Chapter 58

Every evening, the children of the indigenous village would gather at the village entrance.

The older children would climb the tallest lookout tree at the entrance, bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, watching the mountain path at the valley entrance, waiting for the adults to return safely from deep within the mountains.

Some of the younger children would sit on the branches of fruit trees, lined up one after another, like a flock of birds about to return to their nests at dusk, chattering incessantly.

This time of day was usually the busiest in the village.

Until the moment when the barefoot indigenous hunters, carrying their game, returned, the children would burst into cheers.

In the heart of each indigenous child was a great hero, and they eagerly looked forward to the day when they too could join the hunting party and become a qualified jungle hunter.

The Gan Da E'er Mountains were rich in resources. Although dangerous beasts roamed deep within the mountains, they were not encountered casually.

It was clearly an exaggeration to say that a beast dominated every mountain peak.

Some low-level beasts were scattered throughout the vast jungle. Experienced hunters could identify from certain traces in the mountains whether any beasts were nearby. If they found signs of beasts, they would carefully avoid them.

Of course, it was not impossible to encounter some beasts unexpectedly in the jungle, and in such cases, one could only pray that the beast had just eaten.

The indigenous hunters preferred to hunt wild boars and deer, which were abundant in the mountains. A few hunters would set traps and drive small groups of wild boars towards the traps, always ensuring some harvest.

The indigenous women would gather at the village entrance, waiting for the men to return. The game they brought back would be uniformly handed over to the elders for distribution, a system that had long been established in the tribe.

Usually, the men would receive the largest share, as they were expected to continue hunting. They would be given the leg meat and ribs. Next were the sick and children, who would receive the loin and organs. Finally, the women and the elderly would get the hooves, tails, and scraps of meat.

Of course, the head of the wild boar would be offered as a sacrifice to the demon god.

The population of the indigenous tribe was now seriously imbalanced. In a village of several hundred people, there were fewer than fifty adult hunters, and almost no elderly. Most of the people left in the village were women and children, with more women than men, who could still get some good meat.

The men of the village brought back a thousand-pound male wild boar. Over thirty hunters took turns carrying it back to the village. The two tusks protruding from its mouth were half a foot long, and its back was covered with bristles as hard as pine needles. The fatal wound on this male boar was a three-foot-long gash on its belly.

The hunters carried the male boar into the village, where a wooden table had already been set up in the square. A middle-aged indigenous man with a pot belly held a small knife and skillfully skinned the wild boar, hanging the skin on a nearby tree.

The skinning and butchering were done with great precision. The remaining bones were all thrown into a large pot to stew into a delicious meat broth. The indigenous women added various wild vegetables and sweet potatoes to the broth, eventually cooking it into a thick meat porridge. The entire village gathered in the square to enjoy a hearty meal.

He Boqiang squeezed through the crowd, watching two half-grown children wrestling in the center of the square. The winner would receive an extra piece of meat bone.

The square was filled with onlookers.

Actually, the night life of the indigenous people was quite dull. After dinner, only some half-grown children had the energy to play and compete.

After dinner, the hunters would return to their wooden huts to rest, their bodies weary. Of course, during this time, a common form of entertainment was intimate activities. The indigenous women viewed having children as a mission, so they were often more passionate and unrestrained than the men.

However, the wooden huts mostly had no walls, so the sounds could carry far...

Indigenous girl Molly returned from the cook with two pieces of boiled, tender meat bones. As the granddaughter of the great shaman Inoyatira, she had this privilege.

The two returned to the front of the wooden hut and sat on the steps, gnawing on the meaty bones. Molly, barefoot, squatted on the floor, crunching the thin layer of crisp bone on the large bone, looking like a mother lion feeding.

The life of the valley's indigenous people was simple and pure, and this slow-paced life made He Boqiang feel very comfortable.

Over the past two days, He Boqiang had been diligently learning the indigenous language.

Under Molly's patient guidance, He Boqiang mimicked Molly's pronunciation and managed to produce a correct sound in the indigenous language.

He Boqiang made progress every day, which made the indigenous girl very happy. At least, basic communication in the indigenous language was no longer a problem.

However, He Boqiang still could not speak the Imperial language. Perhaps because the Imperial language and the indigenous language were very different, the indigenous language mostly used nasal sounds, and the Imperial language did not. He Boqiang had not yet found the knack for pronouncing it.

To avoid being ridiculed by the second squad warriors, He Boqiang did not want to communicate with them in the indigenous language.

He Boqiang believed that with continuous practice, learning the Imperial language was just a matter of time.

Additionally, He Boqiang was very curious about the shaman's sacrificial ritual.

At the time of the ritual, the shaman offered sacrifices to the demon god and received the demon god's blessing. He then peeled a piece of black-patterned magic skin from the demon and attached it to the indigenous hunter, after which the three hunters gained great power.

Before this, He Boqiang had no way to communicate with the great shaman Inoyatira.

But now that he could understand some of the indigenous language, he was very curious about what had happened.

He Boqiang met with the great shaman Inoyatira.

The shaman lowered his head and thought for a moment before answering He Boqiang's question:

"Divine chosen one, we offer sacrifices to the demon god through the ritual and receive different blessings. The previous ritual allowed me to see many things that I usually cannot see..."

He Boqiang listened carefully to the great shaman Inoyatira, taking a long time to understand some of the words.

Seeing that He Boqiang was listening attentively, the great shaman continued:

"For example..."

"I saw the secrets of the black-patterned magic skin on the demon. These patterns contain powerful magical energy."

"However, although I can glimpse these secrets with the help of the god's power on the altar, I cannot replicate them."

"I can implant this magic skin into the bodies of our people, as you saw with the black-patterned magic skin. Using the power granted by the demon god, I implanted it into the bodies of our three warriors, allowing them to gain the demon's great power through this shortcut."

The great shaman spoke slowly to ensure that He Boqiang could understand clearly.

Then, she added:

"However, this magic skin implantation has significant drawbacks. If the host's body is not compatible with the magic skin and cannot bear its powerful energy, the host will be torn apart by the energy inside their body."

He Boqiang took a long time to organize his thoughts and then asked hesitantly: "You mean... the three hunters would burst and die after the black-patterned magic skin was implanted, because their bodies could not bear the powerful energy?"

Saying this sentence completely, He Boqiang felt a great relief in his heart.

It seemed that he had regained his ability to speak. He had never realized how satisfying it was to communicate with words.

The shaman said: "That is correct."

He Boqiang remembered that after that night, one of the three indigenous hunters died on the spot, and the other two lived for three more days before dying quietly.

He Boqiang then asked the great shaman Inoyatira: "How did they manage to last so long?"

"That was because during the sacrificial ritual, the demon god bestowed the blessing of 'Divine Body'!" the great shaman Inoyatira answered.