I am the Executioner Dragon, but a cute mod

An older ape-man emerged from the cave. He looked around among the other ape-men but couldn't find the younger one, so he sighed.

In his eyes, the disappearance of a companion is basically equivalent to death. After all, apes are physically weak and have many natural enemies. If they are separated from the group, their survival rate will drop sharply.

Just as the older ape was lamenting the death of yet another companion, a rustling sound came from the nearby woods.

The sudden noise caught the attention of all the ape-men. Fearing it was a predator, they scurried back to the cave entrance and cautiously looked toward the source of the sound.

The rustling sound grew louder, indicating that the target was getting closer. When the sound was almost within reach, and the apes were on tenterhooks, the figure of the young ape leaped out of the forest, carefully holding something in his hands.

Seeing that the newcomer was a young ape-man rather than a predator, the apes hiding at the cave entrance breathed a sigh of relief. Soon, they curiously surrounded the young ape-man, wanting to know where he had been that night.

The older ape-man also squeezed in, and was quite shocked to see the unharmed younger ape-man:

"You're not dead."

The young ape nodded:

"He's not dead."

The older ape-man wondered:

"where have you been?"

The young ape-man didn't speak, but simply showed what he was tightly clutching in his arms.

It was a clump of ashes. If you brushed the ashes aside, you could see a lump of charcoal inside. The surface of the charcoal had a slightly orange glow and was radiating heat.

Upon seeing this novel object, the apes all gathered around, wanting to touch it, but were stopped by the younger ape, who said:

"Don't touch it, it's dangerous!"

The apes then asked:

"what is this?"

The young ape-man paused, a smile spreading across his hairy face. He said:

"This is fire. With it, we can live a good life."

As he spoke, the young ape-man, under the watchful eyes of his companions, brought the fire back to the cave. He took some dry grass, placed it on the fire, and carefully tended to it. Soon, a flame was lit.

Looking at the blazing flame before him, a large ape became curious and reached out to touch it, only to be burned and howl in pain, saying:

"It bit me! It hurts!"

Upon hearing this, the other ape-men looked terrified and retreated, staring at the young ape-man and the flames in front of him as if he were a monster.

The young ape looked at them and explained:

"Don't be afraid, this is fire. As long as we control it, it won't hurt us. If we make good use of it, we won't have to worry about wild animals at night, and we won't be afraid of the cold..."

Although the apes didn't understand what the young ape meant and still looked frightened, the young ape didn't become impatient because of it.

He remained patient with these people, teaching them how to control fire, how to use it to roast meat or boil water, and how to use it to drive away wild animals.

At first, the apes did not trust the young ape, until they discovered that meat cooked with fire tasted better, and that even the fiercest wild animals dared not approach when they saw fire. They accepted the flame and quickly began to worship the flame and the young ape who brought it.

With their survival and food security secured, the number of people in the ape-man tribe grew rapidly. Seeing the tribe thriving, the old chieftain wept tears of joy.

The chieftain of the ape tribe has always been the most capable. The old chieftain knew that handing over the chieftainship to a young ape would make the tribe more prosperous, so he gave the chieftainship to a young ape the next day.

The young ape-man did not refuse the old chief's abdication. On the day he became chief, he stood before all the ape-men and solemnly gave the ape-man tribe a new name:

"From now on, we are the Flamefire Tribe. Now that I have become the chieftain, I will make sure you live a better life!"

Upon hearing this, the ape-men below cheered. Before this, the ape-men did not have names. They addressed each other using titles such as "that person," "hey," or "you." But now, the ape-men unanimously called out "Yan."

"Yan" is the name of the young ape-man; the Yanhuo tribe is the tribe of Yan...

Having a name is only the first step in civilization. After becoming the clan leader, Yan made full use of the knowledge in his mind to bring tools, dwellings, laws and morality to this world.

Over the years as chieftain, Yan gradually transitioned from youth to adulthood. With the help of the knowledge in his mind, he taught the Yanhuo tribe how to make pottery and how to weave fruit baskets using vines. They lived in houses built of wood and stone, no longer hiding in caves, and no longer eating raw meat and drinking blood.

Having achieved this, Yan couldn't believe that just a few years ago, the Yanhuo tribe lived in caves, trembling in fear at the howls of wild beasts.

After life in the tribe gradually settled down, Yan would always look up at the starry sky at night, because whenever he looked at the night sky, he would recall the scene in his dream that day, and the tall figure he had met.

Back then, he was ignorant and didn't know what a great existence it was; he was only filled with fear. Now that he has achieved success, he longs to ask: Have I done a good job?

Beyond this world, Lilith met Yan's gaze, having witnessed everything he had done over the years. Although his achievements had exceeded her expectations, she merely uttered a single word:

"Barely acceptable..."

Chapter 150: Inheritance

Initially, Yan held the idea that "only I know this knowledge," until he saw a three-year-old child whose palm was burned halfway through because he unknowingly touched a flame.

In tribal times, knowledge and experience were generally passed down within families. If a child's parents died in a hunt, no one would teach him what he should and shouldn't do.

Yan thought: If someone had told the child about the dangers of fire beforehand, could that danger have been avoided?

From that moment on, Yan realized the importance of inheritance. He wanted to pass on what he had experienced that night and the knowledge that filled his mind. Only in this way could the descendants of the Yanhuo tribe do what he could not do in his limited life.

But how can we pass on this knowledge?

After Yan came up with this question, a word naturally came to mind: writing. Although it was the first time he had heard this word, he still understood the concept.

Civilization needs writing; only with writing can knowledge be passed down. However, another question arises: where does writing originate?

Yan pondered this question. He knew that writing was an abstract concept, and it was very difficult to replace speech with writing, but he did not give up because of the difficulty.

While using the knowledge in his mind to build the Flame Tribe, he pondered how to create a writing system. He was often at his wits' end because of this and could not find a solution.

It wasn't until he happened to see a child using a twig to draw flower shapes on the ground that he had a sudden flash of inspiration.

If words are used to record things, then drawing them can achieve the same purpose, right?

Thinking about this, Yan almost became obsessed with it. From then on, he always carried a tree branch in his hand and would draw whatever he saw.

During the period of creating the writing system, he encountered many difficulties. Some things were very troublesome to draw, and if they were used as writing, the writing efficiency would be extremely low. So Yan tried to simplify the patterns while drawing.

Several years have passed in the blink of an eye. Yan has created separate characters for common things, which he has engraved on bone plates. Every time he sees them, he is very satisfied.

He longed to create the written language himself, but he had to admit that apes were considered adults at ten, and Yan was already old at fifteen.

As his lifespan was counting down, Yan tried his best to create writing, at least to create writing that could record the knowledge in his mind, but fate had no longer been on his side.

He thought he could hold on for a few more years, but after an accidental fall, his health deteriorated and he eventually became bedridden.

The current Flamefire Tribe has enough food reserves to support its injured and elderly members, truly creating a fertile ground for the weak to survive.

Ke Yan often cried at night. He didn't cry for himself, but for the future of the Yanhuo tribe. He hadn't created a script, and after he died, all the knowledge in his mind would be completely gone. What would become of the Yanhuo tribe?

Yan did not want to see the Yanhuo tribe, which he had personally built, decline after his death. For the sake of his descendants and the continuation of the tribe, he summoned the tribe's smartest child.

When the child came to the bedside, Yan didn't say anything extra. He just began to recount the strange dream he had many years ago, as well as the knowledge he had about smelting metals and building city walls.

After saying this, Yan sighed, looked at the child, and said earnestly:

"After I die, you will be the next clan leader, and you will succeed me... to carry on all of this."

Upon hearing this, the child, initially bewildered, immediately became panicked. He looked at Yan, grabbed his arm, and said:

"Chieftain, I don't want you to die, please don't die!"

Yan didn't speak. His eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling. In the corner, a fly caught in a spider web struggled desperately, but to no avail, and soon it went silent.

A few days later, Yan died, and the child he had chosen became the new chieftain, but there was no joy on his face, and the entire Yanhuo tribe was immersed in grief.

For the Yanhuo tribe, Yan was undoubtedly great. He led the ape-man tribe toward civilization and was an undisputed great leader. His story will be passed down by word of mouth and will still be known to people thousands or tens of thousands of years later.

The second chieftain inherited Yan's will. He learned from Yan to develop the tribe and used the knowledge Yan had taught him to weave fishing nets and lead the tribesmen to fish.

However, because Yan's knowledge was only oral, the second clan leader remembered most of it, but some parts were forgotten.

So, to prevent this from happening again, he found several children around three years old, taught them this knowledge from a young age, and groomed them to be the next clan chief.

In addition to these, he also tried to create characters in his rare spare time, just like Yan. Although he successfully created a few characters, it was still extremely difficult to make them into a system.

The advantages of civilization are evident at this time. Ten or a hundred years have passed, and although the Flamefire Tribe has changed its chieftains time and time again, they have all been fighting for the same thing.

They passed on knowledge and stories, and the Flamefire Tribe became more and more prosperous, with its writing system becoming more and more complete.

Finally, after nine generations of accumulation, the ninth patriarch, wielding a rough bronze knife, painstakingly carved the following into the bone slab:

In the beginning of time, who passed on the teachings...?

A hundred years is but a fleeting moment for Lilith. Looking at the small world and the Flame Tribe within it, she couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.

Simply stuffing knowledge into Yan's head has branded the world with the mark of "the existence of a god," and people will believe this for a long time to come.

What Lilith needs to do is to make the people of this world believe that this world is not simple at the right time, so as to pave the way for the introduction of the greater world later.

However, Lilith was a little hungry. To prevent any major changes from happening in the small world while she was away, Lilith deliberately adjusted the time flow between the small world and the magic world to be one-to-one. After that, she greeted Tianyuan, who was practicing barrier magic nearby.

"Hey, I'm going out to find something to eat. Is there anything you'd like to eat?"

Tianyuan's cultivation was interrupted, but she was not annoyed. She thought for a while but couldn't think of anything she particularly wanted to eat. After all, after a thousand years of cultivation, she no longer had any worldly desires, so she shook her head.

"Okay, I'll go out for a bit. Don't mess with my little world."

Lilith said this and left the barrier without looking back. Now, peace was restored within the barrier once again.

Tianyuan felt somewhat helpless about Lilith's parting words. She wasn't the type to touch other people's things without permission, and Lilith's words made her feel a little wronged.

But soon, the scene of her eating three-colored dumplings many years ago flashed into her mind, and she couldn't help but feel a little hungry. But Lilith had already left, so she could only sigh.

"I should have asked her to bring some tricolor dumplings, what a pity..."

Chapter 151: The City-State Era

Tianyuan originally wanted to continue her cultivation, but after Lilith left, she couldn't calm her mind. Lilith's words, "Don't touch my little world," made her particularly concerned.

[What exactly is that small world? Why would Lilith, who's usually so unreliable, specifically warn me not to touch it? What's the mystery behind this?]

As Tianyuan thought this, she unconsciously became interested in the small world. In the past ten days, she had personally watched Lilith stay by the small world's side without leaving it, doing nothing but simply staring at it.

If Lilith hadn't brought it up, perhaps Tianyuan wouldn't have shown such great interest in the small world, but now...

"I won't touch her, I'll just look at her. She shouldn't mind, right?"

Tianyuan murmured to himself as he cautiously approached the four-square-meter miniature world and began to observe its appearance:

It resembles a sand table, with a 2x2 square base and an inverted transparent lid on top, where two spheres, one hot and one cold, move along a specific trajectory.