The Glory of the Tribe

Chapter 26

Boom! Lightning struck across the sky.

Crash! The rain began to pour.

The Jiang tribe's territory, which hadn’t seen rain in a long time, finally welcomed the long-awaited rainfall this night. The forces of nature, with thunder and lightning, a violent wind, and a torrential downpour, descended upon the land!

The downpour was intense, as if the Milky Way itself had spilled into the sky. After continuing for nearly half an hour, it suddenly stopped. Just moments later, light rain began again, followed by another violent storm, even fiercer than the first.

Another half hour passed.

The rain stopped, but the wind didn’t cease.

It wasn’t until the third downpour, just an hour before dawn, that the sky finally cleared. The dark clouds dissipated, and countless stars shone brightly in the sky, dazzling and beautiful.

An ancient consciousness began to awaken.

Jiang Qinghong suddenly opened her eyes. There was a strange and authoritative expression in her gaze, mixed with a hint of confusion. But soon, it settled, and the memories of this life quickly took over her thoughts. She immediately recalled what had just happened, how she had awakened the memories of gods and demons.

"I... how did I end up born in this tribe? I should have been born in Feixue City!"

A flicker of anger and surprise flashed in Jiang Qinghong’s eyes. "What went wrong? This tribe! A barbaric and foolish tribe! They don’t give women any cultivation resources! How could I, at twenty years old, still not have broken through to the congenital stage? I should have broken through before I was fourteen! I should have awakened at the time of my breakthrough, not on my wedding night! He! He took away my... he... damn him!"

Jiang Qinghong suddenly turned her head and stared at Jiang Xuan.

A sense of extreme danger jolted Jiang Xuan awake from his stupor. He immediately leapt off the bed. He thought he was fast enough, but the hand coming toward him was faster! Jiang Xuan realized he couldn’t dodge it and had no choice but to strike back, though he held back to avoid harming her.

Boom!

Jiang Xuan flew across the room, knocking over furniture, sliding far away. This was the result of him trying to lessen the force of the blow. He stared in disbelief at the bed, "Qinghong... you..."

"Shut up!" Jiang Qinghong ripped the blanket from herself, wrapping it around her body. She fixed a fierce, cold stare at Jiang Xuan and slowly got off the bed, stepping toward him one step at a time.

"What did you do? What did you do?"

"I... we got married, and then..."

Jiang Xuan instinctively answered, sensing something was off with Jiang Qinghong. Her gaze was unfamiliar.

What made him more alarmed was that Jiang Qinghong's aura was growing stronger!

She had broken through the congenital realm without any hindrance! The aura of a congenital warrior began to radiate from her body. The transformation of her body was rapid and direct, but that wasn’t all. With every step she took, her aura grew stronger. Soon, she reached the middle stage of congenital, then the late stage, and finally, the perfect congenital!

Her aura finally stabilized! It seemed that this was the limit of her breakthrough for now!@@@@

But it still shocked Jiang Xuan!

This was unbelievable! How could she break through so rapidly?!

And... who was she? This wasn’t the Qinghong he knew! The Qinghong he knew would never look at him like this, and she would never show such murderous intent!

Jiang Xuan couldn’t understand, and there was no time to think further.

He realized she wanted to kill him! What was worse was that he had already exchanged a palm strike with her earlier. He had been forced to hold back to avoid harming her, but now, it made no difference whether he held back or not. Without a blade in his hand, his speed could never surpass someone who had reached congenital perfection. Jiang Qinghong had the power to kill him now!

Whoosh! Jiang Qinghong suddenly blurred into a shadow and lunged toward him!

"Qinghong!!" Jiang Xuan shouted but didn’t move to dodge.

Jiang Qinghong flickered in front of him, closing the distance to mere half an inch between their faces. Her hand immediately grasped Jiang Xuan’s throat, and their eyes locked. Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

"You... what happened to you?" Jiang Xuan asked.

A strange struggle flashed in Jiang Qinghong’s eyes. Her recent memories of the past ten years impacted her, but it was brief. Her gaze soon returned to its cold, ice-like demeanor.

"He can’t die by my hand. The battle to the death must not end because of me. I cannot be distracted by such things before I recover my strength..."

Jiang Qinghong thought to herself, convincing herself. Slowly, she released her grip and, with a sudden blur, retreated two steps. She glanced back at Jiang Xuan, a complex look flashing in her eyes.

"Don’t let me see you again!" Jiang Qinghong spoke coldly before vanishing like a shadow, shattering the window as she left.

Her aura quickly faded, disappearing entirely, making her impossible to track.

Jiang Xuan was left in a daze.

What the hell just happened?!

His newlywed wife ran away!!

"Xiao Xuan!"

"Xiao Xuan, are you alright?"

"Was there an assassination attempt?"

"We’re here!"

Several presences rapidly approached, leaping into the courtyard and shouting. The door was immediately shattered, and Jiang Cuiyun, along with several innate female warriors, rushed into the room, each wielding a long knife and scanning the surroundings warily. They lived nearby and had sensed the unusual congenital aura emanating from Jiang Xuan’s house, prompting their immediate arrival.

Jiang Xuan was still there, appearing uninjured.

"My innate power has doubled again!" Jiang Xuan exclaimed. "Not only that, my body has been refined to the peak of the acquired stage, just a hair away! Just a hair away! Break through!"

Boom!!!

In that moment, Jiang Xuan felt every part of his body, his organs, meridians, bones, muscles, skin, blood vessels... even the tiniest meridian in his fingers, feeling as though they were being "broken open" by innate power! Then came the sensation of clarity, as if he could breathe directly with his body, constantly absorbing and expelling the spiritual energy of the heavens and earth!

An unprecedented and terrifying physical strength emerged.

Congenital Realm achieved!

"I did it! Senior said I needed massive resources to break through, but I actually succeeded because of my wedding night with Qinghong!" Jiang Xuan opened his eyes.

Huyan Tribe Territory, Mysterious Palace.

"Hahaha! You’re mine! You’ll be mine soon! Just two more days! The Shentu tribe will win the battle to the death! You’ll be mine!"

"Just wait, I’ll personally witness it!"

"Not just me, other tribes too. They all bought trophies from the Shentu tribe. They’ll witness the fall of the Jiang tribe!"

"Hahaha! Are you ready, beauty?"

Huyan Qi laughed maniacally in front of the statue. This was the night before his journey to the Jiang tribe's territory. The strange sensation in the statue’s eyes made him keep quiet about it, but it also made him return repeatedly.

"Are you the only one who has been here?" A cold female voice suddenly sounded from behind.

"Yes, only me... You speak? Are you talking to me? Illusion! No! It’s not an illusion! Am I going crazy? No! I’m not crazy!"

"You haven’t told anyone about this place, right?" The cold female voice came again.

"No! Absolutely not! Hahaha! I’m not crazy! You really can talk!" Huyan Qi shouted madly at the statue.

Whoosh!

A sword light flashed.

Huyan Qi’s manic smile froze, and his eyes lost their spark. His head instantly fell, the neck cut smoothly, and his body collapsed.

The woman in the black dress walked to the statue, removing her hat to reveal the stunning beauty that was called the most beautiful on Heitan Mountain. She looked up.

Jiang Qinghong gazed at the statue and noticed that the statue’s eyes hadn’t lost their effect.

She let out a breath of relief.

This was her final safeguard for this place. If the eyes no longer worked due to time passing, the things she had hidden here might have been discovered.

Jiang Qinghong walked behind the statue and pressed a seemingly ordinary spot. With a forceful push, she activated a mechanism!

Crash!

The underground palace shook violently, and some stones fell from above.

Jiang Qinghong walked to another corner of the palace and pressed against another stone wall... She repeated this seven times! Ancient mechanism techniques! Though not as advanced as an array or restrictive formation, activating it only required the congenital realm and knowledge of the location and sequence.

Boom!!

After another vibration, the jade statue slowly shifted, revealing a hidden passage beneath its base.

Jiang Qinghong walked down the steps, passed through the passage, and entered a small stone room.

The stone room was not large. On a stone table, a longsword lay, and there was a small box in front of it. In one corner of the room was a stone bed, with a tall, bald man sitting at the bedside, his eyes closed and motionless.

This was all.

Jiang Qinghong opened the small box on the stone table and smiled again.

"Thirteen hundred years! Still good! Everything’s still here! These are enough for me to cultivate back to my god and demon form... it’s just a matter of time!"

She thought, picking up a small bag from the box.

A moment later, Jiang Qinghong wrapped the items into a bundle and slung it over her shoulder.

She walked to the man on the stone bed, cut her palm, and let her blood drip onto his bald head. Her blood was absorbed by him... This was a re-establishment of control! The man was not human, but rather the most powerful bodyguard she had left for her reincarnation—a top-tier secret method puppet!

No one, except gods and demons, could destroy a top-tier secret method puppet!

He had the top combat power under the gods and demons!

The man opened his eyes.

"Warrior slave, we leave." Jiang Qinghong ordered.

"Yes, master." The tall figure followed her step by step.

The two left the underground palace.

"Destroy this place," Jiang Qinghong commanded.

"Yes, master!" The warrior slave vanished behind her, and soon, the underground palace was filled with rumblings as it began to collapse.