After sending the clan chief away, Shen Can let out a breath of relief.
With how exhausted the clan chief was, wouldn't it be better for him to enjoy the biggest portions of food and drink as the keeper of the ancestral temple, hiding there as one of the senior generation?
It was only because they had not offered sacrifices to their ancestors these past days.
It was not that everyone disrespected their ancestors. The truth was that even the tribes scattered through the mountains and wilderness had been emptied out, let alone the wild beasts.
Plague insects treated humans and beasts exactly the same.
"A-Can, you don't want to be clan chief?"
Shen Can rose and walked to the fire pit, pouring Huo Xian a bowl of medicine.
"Master, what is so good about being clan chief? Look how exhausted Uncle Huo Tang is. I'd rather support him from behind."
After the plague passed, Huo Xian's health had worsened somewhat, and he often coughed.
"A-Tang truly is exhausted." Huo Xian nodded. "This plague disaster left him physically and mentally drained as well. He simply didn't show it before the clansmen."
Not to mention Huo Tang—even Huo Xian, who had lived for decades, had been frightened out of his wits by this calamity.
There had been no such experience before, nor any inherited knowledge to follow. He had lived each day in dread, praying to the ancestors for protection countless times.
After watching Huo Xian finish his medicine and fall asleep, Shen Can carried the Beast Hide Scrolls back to his cave dwelling.
There were too many Beast Hide Scrolls Huo Shan had brought back. He needed to sort through them one by one. He had already read more than half of them, yet had not found anything describing witchcraft.
Shen Can was not disappointed, though. He had discussed it with Huo Xian.
The Blazing Flame Tribe and the nearby tribes were, bluntly put, remnant tribes built by savages gathering together.
Like the floods and plague this time, which had destroyed the surrounding tribes.
The surviving remnants of those tribes would gather after the plague and form new tribes, reclaiming this empty region.
The emergence of Blazing Flame three hundred years ago had perhaps been much the same as the scene before him.
What foundation could a tribe formed this way possibly have? Even if it managed to pass on for another three hundred years, it could only barely ensure survival.
One Beast Hide Scroll after another passed before Shen Can's eyes.
Near dawn, Shen Can pulled out another damaged scroll, smooth and bare of fur like the rest. His eyes lit up. He had finally found it.
It was not witchcraft itself, but it recorded matters related to witchcraft.
Like martial arts, witchcraft originated from wild beasts—only, from powerful mutant wild beasts.
Mutant wild beasts possessed mystical powers. For instance, the plague bird they had killed before had carried a pale light that could deflect the force of thrown spears.
These mystical powers also seemed connected to certain profound mysteries of heaven and earth.
The human ancestors had comprehended mutant wild beasts and combined that understanding with the mysteries of heaven and earth. To say they had created "witch characters" would be an exaggeration; it was more like they had depicted, in the form of symbols, these "witch characters" that had always existed between heaven and earth.
Witch characters were the foundational symbols that could be combined into different witchcraft.
Furthermore, witchcraft inheritance was somewhat different from what Shen Can had imagined.
Unlike martial arts such as the Kui Ox Fist, which many tribes could cultivate, witchcraft inherited by different tribes was rather closely guarded because they observed different mutant wild beasts.
It was more like the inheritance of classical texts within the great aristocratic lineages of the Eastern Han in the historical novels he had read in his previous life.
For example, the Runan Yuan Clan passed down the "Meng Shi Yi" through its lineage while also mastering the "Ouyang Shangshu," while the Hongnong Yang Clan devoted itself to studying the "Ouyang Shangshu."
In the Great Wilderness of this era, taking the Ling Yu Tribe as an example, the Ling Yu Tribe specialized in the "Ling Yu Water Manipulation Manual." As for some unknown great tribe, perhaps it specialized in the "Kui Ox Lightning Control Manual."
Perhaps there were overlapping portions of witchcraft inheritance between major tribes, but every family possessed witchcraft that formed the very foundation of its lineage.
The foundation upon which a tribe established its lineage ensured that it would be passed down for a thousand autumns and ten thousand generations. Naturally, it could not possibly be leaked so easily.
They would also study, refine, and supplement it generation after generation, gradually increasing the power of their witchcraft.
No wonder small tribes could not come into contact with witchcraft.
Putting away the Beast Hide Scroll, Shen Can stretched lazily.
Cultivating the witch path truly was not easy. Most small tribes could not access the original witch characters, and even if they did, there was no one to teach them how to read them.
The barriers to inheritance were enormous.
What could now be confirmed was that there should be many foundational witch symbols.
However, what he had encountered were the beast-pattern diagrams of the Ling Yu Tribe, and the Ling Yu Tribe was familiar with water. Thus, the portion of foundational witch characters he had deduced leaned toward the water element.
He had already deduced eighteen foundational witch characters of the Ling Yu Water Manipulation Manual. It was only a matter of time before he stole the Ling Yu Tribe's entire witchcraft path.
After putting away the Beast Hide Scroll, Shen Can lay down on the stone bed.
He would rest for a while.
Shen Can entered the land of dreams, but Huo Tang was still gnawing on the end of his brush, his brow furrowed tightly.
He felt no resentment over a junior guiding a senior because of Shen Can's advice. In the Great Wilderness, only those with ability could lead everyone to survive.
If you were capable, everyone would submit to you.
Selecting a group from the tribe and having them train in martial arts together truly was a good method.
Now that Huo Shan was constantly bringing back resources from other tribes, he no longer wanted to be some miser guarding a hoard.
Back then, he had had no choice. If they did not scrimp and save, a single disaster could easily leave them starving.
Now they had the resources of so many tribes, while their own tribe did not even have three thousand people. It was enough to feed them for who knew how many years.
If they did not take it out and put it to use, then if they ended up like the surrounding tribes—grain still remaining while the people were gone—they would suffer a massive loss.
The clan roster lay before him, each name followed by a simple portrait.
Whether the drawings resembled them or not was beside the point. At the very least, each person's basic features had been recorded, ensuring they could be identified.
"The older ones won't do."
Huo Tang considered the selection criteria.
In truth, this plague had once again lightened the burden on the Blazing Flame Tribe. Most of the clansmen who had died were elderly.
"Women with children cannot be selected."
"Huo Yan..."
Looking at the names recorded on the Beast Hide Scroll, Huo Tang's brow creased even more deeply.
There were three Huo Yans listed there, aged seventeen, thirty-four, and fifty-three respectively.
Three generations: young, middle-aged, and old.
Duplicate names were extremely common throughout the tribe, because when clansmen named their children, they were accustomed to calling them whatever they saw nearby at birth.
Those named Yan were not too bad. There were more than a dozen named Shi, likewise spanning their own generation as well as the three generations above and below them.
Duplicate names were manageable within the tribe. At worst, they could just call out a few more times. But when they encountered danger while hunting outside, shouting the same name became troublesome.
Now that the tribe was clearly about to prosper, with a witch, an improved Kui Ox Fist, and so many resources...
Should the old rules of muddling through day by day be changed as well?
Huo Tang put down his brush and leaned back in his stone chair, lost in thought.
Change!
They had to change.
After a brief consideration, he came to a decision.
Not only this matter—Huo Tang also thought of the tangled bloodlines within the tribe. After three hundred years, relatives were connected to relatives throughout the entire clan.
Otherwise, why had he been so anxious to send Huo Shan out before the plague had even fully ended? Was it not to bring in a few outsiders before the plague killed everyone?
There were simply too many bachelors in the tribe. There had been no infusion of outside blood for a long time. They might occasionally take in a few savages, but after enough time passed, they became relatives too.
Early the next morning, Shen Can was practicing the Kui Ox Fist when he saw Huo Tang appear before him, his face still covered in bloodshot veins.
"Clan Chief, you didn't sleep again."
"A-Can, I thought all night yesterday. I feel the tribe may be falling behind in some ways now. It should change."
"We'll also need the ancestral temple to cooperate, to lessen the clansmen's resistance."
Hearing Huo Tang say this, Shen Can stopped.
He had nearly been frightened out of his wits. He had thought that after being talked out of it, Huo Tang had drilled himself into a dead end again overnight. He had not expected the clan chief to bring him a pleasant surprise.
"Clan Chief, tell me in detail."
"Change their names."
The two returned to the cave dwelling and sat down. Shen Can listened to Huo Tang's idea.
Huo Tang had discovered that duplicate names caused confusion within the tribe.
They had not cared before, because everyone had muddled through life. As long as they survived, that was enough.
The reason they wanted to change now was that they felt the tribe had gained the foundation to grow stronger.
Development was about to arrive. If they still muddled through as before, it would hold them back.
Shen Can knew that Huo Tang, as clan chief, actually had many ideas.
Otherwise, when he had discovered the Iron Wood Boat fragment from the Ling Yu Tribe, he would not have immediately hidden it away, nor would he have secretly gathered beast blood to advance as a martial artist.
All of that showed that after decades as clan chief, he had long accumulated his own experience.
It was only that these minor ideas had been like a splash of water before the later plague disaster.
When it came to ideas, Shen Can believed he had more than Huo Tang. He could still push the tribe's transformation from behind the scenes.
In his view, Huo Tang's proposed changes were still somewhat too small. Since they had decided to reform, they should reform every aspect.
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