Chapter 176 – Thousand Masks (1/2)

Translated by Jon and Joycelyn

On top of a branch stood a man wearing hairless animal hide. The process of removing hair required meticulous handling. The green stripes on the hide resembled that of the trees in the forest, as dark and light green colors intertwined. If used in the forest, it would be extremely difficult to spot.

This type of attire wasn’t too uncommon. When the weather warmed up, Shao Xuan found many people wearing these clothes. Rather, the more peculiar aspect of the man was the mask he was wearing.

At first glance, it looked like he had purposely put on a flower-patterned mask. But actually, this mask was a special transformation of a part of their facial bones. The patterns on the mask too were actually a totem pattern induced by their totem’s power.

A murderous aura drifted out, which startled the nearby birds pecking at the rotting meat, making them fly away.

The number of birds camping around the bodies wasn’t small, and when they all flew away, it resembled a black curtain obscuring the corpses.

Taking a deep breath and holding a stone dagger in his hand, Yu subconsciously pointed the tip towards the man’s direction, not knowing when the other side was going to pop out.

At the same time, from a high elevation, the man leapt down. With a flash of lightning, he slashed apart the black curtain, going directly at Yu.

Without any unnecessary movements, Yu felt countless blades flying towards him, although the man only held a single sword. No matter where he went, the swords would always be able to find him.

Yu’s expression stiffened as he felt himself feeling stuck, as if in a bog. Struggling, his body wouldn’t listened to him. When he finally made it out, it was already too late to hide!

At this moment, Yu started to feel regret.

Why had he come to this place? Why didn’t he just leave after shooting the deer? Before leaving the tribe, his grandpa had stressed that it wasn’t good to be overly curious, and when discovering something abnormal, he should stay away!

Perhaps in the next few moments, he too would be like the corpses on the ground, chopped down, becoming food for the flesh-eating birds.

Suddenly, he felt a hand grab his shoulder and quickly pull him back. A sharp blade appeared above his head, clashing with another. The two stone swords were not flashy, and when collided, many fragments broke off them.

In the middle of all this blade qi, Yu’s heart wildly pounded, as he had been given a new chance to live. But he knew that now wasn’t the time to think. If it wasn’t for Shao Xuan, he would already be lying lifelessly on the ground. He couldn’t be of any help just standing there, so he hurriedly moved back a few steps, giving Shao Xuan enough room to fight.

Holding the stone sword in one hand, after saving Yu with the other, Shao Xuan put his palm on the flat side of the blade, blocking a sudden attack.

If it was an ordinary stone sword, it would have immediately been broken, but the sword in Shao Xuan’s hand had been given to him by the shaman. It was also the sword that Shao Xuan had taken from the stone worm king’s domain when he found the ancestors. Before he had left the tribe, the shaman had it meticulously polished.

When leaving the tribe, apart from the tooth sword that Old Ke had polished, he had also brought this sword. After going through countless fights, it had already shrunk quite a bit…

From the first impact, Shao Xuan felt strong blade qi passing through the stone sword and settling into his arms. However, he wasn’t too afraid. The totem patterns on his arms even gave him enough strength to strike back.

The two people quickly moves away from each other, and the man flew all the way back to the tree branch he was originally standing on. Carefully observing Shao Xuan from behind his mask, his two eyes were showing doubt and surprise.

Just when Yu had decided to take out the poisonous darts from his bag, the masked man quickly fled, no longer dealing with them.

He let out a sigh of relief after carefully scanning his surroundings.

From the moment the enemy had unleashed the first attack, to Shao Xuan blocking it, till the man fleeing, only a span of breath had passed.

Originally believing that he could defend himself by mastering the usage of frog poison, he realized that he was still soft. Many times, true strength suppressed these skills and there wouldn’t even be any time to react.

Now, thinking back to when he had faced the sword face on, with nowhere to go, his blood froze up and he couldn’t move.

“Scared me to death!” Yu said while gasping for air. He didn’t seem to mind the smelly air, and even if it was worse, it would still be better than death.