Ancestral Worship, Initial Reforms (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

It was called ancestor worship, but it wasn't as solemn as one might imagine.

The tribe lacked heritage and couldn't fake it.

Looking down, the stone steps on both sides were filled with children from the tribe climbing up, the older ones leading the younger ones, shouting as they went.

"Hurry up and climb, I'll pinch the little ones of anyone who falls behind!"

As soon as someone in the crowd spoke, an elder hit them with a staff.

Today, the elders brought out the Shangfang Baoguns they had used to watch the tribesmen practice martial arts. Anyone who misbehaved would be hit.

"The sacrificial beast is here!"

A group of people quickly cleared the middle steps they occupied. A huge wooden frame was carried by thirty-six tribesmen, with a third-tier Odd Fish bound to it, ascending the steps.

"What a big fish, it won't fit in one pot."

"Bang, shut up!"

Soon, the tribesmen followed the sacrificial offering and swarmed outside the Ancestral Temple.

The Odd Fish was carried onto the stone platform, and everyone's gaze fell on Shen Can.

It wasn't that the tribesmen didn't understand; it was that no one in the entire Blazing Flame Tribe understood.

When people have enough to eat and wear, they understand propriety. The tribe hadn't yet moved beyond mere survival, so they had to make do for now.

Drawing witch runes, piercing with the Luan Knife, receiving the beast's blood.

[The Sacrificial Host plundered 473 years of lifespan from the third-tier Mystic-Patterned Belly-Foot Fish]

Huo Tang quietly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Shen Can actually pierce the fish's neck.

As long as this step was passed, he could help with the cutting later.

Soon, the massive Odd Fish was divided into large and small pieces. Shen Can sent the best parts into the Ancestral Temple as an offering to the ancestors.

A red glow emanated from within the cave.

This immediately drew the attention of the tribesmen.

Sacrifices happened every year, but such a phenomenon had never occurred before.

"Let all the children come in."

Huo Xian's aged voice rang out.

"Hurry, run!"

Hearing this, the tribesmen outside the Ancestral Temple urged their children to head towards the cave of the Ancestral Temple.

Inside the Ancestral Temple, Shen Can, holding the blood goblet, beckoned the children closer.

He dipped three fingers into the blood goblet, smearing the beast's blood across the children's cheeks.

He had secretly replaced the beast's blood in the goblet, otherwise, the children wouldn't have been able to withstand the impact of the third-tier beast's blood.

Outside the cave of the Ancestral Temple, many tribesmen craned their necks in anticipation.

Worshipping ancestors and receiving blessings from them was a scene passed down through generations but never witnessed.

As he anointed each child with blood, Shen Can also took out a beast hide scroll, unrolled it, and hung it in front of the divine altar.

Unfortunately, when the children looked at the beast hide, they were only excited about being anointed and entering the Ancestral Temple.

Their eyes were clear to an unbelievable degree, and they glanced over the witch runes on the beast hide scroll.

Finally, Shen Can thought of a reason: there were simply too few children.

With more children, he didn't believe there wouldn't be any gifted ones. The tribe was just starting, and he would be satisfied with one or two little prodigies in a short period.

Shen Can stood up, exchanged a look with Huo Xian, and nodded before walking out of the Ancestral Temple.

Outside the Ancestral Temple.

The tribesmen watched Shen Can emerge from the red light, their breaths held in reverence.

A group of children followed him out, each with three horizontal blood marks on their faces, rushing towards their parents.

"I have just received guidance from the ancestors. Clan Leader, please enter the Ancestral Temple."

Under the gaze of the tribesmen, Huo Tang followed Shen Can into the Ancestral Temple, disappearing into the red light.

"Are there any good prospects?"

Seeing Shen Can shake his head slightly, Huo Tang sighed. "There are still too few children. After the tribal sacrifice, I will definitely whip these guys. They only know how to eat all day."

Huo Tang then looked at the three large vats of beast blood that had been released, their strong bloody smell still emitting a red glow.

He couldn't help but ask, "How long does the beast blood need to air out before the Mafeisan's medicinal effects are removed?"

"Soon," Shen Can replied. He would have to use his lifespan to deduce when the Mafeisan's medicinal effects would be neutralized.

This hasn't been done yet!

"The Chieftain should stay in the Ancestral Temple for a longer period before coming out, so that the tribesmen can truly believe they have received the ancestors' guidance."

As he spoke, Shen Can entered the west side ear cave.

He needed to use the lifespan he had just obtained to deduce how to neutralize the third-tier intermediate witch medicine and Mafeisan.

This odd fish had used too much Mafeisan; before it died, it had lived for over a month in a state of blissful intoxication.

Huo Tang stayed in the Ancestral Temple for about half an hour.

Outside the Ancestral Temple, not a single tribesman was waiting impatiently. For the ancestors to bestow guidance was something they dreamed of; how could they be anxious?

When Huo Tang emerged from the Ancestral Temple, everyone spoke up.

"Chieftain, what guidance did the ancestors bestow?"

Figures revealed their eager greetings.

"The ancestors said that for our Blazing Flame Tribe to develop and prosper, every generation of tribesmen must work together with one heart, and each tribesman must fulfill their duties."

"The Blazing Flame needs to change its current way of life to meet the harsh survival environment of the Great Wilderness."

"If we don't change and become stronger, we will force the next generation of children to face greater dangers."

Huo Tang spoke, his voice booming.

He thought to himself, As expected of A-Can, he really knows how to phrase things.

Speaking of the next generation of children directly struck a chord with the tribesmen.

"Now that the ancestors have given us guidance, we must change. Only then can the tribe become stronger."

"We obey the ancestors!"

"Chieftain, tell us, how should we change?"

With the crowd's enthusiasm ignited, Huo Tang seized the opportunity to begin detailing the tribe's improvement measures.

The third-tier odd fish as the sacrifice, the Temple Guardian serving as the tribe's shaman for the ritual, the Ancestral Temple exhibiting anomalies, bestowing blessings upon all the children of the tribe, and descending with guidance.

With Huo Tang already having prestige within the tribe, coupled with the ancestors' blessing, the matters proceeded without any obstacles.

The seven improvement measures that were discussed with Shen Can were not presented one by one, as the tribesmen would not have understood them all.

After the reforms, there were actually only three aspects that truly made the tribesmen feel a direct change.

The system of Clan Elders was clarified, serving as assistants to the Chieftain.

Clan Elder Huo Yu was in charge of the tribe's logistics and storage.

Clan Elder Huo Yun was in charge of agriculture, collection, and production, and so on.

Clan Elder Huo Shan was in charge of the hunting team.

Huo Yu and Huo Yun were around the same age as Huo Xian. Huo Tang selected several people from the tribe of his generation to serve as deputy Clan Elders, who would both assist the Clan Elders and learn from them.

In the future, successors to the Clan Elders would be chosen from these individuals. The remaining ones could also be assigned specific duties under the Clan Elders, allowing for more detailed management of the tribe's various affairs.

For example, under Huo Yu, positions such as warehouse keeper and butcher were established, responsible for guarding the tribal treasury and for the segmentation, preservation, and storage of the tribe's hunted game.

The second measure was the establishment of a dedicated hunting team of three hundred members, with Huo Shan as the team leader, specializing in cultivation, protection, and external hunting.

The third measure was to address the confusion in tribal members' names by implementing a system of given names combined with generational titles.

Currently, counting from Shen Can, there were only Huo Tang and Huo Xian's generations above him, and the children below constituted one generation.

Overall, there were four generations: the elderly, middle-aged, young, and children. Furthermore, there were not many elders left from Huo Xian's generation.

Therefore, when implementing the generational titles, starting from Shen Can's generation and moving upwards, the elderly, middle-aged, and young generations would primarily have their names changed, with generational titles as a supplement.

After all, everyone was used to their current names. The generational titles could wait until after they died.

This way, even in the spirit hall, the generational differences could be clearly distinguished.

Instead of the current situation where ancestors were all piled together.

To identify which ancestor was older, one had to compare the degree of cracking on the ancestral tablets, and even then, errors were unavoidable.

It was quite unfilial.

Starting with the tribal children, it would be easier to change their names from a young age.

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

The day after the ancestral worship, the tribe began re-registering the names of all its members.

Duplicate male tribal members were given new names, with the rule that younger individuals would change their names, while older individuals would retain their original names.

Conversely, the names of the women in the tribe were not changed much. Women rarely undertook tribal hunting missions and had less contact with the outside world.

Their nicknames were also used by a few close women, so changing them had little significance.

At least the men wouldn't dare to mistake their wives on the kang.

They might not even be able to defeat Bao Zhuang's wife, and mistaking her would result in a severe beating.

As for establishing a martial arts training system, absorbing displaced outsiders, and further refining the division of labor, as discussed with Huo Tang, these were not even mentioned; they were simply put into action.

The changes were subtle, and by the time the tribesmen reacted, the system had already become a habit.

The tribesmen were busy renaming themselves, keeping Huo Xian quite occupied.

Shen Can was also busy; he was busy administering medicine.

The three vats of beast blood bubbled. While the anesthetic fish was enjoyable, using beast blood was even more so.

The best way to deal with the Mafeisan's potency was to let the Odd Fish metabolize it on its own. But once metabolized, the Odd Fish would be lively again, and no one in the tribe could control it.

After numbing them for bloodletting, he could only try his best to neutralize the medicinal effects.

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

"Let me add some more medicine."

Without even looking at his tribesman uncle, who was eagerly waiting to soak in the beast blood, Shen Can sprinkled medicinal powder into the blood vat.

After adding the medicine, he took some for himself and went into his ear canal.

A little while later, he emerged with a rosy complexion.

"It's ready. The medicinal effect might be a bit strong, so please be careful, Uncle."

Note 1:

He thought of a new rule for generational names, starting with the generation of Clan Elder Huo Xian. The previous generation would decide the generational names for the next, which would also reflect the expectations of the previous generation for the growth and development of the next generation under different environmental circumstances.

He had previously thought of cultivation novels he had read, which gave him the idea of creating generational names for over ten generations at once.

Now, as he wrote it himself, having so many at once felt a bit too chaotic.

The author later realized that the Blazing Flame Tribe would grow stronger step by step, requiring hundreds or even longer periods of development and the joint efforts of multiple generations. It seemed unnecessary to come up with all the generational names at once.

Whether or not to adhere to the five elements and whether the names were easy to pronounce were not essential.

As for the current generation of Clan Elders like Huo Xian, it could be handled in a few ways. They could either wait until their passing to have their generational names bestowed based on their merits, similar to how ancient dynasties gave posthumous titles to emperors and famous ministers.

Or, the remaining Clan Elders could discuss and decide on one. A newly formed team couldn't possibly be too grand from the start.

The origin of generational names itself was the patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty, which evolved step by step.

Here in the Blazing Flame Tribe, by bestowing generational names based on the merits of the older generation of tribesmen, and then the older generation bestowing generational names upon the new generation, through the years of several generations, the tradition of generational name inheritance would gradually be completed, rather than having over a dozen generational names created all at once.

He felt this approach also aligned with the developmental needs.