The tribe had gained a new Heaven Vein Warrior, so Huo Tang could venture out with greater peace of mind and explore the terrain of regions farther afield for the tribe.
How had the Shanghuang Tribe managed to span three thousand li? It had not relied on a mere single Heaven Vein Warrior, but on generations of Heaven Vein Warriors gradually blazing trails outward.
Which mountains could be crossed, which places held swamps that needed to be skirted, where a great river could safely be crossed.
They had maps.
A tribe's foundation was not proven by truly growing stronger just because it had one more Heaven Vein Warrior. It also needed control over the surrounding region.
The Shanghuang Tribe had taken a small step further than Chiyan in Martial Dao cultivation, yet it had also fallen into a bottleneck.
"The plague disaster has been over for so long. With the Shanghuang Tribe's strength, they should have come out to sweep up resources long ago. It's strange that they still haven't appeared. Could they really have been wounded by the plague disaster?"
Chiyan could be said to be the first of the surrounding tribes to massively gather up the remnants and legacies of nearby tribes after the plague disaster ended.
If the Shanghuang Tribe had not been severely damaged, it should have come out to gather resources as well.
At that moment, Huo Shan spoke. "Maybe the plague disaster covered a wider area than we imagined. The Shanghuang Tribe can't gather it all up, so they simply don't care about tribes like ours, close to the deep mountains."
"Who cares? We'll develop ourselves."
"Shanghuang has always been overbearing. We aren't afraid of them now, but we still have to stay on guard. There's no fault in being cautious."
Huo Tang said thoughtfully, "I only need to take some of our people when I go out. The tribe's defenses must remain vigilant at all times."
"Right. Let's discuss what generation character the tribe's younger members should use."
"These children are the hope of our tribe's future. After three hundred years, Chiyan has finally welcomed an opportunity to prosper. Why not use the name Chiyan as their generation character?"
Huo Xian, who had been holding the Beast Hide Scroll and writing brush all along, spoke up.
His proposal won the approval of the two tribal elders, Huo Yu and Huo Yun.
These children were different from them. From the beginning of their Martial Dao cultivation, they would no longer practice the outdated Tempering Method, but an improved new method.
They had also witnessed the tribe gain its first shaman, along with two Heaven Vein Warriors, heralding the spectacle of Chiyan's great rise.
"'Yan' carries the meaning of flames soaring upward. It suits the flourishing scene of our tribe. Let the 'Yan' character be their generation character."
Several elder tribal elders voiced their agreement. Shen Can silently looked around and realized that these old men had already discussed it beforehand.
To him, generation characters did not matter at all. They were mainly for distinguishing seniority.
Yan it was, then.
After half a day of discussion around the bonfire, everyone finally dispersed.
Huo Xian returned to the ear cave and continued recording by lamplight.
Shen Can took a glance but did not disturb him. Huo Xian had developed a new hobby now: recording the tribe's history.
As it was gradually passed down, perhaps the tribe would eventually have an official historian.
Some positions did not need to be deliberately arranged. Given time, their very existence would slowly evolve into a system.
Returning to the ear cave,
Shen Can let out a long breath.
Next, he planned to sort through the details of Martial Dao cultivation between the Mountain Opening Realm and the Celestial Meridian Realm.
At present, he had two test subjects: his two tribal uncles, Huo Shan and Huo Qi.
Uncle Huo Shan had better talent to begin with, and had not yet detected any bottleneck in the growth of his inner force.
Uncle Huo Qi was far worse. After the same month of training, his inner force had increased the least. This failure had not surprised Shen Can.
Once he recovered, Shen Can would test the effects of the byproduct from the shaman medicine he had deduced.
As usual, Shen Can lay on the stone bed and entered today's shamanic deduction.
Lifespan: 243
A third-rank desolate beast had given him four hundred and seventy-three years of lifespan. Deducing the third-rank neutralizing shaman medicine formula and the neutralizing Mafeisan formula had cost him two hundred and thirty years. Within the Sacrificial Cauldron's space, he had poisoned himself to death who knew how many times.
From the desolate beasts he had sacrificed, Shen Can discovered that variant desolate beasts tended to offer more lifespan.
That second-rank He Luo Fish alone had given him more than three hundred years of lifespan. Compared to desolate beasts, the tribespeople of a tribe like Chiyan had far too little lifespan.
Early the next morning, the entire tribe came alive.
Groups of tribespeople carried farming tools out of the tribe and began repairing the fields beyond the mountain, weeding them, and irrigating them.
Farming in the Great Wilderness also depended on heaven for one's meals. It was not as though their agricultural techniques were particularly advanced, but they were far better than slash-and-burn cultivation.
Some tribespeople headed farther away to search the mountains and wildlands for medicinal herbs.
Shen Can rose early as well and began busying himself.
Before dawn, Huo Tang had already led a group of Mountain Opening Realm and Stone Splitter Realm martial artists in their forties and fifties out of the tribe.
They had not consumed that trough of third-rank beast blood, saying it should be saved for the tribe's young people and children.
Though the tribe's Martial Dao system had an imbalance in the number of martial artists at each level due to the sudden surge in meat and beast blood, hoarding resources instead of using them would be the act of a complete fool.
Huo Tang had deliberately taken older martial artists with him. The hunting party's numbers had barely changed; he simply wanted the hunting party to stay home and properly cultivate their inner arts.
Shen Can's initial idea was simple: first turn everyone in the hunting party into martial artists.
This goal was not difficult, because they had third-rank beast blood.
Possessing one Desolate Power was enough to become a martial artist, and the beast blood of a third-rank desolate beast contained immense energy.
Even diluted dozens of times, it would still be enough to let ordinary tribespeople break through their bottlenecks.
Only with enough Stone Splitter Realm martial artists could Mountain Opening Realm martial artists emerge among them.
As the hunting party's leader, Huo Shan divided the three hundred people into three companies of one hundred, with each leader bearing the title of Zubó.
As for preparing and diluting the third-rank beast blood, Shen Can, as the temple heir, naturally had to lead by example.
He no longer supervised the hunting party's training, having handed the matter over to Huo Shan.
Huo Shan cultivated alongside the hunting party tribespeople during the day, then returned at night to report on both the tribespeople's cultivation and his own to Shen Can.
Uncle Huo Qi, meanwhile, was somewhat different. He lived in a cave beside the ancestral temple, making it easier for Shen Can to observe his recovery at close range.
Shen Can was now counting on the cooperation of his two tribal uncles, along with his own cultivation, to thoroughly verify the specific cultivation details between the Mountain Opening Realm and the Celestial Meridian Realm.
Early in the morning, after pinching his nose and finishing his mixed rice, Shen Can began practicing the Kui Ox Fist within the ear cave.
After completing several rounds of the Kui Ox Fist, a thought surfaced in his mind.
Sacrificial Host: Shen Can Sacrificial Artifact: Sacrificial Cauldron Martial Arts Realm: Mountain Opening Realm (twenty-five Desolate Power) Lifespan: 160
Then he grabbed the wooden bow from before Huo Tang's advancement to the Heaven Vein, gathering his strength in both hands.
With a twang, the wooden bow shifted slightly, showing him its respect.
He could not draw it.
Shen Can placed the bow back on its rack. He had previously hypothesized that the range of inner force required to advance from Mountain Opening to Heaven Vein was very likely a multiple of nine.
He was not far from twenty-seven Desolate Power now.
Clearly, even three times nine Desolate Power could not draw this bow.
The next step would be four times nine Desolate Power.
When he had first become a Mountain Opening Realm martial artist, he had the divine ability Myriad Transformations to One.
By eating scattered portions of ordinary beast meat and millet rice, while subtracting the occasional delays that prevented cultivation, he could gain one Desolate Power every six or seven days on average.
Later, his food had changed to ranked desolate beast meat, and the effect improved further.
Although matters such as the plague disaster later delayed him and reduced his cultivation time, the quality and effects of ranked desolate beast meat offset that reduction.
On average, he could still gain one Desolate Power every six or seven days.
This changed after he possessed eighteen Desolate Power. Shen Can discovered that his consumption had multiplied.
For the same increase of one Desolate Power, every additional Desolate Power after eighteen required one and a half to twice as much meat as before eighteen.
This stretched the time needed to gain each Desolate Power to around eleven or twelve days.
But after adding third-rank fish blood mixed rice, the energy contained in higher-rank beast meat shortened his cultivation time somewhat again.
Yet eating the same third-rank fish blood mixed rice greatly weakened the effect of his Myriad Transformations to One divine ability.
The more high-rank resources were scarce, and the more low-rank resources had to be gathered for a high-quality transformation, the more miraculous the effects of Myriad Transformations to One became.
At his current cultivation pace, reaching thirty-six Desolate Power would take three months at most, and that was already a generous estimate.
The only problem was that the amount of third-rank fish blood mixed rice was limited. If he ate freely, it would not last many days at all.
He wondered how the tribal chief's expedition was faring.
More than a month later, east of Chiyan.
Two figures swiftly moved through the mountains, their bodies covered in mud. Aside from the weapons in their hands, everything else they wore was wrapped in soft beast hide, making barely any sound when it collided.
The two quickly reached a cave.
"Tribal Chief, there's no great river ahead. Instead, there's a stretch of marshy swamp. We tested it, and parts of it can swallow people. It doesn't match what our map records."
Huo Tang set down several maps in his hand.
When they set out this time, they had brought along the maps collected from other tribes, and had continued acquiring new maps from tribes they found along the way.
Unfortunately, after the flood disaster, the terrain had changed somewhat from the maps.
Whether the maps were wrong or the flood disaster had changed the terrain, there was no point dwelling on it.
According to this map's description, there should have been a great river running north to south ahead.
At the foot of the mountains along the riverbank, there had been a tribe called Ze Ji.
When going out to gather resources, reaching the destination directly was naturally the most time-saving and effortless approach.
Unfortunately, the map in their hands had suddenly become useless.
The great river had become a swamp, and the tribe was gone.
"Go around it. Head for the next tribe's location."
The group left the cave in orderly succession. Huo Tang walked in front and reached the marshland, then began heading north to go around it.
Yet after circling for more than ten days, muddy water churned among the mountains.
Huo Tang stood atop a small mountain and gazed into the southeast.
Before his eyes stretched vast waters, mountains and water joined together.
"Tribal Chief, the tribe's records say Da Ye Marsh lies five thousand li east of our tribe. We don't seem to have even traveled three thousand li yet, do we?"
In the military systems of the pre-Qin, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods, a commander of one hundred men was called a "Zuzhang" or "Zubó"; below one hundred men was the five-and-ten unit system.
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