Chapter Thirty-Three: The Serpent Tribe

“Am I being too selfish by doing this? No, that’s not it. Even if I said those things to achieve my goal, I wasn’t exactly wrong. If they don’t listen to me, there’s a real chance they’ll get surrounded and wiped out by the beastmen. Still, is it too much to use these elves’ goodwill toward me just to further my own aims?” Shaking his head hard, Zhou Tian forced those chaotic thoughts from his mind, refusing to dwell on them any longer. He pretended to scan his surroundings casually, but inwardly he was already calculating how to ensure the safety of these elves when the beastmen inevitably tried to encircle them.

“All right, this should be far enough. If we go any deeper, we’ll be entering the territory of the beastmen’s royal clans.” With mixed emotions, Zhou Tian stopped at a certain spot, surveying the environment. Based on the descriptions from the elves, he estimated their current location and quickly called out to halt the elves, who were still eager to press forward.

“Aren’t we here to cause trouble? The royal clans are the core strength of the beastmen. If we could stir up something right in their territory, wouldn’t that attract even more attention from the Beastman Empire?” The elf who had always been at odds with Zhou Tian looked at him in confusion and couldn’t help but step forward to voice her opinion.

Hearing her, Zhou Tian could only roll his eyes, at a loss for words.

“By your logic, we might as well march straight on the Beastman Imperial Capital. Surely, if we could take that, the Elven Empire would have no problem defeating the beastmen.” He looked at her wearily, not bothering to explain further. His rhetorical question immediately made her realize her mistake.

Once that elf had fallen silent, Zhou Tian issued his orders: “Given our strength, there’s no way we could take on one of the stronger beastman tribes. And destroying a tribe too weak would be pointless—it wouldn’t make any difference. So our choices are actually quite limited.”

“So what should we do…”

“We attack here!” Zhou Tian casually drew a rough map on the ground, then pointed with the tip of his tail at his chosen target.

———

The Beastman Empire was somewhat reminiscent of the ancient steppe nations on Earth. Though called an empire, its structure was more of a loose alliance than a unified state. It consisted of a single imperial clan, several royal clans, and countless ordinary and minor tribes. The imperial clan was, naturally, the Behemoths—the strongest of all beastmen. The royal clans included powerful species like lions, tigers, wolves, and bears.

Moreover, the Beastman Empire was composed of hundreds of different beastman races. Even within a single race, the population was divided into thousands, even tens of thousands, of tribes scattered across the empire’s vast territory.

Some of these countless tribes were massive, numbering over a million beastmen, while others were so small they barely reached a thousand. The target Zhou Tian had set his sights on was one of these smaller tribes—a snake-people tribe with fewer than a thousand members.

“Why pick this tribe? Aren’t there plenty of tribes that are weaker than them?” The elves looked at Zhou Tian in confusion. They trusted his judgment, but couldn’t help but voice their doubts.

“Because I’m particularly skilled at dealing with snake-people,” Zhou Tian replied lightly. After a pause, he continued, “Besides, as I said before, we can’t handle the major tribes. But if we keep targeting those tiny ones with only a few dozen or a hundred members, no matter how many we destroy, it’s unlikely the upper echelons of the Beastman Empire will pay any attention. If we want to achieve our goal, we have to target larger tribes.”

“In that case, we’ll follow your lead and attack this snake-people tribe,” the elves agreed after exchanging glances, now convinced by Zhou Tian’s reasoning.

“If there are no objections, let’s set out.” With their decision made, and guided by the intelligence the elves had gathered, Zhou Tian and his group managed to avoid detection as they made their way through the beastmen’s territory, finally arriving undetected at the outskirts of the snake-people tribe Zhou Tian had chosen.

Gazing with distaste at the writhing mass of snakes not far ahead, the elves grew nervous and suggested uneasily, “Maybe we should pick a different tribe. With so many snakes, we…”

“I’ll handle the snakes. All you need to do is provide covering fire from here,” Zhou Tian replied, slightly exasperated by their fearful expressions. It seemed that the previous spectacle he’d made with the Myriad Serpent Basin had truly rattled them—here they were, hesitating, before the fight had even begun, just because of the snake horde outside.

Zhou Tian’s reassurance was well-intentioned—he thought it best for the elves to avoid the snakes if they were afraid. But the elves disagreed and immediately protested in unison, “No, it’s too dangerous for you to go alone!”

“So you want to come with me?” Their concern warmed Zhou Tian’s heart, but he kept his expression neutral, countering with a question that left the elves momentarily speechless. He continued, “Don’t worry, I—well, this snake—am more afraid of dying than anyone else. If I wasn’t absolutely sure, I wouldn’t take such risks. Just watch me from here as I show the snake-people what real power looks like.” With that, Zhou Tian didn’t wait for a reply and began to slither toward the snake-people tribe.

Within the Beastman Empire, the snake-people held a middling status. Their own physical strength was unimpressive, but they possessed a formidable ability—the power to control snakes. Born with this gift, most snake-people could command hundreds if not thousands of venomous serpents, making them dangerous despite their own weaknesses. Few dared take them lightly.

Zhou Tian had chosen them precisely for this reason: their main strength lay in controlling snakes. As the King of Serpents, and with the Myriad Serpent Basin at his disposal, ordinary snakes posed no threat to him whatsoever. In fact, with the help of the basin, he stood a good chance of turning the snake-people’s own serpents against them. It was this confidence that let him declare he could deal with the snake-people.

(My deepest thanks to chick316 for the generous reward.)