Martial Peak Chapter 2849

Chapter 2849 – First Battle

Translator: Silavin & Danny
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Outside King City, horns blasted again and again as one group after another moved step by step, heading north, towards the warfront.
There were three thousand people in the Shaman Niu Clan formed into ten regular units, an Aerial Cavalry, and an Elite Guard, but not one person was making any extraneous noise.
At the front of the team, the two Shaman Masters from the Shaman Divine Temple, four Shaman Warriors and nine Shaman Apprentices looked up.
Yang Kai sat on his Eagle King’s back like a true commander, and swept his sharp eyes across the formation. Every clansman held their chest up and showed their bravest side.
Without much to say, Yang Kai simply waved his hand and ordered, “Depart!”
Following the screeches of the Giant Eagles, the Aerial Cavalry took the lead and soared into the sky.
Led by Yue and Lu, the Shaman Warriors and Shaman Apprentices joined hands to perform a large-scale Light Body Spell. As the light descended, they blessed the group of three thousand people, making their bodies feel lighter.
The Shaman Niu Clan rumbled off from King City at a great speed, and although there were a large number of them, they maintained a disciplined formation.
In the sky, sitting on the Eagle King’s back, Yang Kai was meditating and cultivating, not wasting any time.
The order given by Shaman Dang earlier in King City was very simple. Right now, the Demon Race was strengthening their fortifications and establishing a defence perimetre. It seemed that they wanted to delay for time so that the Masters on their side could have enough time to recover.
The Barbarian Race definitely would not sit idly by and watch though; therefore, all the major Clans had set out at this moment during the recovery time of the Demon Masters to retake the four occupied territories.
On the side of the South Barbarian Clan, about one hundred and fifty groups each led by a Shaman Grandmaster would attack the Demon Race from the South, destroy their encampments, and force them to retreat. Then, the Shaman Kings of the major Clans would lead the people to kill as many of the Demon Race as possible.
This strategy for the early stages of the war were made to be very flexible. There was no special task for the groups under the Shaman Grandmasters. As long as they encounter the Demon Race, they could just act freely and kill all the Demons.
Yang Kai was satisfied with this strategy as his strength was still in urgent need of improvement. If he had been given a special assignment, he would definitely be far more occupied. As such, this situation was the best for him.
If he could improve his strength to a certain extent before the climax of the war, he would certainly be able to shine brightly on this grand stage.
After living in this Ancient World for such a long time, Yang Kai had unconsciously put himself in the position of a real Ancient Barbarian, and he could no longer simply remain idle as a bystander after being involved in this war.
The roughly one hundred and fifty groups led by the Shaman Grandmasters departed from King City together, but over time, the groups dispersed to different destinations.
At first, there were still some friendly troops that could be seen around the Shaman Niu Clan, but after ten days, not a single friendly troop was detected within the investigation range of the Aerial Cavalry.
More than a hundred thousand people had been completely scattered on this vast land, and many Ancient Barbarians were rushing into the cruel war that would decide their life or death.
Ten days later, Yang Kai, who was cultivating on the Eagle King’s back, suddenly opened his eyes. Ah Hua flew over on the back of her Giant Eagle and when she approached, she stopped, skillfully stabilizing her body, and informed with a calm face, “Sir, there is a village up ahead.”
“What did you find?” Yang Kai questioned.
Ah Hua shook her head, “Nothing.”
Yang Kai nodded and instructed, “We’ll stop there to rest. I’m afraid it won’t be this peaceful for long. Replenish yourselves and prepare for the coming battle.”
“Yes!” Ah Hua received the order and the group continued to move.
Sure enough, they arrived at a small village about an hour later. The scale of this village was larger than that of Blue South Village, but not by much, while most of the houses were built of wood and stone with a low wall protecting its perimeter.
Immediately after entering the village, the Ancient Barbarians were delegated into different posts. Some were responsible for the security of the village, while others began to start fires to cook. Everything proceeded orderly.
Although such a group had just been established not long ago, it already had the makings of a well-trained army.
Yang Kai initially wanted to find a place to have a good rest, but he instantly felt uneasy when he entered the village. It felt like a pair of invisible eyes was staring at him.
This feeling startled him and he quietly released his Divine Sense to carefully investigate the situation of the village.
To his surprise though, he did not notice any abnormalities, and the feeling of being watched quickly disappeared. He shook his head and asked Tiea, “Ask everyone to be careful. Something might happen.”
Tiea looked at him in shock, “What did you find?”
Yang Kai replied faintly, “It won’t do any harm to be careful. This is already not a peaceful area.”
Tiea nodded, “Understood.”
After Tiea passed down the order, the clansmen all became more vigilant.
Not long after, the smell of cooked meat began to permeate the air. During the ten days of marching, they basically only had one meal each day and some of the Barbarians could not bear it any longer. Therefore, at this moment, their stomachs could not help growling when they smelled the fragrant meat.
Without waiting for the meat to be fully cooked, the clansmen began to split it and feast with satisfied looks on their faces.
At this time, Yang Kai suddenly felt a heart palpitation, and under the perception of his Divine Sense, several dozen strange and concealed auras emerged in the village out of thin air.
It was too late for him to investigate clearly what was going on so he simply roared, “Enemy attack!”
The people who were enjoying the meal were stunned at the call, but quickly reacted. They hurriedly put aside their food and took out their weapons forming a defence perimeter. A dozen Shamans also hurriedly pushed their Shaman Strength to get ready to attack at any time.
In the next moment, accompanied by a weird hissing sound, strands of dark aura surfaced from underground, and the whole village was shrouded by it in the blink of an eye.
The clansmen were surprised. No one knew what this was, but they instinctively readied themselves.
“Demon Qi!” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes in shock.
This was actually Demon Qi! Furthermore, it was a very pure Ancient Demon Qi!
Although he kept hearing about the invasion of the Demon Race before, Yang Kai also wondered whether the Demon Race in the Ancient World was the same Demon Race that he knew of. However, he could not judge at all because he had not gotten in contact with them personally and did not receive much information about them yet.
Only now, seeing the dark auras with his own eyes, did Yang Kai immediately understand that the so-called Demon Race was the same Ancient Demon Race that he knew of.
Back then, outside Maplewood City, when the Ancient Great Demon revived and besieged the city with its Ancient Demon Qi, many people were demonised by it and transformed into Demons themselves. Even Yang Kai himself was contaminated. Fortunately, he was able to seal the Ancient Demon Qi within his dantian thanks to the Firmament Tree, otherwise, he would have lost his mind to its corruption.
This Ancient Demon Qi had the ability to invade the body, and anyone contaminated with it was at risk of transforming into a half-Human half-Demon that could be enslaved by the Demon Race.
Given that such a deserted village could hide so much of this Demon Qi, it was obviously a trap!
Moreover, what surprised Yang Kai even more was that the Ancient Demon Qi was hidden so deeply that he could not detect it even with his Divine Sense.
It definitely did not appear out of thin air, and even if it was hidden underground, someone must have activated it. As such, Yang Kai was very concerned about the several dozen strange auras that he felt just now.
As soon as Yang Kai investigated with his Divine Sense, he immediately found a clue.
There were many bulges on the ground concealed by the Ancient Demon Qi, and those strange auras were being released from these bulges. These bulges emerged abruptly and silently. After swelling to a certain extent, they turned into figures made out of sand, with complete facial features, but the skin was dry like soil. An indescribable Ancient Demon Qi was exuding from all over their bodies.
These were real Demons!
The sudden change made the group of three thousand people panic.
No one had ever experienced such a thing before, where they could not see their own hands in the black shroud, and there seemed to be some other things hidden in the darkness as well that could evoke wicked thoughts in their minds and urge them to take action to kill everything in front of them.
Shamanic Spells lit up one after another in the dark, like beacons that were guiding the three thousand people to the light.
The light on Yang Kai’s body was particularly dazzling and directly spread out over a five kilometres radius, preventing the invasion of the Demon Qi.
“Solidify! Purify!” Yang Kai shouted and took the lead in waving his hands, shrouding the surroundings with circles of milky white light.
The dozen Shamans, whose brains had gone black after being caught up in this sudden incident, immediately came back to their senses and followed Yang Kai’s lead to perform the two Shamanic Spells.
Under this situation, the standard of every Shaman could be seen clearly.
The light of the Shamanic Spell cast by Yang Kai covered the entire village and even some of the surroundings while the light cast by Tiea could only cover half of the village. Yue and Lu were almost the same as Tiea with their combined force while the remaining dozen Shaman Warriors and Shaman Apprentices appeared deficient in comparison. The weakest Shaman could only light an area of several tens of metres around himself.
Hissing sounds rang out.
With the blooming light of Shamanic Spells, the darkness that shrouded the world seemed to have encountered its nemesis. Many large areas of the darkness dissipated into nothingness as the rich darkness receded at a visible speed.
The invading Ancient Demon Qi immediately tried to swim away in an attempt to escape like a living creature, but it was still unable to escape from the light of the Shamanic Spells.
The situation had turned favourable, but Yang Kai was still feeling chills.
The Ancient Barbarian Race did not know much about Demon Qi, but Yang Kai had experienced it once in person. He knew the terror and strength of this Demon Qi. Except for the dozen Shamans who timely pushed their Shamanic Spells, the rest of his three thousand subordinates were basically contaminated by the Demon Qi just now.
Once contaminated by Demon Qi, it would be inevitable for them to turn into Demons. At that time, they would not be able to recognize anybody, becoming blood-thirsty and ferocious.
Just as he thought about this, a shrill scream filled the air, and as Yang Kai followed the sound to perceive the situation, his heart sank.