Martial Arts, Ritual Vessels, What Was the Purpose of Worshipping Ancestors? (Please Follow)

"Stop!"

"Stop it, all of you!"

The screams made Huo Yu, who was guarding the cave entrance, stand on tiptoe and peer inside.

"Ah... wuwuwu..." Before long, they turned into muffled sobs.

Wu Zhiqi leaned against a stone pillar, his whole body convulsing violently.

"I'm from the Ling Yu Tribe. You dare..."

"Argh... I'll talk. I'm an exile. I crossed the marsh with your tribesmen."

"A little pain keeps you awake."

Shen Can gripped Wu Zhiqi's seemingly boneless hand and repeatedly pressed his fingers down.

"Hiss..."

"I'll tell you anything you want to know. Take your stinking... please take your hand away."

Wu Zhiqi panted heavily. "I can help your tribe grow stronger."

Hearing this, Huo Tang loosened his grip and even tugged Shen Can.

Someone from the Ling Yu Upper Tribe, even an exile, would be an enormous stroke of fortune for their Blazing Flame Tribe.

There were countless tribes like Blazing Flame in the Great Wilderness. What they lacked was higher-level inheritances.

Seeing the change in Huo Tang's expression, Wu Zhiqi's heart stirred. The worldly knowledge he had seen held a fatal allure for these small tribes. This was his talisman of survival.

"Untie me first, then give me..."

"Ah!"

Shen Can grabbed Wu Zhiqi's arm again and tied it into a knot. Shattered bones pierced through the skin as blood flowed out in streams.

The screams rang out again. Wu Zhiqi roared in pain, "You savages who don't even have ritual vessels are no different from mayflies! Born in the morning and dead by night—you live only to wait for death!"

"Savages! Die, die!"

The searing pain made fish scales emerge over his body again, gradually shifting him from human into a state half-human, half-fish.

"Argh..."

"Stop! Stop right now! I have witchcraft! I have the inheritance you want!"

"Do you know what ritual vessels are?"

"Do you know how many witch runes make up the Lingyu Water Control Art?"

"Do you know how a tribe rises in rank?"

"If you want to know, trade the children in your tribe for it. I only eat the little ones. Otherwise, even if you kill me, I won't say a word."

"Haha, and you—you'll have to kneel and beg me too. Maybe then I'll give you the witch..."

"Ah!"

"Argh!"

"Mayflies! Savages!"

"I possess Ling Yu bloodline! What do you savages know about Ling Yu?"

Shen Can tied his remaining arm and both legs into knots as well.

"Chief, is there still honey in the tribe?"

"A'Yu, go dig up a nest of ants outside."

This man's attitude of viewing the mountain tribesmen as ants had taken root in his bones. Even as a prisoner, he still held himself high above everyone else.

A person's temperament could not be changed just because one said so.

Of course, Shen Can had never expected him to change.

What Shen Can wanted was what lay inside this man's head.

So what if he was from the Ling Yu Upper Tribe? Did adding the words "Ling Yu" give him witch power that made him fearless of death, or an iron will?

"Upper Tribe Lord, I imagine even this mountain honey is beneath your notice."

Once the honey arrived, Shen Can brushed it over Wu Zhiqi's body.

"Brother Can, I dug up the ants."

A'Yu entered from outside carrying a jar and curiously glanced at Wu Zhiqi, whose limbs had been knotted up.

"Come here."

Shen Can smeared honey over Wu Zhiqi's mouth and nostrils, then picked up two ants and slowly moved them toward his nose and mouth.

"Peh, peh, peh! Ptoo, ptoo, ptoo!"

Wu Zhiqi shook his body. Watching the ants draw closer, he blew air from his mouth and nose.

"Mayfly, you calamity demon, you dare—ah... mmph..."

Shen Can pushed the two ants into Wu Zhiqi's nostrils, then glanced over his entire body.

"A'Yu, help him out."

He splashed honey over Wu Zhiqi's body, then placed the jar of ants beneath him.

"Take it away! Take it away now!"

Wu Zhiqi was on the verge of collapse. He could not imagine that a tiny wilderness tribe possessed such utterly horrific methods.

"Ah, I'll talk! I'll talk, all right?!"

"Talk. Start with how the Ling Yu Tribe fleet crossed east during the flood."

"Take the jar away first! Take it away!"

Wu Zhiqi sniffled. "And my nose—my nose!!"

"During floods, crossing Da Ye Marsh eastward to hunt desolate beasts and savages is a tradition of the Ling Yu Tribe."

"A hunting tradition?" Huo Tang felt a chill run through him. "Why didn't we know?"

Wu Zhiqi hissed through his teeth, arrogantly shooting Huo Tang a sidelong glance, his face once more wearing that disdainful look.

"Heh... Small tribes like yours are mayflies, born in the morning and dead by night. From birth to death, how many floods can you even experience?"

That single sentence silenced Huo Tang.

"Argh!"

Shen Can did not indulge him. He stepped forward and twisted the knotted arm.

"Speak properly. Glance sideways again, and I'll gouge out your eyeballs."

Wu Zhiqi's body trembled in fright. "The desolate beasts of eastern Da Ye Marsh had not been hunted for over a hundred years.

"This time, the Ling Yu—no, no, it was the Ling Yu Tribe. They dispatched one fourth-order Wave-Subduing Giant Ship and more than thirty Third-Order Iron Wood Ships of various sizes.

"There were 4,800 tribal warriors, one hundred accompanying first- and Second-tier Witches, and six Third-tier Witches, led by Second Elder Jiao Qi, who had reached the fourth martial realm, the Divine Treasury Realm.

"They crossed east for eighteen thousand li to hunt water beasts in Da Ye Marsh, while also capturing any savage tribes they encountered along the way for mine slaves, burial slaves, sale slaves, and the like."

"The fourth martial realm, Divine Treasury—you probably don't even know the name..."

As Wu Zhiqi spoke, he saw the cold gleam in Shen Can's eyes and immediately shut his mouth.

"Well, an exile like me was exiled because of a bloodline mutation. Can that be blamed on me?

"I was born with an extraordinary talent for witch cultivation. I thought I would become the strongest witch of the Ling Yu Tribe, but who would have thought that I'd become neither human nor fish?

"From then on, I became an oddity in the tribe. They locked me in a cage and banished me tens of thousands of li away. Why?"

"You were the only exile?"

"Of course not."

"The Ling Yu Tribe was founded upon the Great Wilderness Variant, Ling Yu, and its inheritance has lasted for 3,600 years. At some unknown point, children born within the tribe began to show the appearance of mutated Ling Yu.

"Only after my mutation did I learn that witch cultivation after mutation could strengthen one's control over water, while martial cultivation could produce water-element blood qi.

"But these mutations also brought unforeseen consequences. The tribe expelled those of us with mutated bloodlines. This time, several of us were unlucky enough to encounter a flood, so we were conveniently exiled tens of thousands of li away.

"I never ate my own kin. All I ate were mayflies. With my Ling Yu talent, in the future I could become incomparably powerful..."

Smack!

The crisp slap abruptly cut off Wu Zhiqi's excited rambling.

"What about the other exiles sent into the marsh?"

"Who knows whether they're alive or dead? The depths of Da Ye Marsh are fraught with danger. There are places even Divine Treasury Realm experts dare not enter. I was lucky enough to reach the edge.

"I wanted to find somewhere to properly replenish myself, but after wandering for a long time, the tribes along the waterside had either been captured clean or swept away by plague. I only found one small settlement that had just gathered together.

"Later, I smelled blood, encountered you people, and followed you here."

"How do Heavenly Meridians advance into Divine Treasury?"

Shen Can asked.

Wu Zhiqi's eyes began to slant sideways again. Then he quickly said, "Hey, hey, don't hit me! You need to open nine Heavenly Meridians and establish a complete circulating cycle before you can advance into Divine Treasury."

"Is there a great gap before and after advancing from Mountain Opening to Heavenly Meridians?"

"There is."

"Everything before Heavenly Meridians is merely laying the foundation, purely increasing strength. Naturally, the stronger your strength, the more blood qi you can produce, and the more Heavenly Meridians you can open."

As he spoke, Wu Zhiqi glanced at Huo Tang.

"Your martial path is already finished. I'm not targeting you specifically—I'm talking about the Heavenly Meridians of all small tribes. They're all..."

Shen Can raised his hand.

Wu Zhiqi shrank his head back.

"Explain Mountain Opening and Heavenly Meridians in detail."

"I'm not a martial warrior. I'm a noble—"

Wu Zhiqi paused. "In Ling Yu, only those who advanced into Heavenly Meridians with Seventy-Two Desolate Power were qualified to receive the tribe's cultivation. Martial warriors who advanced into Heavenly Meridians below Seventy-Two Desolate Power had no hope of reaching the fourth realm.

"Specifically, it seems to involve whether the blood qi needed to blast open the Divine Treasury later is abundant enough. That is a tribal secret, so I don't know."

"What did you mean earlier by ritual vessels?"

"Of course, they are vessels for worshipping ancestors. The reason small tribes cannot endure for long is that they are like mayflies, born in the morning and dead by—"

"Don't be afraid. Continue." Shen Can motioned for the halted Wu Zhiqi to go on.

"Besides lacking martial arts and Witchcraft Heritage, it is also because they lack ritual vessels."

"Ritual vessels are the foundation of ancestor worship. You don't simply think that the tribes large and small throughout the Great Wilderness have passed down ancestor worship for generations merely to worship their ancestors, do you?"

"If the ancestors don't show their spirits, what use is worshipping them?"