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Chapter 386: Culling the Bandit Tribes
🕑 Added 2024-11-07 18:00:06 +0000 UTCAs the bandit tribesmen poured out of the hills, Kai waited for the inevitable. He lurked within a caravan of weaker cultivators, his bulk hidden by a shapeless Manticore tribe robe. They were a weaker splinter faction, returning to regroup with the others... and thus apparently an easy target.
It looked like the attacking group was one of the minor tribes he'd read about in the Bloodcoral archives: they were too small to exert their power on a region, so they hid in the Western Wilds and preyed upon the weak. This group allegedly overdosed on tattoos, weakening their overall potential but making them stronger than average cultivators of their stage. Unfortunately for them, this focus on raw strength usually meant they weren't subtle enough to see through shrouds, and didn't notice him waiting.
Given the reports of their atrocities, Kai had no qualms with what he was about to do.
When the bandits reached the side of the caravan, Kai vaulted into the air and unleashed a Tyrant's Claw. It tore a rift along the side of the group, tearing some of the enemy in half and knocking the others away. He landed on top of one, smashing the man into the ground, and then put his fist through a woman's stomach before she could stab him. His hand came out the other side as a claw.
He stepped away and Thunderbird's Wings let out a shockwave that knocked over several of the weaker bandits. After a month of fighting against weaker cultivators, Kai had realized there was a clear separation between stages when it came to his techniques like Thunderbird's Wings or Void Gaze: Qi Condensation cultivators would be instantly disabled or killed, Body Refinement cultivators would cough up blood, and Nascent Foundation cultivators would be stunned.
Speaking of which, there was a group of bandits that had circled around them to attack the caravan. Kai fixed them all with Void Gaze, doing his best not to hit the caravan's defenders as well. He could have finished them off, but better to let the Manticore tribesmen get involved in the fight so they could keep their pride.
While they fought, Kai moved in the other direction, continuing the slaughter.
After his Tyrant's Claw tore through one of the Nascent Foundation cultivators, the others finally broke, screaming and fleeing in the other direction. Kai launched after them, eyes burning, jaw extending into a maw. Part of him wanted to consume them whole, but he resisted the hunger since he wouldn't gain anything from it.
Instead he simply cut them down, then moved in a broad circle to eliminate the others who had fled. A few Manticore cultivators had been injured and one killed, but otherwise they had eliminated the enemy with few losses. While they cheered and roared to the heavens, Kai bent down to begin collecting the spoils.
He didn't bother with all of the weaker bandits, just focused on the corpses that had been Nascent Foundation stage. None of them had any spatial items, since they weren't commonplace even on Cloudspire, but they did have various defended pouches.
Soon enough Kai found what he wanted: vials of mana ink. Most were disappointingly weak, suitable only for Qi Condensation or Body Refinement stage tattoos - these bandits really were the dregs of the Western Wilds. A few, however, had vials of much more intense mana ink. Kai pocketed all of these, along with the few qi pills he thought were worthwhile. All the rest he would give to the Manticore tribesmen, since they could use the reinforcement.
So far, during all the fighting between the tribes, he had accumulated a fair amount of mana ink. Many different intensities, different elements, different colors... not enough for a tattoo, but perhaps the raw materials for a real advancement. To get there, he needed more specialists, and probably support from the Claw and Tail factions.
The splinter group finished their cheering and looked toward him nervously. Kai gestured south and they got moving again, so he loped along beside them. Since the ambush had been triggered there was no point hiding anymore, and they weren't likely to try to talk to him. In the beginning he'd tried to get to know some members of the Manticore tribe better, but they were generally too intimidated.
He wasn't interested in playing guard, so Kai was glad when in under an hour he saw a familiar group moving toward them. This was the main Claw faction, which had been patrolling to the south so that the bandits would feel bold enough to attack.
When the two groups met, there was shouting and embracing, even tears shed. Despite what had been said about the tribe being a chaotic mix, these sides seemed to be family. Kai had no part in that and instead searched the nearby rocky formations for the person he knew would be watching.
Soon he spotted Ahn Xi Feida standing atop a twisted stone arch and a single jump took him to stand beside her.
"Happy now?" Kai asked.
"This was a useful victory, but no, I'm not happy." Feida regarded him coolly from within her hood. "You can't keep fighting bandit tribes forever. To win this conflict, we'll need to take on other factions of the Manticore tribe. There's no chance you're afraid of them, so I don't understand why you keep avoiding them."
So it was that obvious. Kai doubted they would understand or care about his thoughts, so he shrugged. "It seems senseless to kill each other. Even if you unify the whole tribe, you need all the Earth Souls you can get. If we fight a major faction, both sides end up weaker."
"The tribes respect strength in cultivation, but they also require strength of character. You need to be ruthless here. If we don't fight them, we'll never unite and things will get worse."
"So you've said, but how, exactly?"
"The Manticore Quill faction has noticed that you're helping us gather our strength." Feida shifted her weight and stared down at her reunited factions. "Right now I'm not sure they've noticed the truce between Claw and Tail factions, but they might guess soon. The Quill faction has always been an uneasy ally, so they'd be happy to kill us all and go off on their own."
Kai sighed and accepted that she was probably right when it came to local matters. "Keep an eye on them and continue gathering strength. Now that you're a more united faction, surely some of the other splinters will gather under you."
"Some will, but not all."
They remained there a while longer, Feida examining him with an unreadable expression. Their alliance had been unquestioned, based on power and necessity, but it had never been comfortable. He wasn't sure whether the heads of the factions were actually correct, or whether they were just willing to weaken the Manticore tribe as a whole if it meant they stayed on top of the heap.
Kai finished making plans with Feida and then leapt off the rock arch. He fully indulged in Thunderbird's Wings, letting monstrous wings break from his back and send him streaking over the Western Wilds. Once he got away from the tribes, he flew low to the ground, darting back and forth between the rock spires, and for a while the raw exercise of speed left him happy.
The truth was that Feida was right about his strategy, though. He'd been looking for easy wins, ways to strengthen the Claw and Tail factions without weakening the other splinters. That couldn't last forever, which meant there would be more senseless battles coming up. And, given how their agreement had gone so far, he would be expected to lead the charge.
Claw and Tail had agreed on a hidden truce, both still intending to fight one another later but focusing on other enemies first. Kai's hope was that, after working together long enough, they would eventually see sense and reunite, deciding leadership by something more sensible like a duel. It was clearly too much to hope that he could end the Manticore tribe's civil war without some useless bloodshed, because that just wasn't how cultivator tribes behaved.
By the time Kai had reached the Tail faction, he was mostly resolved. Their camp had become a small tent city, as Kai had intimidated or lured other Tail factions to join together. They were much stronger than they had been at the start, but this was likely the easy part.
He discovered Ahn Rit Kulha seated outside the largest tent, one leg stuck out in front of him on a cushion. There were several Manticore tribe members leaning over it, pushing needles into his skin, but Kai didn't see any ink entering his skin and the color looked unchanged. Curious.
"You're back!" Kulha waved for him to approach. "Done helping the Claw faction?"
"For now." Kai gestured down to the work. "I thought you didn't have the right ink for a new tattoo."
"This is just the preparation. They need to work on my meridians, or the mana in a new tattoo will interfere and cause harm. I don't know all the details, but that's how it always goes."
That was another useful fact that might be necessary when Kai prepared his own tattoo. However, he couldn't help but think that this was also an internal power struggle: Feida was stronger primarily because she had a third tattoo, so if Kulha could find a compatible one, he might regain the edge. Neither was a threat to Kai personally, but if they killed one another, it would ruin his plans for the Manticore tribe.
"If you're preparing," Kai said, "you must expect to get new mana ink soon."
"Exactly right." Kulha sat back and nodded. "While you were gone, we've gotten important news: the Manticore Head faction is splitting apart. One side is uniting around the old Sky Soul patriarch, but the others are striking off on their own."
"They all are."
"Ah, but this is different. There's a sizable group that's taken a lot of tattoo specialists, mana ink, and other supplies. They're planning to abandon us altogether and go approach a larger sect. They could buy their freedom with their expertise and resources, becoming just a branch sect."
Kai felt his blood cool as he understood where this was going. "And you want to stop them."
"We have to." Kulha raised his hand, stretching his fingers toward the horizon. "If the factions stop believing in the Manticore tribe, they'll break into nothing. If they sell our secrets, we'll never regain our former strength." His hand clenched into a fist. "We need to make an example of them."
Creating a brutal example for the other factions, as well as seizing control of valuable resources. It seemed like senseless violence, but Kai didn't see an alternative and this would take him much closer to his ultimate goal. He certainly wasn't going to change the Western Wilds tribes in a month or two.
Fine, then. Time to make an example.
Comments
AnythingAtAll
Oh man. I sympathize with the position Kai is in 'cause Cloudspire politics is proving to be more ruthless than Rosemount's, which is just really unsuited for a guy like him. So I can see where this decision is coming from. I just can't help but feel like it's a mistake in some way. I guess one other outcome to this is him making another deal with the Head faction? I feel like that'll needlessly complicate his situation even further, though. I don't think this Manticore storyline is ending without Kai meeting the patriarch, at the very least. It's almost certainly not happening, but it's going to be so funny if Kai does end up leading the Manticores, precisely because he's going to be absolutely miserable. I suppose there's a more reasonable outcome in that vein, in that maybe Kai ends up with *another* sub-faction rallying around him specifically, and he'll have to deal with that too. It's a good ego boost, but all it'll bring him (and his wives) is trouble. All this for a tattoo. Better be a damn good one. It's Savage Heart-tier or bust.
GreatCabbage
Oh no they’re cooked😭
Runcible Technician
There's always kidnapping. He should Operation Paperclip these people.
