After simulating forty-six years, you improved the first-tier neutralizing witch medicine formula. The simulation ended.
Inside the West Ear Cave of the ancestral temple, Shen Can opened his eyes.
Sure enough, there was a difference between a good student who had undergone systematic study and a slacker. This simulation had been easy, and his head had not felt nearly as tired.
He truly understood a little more about the principles behind witch medicine.
Sacrificial Host: Shen Can Martial Arts Realm: Stone Splitter Realm (Six Desolate Power) Sacrificial Vessel: Sacrificial Cauldron Tempering Method: Kui Ox Fist (High Grade) Witchcraft Path: Blazing Flame Tribe Witch Doctor Method (Intermediate), Witchcraft (None) Cultivation Method: None Martial Divine Power: Myriad Transformations to One
As his thoughts turned, Shen Can saw that the Blazing Flame Tribe Witch Doctor Method he cultivated had improved somewhat as well.
But thinking about it, that made sense.
There was not much to the Blazing Flame Tribe's witch doctor inheritance to begin with.
He had even simulated and improved both the neutralizing medicine formula and the Plague Witchcraft Medicine Formula. It would have been strange if the overall witch doctor method had not improved.
With the neutralizing medicine formulas for Stone Splitter and Mountain Opening Realm beast blood, paired with the improved Kui Ox Fist, the chances of tribal warriors advancing into the Stone Splitter and Mountain Opening Realms would surely more than double compared to before.
He would no longer need to worry about the tribe's warriors advancing in the near future.
As for more refined formulas and fist arts later on, once Huo Xian retired and he became the ancestral temple's true priest, handling such matters would become much simpler and more convenient.
He secretly recorded the two neutralizing witch medicine formulas onto a tattered piece of beast hide, intending to find an opportunity to make the ancestors crack open again.
Ancestors, forgive me one more time. I won't dare do it the time after next.
After all, constantly making the ancestors crack open was rather unfilial.
"A-Can, come eat first. Go into the tribe after you're done."
Inside the East Ear Cave, Huo Xian placed a large pottery bowl of food onto a stone table cluttered with beast hides.
Since Shen Can was the successor to the temple lineage, Huo Xian had been relieved of quite a burden. The tasks that had originally belonged to Huo Xian had now all been handed over to Shen Can.
He went into the tribe to inspect the brewing of plague-curing soup.
He replaced the plague-curing medicine pellets carried by tribe members once they had lost their efficacy.
He checked whether the tribe members had properly fumigated their dwelling caves with Aihuo Grass.
With more than two thousand people living there, it took him nearly an entire day to inspect everything.
"Brother Can, can I not drink it?"
Inside a spacious cave, ear caves lined both sides, each one home to a family.
The moment Shen Can entered on his rounds, Huo Yuan spotted him and ran over to tug on his sleeve.
Shen Can did not stand on ceremony. He pinched Huo Yuan's nose, took the medicine bowl, felt that the soup was not hot, then poured it straight down his throat.
"All right, go play."
Seeing Huo Yuan get his nose pinched and be force-fed, the other children in the cave obediently began drinking as well.
"Brother Can, the old temple keeper told you to go back. Uncle Huo Shan has returned from hunting outside."
Shen Can knew Huo Shan had gone out, but he had not expected him to remember Shen Can on his way back. Ah, no, he had remembered the ancestors.
Worthy indeed of being the tribe's prospective Heaven Vein Warrior.
After returning to the ancestral temple, Shen Can sharpened his knife, its edge gleaming coldly.
What Huo Shan had brought back was a first-tier Mountain-Cleaving Kui. Like the previous one, it was somewhat skinny.
What truly surprised Shen Can came in the latter half of the night.
He had already gone to sleep when he was dragged back up.
A strange turtle-dragon with legs covering its belly appeared inside the ancestral temple.
The entire Desolate Beast was covered in wounds, and its aura was weak, as though its life were hanging by a thread.
The moment Huo Shan saw Shen Can emerge, he hurriedly called out.
"A-Can, hurry and worship the ancestors."
Ever since the ancestral tablet of the forefather had cracked open, the tribe's enthusiasm for worshipping the ancestors had soared.
Sacrificial Host seized three hundred and twenty years of lifespan from the second-tier Great Wilderness Variant Scaly Xuan Turtle Dragon.
Once the ancestral worship process was complete, Huo Shan wrapped the not-yet-fully-dissected Desolate Beast piece by piece in beast hides and carried it away in several trips.
The previous second-tier Desolate Beast had also been taken from the ancestral temple, yet he had not heard of anyone in the tribe advancing into the Mountain Opening Realm.
This time, it looked as though it would be taken away again.
The only person who could make Huo Shan do this was Huo Tang, the tribal chief.
Huo Shan did not say anything, and Shen Can did not ask. He simply did his own job properly.
At that moment, Huo Xian also brought out the neutralizing medicinal ingredients he had prepared and was about to place them into the blood trough.
Before Shen Can could take out the neutralizing witch medicine formula, he had made his move secretly during the previous two occasions. But now Huo Xian had already ground all the medicinal powder, not giving him any chance to switch it.
"Master, when I was wiping the ancestral tablets earlier, I discovered that one of the ancestors' tablets seemed to have cracked again."
Shen Can immediately spoke and quickly walked toward the altar.
He jumped onto the altar, randomly picked an ancestor, and stirred his Six Desolate Power slightly.
Crack!
The ancestor cracked open.
By the time Huo Xian walked over, he saw the neutralizing witch medicine formula in Shen Can's hand.
Oh, and an ancestor who had cracked under unnatural circumstances.
The tribal chief had come again.
After staring blankly at the formula on the beast hide for a while, Huo Xian carried the already-ground medicinal powder back to the eastern ear cave.
"Take the beast blood away first."
Seeing this, Huo Tang spoke, and Huo Shan efficiently carried the beast blood trough out of the ancestral temple.
"Uncle Huo Xian?"
Standing outside the East Ear Cave, Huo Tang paced back and forth twice. He wanted to go in, yet stopped himself, instead leaning close to the cave entrance to peer inside at Huo Xian.
Huo Xian, who was nearly sprawled across the table, only raised his head from his excited astonishment after hearing the call.
"It's a witch medicine formula for neutralization!"
"It's a witch medicine formula for neutralization!"
"There are formulas for both the first and second tiers!"
"The ancestors have revealed their divine power!"
Outside the ear cave, Huo Tang clapped his hands together and rubbed them.
His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. He merely rubbed his hands and paced back and forth.
"A-Can, come help me fetch the medicinal ingredients."
The herbs used to neutralize beast blood were kept in the ear cave where Huo Xian was. In his excitement, Huo Xian called Shen Can over to get busy.
Once they had prepared the medicinal ingredients according to the witch medicine formula, Huo Tang, who had been pacing excitedly at the cave entrance, had already vanished.
After the prepared ingredients were ground into powder, Huo Shan came back to take them away.
The next day, when the night was equally deep.
Shen Can was called up again.
A large and a small black bear, their bodies covered in tangled fur, were tightly bound hand and foot, their mouths cinched shut. Beaten half to death, they lay inside the ancestral temple.
Beside the black bears stood Huo Tang, whose clothing was somewhat damp.
Huo Tang beckoned him over and said, "A-Can, come worship the ancestors."
As the Luan Knife rang with a tinkling sound, thoughts flashed through Shen Can's mind.
Sacrificial Host seized eighty-one years of lifespan from a first-tier Hun Mountain Bear. Sacrificial Host seized two hundred and eighty-one years of lifespan from a second-tier Hun Mountain Bear.
After the ancestral worship, just as before, the beast blood, beast meat, and even the Zuò meat were all taken away by Huo Tang.
Sacrificial Host seized eighty-seven years of lifespan from a first-tier Mountain-Cleaving Kui.
Sacrificial Host seized two hundred and sixty years of lifespan from a second-tier Desolate Beast Green Fang Wolf.
For several consecutive days, whenever the elderly, weak, women, and children of the tribe had fallen asleep, Huo Tang would return with Desolate Beasts.
Likewise, every time, he would take away the neutralizing medicinal ingredients prepared by Huo Xian.
No matter how unwilling Shen Can was to let his imagination run wild, he understood that Chief Huo Tang definitely had something going on.
That night.
Shen Can did not sleep.
He waited for Chief Huo Tang to return, so he would not be dragged from his bed again.
With a turn of thought, he checked the lifespan he had accumulated.
Lifespan: 1317
In only a few short days, the lifespan he had accumulated had surpassed one thousand.
At this rate, reaching two thousand years of lifespan was no longer a dream.
Ever since he had brought out the neutralizing medicine formula, Chief Huo Tang's drive had become terrifying. He went out by day and hid by night, constantly running into the mountain ranges.
So much lifespan also made Shen Can's heart itch. He felt that he could completely try simulating true witchcraft.
He waited until the latter half of the night before Huo Tang finally returned, though his expression was far from pleasant.
"Plague insects have appeared. I saw several winged plague insects at the cliff one hundred and eighty li away."
After leaving behind those words, Huo Tang hurried back into the tribe.
Then, the quiet tribe suddenly erupted into commotion. On the peaks of the small mountains surrounding the tribal grounds, wood that had previously been chopped and left to dry was stacked up, and blazing bonfires roared to life.
Bundles of Aihuo Grass were thrown into the bonfires, and smoke thick with the scent of medicinal herbs surged up around the tribe.
After the rain had stopped, they had merely been defending themselves voluntarily. But now that plague insects had appeared, it meant the plague was coming.
Huo Shan came in from outside, several of the previously kneaded plague-curing medicine pellets hanging from his body.
"A'Shan."
Huo Tang called Huo Shan over and spread out a crude map of the surrounding region.
"Xuan Shui, Ji Shi, Fu Shan..."
Huo Tang pointed at the marked locations on the map.
"Take some people and check on the nearby tribes. If any tribe has been infected by the plague, return at once and report it."
"I've had people make you drink the plague-curing soup, and several sets of clothes have been boiled in the medicinal broth as well. Be more careful on the road."
"Fine, I'll set out right away."
Huo Shan nodded, seeming to know what he needed to do, and swiftly left the tribe.
After seeing Huo Shan to the cave entrance, Huo Tang gazed at the night sky and murmured.
"May the ancestors bless us, and may Blazing Flame prosper greatly."
A word about the update schedule: before release, it is tentatively set for five in the afternoon every day, with two chapters released together.
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