Chapter 006: Tribal Alliance

The man behind him remained silent for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. Finally, he slowly said, “Lord Du Fan… what you say does make some sense. But you must stay put. Otherwise, hmmmm…”

As he spoke, the man behind him slowly retracted his sword.

Du Fan glared at the man in front of him again. The latter seemed helpless and also put away his sword, then covered his wound with one hand before quickly retreating.

Du Fan stood up, brushed off the dust from his clothes, and snapped, “Give me the antidote!”

The man behind him was stunned. “What antidote?”

Du Fan glanced down at the wound on his chest, from which black fluid was already seeping out. Frowning, he said, “What other antidote? Naturally, the antidote to the poison on your weapons! If I die from the poison now, I don’t see how you can still do business with me!”

The two of them were silent for a while, then whispered to each other in a barbarian language. Eventually, the same man threw a packet at Du Fan and said, “Half to be taken internally, half to be applied externally!”

Du Fan took the packet and glanced at it. It was a piece of animal skin containing some white powder. He knew the other party wanted to use him, but they probably wouldn’t let him die, so the antidote was likely real.

Frowning, he applied half of the powder to his wound and swallowed the other half.

The antidote was very effective. In less than a moment, Du Fan’s dizziness disappeared, and the blood flowing from his wound turned red. Seeing this, he finally felt relieved.

“Alright, Lord Du Fan,” the other man said softly. “Can we discuss matters now?”

Du Fan thought for a moment and said, “Fine, go ahead.”

“It’s like this…” The man paused. “We need you. After returning from the Great Temple tomorrow, Magnus will definitely meet with you. For some reason, the shaman priest won’t be by his side at that time. Even if Stuart is there, it will be the moment when Magnus’s guards are least vigilant. All you need to do is stay by his side and use the dagger we provided to cut even a tiny slit in his skin—that will count as completing the task! After that, we’ll surely send someone to take you out of the mountains overnight. In less than five days, you’ll be able to return to the Gavin Empire and resume your life as a noble young master! As for the other promises we made, we will definitely keep them!”

Du Fan sneered. He casually pulled over a wooden table and sat down without turning around. “You’re being too presumptuous. Not to mention whether I’ll agree or not, even if I do, how can you guarantee that I’ll be by Magnus’s side at the moment his defenses are weakest? And even if I succeed in assassinating him, how can you ensure you can take me away?”
“Lord Du Fan, we’ve already…”
“No need to say that…” Du Fan waved his hand. “Before discussing this deal, I want you to explain a few things to me first! First, who exactly are you? Second, what’s your goal in assassinating Chief Magnus? Third, why can’t you do it yourselves? Why do you need to rely on someone like me, an outsider? Once these three questions are answered, we can talk about the rest. I may not be very smart, but I’m not going to casually take the blame for others!”
A sigh came from behind him. The man said softly, “Lord Du Fan, do you really need to understand these things before agreeing to our request?”
Du Fan replied, “I need to understand first, then we can discuss the terms. Otherwise, don’t expect me to agree! And don’t try to threaten me with death—you two must have tried that already! I may not be able to kill you, but escaping isn’t a problem. As long as I get out of the magic circle cast by your shaman priest, I’ll just shout loudly, and all your schemes will be ruined!”
The two men behind him discussed in their barbarian language for a while. Finally, the one who had been speaking said, “Then, Lord Du Fan, can you swear that you’ll never reveal the secrets you’ve heard?”
Du Fan nodded and then took a vicious oath in the name of the God of Light.
The man was surprised by Du Fan’s viciousness but still said slowly, “Alright, Lord Du Fan… Since that’s the case, shall we go through each thing one by one? First, the first question: we are naturally also Karans… but we’re different from the people of the Moon-Inviting Tribe!”
Du Fan asked, “How so?”

The man said, “We Karans have lived in the Dusk Mountains for generations. There are about a dozen basins like this one in these mountains, and these basins are our homes. Throughout history, the Karans in each home have formed their own tribes. Our dozen or so tribes have lived in peace under the leadership of the Great Temple… But over a decade ago, some problems arose. At that time, one wise man among us believed that it was wrong for us to continue living deep in the mountains; we needed a better environment. Whether moving south or north, leaving the Dusk Mountains would improve our lives! But to achieve this, we needed to unite. That man then came up with an idea… that all of us Karans form a united tribal alliance, share weapons and food among the tribes, elect a respected person to serve as the alliance’s chief elder, and under the leadership of this chief elder, build a powerful military!”

Du Fan seemed to recall something and interrupted him, “Is this chief elder who was elected later none other than Chief Magnus?”

“Magnus?” The man sneered. “Lord Du Fan is quite right. The chief elder we elected is indeed Magnus. At first, he united the strength of our dozen tribes and did build a strong army. Six years ago, they invaded the north of your Gavin Empire. Unfortunately, this so-called strong army was easily defeated by the Northern Legion… Since then, our barbarian tribes have never recovered, and the tribal alliance exists only in name!”

Du Fan sneered, “I see. It seems that war six years ago was intentional on your part. You only lost more than you gained!”

Hearing Du Fan’s words, the man seemed somewhat embarrassed. He hadn’t forgotten Du Fan’s identity and continued, “But Lord Du Fan, that’s not the point. The real issue is that since Magnus failed in that war, he should take responsibility in some way—whether by continuing to train troops or giving up his position as chief elder. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he still held onto his position as chief elder and, under the guise of his authority, kept diverting resources from our other tribes to their Moon-Inviting Tribe. Every year, he claims to strive to create a bright future for the Karans, but…”

“But he didn’t do it, right?” Du Fan interrupted him with a cold laugh. “I doubt that’s the case. If I’m guessing correctly, your barbarian tribes consist of only two larger tribes, while the other dozen or so smaller tribes combined aren’t even as strong as one of your large tribes, are they?”
The man was slightly surprised. “Lord Du Fan is right. Aside from the Moon Inviting Tribe and our Blazing Fire Tribe, the others are so backward they’re not even worth mentioning!”
Du Fan nodded. “In that case, you don’t need to explain much. In other words, you’re from the Blazing Fire Tribe. You want to kill Magnus because your tribe is upset about losing power. So, you plan to find someone to kill Magnus, allowing your tribe to seize power once the Moon Inviting Tribe loses its leader and falls into chaos, right?”
The man said, “Lord Du Fan is absolutely correct… It is indeed the case. But how did you know?”
Du Fan sneered inwardly. These barbarians were still quite inexperienced in the art of power struggles. Things that even a political novice like himself could see through, they couldn’t. It seemed that even if their tribal alliance was useful, its limitations were significant.
At that moment, Du Fan was too lazy to answer that question. Instead, he asked, “Since we’ve resolved the first two questions, I have one last one for you. If killing Magnus will solve everything, I assume your Blazing Fire Tribe has plenty of skilled fighters. Why send just anyone? Why do you need someone like me, an outsider?”
The man gave a bitter smile. “Well… it’s not that simple, Lord Du Fan. Do you remember what I said earlier? The idea of a tribal alliance was proposed by a wise man in our tribe.”
“And so what?”
“Originally, since it was this wise man who proposed it, it wouldn’t have been a problem for him to become the chief elder of the alliance. But unfortunately, this wise man is also the high priest of ourKala tribe tribe’s great temple…” His voice grew more respectful as he continued, “The high priest once said that if anyone dared to seize power through assassination or similar means, they should expect to face consequences! So… even though our Blazing Fire Tribe desires the position of chief elder, we absolutely cannot allow our own people to carry out the assassination!”
“So… I came… and you thought of me?” Du Fan’s expression changed.