Mountain Opening Realm

After sending Huo Shan back to rest, Huo Tang let out a long breath, then shook his head.

He had truly been suppressing himself too fiercely. The ancestors had shown their spirit, and the tribe's strength had only just improved, yet he was already impatient to expand.

But where could there be so many bargains to pick up?

Huo Shan had observed several nearby tribes. Though all of them had suffered from the plague insects, most of their martial artists had not been harmed.

Even if he wanted to make a move, he would have to find a tribe that was tottering on the brink, about to collapse.

He had still been too wishful.

Since there were no bargains to pick up, the tribe still had to develop.

Every natural disaster affected not only the human race, but also the desolate beasts in the mountains and wilderness.

This torrential rain had lasted more than one hundred and twenty days, and the mountain floods had swept across a vast area. Now that the waters had receded, it was also time for the desolate beasts that had hidden from the disaster to emerge and hunt.

The desolate beasts, starved for so long, were violent and savage. They would fight fiercely over prey, and naturally many injured desolate beasts would appear.

After the plague, every tribe would seize this opportunity to hunt.

Huo Tang suddenly realized that he seemed to have planned wrongly. He should not have kept his eyes only on his own kind and forgotten about the desolate beasts.

The tribe had the improved Kui Ox Fist and the neutralizing medicine formula. As long as they had beast blood, this was precisely the best time to develop.

With martial artists in the tribe, would the clansmen still fear being unable to find wives?

Besides, with this rain having lasted so long, third-rank desolate beasts must have been affected as well.

If they could find an injured third-rank desolate beast, Huo Shan might be able to advance to the Heavenly Vein, and he himself could also try to charge at the Heavenly Vein once more.

Fortunately, it was not too late yet!

This month was precisely when the plague ran rampant. Compared with hunting, maintaining the tribe's safety was more important.

Even when they went out, they only dared to send a few clansmen at a time to investigate.

"Call Huo Shan..."

Just as Huo Tang was about to speak, he reconsidered and simply paced out of the cave himself.

Inside an ear cave of a cave on Isolation Mountain, the bonfire in the cave's fire pit flickered.

Huo Shan's wife brewed witch medicine while pouring the boiled medicinal soup into a stone trough. The soup poured down over Huo Shan's head.

The strong scent of witch medicine filled the air.

"Patriarch, why are you here?"

Huo Shan opened his eyes and saw Huo Tang standing outside. His wife had already left the ear cave.

Huo Tang took over tending the fire and brewing the medicine, motioning for Huo Shan to continue soaking in the stone trough.

"When you investigated the nearby tribes and passed through the wilderness, did you see any desolate beasts?"

"Yes, but there were not many."

Huo Shan thought back. He had spent the past month or so in the wilderness and had seen quite a few plague insects.

"Rest for two days. I'm preparing to have you lead a team out hunting. At the very least, bring back beast blood."

Huo Tang poked at the bonfire in the fire pit with a wooden stick. "Hunting desolate beasts is secondary. More importantly, see whether you can find an injured third-rank desolate beast.

"You have been a Mountain Opening Realm martial artist for quite some time. Take this opportunity to try breaking through to the Heavenly Vein.

"Even if you do not succeed this time, it will still count as accumulating a foundation for your next breakthrough."

"To find a third-rank desolate beast, we will have to go deep into the mountains. We must be careful."

"Since the tribe leader has ordered it, I'll set out tomorrow. Who will I be taking with me?"

"After you left, another four clansmen advanced to the Mountain Opening Realm. You will have enough people."

That night.

After finishing his deduction, Shen Can lay on the stone bed to rest.

When deducing witchcraft, his thoughts had to reach into the Sacrificial Cauldron, which heavily drained his mind.

However, after every deduction, once he recovered, he always felt his spirits grow stronger.

He also became increasingly proficient in using the witchcraft he had comprehended.

After comprehending the Water Control Art, his deduction progress had somewhat reached a bottleneck these past few days.

Over the past several days, he had discovered that he could spend fifty to eighty years of lifespan on deductions each day.

Even if he failed to deduce anything, it did not affect his mental state much the next day. Instead, he could feel his mental vigor improving.

The feeling was like the increase in strength gained after practicing the Kui Ox Fist and eating heavily every day. Spending lifespan on deductions each day also strengthened his mind.

Of course, with his lifespan crashing down day after day, he had already deduced the Lingyu witchcraft system as far as its thirteenth witch-script character.

At that moment, he suddenly heard movement inside the cave.

Then he heard Master Huo Xian from the East Ear Cave speak. The visitor exchanged a few quiet words with Huo Xian.

"Iron Wood."

The voice was very soft, but Shen Can still "heard" it.

Not long after, movement also came from behind the altar.

The sounds were faint, yet he sensed them with perfect clarity.

The feeling was mysterious. He could hear it anyway. Shen Can figured it might be a spiritual perception.

He had already identified the visitor. It was Tribe Leader Huo Tang, who was rummaging through the hidden cave behind the altar.

What is the tribe leader secretly up to this time?

Though he was somewhat curious, Shen Can did not get up to take a look. He turned over and continued sleeping.

After entering the hidden cave, Huo Tang came before the fragment of the Iron Wood Boat.

In the entire tribe, he was the only one capable of cutting Iron Wood apart.

He planned to use the Iron Wood to forge several Iron Wood Spears. If they found a third-rank desolate beast later, the spears could be used to raise the tribe's martial artists' combat strength.

After inspecting the Iron Wood fragment, Huo Tang got to work with a bang-bang-bang.

Early the next morning, Shen Can got up and received Huo Xian's reminder not to tell others about what Huo Tang was doing in the ancestral temple, lest the clansmen spread wild rumors while chatting.

Shen Can nodded. After eating, he went to inspect the clansmen's physical conditions.

As time passed, the plague began to weaken slightly. The tribe's martial artists started leaving the caves to clear out the stone halls and stone houses at the foot of the mountain that had been buried by the floodwaters.

When there were no natural disasters, the human race still preferred living in houses.

The caves were simply too deep, damp, and cold, and going up and down the mountain was rather troublesome.

Among the tribe's buildings at the foot of the mountain, the tallest stone hall was actually the ancestral temple.

It was just that disasters and calamities came frequently, so the ancestors had to relocate from time to time.

Three days later.

Near dusk, Shen Can returned from the isolation cave to the ancestral temple cave.

After eating, he began practicing the Kui Ox Fist in the ear cave.

His fist winds came in waves. Huo Xian watched while nodding and shaking his head.

A-Can's punches looked extremely fierce, but his physique showed no increase. Huo Xian could only sigh and turn away to attend to his own work.

After unleashing a full set of punches, Shen Can felt as though a stream of force had formed inside him and coursed through his entire body. In that instant, his strength surged forth like a raging tide, taking a long while to settle.

"Hah!"

Drawing back his fists and calming his breathing, Shen Can's thoughts stirred.

Sacrificial Host: Shen Can

Sacrificial Artifact: Sacrificial Cauldron

Martial Arts Realm: Mountain Opening Realm (ten measures of Desolate Power)

Witchcraft Realm: Unranked

Martial Divine Power: Myriad Transformations to One

Arts: Kui Ox Fist (high grade), Blazing Flame Tribe Witch Doctor Method (medium), Lingyu Water Control Art (low grade)

Cultivation Method: None

Martial Divine Power: Myriad Transformations to One

Lifespan: 29

The manifested data in his thoughts had become different from its original state. Shen Can was not particularly surprised by this. Since the Sacrificial Cauldron could manifest his cultivation state, it was only natural for it to change along with his cultivation.

As for the path of witchcraft, he was now more like crossing a river by feeling for stones.

He wanted to compile an introductory cultivation method, yet he could not even find the path to begin.

His lifespan was still not enough.

Under the night curtain, within the Giant Peak Mountain Range, outside a marsh formed after the floodwaters had receded.

Beneath a rocky mountain outside the marsh, several figures rested quietly against the rock wall inside a stone hollow formed by piled rubble, chewing on second-rank dried meat.

Huo Shan came from the distance, then lay prone in a crack between rocks and gazed out at the marsh.

The entire marsh was not large. As the water level fell, a back fin several zhang high emerged from its center, while quite a few Beast Bones lay scattered around it.

After watching for a long while, Huo Shan withdrew into the stone hollow.

"I checked every corner of the surrounding mountains. There are no other desolate beasts."

"Once you have eaten your fill, it is time to work. While this Overturning Mountain Scale is asleep, we can make our move."