Chapter Sixty-Eight: Melting Snow

A chorus of eerie wails echoed through the air as dozens of pale, naked children hovered mid-sky, their bodies as lifeless as corpses, eyes swirling with black light, faces vacant as they stared at the Grand Shaman of the Wraith Tribe, who had been slammed to the ground by an enormous stone hand.

These children were abominations forged by the Wraith Tribe through secret shamanic rites—creatures caught between life and death, half-substantial, half-illusory, impervious to blades and axes, armed with soul-snatching powers, making them exceedingly difficult to contend with. Their sole weakness, however, lay in the Grand Shaman who controlled them. So vicious and wicked were these entities that even the tribe’s own members dared not let them roam free; they were bound by harsh and intricate shamanic curses. Now, with their master battered senseless, these abominations hung in the air, stupefied and unresponsive to the world.

"Kill him! Kill him!" a shrill voice rang out from the side.

Ji Hao turned his head. Far in the distance, atop a massive boulder, Jiang Xue stood, flailing her arms and shouting at him, "Whichever tribe’s warrior kills him and brings me his head, that tribe will enjoy the everlasting protection of the Bifang Clan!"

A chorus of sneers answered from all directions as countless tribal warriors surged forward. Yet, upon hearing Jiang Xue’s declaration, the high shamans and priests from every clan responded with scornful snorts. The tribes gathered here were wild, untamed, unyielding to heaven or earth. The Bifang Clan’s protection sounded tempting, but to accept it meant annual tribute and the loss of their warriors’ freedom, who could be summoned by the Bifang at any moment.

Thus, Jiang Xue’s promise held little allure for these tribes.

Realizing her mistake, Jiang Xue swiftly amended her offer: "The warrior who slays Ji Hao—your tribe will be rewarded by the Bifang Clan with armor and weapons enough to arm three hundred warriors, all superbly crafted from refined steel!"

Following the southern wilds’ custom, Jiang Xue pounded her well-developed chest and declared loudly, "I swear by the ancestral spirits of the Bifang Clan! My father is Jiang Shu, elder of the Bifang Clan! Whoever kills Ji Hao—your tribe will receive three hundred sets of the finest armor and weapons!"

Chijiao staggered to his feet, brandishing his massive wooden club and roared, "Five hundred sets!"

Jiang Xue gritted her teeth and nodded fiercely, "Five hundred, then! Five hundred sets!"

Before her words had fully faded, Chijiao was already bellowing, leading hundreds of warriors from the Fierce Ghost Tribe, all wielding mighty clubs, as they charged at Ji Hao.

But then, with a thunderous crack, the earth split open—a colossal stone giant burst forth from underground, standing over sixty feet tall, its body lustrous as jade and pure as snow, hundreds of ochre runes flashing across its surface. Despite its towering bulk, Chijiao’s head barely reached its knees. One would expect such a behemoth to move sluggishly, but this giant was lean and tall, its movements as agile as an ape.

With a sweep of its hand, a stone pillar erupted from the ground. The giant seized it—a pillar thirty yards long and thick as a water tank—and, with a bellow of "Barbecue!" swung it with terrifying force, the pillar gleaming silver as it howled through the air, smashing into Chijiao.

Chijiao barely managed to raise his club in defense. The giant’s strength was unimaginable; the stone pillar splintered the club as if it were kindling, and, trailing a visible blue windstorm, crashed down upon Chijiao. He roared in agony, his body dissolving into a cloud of mist, shifting between corporeal and incorporeal in a desperate attempt to dodge the giant’s blow.

Yet the stone giant, a spirit born of heaven and earth, wielded energies potent enough to harm even a being in mist form. The cloud was blasted apart, blood spraying from within.

The mist rapidly contracted. Amid piercing cries, Chijiao, half his body smashed to pulp, tumbled out of the vapor and fell to the ground, unable to move.

Behind him, dozens of the Fierce Ghost Tribe’s strongest warriors were sent flying by the stone giant’s strike. Even a dozen high shamans of the tribe staggered back, coughing blood, their fierce eyes betraying undisguised terror.

"Spirit of the earth, we bear you no grudge!" shouted a warrior whose strength rivaled Chijiao’s.

"Barbecue!" the giant roared again in its rumbling voice, and another stone pillar crashed down.

None of the Fierce Ghost Tribe’s warriors dared confront the giant. They had survived in the southern wilds through their own cunning. They knew well that among all the earthborn stone spirits, only the dragon clans could match them in strength; in all the southern wilds, the number of races who could rival such might was less than a handful.

To tangle with a deranged stone giant babbling about barbecue? Only a fool would attempt such madness!

The presence of this sixty-foot-tall stone giant was overwhelming. Warriors from all the surrounding tribes halted, glancing about nervously, each hoping that some hot-blooded fool would distract the giant long enough for them to seize the chance to kill Ji Hao.

But everyone thought the same—all the way up to the four high shamans of the Blackwater Dark Serpent Tribe. In the end, not a single soul dared come within a mile of Ji Hao.

Far across the field, Jiang Xue’s eyes blazed green with fury. She shrieked at the top of her lungs, "You useless cowards! Are you even men? Are you still the brave and fearless warriors of your tribes? It’s only a stone beast! What are you afraid of?"

At her outcry, the earth split once more. Two massive stone arms, one black, one yellow, thrust from underground. Soon after, two more stone giants emerged—one nearly fifty feet tall, the other over forty. Compared to the jade-white giant, the black stone giant radiated a chilling aura, while the yellow one’s body was so dense that within a hundred yards of him, gravity increased twentyfold, making even Ji Hao, who stood closest, feel as though the very air was pressing him into the ground.

Jiang Xue stood stunned, then roared again, "A thousand sets of armor and weapons! Kill Ji Hao, and you’ll have a thousand sets—the finest steel arms and armor the southern wilds can offer!"

All around, the warriors gasped in unison. For the tribes of the southern wilds, where productivity was meager, a thousand sets of steel arms and armor was an irresistible temptation.

Jiang Xue, wild with frustration, was about to shout again when, with a soft thud, an arrow fashioned from the leg of a ghost-faced spider silently pierced her throat from behind.

Blood sprayed. The potent venom on the arrow spread rapidly, and Jiang Xue’s beautiful face turned inky green as she collapsed wordlessly to the ground.

***

Well, one petty little wretch has died first!

Let there be cheers and votes in this moment!