A-Can, How About You Become the Clan Chief Instead?

The Blazing Flame Tribe was bustling. The meat, grain, witch medicines, beast hides, and other resources Huo Shan's group had brought back drew the attention of the tribespeople.

But to Shen Can, every time Huo Shan returned laden with goods, it meant that everything beyond the tribe lay silent and dead, confirming that Blazing Flame had become the only one left in this surrounding wilderness.

Oh, no, that was not quite right. Perhaps a few scattered survivors had luckily lived through the plague.

While transporting supplies, Huo Shan had also taken the opportunity to investigate traces of the plague worms.

The Possessing Plague Worms were gone, and so were the Flying Plague Worms, as if they had vanished in an instant.

This matched the clan records. At a certain point, the plague worms would disappear without a trace, as though someone had taken them away.

Of course, Shen Can guessed it was also possible that the plague worms had simply gone far away. The people of small tribes could not investigate distant places, so they instinctively assumed the plague worms had suddenly disappeared.

Standing outside the ancestral temple cave, he looked down below. He did not join the commotion, instead turning to enter the neighboring cave.

Compared with the supplies Huo Shan had brought back, the Beast Hide Scrolls recovered from the various tribes were what he truly wanted.

This cave beside the ancestral temple cave had already been converted into a library cave.

The cave was suffused with a strong scent of witch medicine. Though the plague had passed, these Beast Hide Scrolls had still been fumigated with burned witch medicine before being brought into the tribe.

The supplies Huo Shan had brought back were treated the same way.

Inside the cave, Huo Xian looked at the Beast Hide Scrolls arranged upon the shelves, and the delight in his eyes never faded.

"Cough, cough..."

"Master, you should rest for a while."

Hearing the coughs, Shen Can once more urged Huo Xian to leave. Huo Xian did not respond. He tucked a Beast Hide Scroll beneath his arm and went back.

There were more than three thousand Beast Hide Scrolls in the cave altogether, and the number continued to grow as Huo Shan ventured out.

These scrolls collected by the tribes could roughly be divided into prescriptions and medical experience, maps, legends and stories, steps for crafting weapons and armor, planting and land reclamation, and herb illustrations.

The categories seemed plentiful, but the actual content was terribly sparse.

Much of what they described was vague and unclear, muddled and disjointed.

Even the so-called lessons of experience differed in their accounts of the very same matter, making them difficult to trust.

Yet one could still see that, although the various tribes lived primitively, all of them were struggling to survive, trying to record what they knew and pass it on to future generations as experience.

"The marquis sacrificed to the great river at Mang, casting a jade tablet into the waters, sacrificing tens of thousands of slaves..."

Shen Can held a smooth, hairless Beast Hide Scroll in his hands. Though much of the writing upon it had already blurred, the toughness of the hide had preserved it to this day.

Unfortunately, only this small fragment of hide remained.

He remembered that when he had first entered the ancestral temple, his master had said that humanity had once worshipped heaven and earth, as well as Disaster Beasts. That had already been a very long time ago.

After all, worship of heaven and earth had become worship of ancestors. A great deal of time must have passed in between.

The Beast Hide Scroll was made from second-rank beast hide. It was probably not something from the era when heaven and earth were worshipped, but rather a record left by later generations. Even so, it should still be quite ancient.

"Mang should be a place name. Marquis... does that mean a feudal lord?"

Shen Can pondered it, then placed the Beast Hide Scroll back on the wooden shelf and continued examining the rest.

What he wanted to find was anything related to witchcraft.

For now, these legendary tales were only good for amusement.

As Shen Can flipped through the hides, he also sorted their contents and categorized them.

After the plague had passed, he had devoted most of his energy to this work.

Within the tribe, the supplies Huo Shan had brought back began to be stored away in the warehouses.

At the elevated southeastern corner of the clan settlement, Huo Tang, who had slept soundly for several days, opened his eyes. Without getting up, he lay on his side and looked down over the tribe.

His eyes were still threaded with bloodshot veins, and his face showed no joy despite the plague having passed and the tribespeople reaping gains.

To lead the clan through the passage of the plague disaster with everyone intact was an achievement no less than that of the forebears who had founded the tribe.

It was enough to be proud of.

Yet there was not a trace of pride on Huo Tang's face.

He stared blankly at the tribe in silence until night fell.

Huo Tang suddenly rose and made his way straight into the ancestral temple.

Inside the ancestral temple.

Shen Can leaned close to the lamplight. More than a dozen Beast Hide Scrolls were piled before him, and he was still searching through the scattered hides for what he wanted.

Until Huo Tang's massive figure blocked the lamplight.

"A-Can, how about you become the clan chief instead?"

Huo Tang's words startled Shen Can so badly that he nearly flung the Beast Hide Scroll in his hands right into Huo Tang's face.

Huo Xian, beside him, was also startled. He did not mind the idea at all—he had no objection to A-Can becoming clan chief.

Shen Can looked at Huo Tang's bloodshot red eyes and solemn expression, completely baffled.

The plague disaster was over, and the tribe was recovering. This should have been a joyous thing.

What kind of delusion was this?

The plague had only just passed. Could this be another disaster?

Why did another one have to come? Could they not have two peaceful days?

There was no way he was becoming clan chief. It was far too exhausting. Wasn't it better to hide in the back and act like an ancestor?

Seeing Huo Tang staring at him, Shen Can thought for a moment before speaking. "Clan Chief, I truly have no intention of replacing you. Do not test me any further."

The truth proved that Shen Can had overthought things. Experience from his previous life was useless here. Huo Tang genuinely wanted him to take the position of clan chief.

"A-Can, I truly feel that I am old."

Watching Huo Tang drop down with a thump before him, Shen Can finally became certain. The clan chief had gone down a blind alley.

They said people only went down blind alleys after suffering setbacks. Something was off with Huo Tang.

The tribe had emerged unscathed from flood and plague disasters, and it was gathering supplies from the surrounding tribes. It was plainly showing signs of great prosperity.

At a time like this, he should have been filled with ambition. Why did Huo Tang look so depressed?

After they spoke for a while, Shen Can understood why Huo Tang was acting this way.

Huo Tang felt that he lacked the ability to lead the tribespeople. If not for the improved witch medicine and the witch talismans, Blazing Flame would likely have been extinguished in this plague disaster as well.

As clan chief, he felt that he had not played much of a role at all.

Furthermore, Huo Tang felt his vision was lacking. For instance, when the Possessing Plague Worms had gone to other tribes, he had immediately sent tribespeople out to pick through the leftovers. It was somewhat shortsighted.

If Huo Shan's group had encountered any danger while outside, most of the tribe's fighting strength would have perished away from home, dealing the tribe a devastating blow.

Huo Tang had only grown frightened when thinking back afterward.

"Clan Chief, we are not the great Lingyu Tribe, able to live without worrying about tomorrow. When benefits are right before our eyes, of course we should take them.

"That is not shortsightedness. That is practicality. Only after we survive the calamity are we qualified to talk about long-term vision."

Shen Can counseled Huo Tang.

Though Huo Tang was at the Heavenly Vein realm, in the three hundred years since the tribe had been founded, this was the first time they had encountered such a severe plague disaster.

Who could have imagined that, more than a month after the flood disaster had passed, the plague worms that had seemed ready to disperse would launch another great assault?

It had been perfectly normal for Huo Tang to send people outside to collect resources then. If Shen Can had been in his place, he would have done the same.

If one did not seize an advantage while it was there, were they supposed to wait until everyone else caught on and came fighting for it?

Who was an immortal? Who could have calculated that the plague worms which appeared to have dispersed would turn back and strike a returning blow, filling the mountains and wilderness with plague miasma and making people afraid to go out again?

Before natural disasters, everyone was merely a piece being played with.

No matter how far your vision stretched, you still had to receive them passively.

"Clan Chief, think about it. If you had not arranged for people to haul back witch medicines from several tribes, what would we have used over the following month to withstand the plague worms' harassment? What would we have used to treat our tribespeople?"

The arrangements during the plague disaster had been somewhat chaotic, but they had nevertheless hit the mark by accident.

They had boiled witch medicine by the bundle every day and burned it for fumigation. If they had not relocated the supplies from those other tribes, how could they have held on?

Looking at it now, if not for Huo Tang's arrangements, the tribe would not have gained over five hundred women. At the very least, all the old bachelors in the tribe had now been settled.

And now, according to Huo Shan's investigations during his expeditions, there was almost no one left anywhere near the tribe.

Hearing Shen Can's consolation, Huo Tang's expression finally eased considerably.

Seeing that Huo Tang still had not abandoned the thought of making him clan chief, Shen Can felt he needed to find something for Huo Tang to do.

As more and more resources were transported back from the extinguished tribes, they could not simply store them all away. If they had meat, they had to use it.

Earlier, he had said that he wanted everyone to eat meat in great mouthfuls, and he had discussed it with Huo Tang.

At the time, he had not expected the plague disaster to expand so severely. He had planned to cultivate while waiting for the tribe to empty out other tribes that had suffered Possessing Plague Worm attacks.

But then the entire tribe had been afflicted by the plague, so naturally they had not eaten much.

Now that the plague had dispersed, it was time to raise the tribe's overall martial level under their current conditions.

Then he could pass down the Superior Kui Ox Fist as well.

"Clan Chief, look at how much meat the tribe has. I was thinking, should we select some tribespeople and have them set aside the tedious matters of hunting, gathering, and the like, so they can focus on improving their martial arts for a period of time?"

The benefits of the mid-grade Kui Ox Fist and balanced witch medicine had already been exhausted. He was preparing to add more fuel to the fire.

Shen Can's method was intensive training.

Naturally, there was no such term in the Great Wilderness, so he described it to Huo Tang as concentrated martial cultivation.

"As for who to choose, Clan Chief knows the tribe best. You will need to produce a specific list."

These past two days, I have been working on the detailed outline for what comes next, and I have been reading everyone's comments.

Earlier, some readers asked why I did not deduce an insect-killing medicine. The main reason was that from beginning to end, the author simply never thought of insect-killing medicine.

I am getting older, and my brain capacity is limited. When designing the plot, there are times when I genuinely cannot think of things. My perspective can be rather one-sided; even when I try my best to think things through, sometimes I still fail to consider them.