Truly a Witch, Best at Drugging

This outing is different from the usual tribal hunts; we can't guarantee bringing everyone back alive to the Ancestral Temple.

Even in the past, hunting parties would only bring back one live creature to honor the ancestors.

Unless they were lucky enough to capture more live prey, most of the hunted beasts were brought back dead.

The reason we were able to bring back so many desolate beasts to the Ancestral Temple continuously before was mainly due to the improved medicinal formulas.

Chief Huo Tang was stimulated by this, which led him to frequently go out and capture live desolate beasts.

Everyone here can probably understand this feeling – it's like a newlywed husband, thinking about wrestling day and night.

At first, it was an intense craving.

"A'Can, this Odd Fish hasn't reached a rank yet."

The tribesman receiving the Odd Fish's blood was Uncle Huo Kui. He didn't understand its purpose.

"A'Mu, come here."

Shen Can called a tribesman and walked towards the temporarily dug cave with the beast blood.

Explaining too much without success would be less convincing.

As the chief instructor of the Blazing Flame Tribe, he had detailed knowledge of the cultivation progress of the selected tribesmen.

A'Mu was a talented martial artist he had chosen from many tribesmen; he was young and tall.

As for how high his talent was, he was considered upper-tier within the tribe.

Inside the cave.

The witch medicine brought along had already been sorted and categorized. Shen Can found the packet marked as neutralizing witch medicine and poured it into the blood trough.

A'Mu stirred the fish blood himself. Bubbles of blood gurgled up, and a strong, fishy smell filled the cave.

"The quality of this fish blood hasn't reached a rank, but your continuous training over the past month has already brought you to the verge of advancing to a martial artist. What you're missing is this catalyst."

Shen Can only added half of the neutralizing powder from the witch medicine packet. After days of thought, he had a new perspective on soaking in beast blood.

Cultivating martial arts was akin to evolving through the Martial Arts. Most tribesmen, before reaching one Desolate Power, had essentially reached the first limit of their physical bodies.

To further increase their strength, they needed external forces to break through this limit and achieve a higher ceiling.

The method of soaking in beast blood was actually meant to break through the shackles of limits, not to serve as nourishment for increasing vital energy.

Once a new, higher limit is opened, any kind of nourishment could be used afterward.

Therefore, soaking in beast blood was essentially borrowing that ferocious energy. That's why the neutralizing witch medicine shouldn't be too effective.

If there's no ferocious energy left, how can you borrow it?

Conversely, if a martial artist has good talent, the bottleneck of the first stage will be small, perhaps like a thin layer of window paper that can be broken with a gentle push.

If that's the case, levels could be assigned based on the intensity of the released ferocious aura.

By soaking in beast blood of different grades according to the tribesmen's varying conditions, the beast blood acquired by the tribe could be utilized to its maximum potential.

In the future, there might even be tribesmen like Shen Can himself, who could break through their shackles through their own power without needing to soak in beast blood.

He had recorded all of this. He planned to recruit a few talented children from the tribe, train them, and then hand over this matter for them to research further.

After air-drying for a good while, A'Mu submerged himself entirely in the stone trough.

Shen Can didn't leave. He watched A'Mu practice the Kui Ox Fist repeatedly in the cave, occasionally offering pointers on his imperfect stances.

When A'Mu leaped out of the blood trough for the second time, his fist wind whistled, echoing through the cave.

"Here."

Shen Can grabbed the one Desolate Bow and tossed it over.

After catching it, A'Mu drew the bow into a full moon shape in one fluid motion, repeating the action more than ten times.

"I've become a Stone Splitter Realm martial artist."

A'Mu, holding the one Desolate Bow, showed his surprise.

"Don't waste the remaining beast blood; absorb it quickly."

Shen Can didn't disturb the 'youngster's' joy of achievement. He walked out of the cave with his hands behind his back.

In the valley.

The second Odd Fish fry had already been dragged up. Shen Can signaled the second tribesman to prepare for beast blood soaking.

Rumble!

The thrown stones fell like hail, causing the Odd Fish in the water to roar continuously. It batted the stones away, stirring up surging waves.

"Smash!"

Huo Tang was the only one close to the pool. The rest of the tribesmen were on the mountains on both sides, looking down from above.

No matter how the Odd Fish roared or churned the water, the waves couldn't reach them.

Instead, the surging water flowed along the gullies and out of the valley.

Seeing this, everyone started throwing stones down with more vigor.

Whoosh!

When another young odd fish leaped out, Huo Tang drew his bow and shot.

From the splashing waves, a slender tail, shimmering with a faint glow, shot through the air, blocking the arrow. It made a metallic clanging sound, deflecting the arrow.

After retrieving his arrow, Huo Tang retreated over ten zhang, letting his tribesmen continue throwing stones.

And so, a stone-throwing battle raged for two days and one night.

Even though the odd fish continuously thrashed its body to block the stones, it couldn't stop the pool from being gradually filled, causing the water to overflow.

Shen Can looked down from above, finally getting a clear view of the odd fish's full form.

"Guduo!" "Guduo!"

The odd fish shielded the young fish beneath it, its massive shadow lurking in the water as it continuously made sounds.

It had a fish head and a snake's body, adorned with mysterious patterns and scales, four legs on its belly, and a tail as slender as a deer's.

In contrast, the young fish, though also bearing mysterious patterns, differed from the adult odd fish in other aspects. It had fangs in its mouth and even tore apart and devoured an injured companion.

"A'Can."

Huo Tang gripped his ironwood spear, signaling that if Shen Can didn't act, he would rally the tribesmen to attack.

Shen Can saw many tribesmen on the surrounding mountains pulling out tools like animal sinew ropes and grappling hooks.

The fish's fins had already emerged from the water. The tribesmen stopped throwing stones, and the odd fish ceased its thrashing.

Mainly, the odd fish had been thoroughly harassed for the past two days. It had swum upstream from the great marsh and never expected to encounter such a battle.

Unable to fight back, it could only passively endure the barrage of stones, and its habitat, the pool, was being steadily filled in.

It was being bullied too much.

"Guduo!" "Guduo!!"

"Throw stones for another half day. Less water is better. I'll go prepare the medicine."

Half a day later.

Shen Can emerged from the cave with a group of tribesmen, each carrying two or three jars.

Shen Can wasn't confident against a third-tier desolate beast. He had prepared ninety jars of Witch Anesthetic Powder, which he first stirred with water to form a paste.

"Throw thirty jars first, then add them one by one."

The tribesmen, looking down from above, hurled the jars at the odd fish, whose fins were exposed. The jars landed on its back, and the paste dissolved into the water around the odd fish.

For a moment, many tribesmen gazed down at the odd fish.

"Look quickly, they're floating!"

At this point, a sharp-eyed tribesman shouted, pointing at the water.

They saw numerous dark young fish floating up from beneath the water's surface, their bodies swaying unsteadily, unable to swim in a straight line.

They bobbed and swayed in the water as if shivering, their bodies undulating.

The odd fish also began to struggle, its massive body thrashing, directly swatting the floating young fish away. Two of them were even flung onto the shore.

"Guduo!"

"Guduo!"

The odd fish let out a cry, its body churning the surrounding water. Its gills flared, and its body began to tilt.

"Throw more!"

Seeing the medicinal effect being dispersed by the odd fish's thrashing, Shen Can called for his tribesmen to continue.

"Aim for the head!"

"I'll do it!"

Huo Tang quickly stepped forward, grabbed a jar, and smashed it towards the odd fish's gill area. The concentrated anesthetic paste poured into the odd fish's gills.

He didn't stop, each time slamming the anesthetic paste onto the fish's head.

The odd fish also sensed danger, its massive tail repeatedly lifting and smashing down, churning the water around it. Its body tried to dive downwards.

But the underwater area was paved with broken stones. Even though the odd fish exerted all its strength to break the stones underwater, the lower half of its enormous body was still exposed above the water.

Seeing the odd fish like this, Huo Tang grabbed the animal sinew rope prepared by the tribesmen and swung it in his hand.

The rope wrapped around the fish's tail several times.

"Pull!"

In front of Huo Tang, tribesmen at the Mountain Opening Realm took the lead, with those at the Stone Splitter Realm behind them, all pulling on the thick animal sinew rope.

As for Shen Can, A'Yu carried him away to over ten zhang away.

"Come up!"

Dozens of burly men shouted in unison, putting all their strength into it.

"Splash!"

Before the odd fish could struggle, or rather, before its body, largely paralyzed, could even attempt to struggle, its massive form was dragged out of the water.

The tribesmen pulled it out of the pond in one go and hauled it onto the ground outside the valley entrance.

Looking at the odd fish lying on the ground, struggling with little movement, everyone's expressions were filled with excitement.

"This is the first time I've seen a third-tier odd fish so docile."

"Heh, Shen Can's witch medicine is really effective. It's not even struggling. A third-tier desolate beast is completely at our mercy!"

"As expected of a witch, you really know how to administer medicine!"

"Temple Guardian, there seems to be another small pool to the north. Why don't you go and medicate it again?"

A third-tier desolate beast was something the tribe encountered only once every few decades.

Every hunt of a third-tier desolate beast resulted in heavy casualties for the tribe.

However, they couldn't afford not to hunt third-tier desolate beasts. They were the key ingredient for advancing to the Celestial Meridian Realm and the guarantee of the tribe's legacy. They had to go, even at the cost of casualties.

Especially the large desolate beasts in the mountains. Once they entered their death throes, for those only in the Mountain Opening or Stone Splitter Realms, a mere brush against them meant death or severe injury.

Now, to have a third-tier odd fish, which wasn't struggling at all, dragged out like this was like a dream.

When did hunting third-tier desolate beasts become this easy?

Just throw a rope, pull, and done.

Seeing Huo Tang step forward with his ironwood spear, preparing to deliver a heavy blow while the odd fish was still dazed and numb, lest the medicine wear off.

Shen Can quickly stopped him. "Clan Leader, wait. This is such a rare fish, we should find a way to utilize it to its fullest."

He thought of a few generational names, though they were a bit awkward to say. They were arranged according to the five elements: Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire.

There were several theories about which element to start the five-element cycle with. This version used Earth as the starting point.

Yue, Jun, Shen, Huan, Yan, Shan, Zhen, Yuan, Lin, Xuan. Given the current situation within the Blazing Flame Tribe, the protagonist would use the 'Shen' generational name, the Yue generational elders, the Jun generational Huo Tang, and Huo Shan's generation. This conveniently incorporated the protagonist's name from his previous life.

The character 'Shen' carries the meaning of abundant water and lakes, and it also sounds like 'Chen,' meaning steady, calm, and hidden.

Does anyone have any suggestions?