Meanwhile, Old Moerbo had already helped the young man from the Taki tribe up, given him a swig of strong liquor, and made him chew some crushed herbs, finally managing to calm him down. However, when asked what he had seen, the young man only stared blankly, repeatedly emphasizing the phrase, "The Soul Tree in the water."

After questioning him a few more times, Fang Senyan injected the poor warrior with a tranquilizer to let him rest. He called Old Moerbo over:

"That situation just now was very strange. Can you tell me why your old friend's soul could first control these powerful beasts to ambush us, and then temporarily control the body of one of your tribesmen? Does that mean that you and your tribesmen are also not exempt from being controlled to assassinate me!"

Old Moerbo's face was grim. After thinking carefully for a long time, he finally said:

"Sir, I can only offer you my speculation."

Hearing Old Moerbo speak, Fang Senyan nodded slightly. Undeniably, after the warning hammer blow, this fellow had become much more reliable in both his actions and words:

"Speak."

Old Moerbo said seriously:

"I have witnessed a great Priestess of Eywa perform a divine art before—speaking of which, Sir, you might also know her; this priestess was the mother of Moy'ah, the daughter of the Toruk—she was deeply favored by Eywa, the Great Mother."

"At that time, the bravest warrior in her tribe was severely wounded, and the tribe was on the verge of annihilation. The priestess then performed a divine art, transferring the warrior's powerful soul into the body of a nearby Spirit Beast (a Rhamphorhynchus), allowing him to continue leading his people in battle as a beast!"

"Under this miracle, the morale of the entire tribe surged, and they successfully repelled the enemy. Afterward, they returned his soul to his original body. That warrior later becoming a distinguished Toruk Makto is likely related to this experience of possessing a spirit beast."

Fang Senyan listened intently, deep in thought, as Old Moerbo continued:

"And when the women of the Na'vi tribe reach four months of pregnancy, they also go before the Soul Tree to beg the Great Mother to bestow a soul upon the child. And Qyeyktan, before his fall, was also a powerful Priest of Eywa, so it is almost certain that he too could have accessed this potent divine art of soul transference..."

Listening to Old Moerbo's narration, Fang Senyan suddenly recalled similar scenes from the original movie plot, which appeared twice. The first time was when Jake Sully, after gaining the status of Toruk Makto, requested the Omatikaya clan to heal the severely wounded Dr. Grace Augustine by transferring her soul into her Avatar body. The second time was the protagonist abandoning his human identity at the end to become a Na'vi...

It was hard to imagine Eywa being so omniscient and omnipotent as to know long ago that the movie protagonist would need to enter her Avatar body, and thus, centuries ago, teaching her priestess Moy'ah this divine art specifically designed to inject an Earthling's soul into an Avatar body—and the Omatikaya clan members were so familiar with the various procedures, their movements in assisting Priestess Moy'ah were so practiced and synchronized, even their chanted spells were flawless.

Therefore, the only logical explanation was that this ritual that allowed the soul to migrate bodies had always existed! This was enough to prove Old Moerbo was not lying. But the next question arose... since the Mo'at people were a fallen clan, having lost the favor of the Great Mother, how could Qyeyktan achieve this?

Old Moerbo was also deeply worried at this moment:

"The ability Qyeyktan displayed seems to allow soul-possession of beasts from a distance, controlling their actions, and the soul can return safely after the beast dies. This is already very similar to the divine art of the Great Mother Eywa, perhaps even surpassing it! But exactly how he managed to do this, I cannot fathom."

Fang Senyan tapped his fingers against a nearby tree. For some reason, he suddenly recalled the Taki tribesman's almost frenzied muttering earlier. Connecting these key pieces of information further proved Fang Senyan's previous conjecture:

"The Soul Tree in the water... If that is the case, then it is possible."

Having figured out this part, Fang Senyan let out a long sigh of relief, and the worries in his heart largely dissipated. The reason he had been taking a walk late at night was naturally anxiety stemming from knowing nothing about the internal situation of the Mo'at. But after making contact with Imsata, he also learned that the Mo'at internal situation was equally unstable.

Perhaps the original Mo'at clan united because of the brutality of their enemies, something that could be gleaned from some of the intelligence Fang Senyan and his group had previously obtained.

But things always change; there is a saying, "It is easy to share poverty, but hard to share wealth." Over the years, the Mo'at clan had become powerful, implicitly becoming the overlords of this region. In comfortable living conditions, the fighting spirit and courage of many would naturally be eroded, especially after such a crushing, overwhelming defeat.

So, even if Qyeyktan himself hadn't changed, he certainly couldn't guarantee that the others hadn't! Therefore, it was easy to infer: under the immense pressure exerted by Fang Senyan, obvious cracks had already appeared within the Mo'at clan.

Of course, what Imsata said might be deceitful, might be false. Fang Senyan had already considered this point! However, the conditions for casting this soul-possession divine art must be quite harsh; otherwise, why would only three controlled beasts have been sent in the ambush? And the price paid by the recipient must also be enormous: Imsata's statement that "each body transfer consumes five years of life" was practically impossible to be false, a point even Old Moerbo agreed upon.

Therefore, based solely on this desperate, cornered ambush attempt by Qyeyktan, Fang Senyan could determine that this ruthless and cunning fellow also sensed instability and cracks within his ranks, causing him to panic.

Otherwise, if it were truly as Old Moerbo said, that "they would become more united because of the blood of their kin," Qyeyktan could have simply hunkered down in his lair and dragged the fight out with Fang Senyan! Why expend such a huge price (five years of life) for an ambush with little assurance of success? Had his mind gone bad and he suddenly decided he hadn't lived long enough?

Over the next two days, nothing happened, just like the days before. At this time, both Mogansha and Reef felt somewhat uneasy, thinking that perhaps Imsata was just trying to cheat his way out of survival, merely buying valuable time for their group. But on the noon of the sixth day of the siege, when the sun was hottest, what everyone had been eagerly anticipating finally occurred: the closest host body to the Mo'at settlement detected a large number of Mo'at tribesmen rushing out from within, and behind them, tribesmen of their own clan were pursuing them, leading to fierce battles between the two sides!

Fang Senyan immediately mounted a host to observe the frontline situation. Of course, Old Moerbo also had to take up arms; after being chastised, he finally stopped being passively idle. The Mo'at clan's weakness was their complete lack of air superiority, so Fang Senyan quickly grasped the situation on the battlefield. It indeed looked like an internal conflict had broken out within the Mo'at clan.

Fang Senyan pondered for a moment, then dispatched four hundred Thanator beasts to perform an aerial insertion from the flank to cover the retreat of Imsata's group.

This way, even if it was a scheme of self-injury, Fang Senyan was not afraid. With the current production capacity of the Black Thorn clan, replenishing four hundred Thanators would only take twenty minutes, and delivering them by host would take at most half an hour. Fang Senyan still had over a thousand Thanators left, enough to keep the Mo'at clan occupied until new forces arrived. Once the battle devolved into such a war of attrition and pursuit, the Mo'at clan, completely lacking air control, could not escape the relentless tracking of the hosts!

In reality, there wasn't much conspiracy. The deployment of these four hundred Thanators immediately held back the pursuers, gaining the fleeing tribesmen nearly ten minutes! Seeing that the situation was untenable, the pursuers could only retreat back into their structures.

Under Fang Senyan's instruction, Old Moerbo stepped forward, along with the thousand Thanators as a trump card, to carefully inspect the fleeing Mo'at tribesmen. After confirming that Qyeyktan was not among them, he quite readily let them go.

Of course, several hosts followed the released people as surveillance, ensuring they wouldn't stage a surprise counter-attack to capture the leader or attempt an inside job. Fang Senyan's cunning and depth were certainly not something that could be easily played with or deceived!

However, these Mo'at tribesmen all looked utterly exhausted. After all, during the days of the siege, the pressure of potentially being killed and eaten by their own kin at any moment was immense. Thus, even though Fang Senyan allowed them to leave, the vast majority were willing to join the Taki tribe, abandoning their fallen status and returning to the embrace of Eywa, the Great Mother. This essentially eliminated the possibility of internal agitation.

That evening, Imsata led another large group of Mo'at tribesmen to escape. Calculated carefully, the number of people who had escaped from the Mo'at clan in the two instances now exceeded the number remaining behind. However, Fang Senyan had no way to pry internal information from the Mo'at people. Imsata said they had betrayed their faith, and if they leaked intelligence again, it would be equivalent to betraying their very souls; if Fang Senyan insisted on forcing them, they would rather die.

Considering that he currently possessed enough cannon fodder and the entire situation was developing in a favorable direction under his control, Fang Senyan was unwilling to overly pressure these individuals, as he still needed the Taki tribe members to serve him.