System Granted Me Immortality; I Outlived Everyone

Chapter 49: The Struggle Between the Wu Clans, A Subtle “Hostile” Relationship

“God Messenger, partake of these offerings.”

The high priest offered a deep, ritualistic bow before withdrawing from the chamber. Before Chen Changsheng rested slabs of unidentifiable beasts and fresh, aura-rich fruits.

Sweeping his gaze over the tribute, Chen Changsheng offered a faint, helpless smile. He extended a thread of Divine Sense toward the young woman kneeling beside him.

“This is too heavy a burden for one stomach. Share this meat with me.”

The girl frantically shook her head, an avalanche of frantic, guttural syllables spilling from her lips.

Though the sounds were alien, the frantic reverence in her eyes made her meaning clear.

Chen Changsheng let out a quiet sigh. “If you will not eat, then teach me how to shape my tongue around your words.”

“The dialect of this land is foreign to my ears.”

A flicker of pure joy lit the young woman’s face, and she nodded with eager fervor.

Thus, beneath the damp heat of the jungle canopy, she began to guide Chen Changsheng through the ancestral tongue of her people.

…

The suffocating darkness of the jungle night gradually thinned. By the time dawn broke, Chen Changsheng had forced the crude dialect into his mind, managing a basic comprehension.

Through their exchange, the veil over this savage land was slightly lifted.

This domain held no proper title on any map; it was known only as the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Its true expanse remained an ancient mystery, for no living soul had ever walked out from beneath its suffocating canopy.

The path of Ascension here was remarkably foreign. These tribes did not temper their mortal shells, nor did they condense golden cores; their sole focus lay in the symbiotic mastery of Gu Bugs.

These parasitic entities were deeply entwined with their masters, capable of tearing flesh from bone or weaving shut fatal wounds.

Yet, this symbiotic reliance bore a fatal flaw: it offered no nourishment to the soul, leaving their Divine Sense profoundly withered.

Chen Changsheng held no deep love for the endless cycle of cultivation, but he possessed an insatiable thirst for the absolute laws of Formations.

Unraveling those cosmic arrays demanded an ocean of mental fortitude.

Through centuries of grueling mental tempering, his Divine Sense at the Nascent Soul realm could effortlessly crush the minds of ordinary Soul Formation elders.

It was this very disparity that had driven the high priest to prostrate himself in abject terror.

“That is enough for one night. Ah Man, return to your quarters and rest.”

Glancing at the pale light filtering through the thick canopy, Chen Changsheng dismissed the exhausted White Wu Clan maiden.

Ah Man bowed deeply, rising to quietly take her leave.

Yet, just as she reached the threshold, Ah Man collapsed to her knees, her voice trembling with desperation. “God Messenger, I beg the Heavens through you, save the White Wu Clan.”

“If the tides do not turn, the Black Wu will bury us all.”

Hearing the heavy weight of her plea, a weary shadow fell across Chen Changsheng’s eyes.

The cyclical slaughter of mortal tribes was a karmic knot he had zero desire to untangle.

The mortal realm was an endless graveyard of blood and iron; to mourn every falling leaf was the path to madness.

Moreover, a far heavier burden rested upon his shoulders: the fractured Three-Color Teleportation Array.

He had examined the sacrificial altar; it was unmistakably a fragment of the ancient bronze hall.

To be precise, it was merely the foundational dais. The monolithic bronze structure that once rested atop it had been ripped away by unknown forces.

Mending the Three-Color Teleportation Array demanded an ocean of rare earthly treasures, the most vital being the primordial bronze itself.

As the native bloodlines of this damp, rotting wilderness, the White Wu Clan possessed an absolute mastery over its hidden depths.

Without their guidance, dragging the missing bronze hall from the jungle’s maw was an impossibility.

Yet, the Dao demands equivalent exchange; to harvest their labor, he first had to sow a seed of salvation.

Weighing the transaction in his mind, Chen Changsheng finally spoke.

“The blood feud between your clan and the Black Wu is foreign to me, but I will step forward to mediate.”

“Whether this rift can be mended remains to the will of the Heavens. I offer no absolute promises.”

Tears of pure reverence spilled from Ah Man’s eyes as she kowtowed in frantic gratitude before fleeing into the damp morning air.

Watching the tribal girl vanish, Chen Changsheng let out a dry, rattling chuckle.

“These primitives possess a rare, terrifying innocence. In the outside world, my sudden descent would have seen me chained to an altar and dissected for secrets.”

Shaking off the thought, Chen Changsheng returned to meditating on the guttural cadence of the White Wu tongue, silently calculating the most efficient method to suppress the brewing war.

…

“God Messenger, the domain of the Black Wu lies just beyond the mist.”

The high priest pointed a gnarled finger toward a distant cluster of crude wooden structures, a venomous, almost childlike glee dripping from his tone.

Staring through the thick canopy at the rival settlement, a deep furrow etched itself into Chen Changsheng’s brow.

The two rival camps were separated by a pitiful distance—barely a single mile of jungle.

For two warring tribes to sleep within throat-slitting distance defied all martial logic.

If the blood debt between them was truly so irreconcilable, how had this jungle not yet been painted red?

Just as Chen Changsheng attempted to unravel this paradox, the White Wu high priest puffed out his chest and roared into the damp heat.

“Drag your chieftain from his rot! Tell him the God Messenger has descended upon his wretched soil!”

In response to this arrogant demand, the two fierce-looking Black Wu guards merely nodded meekly and scurried into their camp to fetch their master.

Chen Changsheng: ???

What in the Heavens is this farce?

You are standing on the very edge of an enemy stronghold. Is such brazen arrogance truly warranted?

Furthermore, why did those enemy sentries obey your bark like whipped curs? Did you fabricate this entire “blood feud” to squeeze labor out of me?

Before Chen Changsheng could properly interrogate the old man, a massive tide of Black Wu warriors surged from the palisade.

At their vanguard walked a broad-shouldered man, his skin the color of rusted iron.

Locking eyes with Chen Changsheng’s immaculate, otherworldly robes, the chieftain hesitated, then rashly extended a thread of Divine Sense to sweep over the stranger.

Sensing this laughably fragile mental intrusion, Chen Changsheng instinctively flicked a mere fraction of his own Divine Sense in retaliation.

“Pfft!”

That invisible flick struck like a falling mountain, instantly crushing the chieftain’s mind and forcing a geyser of black blood from his mouth.

Witnessing their patriarch’s collapse, the Black Wu warriors erupted in fury, summoning a suffocating cloud of venomous Gu Bugs that instantly swarmed the air around Chen Changsheng.

Staring at the writhing mass of parasitic death closing in on him, Chen Changsheng fell into a numb silence.

The venomous swarm completely bypassed the arrogant White Wu high priest, locking their murderous intent solely upon Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng: “…”

The absurdity of this was suffocating. If these two tribes were mortal enemies, why was the outsider bearing the brunt of their unified wrath?

Furthermore, I exerted barely a drop from the ocean of my Divine Sense. How did his mind shatter so completely?

This man is the apex predator of his tribe. He has no right to be this pathetically fragile.

Is this some bizarre, primitive extortion tactic?

Just as Chen Changsheng considered suppressing the entire camp and walking away, the blood-soaked chieftain scrambled to his knees and roared.

“Bury your Gu Bugs, you fools! Do not dare show disrespect to the God Messenger!”

Forcing the murderous swarm to dissipate, the pale chieftain slammed his forehead against the mud in utter reverence.

“This lowly one was blind and offended the God Messenger. I beg for the Heavens’ mercy.”

“My Black Wu Clan harbors not a single drop of malice toward the God Messenger…”

“Hold your tongue.”

Chen Changsheng’s cold, flat voice sliced through the chieftain’s frantic apologies.

“Why are you so utterly convinced of my divine title?”

“Because the White Wu high priest proclaimed your descent, and your devastating power just now cemented that truth.”

“Yet, from what I have gathered, the Black Wu and the White Wu are locked in a bitter blood feud. Is that not correct?”

“It is.”

“And yet, you implicitly trust the words spilling from your enemy’s mouth?”

“I do.”

Chen Changsheng: “…”

The karmic logic of this savage land was deeply, fundamentally broken.

This “blood feud” was entirely beyond the realm of mortal comprehension.