Someone else agreed. "We should let them fight over the spoils, and while they're preoccupied with that, we'll sneak in and get them for ourselves."
"Do you think people are that dumb? Receiving such easy and tempting information will only make them more suspicious and wary," said the muscular dark-skinned man.
"Silence. Lang Ji, go to Mu Village and Po Village to tell their village chiefs about this. If our three villages join hands to deal with Stone Village, we will definitely be able to succeed." The village chief was getting tired of the bickering. Thus, he decided to end the arguments with a decision.
"But Mu Village and Po Village have never had any contact with Stone Village. Would they join hands with us so willingly?" Lang Ji was slightly surprised and confused by the village chief's decision.
"Just tell them that Stone Village has been hiding an ancient ancestral artifact with the ability to kill Suan Ni and can be used without restrictions. The two foxes would definitely join us if they hear this," said the village chief to Lang Ji.
Lang Ji nodded his head slightly. "Alright, when do we act?"
"As soon as possible."
Lang Ji heard this and once again nodded his head. He turned around to begin his mission before the young man stopped him.
"Not so fast."
Lang Ji stopped and turned around to look at the young man.
The young man ignored Lang Ji's gaze as he spoke to the village chief. "Village Chief, if I remember correctly, there had been four groups of cultivators representing the four villages in the Great Wasteland sent out to retrieve Suan Ni's corpse. However, the others had died due to the tide of desolate beasts triggered by Suan Ni.
"How about Lang Ji informs the other villages that the death of their cultivators was not due to the tide of desolate beasts, but the greedy Stone Village who killed the others just to keep the spoils all to themselves? The Wolf Village cultivators only survived because of our guardian spirit who died protecting us."
The young man wanted the people of Stone Village to bear the blame and anger of the others. By sowing discord among the three villages, Wolf Village would be able to kill multiple birds with one stone.
And even if Stone Village had the sword Qi as their hidden ancestral artifact, they still wouldn't be able to hold their defenses against the attack of multiple villages' guardian spirits.
'You think you have the ability to kill guardian spirits? Let's see if you can kill two at the same time.'
Lang Ji nodded, left the room, and rushed off to deliver the 'news' to the villages as directed by the village chief and their cultivation prodigy.
And thus, a conspiracy was planned in the darkness of the night,
Back at the still-clueless Stone Village, the villagers were still fussing over the children in the midst of body tempering. None of them had an inkling of the target Wolf Village had placed on their heads.
Stone Village was not particularly weak and defenseless. It's just that they had become comfortable with the protection and consequent peace brought by their guardian spirit.
The most fighting they ever did was with desolate beasts for their hunts and sacrificial offerings. They had never hurt another soul on purpose.
But unfortunately, despite acting only in self-defense, their attacks on Wolf Village and the death of the latter's guardian spirit had started the vicious cycle of revenge.
As Wolf Village's scheme unraveled, the children of the desolate Stone Village had also successfully ended the body tempering process. Upon completion, the children could not suppress the excitement as they jumped up and down and compared the differences among themselves.
The noisy atmosphere interrupted Ye Yun's plan to use his Divine Sense to cultivate the Art of Nine Revolutions Essence.
He turned and looked up at the willow tree. "I really envy you and your deep sleep. If you were to wake up and hear such noise, you would definitely feel as restless I do right now.
"This may be a different world, but children noises still sound the same."
Ye Yun took advantage of the willow tree's lack of response to speak his mind.
Ye Yun had been cultivating the Art of Nine Revolutions Essence for almost a few months and he had reached a stage where he would soon be able to temper his body.
However, it would be another few years until he had improved his cultivation to the point where he had figured out the laws of this world and found a way to create a soul avatar.
Therefore, the more powerful the cultivation method, the more diligently he would cultivate it. Ye Yun could not help but sigh, but he was not disappointed or demotivated.
He might still be a blade of grass under the willow tree, but he had come a long way from when he first transmigrated into this world.
——
The thick and strong branches of the mountain forest trees were green with lush and luxuriant leaves, forming a canopy that blotted out the sky and covered the sun. Closer towards the mountain forest floor, countless desolate beasts roamed, foraged, and hunted.
The sounds of the mountain forest were not as harmonious as its visuals - branches and leaves rustled as the wind blew past while wild beasts occasionally roared cacophonously.
But all of these were still very much natural to the mountain forest except for a group of people traveling through in strange clothes. They looked very different from the people of the Great Wastelands. Their clothes seemed to be of a luxurious quality that was not hindered by the snagging of twigs and splashes of mud on the mountain forest floor.
The speed at which they traveled, despite the size of their group, was especially high but what was hard to ignore was the different marks on their flags: a dragon, sword, hammer, ghost, crown, and chrysanthemum.
"Bishop, we have been walking through the forest for more than half a month, but we still don't recognize any of these or know where we are," said a child in confusion as he walked next to the bishop.
He was a cultivation prodigy who had been selected by his people to travel in the group.
"I have never heard of such an ancient beast forest in Martial Soul Continent. Could it be that we have entered a forbidden area created by some powerful warrior?" The child spoke again.
They had entered a forbidden area before this, but then mistakenly stepped into an ancient teleportation array formation and ended up teleported to this unknown forest.
The bishop started to frown.
He was a member of Martial Soul Hall who was very knowledgeable and experienced. As such, he had noticed quite a few things from their surroundings that told him that they had arrived on a different continent, which was what the people of this world called the sub-worlds.
Traveling to other continents was something anyone with the ability could do. This was something all cultivators of Martial Soul Continent knew. Not the child, however, not yet.
But their current situation was different. They had accidentally stepped into the ancient teleportation array formation and had lost their way.
If the bishop thought about it properly and long enough, this was probably a continent in the west.
"If we've gone to the west, could this possibly be Perfect Continent?" The bishop could not help but mutter as he thought to himself.