As Liang Ji refined one Demon Core after another, the Natal Star continued to grow in size, and the Spirit Vein taking shape within it grew stronger and stronger.
From first tier (3%) to first tier (4%), first tier (5%)... all the way to first tier (12%), the Spirit Vein had grown four times as strong. The Natal Star itself had also grown several times larger over these twenty-odd days.
The winds had risen and clouds had gathered; seas had turned to mulberry fields. The changes were greater than all those of the past few months combined.
Likewise, as the Spirit Vein strengthened and the star grew, the population of the Half-Dragonfolk Vassals had soared over these twenty-odd days.
Their total number had neared one hundred thousand, and more than twenty thousand had awakened their bloodlines and intelligence and advanced to the first tier.
That was only because so little time had passed; the Vassals' population growth had yet to catch up with the growth of the star and its Spirit Vein. Otherwise, with a first-tier (12%) Spirit Vein, the star could sustain up to one hundred and twenty thousand Half-Dragonfolk Vassals.
As the Half-Dragonfolk Vassals' population continued to grow, new problems began to emerge one after another.
The greatest of them was the problem of food and resources.
Nearly one hundred thousand Half-Dragonfolk Vassals had gathered together, living in Dragon Soul Village and the surrounding areas. Keeping so many clanspeople fed...
Farmer the Thirteenth, the tribe's economic leader, constantly led the clanspeople in clearing more farmland. They had long since developed every suitable plot near Dragon Soul Village.
The Hunting Team, led by Chi the Thirteenth, the warriors' chief, also had to venture farther and farther afield to hunt more prey, and head into deeper waters to catch more fish and shrimp.
The sheer number of Half-Dragonfolk meant that the prey in the forests and the fish and shrimp in the waters near Dragon Soul Village had long since been all but exhausted. There was nowhere near enough left to meet the clanspeople's needs.
Seeing the situation grow more and more serious, the tribe's four leaders gathered to discuss the matter. Afterward, they made their decision: split the Rune Tokens and found a new village.
They would send a group of clanspeople out from the village to develop new territory and establish a new settlement, founding a separate village to solve the problems of overpopulation and dwindling resources.
The site for the new village had already been chosen. The tribe's Hunting Team had discovered it while hunting. It, too, lay between mountains and water, with fertile land and abundant resources—an ideal place for the Half-Dragonfolk Vassals to settle, survive, and thrive.
More importantly, the Hunting Team had discovered a metal deposit there, one that could be mined from the surface and held exceptionally rich reserves.
As it happened, the metal deposits near Dragon Soul Village had been nearly exhausted after tens of thousands of years of mining and use, and their output had fallen far short of what was needed.
Meanwhile, as the Half-Dragonfolk Vassals' population continued to grow, so too did the number of first-tier warriors. They needed more and more Rune Artifacts—armor, battle axes, Flying Snake Spears, shields, and the like. On top of that, the tribe's daily life and farming also consumed vast quantities of iron tools.
The tribe's iron production had long since fallen behind its growing needs.
This time, when they split the Rune Tokens and founded a new village, they would move the tribe's metalworking, smelting, iron-tool forging, and weapon-casting workshops to the new settlement as well.
That would also solve the problem of the tribe's iron production failing to meet demand.
In the center of Dragon Soul Village, before the Heavenly Emperor Temple.
The four leaders now in charge of village affairs had long since passed the mantle down to their thirteenth successors.
Xi the Thirteenth, the priestly leader, led the clanspeople in a grand ceremony before the Heavenly Emperor Temple. They lit a bonfire, presented offerings, burned incense and candles, and prayed to the Heavenly Emperor, informing him that the tribe was about to split the Rune Tokens and establish a new village. They prayed for his protection and blessing.
Compared with the ceremonies of several generations ago, the Half-Dragonfolk Vassals' rites had changed somewhat. They had kept the most ancient element, the bonfire, which symbolized the fire and wisdom bestowed on them by the Heavenly Emperor, while adding offerings, incense, candles, and other customs.
The Half-Dragonfolk Vassals were constantly developing, and the tribe's civilization was forever evolving. The changes to their rituals were merely one small part of that.
When the ceremony was complete, Xi the Thirteenth, the priestly leader, presided over the rite of splitting the Rune Tokens.
After the Half-Dragonfolk tribe had trained Rune Masters, not only had the warriors' equipment gradually been replaced with Rune Artifacts, but many everyday objects in the village had also been upgraded from ordinary tools to Rune Artifacts.
This included the tools the tribe used for farming, as well as the Rune Tokens held by the tribal leaders, which represented their authority and status.
That was why this village-founding ceremony was called "splitting the Rune Tokens."
At that moment, Xi the Thirteenth, the priestly leader, first took out the Rune Token that represented his office. Then he took up a rune knife and cut off a small piece of the priestly Rune Token, handing it to a young priest waiting below.
The young priest stepped forward and bowed as he accepted the small piece of the Rune Token. It represented the priestly leader Xi the Thirteenth granting him a share of his authority and responsibilities. He would serve as the priestly leader of the tribe's new village.
After Xi the Thirteenth, the tribe's political leader, King the Thirteenth; its economic leader, Nong the Thirteenth; and its warrior leader, Chi the Thirteenth, each performed the same rite, cutting off a small piece of the Rune Token that represented their office and granting it to a successor.
The four new leaders had been chosen from among the tribe through contests. They would become the priestly, political, economic, and warrior leaders of the new village.
Their authority, however, would rank a little below that of the four Dragon Soul Village leaders—Xi the Thirteenth, King the Thirteenth, Nong the Thirteenth, and Chi the Thirteenth—and they would answer to them.
Beside the ceremony grounds, a Half-Dragonfolk sat writing rapidly, recording the momentous event of the Rune Tokens being split and a new village founded.
Ever since Xi the Eighth, the priestly leader, had created the first epic of the Half-Dragonfolk Vassals, the Half-Dragonfolk had developed a fairly complete tradition of recording events and compiling histories.
Among the Vassals, certain Half-Dragonfolk were assigned to chronicle major events in the tribe and compile them into its historical records.
They were showing signs of having established a line of official historians.
What was more, these historians were continually refining their epics. They had even devised a calendar for the tribe, naming the year when the first priest, Xi, awakened his bloodline and intelligence and received a name from the Heavenly Emperor "Dragon Soul Year One."
Using this system, they had assigned dates to many events recorded in the epics the tribe had created earlier, including those in the first epic written by Xi the Eighth, the priestly leader.
Whether the dates were accurate was another matter. At the very least, the Dragon Soul Tribe's historical tradition was growing more complete by the day, which would undoubtedly benefit the nurturing and growth of the Dao Fruit within Liang Ji's Natal Star.
The ceremony to split the Rune Tokens and found a new village had ended in Dragon Soul Village. The four young leaders who had received their shares of the Rune Tokens led the clanspeople chosen to leave the tribe. They set out from Dragon Soul Village, heading for the new territory they had selected, where they would build the second village of the Half-Dragonfolk Vassals on Liang Ji's Natal Star.
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