"Humans! Humans!"
On the ravaged earth, Tun Tian, filled with rage, roared, his thick serpentine tail thrashing wildly against the ground, smashing out deep craters.
His cold pupils were tinged with streaks of blood, and his massive body was covered in wounds, large and small. While not fatal, they had infuriated him.
It had been a long time since he had been injured.
To think he had stumbled in his own territory, injured by two human cultivators far inferior to him.
Tun Tian Python felt his dignity as a great demon stripped away.
His beastly eyes swept across the grassland, but he found no trace of the human cultivators, as if they had vanished into thin air.
The Iron-backed Lizard and the Red Ant lay cowering on the ground, not daring to show their heads, lest they attract Tun Tian Python's attention.
Meanwhile, the Golden Lion Beast lay in a deep pit, its aura weak and its pupils glazed over.
It had been caught in the aftershocks of the battle and was severely wounded. If not treated quickly, it would face only death.
However, neither Tun Tian Python nor the Iron-backed Lizard and Red Ant had the capacity to care for it. It could only lie there silently, its eyes wide open, waiting for time and life to drain away.
...
The first thing Ji Buwang saw upon opening his eyes was a roof constructed of thick, rough-hewn timbers. Through the gaps, he could see green leaves above.
Ji Buwang instinctively tried to move, but the pain that coursed through his limbs and bones instantly halted his motion.
He tried to circulate his spiritual energy, but after a moment, the confusion in his eyes vanished, replaced by shock and uncertainty.
His spiritual energy was gone? Ji Buwang attempted to sit up, only to find his body seemingly entangled by countless strange vines and leaves, preventing him from moving easily.
With a surge of effort, the vines snapped, and numerous hard, black chunks rained down.
Ji Buwang propped himself up with his arm on the hard bed and struggled to sit up.
As he surveyed his surroundings, the wooden door in front of him was suddenly pushed open, revealing a woman in peculiar attire.
"You're awake!"
Ji Buwang frowned. The woman's accent was very strange, but not so much that he couldn't understand her.
Just as he was about to ask where he was, the woman turned and rushed out, shouting, "Elder! Elder!"
Elder?
A strange place, a strange woman, a strange accent.
Everything left Ji Buwang feeling disoriented.
His divine sense was also unable to leave his body. He could only use his eyes to memorize the appearance of the wooden hut, wondering to himself where he had ended up.
He only remembered that he had pulled Xu Yi into the spatial rift together, and then they were attacked by strange entities within the rift. After that, after that...
*Tap, tap, tap.*
The sound of hurried footsteps interrupted Ji Buwang's thoughts.
He looked in the direction of the wooden door and saw a procession of strangely dressed people entering one after another.
Upon seeing the person at the front, his heart instantly steadied, and the tension in his lips unconsciously relaxed.
"Ji Buwang, you're awake."
Xu Yi looked at the pale-faced Ji Buwang, her eyes also lighting up with a smile.
There was no spiritual energy in this place, and she couldn't even open her storage ring. She could only use local herbs to bandage Ji Buwang's wounds. Fortunately, Ji Buwang's body was strong, and he was not in critical condition.
"Where is this place?" Ji Buwang asked.
Xu Yi did not answer immediately but turned to the people behind her and said, "You all go prepare some food. My friend and I will be there shortly."
"Yes, Elder."
The dozen or so people shouted in unison and immediately withdrew from the wooden hut.
After they left, Xu Yi's expression suddenly turned serious. "We're in big trouble."
Following this, Xu Yi recounted her experiences over the past few days in detail to Ji Buwang. Only then did Ji Buwang understand why they had appeared here.
After they were attacked in the spatial rift, they had fallen out of a newly appeared spatial rift.
Because Ji Buwang had shielded Xu Yi with his body, he was more heavily injured. Conversely, Xu Yi awoke first.
Upon awakening, Xu Yi found herself and Ji Buwang in a forest. Her first instinct was to retrieve medicinal pills from her storage ring to save Ji Buwang. Then, she was shocked to discover that there was no spiritual energy in the forest.
Disbelieving, she carried Ji Buwang through the forest for three days, but still found no trace of spiritual energy. She had no choice but to accept that there was indeed no spiritual energy in this forest.
However, at that time, she still believed that she and Ji Buwang had fallen into a remote area with sparse spiritual energy.
This was until she encountered the tribal people living in the forest.
They wore clothes woven from animal skins and leaves, their bodies bare and their feet unclad, their skin dark, and their muscles flowing with a wild and powerful beauty.
Xu Yi's first encounter with them was not pleasant.
The tribal people mistook her for an invading outsider and attacked her.
Although Xu Yi couldn't mobilize her spiritual energy, her strength and speed alone were enough to contend with ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators without being at a disadvantage.
Therefore, when this group of tribal people attacked her with wooden and stone weapons, she did not exert much effort to defeat them all.
Xu Yi's bravery and might also awed the tribal people.
After a simple negotiation, Xu Yi learned that the place she was in was called the Beast King Continent, and these people were members of the Black Tiger tribe who lived in this forest.
"Beast King Continent, tribes..." Ji Buwang's eyes finally changed. "You mean we've arrived on another continent."
Ji Buwang had also heard of realms beyond their own, and that besides the Nine Provinces Continent, there were places similar to it.
Ji Buwang suddenly recalled Liu Jinghong.
Speaking of which, Liu Jinghong was also an outsider.
If that was the case, then the legends of realms beyond their own were not false.
"That's right. This Beast King Continent has no spiritual energy, but it possesses a peculiar power called shamanic power. Those who wield shamanic power can also possess strength far beyond that of ordinary people."
Xu Yi, being new and with nowhere to go, accepted the warm invitation of the Black Tiger tribe and brought Ji Buwang to their settlement.
Because of the strength she displayed, the Black Tiger tribe welcomed her arrival warmly and even bestowed upon her the title of Elder in order to keep her.
During this time, Xu Yi also conversed with the members of the Black Tiger tribe and finally gained more useful information.
"The person with the highest status in this tribe is called a Shaman. Their bodies are not as robust as ordinary tribal people, but they possess shamanic power, which earns them great respect from the tribe.
Besides the Shamans, all tribal members must follow the arrangements of the Chieftain. The Chieftain leads the tribe on hunting expeditions during the annual hunting season to stockpile meat for the winter. Therefore, the Chieftain is also the strongest person in each tribe in terms of combat prowess."
The title of "Elder" given to Xu Yi was temporarily devised by the Shaman and Chieftain of the Black Tiger tribe, serving as a respectful title to represent her status.
This meant that Xu Yi was currently the third most respected person in the Black Tiger tribe, which was why those tribal members had shown her such respect earlier.