The Skill that Meng Luo had awoken through his Totem was [Manifestation]. The Totem that was originally just a connective conduit for the Ancestral Wild was now capable of manifesting an actual form while being fueled by Cede.
His Totem was a portion of the snake's hide, so other than this part of snakeskin, all the other parts were created from Cede.
However, this ability wasn't actually fully under his control. Since the grudges of the two individuals whose Totems he stole were gathered within the bright red eyes, it made sure that his Totem was always in a manifested state. In a sense, he was essentially being possessed by a huge snake right now.
For this reason, Meng Luo's mind had to make sure that his Cede was constantly being suppressed, otherwise, the Totem would go out of control and absorb the Cede for itself to attack Meng Luo.
It could only be said that this was Meng Luo's own choice. He also made this consideration when he chose to take on Meng Luo's name, attempting to live on with the other party's name in order to counteract a portion of the grudge.
It was the same when he decided to save Yun Yi, having felt hatred coming from the Totem when he saw the destructive monster. By eliminating this monster, he would be accepted by the Totem and greatly reduce the interference of the grudge.
The large serpentine Totem shot forward, opening its gaping maw to bite the monster's thorny head, its large body coiled around the monster's body while ignoring the sharp blades protruding from its body. The serpent gradually squeezed tighter, causing the blades to warp and the monster's bones to begin creaking.
A destructive consciousness erupted from the monster's body and caused all the thorns and blades to shoot out from its body, moving through the gaps in the serpent's coil and shooting towards Meng Luo.
Meng Luo narrowed his eyes and nimbly avoided them while mobilizing more Cede from within his body. More physical matter was absorbed into the serpent's body together with the Cede, causing it to grow more solid and exert more power.
As the monster's body was being constricted by the serpent, its form started to distort. As fresh blood seeped out from between the gaps, the serpent's body loosened and let go of the distorted monster, then slowly swallowed it down.
This was also one of the advantages of the [Manifestation] Skill, the Totem would be able to directly devour a prey, greatly improving the efficiency of the offerings.
Meng Luo sighed in relief. While his [Manifestation] Skill seemed simple, it was actually stronger than most people. The power of a Totem far surpassed that of a Desolate in every possible way, and this was what he could manifest through a mere piece of the snake's hide; if his Totem was complete, he would be able to summon a real ancient beast.
"Thank you for saving me" Yun Yi said while cautiously approaching him.
Earlier, he had assumed that Meng Luo was a member of the Yunhe tribe, so not only did he give him a warning, but also attempted to lead the monster away. However, since he had realized that this wasn't the case, he became a lot more cautious, since Desolates from different tribes could treat one another as prey to hunt down.
"You're welcome…" just as Meng Luo was about to say something else, his expression abruptly changed. He quickly grabbed Yun Yi and immediately ran away. In the distance, the tattered corpses on the ground were slowly standing back up, the same black smoke had entered their bodies to gradually convert them into the same kind of monster from before.
If there were only one of them, Meng Luo had confidence in being able to defeat it using his Totem, but if there were hundreds or even thousands of them, he would have a death wish if he didn't run.
Without thinking too much, Meng Luo carried Yun Yi with him and hurriedly fled into the distance. Those monsters didn't seem like they were interested in pursuing them and instead began to destroy everything bigger than themselves to absorb the black smoke that emerged from within.
After taking enough distance from them, Meng Luo stopped and asked Yun Yi about what had happened. He had lived for over ten years so he had made sure to pay attention to any information and knowledge he could. Since his status wasn't too high, he couldn't have obtained a lot of in-depth knowledge, but this was the first time he had ever seen black smoke that could reanimate corpses.
"The Lord of Disaster?"
…
In space, the Lord of Disaster could now perceive a certain location a bit clearer, causing the black smoke coming off his body to grow thicker.
The so-called method of an Evil God was permeation. By using the same method Negary used to transmigrate using his existence, they would send information of themselves into a different world so that the living beings of that world knew of them.
The knowledge contained within that information would then delude a portion of people, turning them into believers of that Evil God. Since those believers were native beings of the world, the world's automatic defenses would find it difficult to punish them; the most it could do was greatly reduce their luck, but not directly crush them using natural forces of the world like it would against invaders.
Even the disaster aura was created from this world itself, so it could be said that as long as the believers didn't attempt to summon the Evil God, or cause any further harm to the world itself, while also being careful of being eliminated by the combatants of the world, they were safe.
Negary had used the destructive will of the world spirit to create a natural disaster, giving the distant Lord of Disaster the convenience to transfer his information into the remnant souls whose spirits were damaged by the destructive will. '[Disaster] is approaching' was actually an implication that this disaster was actually his handiwork.
The people whose souls were damaged would, in their desperation, use the knowledge contained within the information he transferred to absorb the disaster aura, becoming irrational cultist monsters. At the same time, those who remained alive and had escaped from the disaster would not immediately undergo changes, but rather be deluded into becoming a believer in the Lord of Disaster later on. Or…
"The Lord of Disaster… we cannot let such a dangerous individual approach our world" Yun Yi directly muttered the Lord of Disaster's name.
He was only affected by the aftermath, so the information he came into contact with wasn't enough to delude him. Instead, it left a deep negative impression of the Lord of Disaster in his mind. The terrible state of his tribe made it so that he vowed to go against the Lord of Disaster no matter what it took.
"What are you going to do from now on?" Meng Luo learnt of the divine name 'Lord of Disaster' from Yun Yi, but instinctively decided not to utter the name.
"I'm going to head to other tribes to report this, giving everyone time to prepare!" Yun Yi seriously answered him: "You've also seen those monsters; our powers alone aren't nearly enough to eradicate them all"
"Alright then, but they probably won't believe you so easily…" Meng Luo sensed something amiss, but considering things from both a logical and emotional standpoint, it wasn't easy to stop him. After all, it wasn't his tribe that was destroyed by more than half.
…
After thanking Meng Luo again, Meng Luo set out towards Nanwu tribe, the tribe closest to the Yunhe tribe, and asked to see the tribe's Shaman.
"So you claim that there is an individual called the Lord of Disaster that is approaching, which caused the disaster of the Yunhe tribe?"
The Shaman of the Nanwu tribe was an old woman with wrinkles over her entire face, currently in the middle of questioning Yun Yi. She naturally knew about what happened in the Yunhe tribe, as the Ancestral Wild made it easy for Shamans like her to communicate with one another, as well as be informed if and when any Shamans suddenly lost their lives.
However, the Nanwu Shaman was unconvinced that something or someone was approaching and caused a disaster to take the Yunhe Shaman's life.
"How about this, I will conduct an Unseen Offering to find out what has happened…" the Nanwu Shaman changed her tone and said.
A Shaman of any tribe would command several means of offering and sacrifices. The Unseen Offering was a ritual that allowed Cede to absorb the information of a certain existence or entity, thus learning of them ahead of time.
After that, the Nanwu Shaman used the name of 'Lord of Disaster' as the target to perform an Unseen Offering.
