Chapter 1087 - 886: Tribal Conflict

Kao held his breath and continued to observe for nearly half an hour.

His sharp eyes, like those of an eagle, repeatedly swept over the seemingly disordered mining site below, not missing a single detail.

The warriors from the Stone Hammer Tribe behind Oraque appeared to be loosely seated around the mine, some organizing their weapons, some gnawing on dry rations, others resting against the rocks as if it were just an ordinary border provocation.

But Kao noticed that all their leather armor straps were tightly bound, not one of them loosened.

All their weapons were held in their hands, blades facing outward.

These people were not here to steal the mine, they were waiting for prey to take the bait.

Kao’s gaze crossed the mine, settling on the withered yellow bushes on the opposite bank of the Boundary River.

The setting sun stained the bushes a dark red color, seemingly indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape, but he had been watching that area for a long time and finally noticed a slight tremor in the leaves of one bush without any wind.

Someone was there.

Following this clue, he searched further, finding more traces behind the piles of rocks on both sides of the mine.

The edges of several pairs of boots were exposed from the shadows of the rocks, at a very low angle, obviously a careless oversight during deliberate concealment.

Kao then conducted a more meticulous and thorough reconnaissance, discovering that the Stone Hammer Tribe had ambushed at least twice as many people around the mine as what appeared on the surface.

They were waiting for the Black Stone Tribe’s main force to engage. If he had just led the tribal warriors down to rescue the mine, the ambushers would simultaneously close in from both sides, trapping them in the open ground between the Boundary River and the mine.

Meanwhile, his father was still on the other side of Stone Split Valley, and according to the original plan, would not return until the night after tomorrow at the earliest.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the dry air laced with ore dust, then opened his eyes and said in a low voice to the scout beside him, "Retreat to the settlement. Tell everyone, do not engage, hold the perimeter at all costs."

As Kao retreated with the last rear-guard team to the settlement, the final ray of sunlight slipped behind the ridge line.

When he walked through the main gate of the fence, he was still covered in the dust and smell of blood from the mine. The guard at the gate, seeing his grim expression, dared not ask any questions, simply pushed the heavy round wooden bar back in place with force.

The horn sounded once again, this time three short blasts followed by one long, signaling an emergency assembly. All the patrolmen outside the fence withdrew, and each watchtower doubled its sentry rotations.

Kao walked along the gravel path towards the Central Square, delegating defense tasks one by one along the way.

The eastern fence was the most likely avenue of attack for the Stone Hammer Tribe, so he deployed the tribe’s most elite close-combat veterans to guard it.

The defense of the western and northern sides could not be neglected either, to prevent the enemy from feinting towards the east.

The miners and the elderly were organized to transport stones to reinforce the fence, while the women prepared arrows and bandages and herbs for treating the wounded.

The entire settlement operated like a machine wound tightly, swiftly working in the depths of the night.

After arranging the outer defenses, Kao arrived at the Central Square, where the statue worshipped by the Black Stone Tribe for countless generations stood.

It was a giant statue carved from a single piece of black granite, with its hands resting on the hilt of a sword embedded in the Earth, its demeanor solemn and majestic.

The facial features of the statue had been somewhat eroded by time, the surface was covered in fine cracks, each one filled with traces of Spiritual Power left by countless generations as they prayed before it.

The tribal elders often said that the spirits of the ancestors slumbered within the statue; whenever the tribe faced a crisis of survival, the ancestral spirits would awaken, using the statue as a medium to bestow protection, guarding their descendants.

He approached the base of the statue, kneeled on one knee, placed his hand on the rough stone slab at the edge of the base, closed his eyes, and slowly infused his Spiritual Power into the statue.

The two dark red Philosopher’s Stones in the eye sockets of the statue began to glow softly as his Spiritual Power flowed into them, like flames awakening from slumber.

A circle of pale golden, semi-transparent magical barrier spread out from the base of the statue, gradually expanding to encompass the entire Central Square, the surrounding stone houses, warehouses, and miners’ dormitories, finally halting its expansion a few feet beyond the perimeter, resembling a massive semi-transparent dome capping the settlement in the sky.

The protection of the ancestral spirits covered the entire settlement.

As long as the ancestral protection remained, even if the Stone Hammer Tribe breached the fence, they would not be able to step across the barrier.

Kao only needed to hold out until his father returned from Stone Split Valley, and then with the combined power of his father and the ancestral statue, not even an all-out assault by the Stone Hammer Tribe would prevail.

He stood straight, looking towards the eastern fence.

Despite the tension throughout the settlement, everything was orderly.

Just as Kao was about to head to the eastern fence to oversee the defense in person, a heavy footstep sound suddenly came from outside the fence, like a giant beast slowly approaching.

The footsteps were heavy and steady, each step grinding down on the gravel ground, making a dull crunching sound.

Kao’s steps halted, and he turned to look outside the fence.

In the darkness of the night, a tall figure emerged from the shadows of the eastern hills.

The figure was even larger than Oraque by a size, like a moving mountain of flesh, each step pressing the gravel beneath it into depressions.

He wore a cloak tanned from a single piece of dark red Dragon Lizard Skin, and beneath it, thick Black Iron Armor, with each piece inlaid with several thumb-sized Philosopher’s Stones, glimmering with a deep red sheen under the moonlight.