"My Clan Leader Father"

"Be good, grandson. Come, let Grandma hold you."

This was how he had first met his grandmother, when he had gradually begun recovering memories of his previous life and observing this Great Wilderness.

Wu Wang only remembered that when his grandmother had held him in her arms, those trembling hands of hers... had nearly shaken him unconscious.

Grandmother had loved him dearly, and she had possessed a little of that childlike mischief old people sometimes had.

She would roughhouse with her grandson like a child, fight him over children's toys, deliberately tease him until he cried, then tell him tales of heroic grandeur so stirring that even Grandpa would not cry.

The most unforgettable time had been when he was seven, studying the structure of a waterwheel by the lakeside. Grandmother's carriage had appeared behind him. This grandmother, who could barely walk and whose body had shriveled with age, had deliberately leaped down from the five-foot-high carriage, kicked him straight into the lake, then fled in a puff of smoke with her cane raised.

Like the wind.

And there had been that time when he was five. He had stolen Grandmother's dentures and smeared them with five-flavor powder brought back from the Western Plains. Grandmother had then chased him halfway across the Royal Court with her cane, her face kind and affectionate.

When Father had witnessed that scene, he had shed two lines of excited tears, believing Grandmother had found fresh vitality and could live several more decades.

Thinking back on all this now, it truly...

Wu Wang's eyes reddened. He sniffed hard, and quite a few elders inside the tent raised their hands to wipe away tears.

"Young Master, I've called everyone over."

General Xiong San called from outside the tent, not daring to raise his voice too much. After all, General San's parents, uncles, and elders were all inside; if they got irritated, they might give him a beating.

"Suqing," Wu Wang said, looking toward Lin Suqing beside him, "Grandmother liked liveliness, and the Northern Plains have no custom of keeping vigil over the dead. Help me arrange some Human Domain customs."

Lin Suqing asked solemnly, "The full set?"

"Do all you can. Consider it... keeping her company a little longer for me."

After speaking, Wu Wang looked once more at Grandmother's peaceful remains, lowered his head, and walked out of the tent toward the fire-speckled darkness.

He had only taken two steps when Lin Suqing began issuing orders from inside the tent, calling for long tables, candle stands, offerings of fruit, yellow paper, a paper-burning basin...

When he turned around, he saw Lin Suqing first take a peachwood sword from her Storage Treasure and place it in a corner, then lay a prayer cushion upon the ground. Her face solemn, she proclaimed in a clear voice:

"Heaven soared endlessly high, earth stretched broad where heroes rose!

A true heroine among women, a hero of the Northern Plains!

Our loved one has ridden the yellow crane away; the person is gone, but her voice remains, and the tower is not empty!"

What?

The Clear Wind Gazing Moon Sect had such an elegant name, yet its services covered so much?

Broken, mournful sobs immediately rose from the great tent, and Wu Wang's mood darkened further.

Ahead, men and women dressed in priests' robes stood with their heads lowered. Their faces were bleak, and most of the priests in the front rows were already white-haired.

Wu Wang had prepared many words beforehand.

He had wanted to begin with, "The clan is the place that raised us all," and had considered approaching it from, "Which matters more: reverence for the Star God or the lives of our clansmen?"

What he had truly wanted to ask these priests was this.

If the beast descending from heaven was a gift from the Star God, then why, during years of famine—those hellish years when two or three out of every ten clansmen starved to death—had no ordinary herds descended from the sky?

Why had he, a young master who had originally aspired only to drift through life, spent years designing and years finding the right words, nearly exhausting all his efforts to establish a grain-storage system and introduce his clansmen to the concept of animal husbandry?

It was only because he had witnessed the tragedy of a famine year when he was three.

But...

Looking at the people before him.

At those figures standing before him, standing amid the gaps between tents, standing upon this muddy grassland, Wu Wang suddenly fell silent.

All the words surged to the tip of his throat, only to be swallowed back down.

What reason was there that they did not understand?

They were all older than him, more experienced than him, and mostly knew the Northern Plains better than he did. At the root of it, they had merely lost some courage at noon and had not entertained the thought of resisting.

Wu Wang lowered his head slightly. The torchlight on either side illuminated his profile, yet there was always a small shadow it could not dispel.

"Young Master."

The current Grand Priestess stepped forward half a pace, her eyes full of guilt. "It was we..."

"My grandmother has passed away."

The Grand Priestess's body trembled. This female priestess, already in her old age, lowered her head and sighed softly. Wu Wang's grandmother had been her teacher, and even more, her close friend to this day.

Quite a few priests' eyes reddened, their faces filled with deep guilt.

Wu Wang's voice remained fairly calm as he said softly:

"Today, a total of two thousand, two hundred and thirty-two people of the clan died. More than sixteen hundred were gravely wounded. Because this is the Royal Court, most of the dead and injured were elders and children.

"That was only because most people left the Royal Court when the Fierce Beast attacked. Otherwise, the casualties might have been beyond counting."

The nearby tents fell utterly silent. Only the occasional crackle of torch flames could be heard.

"I am the Great Star Sacrifice."

Wu Wang lifted his head slightly, a trace of self-mocking laughter at the corner of his mouth.

"When the Fierce Beast suddenly attacked, I learned just how useless the Great Star Sacrifice was. I could not even earn its notice."

"Young Master, please do not blame yourself. This is not a power we can resist."

A kind-looking female priestess spoke in a trembling voice. "This is the Star God's blessing, a gift bestowed by the starry sky, the will of the Star God."

"Yes, this is the Star God's blessing, the reward the Star God has given her most diligent believers!"

Wu Wang abruptly raised his head. His expression was solemn, and his eyes were astonishingly clear.

"All along, Star God's Blessings have occurred once every one or two hundred years. The clans selected were always the strongest clans of their time, yet we have never asked why.

"So have any of you considered it? Why is this so?"

The people in the great tent behind him were drawn in and craned their heads to look over.

The priests, who had originally kept their heads lowered in silence, now looked up at Wu Wang in varying degrees of astonishment, gazing at their young master's face that seemed to radiate sacred light.

What the Young Master was saying now was actually... completely different from what they had expected...

"Because the Star God cannot understand us! Just as we cannot understand the Star God!

"She guards the boundless starry sky, protects the heavens of the Northern Plains, turns drought and wind and rain in their cycles, and watches over the entire Northern Plains!

"To presume to judge the Star God with our own self-important thoughts is the true disrespect toward the Star God!

"Those who vainly seek to make the Star God notice them are the truly ignorant ones!

"The Star God will not see the life and death of one person, several people, or hundreds and thousands of people. What she sees is the safety and survival of countless lives across the entire Northern Plains!"

Inside the great tent, Lin Suqing could not help widening her eyes.

What nonsense was the Young Master spouting?

'Gods are merely living beings who grasped the laws of the Dao early.' Had that not been what the Young Master had told her before?

So why...

The priests' expressions had already shifted from their initial shock to thoughtful contemplation.

Wu Wang continued to call out:

"Star God's Blessing is already the weakest beast the Star God can send down to the earth, a beast forged with divine power!

"To test the strongest clans with the weakest beasts—this is the gentlest blessing the Star God can grant her people.

"And yet we!

"Cannot even receive the weakest beasts sent by the Star God! Cannot even open their bodies and embrace the true gifts bestowed by the Star God!

"This is shame!

"It is the shame of the Northern Plains, and even more, the shame of the priests of my Bear Hug Tribe!"

He said, "If the Star God wished to destroy us, why would she need Fierce Beasts? She would need only a single thought."

He continued, "When a blessing descends, why should we complain that it has chosen us?

"What we need to reflect upon is how, when a blessing descends, we should receive the gift bestowed by the Star God!

"To let a blessing vanish at the edge of the earth—that is the greatest insult to the Star God!"

The Grand Priestess's voice trembled. "We... have we been wrong all along...?"

Wu Wang let out a long sigh. "These words were actually what Grandma asked Suqing to relay to me. At the final moment when her life sublimated, she heard the Star God's sigh, carrying a trace of loneliness.

"We have disappointed the Star God."

Lin Suqing's body immediately stiffened. Her little face was full of earnestness. Though she had no idea what she ought to do, she still stood there nodding vigorously.

The confusion in the priests' eyes deepened.

Wu Wang's voice returned to calmness.

"So all this time, you have never truly understood the will of the Star God.

"Look at the stars. Think carefully, all of you. Stand here for two hours."

With that, Wu Wang turned and returned to the great tent. He knelt beside his grandmother and the flowers, quietly assuming a posture of prayer.

Soon, whispers drifted in from outside the tent:

"We have understood it wrong all along? The Star God's blessing requires us to actively receive it?"

"The Young Master is not only our future leader; he is also the youngest Great Star Sacrifice. He will absolutely gain the Star God's recognition..."

"The Star God's blessing is the Star God's will, but the Star God's will gives us trials and wealth, not disasters."

"That's right. If the Star God wanted to send down disaster, she would only need to send famine or drought."

The whispers gradually grew louder. The priests debated and argued, each one looking remorseful as they became increasingly mystical and agitated.

"Grand Priestess, let us go receive the trial!"

"The Star God protects us! Fierce Beasts are our enemies—how could the Star God possibly make Fierce Beasts into divine envoys!"

"Let's go kill that Fierce Beast!"

"The Star Invocation Technique we have painstakingly cultivated should be used at a time like this! What were we afraid of before? What were we hesitating for? Our clansmen did not die in vain!"

"Even if we had acted then, we could not have stopped the fireball. We were too far away..."

Inside the tent, Lin Suqing stared blankly at the scene. Were these really the priests she had seen earlier, the ones who had kept kneeling and worshipping the Fierce Beast?

Wu Wang felt slightly speechless inside, and when he looked at Grandmother's remains, there was a little more guilt in his eyes.

He had just borrowed Grandmother's name, but he truly had no other choice.

The priests' fear and worship of the Star God ran deep into their bones. It was the result of prayer after prayer, self-hypnosis after self-hypnosis. If he had called upon them to fight that Fierce Beast in the clan's name, it would ultimately have led to a fierce clash between their sense of belonging to the clan and their sense of belonging to their faith.

Some priests might even have committed suicide over it.

Then was there any other way?

There was. Go against the current.

Using his identity as the youngest Great Star Sacrifice to redefine "Star God's Blessing," and unite their sense of belonging to the clan with their sense of belonging to the Star God, could produce the strongest fighting spirit!

Wu Wang had actually entertained such thoughts long ago, but only today, after personally witnessing the entire process of the Star God and Star God's Blessing through his mother's memories, had he put this bold idea into practice.

Divine Interpretation Authority.

That was, the authority and power to interpret gods and divine miracles.

Star God worship in the Northern Plains was relatively simple. The people only knew to pray and offer invocations to the Star God. The core of divine authority lay in the council of the Seven-Day Sacrifice, yet the day sacrifices had left the clans and lived atop one snow mountain after another.

If the Star God could neither manifest miracles nor speak, then she was like a little girl anyone could dress up as they pleased.

Of course, that was on the premise that the Seven-Day Sacrifice remained silent as well.

By the way, Wu Wang had previously studied some ancient records and discovered that after a day sacrifice inherited the position, regardless of which tribe that day sacrifice came from, they would transform into a human form resembling the human race.

This was likely related to Great Goddess Nuwa using the Innate Dao Body as a reference when creating humanity.

Back to the present problem.

To eliminate this Zhuhuai Fierce Beast that had fallen from the sky, while avoiding too many casualties, they had to have the assistance of the clan's priests.

Powerful clans all possessed mounts capable of flight. If those experts decided to come and join the battle, they would begin arriving one after another by noon.

At this moment, all was ready but the east wind.

The priests were already fired up. If not for the Grand Priestess stopping them, some would have been unable to resist rushing off to fight the Fierce Beast to the death.

I should make a beast-slaughtering plan.

Wu Wang closed his eyes and outlined the Zhuhuai Fierce Beast's body in his mind, striving to recall the changes in every part of its body as it moved.

Only by finding its weakness could he achieve twice the result with half the effort.

About an hour later.

Woooo—

A horn sounded—urgent and majestic!

A rumbling roar came through the earth, as though tens of thousands of soldiers were galloping across the grasslands!

Wu Wang sprang to his feet, unable to conceal the excitement on his face, and rushed toward the tent entrance.

"The Clan Leader has returned!"

"The Clan Leader and the others are back!"

The camp, which had been somewhat stifling before, suddenly came alive. People rushed from tents everywhere and looked north, toward the source of the horn.

As Wu Wang hurried forward, he secretly reminded himself that he seemed somewhat dependent on his father.

There was no helping it. His biological father in this life was immensely powerful and treated him extremely well. His old man's strength was unlike the strength of the Star Invocation Technique; it was similar to Human Domain Body Cultivation, though unfortunately it could not increase one's lifespan either.

His plan had to make Father understand in the shortest possible time, then have Father command the Northern Plains experts who came to reinforce them afterward...

Huh? Was that Dad's mount?

At the tent entrance, Wu Wang looked toward where the trapped Fierce Beast was located, just in time to see a giant snow-white bear with two wings soar into the sky. It let out a roaring bellow in midair and spewed an enormous orb of light from its mouth.

A burly figure leaped from the bear's back, falling straight toward the raised spine of the Zhuhuai Fierce Beast!

Wu Wang enhanced his vision with the Star Invocation Technique and focused. He could see his old man raising a great axe overhead, his long hair flying wildly, the beast-hide battle skirt around him snapping in the wind, his powerful muscles seeming to blaze with fire, his face twisted with ferocity!

"You dared touch my clansmen? I'll split you alive! Aaah—"

Huh?

Why had he gone straight in?!

With a thunderous boom, dazzling fire erupted from the raised back of the Zhuhuai giant beast. An enormous fireball shot into the sky, instantly blasting that figure away.

At that very moment!

Screech—

A piercing eagle cry suddenly rang through the night sky. A strange-looking goshawk descended from above and flew swiftly toward the camp. As it passed over the giant beast's back, another figure leaped down, raising two massive hammers and letting out earth-shaking laughter as he smashed fiercely toward the Fierce Beast's arched back.

"Xiong Han, you useless bastard! Did marrying Cang Xue soften your spine?

"Hahahahaha! I've been coveting your family's giant crossbows for more than a day or two!

"The Clan Leader of the Northern Plains Wave Tribe is here! I'll slaughter this giant beast for you! Prepare some fine wine for me! Hahahahaha!"

Then...

The roaring began again. A second massive fireball shot into the sky, and the burly man's charred figure, trailing flames, carved an elegant arc before crashing into the depths of the grasslands.

"Quick, save the chief!"

At the Grand Priestess's call, the entire camp erupted into commotion. The goshawk hurriedly turned around as well, chasing after the direction in which its chief had been sent flying.

But before they could rush over, wailing shouts rose once more from the two landing sites. Two figures leaped up at the same time, soaring dozens of yards into the air. Facing the sudden eruption of firelight, they raised their great hammer and battle axe high!

"People of the Northern Wilderness!"

"None of us submits to anyone!"

Wu Wang: ...

Ah, "the plan."