The Sacrificial Host seized 233 years of lifespan from the First Tier aberrant Mountain-Cleaving Kui.
As Shen Can drew blood, carved up the kui meat, and offered it to the ancestral temple, the children carrying ears of wheat and millet were also summoned into the temple, where they placed bundle after bundle of wheat and millet upon the offering altar.
They informed their ancestors that after the calamity had passed, they had welcomed a harvest, and they were still alive.
After the ancestral rites, the other prey was placed directly onto the roasting racks.
Before the bonfire, a whole Mountain-Cleaving Kui lay on the rack, its fat sizzling as it dripped.
Huo Tang carved up the kui meat with his knife, slicing off the fattest portions and serving them to Shen Can.
"A-Can, from the disaster until now, the tribe has wanted for neither food nor clothing. Your contributions cannot be overlooked."
The tribespeople seated around the bonfire nodded one after another. Without the shaman's efforts, the tribe could never have developed so greatly.
From shamanic talismans curing plagues to strongly promoting martial cultivation, from shamanic medicine for hunting to shamanic medicine for eliminating pests, from cultivating herbs to taming desolate beasts—Shen Can had been behind every one of these matters.
Every person had felt the changes within the tribe.
After Huo Tang distributed the roasted meat among the tribespeople sitting around the bonfire, he said, "Take it and share it with the others."
Two tribespeople carried off the roasted kui, drawing a pack of children racing after them.
"It has been a year since the flood passed. The tribe's grain harvest has been plentiful, and we have endured the hardest days."
Holding a clay jar filled with roasted meat, Huo Tang swept his gaze around. "The tribe's various affairs have also been divided in greater detail. Let everyone take this opportunity to learn who manages each matter within the tribe."
The tribespeople seated around the bonfire included both men and women, and all of them were martial artists. Together, they formed the preliminary framework of the Blazing Flame Tribe's system.
The three tribal elders now had more people under them, with their responsibilities divided more finely.
Tribal Elder Huo Yu oversaw the tribal storehouse and the martial training of the tribe's youths. Huo Qi served as the chief instructor for martial cultivation. (He had failed to advance into the Heavenly Vein realm and was one of Shen Can's martial arts test subjects.)
Huo Yun had even more people under him: Agriculture Master Huo Yun, Beast Master Huo Yuan, Pottery Master Huo Yao, Arms Master Huo Shi, and Huo Xin.
Of the two Arms Masters, Huo Shi was a blacksmith, while Huo Xin was one of the few female martial artists in the tribe, responsible for making armor, arrowheads, and other weapons.
Huo Shan had four Zubó under him.
Zubó Huo Hou was responsible for delivering and gathering intelligence. His squad had only a little over twenty tribespeople, every one of them fleet-footed and nimble.
Zubó Huo Yan, Huo Yu, and Huo Ning were all martial artists who had previously advanced to the Mountain Opening Realm. They were akin to the tribe's guardian soldiers, taking turns leaving to hunt and train, scout the terrain, and familiarize themselves with the environment.
The newly advanced Heavenly Vein martial artist Huo Kui held no post and became one of the tribe's hidden strengths.
Beyond that, the tribe had also formally established a library cave and a herb garden, both supervised by Shen Can and Huo Xian.
Besides practicing martial arts, the tribe's children would also learn additional knowledge in the library cave.
With this system in operation, among the tribe's more than three thousand members, those who practiced martial arts practiced martial arts, while the majority farmed, crafted, and worked at other tasks. Other than the very young children, everyone performed their own duties.
This harvest was only the beginning. For the tribe, the road ahead remained long.
As the weather gradually turned cold, it became the best season for hunting and gathering firewood once more.
On the second day after the Tribal Sacrifice, the tribespeople began a new round of labor.
Another two months passed, and the weather suddenly turned bitterly cold.
Within the ancestral temple, the cave had been expanded to more than twice its former size, and it had been opened through to the caves on both sides.
One of those caves held over twenty Wooden Bows of different styles, ranging from thirty-five units to forty-three units of Desolate Power.
Most had been seized from other tribes before, and some had been fitted with new bowstrings.
Shen Can casually picked up the bow with the greatest draw strength. The beast sinew used for its string was as thick as a finger, yet the instant his hands gripped it, he effortlessly drew it into the shape of a full moon.
Sacrificial Host: Shen Can Martial Arts Realm: Mountain Opening Realm (forty-nine units of Desolate Power)
Huo Shan, one of his two great test subjects, had long since been able to draw this bow with forty-three units of Desolate Power.
Shen Can estimated that Huo Shan's true strength was now about equal to his own.
And Huo Qi, who had been soaked in Third Tier beast blood last time, now possessed forty units of Desolate Power as well.
Shen Can had been recording the cultivation consumption and improvements of the two men all along. Huo Qi lagged far behind Huo Shan.
As for comparing himself with Huo Shan, there was no comparison to make. He had risen in one breath from an ordinary martial artist, while Huo Shan had already possessed thirty-five units of Desolate Power when Shen Can was still an ordinary martial artist.
Unfortunately, the tribe no longer had any stronger bows. Even if they wanted to make one, they could not. It would require third tier material or high-grade ore, and even more importantly, time.
Within the ancestral temple cave, the bonfire in the fire pit crackled, while steam bubbled from the clay jar above it.
"Cough, cough..." With the cold weather, Huo Xian's coughing had grown severe.
"A-Can, has A-Tang's news returned today?"
Cold weather was a good time for hunting, and the tribe's three hundred-man martial artist squads had been taking turns hunting outside for quite some time.
According to the rules they had set beforehand, if those out hunting had not returned, they would send news back every two or three days depending on the distance.
Because they had previously caught a Third Tier strange fish, Huo Tang had set his sights on a Third Tier aquatic desolate beast once again.
"News comes back every two days. News only returned yesterday. The chieftain has found an injured Third Tier Water Beast and is currently surrounding and hunting it. With Mafeisan, he should succeed soon enough."
Da Ye Marsh, western shore.
Marshes and mud bogs spread everywhere, with great lakes linking together.
Within a valley formed by several mountains submerged beneath the floodwaters, the water ran deep and murmuring, while strange cries rang out.
Splash!
As waves exploded, a strange water beast appeared with horse-ear-shaped eyes. Its body resembled a swimming serpent marked with dark patterns, and it had six legs beneath it. It stirred the surrounding vapor into mist, gathering it above the valley.
This bizarre-looking water beast was covered in wounds. One wound on its lower abdomen extended all the way to its tail, where a glimmer occasionally flickered.
On a small hill by the shore, Huo Tang carefully observed the water beast that had emerged.
The beast was gravely injured. After several days of close observation, he believed the spot flickering on its tail was a weapon embedded in its body.
This water beast had long become a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. It did not dare venture deep into the marshes to catch fish, only eating small fish.
This valley connected to the marshes, so draining the water as they had last time was likely impossible.
After careful observation, Huo Tang adopted a method of "channeling," arranging for the tribespeople to dig a waterway behind the valley.
It was five zhang wide and two zhang deep, extending three li away, where they dug out a large pond.
Why dig such a long artificial river? Mainly because this was the edge of the marsh, where mud and water were everywhere, and the water beast had legs beneath its belly.
With a distance of three li dug out, even if the water beast could crawl ashore, they would have time to intercept it in the shallows.
Huge rocks were piled at the mouth of the pond, waiting only for the water beast to enter before sealing off the entrance.
After the artificial river was completed, the tribespeople hunted Mountain-Cleaving Kui in the forest and threw them into the river.
They let them struggle in the water, their wounds staining the river red and drawing swarms of small fanged fish to tear at them.
Even so, the water beast did not come forward for a single bite.
Huo Tang was not anxious. Every day or two, he tossed another wounded Mountain-Cleaving Kui into the water.
After throwing seven into the water in succession, the water beast finally could not endure any longer.
Splash! Its serpent-like body shot from the water, clamping a Mountain-Cleaving Kui in its jaws and swallowing even the small fish foraging nearby into its mouth.
It rolled once in the water and swallowed more than half the Mountain-Cleaving Kui's body.
At the same time, Huo Tang had already ordered someone to throw half a Mountain-Cleaving Kui carcass into the artificial river about a li farther downstream and pour in beast blood.
"It's coming, it's coming."
On the small hills beside the artificial river, everyone watched from afar as waves rippled across the water. They watched the water beast follow the bloody scent along the river and enter the pond.
At the same time, Huo Tang, who had been guarding the pond, shoved the huge rocks forward and blocked the gap.
"Throw the Mafeisan!"
The other tribespeople, who had hidden outside the pond with their bodies covered in mud, began smashing clay jars down onto the water beast in a rapid clatter.
When Huo Tang blocked the gap, the water beast gnawing on Mountain-Cleaving Kui meat sensed the danger. A mass of black light rose around its body, and the surrounding waters began to churn.
But then the Mafeisan rained down like celestial maidens scattering flowers.
The pulpy medicinal liquid from the shattered jars splashed across more than half its body.
And its entire body was covered in wounds.
Splash!
The water beast began struggling violently. Black light spread across its entire body, and its six legs paddled rapidly beneath its belly as it dragged its wounds and tried to rush out of the water.
But just as the light flared up, its enormous body swayed gently before collapsing into the shallow water.
"Heh heh, A-Can's medicine really works."
"All we need to do is dig ditches and release water. I say we should move directly near this marsh and specialize in catching aquatic desolate beasts."
"I think that'll work."
"What are you standing around for? Can't you see the beast blood is already flowing out? Hurry up and carve it up."
"Ah, Chieftain, we aren't bringing this desolate beast back alive?" Huo Yu asked in surprise.
"No. The journey is too far. This water beast can crawl ashore and has divine abilities. Bringing it back would be too dangerous."
"Carve it up here and collect the blood."
As he spoke, Huo Tang walked over to the water beast, pried open its mouth, and drove an ironwood spear through its jaws and into its skull.
Two days later.
All the parts of the Third Tier Water Beast had been placed in the ancestral temple.
"A-Can, this water beast was like the plague beast we saw before. It could release black light from its body."
Huo Tang had brought back everything thoroughly, even digging up and bringing back the soil soaked with spilled beast blood.
There was also a broken blade inscribed with shamanic script.
Shen Can regretted not being able to personally stab the desolate beast to death, but obtaining this broken blade made up for that regret.
The shamanic script on the broken blade twisted and wound, and he was far too familiar with it.
On the incomplete half-chi blade remained over a dozen shamanic characters that had changed from their original forms, four of which he had yet to deduce.
"Ling Yu Upper Tribe."
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