Home in Sight

After bidding farewell to the warriors of their allied tribes, the party became leaner and more efficient, and everyone relaxed completely. The remaining journey lay within territory familiar to the Fire Tribe. Its hunting parties ranged here year-round; every stretch of mountain forest and every stream bore the footprints of their people. The air held a reassuring sense of something called "home."

Their journey was no longer as urgent as before, allowing the party to stop and go at leisure. Wang Yan finally had time to settle his mind and carefully sort through the profound shocks and gains this long journey had brought him.

For him, this trip had been more than the completion of a trade. It had truly opened his eyes to the world.

He had seen a "regional power" like the Fish Tribe, with over a thousand people and a rudimentary grasp of farming and larger-scale boatbuilding techniques. The shrewdness and calculation of its chief, Canglan, the tribe's prosperity, and the limitations of its technology had all left a deep impression on him. It was an embryonic civilization dependent on a great river, with the first outlines of an organized system emerging.

He had also encountered the Bison, White Pig, Green Sheep, and Deer tribes, four "medium-sized tribes" comparable in size to the Fire Tribe, each with its own strengths, struggling to keep themselves fed and clothed. They possessed distinctive animal-taming or hunting techniques and were potential allies.

Even more shocking were the tiny tribes he had seen at the small market, numbering only a few dozen or even a dozen or so people. They hovered on the edge of survival, forced to part with their last possessions and even send away the women of their tribes to endure the bitter winter. This had made him see the cruelty of this era with absolute clarity-being weak meant being weeded out, meant perishing without a sound.

Nor were relations between tribes some pastoral idyll. Trade rested on strength and need, and was full of maneuvering. In trading with the Fish Tribe, the Fire Tribe had been at a disadvantage and had no choice but to pay a great price; in trading with the small and medium-sized tribes, however, the Fire Tribe held the initiative and could exchange its abundant supplies for talent and skills. Military strength provided security, but wisdom, benevolence, and righteousness could also win respect and friendship, just as his father had shown in his treatment of those twenty-five warriors.

Beyond the people and their ways, he had paid particular attention to the geography along their route. He was no longer the child who knew only the few li around his tribe. A much broader map had already taken shape in his mind.

He remembered the ceaselessly flowing Fish River that nourished the Fish Tribe, as well as its tributary, the small stream his own tribe depended on for survival. He had observed the courses of the rivers and the terrain along their banks: where the currents were gentle enough for boats, where higher ground could avoid flooding, and where there might be alluvial plains suitable for opening new fields.

He also remembered the distribution of distinctive mountain ridges and forests: which areas were relatively safe hunting grounds, which places required vigilance against large predators, and which sun-facing slopes might be suitable for creating terraces to grow chestnuts or other drought-resistant crops in the future.

He was truly taking this land into his heart, drawing up a blueprint for the Fire Tribe's future expansion and development.

The greatest gains of this journey were undoubtedly those four teachers and the living seeds of the skills they carried. What Zhouya and Shuihen brought was not merely two small boats, but the beginnings of water transport and boatbuilding; what Suyuan and Qingmu brought was not merely two baskets of rice seed.

Especially after witnessing the Fish Tribe's backward, inefficient methods of processing grain, his idea for a rice mill had grown ever clearer and more complete. He believed that once it succeeded, the Fire Tribe's agricultural efficiency would improve by leaps and bounds.

Moreover, the distinctive seeds, saplings, and artisans acquired at the autumn gathering had greatly enriched the Fire Tribe's stock of species and reserve of skills. The girl from the "Weaving Tribe" might bring more exquisite weaving techniques.

"Once we cross that ridge ahead, we'll be able to see our tribe!" Kuaitui, who was scouting the route, ran back to report excitedly.

The news lifted the spirits of the entire party! The exhaustion of days of trekking seemed to vanish in an instant, and everyone's steps involuntarily quickened.

They seemed able to faintly smell the familiar smoke of the tribe's hearths in the air already, and hear the distant sounds of children playing. At the thought of the food piled in the storehouse, the newly built huts, and their steadily growing tribe, heartfelt smiles appeared on everyone's faces.

"Hurry up! We can still make it home for supper!" Dali bellowed, his voice full of eagerness and joy at returning home.

Shibang, Yingmu, and the other young men cheered, all but breaking into a run.

Wang Yan drew a deep breath of his homeland's familiar air, his heart filled with indescribable excitement and peace. On this journey, he had seen the world's vastness and cruelty, and had also found the direction and path for the Fire Tribe's rise. Now, laden with gains and firmer conviction, he was finally about to return to the home he had vowed to make strong.