The crimson book appeared at his behest and hovered in front of him.
Alex flipped the page to the 4th one which was titled 'Blood Beasts'.
"Come out!" he said.
Out of nowhere, nearly 50 different blood beasts appeared and stood before him. A leopard, snake, rhino, and many other beasts that he had killed or had otherwise gained from the Blue Spring sect were all made into different blood beasts.
The chief and many other people that were standing close to Alex was taken aback and even tried to attack the beasts. But their measly strength was no match for the beasts.
In fact, even Alex himself was no match for the beasts at the moment since he had no way of using his own blood skills.
"Fan out," he ordered the beasts. "Kill anything that is not a human."
The beasts, with their limited intelligence, understood what Alex had said and went to fight the many beasts that were around them.
As soon as the blood beasts started fighting, there was no more need for the tribal people to worry.
The many blood beasts went around the tribe and killed any beasts, big or small, saving the tribal men in the process.
Alex made sure to keep a few at the front, blocking the way while the rest of the blood beasts finished the ones that were inside.
Alex himself arrived by the hall of Sacred flames and started killing the beasts that had already come there.
A part of him did not want to kill these beasts, knowing that it was not their fault that they were here. All they wanted to do was heal their wounds and find a place to stay where they would not have to worry about anything in the future.
But the logical part of his mind knew that killing was the only way to get rid of them. Otherwise, these beasts would kill all the humans here for food and would be a menace.
Between innocent beasts that were forced into doing what they were doing and saving nearly 300 different innocent humans from dying or being homeless, he would always choose the humans.
It was the lesser of two evils in his mind.
However, that did not mean that Alex was simply done after killing the beasts. In this incident where both of the sides involved in the battle were innocent, there was a third party that was guilty.
That was the evil that Alex was going to get rid of. Unfortunately, that had to wait for now. There were simply too many here, and more were coming. Since the blood beasts had limited intelligence, he also couldn't just leave the place in case they did something he did not want them to do.
He quickly walked out and looked at the people that were crying, whether from physical pain or emotional pain. Their bodies were hurt, but so was their heart at seeing the sight of so many people dead.
The chief looked in a daze at the destruction that lay around him. His eyes were dull, his mind unable to think of what to do in such a situation.
"CHIEF!" Alex shouted from right next to him and only then did the chief come out of his daze.
"Wh-what? What's happening this time?" he asked.
"Gather up your people by the hall and let them heal. I've cleared it of the beasts," Alex said.
"Yes," the chief said and quickly went around gathering the injured. He ordered the ones that weren't as wounded and had them gather their dead.
Alex looked around as he saw the dead people being carried away.
A man cried as he held onto a woman's corpse whose leg had been chomped off. He recognized the man as the one that had given him the beast core from the fish on his first day here.
Another man's corpse was being taken away. It was the player that had talked with him back when he wanted to ride in the carriage.
He saw a woman's corpse, the one that had made him his current clothes.
Many more familiar and unfamiliar faces passed him, all dead.
Alex watched them being taken away, but he couldn't go and see what was happening to them. He had another duty.
He walked out to the front where his beasts were fighting against the oncoming onslaught of beasts.
Thousands of corpses lay by the front, and yet the beasts still came endlessly. The beasts were fearless, and that was what caused them to not see the danger of their approach.
Alex watched his blood beasts clear the oncoming beasts as he waited for it all to be over.
'Have they grown weaker?' Alex wondered when he saw the blood beasts fight. At the very least, some of the beasts weren't fighting as well as they should have.
The blood beasts clearly did not feel pain or fatigue, so the only reason for their lack of performance was most likely that the blood aura in the beasts was slowly depleting.
'I can heal them back by using my blood when they are inside the book, can't I?' he thought. Since that was the case, they could fight as long as it was needed for the beast horde to stop coming here. Hopefully, they didn't go to any other tribes either.
Alex waited a few more hours until the beast horde finally stopped coming.
"Is it over?" he thought and sent his senses around him, pushing them to the limit to make sure nothing could hide from his senses.
There were no more beasts that were coming for them. Most that were still around were retreating north.
However, while searching for the beasts, Alex saw something else in the distance to the west.
Fallen in the desert was a woman that had wounds all over her body. She had a bloody face, swollen legs, and worst of all, a bleeding stomach as if someone had ripped out a chunk of it.
"No..."
Alex didn't even think as he jumped onto the leopard beast and ordered it to run. The beast ran swiftly.
Within just a few minutes, Alex arrived next to Li Yun and jumped off the leopard.
"Li Yun!" he shouted as he ran towards the girl.
Li Yun's grunted in pain she heard his name. She tried to move her head, but she couldn't do so. All she could do was stare into the sky as her left eye socket bled without any eye in it.
"Yu Ming?" she asked when she heard his voice.
"Don't speak," Alex said as he quickly caught her and started scanning her injuries.
"M-my t-t-tribe... my f-father... are they... s-safe?" she asked.
"Yes, they are safe. Don't talk now, I will... " Alex tried to bring a healing pill out of sheer instinct but there wasn't any.
His nerves got the better of him as his hands started shaking while he held her body.
He could feel it, her temperature. It was very low.
He could see the part of her stomach that had been ripped away and she had lost a lot of blood. She was dying.
At this point, the only way to save her was to give her a pill, and he did not have one.
He could tell that she was dying and there was nothing he could do to help her.
Being without Qi and a woman dying in his arms in the darkness of the night, he was reminded of the night he did not want to remember. The night when he had lost his master.
"They... are fine?" she asked with a small smile on her face. "That's... good. Thank you." Her wounds seem to no longer hurt her after hearing the news.
"Don't worry about them for now. I will take you to your father in the hall of sacred flames," he said. He started carrying her and brought her over to the leopard before telling it to run.
He kept some tiny hope that the phoenix flames would heal her wounds despite losing vital organs from her body.
Alex couldn't help but get angry at the sight. "I told you to stay back. I told you the beasts were attacking here and there would be many. Why did you come here?"
"Not... beasts," she said with what little words she could muster.
"What?" Alex asked with a confused expression.
"Arrow... head," she said.
Alex started when he heard that. "Did... did the men from the Arrowhead tribe do this to you?" he asked. "Was it not the beasts?"
"It... it was... Arrowhead," she said.
"Where are they? Did they leave you half dead? I will kill them," Alex said. "Did you see where they went?"
However, he did not get an answer from her at all. "Li Yun? LI YUN! Stay awake, we're not far off!" he said as he checked her heartbeat. It was very slow.
"I... need to... " she finally spoke.
"You need to stay awake," Alex said.
"I... need to..." she paused. "Come... closer."
Her words lost volume as she spoke. "What is it?" Alex asked as he put his ears close to her mouth to listen.
"Look... at... me..." she said with what little voice she could.
"Look at you? Wh--"
Li Yun used what little strength she had in herself to raise her head and kiss Alex. Alex felt her wet, blood-stained lips on his for a second before they left.
He was too stunned to say or do anything at all.
Li Yun used the last of her breaths to laugh a little as she said, "I... win."
