Huo Shan really was thinking of Shen Can's best interests.
Among the major tribes, women with big butts, round hips, and children of their own were the most sought-after.
They had strong constitutions and experience giving birth—two children in three years, three in five.
But after thinking it over, Shen Can decided to forget it. The women of the Great Wilderness tribes were all tall and strapping, nearly the same as men.
With his little frame, even in bed, their heads would not meet in sixty-nine.
The news Huo Shan brought back further proved just how powerful the improved witch medicine was.
Whether brewed into a medicinal soup for prevention or tossed into the fire and burned into smoke, it could effectively drive away plague insects.
The other tribes' methods of blocking plague insects were ineffective; they could not stop the densely packed army of plague insects.
Coupled with those one-legged monstrous birds, once the plague insects tore open a breach, it would be a catastrophe beyond salvation.
Right, Shen Can now knew what those strange birds were called.
Qizhong, one of the many plague beasts of the Great Wilderness World.
"Although some of the Yan Mountain Tribe escaped, after the plague insects devoured Yan Mountain's able-bodied adults, their numbers grew again. We still need to make preparations."
Huo Tang spoke up. "A-Can, the women and children of the Yan Mountain Tribe will be settled outside first. When the time comes, we'll need you to drive away the Plague Aura."
When an epidemic broke out, outsiders naturally could not be brought into the tribe all at once. They had to wait outside for a period first.
"How many are there?"
Shen Can asked.
"Over two hundred women, maybe only a hundred-something. Several dozen to over a hundred children. Several dozen able-bodied adults. As for the rest..."
Huo Shan spoke haltingly.
He looked like he was not especially bright, but fortunately, the total was not large, so the margin of error should not be too great.
"Just use the medicinal herbs brought by the Fu Shan Tribe. I looked them over; the varieties are quite complete."
"Have some people build fumigation caves outside the tribe."
Shen Can said, "Right, build a few more, lest there aren't enough when the time comes."
He could already tell that Huo Tang seemed to be preparing to absorb the remnant tribes. Yan Mountain was only the beginning.
"Pick whoever you want." Huo Tang agreed without the slightest hesitation.
If this had been before, Huo Tang would definitely have questioned him in detail about building fumigation caves. But ever since the witch talismans appeared, Huo Tang no longer asked much about Shen Can's arrangements.
A few days later.
Inside a cave beyond the tribe, Shen Can met the tribespeople from Yan Mountain's remnants.
How should he put it? They were somewhat different from how Huo Shan had described them.
There were only a little over two hundred people in total.
There were one hundred and thirty-seven young women, around thirty children of about ten years old, and only nine children aged five or younger, including those still in swaddling clothes.
The remaining women looked rather old, and among them were three female Stone Splitter Realm warriors.
Of the several dozen able-bodied adults Huo Shan had mentioned, Shen Can saw only seven, every one of them injured.
The atmosphere was incredibly gloomy. Not even the children cried or fussed.
Outside the cave.
Huo Tang said, "A-Can, how many do you think can survive?"
The Blazing Flame Tribe had not added new people from outside for a long time. Its members were already related by blood and marriage, and they urgently needed outsiders to replenish them.
As chief, he was actually very anxious.
"Chief, first isolate those showing symptoms. Isolate anyone else as soon as they are discovered. Have the tribe's aunties come help look after the children."
After suffering such a massive upheaval, these people were listless. Even if they had not yet been infected by the plague aura, gathered together like this, they would sooner or later catch it.
Some who seemed fine now might even be in the incubation period.
"These people are too weak. First cook some thinner millet porridge. Tomorrow, take some beast meat and cook it with the millet into minced meat porridge."
"Put the fumigation on hold for now and switch to medicinal soup. Let everyone recover a little before proceeding with fumigation."
A few days later, two-thirds of the people in the cave showed symptoms.
No matter how careful Shen Can had been, several children still failed to pull through.
After checking on the Yan Mountain remnants, he also had to keep an eye on his own tribe.
By now, everyone in the tribe already knew about his drawing witch talismans. His influence within the tribe had suddenly risen to rival Huo Tang's.
The moment Shen Can entered the tribe's fumigation cave, someone hugged his leg.
Looking down, he saw it was the child Huo Yuan.
"Brother Can, are you really a witch?"
Huo Yuan looked up at him and asked excitedly.
"Then can you spray water?"
Huo Yuan's mother, Huo Xuan, immediately reached over with one huge hand, grabbed Huo Yuan by the ear and yanked upward, while her other hand landed on his backside.
"You little brat, say that nonsense again and I'll beat your butt to pieces."
After smacking him twice, Huo Xuan looked at Shen Can.
"A... temple... A-Yuan is still young, he..."
"Auntie Xuan."
Pulling A-Yuan from his mother's clutches, Shen Can looked at Huo Yuan's mother. She was no longer as relaxed as before and seemed extremely restrained.
Her burly body, paired with those two large hands that seemed to have nowhere to rest, made her look rather like Lu Zhishen dressed up as Lin Daiyu.
It was not only Huo Yuan's mother. The other women, children, and elders in the cave all looked at him with restraint and reverence in their eyes.
The witches of legend had suddenly become real, eroding away their old familiarity with him.
"Brother Can, Uncle Yuan said that with one lift of your hand, you can summon a bolt of heavenly lightning."
Huo Yuan looked up at Shen Can. "Blast A-Shu once. He always pinches my little bird."
"You pinch his too." Shen Can smiled and rubbed A-Yuan's little head.
"A-Can, touch my child's head too."
At that moment, an auntie who had crowded over held the child in her arms out before him.
"Touch his head?"
"Same here. Hurry and let the temple keeper touch your head. Maybe when you grow up, you can become a witch too."
As those words fell, the whole atmosphere in the cave abruptly changed.
The burly women, who had originally been somewhat restrained, all crowded forward holding their children.
Shen Can squeezed out of the crowd three times, only to be surrounded three times again.
"Temple keeper, touch my boy's little bird."
"Come on, let the witch touch it."
Before long, a pile of children spread their legs in front of Shen Can, while a group of women stood beside them, pointing out this and that with great interest.
The adult tribespeople often teased the children by pinching their little birds, frequently scaring them into running and screaming, drawing bursts of laughter.
In his memories, Shen Can had not escaped such treatment when he was little, either.
A crowd of women pressed in around him, their colossal waves surging like terror in the depths of the sea. Shen Can was so frightened that he hurriedly fled the cave.
He was now both temple keeper and witch, in charge of tribal rites and healing. Touching heads was one thing, but pinching little birds...
Was that something a proper witch could do?
The Little-Bird-Pinching Witch?
Wouldn't that title get him laughed to death?
"Whew..."
After walking out of the cave, Shen Can let out a long breath.
Looking out from the mountainside, he saw watchtowers being built on all the surrounding peaks.
The tribe's warriors had now been divided into four groups.
The warriors within the tribe guarded the tribal grounds under the leadership of two elder clansmen, Huo Yun and Huo Yu.
The warriors outside the tribe were led by Huo Shan, who took a team to investigate the circumstances of other tribes.
Huo Kui, another Mountain Opening Realm tribesman second only to Huo Shan, was responsible for transporting supplies from remnant tribes ravaged by plague insects, as well as relocating the people of those remnants.
The remaining manpower ran errands for Shen Can.
It could be said that if Shen Can wanted to rise to power now, he already had the foundation to overturn Huo Tang.
But seeing Huo Tang's weathered face and bloodshot eyes from staying awake all night, Shen Can felt that the position of chief seemed rather exhausting.
The moment he opened his eyes, he had to deal with the food, drink, shit, piss, marriages, safety, and security of more than two thousand people—not to mention old bachelors howling at the moon.
If a bunch of strapping men over two meters tall, with no one to warm their beds, gathered together every day, who knew what ideas might pop into their heads?
Whoever wanted to be chief could be chief.
Not to mention, his methods lay with the ancestral temple, so it was even more impossible for him to become chief.
Besides, spiritually speaking, a temple keeper was a more exalted existence than the chief.
Especially during this epidemic: Huo Xian had retired, and everyone old and young in the tribe drank medicinal soup brewed under Shen Can's lead.
His influence was soaring like crazy.
Before, he had only been the temple keeper. Now he was a witch plus temple keeper, and his status in the tribe had already piled up to the very top.
If he so much as opened his mouth and said he wanted to be chief—
Forget the tribespeople; perhaps even Huo Tang himself would let him do it.
Over the past few months, Shen Can's mindset had gradually changed. He had grown increasingly accustomed to the Great Wilderness World.
At the very beginning, he had still held somewhat of an idea of "sweeping the snow from before one's own door," seeing himself as someone hidden within the Blazing Flame Tribe.
When he brought out the Kui Ox Fist and improved the witch medicine, strengthening the tribe was not truly about increasing its power, but about ensuring his own safety.
He only gave them out because he feared the Blazing Flame Tribe would be finished.
Beyond that, he also acted according to the identity of "Can."
"My previous life was like a dream. Only this life is real."
A'Yu ran up from the foot of the mountain. "Brother Can, what are you looking at?"
"Looking at the mountains and thinking about things."
Shen Can slowly withdrew his gaze. "I was thinking which woman among Yan Mountain's remnants would suit my brother A'Yu as a wife."
A'Yu's bear-like body immediately twisted bashfully.
"Brother... Brother Can, two... would that work?"
Under Shen Can's astonished gaze, A'Yu held up two carrot-like fingers.
His big face had turned a little red.
"Good, good, little brother, you're honest and simple."
Shen Can stood on tiptoe and patted A'Yu's shoulder twice.
"Come on, let's go find the chief."
"Ah... isn't that a little too soon?"
Shen Can took two steps, then came back and kicked A'Yu. "What are you thinking? If you don't break through to the Mountain Opening Realm, you won't get a wife."
"No, if you don't reach the Heavenly Vein, then go play with your bird by yourself."
"I'm going to ask the chief about the situation outside the tribe."
"You fool, is having a wife really that important?"
"Hehe..." A'Yu scratched the back of his head. "The uncles all say it's really fun at night when you have a wife."
He quickly caught up with Shen Can. "Brother Can, I want one with a big butt. The uncles and aunties all say big butts are good."
"Fine. Follow the temple keeper, and not only you—everyone in the tribe will have a wife."
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