The White Bat Province.

Named after the ruling power, the White Bat Tribe, this province was one with an extremely unified people. The White Bat Tribe ruled with an iron thumb, stomping out any defence using violence as their primary means.

Members of the White Bat Tribe were easily distinguishable from others. They possessed a pair of white bat wings on their backs, whilst their skin was extremely pale and they had pure white hair. These wings possessed no real function when they were mortals, but after they strengthened their bodies to the level of Mythril Class, members of this tribe became capable of flight!

This was why they could control the province so easily. Their Rank 3 cultivators were able to fly, whilst others at this realm could not. This gave them a huge advantage over other lower realm cultivators, allowing the White Bat Tribe’s surplus of Rank 3 body temperers to control and suppress the people.

Despite possessing actual wings, the White Bat Tribe members were considered human. Yaan knew that there were other humanoid races such as the giant race which were definitely not ‘human’, making him wonder once again what exactly defined a being as human or not.

The White Bat Province was small compared to the new Bloody Totem Province, but that was to be expected. The current Bloody Totem Province comprised six former provinces, it was enormous compared to most other provinces in the Kingdom of Lunar Song. There were only a handful of provinces that surpassed the Bloody Totem Province in size, and almost all of them were ruled by the Lunar Song Tribe, branches of the Lunar Song Tribe, or vassals of the Lunar Song Tribe.

A ‘vassal’ of the Lunar Song Tribe was a vague concept though, since the Lunar Song Tribe considered all tribes within the kingdom to be their vassals. This was not really the case, because some tribes had almost no dealing with the Lunar Song Tribe, whilst others refused to acknowledge their authority.

Now, the Bloody Totem Tribe was one such defiant tribe. The result was the same as always; the two tribes had descended into war.

Yaan observed the situation with the White Bat Province as he made his way towards the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader. She was currently leading the Bloody Totem Army to defend against the White Bat Tribe, attempting to push back the White Bat Tribe’s alliance army away from their borders.

The Bloody Totem Tribe ruled the entire Bloody Totem Province, they had countless powerful tribes and many 5-Star warriors at their disposal. Unfortunately, they could not mobilise all of these people at any one location, because the Lunar Song Tribe had coordinated a large scale attack, wherein every single province bordering the large Bloody Totem Province was attacking them simultaneously!

The Lunar Song Tribe’s rule was loose, but when they issued an order, all tribes within the kingdom had to obey. If they did not obey the order, they would be considered an enemy of the Lunar Song Tribe!

Nobody wanted to attack the Bloody Totem Tribe, but they wanted to anger the immortals behind the Lunar Song Tribe even less. Because of this situation where the various tribes were unwilling to give it their all, the Bloody Totem Tribe ended up facing an all encompassing, yet lacklustre assault.

There had not been any massive battles with huge casualties, but the many tribes and provinces continued to place pressure on the Bloody Totem Tribe, pushing back their borders and engaging in countless low level battles and flower wars to determine the victor over minor territorial disputes.

But even with this much, the Bloody Totem Province was feeling the pressure. There were a total of 17 provinces bordering their large province, and another five provinces were very nearby, less than ten thousand miles away from their borders. This meant that the Bloody Totem Province was currently under attack by 22 different province, all following the orders of the Kingdom of Lunar Song!

Originally, some of these provinces had rulers, some did not. Originally, some of the provinces were ruled directly by the Kingdom of Lunar Song, some were not. Now though, they were all being suppressed by the Lunar Song Tribe, following the command of this hegemon of the kingdom!

Yaan saw various lands which were reduced to barren wastelands across the border between the Bloody Totem and White Bat Provinces. Fortunately, most of the battles were limited to these regions, so the damage inflicted to the lands was not too severe. Even so, this sort of devasted landscape could now be found all around the Bloody Totem Tribe, giving an ominous feeling to all visitors when they first arrived.

It didn’t take him long to locate the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader. There were a few outposts now stationed along this shared border, keeping watch across the land in order to protect against any potential attacks by the White Bat Province. There was one major outpost though, which Yaan learned of after flying over a smaller outpost and listening in on the conversations below.

The major outpost was stationed just a dozen miles away from the White Bat Province’s major base of operations, where the White Bat Tribe Leader was taking command. The White Bat Tribe Leader was a Peak 5-Star warrior, if he decided to go ahead and lead an all-out assault, the Bloody Totem side would suffer big losses…

But such a thing had not happened. There was a simple reason for this; he did not want to die!

In fact, pretty much every single powerhouse in those 22 opposing provinces were thinking the same thing. The Bloody Totem Tribe, worried that others would think that their ‘Red Demon’ had died to his calamity or tribulation, announced to the world that he had simply entered closed cultivation, and would be returning soon.

Actually, nobody believed that Yaan was not a 6-Star warrior. They still wouldn’t attack though, because if he returned from his seclusion in one piece, he would definitely wipe them out if they had been behaving too overbearingly.

The tribes and powerful warriors were all biding their time. They would begin probing the situation after another couple of years, testing to see whether or not the Red Demon had died to his tribulation!

If he survived his immortal tribulation, he would return to the battlefield and they would pull back. The Lunar Song Tribe could not blame them for refusing to fight against a Rank 6 tribe! In fact, at that point, couldn’t the Lunar Song Tribe just deal with him directly?

But if Yaan did not emerge, even after they increased the boldness of their probing attacks, it would prove that he had died to his tribulation!

They were deliberately taking things slowly, biding their time, not wanting to cross the line with either side. Even though the Bloody Totem Side was completely surrounded, coming under attack by 22 different provinces, it was actually the tribesmen from those provinces who felt the most pitiful!

They didn’t want to fight the Bloody Totem Province! Or rather, they didn’t want to fight the infamous Red Demon…

Yaan flew down into the outpost which had become the main stronghold in the battle against the White Bat Tribe. He didn’t bother with any formalities, directly entering the war hall, a large building which was recently erected to provide a place to discuss the strategy against the White Bat Province. There was a single 5-Star and tens of 4-Star warriors currently engaged in a heated debate within the hall, but the moment Yaan appeared, a dead silence immediately spread across the room.

“Senior!” The Bloody Totem Tribe Leader exclaimed. At first, she was startled to see him, but in the next moment, a deep joy and relief swept through her heart!

Finally, he was here! With this, the war against the White Bat Province was as good as over. The only uncertainty was how exactly senior planned to deal with them…

The strong-willed woman quickly regathered herself, clasping her hands and slightly lowering her head when facing Yaan. She did not know how powerful he had become after his latest session of cultivation, but regardless, he was the true leader of the Bloody Totem Province, the notorious powerhouse that had even defeated a 6-Star warrior!

“I apologise for leaving my post, senior. I am sure you have already heard, but our province is currently under a joint assault from 22 tribes. I was forced to join the war effort and have been fending off the White Bat Tribe for the past year.”

She was modest when speaking to Yaan. When dealing with others, she was overbearing, bordering on tyrannical, but when she faced Yaan, she did not feel a single trace of arrogance. In her eyes, lowering her head to this senior was not below her, it was only the natural thing to do!

Yaan nodded lightly, now that he understood the situation, he naturally didn’t mind her actions.

“You have done well in this time. Our opponents all have 5-Star warriors, their power is actually much greater than ours in terms of quantity. It is good that you managed to keep them away from the core province.”

After saying this, Yaan paused briefly, then said:

“Now that I have returned, let’s send a message to our enemies. I do not wish to see something like this happen again.” His words carried a heavy killing intent, causing everyone in the hall to shudder.

In Yaan’s previous conquests, he was trying to expand his empire, so he did not slaughter wantonly. Now though, it was different…he did not need to expand further, he did not need to fight in order to obtain more resources, but these other tribes were forcing his hand.

He wanted to cultivate peacefully, but sometimes, peace could only be achieved through violent means.

He would capture some useful pawns, he would plunder some valuable resources, but for the most part, he just wanted to send a message, a message that would be spelled out using the blood of his enemies.

It was time to show this kingdom the meaning of the word ‘deterrent’.