Chapter 57: Bravado
Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire

During the process of spreading rumors, the original story would become greatly distorted.

Chen Shouyi had no idea that the barbarians who had escaped the other time had spread how ‘terrifying’ he had been.

By the time he charged over, he realized that other than five people who had the courage to stay there and face him in battle, the rest of the barbarians were all scared out of their wits and were fleeing into the forest.

There was no way for Chen Shouyi to catch up to those people, so he decided to slow down his pace.

From dashing, to jogging, until he was eventually just walking forth.

His breathing that had quickened from the initial dash gradually calmed down.

On the contrary, the breathings of the barbarians he was facing up against quickened rapidly.

The five barbarians held onto their long lances, forming a semicircle formation.

This might be their defensive means when facing a powerful wild beast. However, when they were up against Chen Shouyi, who could attack them with his bow and arrows from the distance, they could be said to be just courting death.

After he was within 100 meters from them, he rapidly drew out an arrow and slowly pulled his bow.

When he was within 70 meters from them, his fingers released the bowstring, and the arrow shot out.

At the next instant, a barbarian let out a stifled grunt. His hand covered his chest where he was shot, and he gradually fell to the ground.

What followed was a complete massacre.

He kept on pulling his bow and shooting out arrows at a stable, high-speed rhythm.

During this process, some barbarians tried to charge over, but they immediately fell to the ground, their heads pierced by sharp arrows. Some barbarians attempted to flee, but they also couldn’t hide from the pursuit of the sharp arrows. The only one who had posed a slight threat was the one who had tossed out his long lance before his death.

However, Chen Shouyi didn’t even move from the spot. The long lance pierced into the beach about ten or more meters away from him.

This kind of long lance wasn’t suitable for throwing as compared to short lances. This barbarian also wasn’t as strong as the tribe leader Chen Shouyi had met previously. Every lance was about three meters in length and was quite heavy. They were meant to be used to deal with wild beasts and wouldn’t be able to be thrown too far away.

Within a few seconds, all five barbarians had dropped to the ground.

He walked over, about to pluck out the arrows from the barbarians’ corpses.

However, the wind started to blow.

At first, it was just a slight breeze, but it soon turned into a raging wind. The branches in the forest not far away started to move about, and the leaves rustled.

At the same time, an extremely suppressive aura permeated out.

Chen Shouyi felt that the atmosphere was bad and immediately stood up.

It was only then did he realize that the surroundings had turned gloomy.

There weren’t any dark clouds in the sky, and the sun was still hanging high up. However, when the light rays passed by the area around the island, they seemed to have become a lot weaker.

“Giant, let’s go back!” The shell girl’s voice was trembling.

Chen Shouyi didn’t say anything and wore a grim countenance. He was also feeling apprehensive, and he rapidly retreated toward the beach.

He realized that this “holy tree” was a lot more powerful than he imagined it to be. Just its aura alone rendered him unable to summon any will to resist.

Very soon, his legs were already immersed in the seawater. He planned on immediately running out toward the sea if he found anything amiss.

As someone who grew up in a village in the Jiangnan Water Region, he naturally knew how to swim.

Even if that “holy tree” were to come chasing after him, he’d be able to escape.

Trees couldn’t possibly know how to swim.

At this moment, he sharply noticed a phenomenon. The closer he got toward the seas, the brighter the light rays seemed to be. The suppressive feeling also became weaker.

It might have discovered that there wasn’t much effect in doing this.

The violent winds gradually calmed down, and the light rays quickly returned to normal.

Everything became calm and tranquil.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Chen Shouyi stayed at the beach, standing there for a very long time, feeling very tensed up. He only relaxed after seeing that there were no more motions.

The aura from earlier was too terrifying. it gave him the feeling that he was up against an infuriated, violent beast. It brought him an intense feeling of terror.

It was just that he found something a little strange. This seemed to be like a case where the bite was worse than the bark, like a case of bravado.

…

The tree god felt very irritated.

Over the past few days, the number of its believers was rapidly decreasing.

In merely a few days, it had lost close to one-tenth of them.

It was close to one-tenth.

From the beginning when the barbarian tribe started to revere it until now, it had never sustained such a huge loss.

However, it was unable to do anything to that invader.

It wasn’t an animal, just a tree that grew to a massive size.

Its huge form and its terrifying weight made it unable to move at all.

It became increasingly powerful ever since it developed divine characteristics. Its body also became increasingly sturdy, and the range of its senses increased as well, gradually covering up the entire island.

After developing some supernatural abilities, it could change the weather within a certain range, bringing favorable climatic conditions to the area and reducing the impact of natural disasters.

It even possessed a certain amount of ability to predict good and bad fortune.

Through the barbarians’ faith, it developed a believer domain, capable of dispelling the eerie nature spirits.

These abilities allowed the barbarians to grow stronger rapidly.

Within a mere few hundred years, this barbarian tribe that had had over 100 tribesmen and been struggling to maintain its feeble existence rapidly became a big tribe with over 300 tribesmen.

However, all these abilities were ineffective toward strong foes.

It could only bring about intimidation. If this was ineffective, it wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

…

Right now, under the big tree….

A large number of barbarians dropped to their knees, shivering in terror over the tree god’s sudden bout of fury. Some children and women were so terrified that they peed themselves.

The old sorcerer groveled on the ground, communicating non-stop with the tree god.

Suddenly, he entered a trance, appearing half-awake. It didn’t take long before he regained his consciousness and trembled as he got up on his feet, saying in an aggrieved tone.

“The evil existence has come. Don’t go near the seas.”

…

Both parties were in a state of contradiction over a threat that didn’t exist.

Chen Shouyi stood there and watched for a very long time before he felt a little relieved. He felt increasingly fearful as he looked toward the forest.

He went back to draw out the arrows from the corpses and return them to his quiver.

Advancing along the shores, he was paying close attention to the activities coming from the forest in the distance.

However, after the previous incident, there weren’t any abnormalities coming from there anymore, nor were there any attacks from the barbarians.

He felt increasingly relieved and advanced quickly.

On the other side of the island, he found another two canoes that were fishing nearby.

Thereafter, he no longer made any discoveries after having gone around the island once.

He reckoned that these were all the canoes that the barbarian tribe had left.

After finding his target, he couldn’t wait to push his canoe back to the sea.

As Chen Shouyi got further and further away from the island, he heaved a sigh of relief, feeling completely relaxed.

The pressure he felt from earlier was too great. There were many times when he almost wanted to flee, but things ended up without any issues.

…

In the times that followed, Chen Shouyi attempted to bait and destroy the two canoes. It was a pity that they were too close to each other. When one of them realized that something was amiss, it immediately started to flee. He only successfully destroyed one canoe with its barbarians.

He gave chase for a while, but his speed wasn’t a match for them. The two barbarians were rowing away from him. It was a two vs. one situation

Moreover, the barbarians didn’t attempt to escape toward the island, but instead went out further toward the seas.

Chen Shouyi could only watch and sigh helplessly, not giving his all.