Chapter 26 – The Legend of the Fire-Mán!
(TL By: PiggyBottle and 生豆)
That lady was Bai Ling. Shaken to her core, she watched the tribe’s Mán-patriarch conduct the ritual. The faces of surrounding tribesmen were as pale as her, wearing a look of horror.
“The blood moon once every three years… It should occur only after all the snow of WuShan melts… By then, there will be sufficient wild beasts for the sacrifice, and we can avoid disaster… But now, it’s been brought forward by so much… This…” Bai Ling bit her lips. As she looked at her surroundings, she felt even more frightened.
The present Su Ming was within the volcanic cave, focused on refining medicine. He was soaked in sweat, he narrowed eyes fixated on the stone cauldron, observing and adjusting the intensity of the flames.
Not long after, a humming sound was heard in the cauldron. Smiling bitterly, Su Ming wiped his sweat. He knew he failed yet again.
“This Mountain Spirit Pill sure is much harder to make than the Enlightening Pill…” Su Ming shook his head. Opening the cauldron, a green smoke wafted out, carrying a spicy sensation.
With a sigh, just when he was about to continue, he suddenly felt his blood qi begin to roil out of control. While furrowing his brows he checked at his surroundings, but was nothing unusual.
“Strange…” Su Ming shook his head. Pausing for a moment to think before resuming his refinement.
Presently, on another part of the of WuShan, the scene within the HeiShan Tribe was totally differed from that in WuShan Tribe and WuLong Tribe. In the HeiShan Tribe, although a large crowd was gathered as well, their sights were set upon the sky, and the terrified look on their faces revealed a hint of bloodl.u.s.t.
Howling sounds sounded from their mouths, not only Mán-cultivators, but also their ordinary tribesmen. The howlings slowly converged, becoming a resounding chorus.
At the center of the crowd, was a small hill made of numerous red rocks. Above it, a gaunt old man in black robes stood. His gaze was sinister, and staring at the blood mean, a cruel smile crept on his face.
“In primordial times, there exists the tribe of Fire-Mán in this vast land. This tribe had astonishing powers, controlling the flames of heaven and earth. In their anger, they can scorch the world and turn the tides! They were renowned, and even they do no longer exist in this age, they are still feared. They were one of the eight great Mán Tribes of their time!” The gaunt elder spoke with a hoa.r.s.e as though to himself, yet seemed to be declaring this to the world.
“However, the tribe sought to obtain the instruments of heaven, and was punished by the Mán-G.o.d. After nine days, nine hours and nine breaths, the entire tribe of the Fire-Mán, save its Man-cultivators, had their bodies burned, their souls scattered.
However, the Fire-Mán was strong. Even after the crisis, its Mán-cultivators survived, and betrayed the Mán-G.o.d to replace him. When the Man G.o.d sought to punish them by annihilating their entire tribe with a divine ability, the Fire-Mán-patriarch challenged the Man G.o.d!
The battle shook the heavens, and even though the Fire-Mán-patriarch died, before his death he casted a spell even the Mán-G.o.d feared, to grant the surviving Fire-Mán-cultivators immortality!” The gaunt elder had a crazed look in his eyes, raising his right arm, black qi immediately encircled his five fingers, and took the shape of malicious ghost.
“Unfortunately, he made a mistake. Even though he gave immortality to the Fire-Mán, the Mán-G.o.d utilised the technique of Ten Thousand Ancient Creations to rob the bodies of the Fire-Mán, who then became the Nightwings of the Moon!
Thus they were cursed to avoid the day forever, and lost their sanity, becoming Nightwings that only l.u.s.ted for blood! Their vengeance and hatred, their anger and sadness took form, and once every three years dyed the moon red. Under the blood moon, they regain their freedom!
Today, I Bi Tu, Mán-patriarch if the HeiShan Tribe, will aid you!” The gaunt elder laughed darkly. Biting his tongue, he spat a mouthful of blood. Suddenly, the pile of countless blood red stone exploded under his feet, and flew into the air.
The HeiShan Mán-patriarch Bi Tu floated in midair. Extending his arms, his expression was one of craze and excitement.
The countless red stones rotated rapidly in mid-air, forming a gigantic totem that was round in shape. In its middle was a crescent, which was entirely red.
“Nightwings, awaken! Bring forth the end of your slumber, come out!” Bi Tu spat another mouthful of blood which turned into a fine mist, melding into the gigantic image. A booming noise sounded and suddenly, the whole formation exploded, becoming a red mist that expanded into its surroundings.
At this instant, the entire WuShan region shook. The quaking was visible as the lands and mountains swayed. Within WuShan Tribe, a commotion ensued. The same occurred in WuLong Tribe.
Su Ming who was presently in the cave on Black Flame Peak clearly felt the entire mountain shudder. Blood drained from his face, and he could faintly hear a howling sound coming from the depths of the cave. Shocked, he immediately abandoned the refining process and retreated out of the cave. He almost let out a yell of surprise when he saw the blood moon in the sky.
“Blood Moon!” Su Ming’s face immediately paled.
At the same time, a thick stench of blood emanated from Black Flame Peak. Su Ming did not hesitate. He understood the meaning of the blood moon’s appearance, he had even tried to previously calculate its occurrence.
Little did he expect, that the blood moon was brought forward!
He hurriedly turned back, diving back into the hole he came from. He knew that if he remained outside there was nowhere he could hide, and there was definitely no chance he would make it back to the tribe in time. Inside, he panickedly took out the bone axe and ran towards a corner of the cave slashing at the wall. The howling from inside the cave became louder and louder along with the other strange faint sounds coming with it.
Su Ming was rather familiar with this place, he managed to dig a hole with the sharp bone axe quickly. Hiding inside there, he used the stones he dug up to cover up the entrance ignoring the warm stuffy feeling in the hole.
As he dug out this hole, a red blur cloud rushed into the cave from outside filling it up. The sound of hissing clearly heard by Su Ming.
Outside, under the crimson glow of the blood moon, the five peaks of the Black Mountain each seemed like an erupting volcano, with a huge roar, large amounts of rest mist erupted forth.
This fog originally resided within the five Black Mountain peaks, while spewing forth it had covered the skies in an instant. The fog at the peak of the Black Dragon Mountain had burst forth from every single crack in the mountain, of which many were located at where Su Ming used to obtain the Black Dragon Saliva. If Su Ming could carefully observe, he would notice that over the years of being chased by the Black Dragons, the places where they refused to chase into were precisely the places where the most amount of the red mist burst forth.
The current state of the other peaks were the same, especially the Black Flame mountain which had even more shocking amounts of red mist erupting from it. Whats more, inside this fog came a strange hissing noise along with the sounds of huge flapping wings, together they became the sounds of death everyone feared!
A red shadow came out along with the red mist spewing out, slowly covering the skies these red shapes each had a pair of wings and crimson red eyes. Although only about the size of a palm, they had human faces and six limbs, each revealing the look of a crazed, bloodthirsty-looking beast.
They were the Nightwings!
Densely packed, their overwhelming numbers blotted out the skies. They had numbered no less than ten thousand as they covered the earth, following the sharp cry, they had rushed towards the HeiShan Tribe, WuShan Tribe, WuLong tribe and all the other existences within the wilderness.
They had no consciousness, filled only with resentment and extreme bloodthirst, they only knew how to brutally kill and devour fresh blood. Especially the blood of the Mán-cultivators which only further stimulated their insanity, such that they would ignore the wild beasts and directly rush towards the Mán-tribes. Within the WuShan tribe, the terrified scream of the tribesman could be heard echoing, the pale-faced Chen Xin could do no more than clutch tightly onto Bei Ling who was similarly pale.
Lei Chen who was in the distance, went to look for Su Ming immediately, only to find him missing from the tribe. Although he was worried for Su Ming, his fear of the terror in the sky eclipsed his worry.
The normal tribesman were routed by the Mán-pract.i.tioners inside the tribe, eventually everyone in the tribe was gathered, resting their gaze on the burning platform, together they lifted their heads gazing at the figure in the sky.
Grandpa’s face was deathly pale, only under the bath of crimson light the others could not tell. In the distance he could see the red mist approaching alongside the faint roar of madness.
“How could this be… … not only has it been brought forward, the numbers have also increased so much…… in the previous years there had only been several thousands of them… …” Letting out a breath, he shouted without hesitation.
“The normal tribesman are to hide immediately, the Mán-pract.i.tioners listen up, take out all the animals we have in storage, slash them up and await my further instructions!” Grandpa’s body trembling slightly, lowering his head, he took one more look at his tribesman once more before closing his eyes.
The same scene also happened in the WuLong Tribe, Bai Ling could see all the tribesman around fearfully listening to Grandpa’s orders, the fear in her eyes gradually deepening as well.
She could never forget the day nine years ago, when she was still a little girl, she with her own eyes saw her friend seized by the NightWings. The cries of anguish of her friend had been deeply engraved into her memories, after being dragged into the Black Mountain all that awaited him was a slow painful death.
The blood moon looming in the sky behind the blood-red mist, however inside the mist were the red shadows zipping about, gradually approaching. The large numbers of Nightwings have divided into three main groups each heading to one of the three tribes.
In the WuShan tribe, Grandpa stared at the skies, when the NightWings arrived, he waved the bone he held in his right hand and the flames beneath hims suddenly erupted, covering the whole tribe. However, this flame was strange, it had not burnt down a single thatched hut, rather, it seemed illusory as it enveloped the tribe.
“Throw the meat!!” Grandpa growled, immediately the Mán-pract.i.tioners in the tribe frightfully threw the fresh meats they had into the skies with all their strength one-by-one.