Walking over, Yan Mo realized that at first he was grave. With a very serious expression, he gazed at the tribesmen. After clearly seeing them, his expressions instantly became strange.
Yan Mo had black lines on his face, it must be because currently Yuan Zhan and his position were very odd!
In the beginning it was only a few bright bottom children who followed behind them merrily. But afterwards, quite a few adults began to follow them to the plaza as well.
Is this to send them off?
Yan Mo also did not know how Yuan Zhan and them decided when to leave. They did not arrive at the plaza too long before Lie and Meng also arrived. Que Ya and Bing were the last to arrive. Right after Bing arrived, Zheng also hurriedly came over.
The plaza became more crowded as more people arrived. After the tribe’s Rank One Warrior Zheng arrived, there were already around 200 people, but there were still some rushing over.
Everyone gazed at Yuan Zhan and company nonstop. Que Ya and Bing saw the comrades who had arrived first and opened their eyes widely.
Zheng took a step forward and one-by-one everyone beat their chest, but didn’t say any kind of sentimental words like ‘have a safe journey’. However they directly opened their mouths to ask,” Did you guys also tear down your tents? Why are you carrying on your shoulder such a big roll of fur.”
Que Ya and Bing also ignored the people who looked at Yuan Zhan and them. Bing’s eyes were brimming full of ridicule.
Yuan Zhan and company at this moment in the eyes of everyone really looked a bit silly. In their right hand was a wooden spear, on their left shoulder was a big roll of fur, their left hand pressing on the top of the fur. The thickness and length of the roll of fur was like there was a person inside it. It looked to be very heavy.
Bing curled his lips. There was no warrior who would leave with that many things. Not only was it cumbersome, but it also lessen the amount of things that could be brought back. True warriors would capture everything in the wild. Only a timid and useless snail would carry their house with them.
Even if Yuan Zhan was the secret leader of these few people, this kind of situation relied on the oldest 3rd rank warrior, Lie, to come out and respond, “These furs were because I told them to bring it. No one knows where the new salt land is, and we also can’t rush home before winter. We also don’t know if that distant location already started snowing. Fur that we receive along the journey cannot be tanned. We might as well take these old furs to resist the cold.”
Zheng understood and nodded his head. The winter was coming quickly and violently, usually you could run around outside naked, but on the second day, when the cold wind arrives, the outside would be so cold that people could not lift their feet. And when it starts to snow heavily, no tribe would have people that would brave death to search for food in the snow, unless it was really desperate.
That kind of bone deep cold, even if you wrapped your entire body with fur, it wouldn’t be enough. The most frightening thing is if you don’t hurry to come back at night— many peoples’ souls at night would be quietly taken by the snow god. In the morning only a frozen rigid corpse would be left.
In the tribe there had never been warriors that left far during the winter. Yuan Zhan and them were the first. Zheng understood that this was the result of the compromise between the chief and the old priest. He also understood that it didn’t matter if it was winter or spring, merely regarding this old priest’s forceful coercion, there would inevitably be this traveling party. In his heart Zheng felt uncomfortable.
He understood what the old priest was worried about, but he also felt that his worry was utterly ridiculous.
Hei Yuan Clan, Xi Rang Clan, Fei Sha Clan, these three clans were one a long time ago. After separation, this tribe could not survive by itself. Only together could they resist the attacks of the neighboring tribes. Only then could they have an even better harvest from the other three seasons.
“Lie, bring them back!” Zheng once again used his right hand to beat upon his chest.
Lie’s response was the same action, a right hand beating on his chest.
At this time, the slaves in the middle of the crowd one-by-one began to kneel down.
The chief and old priest had arrived.
With a single hand supporting Yan Mo’s butt, like he was holding a child, Yuan Zhan placed him on the floor. At the same time he put down his luggage.
Yan Mo gave him the wooden spear.
Yuan Zhan held tightly onto his wooden spear and stood straight.
Everyone else also put down their luggage, held their spears and stood in a line along with Yuan Zhan.
Lie and Bing were Rank 3 Warriors so they were at the very left side of the ranks. Lie stood in the number one spot. Arranged by rank, it was Lie, Bing, Zhan, Shan, Diao, Meng, and Ya in this order. This arrangement also hinted at these seven people’s military strength.
The crowd parted as the chariot with the chief and priest got closer.
All the slaves were completely kneeling down, and the warriors had their right hand in a fist over their hearts.
Yan Mo hid behind the bodies of Cao Ting and Wen Sheng and tried to reduce his presence as much as possible. The other slaves were all kneeling, only he was sitting on the ground.
Actually early on Yan Mo had snuck a peak at his own leg injury. It has already been two days and three nights since he and Yuan Zhan had cut off at that place. It had already healed and left behind a deep red scar. When his hand pressed on it, he didn’t feel pain anymore. Testing walking two steps was not much of a problem. But he still had his injured leg wrapped up, pretending that he still wasn’t healed.
“You men are the tribe’s brave warriors!” At the front, the robust chief smashed his fist into his chest and roared loudly.
Yuan Zhan and the warriors beat into the ground with their wooden spears, at the same time they loudly yelled out, “Huo!”
“The tribe will wait for your return!”
“Huo!” The wooden spears simultaneously pounded on the ground again.
“The priest will now bless you men.” The chief finished speaking and the old priest Qiu Shi moved.
Yan Mo thought to himself, he already finished talking? H was not going to encourage them any more? No promises? And no promise of benefits for their relatives? Was it this chief’s natural disposition to not say a lot, or was it that the tribal chiefs here all talked with this sort of conduct?
At this moment, the sound of the wooden spears beating the floor was intense. The warriors in the middle of the plaza all let out a deep and low shout.
The warriors let out a rhythmic deep shout as the old priest walked towards them.
The old priest’s hair was hanging down loosely. It covered up more than half of his face. On his face a very odd pattern was drawn, matching his dark and complex tattoo. It looked strange and frightening.
The necklace on the priest’s neck was also the most complicated. Layer by layer it hung over his chest. There were animal teeth, human teeth, bones, stones, fruits, etc… The plume was created out of various kinds of objects.
Maybe these things hung around his neck all had different meanings, but Yan Mo was unable to make sense out of it. Every tribe’s priest’s accessory connotations were not the same. He was also not a real priest disciple, these kinds of things…most likely only the priest and their disciple would understood the meaning.
In the hands of the old priest was not a spear, but a wooden staff similar to a scepter. The head of the scepter was a skull, it looked like it was a human’s, but on the upper portion of the skull, in between the eyebrows was a hole. Looking at it it seemed as though this human skull had three eyes.
The priest disciple, called Qiu Zhu, had a stone pot. Inside the pot, there was something boiling, giving off a cyan colored smoke.
With the scepter in hand, he walked around those seven people. As he walked, he touched each person with the scepter while his lips were repeating a mysterious chant. Slaves were not part of the blessing, so naturally they were not included.
When he finished walking, he arrived in front of Qiu Zhu. He lowered his head and took a deep breath of the cyan colored smoke.
Immediately afterwards, the old priest’s body began to tremble, his head began to strangely sway in circles at a fixed rate.
Yan Mo snuck a look at the smoke. He guessed that inside should have some kind of magical herb. What a pity he couldn’t get some. Some of this magical herb could possibly be used to cure someone and have unimaginable results. This world that he arrived in, so far everything was relatively primitive. Getting some of those magical herbs, they could be used as an anesthetic or painkiller.
Suddenly!
After violently trembling, the old priest’s body became stiff.
He suddenly lifted his head, his eyes staring blankly at a far away distance.
Yan Mo secretly looked over, and realized that the old priest had drawn a picture of an eye in the middle of his forehead.
The design was lifelike. On top of that, the expression of the old priest at the moment was like he currently wasn’t using his own two eyes to look. Rather, he was using the third eye on his forehead to look at something in the distance.
Suddenly the old priest spread open his two arms. From his lips came a sound that sounded like an animal’s.
Accompanying the old priest’s yell, the surrounding warriors suddenly also gave out a howl. Even Yuan Zhan and them also howled together.
Was this roar used to drive off the evils and danger that they could possibly meet? This is what Yan Mo guessed. All in all, regardless if it was human or beast, one only needed to be able to hear and would be afraid of the huge noise. This kind of roaring blessing method was probably used to receive motivation.
The old priest waved his scepter and the roaring stopped. A moment afterwards, the old priest used a kind of strange but completely distinct intonation to talk.
“North, a five days journey away, the heavy snow has already arrived. South, at the foot of Saha Mountain, the short Shan Yi tribesmen are hunting right now. East, the Tu Long are wrestling with the Yao Peng(1), the Bai Ying Tribe is waiting. West, in a distant area… fire.. Big fire! God is angry with all living beings, thick smoke, big fire! The forest is burning! Ah ah ah!”
The old priests let out a blood-curdling scream, covered his own forehead, and painfully fell to the ground.
The priest disciple Qiu Zhu immediately dashed forward. Many warriors also anxiously looked at the old priest.
At once the chief commanded people to bring the old priest back to his tent to rest.
Yan Mo opened his mouth and with great difficulty closed it.
At first he had thought that the old priest was dressing up as God (2). But after listening, he thought that this wasn’t right.
If he was dressing up as God, he definitely would not have spoken in this much detail. Not to mention, he spoke about all the happenings in all directions.
Explain this!
Heavens! That old codger couldn’t actually see that far of an area, could he?
No wonder that old codger, who had that kind of revolting behavior and mediocre medical skills, yet that Chief and the tribesmen were holding onto him like a treasure.
So it was originally like this, he unexpectedly really did possess a magical power!
Yan Mo was someone who studied medicine. When he was young, he also liked to run around all over the country. He also really saw many strange situations and illnesses, but he never believed in supernatural beings. Even if he transmigrated into this world, with a body that also had a transformation guide, he still did not believe.
He thought everything could be explained through science, including the phenomenon that just happened.
If the old priest was not scamming people, Yan Mo speculated that the person’s magical ability to see distant places probably came from the pineal gland in between the eyebrows.
The human body itself was brimming full of mystery. There was even research to understand it more clearly. The modern pineal gland of humankind already degenerated. If the pineal gland did not degenerate, then what was the use of it before? Did a third eye really exist on some of the animal fossils that were excavated in his world?
Yan Mo’s hand was itching, his heart was itching, his entire body was itching. It was unbearable.
This lively, ready available living specimen was right in front of him. Not being able to carry out a detailed dissection and analysis, it really was too painful!
Who knows when the old priest will die? If he at that time could receive that news, then it would be great. Then he would definitely think of a way to come back and get the old priest’s corpse to dissect.
If he could figure out the secret of the body… Yan Mo ruthlessly slapped his head. Don’t let your imagination run, this world does not have medical contribution awards to give you!
But he still really wanted to know. It had nothing to do with getting a prize. Having a live specimen placed in front of him but could not touch was like a smoker looking at a display of cigarettes but not being able to have one.
Yan Mo watched, his mouth watering, as the old priest was carried away. The entire sending-off ceremony was concluded and the seven warriors once again picked up their luggage. The slaves got up and picked up the packages off the floor.
Yuan Zhan walked over and used a single hand to pick up the small slave.
Yan Mo obediently reached out to take the wooden spear. The luggage that he wanted was already with Yuan Zhan. So Yuan Zhan’s one big roll of fur was actually twice as thick for other people.
The chief who planned to watch the warriors leave saw Yuan Zhan actually carry that broken legged slave, and couldn’t help but faintly crease his eyebrows.
Zheng also felt that it was strange. Everyone at the plaza who should have said something also felt it was strange.
Warriors brought their slaves together when they left, this was a normal occurrence. Slaves not only could help hunt on the road, guard, take night duty, warm beds, etc… When it was necessary, they could also be slaughtered for food. But carrying a slave that couldn’t walk? Were they intending on eating him on the road?
Yuan Zhan was not concerned with the other people who were looking. There was no need to mention that the little slave was very useful. Even if he wasn’t useful, it was his slave. Even if he was bringing him on the road to eat, he still will not leave him behind to give to other people.
In the eyes of the chief and the rest of the tribe, the seven silhouettes gradually became further.
“What do you think, will they find the salt land?” The chief suddenly asked Zheng.
Zheng looked at the group of people in the distance and honestly replied, “It’ll be very difficult.”
The chief nodded his head then turned around. “Inform everyone in the tribe, winter will arrive from the north. Have everyone hurry and pack for the cave.”
“Yes!”
***
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