Change

The feelings Xiao Hua had shown at first had made Shu Zi think he saw hope of going back.

Yet now Shu Zi realized that when she said those words, she had been completely calm.

Her decision to leave her family and enter the Great Temple had indeed had nothing to do with anyone else, nor had it been driven by emotion. It had been a deliberate choice.

At last, Shu Zi fell into despair.

The gods had sent Xiao Hua back, and because of the gods, Xiao Hua had left him again.

Perhaps he should never have prayed for the dead to be brought back to life.

A miracle came at a price.

Shu Zi spent many days in low spirits. But he could not neglect the affairs of the tribe, and in the end, under pressure, he had no choice but to pull himself together and get back to work.

Ying Zi continued to be entrusted to the care and guidance of the older women in the tribe.

Time pressed on like an arrow that could never be recalled.

The two who had once been husband and wife drifted farther and farther apart.

With the God Bow in hand, Shu Zi led his people into new territories and conquered Ape-man tribes. Then, whether by assimilation or by slaughter and plunder, he brought one Ape-man tribe after another into the Human Race's domain.

Meanwhile, as a counterbalance to this bloody conquest, Xiao Hua, in her role as the Chief Shaman of the Ancestral Deities, led the shamans across the land, building new temples and altars and spreading a faith that was utterly primitive, yet the most effective of all.

The Human Race reproduced at a remarkable rate, needing only a little over a decade to raise a new generation. And with Ape-man tribes continually being brought into the fold, intermarriage introduced new bloodlines into the Human Race. Stronger genes replaced weaker ones, and the population and territory of the Human Race grew ever larger.

As the Human Race's territory expanded, it gradually encroached on the domains of many ferocious beasts.

So Shu Zi also had to lead people in protecting the tribe.

In the process, the outsiders from the Ape-man tribes and the original members of the Human Race came to stand together against common enemies, and gradually formed bonds.

Over the years, the former prisoners of war and the women seized as spoils had also gradually become part of the Human Race.

For nearly a decade, Shu Zi took no other partners. But as he grew older, he finally began to let go of his resistance.

At forty, he accepted the beautiful young woman his subordinates foisted on him.

By the time he was forty-six, he had three wives in his house, the number befitting his status as chieftain. All the elders were satisfied.

After years of conquest and plunder, the Human Race now had far more women than men. Men, meanwhile, had the advantage in battle.

As a result, marriage arrangements became extremely unequal.

Many men had multiple wives, and many of those wives were Ape-man women taken in raids.

By the time Shu Zi was sixty-seven, the Human Race's territory had expanded into a rough diamond shape, tilted slightly to the right.

To the south of the diamond lay the legendary birthplace of the Human Race, the Abyss of Sin, to which no one could ever return.

Anyone who dared approach the place known as the "Earth Realm" vanished without a trace.

The fear inspired by the "Earth Realm" left the Human Race without the courage even to go around it and venture farther south.

To the west of the diamond lay the most dangerous region: the Great Wilderness.

The Great Wilderness was the name given to a vast stretch of land to the west, with ever-changing terrain and a harsh, complex environment. It was home to countless Fierce Beasts, and even Monster Beasts with intelligence.

Ordinary members of the Human Race didn't dare go near it.

To the east of the diamond lay an endless ocean, which the Human Race called the Green Sea because of its green waters.

The Human Race knew how to make vessels to cross small rivers, but could do nothing against the vast, unfathomable sea.

Only the north was blocked by a single mountain range. If they could cross the mountains known to the Human Race as the Sky Cloud Mountain Range, they could continue expanding outward.

In fact, viewed on a satellite map, the green planet in the Green World had three large continents. The continent where the Human Race lived was the largest, yet they had explored only a fifth of it. Many other regions were covered in lush vegetation and had environments suitable for living, and Ape-man tribes lived there as well.

All of it remained for the Human Race to explore.

At present, the Human Race had no capacity for long-distance voyages and didn't even have a concept of continents.

Their horizons were still very narrow.

At sixty-seven, Shu Zi looked very old, but he still clung tightly to the power in his hands.

In fact, when Shu Zi was fifty-nine, he had once launched a purge to eliminate threats within the tribe, taking his men to kill Gouwei, who had followed him for years.

He had done it only because he thought Gouwei was ambitious and clever enough to be dangerous.

Gouwei's death had shaken those who coveted the chieftain's position, and Shu Zi had shown everyone just how ruthless and powerful he was.

After all, the God Bow was still in his hands.

For years, Shu Zi had never let the God Bow out of his sight. It was his safeguard, and he could not allow anyone to take it from him.

But years of campaigning had left him with many lingering ailments. It wasn't just that his shoulders and back hurt on rainy days; sometimes his heart raced and he grew short of breath, needing a while to recover.

Still, he was the chieftain. Although the Human Race had grown larger and harder to govern, he continued to hold all the power and struggled to keep everything in order.

Shu Zi now had five wives and more than ten children. By any measure, his household was thriving.

He had long intended for his eldest son, Ying Zi, to succeed him, but Ying Zi didn't seem very interested.

His other children were younger and had little standing in the tribe.

One day, Shu Zi finished his work early and left the main hall where the tribe held its meetings.

He walked with a staff. It looked as though he carried it for the sake of his status, but in truth, he needed it for support.

Shu Zi tried not to let anyone see that he was no longer as strong as before, but the truth was, he had long since run out of energy.

As he passed down a street, Shu Zi heard a great commotion in the distance.

He looked toward the sound. Was it the Great Temple? Why was it so lively?

Without thinking, Shu Zi began walking toward the Great Temple.

As he neared it, he heard an excited young man say:

"So this is the Great Shaman! No wonder people say she's practically a god walking the earth."

"Indeed. She's so old, yet she still has so much energy. How could an ordinary person manage that?"

"More than that. I don't think anyone in our tribe has her presence!"

Shu Zi felt a little uncomfortable. No one in the tribe? Did that include him, too?

He pushed through the crowd in front of him and walked forward.

The people were annoyed at first, but when they recognized Shu Zi's clothes, they fell silent and moved aside respectfully.

Then Shu Zi saw the center of attention, standing on the steps of the Great Temple, surrounded by people.

It was Xiao Hua.

Decades had passed. He had campaigned across the land and won a vast territory for the Human Race.

She, too, had traveled far and wide, praying to the gods on behalf of the people and performing shamanic rites to divine good and ill fortune.

Through her efforts, temples and altars of every size had been established throughout the Human Race's territory.

She had earned the title of "Great Shaman," and she was worthy of it.

Xiao Hua was often away and rarely returned to Fang Mountain. This time, she had come back to lead the rites for the first time in four years.

He kept walking, wanting a closer look.

Xiao Hua had grown old, too, he thought.

Her once-slender figure had become thin and frail, and her face was lined with wrinkles. Xiao Hua, too, had been marked by the passage of time.

Although Shu Zi looked much older than Xiao Hua now, the fact that she, too, could not resist aging still gave him a faint sense of satisfaction.

Shu Zi slowly drew closer to Xiao Hua in the crowd. He studied the woman carefully.

Her back was slightly bent, yet an unmatched presence radiated from her.

The people around her looked at her with reverence.

And to his disappointment, the woman's eyes had not changed at all.

It was as though everything had returned to the moment when she decided to leave her family and enter the Great Temple.

"I've found my path." The look on her face when she had said those words had, miraculously, remained in Shu Zi's memory.

And now, her expression was exactly the same: as devout and resolute as ever.

Shu Zi stared blankly. Suddenly, Xiao Hua glanced in his direction.

She had noticed him.

Xiao Hua paused for a moment.

Shu Zi, however, turned and walked away without hesitation.

That woman's heart had not changed. And people who never changed were frightening.

The crowd jostled around them as the two drifted farther apart amid the noise.

They became great leaders of the Human Race and a great shaman.

Yet they turned their backs on each other, walking two entirely different paths.