"High Priest..."
"High Priest! Sob, sob..."
Heavy, grief-stricken cries and sobs rose as every member of the Black Tower Clan prostrated themselves. Amid their sorrow, they watched Fang kneeling before the Totem Pillar with apprehension, tension, and hope.
At the cost of his own life and his chance at reincarnation, the High Priest had sought to let Fang successfully inherit his position.
This was an enormous gamble!
A gamble upon which hung the survival and future of more than forty-five hundred lives in the Black Tower Tribe!
If Fang failed to inherit the position of High Priest, the Black Tower Tribe would effectively be left without a priest, reducing its Totem Pillar to a mere ornament and greatly diminishing its deterrent power.
Under the normal procedures, the tribe would first be disbanded, its Totem Pillar would then be seized or reclaimed, and finally, the Black Tower Clan's people would be killed, captured, or driven into exile across the world. Such was the importance of a priest to a Barbarian Tribe.
More cruelly still, before the Sacrificial Temple could react, the surrounding Barbarian Tribes might well exterminate or annex the Black Tower Tribe!
No one knew why the High Priest had made such an enormous gamble!
No one could understand why the High Priest had placed such faith in Fang!
"Humm..."
As the High Priest gradually crumbled into ashes, a black pagoda several feet tall flew out of him on its own and headed toward Xiao Ying, whose heart trembled with grief.
"Huh?!"
Xiao Ying froze, then accepted the black pagoda in bewilderment. He immediately sensed a faint, elusive connection and realized that this was the true Heaven-Supporting Pagoda-the core and central nexus of the Sky-Bearing Tower Totem Pillar!
This connection was unlike the bond formed by refining a treasure into