Chapter 239 – Cattle-head King’s[1] Flag
Zhao Hai stared tightly at the blood-colored eagle as it continued to circle the sky. Laura also looked at the blood-colored eagle. They were really curious as to what information this blood-colored eagle had.
Zhao Hai understood everything after watching. The blood-colored eagles’ reconnaissance ability was strong because they could fly high and had good vision. In addition, they could understand what Zhao Hai wanted. As such, they became very good aerial scouts.
The report from the blood-colored eagles was very important for Zhao Hai. This was because the information they brought told that there were two beastfolk tribes fighting one another. On one side was the Cattle-head ethnic race while the other side was the Jackal tribe[2].
Zhao Hai frowned. He didn’t know if he should attack in this situation. If a human rashly interfered in a battle between the beastfolk, then it wouldn’t be good.
Laura and the others also understood the information passed along by the blood-colored eagles. With regards to this situation, Laura also felt it was awkward. For the beastfolk, a battle was honorable. If one intervened, then both sides might be offended. Even the side they helped wouldn’t give their thanks.
After thinking about it for a while, Laura turned to Zhao Hai and asked, “Brother Hai, what should we do?”
Thinking, Zhao Hai said, “We’ll first take a look and pretend to just be passing by. We won’t make a move first.”
Laura nodded. Zhao Hai then immediately directed the caravan in a path that would pass by the battlefield.
The battlefield wasn’t near them, otherwise the blood-colored eagles wouldn’t have taken all morning to pass along the information. In order to rush as fast as they could to the battlefield, Zhao Hai had taken back the rest of the caravan and placed them inside the Space, leaving only Laura’s carriage to move forward. They proceeded along at a faster pace this way.
After two hours, they finally arrived at the battlefield the blood-colored eagles had reported. As they got there, several war cries could be heard.
Zhao Hai didn’t expect that the two tribes could fight for so long. It was currently noon, and since the time the blood-colored eagles had found the two tribes until now, it was already a little over three hours. This wasn’t a short period.
Zhao Hai slowed down and looked out the carriage once more. He then slowly moved toward the battlefield. There wasn’t any worry since he knew that both sides were still in the midst of fighting.
Everyone soon got closer to the battlefield. In the distance, there seemed to be a camp. The size of the camp wasn’t that large, only as big the Sheep Head Hammer horde camp. This camp had a Cattle-head war flag flying above the central tent. Laura looked at the war flag and her complexion changed. “The Cattle-head King’s war flag. How could it be the Cattle-head King’s war flag?
Zhao Hai was surprised for a moment. “Cattle-head King’s war flag? You’re saying that’s the Cattle-head King’s war flag?” The reason why he was so surprised was because the Cattle-head King’s war flag wasn’t something anyone could casually obtain. Only members of the Cattle-head ethnic race’s royal family, the Titan Cattle[3] tribe, could use it.
Although the Beastfolk Prairie’s beastfolk ethnic races were numerous, there were also top tribes among the ethnic races that were given the status of a royal family tribes. One of these ethnic races that practiced such a thing was the Cattle-head ethnic race. Although there were many related tribes, such as the rhinoceros tribe and etc, they all belonged to one large ethnic race, the Cattle-head ethnic race.
The royal family of the Cattle-head ethnic race was the Titan Cattle tribe. Everyone from the Titan Cattle tribe was a born warrior. They didn’t have any wool over their bodies and their skin was golden-yellow in color. This golden-yellow skin had great defensive capabilities. With the addition of their bloodline’s innate godly strength, it could be said that their battle prowess was comparable with the other famous war tribes. They wouldn’t fare badly against them.
If one weren’t from the Titan Cattle tribe and were just a common Cattle-head ethnic race tribe, then their battle prowess wouldn’t be great. The Cattle-head ethnic race could somewhat be regarded as a war tribe in the prairie, but the assessment of the race wasn’t that of a war tribe. When one assessed an ethnic race, one would look at the overall battle strength. The Cattle-head ethnic race had many low strength tribes, so they pulled down the rest of the ethnic race. In the end, they were assessed as a regular ethnic race and not a war tribe.
No matter if it were an ethnic race or a war tribe, they were divided heterogeneously. Just like the Lion ethnic race and Tiger ethnic race, both had their top tribes represent the war tribe because they had the greatest battle strength. The Cattle-head ethnic race status was similar to theirs, but the Lion ethnic race and Tiger ethnic race were both existences at the top of the ethnic race hierarchy. Even then, those lower ranked war tribes wouldn’t be impolite towards the Cattle-head ethnic race, especially towards the Titan Cattle tribe.
The Titan Cattle tribe’s battle strength was very formidable, and their strength itself was boundless. With their powerful defensive capabilities and Bestial Soul Possession War Skill[4], they were very powerful.
Beastfolk and humans were different. Human practitioners cultivated battle qi or magic power, but beastfolk practitioners cultivated the so-called Bestial Soul Possession War Skill. In fact, this was the unique cultivation method of the beastfolk. Every beastfolk youth, upon reaching ten years of age, would be required to hunt and kill a magic beast alone. They would then use the mystical beastfolk cultivation method to absorb the magic beast’s body and soul. Every time a beastfolk fought, the magic beast’s soul and body would aid them.
This Bestial Soul Possession War Skill, however, had its own limitations. The limitations varied based on individual bloodline, and different bloodlines meant different limits for each ethnic race.
Take the slave tribes of the beastfolk for example. They also cultivated the Bestial Soul Possession War Skill, but it was impossible for them to attract a powerful magic beast’s soul. If they forcibly tried to absorb one, then instead of gaining strength, they’d cause a rebound effect. Their body would get damaged and the magic beast’s soul may control them instead, turning them into a beast.
Strong magic beasts would be attracted to beastfolk with strong battle strength. If the magic beast was a wild one, then the deciding factor was battle strength.
For example, a domesticated Rank Five magic beast wouldn’t be able to defeat a wild magic beast of the same rank. This was because a Rank Five wild magic beast would, from birth, have been continuously battling other magic beasts. Since they were constantly fighting, their natural battle strength would definitely be higher than a domesticated Rank Five magic beast.
For the beastfolk, absorbing the soul of a magic beast would enable them to use a part of the combat experience of the magic beast. For the beastfolk, this was very important.
Weaker beastfolk didn’t have the ability to capture and kill magic beasts. This was the reason why they used domesticated magic beasts, and this naturally meant a lower battle strength.
For war tribes and common ethnic races, the biggest difference between the two would be that the beast souls of the war tribes generally consisted of carnivorous magic beasts. Ethnic races would instead use beast souls from herbivorous magic beasts, those that were preyed upon.
Beast soul absorption also wasn’t very equal. For example, if one were of the Cattle-head ethnic race and wanted to absorb a lion-type magic beast soul, then they would have a very low chance of success. Even if they did succeed, it wouldn’t give them much strength. This was because there was a low degree of compatibility between them, resulting in negative effects.
For the Cattle-head ethnic race, the best magic beast soul they could absorb would be those related to the Cattle-head ethnic race. If they couldn’t attract a Cattle-head ethnic race related magic beast, then they’d be better off getting another herbivorous type of magic beast instead of a carnivorous one. This was knowledge obtained after many years of trial and error.
For the Titan Cattle tribe, their beast soul could be regarded as a unified soul. Their magic beast soul was from a Rank Six earth elemental magic beast, a stoneskin cattle[5].
This stoneskin cattle was as its name suggested; it was a magic beast with very high defensive capabilities. Its offensive strength was also quite high. Of all the magic beasts, there weren’t many with a better strength than a stoneskin cattle.
After many years of trial and error, the Titan Cattle tribe had finally decided to absorb the stoneskin cattle magic beast soul. Since the Titan Cattle tribe and stoneskin cattle had many of the same attributes, after the absorption there was a high rate of compatibility. As such, the Titan Cattle tribe used their strength to rear stoneskin cattle.
Naturally, this so-called rearing wasn’t the same as raising them in a ranch. They instead placed the stoneskin cattle in an enclosure in order to prevent them from running away. These cattle could move inside the enclosure freely, and if they encountered danger, the Titan Cattle tribe wouldn’t help. This allowed the stoneskin cattle to become more wild.
This was a common practice among the beastfolk war tribes. Long periods of trial and error was consumed to find out the best and most suitable magic beast for the tribe to absorb. They would need to only partly rear the magic beasts. When the time came that a tribe member was required to capture and absorb a beast soul, they could just enter the enclosure. They would then hunt and kill the magic beast, then absorb its soul.
All of this guaranteed the battle strength of their ethnic race. After many years of development, the beastfolk’s renowned war tribes had created their own well defined cultivation system. Compared to the beastfolk of the past, it was more effective.
Small tribes and weaker ethnic races didn’t have the capability to rear magic beasts like the war tribes. As such, their battle strength didn’t develop much. This eventually caused the current system among the beastfolk. The war tribes were getting stronger and stronger while the smaller tribes and lower ethnic races became weaker and weaker.
While the Titan Cattle tribe was a part of a weaker ethnic race, they were a tribe that raised their own magic beasts. This reflected their strength and even those war tribes didn’t provoke them so casually.
This was the reason why Laura was so surprised after seeing the Cattle-head King’s war flag. The Jackal tribe would be like a soft persimmon being pinched. With a powerful tribe like the Titan Cattle tribe, why did they try to provoke them and suddenly attack? Also, why was the Titan Cattle tribe in this area? This was still quite close to Ironwall Fortress. Within the Beastfolk Prairie, it could be considered the borderlands. The tribe shouldn’t be here.
Zhao Hai and Laura were both looking at the Cattle-head King’s war flag and were both speechless. When they saw the war flag here, they feared the matter wouldn’t be simple. Their simple passing this time around was a consequence unknown to them. The Titan Cattle tribe was here, yet they had bravely rushed over. Once the Titan Cattle tribe finished off the Jackal tribe, they feared they would turn to deal with them and silence the witnesses.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1]牛头王 – Niútóu wáng.↩
[2]Hrm… anyone else just wondering how he taught the eagles to explain any of this?? I’d believe it more if he just telepathically communicates with them.↩
[3]大力神牛 – Dàlì shén niú. ↩
[4]兽魂附体战技 – Shòu hún fù tǐ zhàn jì. It’s an actual thing, yea…↩
[5]石肤牛 – Shífūniú