Chapter 555: Tit for Tat

The beast tribe warriors engaged in battle became exceptionally excited upon hearing the chanting of the gray-robed beast. Many warriors began singing their own tribe's war songs amidst the fighting.

Compared to the oddly toned chanting, the beast tribe's war songs were more imposing, echoing over the battlefield without fading. Yet Han Li still felt that the not-so-loud chanting was more capable of gripping his mind, giving him the illusion that his own blood was beginning to boil.

Han Li slightly composed himself, breaking free from that strange mood. When he looked again at the beast tribe on the battlefield, he noticed that a layer of dark red mist was now spreading over the area where the Storm Bears were fighting.

On the backs of all Storm Bear warriors, a blood-colored light flared up, from which emerged a ferocious beast-headed blood-colored phantom. After baring its teeth, it flashed and disappeared into their bodies.

Immediately after, Han Li saw these Storm Bear warriors' eyes turn blood-red, their bodies swelling several times more, sharp fangs protruding from their lips, and even some turbid saliva dripping down.

"Kill... kill... kill!"

Roars of狂暴 fervor erupted from their mouths, shaking the land for ten thousand miles!

At that moment, almost all Storm Bear tribesmen's auras became bloodthirsty and manic, charging madly at the insect race in a nearly bestial manner.

On the other side, a strange phantom also appeared outside the bodies of the Unicorn tribe, resembling some kind of beast but different from the Storm Bears', with a single horn and flickering green light.

After these phantoms entered their tribesmen's bodies, all Unicorn tribesmen did not grow taller, nor did their eyes turn red like the Storm Bears', but the bones at their shoulders and elbows changed, producing sharp, blade-like white bones protruding from their bodies.

At the same time, eight slender bones extended from their backs, looking like eight spider legs, each like a tempered steel spear, gleaming with white cold light and extremely sharp.

Besides these two major tribes, the other beast tribes also underwent changes, becoming even stronger.

"Is this your beast tribe's bloodthirsty technique?" Han Li asked doubtfully.

"Bloodthirsty technique? That's somewhat apt, but we don't call it that. This is our totem sacrifice technique, where the high priests of each tribe sacrifice their own essence blood to commune with the true spirits worshipped by the tribe, thereby gaining a portion of the true spirit's power and blessing." Noyifan was momentarily startled, then smiled and shook her head, explaining.

Hearing this, Han Li understood that the gray-robed figures scattered among the tribes were the high priests, and the phantoms appearing on the tribesmen were the totem marks of the true spirits they believed in.

"Since all tribes can communicate with their worshipped true spirits, why not invite their true bodies? With so many true spirits helping, wouldn't dealing with the insect race be twice the result with half the effort?" Han Li still had some doubts.

"Senior Li, you may not know that although our beast tribe, from the eight sacred tribes down, all worship their respective true spirits, this is not a solid contractual relationship. So whether the worshipped true spirits, besides providing a certain degree of protection within their territories, are willing to lend power to the tribesmen depends entirely on the depth of mutual affection. However, our beast tribe has always been extremely devout to our true spirits, so most of the time they help us. But manifesting their true bodies to this extent is rare." Noyifan shook her head and said.

"Even in a life-or-death crisis like today, they still won't descend?" Han Li continued asking.

"The true spirits descending in true form through the sacrifice technique also have many limitations. Especially when not within a true spirit's own territory, even the effect of providing blessings is weakened, let alone manifesting their true bodies. Many of these tribes have traveled far from their own territories, and true spirits generally do not leave their domains so easily." Noyifan added.

Han Li nodded thoughtfully, feeling that the beast tribe's dependent relationship with true spirits was somewhat similar to the earthly immortals of the Black Wind Sea, but lacking bloodline ties, the relationship was not so close.

It seemed that the ancestral earthly immortals, rarely seen in the Northern Cold Immortal Domain, existed in the wildlands in a similar but different mode, and appeared quite common.

Just then, among the three thousand-zhang one-eyed giants wreaking havoc on the insect race's battlefield, one suddenly became unsteady and fell forward.

"It's that one..." Han Li looked closely and couldn't help exclaiming.

The ground beneath the one-eyed giant suddenly collapsed, and a sand beast, even larger than the thousand-zhang giant, emerged from underground like a flood dragon rising from the sea, opening its huge mouth lined with rings of massive serrated teeth, biting toward the fallen one-eyed giant.

Its aura was extremely powerful; it was the giant sand beast that had previously attacked the Yuanhuang City ferry, with strength nearly reaching the Taiyi realm.

This happened too suddenly; the one-eyed giant's body was falling like a mountain, its head seemingly delivered into the giant sand beast's mouth.

With a "crack," blood splattered everywhere!

The giant sand beast bit off the one-eyed giant's entire head in one gulp.

The headless giant's neck sprayed blood like rain; though its body tilted, one hand still gripped the giant spiked club and smashed it heavily at the sand beast.

With a thunderous "boom!"

Under this powerful blow, the sand beast's body sank back into the ground. The headless one-eyed giant's body swayed and then crashed down with a loud thud, its mountain-like body crushing thousands of insect race giant ants that hadn't escaped into dust.

Accompanied by a rustling sound, the ground soil heaved, and countless small sand beasts surged from underground, spreading like a wave of shifting yellow sand, engulfing the one-eyed giant's remains.

After a few breaths, all the small sand beasts disappeared, leaving nothing on the ground but a thick smell of blood.

The other two one-eyed giants, after crushing another wave of human-faced scorpions with their clubs, began to turn and retreat toward the beast tribe.

But at that moment, a short figure, less than six feet tall and covered in dark green, appeared at the rear of the insect army.

Han Li looked closely and saw that although its form resembled a human, its face was square and extremely strange, with two eyes set horizontally on its forehead, pitch black inside with no whites.

On its head grew two slender antennae, making it look like a large grasshopper that had become a spirit.

"Gugu gu..."

A strange chirping sound came from its mouth, and immediately the sound of insect wings arose from the rear of the insect army, followed by a dark green cloud rising from the ground, flying toward the beast tribe like a blanket covering the sky.

"Oh no, it's the Green Locust tribe! How can there be so many?" Noyifan exclaimed in surprise.

"What's wrong? Are these locusts hard to deal with?" Han Li swept his gaze over the dark green cloud and asked.

"The Green Locust tribe devours everything, swallowing all in their path. Wherever they pass, living beings are wiped out. Even within the insect race, they are rejected by other tribes. They live year-round in swamp lands and were not numerous. I never expected they have now bred such a huge swarm." Noyifan frowned.

Before she finished speaking, the dark green cloud had already caught up with the remaining two one-eyed giants.

The one-eyed giants clearly knew the danger of these creatures, so they didn't engage but directly fled with long strides.

Although the Green Locust tribe was numerous, they couldn't stop the one-eyed giants' charge, repeatedly surrounding them and being broken through.

But Han Li could clearly see that the two one-eyed giants were slowing down in breaking through the encirclement. After about seven or eight more attempts, they would be completely surrounded and unable to escape.

As the one-eyed giants drew closer to the beast tribe, reinforcements from the beast tribe also arrived.

High in the sky, huge black double-winged giant lizards swooped in, circled in the air, then opened their mouths wide, spewing torrents of flames with thick smoke, instantly engulfing large numbers of Green Locust tribesmen.

The dark green cloud immediately caught fire, crackling loudly.

Then, one by one, the Green Locust tribesmen fell from the sky like fiery meteors.

The remaining Green Locust tribesmen swooped low, charging into the other beast tribe armies.

These ordinary beast tribesmen, lacking the physique of the one-eyed giants, were swept over and turned into tens of thousands of white bones, some still maintaining their original postures.

The two one-eyed giants finally broke free from the Green Locust encirclement, their exposed bodies covered with wounds, full of tiny bite marks, looking terrifying.

They walked heavily back toward the Dark Star Canyon, seemingly wanting to temporarily withdraw from battle.

But no one noticed a hundred or so tiny red beetles, each no larger than a grain of rice, with tails glowing like fireflies, flying in a bobbing manner, diving into the wounds of the two one-eyed giants, wriggling a few times, and burrowing inside.

The two one-eyed giants seemed to sense something, stopping simultaneously and looking at the spots where the beetles had entered.

At the wounds, one after another, large blood-red lumps swelled up, like living tumors, growing larger with each pulse. In a few breaths, they swelled to the size of the one-eyed giants' heads.

Seeing this, a flash of terror clearly passed through the one-eyed giants' eyes, but before they could react, the blood-red tumors flared with red light and burst open.

The two giants' bodies instantly disintegrated into countless fragments, and blood gushed out like a flood, instantly drenching the entire battlefield.