In less than two months, Tang Changsheng had conquered the twenty-one Tribal Stockades south of Rock-Piercing Stockade. He now ruled more than twenty thousand people, including nearly four thousand warriors.
At this point, Tang Changsheng had the means to elevate the Ancestral Spirit into an Ancestral God.
The only problem was that the stockades had been conquered by force. Their people still lived apart and could not settle together. Hunting simply could not support so many people in one place.
That was now the only thing holding Hongdong Stockade back!
"How did Rock-Piercing Stockade support so many people and keep them all living together?"
Tang Changsheng now had four Wizards under his command, all of whom had surrendered along with their stockades.
When Tang Changsheng asked, an elderly Wizard said, "According to ancient tradition, when a Tribal Stockade reaches this stage, a progenitor sends an envoy with a treasure called the Golden Flower. It can serve as food for the entire stockade."
Golden Flower? Tang Changsheng remembered that while waiting to be summoned by the Ancestral God in Rock-Piercing Stockade, he had been served a root vegetable alongside the boiled and roasted meat. It had looked something like a potato or yam and had not tasted bad.
Could that have been the staple food of Rock-Piercing Stockade?
As Tang Changsheng pondered, the old Wizard voiced his own puzzlement. "By rights, our Tribal Stockade already qualifies to worship an Ancestral God. Why hasn't an envoy brought us the Golden Flower yet...?"
Just then, someone came to report: "The Black Rock Sacred Stockade has sent an envoy! He wants to see the Great Wizard of Hongdong!"
The other Wizards lit up with delight.
The Black Rock Sacred Stockade stood apart, beyond even the so-called eighteen Ancestral Gods. Legend held that it worshiped