Wei Tianchong was confused and asked Tang Jie, “What is this?”
Tang Jie explained, “This is a custom of their Ayia Tribe. The Ayia are people of the horse and place the greatest importance on horsemanship, such that even relationships have to be tested through it. If a boy has a girl that he likes, he can chase her from behind while catcalling her.”
“‘Catcalling her’?” Wei Tianchong was startled. He instinctively said, “Can you say anything?”
“Essentially, and the girl can’t fight back.”
“That seems pretty good.” Wei Tianchong’s eyes gleamed. In his view, being able to legally commit indecent actions against a girl was a good thing.
“Buuuuut…” Tang Jie said, “When they get to the end and have to come back, the woman chases the man. If the girl likes the man, she’ll be merciful, but if she doesn’t like the man, if she was angered by his words, she’ll whip the man to death. The man can’t fight back, but of course, he can rely on his horsemanship to escape. If your horsemanship is good enough, you can do anything.”
Wei Tianchong looked into the distance and saw the girls chasing the men down, their horse whips constantly cracking as they flayed apart the skin of the men. He said in a trembling voice, “Forget it, then.”
The Ayia Tribe horse meet was still ongoing. Cai’er rode at the head of the pack and was whipping two male riders at once, a whip in each hand, and she left bloody wounds all across their bodies.
It seemed that she didn’t like the two men who had been pursuing her.
At the finish line, Cai’er was still in the lead and had her horse charge through. The crowd cheered while the girl’s face glowed with pride.
“Then can you use spell arts?” Shi Meng whispered. If he could use spell arts, Shi Meng was confident that the whips of these girls wouldn’t be able to touch him.
“Of course not,” Tang Jie chuckled. “Life… does not welcome spell arts.”
In the early morning of the next day, Tang Jie lifted his tent flap just in time to see the sun rise.
Tang Jie went up to the lake and used his hand to cup some water to drink, after which he washed his face. At this time, he happened to see Cai’er drawing some water from the lake.
Tang Jie walked over and said, “Miss Cai’er, when will we be setting off?”
Cai’er giggled. “There’s no rush. We’ll be setting off once we make our offering to the lake.”
“‘Offering to the lake’? What is that?”
“You’ll know once you see it,” Cai’er enigmatically said.
It wasn’t long before the Ayia people came out from their tents, and after cleaning themselves up by the lake, they kneeled on the shore and began to pray.
Several Ayia youths carrying large baskets of fruits and vegetables went up to the shore. Cai’er, sumptuously dressed, was chanting something. Suddenly, she grabbed a fruit and threw it into the water.
Countless more fruits followed.
Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng were bewildered and asked Tang Jie, “What are they doing?”
Tang Jie spread apart his arms and said, “I don’t know. They said that they’re making an offering to the lake, but I’ve never seen fruit and vegetables used as an offering before.” This was the first time he was hearing about such a rite.
“Why make an offering to the lake?” Shi Meng asked.
“Perhaps it’s to the lake god,” Tang Jie replied.
Wei Tianchong pursed his lips and said, “Lake gods aren’t found just anywhere. It’s probably a lake fiend.”
Speak of the devil.
As Wei Tianchong spoke, a giant wave suddenly emerged from the lake.
This wave crested to a height of several dozen meters, and at its top, one could make out a giant clam the size of a house. The shell opened and closed, taking in all the fruits that were tossed its way.
“A fiend!” Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng shouted in unison, instinctively readying to deal with it.
Fortunately, there were several Ayia nearby. A youth said, “The three of you, don’t panic. This fiend doesn’t hurt people.”
“What did you say?” The three of them were startled.
The wave stopped, the clam shell slightly opening. Inside was a bare-naked woman, only a few leaves covering her private parts. She was a beautiful woman, and she smiled and nodded at the Ayia on the shore as if she was thanking them for all the food she had been given.
“A shape… shapeshifting great fiend?” Shi Meng was so scared that he was shaking.
“No, that’s not it.” Tang Jie shook his head. He could immediately tell that this was no great fiend.
A shapeshifting fiend was indistinguishable from an ordinary person. If it could shapeshift, there was no reason for it to keep its clam shell. Moreover, while this fiend clam had quite a showy appearance, with Tang Jie’s Celestial Eye, he could tell that this clam fiend had only reached Mind Opening at most.
The world had many fiends in all shapes and sizes, and it was impossible to encompass them all in a single ranking system. There were also some fiends who were able to shapeshift early for a variety of reasons, with some fiends with more powerful bloodlines even being born with this ability. This clam fiend presumably had one of these special situations that allowed her to transform halfway.
Rather than being shocked, the Ayia cheered when the clam appeared.
The clam girl smiled and waved her hand, sending a rain of light sprinkling down over their heads. Tang Jie instantly felt his heart relax.
“It’s spirit rain,” Tang Jie said in surprise.
It wasn’t some incredible spell art to be able to create rain with a wave of the hand, but this rain was very beneficial to the mortals below. Ordinary mortals had not opened their Jade Gates, so they could not cultivate, which was like being in the middle of a mountain of treasure that one could not take. But by condensing into rain, the spiritual energy could directly enter the bodies of mortals, allowing them to benefit. While this would not have long-term effects, it would momentarily strengthen the body and dispel illnesses. If one were lucky, one might even use this chance to break through the Jade Gate and step onto the path of cultivation.
It was said that this was the case throughout the world in ancient times. Spiritual energy was so abundant that it condensed into rain, and even people who had never cultivated before could benefit from it.
But after tens of thousands of years of development, through sects and Returned Remnants, blessed lands were created while the distribution of spiritual energy thinned. Normal people gradually lost the ability to become cultivators, and the path became closed to those who did not enter sects.
From this point onward, the vast majority of cultivation resources were in the hands of the minority, thus partitioning the world.
It was no wonder the Ayia weren’t afraid of the clam girl. It turned out that this fiend liked to help people rather than hurt them.
There were all kinds of fiends in the world, but most of them harmed people. However, there were some with kind natures who liked to help people.
As the clam fiend cast her spell, numerous Ayia grew energetic in the spirit rain. Tang Jie’s group chuckled and put aside any thoughts of killing the fiend, even saluting it.
At this time, the majority of Ayia had already gotten down on their knees in thanks, but the three of them were still standing, making them like cranes among chickens. The fiend clam looked over and immediately paled. It was clear that she had recognized them as cultivators.
But seeing the three of them salute her and smile, with seemingly no intent to kill her, she relaxed and gave them a slight nod.
Once the spirit rain had passed, the wave sank back down. The clam fiend waved to everyone before leaving.
The Ayia reluctantly watched, clearly wanting her to stay.
At this moment, a red light shot out of the distance.
This red light came with incredible speed, and as it got closer, it was possible to see that it was a silver shuttle boat carrying three people.
With his sharp eyes, Tang Jie could see that the three passengers all had swords on their backs and wore green robes with a seven-petaled lotus emblem on the chest. They weren’t old, so they were probably students.
“They’re from the Seven Absolutions Sect,” he sternly said.
The Seven Absolutions Sect valued youth, and its symbol was the seven-petaled lotus.
When he heard that it was people from the Seven Absolutions Sect, Wei Tianchong asked in surprise, “What are they here for?”
Before Tang Jie could answer, the clam fiend spotted the distant shuttle boat, hastily closed her shell, and began to sink back into the lake.
At this moment, someone on the boat shouted, “You think you can escape?”
A snow-white light erupted from the boat and struck the lake, instantly freezing it and preventing the clam fiend from escaping.
Tang Jie could see that it was the leading Seven Absolutions Sect student who had fired off this snowy light. He had a small mirror in his hand, and it was this mirror that had frozen the lake.
The shuttle boat flew above the lake, and a student shouted, “I’ve heard that there was a fiend causing trouble at Horserest Lake, and it seems the rumors were true! Fiend, hurry and submit!”
A net was thrown down toward the fiend clam.
The Ayia were all aghast, some of them fleeing in fear while others begged for mercy on behalf of the clam fiend.
As the net descended, the clam shell opened, the woman inside appearing and blowing at the net.
A dark wind stirred, preventing the net from falling.
The clam fiend called out, “Though I am a fiend, I’ve never harmed anybody. There is no need for you to do this!”
A student on the shuttle boat sneered, “Fiends are fiends and must be eliminated! Die!”
He pulled out his sword and flung a wave of sword light down.
Seeing that words would do her no good, the clam woman opened her beautiful eyes, sending out two beams of light that neutralized the sword light.
Several more objects flew out of the shuttle boat: a bell, a mirror, and a stone. All of them shone with light as they descended with a mighty pressure.
The clam woman was not afraid, and her shell opened, two beams of light holding back these weapons.
Everyone down below was terrified, with only Tang Jie’s group of three remaining unruffled.
Shi Meng sighed in wonder, “Now this is a true battle of spells!”
This should be what a true spell arts battle was like, rather than what they were doing, fighting with their fists and feet, swords and sabers.
But Tang Jie was disdainful, chortling, “So inflexible.”
Inflexible. This was his description of the battle before him.
In his eyes, trading spell arts was truly inflexible, like two rookies playing a game, insisting on using everything at their disposal before finally being willing to kill each other. But in a true clash of experts, both sides used every moment they had to take the initiative, trying to give themselves a chance to cast a spell while ruining their opponent’s chances.
It was no wonder the Seven Absolutions Sect was called the weakest of the six major sects. It was clear as day from their fighting style. Their true expertise was in the auxiliary fields: pills, medicine, formations, tools, and talismans.
But there was still a reason the Seven Absolutions Sect was able to become one of the six major sects. While these students from the Seven Absolutions Sect were of average strength, they had quite a few treasures.
A student, seeing that things had stalemated, pulled out a stack of talismans, ignited them, and threw them out, upon which a rain of fireballs hurtled at the clam girl.