Shui Tuan returned to the ancestral temple, his face pale.
"Have they been placated?"
A wizened figure with blood-red eyes sat cross-legged beneath the ancestors' spirit tablets.
It was Shui Lan, the Shanghu Tribe's temple keeper.
"They won't make trouble as long as there's food, but this can't go on. Sooner or later, we'll be discovered."
Shui Lan's expression darkened. How could he not understand? The day of exposure would eventually come.
Not to mention that the foreign creature in the limestone cave was temperamental and capricious, laughing as it devoured people.
Shanghu was now riding a tiger and unable to get off.
It had been easy to invite it in, but impossible to send it away!
Back then, they had believed Blood Insect, that blood shaman's temptation, and had indeed gained benefits. Yet they had never expected retribution to come so swiftly.
When Blood Insect had still been around, the two pieces of Blood Curse Wood had possessed mysterious effects that could send the foreign creature into a deep sleep.
Now Blood Insect had died outside, and the Blood Curse Wood could not be found. They had no way at all to pacify this foreign creature.
"We still need to find the Blood Curse Wood."
Shui Lan said, "Call the chieftain over. Have him go to the Cang Bird and Ape Mountain tribes. No matter the price, we must establish contact with the 'lord' in the mountains. That will also give us a chance to enter the forest and search for Blood Curse Wood."
Over the past two years, they had visited the Cang Bird and Ape Mountain tribes often. The three tribes had once been close, jointly establishing a market.
But now, the two tribes hid things away and repeatedly blocked the Shanghu Tribe from entering the forest.