"With You's strength, even if Chi and I teamed up, we still might not be a match for him," Zhu explained with a calm expression, showing no shame over being outmatched. "But fortunately, the main goal this time is rescue. As long as Chi and I can hold him off, the rest of you just need to free our people. There's no need to fight him to the death."
After a brief pause, Zhu added, "You're a Shaman Master—you can be a big help in battle. Since your clansmen were taken too, you should join us when the time comes."
Ya's expression shook with shock, and he could barely believe his ears as he stared at Yang Kai in disbelief. A Shaman Master? He really was a Shaman Master? He had thought Lord Chi was mistaken earlier, but now Lord Zhu had said the same thing—there could only be one explanation: Wu Niu truly was a Shaman Master.
Yang Kai nodded and asked, "My Lords, you plan to launch a surprise attack at dawn, correct?"
"That's right."
"If that's the case, perhaps I can be of even greater help." A flicker passed through Yang Kai's eyes.
Chi raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear it!"
A short while later, Ya and Yang Kai withdrew.
Ya seemed rather dazed, as though he'd received a tremendous shock. It took him a long while to come back to himself. "Lord Niu, please be careful."
Yang Kai smiled and patted his shoulder. "You too!"
As the words left his lips, incantations rose from his mouth. Shaman Force surged, and his body seemed to transform into a vortex, draining every last trace of the moonlight cascading from the sky. Ya, standing before him, watched in astonishment as Yang Kai's figure gradually turned transparent with the influx of moonlight, then vanished entirely.
A series of soft, rustling footsteps receded from near to far. Ya knew that Wu Niu must have departed, but having witnessed such a miraculous Shaman Art with his own eyes, he couldn't help but marvel.
That should have been the legendary Moon Concealment Art of the Moonlight Tribe. But the Moonlight Tribe had been wiped out thousands of years ago—the Moon Concealment Art should have been lost to time. Where had Wu Niu learned it? A small place like Cangnan Village couldn't possibly possess such advanced Shaman Arts for him to study.
Yang Kai's Moon Concealment Art had naturally not been learned from the village chief, but had been passed down by Qing.
On the return journey, Yang Kai had been continuously digesting Qing's knowledge. As a result, he'd learned quite a few Shaman Arts, and now this lost Moon Concealment Art was proving its worth.
Under the moonlight, Yang Kai was virtually invisible and intangible—only by approaching within a certain distance or scanning with Divine Sense could one detect his presence.
He made his way to the stone fortress, silently scaled the wall, and slipped inside.
Atop the stone walls, Bone-Eating Tribe archers stood sentinel every three steps, patrolling at every five. Clearly, they knew that kidnapping people from three villages might invite retaliation. Though these archers lacked Divine Sense, each possessed razor-sharp instincts and an innate vigilance toward danger and anything suspicious.
When Yang Kai climbed over the wall, he nearly drew the attention of one archer, whose gaze swept toward his location. Fortunately, the man didn't look into it further—otherwise, Yang Kai could have been exposed.
Once inside the fortress, the scent of blood immediately filled his nostrils. It was unmistakably the smell of human blood.
Earlier, from the stone wall, Yang Kai had seen over a hundred corpses hanging. Clansmen from all three tribes, their blood dripping steadily in sounds that made one's skin crawl.
Right now, inside the fortress, the Bone-Eating Tribe members were gorging themselves, the air thick with the aroma of cooked meat. When Yang Kai looked around, he saw those barbarians gnawing on chunks of boiled flesh—much of it clearly recognizable as parts of human bodies. Any ordinary person would have lost all appetite, yet every member of the Bone-Eating Tribe ate with relish, including the children who hadn't even grown up. These youngsters would often brawl over a single meaty bone, wrestling in a heap without yielding an inch, while the adult Bone-Eating Tribe members watched nearby and roared with laughter.
He had long heard that the Bone-Eating Tribe were the freaks among the barbarian tribes—a pack of uncivilized beasts—and now, seeing it with his own eyes, he could only say the rumors were true.
He took a quiet breath, suppressed the revulsion in his heart, and began to silently make his way through the fortress.
According to his agreement with Chi and Zhu, he first had to locate where the captives from the three villages were being held. At dawn, he would open the fortress gates from the inside to create chaos, and then the Wrath Flame Tribe and Gale Wind Tribe would attack in concert with him from the outside.
At that point, he would release the captured warriors from the three tribes, catching the Bone-Eating Tribe completely off guard.
There was a Great Shaman Master inside the fortress, along with several Shaman Masters. Yang Kai couldn't afford to be too reckless—he didn't dare use his Divine Sense at all, for fear of alerting the enemy, and could only search cautiously, inch by inch.
Half the night passed. Yang Kai had nearly traversed the entire fortress but still hadn't found where the prisoners were being held.
Three tribes, three villages—at least seven to eight hundred captives. Such a massive number couldn't be confined in a small space, yet after combing through the whole place, he had found nothing.
In the end, he could only turn his gaze toward the very center of the fortress—the core of the entire Bone-Eating Tribe settlement, from which a powerful and savage aura emanated. That was most likely where Shaman You resided.
After a moment's deliberation, Yang Kai directed a pulse of Divine Sense downward, thrusting it into the earth.
Contact—then immediate withdrawal.
Just as he'd suspected, an entire hidden world lay beneath the fortress. He sensed numerous living presences concealed below, but he hadn't been able to probe too deeply, for fear of alerting Shaman You.
Still, now that he'd confirmed the location of the captives, everything else would be simple.