The Younger Generation 'Flame', Developing Externally (Seeking Follow-ups)

Shen Can was able to go out more peacefully with a new Heavenly Meridian in the tribe, allowing him to explore more distant regions for the tribe.

The reason the Shanghuang Tribe spanned three thousand miles wasn't due to a single Heavenly Meridian, but rather the gradual expansion by generations of Heaven Vein Warriors.

Which mountains could be traversed, which areas were swamps to be avoided, and where great rivers could be safely crossed.

They had maps.

The true embodiment of a tribe's foundation wasn't just having one more Heavenly Meridian; it required control over the territory.

The Shanghuang Tribe had taken a small step forward in Martial Arts compared to Blazing Flame, but they had also hit a bottleneck.

"The plague has stopped for so long, the Shanghuang Tribe should have come out to scavenge ages ago. It's strange they haven't appeared yet. Could they have really been injured during the plague?"

Blazing Flame was arguably the first surrounding tribe to extensively collect the remnants of nearby settlements after the plague ended.

If the Shanghuang Tribe wasn't severely injured, they should have been out scavenging even more.

At this point, Huo Shan spoke up, "Perhaps the plague's range was larger than we imagined, and the Shanghuang Tribe couldn't manage to collect everything. They might not care about us tribes near the deep mountains."

"Who cares? We'll focus on our own development."

"The Shanghuang are used to being arrogant. We don't fear them now, but we still need to be cautious. Better safe than sorry."

Huo Tang said thoughtfully, "I only need to bring a portion of our people when I go out. The tribe's defenses must remain vigilant at all times."

"Right, regarding the seniority of the younger generation in the tribe, should we discuss what generation character to use?"

"These children are the future hope of our tribe. After three hundred years, our Blazing Flame finally has an opportunity for development. How about using 'Blazing Flame' as the generation character?"

Huo Xian, who was always holding the animal skin scroll and pen, spoke up.

His words were supported by the agreement of two Clan Elders, Huo Yu and Huo Yun.

These children were different from them. Their martial arts cultivation started with an improved new method, not the outdated Tempering Method.

They had even welcomed the scene of the tribe having its first Witch and a dual Heavenly Meridian Warrior, signaling the great prosperity of Blazing Flame.

"'Flame' carries the meaning of flames soaring, which fits the prosperous scene of our tribe. Let's use 'Flame' as the generation character."

Several elder Clan Elders chimed in their agreement. Shen Can glanced around silently, realizing the old men had already communicated beforehand.

The generation character was irrelevant to him; its main purpose was to distinguish lineage.

If it was 'Flame,' then so be it.

The bonfire tribal meeting discussed for half the day before everyone dispersed.

Huo Xian returned to his ear cave, continuing his record by the lamplight.

Shen Can glanced at him but didn't disturb him. Huo Xian now had a new hobby: recording tribal history.

As this was passed down, perhaps the tribe would eventually have a historian.

Some positions didn't need to be deliberately arranged; they would gradually evolve into systems simply by existing.

Returning to his ear cave.

Shen Can let out a long sigh.

Next, he planned to sort out the martial arts details between the Mountain Opening Realm and the Heavenly Meridian Realm.

Currently, he had two experimental subjects: Clan Uncle Huo Shan and Clan Uncle Huo Qi.

Clan Uncle Huo Shan's talent was naturally better, and he hadn't yet noticed a bottleneck in his qi energy growth.

Clan Uncle Huo Qi, however, was far behind. After the same month of training, his qi energy increase was the least. This failure hadn't surprised Shen Can.

He was waiting for Huo Qi to recover so he could verify the secondary effects of the witch medicine he had deduced.

As usual, he lay on the stone bed and entered today's Witchcraft Spell deduction.

[Lifespan: 243]

A third-tier desolate beast had a lifespan of 473 years. He spent 230 years deducing the third-tier neutral witch medicine formula and the neutral anesthetic powder formula, poisoning himself countless times in the Sacrificial Cauldron space.

From the sacrificed desolate beasts, Shen Can discovered that mutated desolate beasts had longer lifespans.

That second-tier He Luo Fish alone gave him over 300 years of lifespan. Compared to desolate beasts, the lifespans of tribesmen like those in Blazing Flame were too short.

The next morning, the entire tribe came alive.

A group of tribesmen carried farming tools and left the tribe, starting to cultivate fields outside the mountains, weeding and irrigating.

Farming in the Great Wilderness also depended on the weather. It wasn't that their farming techniques were particularly good, but they were much better than slash-and-burn agriculture.

Some tribesmen began to venture far away, searching for medicinal herbs in the mountains and wilds.

Shen Can also got up early and started his busy routine.

Before dawn, Huo Tang had already left the tribe with a group of warriors in their forties and fifties, who were in the Mountain Opening and Stone Splitter Realms.

He hadn't consumed that third-tier beast blood either, saying he was saving it for the tribe's young people and children.

Although the tribe's martial arts system had an imbalance in the number of warriors at each level due to the sudden surge in meat and beast blood, hoarding resources instead of using them would make them foolish.

Huo Tang had deliberately taken the older warriors. The hunting team's numbers remained almost unchanged; he just wanted the hunting team to focus on cultivating internal energy at home.

Shen Can's initial idea was also very simple: to cultivate everyone in the hunting team into warriors first.

The goal wasn't difficult, thanks to the third-tier beast blood.

Possessing the strength of one Desolate Beast was enough to become a Warrior. The energy contained within the beast blood of a third-tier desolate beast, even diluted dozens of times, was sufficient to help ordinary tribesmen break through their bottlenecks.

Only with a sufficient number of Stone Splitter Realm Warriors could Mountain Opening Realm Warriors emerge from their ranks.

As the leader of the hunting party, Huo Shan divided the three hundred people into three teams of one hundred, with each team led by someone bearing the title of Zubó.

After distributing the diluted third-tier beast blood, Shen Can, as the Temple Guardian, naturally took the first serving as a sign of respect.

He no longer oversaw the hunting party's cultivation, having handed over the task to Huo Shan.

Huo Shan cultivated with the tribesmen during the day and returned at night to report on the cultivation progress of both the tribesmen and himself to Shen Can.

As for Uncle Huo Qi, he was housed in a cave next to the Ancestral Temple, allowing Shen Can to closely monitor his recovery.

Shen Can was now counting on the cooperation of his two uncles, along with his own cultivation, to provide detailed verification of the specific cultivation details between the Mountain Opening and Heavenly Vein realms.

Early in the morning, pinching his nose as he ate the mixed rice, Shen Can began practicing the Kui Ox Fist within his ear.

After several repetitions of the Kui Ox Fist, thoughts surfaced in his mind.

Sacrificial Host: Shen Can

Sacrificial Artifact: Sacrificial Cauldron

Martial Arts Realm: Mountain Opening Realm (Twenty-five Desolate Strength)

Lifespan: 160

Then, he grabbed the wooden bow that Huo Tang had used before advancing to the Heavenly Vein realm, channeling his strength into his hands.

With a "zing," the wooden bow moved slightly, showing its respect for him.

He couldn't pull it.

Shen Can placed the bow back on its rack. Previously, he had hypothesized that the Qi circulation range for advancing from Mountain Opening to Heavenly Vein was likely a multiple of nine.

He was now not far from twenty-seven Desolate Strength.

It was clear that even three times nine Desolate Strength couldn't draw this bow.

The next step would be four times nine Desolate Strength.

When he first became a Mountain Opening Realm Warrior, he possessed the divine ability of Myriad Transformations into One.

Shen Can, by consuming scattered ordinary beast meat and millet rice, and accounting for occasional delays that prevented cultivation, gained one Desolate Strength approximately every six to seven days on average.

Later, his diet changed to include rank-assigned desolate beast meat, which further increased the effect.

Although the plague and other events caused delays and reduced cultivation time, the quality and effect of the ranked desolate beast meat offset the decrease in cultivation time.

On average, it still took six to seven days to gain one Desolate Strength.

This situation changed after he reached eighteen Desolate Strength. Shen Can found that his consumption had more than doubled.

For the same increase of one Desolate Strength, the amount of meat consumed after eighteen Desolate Strength was one and a half to two times more than before eighteen Desolate Strength.

This extended the time it took to increase each Desolate Strength to about eleven to twelve days.

However, after adding the third-tier fish blood mixed rice, the energy contained within high-tier beast meat shortened some of the cultivation time.

Consuming the same third-tier fish blood mixed rice greatly weakened the effect of his Myriad Transformations into One divine ability.

The Myriad Transformations into One ability was most miraculous when high-tier resources were scarce and low-tier resources needed to be gathered for a high-quality transformation.

Based on his current cultivation progress, reaching thirty-six Desolate Strength would take at most three months, and that was considering a generous timeframe.

It was just that the supply of third-tier fish blood mixed rice was limited; if he ate it without restraint, it wouldn't last many days.

He wondered how the tribal chief, who was out on a mission, was faring.

A little over a month later, east of Blazing Flame.

Two figures moved rapidly through the mountains, their bodies covered in mud. Apart from the weapons in their hands, other items they carried were wrapped in soft animal hides, making very little noise when they bumped against each other.

The two quickly arrived inside a mountain cave.

"Chieftain, there's no great river ahead, but rather a marshy swamp. We tested it, and it seems to trap people. This is different from what's recorded on our map."

Huo Tang put down the several maps in his hands.

When they set out this time, they brought along maps collected from other tribes and continued to acquire new maps from tribes they encountered along the way.

Unfortunately, after the flood, the terrain had changed slightly from the maps.

Whether the maps were wrong or the flood had altered the terrain, arguing about it was pointless.

According to the description on this map, there should be a north-south great river ahead.

Near the mountains by the river, there was a tribe called Ze Ji.

If they could reach their destination directly while scavenging for resources, it would be the most time-saving and labor-saving method.

Unfortunately, the map in my hand suddenly became useless.

The great river turned into a marsh, and the tribe was gone.

"Let's go around and head to the next tribe's location."

The group walked out of the cave in an orderly fashion. Huo Tang, leading the way, arrived at the marshy land and began heading north, preparing to skirt around this area.

However, after going around for more than ten days, mud and water surged through the mountains.

Huo Tang stood atop a small hill and gazed into the distance to the southeast.

What met his eyes was a vast expanse of water, with mountains and rivers connected.

"Tribe Leader, according to tribal records, Da Ye Marsh is five thousand li east of our tribe. It seems we haven't even traveled three thousand li yet."

In the military system of the pre-Qin and Spring and Autumn Warring States periods, a commander of a hundred men was called a "Zubó" or "Zúzhǎng"; below a hundred men was the system of "shíwǔ".