In the spread-out Beast Hide Scroll, Shen Can saw the appearance of a plague worm. Its entire body was semi-transparent, covered in transparent sacs filled with plague fluid.
This was merely the most common kind of plague worm.
According to the Blazing Flame Tribe's oral traditions, there were supposedly also Desolate Beast Plague Worms.
They were enormous desolate beasts that had directly become the mothers of plague worms, controlled by countless plague worms as they roamed the mountains and wilderness.
Wherever they passed, water sources and soil would become contaminated.
Legend had it that the human race had once worshipped such Desolate Beast Plague Worms.
Unfortunately, the more they worshipped them, the more thoroughly screwed they became.
These past few days, the Blazing Flame Tribe had been drinking water drawn from vertical shafts drilled downward through the mountain. The water brought up was also filtered through fine sand and plant ash.
They had possessed such methods long ago.
Not only that, the water was boiled before being drunk.
The Great Wilderness looked primitive, but for the human race to multiply and pass down its legacy, their forebears had long since fallen into every pit there was to fall into.
As for new pits, wasn't the human race still passing on its legacy?
Newcomers fell into new pits; new pits became old pits; newcomers became old hands.
Take the plague after a flood, for example. The Blazing Flame Tribe had endured for three hundred years. Back when life had been relatively good, they had actually been stockpiling supplies needed for natural disasters.
Such as medicinal ingredients for shamanic remedies.
It was only that the tribe's inheritance of shamanic medicine was too poor. Even with such preparations, dealing with a disaster remained an enormous trial.
They feared their preparations were insufficient, feared the plague worms were too vicious, feared this and feared that...
There was simply too much to fear.
As the floodwaters continued without end, the anxiety on Master Huo Xian's face grew day by day.
The greater the flood, the more living beings would die, and the fiercer the outbreak of plague would become.
No wonder the tribal chief, a Heaven Vein Warrior, looked as though wind and frost had worn him down.
Being tribal chief was far too difficult.
"I heard the elders say that, in some faraway place, there are great tribes who dwell suspended in the sky. They fear neither floods nor earthquakes nor plagues. They can even drive away terrifying Disaster Beasts. I wonder what a tribe like that looks like."
Huo Xian spoke blankly.
"We are all lower tribes. How could we dare hope to imagine what such tribes are like? We cannot even imagine it."
Even in another world, Shen Can could not imagine it either.
He figured it definitely was not the sort of thing where an emperor went farming with a golden hoe.
Opening another Beast Hide Scroll about shamanic medicine and herbs, Shen Can began to study.
There was no helping it. Even cheating required some foundation.
The Sacrificial Cauldron was always cursing him for having six of his seven apertures open, and it had angered him more than once.
What if he could use this to deduce a genuine shamanic art?
The stronger the tribe became, the safer he would be. Just look at how exhausted their sole Celestial Meridian Realm warrior had become.
Although he possessed the divine ability Myriad Transformations to One, he still had to prepare for when he advanced into a Celestial Meridian Realm warrior.
Seven days later.
Inside West Ear Cave, Shen Can withdrew his fist.
Sacrificial Host: Shen Can Martial Arts Realm: Stone Splitter Realm (Two Strands of Desolate Power)
His strength had directly doubled. Of course, it was not from eating beast meat.
Though every meal Huo Xian and he ate contained meat, it was all ordinary dried desolate beast meat.
The tribe truly was not wealthy. The rain had already fallen continuously for four months, and the entire tribe was living off its reserves.
It was not that the tribe lacked stored first-order and second-order air-dried beast meat. Rather, some things could not be touched carelessly.
Without more resources to replenish their energy, that beast meat was the reserve rations for the tribe's warriors to unleash their combat strength.
It was meant to ensure the warriors' fighting strength should something happen to the tribe.
Supporting an entire household was truly not easy. Tribal Chief Huo Tang had it rough; he did not even dare slack off.
The reason his strength had doubled so quickly was naturally because he had stolen offerings from his ancestors.
That second-order strange fish from the last sacrifice.
There had been two portions of its blood at the time. One had been placed in a blood goblet atop the offering table.
Most of the remainder had been given to the tribesmen to break through the Mountain Opening stage. Yet after their breakthroughs, it was not as though all the leftover beast blood had been used up.
Depending on the circumstances, some water and other things had been added, and it was left for the tribe's Stone Splitter Realm warriors.
Shen Can naturally would not compete with his fellow tribesmen over leftovers. Stealing from the ancestors was much more convenient.
Everything the ancestors had was his.
Although many days had passed and little beast blood remained in the goblet, the strange fish's realm was there for all to see.
Master Huo Xian was now busy every day preparing shamanic medicine to prevent and treat the plague, so Shen Can handled such chores as sweeping and cleaning.
Stealing a little beast blood could not have been easier.
The beast blood smelled strongly fishy. If it had been left out this long in his previous life, maggots would already have grown in it.
But desolate beast blood was extraordinarily mystical. It remained as crystalline as a blood amber.
Every day, Shen Can mixed a little into his meat and rice, then ate some millet. After only seven days, his strength had doubled.
Feeling his physique strengthen once again, he thought that the next time he stole some, he could increase the amount slightly.
Previously, he had feared that his body would not be able to bear it, so he had been very measured, taking only a spoonful each time.
With his strength increasing and his body continuously growing tougher, he would have to eat two spoonfuls next.
Before the divine altar.
Seeing the scant beast blood in the goblet, Shen Can bowed toward the ancestral tablets.
"Ancestors, bless me with another second-order strange fish."
Misty rain hung in the air, and the downpour still showed no sign of stopping.
Hearing the commotion, Shen Can emerged from the ancestral temple. Ever since then, people had constantly been stationed along the floodwater's edge.
Although the floodwaters no longer washed out much, the tribe was still gathering whatever usable resources it could.
One mountain peak after another stood like islands in the water.
A Celestial Meridian Realm warrior could perform Iron Palm Skimming Across Water in the floodwaters, but it was not particularly safe, nor could they keep it up for long.
The Blazing Flame Tribe was not wealthy enough to use its only tribal chief as fish bait.
Looking into the distance, the mountains had become a vast waterlogged land.
Near dusk, Huo Shan and Huo Ning, two warriors, hurried over from behind the mountain where the tribe was located.
The tribe's Tribal Land Mountain stretched more than ten li from east to west. It was a small mountain outside the Giant Peak Mountain Range.
As for why they had not gone deep into the mountains to carve caves into the taller Giant Peaks, there was no other reason: the deep mountains were too dangerous.
After Huo Shan returned, he entered Huo Tang's cave. Not long afterward, Huo Tang left the tribal land with several others.
When they returned again, a fragment of wrecked wood five or six zhang in size was dragged into the ancestral temple cave under cover of night.
This wrecked wood had not originally been a single piece. It showed signs of being pieced together, and its upper and lower portions were different colors.
One portion was dull and dark, concealing even its wood grain and the diagrams carved upon it.
On the other portion, parts of beast patterns could still be seen carved into it, though it was impossible to determine the full appearance of those patterns.
Huo Xian patted Shen Can. Though he said nothing, Shen Can understood what he meant: do not panic.
This was a fragment of a ship.
"It was discovered in a valley east of our Tribal Land Mountain, wedged into a corner together with tangled driftwood and broken grass. We would not have found it without a careful inspection."
Huo Shan spoke. He was the tribe's seasoned Mountain Opening warrior and the person most likely to become its second Heaven Vein Warrior.
Since Huo Tang could not move about lightly, Huo Shan led the team whenever they went out to hunt or deal with other matters.
Ever since corpses and bones had been discovered in the floodwaters, Huo Tang had ordered Huo Shan to strengthen patrols around the tribal land.
Within ten li east and west of the Tribal Land Mountain, there were more than a dozen recessed valleys, and plenty of broken branches and grass had washed into them.
Huo Shan stepped forward and smashed his fist into the wreckage. A boom rang out, yet the wood, already covered in cracks, suffered not the slightest damage beneath his fist.
"Third-Order Iron Wood only grows deep within great mountains."
Huo Xian spoke with a frown. After returning to the ear cave, he pulled out a Beast Hide Scroll. He opened it, then returned to the wood.
The Beast Hide Scroll depicted Iron Wood.
If the raw wood of this kind were placed in the Blazing Flame Tribe, the tribesmen would find it difficult even to process, much less turn it into a ship.
Shen Can could see it as well. This was not something a small tribe could handle.
Even a Third-Order Iron Wood Ship had been smashed to pieces. Just how great had the winds and waves been?
"It is even more formidable than Shanghuang." Huo Shan smacked his lips.
Huo Xian said nothing and went to search through the Beast Hide Scrolls again.
Soon, an ancient Beast Hide Scroll was spread open, displaying a map painted in a somewhat freehand style.
The undulating lines were mountains, and the winding lines were rivers.
Between the mountains and rivers were the names of marked tribes.
The Shanghuang Tribe was among them.
Beyond Shanghuang, at the edge of the map, was a place near Ze Land, where there was a tribe called Ling Yu.
According to the oral legends passed down through the Ling Yu Tribe, it lay ten thousand li away from the Blazing Flame Tribe. Yet on this map, its distance from Blazing Flame was roughly the same as Shanghuang's.
"Could it be the Ling Yu Upper Tribe?"
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