After a century of worship, I became the ancestor of the tribe.

Chapter 59 The Indestructible Ironwood (Please continue reading)
Huotang excitedly took the animal skin scroll off the altar.

The animal hide scroll was very old, and the animal hide patterns on the surface were worn. When it was slowly unrolled, Huotang was dumbfounded.

Damn it, who the hell spread this nonsense about a cultivation method that allows one to reach the ninth level of the Heavenly Meridian?

The animal skin scroll depicts half of a wild beast resembling a bull, except that only the bull's head extends to half of its body.

The entire animal hide scroll was cut in two, with the cow body portion missing.

The half-bull in the painting is marked with red dots, which still look incredibly bright red even after countless years.

These dots are connected by tiny red lines, forming a network.

Some threads intertwine and share common points of intersection.

The drawing in my hand only has three complete lines; the other six are incomplete because the latter half is missing.

In addition, the cow's head is tilted, which perfectly captures the entire cow's head, with a horizontal eye between its two horns on its forehead.

There were blurry annotations in the blank spaces, but unfortunately they were no longer legible.

No wonder the Upper Yellow Division, despite possessing this thing, has not produced a stronger Heavenly Vein. Without several generations of talented individuals to develop and refine it, it would be difficult to achieve further transformation in martial arts.

Anyway, at least we have a cultivation method now.

Shen Can looked at the blurry text on the edge of the animal skin scroll and said, "Chieftain, given enough time, I can try to restore these annotations using witchcraft."

The furnishings inside the Shanghuang Ancestral Temple were similar to those in Zhiyan. After looking around, Shen Can said, "Clan Chief, have someone move all these sacrificial vessels back. I want to check them over."

Not long after, they descended the stone steps deep within the ancestral temple and saw the ironwood boat that the Upper Huang tribe had unearthed.

It was this ironwood ship that brought about the annihilation of Shanghuang.

Because of their lack of information, the Zhiyan tribe was unaware of the Lingyu tribe's custom of hunting eastward during floods, but this was not a major secret in the Tongbei market.

The armor and ironwood boats of the Lingyu tribe are rare items in this area.

After the flood, the Shanghuang tribe sought to purchase ironwood to repair their ironwood boats, and also brought armor with fish-patterned designs, clearly indicating that they had struck gold.

The Shanghuang tribe only found half a piece of ironwood boat, but other tribes near the Tongbeifang market might speculate that the Shanghuang tribe might have obtained a greater opportunity.

Even if they didn't have those, the armor and ironwood boats of the Lingyu tribe that Shanghuang found were still things they needed.

Therefore, the Upper Lake Department came into being.

Use ironwood as bait to lure sulfur onto the hook.

The Shanghuang tribe was focused on repairing their ironwood boats and hunting in the eastern marshland. Little did they expect that the Shanghu tribe would join forces with a blood witch and resort to such vicious and ruthless methods as curses.

Beside the ironwood boat, two dark ironwood logs lay quietly.

Shen Can observed that the ironwood used as the keel inside the ironwood ship had already been carved with mortise and tenon joints. Normally, the ironwood obtained from the Shanghuang Department should also have been carved with corresponding connecting structures.

But now, the two ironwood logs are lying there perfectly fine.

Upon seeing 'Ironwood', Huotang subconsciously held his breath, feeling a chill run through the entire cave.

Shen Can was the same. When he came in, he observed that the Shanghuang tribe members had all become mummies. Where was their blood?
Without the blood river mark formed by bleeding, it's as if it was drained out of thin air.

Suddenly, Shen Can jolted awake and shook his head violently.

He actually felt two 'ironwood' sticks calling to him.

"Get the animal oil."

Click!Click!
A dozen or so cans of animal oil were smashed onto the 'ironwood', and a torch was thrown down.

With a loud "boom," flames suddenly shot up and blazed fiercely.

"Chief, what are you doing!"

At this moment, Shen Can grabbed Huo Tang and saw Huo Tang take a step forward.

"what!"

Huotang was stunned, then suddenly realized what was happening.

"I...I was just trying to put out the fire!"

"Wow!"

The child's crying suddenly rang out, and soon turned into the crying of a group of babies.

It emanated from the 'ironwood' within the flames.

"Go get the animal oil!"

The baby's cries sent chills down everyone's spines, and Shen Can quickly called his people to fetch animal oil.

Jar after jar of animal oil was smashed onto the ironwood, and the cries grew increasingly shrill, with flames raging so fiercely they almost reached the ironwood boat.

Huotang led his men to the back of the ironwood boat and forcefully dragged it toward another body of water.

...The flames burned fiercely for a full quarter of an hour without igniting the 'ironwood'. Instead, blood gushed from its dark surface and burned away in the fire.

"Keep burning, go find some firewood."

As they were talking, Shen Can suddenly felt dizzy.

"Get out, everyone. Don't stay here."

Next, every so often, Shen Can and Huo Tang would go into the cave together to add wood and animal oil to the 'ironwood'.

The fire burned for a day and a night, and 'Tiemu' cried for a day and a night as well. Apart from the blood gushing out, he remained unchanged.

"Ah Chan, what should we do?"

Huotang was at a loss; this thing was too evil.

"Let's find a place to bury him."

“We’ll bury it, and let the rest of the Shanghu tribe carry it out, then we’ll silence them.”

After much thought, Shen Can decided to use this method for now, but not too many people should know about it, lest it be dug up and cause trouble again.

Just think about it, if you have bad intentions towards someone, you might dig them up and secretly bury them in their ancestral grave or clan land.

"it is good."

Huotang nodded in agreement.

The warriors left behind by the Shanghu tribe during interrogation said that they had used these two pieces of wood to commit such acts of destroying their tribe more than once, so perhaps news about the 'Ironwood' had already spread.

It would be bad if it attracted bad people.

……

this day.

Above the Shanghuang tribe's territory, raging flames burned fiercely, and the entire Shanghuang tribe was reduced to ashes in the fire.

In the end, only 1,930 people survived in the Upper Yellow Division.

Of these people, fewer than a hundred were long-time elders of the Shanghuang tribe; the rest were new members of the tribe who had been gathered after the plague.

Previously, it was thought that Shanghuang tribe had not been affected by the plague, but unexpectedly, after the plague, they gathered a large number of women, children and young men, totaling more than 4,000 people.

The Blazing Flame Tribe had only gathered a little over a thousand people in total, while the other party directly recruited a number of people equal to that of their own tribe.

Huotang originally guessed that there were six Heavenly Veins, but in reality there are only five.

All five died under the curse of 'Ironwood'. As for the reason, only a third-level martial artist could deal with Ironwood.

In order to repair the keel of the ironwood ship, the five warriors from Shanghuang must have had a lot of contact with ironwood.

Adding to the remaining survivors, there were only a few elders from the Upper Yellow Tribe, which led Shen Can to speculate that the 'Ironwood' curse was related to bloodlines of similar origin.

Amidst the raging flames, the long, serpentine procession headed north.

Huotang looked back at the Shanghuang tribe's land, the flames making him glow. He stared for a long time before turning around and catching up with the group.

'Ironwood' was well hidden, and only he and Shen Can knew the location. The remaining warriors from the Upper Lake tribe who were carrying the wood were all killed.

……

The winding procession, carrying the accumulated wealth of the Shanghuang tribe over hundreds of years, headed north.

In this battle with Shanghu, more than 20 clansmen perished and more than 60 were wounded, mainly from arrows that struck them at the start of the charge.

Upon returning to the Blazing Flame Clan, the remaining Shanghuang people who had followed them were not immediately incorporated into the tribe, but were temporarily settled near the clan's city.

This was a decision made after Shen Can and Huo Tang discussed it. In the future, the tribe will gather a large number of disabled people and then select people from among them to be incorporated into the tribe.

Previously, there was a group of mining slaves in the Shanghuang tribe, but since the incident within the Shanghuang tribe, the mining team returned to their territory, and the remaining mining slaves all ran away.

……

Inside the ancestral temple.

Shen Can is making shrines for the fallen members of his clan.

The fire came from outside.

“Ah Can, the remaining group of Shanghuang tribe people have been settled in the same valley, and we will be monitoring them from now on.”

He nodded after hearing Huotang's words.

He wanted to confirm his suspicions: whether these remaining members of the Shanghuang bloodline still harbored a curse within them.

If 'Ironwood' is truly related to bloodline, then once so many small tribes in the Great Wilderness are cursed by it, they will all be doomed to destruction and death.

(End of this chapter)