. The sword that he used to create this destruction was the abyssal blood sword.

If it were before, he would not dare to reveal this sword to the outside world. It was clearly a treasure beyond the Foundation Step, and if an immortal were to catch wind of Yaan possessing such a thing, he would be targeted immediately.

But he now had assurance that this would not happen. With his immortal stage illusion dao comprehension, Yaan was able to hide the sword's aura from those around him.

He could not actually conceal the sword's aura perfectly, but he could suppress the aura whilst distorting everyone's perception of the blade. This made it such that, whilst demonic looking, the sword did not appear to be too shocking in the eyes of everyone in the area.

And as for how Yaan broke through the formation…

Firstly, he was basically an expert when it came to analysing formations now. He was able to quickly deduce one of the weak points in this formation, so he simply targeted this point and created an opening.

Secondly…Yaan was strong.

His Vital Qi Core Realm cultivation, which vastly surpassed any normal Rank 4 cultivation and could match Rank 5 battle strength on its own…

The abyssal blood sword, a shocking treasure which Yaan still did not fully understand…

His dao of illusion comprehension…in the end, this was still the greatest factor contributing to his absurd improvement in strength.

Yaan didn't use any special techniques. Aside from his own self-created sword art, he actually possessed very few techniques which were specifically designed to be used with the dao of illusions anyway. No, rather than using a technique, all he did was use his dao comprehension to amplify the power of his attack…

He created the illusion of strength, then turned this illusion into reality.

After ripping open a hole in the tribe-protecting formation, Yaan stepped into the Rising Sun Tribe, whilst the Bloody Totem Tribe Elders followed dazedly behind him.

Honestly, he could have snuck everyone in through the front entrance gate, disguising them as members of the Aztec Tribe. In the end though, he was making his first public appearance on the Blood Plane, and he intended to establish himself thoroughly.

Yaan did not conceal his aura as he returned to the Rising Sun Tribe, but instead spread out his killing intent openly and challengingly, intending to make his presence known for all to see.

On his side, only the 4-Star Realm warriors of the tribe had come, meaning that their numbers were not even in the triple digits. As for the Rising Sun Tribe, despite their previous losses, they still had over 20 million members!

But what could those people do?

3-Star Realm and below body temperers couldn't even fly! Only those who had developed their Vital Core were able to fly.

Vital treasures were not as impressive as the spiritual treasures used by Qi refiners - flying type vital treasures were too rare, they would not be wasted on weaker warriors.

This meant that in the end, this battle would be determined entirely by the 4-Star Realm warriors!

Or rather, this battle was determined entirely by Yaan.

"Bloody Totem Tribe!" A tremendous roar echoed out from below, before a 15 foot tall Aztec man rushed out from underneath an alter, followed by two other equally enraged Aztecs.

"You dare return after what you did last time?! Prepare to die!"

"Bastards! Hmm…who is this fragile looking child?"

Yaan did not bother to respond as the Aztecs continued to rush towards him from all around the tribe. They had been made aware of his presence by now, but they only realised the terror of the monster they were facing once it was already too late.

They rushed over here with such ferocity, but when they came to face Yaan, not one person dared to make the first move.

The courageous Aztecs…were scared?!

Seeing this, the Bloody Totem Tribe Elders were tongue tied.

Yaan waited for more Aztecs to appear. They were stationed all over the tribe after all, it would take them some time to travel the dozens of miles to reach him.

Time passed by in a very strange manner. The Aztec powerhouses all charged towards their assailants with intense rage in their hearts, but as soon as they arrived, they became silent and didn't take another step forwards, as if they were too afraid to either speak or move…

When he finally felt like enough people were present, Yaan raised the abyssal blood sword above his head, then without a word, slashed down.

BANG!

With the first move, the Aztec Tribe leader and three other Aztec Elders were killed. Their bodies exploded into a wave of blood, coating the other Aztec tribesmen and leaving them paralysed with fear.