Ancestral Sacrifice, Initial Reforms

Calling it an ancestral sacrifice, it was actually nothing like the solemn affair they had imagined.

The tribe had no deep foundations; even if they wanted to put on airs, they could not manage it.

Looking down, both sides of the stone steps were packed with tribal children climbing upward. The older ones led the younger ones, their mouths constantly hollering.

"Climb faster! Whoever falls behind, I'm grabbing his little ding-dong!"

The moment someone in the crowd opened his mouth, a tribal elder smacked him with a stick.

Today, the tribal elders had brought along the imperial rods they had previously used to oversee the clansmen's martial training. Whoever misbehaved got knocked.

"The sacrificial beast is here!"

Everyone hurriedly cleared the middle of the stairs they had occupied. Thirty-six clansmen carried the enormous wooden frame, upon which a third-rank monster fish was bound, step by step upward.

"What a huge fish. One pot won't be enough to stew it."

Thump! "Shut up!"

Before long, the clansmen followed behind the sacrifice and swarmed outside the ancestral temple.

The monster fish was carried onto the stone platform, and everyone's eyes fell upon Shen Can.

It was not that the clansmen did not understand. It was that no one in the entire Blazing Flame Tribe understood.

Only when granaries were full did people come to know rites and etiquette. The tribe had not even escaped the stage of merely filling their bellies, so they would just make do for now.

He drew the witch rune, stabbed with the Luan Knife, and received the beast blood.

Sacrificial Host seized 473 years of lifespan from the third-rank Mystic-Patterned Belly-Foot Fish.

Only after Huo Tang saw Shen Can truly pierce through the fish's neck did he quietly let out a breath.

As long as they got through this step, he could lend a hand during the cutting afterward.

Before long, the enormous monster fish was carved into chunks of every size. Shen Can carried the finest portions into the ancestral temple to offer them to the ancestors.

A red glow spread through the cave.

It instantly drew every clansman's attention.

Sacrifices were held every year, but such a phenomenon had never appeared before.

"Let all the children come in."

Huo Xian's aged voice rang out.

"Go on, hurry! Run!"

At the sound, the clansmen outside the ancestral temple all urged their own children toward the ancestral temple cave.

Inside the ancestral temple, Shen Can held the blood vessel in his arms and beckoned for the children to come forward.

He dipped three fingers into the blood vessel, staining them with beast blood, then wiped them horizontally across the children's cheeks.

He had secretly replaced the beast blood in the vessel. Otherwise, children could not endure the impact of third-rank beast blood.

Outside the ancestral temple cave, countless clansmen craned their necks in anticipation.

Sacrificing to the ancestors, receiving the ancestors' blessing—this was a scene passed down by word of mouth, yet never witnessed by anyone.

As he gave each child the blood rite, Shen Can also took out a Beast Hide Scroll, spread it open, and hung it before the divine altar.

Unfortunately, when the children looked at the beast hide, they were filled only with excitement over receiving the blood rite and entering the ancestral temple.

Their eyes were clear beyond belief, sweeping over the witch script on the Beast Hide Scroll without pause.

In the end, Shen Can came up with one reason: there were too few children being born.

Once there were more children, he refused to believe no gifted freaks would emerge. The tribe was only getting started; in the short term, he would be satisfied with one or two little monsters.

Shen Can rose and exchanged a glance with Huo Xian. He nodded and headed outside the ancestral temple.

Outside the ancestral temple.

Seeing Shen Can emerge from the red light, every clansman fell silent and held their breath.

A group of children came out behind him, each bearing a horizontal three-finger blood mark across their face, then dashed toward their fathers and mothers.

"I have just received guidance from the ancestors. Clan Chief, please enter the ancestral temple."

Under the clansmen's watchful eyes, Huo Tang followed Shen Can into the ancestral temple and vanished into the red glow.

"Were there any good seedlings?"

Seeing Shen Can gently shake his head, Huo Tang sighed. "There are still too few children. After the Tribal Sacrifice, I'll make sure to whip those fellows properly. All they know is how to eat every day."

Huo Tang then looked at the three great troughs of beast blood that had been drained out. They still glowed red amid their thick bloody stench.

He could not help asking, "How long does the drained beast blood need to air out before the medicinal effect of the Mafeisan can be removed?"

"Soon."

Shen Can answered casually. When exactly could the Mafeisan's medicinal effect be neutralized? Did he not need to use Lifespan Deduction first?

He had not had the time yet.

"Clan Chief, remain in the ancestral temple a while longer before going out. That way, the clansmen will believe you fully received the ancestors' guidance."

With that, Shen Can entered the western side chamber.

He needed to use the lifespan he had just gained to deduce a third-rank witch medicine for neutralization, as well as how to neutralize Mafeisan.

Too much Mafeisan had been used on this monster fish. Before dying, it had spent more than a month floating in bliss.

Huo Tang remained inside the ancestral temple for nearly half an hour.

Yet not a single clansman outside grew impatient. Guidance descending from the ancestors was something they dreamed of; how could they possibly be impatient?

When Huo Tang emerged from the ancestral temple, everyone spoke at once.

"Clan Chief, what guidance did the ancestors bestow?"

Figures upon figures called out eagerly.

"The ancestors said that if our Blazing Flame Tribe wishes to develop and flourish, generations of clansmen must unite as one, and every clansman must fulfill his own duty."

"Blazing Flame must change its current way of life before we can face the brutal living conditions of the Great Wilderness."

"If we do not change and do not grow stronger, the children of the next generation will have to bear even greater dangers."

Huo Tang spoke, his voice rumbling.

Inwardly, he thought, As expected of A-Can. Those little lines come out one after another.

Mentioning the children of the next generation directly seized hold of the clansmen's beating hearts.

"Now the ancestors have given us guidance. We must change, so the tribe can become stronger."

"Listen to the ancestors!"

"Clan Chief, tell us! How should we change?"

Once the crowd's emotions had risen, Huo Tang struck while the iron was hot and began laying out the tribal reforms.

A third-rank monster fish served as the sacrifice. The temple's ancestral shrine keeper and tribal witch served as the Sacrificial Host. An unusual phenomenon appeared in the ancestral temple, blessing every child of the tribe and bestowing guidance.

Huo Tang already possessed prestige within the tribe, and with the ancestors' blessing added on top, the matter proceeded without a single obstacle.

The seven reform measures he had discussed with Shen Can were not read out one by one. If they had been, the clansmen would not have understood much anyway.

After the reforms, there were truly only three changes the clansmen could directly feel.

The system of tribal elders was clarified, with them serving as assistants to the clan chief.

Tribal Elder Huo Yu would oversee the tribe's logistics and storage.

Tribal Elder Huo Yun would manage farming, gathering, crafting, and so on.

Tribal Elder Huo Shan would command the hunting team.

Huo Yu and Huo Yun were about the same age as Huo Xian. Huo Tang selected several people from his own generation within the tribe to serve as deputy tribal elders, assisting the elders while learning from them.

In the future, replacements for the tribal elders would be chosen from these people. The rest could also divide the duties under the elders into finer categories, handling the tribe's various affairs in greater detail.

For example, under Huo Yu, positions such as storehouse guards and cooks were established to respectively watch over the tribal stores and divide, cure, and preserve the tribe's prey.

The second measure was to establish a full-time hunting team of three hundred. Huo Shan would be the hunting team's leader, cultivating, guarding the tribe, and hunting outside as his sole duties.

The third measure addressed the chaos of tribal names by implementing both renaming and generation names in parallel. (Note 1)

At present, counting from Shen Can, there were only two generations above him—Huo Tang and Huo Xian—and one generation below, the children.

Altogether, there were four generations: old, middle-aged, young, and children. Moreover, few elders from Huo Xian's generation remained.

Therefore, when implementing generation names, the three generations above Shen Can's—young, middle-aged, and old—would primarily rename themselves, with generation names as a supplement.

After all, everyone was used to their current names. They could wait until after death to use their generation names.

Then, once they were placed upon the divine altar, their generational differences could be clearly distinguished.

That would keep things from being like now, with all the ancestors piled together.

To tell which ancestor was older, they even had to compare the degree of cracking on the Ancestral Divine Seats. Even then, errors were unavoidable.

It was rather unfilial.

Starting with the tribe's children would make it easier to change things from a young age.

Once the younger generation grew up, they would be used to it, and the practice could smoothly extend to the next generation.

The day after the ancestral sacrifice, the tribe began registering every clansman's name anew.

Male clansmen with duplicate names were all given new ones. The rule was that the younger person changed his name, while the older person kept his original name.

On the contrary, few women in the tribe changed their names. Women rarely took on the tribe's hunting tasks and had little contact with the outside world.

Their pet names were only used by a few close women anyway, so there was little point in changing them.

At least the men did not dare mistake their wives for someone else on the kang bed.

They might not even be able to beat Bao Zhuang's wife themselves. Mistaking her for another woman would get them beaten half to death.

As for establishing a martial cultivation training system, absorbing displaced outsiders, further refining the division of labor, and the rest of what he had discussed with Huo Tang, none of that needed to be announced. They only needed to do it directly.

Changes seeped in silently. By the time the clansmen reacted, the system would already have become habit.

The clansmen were busy changing their names, keeping Huo Xian extremely busy.

Shen Can was busy too. He was busy administering medicine.

The three troughs of beast blood bubbled and gurgled. Numbing the fish felt good for a moment; using the beast blood afterward felt even better.

The best way to handle Mafeisan's medicinal effect was to let the monster fish metabolize it on its own. But once it had metabolized it, the monster fish would be lively and kicking again. Who in the tribe could hold it down?

After numbing it unconscious and draining its blood, he could only rack his brains to neutralize the medicinal effect.

"A-Can, when will it be ready?"

"Wait until I add a little more medicine."

Without even looking at the tribal uncles waiting eagerly to soak in beast blood, Shen Can sprinkled medicinal powder into the blood troughs.

After adding the medicine, he took some himself and entered the side chamber.

Half a day later, he emerged with a rosy, flushed face.

"It's ready. The medicinal effect may be a little strong, so be careful, tribal uncles."

Note 1:

I came up with a new rule for generation names. Starting with Tribal Elder Huo Xian's generation, the previous generation would decide the generation name for the next one. This could also reflect the hopes the previous generation held for the next generation's growth and development under different circumstances.

Previously, after thinking of cultivation novels I had read, I got the idea of coming up with generation names for more than a dozen generations all at once.

But now that I am writing it myself, creating so many at once feels rather too chaotic.

Later, this author thought that the Blazing Flame Tribe would grow stronger step by step. That would require hundreds of years, perhaps even longer, and the joint effort of many generations. There seemed to be no need to lay out all the generation names at once.

Whether they followed the Five Elements or sounded smooth when read aloud was not necessary either.

As for the tribal elders of Huo Xian's generation, that was easy enough to handle. They could either wait until they ascended to Nirvana, then assign generation names based on their merits, much like ancient dynasties bestowed posthumous titles upon emperors and famous ministers.

Or the remaining tribal elders could discuss one among themselves. A makeshift crew at the beginning could not become grand no matter how much they tried.

Generation names themselves originated from the patriarchal clan system of the Zhou Dynasty and evolved step by step.

Here in the Blazing Flame Tribe, generation names would first be assigned in recognition of the older generation's contributions, then the older generation would bestow generation names upon the new generation. Over the years and through several generations, the tradition of tribal generation-name inheritance would gradually take shape, rather than producing more than a dozen generation names in one stroke.

This feels more suited to the needs of development.