Shen Can was woken from his sleep by shouts.
Huo Tang stood inside the ancestral temple, reeking of medicinal broth, his expression incomparably grave.
"A plague worm capable of possessing people."
"The entire tribe is silent and soundless, like walking corpses."
Hearing Huo Tang's description, Shen Can's scalp went numb as well.
Hadn't the plague already passed?
The millet shoots at the foot of the mountain had turned green.
Everything was bursting with life—how was this not over yet?
"Where is the Fu Shan Tribe?"
Shen Can pored over the map and finally found the tribe's location.
The region where the Blazing Flame Tribe had established itself lay along the southern outer edge of the Giant Peak Mountain Range.
Though it was considered the mountain range's outskirts, it was still a land of clustered mountains.
Beyond Giant Peak, mountains stood shoulder to shoulder, with relatively flat stretches broken into small patches between them.
At a glance, it looked like a hundred thousand mountains.
The nearby tribes had no idea how many tens of thousands of miles the Giant Peak Mountain Range stretched across. They only called it Giant Peak because its mountains were lofty and majestic, spanning east to west.
There were many tribes like Blazing Flame along the east-west line of the Giant Peak Mountain Range.
The Fu Shan Tribe lay three hundred li northeast of the Blazing Flame Tribe, deeper within the Giant Peak Mountain Range.
"The tribal records say that some plague worms can directly control savage beasts. This old man has never heard of any that can control people."
Huo Xian gave a bitter smile. "Could some powerful savage beast have died within the Giant Peak Mountain Range? Otherwise, how could it breed such plague worms?"
Three hundred li did not sound far at all. Even without wings, once they broke out, they would reach the Blazing Flame Tribe sooner or later.
At that moment, Huo Tang spoke. "When the heavy rain had just stopped, I sent Huo Shan to check the surrounding tribes. The Fu Shan Tribe was still perfectly normal then.
"No one in the deep mountains gathered up the corpses washed away by the flood. Those plague worms most likely came from the mountains."
Huo Xian said nothing, merely flipping through the tribal records again and again, hoping to find some hint within them.
But at this crucial moment, the tribe's poverty showed itself.
After searching for a while, Huo Xian spoke in disappointment. "There are no detailed records. It only mentions plague worms that control savage beasts to move about."
"Then dig wide trenches outside the tribe, pour in Beast Oil, trap them inside, and set the Beast Oil alight. Burn them clean with one fire."
Huo Xian gave his suggestion.
Digging pits as traps was also a commonly used hunting method.
"Elder clansman, how many plague-treating herbs are left in the tribe?"
Without even thinking, Huo Xian replied, "Enough for half a year."
Hearing that they had enough medicine, Huo Tang's heart eased slightly.
Then Shen Can spoke. "Chieftain, if the Fu Shan Tribe has truly been infected by plague worms, then this is no longer just our tribe's problem."
In Shen Can's view, joining forces under such circumstances was the best course of action.
But Huo Tang did not think the tribes were likely to unite.
Even though the tribe had grown much stronger now, he still preferred for it to defend itself.
As for joining with others, they lacked the absolute strength to lead such an alliance. Even if they did unite, it would be difficult for them to truly stand as one.
And asking the Shanghuang Tribe for help? Perhaps the Shanghuang Tribe would be delighted to see the other tribes suffer.
Seeing this, Shen Can did not argue. The chieftain would lead the people in blocking the Possessing Plague Worms, while his task was to do everything possible to ensure the tribespeople survived.
Protecting the tribe was also protecting himself.
Before long, Huo Tang hurried off to make arrangements for the tribespeople.
Shen Can followed Huo Xian and began busying himself as well.
Batch after batch of witch medicine was prepared and placed in wooden frames for later use.
As he worked, Shen Can's thoughts gradually drifted.
He was now a proper witch doctor. Though he had yet to enter the ranks, he had at least mastered witchcraft.
Against plague worms, witch medicine was only preventive. Witchcraft was the true means of eliminating them.
The tribal records contained only a scant dozen or so words. To Shen Can, the fewer the words, the graver the matter. He had to urgently think of a solution.
Blazing Flame was his home. If his home was gone, where could he run with his current strength?
Leave Blazing Flame and go to another tribe to serve as their temple keeper?
What a joke. Did he think he would be treated as a person in another tribe?
Though they were all human, in the eyes of many tribes, people from other tribes were slaves and sacrificial offerings.
If he went there, they truly might cackle with delight—then love him enough to dig out their hearts and lungs for him.
In truth, his value would not even compare to that of women and children.
With his less-than-ideal physique talent, he probably would not even qualify as a sacrificial offering.
Deducing a Plague-Curing Witchcraft While working, Shen Can began his deduction. Though you were only an unranked witch doctor, you had comprehended witchcraft for over a thousand years and understood that the key to witchcraft was catching that single thread of spiritual light. You dared to think and act. You boiled witch medicine, mixed it with beast blood to make ink, used the witch script within the Lingyu Water Control Art as a framework, and fused them into a practical witch rune. You spent three years drawing runes, all of which failed. A stubborn mule never lost heart. Starting with the materials that carried the witch rune, you spent seven years discovering that Mountain-Cleaving Kui hide was the finest medium. Again and again, you upheld your own idea, wanting to fuse the mysterious spiritual light within the witch script with witch medicine. Failure after failure, attempt after attempt, you finally fused a single witch script with medicinal ink. At the instant this witch rune took shape, it flashed with red light. A surge of Medicinal Qi erupted, then immediately drew inward. Only then did you realize that more than a hundred years had passed. Congratulations, you have deduced your first witch rune: the Plague Dispelling Rune.
Inside the ear cave, Huo Xian looked at the dazed Shen Can, got up, and draped a hemp robe over him.
Crash!
Suddenly, Shen Can's hand jerked, scattering the herbs he held.
Just as Huo Xian was about to speak, he saw Shen Can swiftly rise and rush out, returning with his earthenware food bowl and blood cup in his arms.
"A-Can, what are you doing?"
"Master, I suddenly caught a flash of inspiration."
Shen Can poured a prepared portion of witch medicine into the earthenware bowl and set it over the stove to boil.
Under Huo Xian's astonished gaze, he poured the boiling medicinal broth into beast blood to make ink. Then he brought in a piece of kui hide from outside, dipped it in the medicinal ink, and began writing.
"This..."
Huo Xian was a little dumbfounded.
In fact, he had once done something like this himself.
Everyone had been young once. When one was young, one had many ideas and acted without looking ahead or behind.
Thinking back, it should have been more than forty years ago, when he had still been studying the Art of Witch Medicine under the previous temple keeper.
Back then, he had thought that witch runes were supposedly written out—so why could he not try it himself?
What if he was a genius?
He tried.
The result was that he was not.
His talent points had gone into rolling medicinal pellets.
Huo Xian did not disturb Shen Can. Even his movements as he prepared herbs grew a few degrees lighter.
After Shen Can finished writing the witch script and lifted his brush, a medicinal fragrance wafted from the characters beneath it.
"Master, take a look?"
Huo Xian glanced at it and found it rather wondrous.
Could A-Can truly possess talent in the art of runes?
"Why don't you give it a try, elder?" Shen Can handed the brush to Huo Xian.
Seeing Shen Can's eager gaze, Huo Xian took the brush and began writing.
With ink mixed from witch medicine and beast blood, anyone who wrote with it would produce a medicinal scent and the bloody stench of savage beasts.
But whether it could produce something wondrous depended on the person.
After Huo Xian raised his brush and completed the strokes, he found that while there was indeed a medicinal scent, Shen Can's work only resembled his in form. Its spirit and charm were far inferior.
Its aura, however, was truly similar to the medicinal pellets he rolled.
"I'm old, I'm old."
Huo Xian set down the brush. "It seems your talent in the witch path is far better than this old man imagined, A-Can.
"I may not know what this is, but it truly feels like it has spirit and charm. Perhaps it might really work."
"The ancestors are blessing us."
Shen Can could tell that Huo Xian did not truly understand the power of witch runes, but he still encouraged him.
Thinking about it, that made sense. If someone casually drew a rune and claimed it was real, who would believe it?
The tribe did not even possess such an inheritance.
Could it be that the ancestors had manifested and bestowed enlightenment upon him?
Shen Can went out and selected a fine piece of Mountain-Cleaving Kui hide, cut it into small pieces with a knife, dipped them in the prepared medicinal ink, and began drawing Plague Dispelling Runes.
Seeing Shen Can's actions, Huo Xian did not stop him. He felt that Shen Can's witch runes were much like medicinal pellets.
Rolling medicinal pellets was merely preparing medicine. He could finish it whether Shen Can helped or not, and since Shen Can had ideas, he did not wish to discourage him.
The ear cave fell quiet, broken only occasionally by the crackling of the burning lamp wick.
After drawing five in succession, Shen Can felt dizziness rise up within him. He put down the brush and rubbed his head.
He realized that he had probably exhausted too much of his mental strength.
"If you're tired, go rest. The medicine cannot be prepared in a single day anyway."
Several days later.
Shen Can received more definite news.
The Fu Shan Tribe was completely finished.
Huo Shan had discovered more than a dozen skeletal remains of savage beasts within the tribe.
They had come from the Giant Peak Mountain Range, their rotting flesh corroding earth and stone along the way, leaving behind trails of putrid stench.
As for why the Fu Shan Tribe had not noticed, no one knew anymore.
After the plague worms gnawed the savage beasts dry, they turned the entire Fu Shan Tribe into a new breeding ground.
After breeding for some time, the Possessing Plague Worms split from the Fu Shan Tribe into several groups and began heading outward. One of those groups was coming toward the Blazing Flame Tribe.
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