Totem

Weylin didn’t bother giving Jiang Nan any time to bid farewell to his aunt. At 7:35 pm, he finished butchering the pig, and at 7:40 pm, he followed Eddy towards the farm gate.

Additionally, Weylin, Lola, three managers, as well as twenty overseers were set out along with them.

Originally, Eddy had only cared about squabbling with Weylin. Only when it was time to depart did he remember an extremely important matter: besides the Knife Work Feast, Suzanne Farm’s lord had also prepared a series of welcoming ceremonies for Yulianne. In order to unify all the divisions, she (the Lord) had requested of all the powers within Sun City to send out representatives to attend a meeting in Sun City’s ‘Elegant Forest Restaurant’.

At first, Weylin couldn’t be bothered to go meet Suzanne Farm’s lord and only planned on sending two managers for show. However, she hadn’t considered the possibility of Eddy suddenly remembering a matter of paramount importance when they were about to leave.

Eddy studied Jiang Nan’s two hands and thought in his heart, Hey, I’m so d.a.m.n confused. This fellow whose knife work is pretty good is only a slave? As long as he’s a slave… he can be bought and sold!
This fellow’s knife work is so good, why wouldn’t I buy him and make him into my culinary a.s.sistant?!

Thinking up until here, Eddy cordially said to Weylin, “Miss Weylin, I’m a rough person. Don’t *you mind those unpleasant words I said just before!” After apologizing, he spoke even more politely and pointed at Jiang Nan, saying: “How about *you sell this slave? I can see that he possesses quite a bit of culinary talent, and I’d like to buy him to become my a.s.sistant…”

In anyone’s perspective, Eddy’s words didn’t have any sort of issue. On the contrary, he had already accorded Weylin sufficient face. However, those polite words of his seemed to have irritated Weylin’s sorest spot, and rather ignited her bad temper as if lighting a barrel of gunpowder.

“You want to buy Rodi?! He’s not for sale! *I definitely won’t sell him! Even if you were to hand Suzanne Farms over to me, I still wouldn’t sell him!”

Saying this, Weylin took out her whip and fiercely said: “Eddy, you son of a b****, if you even think about touching Rodi, as a ‘primary rank 9th level Snow Swallow Totem Warrior’, I’ll duel with you!”

“You, you… to go this far! *I, *I just want to buy a single slave!”

Getting cursed at in such a manner, Eddy huffily pulled Jiang Nan onto the road.

As for Weylin, she planted her hands on her hips and abruptly said after pondering a bit: “Lola, gather my bags. This woman’s going to personally accompany Eddy to Sun City!”

Lola went blank, “Miss, it’s enough to just send two managers for this issue, *you don’t have to…”

Weylin’s gaze was firm, answering as though responding to Lola, yet also seeming as though explaining to herself, “Eddy, this dogsh** son of a b**** has already locked on to Rodi. If *I don’t go, then he can deceive Rodi to go with him at any time…. Rodi is mine, n.o.body should even think of taking him away! Lola, what are you s.p.a.cing out for? Hurry up and get my bags ready!”

On the other side, after Jiang Nan had seen Weylin’s odd display, he actually reacted with an even stranger response. He squatted underneath a large tree and incessantly knocked his head against it, “Calm down, for the sake of maintaining a model character, I must calm down…”

That same day, at three in the afternoon, a party of people entered Sun City.

And at this time, Jiang Nan had already found out about the past incident and realized how Suzanne Farms had oppressed his house’s young miss. However, as a slave, he didn’t have the least qualification to care about these upper level matters. His mind was still preoccupied with his aunt as well as the map of ‘Mt. Longinus’.

At this point in time, he could no longer ask his aunt about this issue. It was still better for him to take care of this map business…

On one hand, Jiang Nan contemplated in his mind, while on the other, he distractedly drooped his head towards the ground as he rushed to travel.

After the heavy snowfall, Sun City was entirely enveloped in sheet of silvery white. Various roads were all thickly covered with a slurry of muddy snow, making it hard to walk, and the store canopies facing towards the street all hung with icicles. Some door hinges had even frozen over with a layer of ice.

Roughly speaking, the current temperature was at least twenty degrees below zero!

But even in this vile weather, Sun City was still bustling with activity. Pedestrians walked up and down the streets ceaselessly, and every person was animated and excited as though a great festivity had occurred.

Lola looked on curiously and asked: “Miss, recently there’s been no sort of holidays. Why are the people in Sun City behaving as though there’s a festival going on?”

“En? What did you say?”

Weylin’s gaze had been lingering on Jiang Nan for the entire time, and she seemed as though she hadn’t heard Lola’s question. Instead, Eddy responded to Lola’s question from the side: “You guys don’t know? In order to welcome Yulianne, this year’s ‘Totem Arena’ has been scheduled earlier in advance.”

Totem Arena?!

The Jiang Nan who was already a Ghost Totem Warrior lifted his head, his consciousness tuning in when he heard these words.

Similar to the Olympics in the past world, on the Yuanzhi Continent, the ‘Totem Arena’ was a compet.i.tion that served as the main entertainment for the people of this world.

As its name implies, the ‘Totem’ arena was a dueling arena that only totem masters could partic.i.p.ate in.

The origin of the Totem Arena was already quite ancient: it was said that long ago, around a millennium past, a person by the name of ‘Tully’ was pa.s.sionately obsessed with fighting compet.i.tively with other people and *comparing notes. As such, he invested huge sum of money to host a grand fighting arena. Tully had even spread rumors that whoever seized the championship of the fighting arena would be granted his entire fortune!
(*TL: not literally comparing notes, but learn by fighting, i.e. exchanging pointers)

Tully’s wealth was a terrifyingly astronomical sum, and for the sake of s.n.a.t.c.hing this gigantic amount of money, nearly all the totem masters on the continent came to compete.

Finally, after three months of contending, a person by the name of ‘Mangu’ had consecutively won 937 matches. He had fought marvelously well and was publicly accounted as the number on expert under the sky at that time!

However, the Mangu who won did not actually take away Tully’s wealth. He instead said, “Through all these matches in the arena this time, I’ve broken through the bottleneck I have been stuck at for twenty years. I’ve successfully advanced to become a ‘superior rank Totem King’! Everybody has also benefited considerably through these clashes. Mr. Tully’s real purpose for hosting the arena is rather to serve as a shortcut for totem masters like me! For this purpose, I am willing to offer all of my rewards to make this Totem Arena become a customary practice. Via the Totem Arena, the strength of Yuanzhi Continent’s totem masters can improve even further!”

Just like that, Mangu at once began auctioning off all of the prizes bestowed on him. After that, he used this generous sum to form something similar to an olympic committee… the ‘Totem Advancement a.s.sociation’.

The following years after the group’s formation, the ‘Totem Advancement a.s.sociation’ gathered every few years to organize a Totem Arena. Through those fighting compet.i.tions, many totem masters indeed improved and enhanced their strength, breaking through to reach even higher levels.

Up until the present day, the Totem Arena had already become the continent’s publicly recognized legal battle ground. Almost every city had a ‘Totem Advancement a.s.sociation’ division, and for large cities, there would be spectacular arena fights every day. As for smaller cities like Sun City, a small-scale Totem Arena would be hosted once per year.

Additionally, there was yet another very, very interesting thing regarding the Totem Arena.

As long as a totem master partic.i.p.ated in the fighting arena, then the ‘Totem Advancement a.s.sociation’ would record that totem master’s name into a book, thus comparing that totem master’s strength with other totem masters. This record was equivalent to a ‘ranking of strength’… a Totem Ranking!

In the region of Sun City, Sauron was number one on the ‘Totem Ranking’. As such, he was publicly acclaimed as Sun City’s number one expert!

As for Weylin, she was ranked tenth on Sun City’s Totem Ranking, and thus could be considered strong enough to oppress most of the field’s experts.

All of this information was what Jiang Nan understood in regards to the Totem Arena as a whole.

   ……

In the midst of Jiang Nan’s astonishment, an impudent voice resounded from the side of the road, “Yi, Miss Weylin actually came into the city?”

Jiang Nan turned his head to look. Sun City’s first ranker on the ‘Totem Rank’, Sauron, was surrounded by a group of people and had walked over.

Looking where they were heading, it seemed that they were also heading over to ‘Elegant Forest Restaurant’ to a.s.semble.

There was even a youth walking beside Sauron. The youth’s figure was extremely tall, his four limbs slender and lanky with a handsome appearance. However, he hunched over as he walked, his dark green eyes carrying a hint of rapacity within their gloomy appearance, similar to a starved and scavenging wolf!

When this youth’s gaze landed on Weylin, Sun City’s most beautiful woman, his eyes immediately lit up as he laughed heartily and said: “What a beautiful lady! Sauron, is this young lady’s name called Weylin?”

“Correct, this is Miss Weylin of West Farms, a primary rank 9th level Snow Swallow Totem Warrior…”

Sauron glanced at the youth, then looked again at Weylin as he suddenly revealed a ruminating smile and said an additional phrase that clearly contained some sort of provocation, “Miss Weylin is certainly Sun City’s most beautiful woman.”

Sweeping across the ground like an unsheathed sword, the youth’s expression further revealed a lecherous light that caused people’s heart to palpitate as he came before Weylin and slightly bowed, “Miss Weylin, this lowly Vic…”

“Get lost, *I’m not in the mood to hear your name!”