On a flat hill, the Li Clan had settled a few meters above the grassy plains below. Walls that served as fortifications had been raised, and hundreds of Iron Snake Gu were deployed upon them like poisonous iron vines, forming deadly spikes.
Gu Masters stood and patrolled atop these walls, exhaling cold vapor from their mouths. The sky was already dark, and the white moon had risen, standing at the center of the heavens surrounded by hundreds of brilliant stars.
At a distant location, a young Gu Master with long green hair hid in the shadows, wearing heavy leather robes tightened with copper belts.
"This is a good clan. It's merely a medium-to-small sized tribe, and from my observations their leader is only a rank four Gu Master… Now that I have refined all my Gu worms through parallel refinement and restored my cultivation to the peak stage of rank four, there are very few things in this tribe that could harm me. However, the sudden appearance of a rank four Gu Master out of nowhere would be extremely suspicious. I must create a situation where I help them—then they will invite me into their tribe. I should also conceal my cultivation level and make it appear as rank four initial stage. That way, their vigilance will be lower."
Normally, the surrounding area of a clan or tribe would be heavily guarded, and no one could approach this closely. But in the Northern Plains, where tribes constantly migrated and did not remain in fixed locations, the security around tribes was weaker compared to the other four regions.
Because of this, Fang Tian was able to sneak close and observe the tribe using Gu worms. Now that all his Gu worms had been refined in parallel and returned to their true strength, he could display a large portion of his former power.
"I have followed this tribe for a long time, but I have not found a good opportunity to intervene and help them to gain their goodwill… They are a suitable target because they are under pressure from a neighboring tribe—Gan Clan and Li Clan."
His observation of the two tribes had not been useless. Aside from gathering much information, he was able to understand the general situation and roughly determine the strength of both tribes. His conclusion was that the Gan Clan was far stronger than the Li Clan. If not for the fact that both belonged to the righteous path, they would have already attacked the Li Clan and absorbed it.
Because of this, Fang Tian realized that if he wished to blend into the Gu Master world of the Northern Plains, he could find a weak tribe—just as Fang Yuan had once done—and balance the power between it and the forces coveting it. In this way, he would gain a solid foothold within that tribe. Even as an outsider, he could seize control by eliminating some opponents and installing a puppet to lead the tribe while he controlled everything from behind the scenes.
Without a doubt, this was the best and most practical strategy. Instead of joining one of the Huang Jin tribes, becoming nothing more than decoration and risking discovery of his extreme physique by their Immortal Gu Masters, he could manipulate a small tribe and make it participate in the struggle for the Imperial Court Blessed Land.
"Oh? They're coming out… Should I kill them, or let them go?"
The gates of the Li Clan opened, and a patrol of three Gu Masters emerged. The group rode large-bellied horses, a mount very common in the Northern Plains, and moved away from the Li Clan camp to sweep the surrounding area.
Unfortunately for them, they had become Fang Tian's target.
"Uncle, is it true what they say—that the patrol groups sent out by our clan are being targeted by the Gan Clan?"
A young Gu Master riding at the back of the group asked a middle-aged Gu Master anxiously. The man the youth called uncle laughed bitterly as he looked back at him.
"It's true, little Zhang. Our conflict with the Gan Clan has reached a dangerous stage, and they have begun making their move by applying pressure. To the clan's higher-ups, we are merely numbers on a board. Any loss of people like us serves only as a warning signal for the clan. For example, if someone from our tribe dies and we cannot find their body, it means the Gan Clan killed them to exert pressure on us…"
The middle-aged man sighed helplessly. Even though he was rank two upper stage, his value was insignificant to the clan's upper levels.
"Uncle… doesn't that mean if we encounter an incident because of the Gan Clan… we're just dying to send a warning and apply pressure?!"
The young Gu Master cried out in shock, staring at the middle-aged man with fear and anxiety. But the middle-aged man reassured him.
"No need to worry, little Zhang. Although that is the situation, based on previous cases they only target weak groups—not a strong group like ours that consists entirely of rank two Gu Masters."
"Great! That means we're safe, uncle?!"
The middle-aged Gu Master did not reply to the youth named little Zhang. Instead, he turned his head and looked toward a certain direction, then spoke to the other Gu Master.
"An Da, do you hear something that sounds like the whistling of wind—?"
The middle-aged Gu Master could not finish his sentence.
A massive black willow arrow struck their location and completely erased them along with the ground they stood upon!
There was no explosion, no loud rumbling shockwave—only silence and the scattered remains of Gu Master corpses.
Fang Tian, who had been observing the scene from a great distance, approached the site of the incident. He looked at the large-bellied horses, whose bodies had been partially erased, their blood seeping through the moist green grass.
He also found the head of the young Gu Master who had been speaking moments earlier, his face still frozen in an expression of worry.
Fang Tian gathered the souls of the dead Gu Masters so he could search them later.
All the Gu worms belonging to this patrol group had been destroyed by the silent explosion, leaving Fang Tian with no spoils. But it was not as if the Gu worms had been his original goal.
"Now the Li Clan will feel heavy pressure from the Gan Clan… I should also kill some patrols from the Gan Clan to make the conflict between them irreconcilable. Then I will appear as the one who saves the situation, taking the side of the Li Clan to balance the forces—or even tilt the scale slightly in their favor."
After cleaning up his traces, Fang Tian left and headed toward the Gan Clan camp, located far from the Li Clan camp.
He was about to do some very bad things.