Chapter 1143, Two Paths

Translator: Silavin

 

Qiong, Ai Li, and the others were growing confused. They had released the insects, and then the Flame Dragon Tribe’s Shaman had simply gone quiet.

 

The two Shaman Priestesses beside him had started whispering to each other instead, and after some time of that, the Flame Dragon Tribe’s Shaman had taken on an expression that was difficult to read.

 

They felt the tension arrive all at once. Their throats moved without meaning to. Sweat began to gather at their temples.

 

It was not warm in the room at all. They were not wearing much. And yet they were soaked through.

 

“Shaman, might I ask, are you satisfied with the insects?” Qiong worked up the nerve to speak.

 

He decided that watching the man’s expression darken in silence was worse. Asking was at least slightly more polite.

 

“You are from the Horned Goat Tribe, yes?” Su Bai sat up straight. The insects could wait. He had the Coiled Goat Tribe still waiting, and if the Horned Goat Tribe truly had ties to the Dark Scorpion Tribe, cooperation was completely off the table.

 

At least for now. What came after depended on how this went.

 

“Yes, Shaman. We are all from the Horned Goat Tribe.” Qiong was confused. He didn’t understand why that question needed asking.

 

“Bo and Luc, these two Totem Warriors. Do you know them from your Tribe?” Su Bai asked.

 

“Yes, Shaman.” Qiong’s face went pale in an instant. The sweat at his temples was already running freely.

 

There was no mystery about why. Those two were the Horned Goat Tribe’s scouts. They were their intelligence agents, sent to gather information on other Tribes. But for quite some time now, there had been no word from either of them.

 

When Qiong and Ai Li and the others had left their Tribe to travel here, Bo and Luc had still been unaccounted for.

 

“Then do you know what those two did?” Su Bai continued.

 

His tone was not severe. His expression was not cold. It was simply a question, delivered plainly.

 

“We haven’t had any word from them in a very long time. Shaman, did they do something that harmed the Flame Dragon Tribe?” Qiong asked, voice tight.

 

He was afraid of a yes. His palms were already wet.

 

“Is your Tribe a subordinate Tribe under the Dark Scorpion Tribe?” Su Bai still did not answer the question directly. He wanted to understand the shape of this Tribe first. Then he could decide what to do.

 

“That is…” Qiong had not expected the question to go there.

 

His expression shifted in a way that told Su Bai he had read the situation correctly.

 

What startled Qiong was how the Flame Dragon Tribe had come to know about that at all. Had it come from Bo and Luc? If it had, then something must have happened to them, and if they’d truly acted against the Flame Dragon Tribe, then all three of them standing in this room were finished.

 

The Dark Scorpion Tribe was a great distance from the Flame Dragon Tribe. Hardly anyone in the surrounding area even knew the Dark Scorpion Tribe by name.

 

The thought that shocked Qiong was this: had the Flame Dragon Tribe itself become a subordinate under the Dark Scorpion Tribe? Was that why the question was being asked as a kind of recognition between members?

 

If so, he could breathe a little easier.

 

Though that was only one possibility. The other was that the Dark Scorpion Tribe had offended the Flame Dragon Tribe, and this question was the opening of a reckoning.

 

“So your silence is confirmation?” Su Bai settled back against his chair slowly.

 

“Yes. Our Tribe suffered internal conflict some time ago and split into two factions, which is also how the Coiled Goat Tribe came to exist.” Qiong began to explain, word by careful word.

 

The story was straightforward enough. Internal strife had fractured their Tribe, and the Dark Scorpion Tribe had moved in while they were weakened, absorbing the Horned Goat Tribe. With no means to resist a Tribe of that size, they had been left to be used as others saw fit.

 

Their primary link to the Dark Scorpion Tribe had been Bo and Luc. With both of them gone and silent, the Horned Goat Tribe had had no contact with the Dark Scorpion Tribe for a long while.

 

“There are two paths in front of you now. The choice your Tribe makes will determine whether your Tribe survives or not.” Su Bai said, and the lightness was gone from his voice.

 

He could see that the hook had been taken. Their eyes and expressions made that plain. All three of them were soaked through at the forehead by now, like startled rabbits.

 

Part of the reason they had been put up in the Restful Night Building for a few days before this meeting was precisely so they could witness the Flame Dragon Tribe’s strength for themselves.

 

During those few days, the Flame Dragon Tribe had held nothing back in showing what they were made of.

 

Any person with sense would know better than to make an enemy of the Flame Dragon Tribe. Qiong and his companions were no exception.

 

They knew. If the Flame Dragon Tribe chose to move against them, the Horned Goat Tribe would not hold.

 

And Hu Shi and the others had been inside the Horned Goat Tribe’s settlement before. The Flame Dragon Tribe already had a rough picture of what that Tribe could manage.

 

“Please tell us, Shaman. We will choose carefully.” Qiong said at once.

 

That was the reality of being a weak Tribe. Since they were weak, other Tribes led them by the nose.

 

In the past, they would not have worried. Their numbers had been respectable. Their strength had been real.

 

But that was then. Their Tribe’s strength had been cut in half by the split, and the Dark Scorpion Tribe had held them for so long that the capacity to resist had long since gone hollow.

 

“Are you not aware of what passed between us and the Black Snake Tribe?” Su Bai asked.

 

He was genuinely curious, for a moment. That affair between the Black Snake Tribe and the Flame Dragon Tribe was something all the surrounding Tribes had heard of by now.

 

“We’ve heard fragments of it, but our understanding was never very clear. We had matters of our own to attend to.” Qiong shook his head helplessly. “We didn’t think much of it at the time. And when we set out to come here, it didn’t occur to us either. We only knew your goods were exceptional.”

 

“I won’t waste words. The first path is to join the Flame Dragon Tribe and work for us from this point on.”

 

Su Bai leaned forward, and his voice was steady and plain. “The second path is to stand against us. And then we destroy your Tribe. You know we have the means to do as I say.”

 

He had no desire to frighten them. But the Horned Goat Tribe’s connection to the Dark Scorpion Tribe made cooperation impossible.

 

“We will join the Flame Dragon Tribe.” Qiong didn’t hesitate for even a moment.

 

There was no other option to speak of. Did he even have a choice?

 

Refuse, and the entire Horned Goat Tribe would be gone.

 

He had already thought of it. The Tribes that had vanished from the surrounding area. All of them had connections to the Dark Scorpion Tribe.

 

Who had done it was now clear.