Black Rock Mountain, the Blackwater Tribal Community.
A fierce-looking man in animal skins sat at the head of the hall, wearing a headdress bristling with bird feathers.
Seven or eight other tribespeople sat around the hall, all sitting upright with solemn expressions.
In the center, a young man reported with his head bowed.
"Chief! Somehow, Chen Village recently got its hands on a batch of incredibly powerful weapons.
Our hunting party not only failed to seize their prey, but a lot of our people were injured instead. What do you think we should do now?"
Huyan Qing, chief of the Black Water Tribe, snorted and turned to a gray-haired elder on his left.
"Amuduo, do you know what's going on with those weapons?"
The white-haired elder called Amuduo nodded and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"It's runes. Those weapons all have runes inscribed on them. I suspect a Talisman Master has appeared in Chen Village!"
"A Talisman Master?! Even many mid-sized tribes can't hire one. How could Chen Village possibly afford to?"
Huyan Qing's eyes widened in disbelief.
"As I see it, Chen Village's weapons really are much stronger after being enhanced with runes, but the materials they're made from are all extremely poor. Some are even made of stone. What ordinary Talisman Master would stoop to inscribing runes on stone weapons?
"So I think Chen Village's Talisman Master definitely wasn't hired from outside. He should be one of their own villagers."
The white-haired elder's voice was tinged with emotion.
Huyan Qing frowned deeply, thoroughly troubled. "I will avenge Fang'er!
"I originally planned to chip away at Chen Village's territory and weaken them, then wipe them out in a year or two. There was no need to rush.
"But now it seems we can't go on like this!"
The Blackwater Tribal Community had split off from another large tribe a hundred years ago. Huyan Qing had seen far more of the world than Chen Shanyu, and he knew full well how much a Talisman Master could help a faction.
He turned to a young woman seated at the far end on his right.
"Manqi, tomorrow, help me contact Tucha, the chief of the White Rock Tribe. Tell him I have something to discuss with him!"
"All right!"
The young woman's voice carried a natural allure that stirred the imagination.
"For the time being, the hunting parties should go out less often. Don't get into any more conflicts with other tribes. We need to make proper preparations."
Everyone in the hall sensed that a war was coming.
A month later, at Chen Mu's home.
"Duoduo, you must practice what I taught you diligently. When you become an expert someday, I'll take you with me to find Father and Mother out there!"
Ever since Chen Mu had broken through and become a martial artist, he had been teaching Chen Duo to cultivate the Acala Heart Sutra.
He had also considered helping his younger sister become a Talisman Master, but the way the Rune Ancestor's inheritance was passed down was extraordinarily profound. His own attainment in the Dao of Talismans was still low, and he had no way to teach anyone else.
The Acala Heart Sutra was different. It was a genuine cultivation manual, and all one had to do was follow it step by step.
Chen Duo had good aptitude and was making rapid progress.
Chen Mu estimated that after another two or three months of practice, she should be able to cultivate Internal Force as well.
Although that seemed much slower than him, he had already been a Two-Mark Talisman Master before becoming a martial artist. His rapid progress was actually the result of several factors, so the two could not be compared.
Since cultivating the Acala Heart Sutra, Chen Mu had felt much more reassured about his parents' safety, because he knew how powerful the technique was.
If his parents had cultivated it too, he believed they definitely wouldn't be killed easily.
He had already made up his mind to visit the Flame Blessing Tribe once he was strong enough.
"Okay, Brother! You have to work hard too! Don't let me catch up to you, haha!"
Ever since Chen Mu mentioned going out to find their father and mother, Chen Duo had become less playful, devoting most of her time and effort to cultivation. She had practically become a little cultivation fanatic.
"You're dreaming! All right, I'm going to the talisman-making room."
Chen Mu shook his head helplessly and left with a smile.
Inside the talisman-making room.
Holding a slender brush, Chen Mu was drawing runes on a long bone saber.
The soft brush tip swept across the blade, sending fine, pale red lines spreading outward. More and more runic lines appeared on the blade, and gradually, a complex and profound design grew ever more complete as his brush moved.
He gently adjusted his breathing, keeping himself focused.
A closer look would reveal that his palm never moved at all. It was mainly his wrist and arm that moved.
His wrist was as supple as if it had no bones, as flexible as a long snake. With a turn of the brush tip, an elegant curve appeared on the hilt. Then he pressed down hard and swept the brush sharply upward, its edge like a blade, the movement perfectly natural.
"Condense!"
At his soft shout, the runic design on the long saber suddenly lit up, as if merging into one. Then it quickly dimmed and returned to normal.
Chen Mu gripped the hilt, lifted the long saber, and swung it gently forward.
Without a sound, the block of wood in front of him split in two.
"Not bad!"
He nodded in satisfaction and set the long saber aside.
Half a month earlier, he had completed spirit forging on the chieftain Chen Shanyu's staff. The results had been excellent, giving Chen Shanyu a tremendous surprise.
Overjoyed, Chen Shanyu had gathered everything in the village that might be suitable for spirit forging and handed it all over to him.
After that, he had plunged into spirit-forging drudgery, with no sight of daylight.
Over the past half month, he had successfully spirit-forged three more weapons, though he had also damaged one.
The first time he damaged a spirit material, his heart ached for a long time. After that, he was even more careful when spirit forging.
Ever since Chen Mu began producing enhanced weapons, conditions in the village had steadily improved.
The hunting parties, gathering parties, and others who went out brought back more and more, while their casualties grew fewer and fewer.
The two tribes hostile to Chen Village, the Blackwater Tribal Community and the White Rock Tribe, also seemed to have grown afraid of Chen Village lately and had stopped provoking them, allowing their development to proceed even more smoothly.
The village had begun to accumulate a food surplus, and everyone could eat plenty of meat. As long as things continued this way, the village's strength could be expected to at least double by next year.
Besides making weapons and equipment, Chen Shanyu had recently been discussing some new plans with Chen Mu.
There were two main directions: cultivating farmland and raising wild beasts in pens.
These practices were nothing new. Many tribes in the Wilderness engaged in them.
Nearby Ironwood Village, for example, was highly skilled at cultivating farmland and even knew how to cultivate an extremely hard kind of hemlock tree.
The "ironwood" made from those hemlocks brought Ironwood Village enormous profits every year, so the village had always kept out of disputes. Even without hunting, they could feed most of their people.
Chen Shanyu had therefore long envied Ironwood Village.
But cultivation placed extremely high demands on the land. The soil around Chen Village was barren, and the vast majority of plants were unsuitable for growing there.
At present, Chen Village's annual grain yield could feed only about one-eighth of the villagers, while maintaining the farmland normally required nearly one-sixth of their manpower.
That was under relatively favorable conditions. Sometimes, when natural disasters struck, even that one-eighth was greatly reduced.
Every year, villagers therefore proposed abandoning the farmland and focusing on hunting and gathering wild fruit.
But Chen Shanyu had always insisted on maintaining the farmland. As a leader, he had to consider spreading the risk rather than looking only at immediate benefits.
Lately, the village's development had been gaining momentum, and the villagers were under much less pressure. That was why he had brought these ideas up with Chen Mu.
Chen Mu actually had no idea where to start either, but he still promised the chieftain that he would do his best to think of some solutions for the village.