Chapter 415 - 387: Witch Priest’s Power, Searching for [Flower], First Battle

Although Tian Ming was born and raised within his tribe, he had very little contact with new things. For instance, he had no idea what an arena, a network, or a challenge match was.

But with his astounding cultivation speed, he was a bona fide genius. He learned quickly and immediately grasped the concept of a challenge match.

He also quickly understood what he was here to do. At the same time, he couldn’t help but marvel at how interesting the Outer Realm could be.

Back in the Northern Boundary, everything had felt like a matter of life and death. Many things required bloodshed, and it was difficult for people to settle their differences without serious consequences. Because medical resources were scarce, no one dared to truly unleash their full combat potential.

But now, here in the Celestial Star Arena, members of all sorts of bizarre races chose to fight to the death. Every day, a massive number of them flocked here, seemingly just to die. It was something he had never even heard of before.

He truly couldn’t help but feel that the Northern Boundary was far too small, and the Outer Realm far too vast. In a place like the Desolate Realm, so many people could die every day with seemingly no impact whatsoever. Powerful new challengers simply arrived daily to fill the void.

It was hard to imagine the sheer size of the population required to sustain such a massive rate of attrition—to allow so many people to die without causing the slightest ripple.

After all, even though the rules of the challenge matches didn’t explicitly require killing, most people found it difficult to hold back. To build a winning streak, you had to give it your all.

And when someone unleashed power beyond their own limits, their opponent couldn’t possibly gauge it. Even they themselves would lose control, unable to say what it would take to block their own attack. In such cases, there wasn’t even time to surrender. Death was the only outcome.

Furthermore, some challengers were devious, constantly resorting to underhanded tactics. Their methods defied conventional logic, as they aimed solely to kill for victory rather than engaging in a fair fight. This was another reason for the high mortality rate in the challenge matches.

Ultimately, everyone was terrified of being the one to die, so they resorted to more and more dirty tricks to eliminate their opponents quickly. Only then could they rest easy.

Sensing this atmosphere, Tian Ming sighed. ’There are just too many people in this Desolate Realm,’ he thought. ’Under normal circumstances, so many people wouldn’t be dying so needlessly every single day.’

For him, killing had always been a matter of survival. Back home, his tribe fought to live, like in their struggle against the West Ice Tribe. Of course, the West Ice Tribe had already been annihilated by Jiang Qiu by the time he was born. These were just stories he’d heard from the tribal elders, who often recounted the tales of Jiang Qiu.

Now, five hundred years had passed in the Northern Boundary. All those elders were dead. Only he and a few other talented geniuses had survived. The Witch Priests of the Main Vein Tribes, however, had also lived on, wielding a tranquil yet extraordinary power.

Speaking of the Witch Priests, he couldn’t help but marvel at the ancestral power they inherited. Although they usually looked like ordinary old men, they always exuded a power that would make even an expert at the Initial Tier of the Fusion Realm like himself feel apprehensive.

He didn’t know why they inherited such terrifying power. It seemed to contain something hidden—a legacy, perhaps. Unfortunately, the Witch Priests couldn’t extract this legacy to pass on to their tribesmen; they could only activate that immense power when they unleashed it themselves.

Legend had it that the Elder Witch Priest of North Snow had unleashed his power just once, forcefully holding back the Witch Priest of the West Ice Tribe. This bought the North Snow Tribe a chance to survive, allowing their bloodline to continue and giving their new progenitor time to return and annihilate the West Ice Tribe.

Later, the North Snow Tribe apparently found a new Witch Priest, one chosen by the Elder Witch Priest himself. After his death, the full authority of the Witch Priest was smoothly transferred to this successor—a young girl who, at the time, had no cultivation.

However, facing immense pressure, that new Witch Priest eventually fled with a group of tribesmen deep into the South Mountain Range. It is said that all the tribesmen perished, but the new Witch Priest vanished without a trace.

Now that he had reached the Fusion Realm, Tian Ming had developed a special connection to North Snow. By exploring some of North Snow’s ancient ruins, he had discovered certain bloodline connections from ages past. Through them, he could sense that the Witch Priest’s power of the "North Snow" collective had not vanished. To be precise, the legacy of the Main Vein Tribe had not been severed.

However, this legacy was no different than a candle flickering in a storm. After all, the Witch Priest was missing. Under such circumstances, it was a blessing in itself that he could even confirm her power had not been extinguished.

Unfortunately, Tian Ming could not use this connection to find her. He could only confirm that the new Witch Priest, Flower, had not been wiped out; he could not determine her location. He might even see her one day and not recognize her—after all, he had never met her, and she was from a generation before his own.

Logically, Witch Priest Flower must have left the Northern Boundary for some special reason and arrived in one of the myriad worlds within the Primordial world-cluster. But this cluster of worlds was simply too vast. Without some special twist of fate, the odds were they would never meet in their entire lives.

No, there was still a chance. For instance, if both of them became famous enough, their paths might cross. But the level of renown required was incredibly high—so high that without reaching the Unity Realm, it was all just wishful thinking.