Chapter 4528 — What Are They Really Thinking?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
The Southern Continent he spoke of was of course not limited to the Southern Island alone, but took in all the surrounding waters—Demon Cold, True Segment, Wei Arc, Distant Star, and the rest. The Southern Island together with the vast seas around it: that was the whole of the Southern Continent.
"That's right—by what right!" The spirit beasts erupted in a fury.
True, the spirit beast clan and the human sects had by now reached a tacit understanding of mutual non-aggression, and in recent years there had been no great upheaval. But in truth, the hostility between spirit beasts and human cultivators had never ceased.
Everywhere across the Five Cloud-Step Islands, the two sides had always been killing one another. Human cultivators coveted the spirit beasts' myriad heaven-made materials, while the spirit beasts in turn regarded humans as choice delicacies. It could be said that every day, great numbers of human cultivators and spirit beasts of every kind died at each other's hands.
Only, such casualties counted as the ordinary course of natural competition, and fell far short of the level of war—so everyone simply turned a blind eye.
Thus the Southern Continent, the spirit beast clan's stronghold, still harbored great numbers of human cultivators in the surrounding waters, and the two sides had on the whole kept a peaceful coexistence. But now that the Azure Dragon had put it this way, that balance was likely to be thrown into turmoil.
"And that is not all. These shameless human cultivators have not only brazenly occupied the Southern Continent waters that belong to our spirit beast clan—they even dare to slip into our Southern Island borders on so-called adventures, seizing our heavenly treasures and slaying our spirit beast kin. Tell me, brothers—can we swallow this insult?" The Azure Dragon stirred their emotions on purpose.
"No! No! No!…" The spirit beasts' anger grew yet more uncontainable.
"Indeed. The Southern Continent is the domain of our spirit beast clan, and our spirit beast clan alone is the sole overlord of the Southern Continent. This insult must not be borne!" The Azure Dragon nodded in satisfaction, then pressed both hands down in a gesture for calm. Once the assembled spirit beasts had quieted, it went on: "I have also heard that our spirit beast kin scattered across the other Cloud-Step Islands—because they are few and isolated, because those places are humanity's home ground—are often slaughtered at will by human cultivators, and even taken as spirit pets to be driven at humans' command. Tell me, brothers—is this not a monstrous disgrace to our spirit beast clan?"
"Disgrace! Disgrace! Disgrace!…" Every spirit beast present had gone red to the neck, eyes bloodshot and blazing, as though ready at any moment to devour someone alive.
At the sight of ten thousand beasts roaring, Wei Zhao, standing in their midst, felt his scalp prickle and was struck dumb with shock. If this incitement went on, a fresh war between the spirit beast clan and the human cultivators would be all but unavoidable. What on earth were the Vermilion Bird and the Azure Dragon after—did they truly mean to start a war?
"What are those two scoundrels thinking?" The ghost-thing was frowning as well. If the spirit beast clan could unite its strength, it would be far mightier than any single human sect—but human sects were not a mere handful; they numbered in the hundreds, even thousands. Were a full-scale war truly launched, the spirit beast clan had only one fate in store: a grave with no burial ground. R1152