Chapter 9

How to ensure the survival of the human race, how to feed the people, and how to sustain the tribe—these were the things a leader in the primitive age had to think about.

Even in the later era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, it was the same. The human emperor was more of a responsibility, and survival was the mainstream of the era. As for notions of good and evil, in an age where moral values had not yet taken root, they were nothing but fleeting clouds.

Perhaps it was due to the abundant spiritual energy in the primordial era, or perhaps it was because after the Holy Mother Nüwa created humans, the essence of her blood was still strong within them, and the divine nature within them still existed. In this era, the lifespan of humans was still quite long. According to the elders of the tribe, Feng Ye estimated that if one lived to a natural end, the lifespan of humans would be around two hundred years. However, very few people lived to that age. Apart from a few revered elders, no other tribespeople had such a long lifespan.

The fundamental reason was suicide! In this era, the human race could not even get enough to eat. To ensure the survival of the tribe, food naturally favored the children and the able-bodied, while the elderly who could not work were naturally placed last. Facing those elderly who chose to starve themselves, it would be a lie to say that Feng Ye did not feel heartache. After all, they were tribespeople who had lived together for decades; could they be so easily abandoned? It was at this moment that Feng Ye clearly understood the responsibility of a leader.

Especially after the previous leader led by example and chose to starve himself, Feng Ye was most profoundly moved. Indeed, as a leader, one is the direction of the tribe, and while being respected by the people, one must also make sacrifices.

In later generations, it was said, "The Son of Heaven guards the state, and the ruler guards the people." This was not just empty words. It was only then that Feng Ye realized the weight of his responsibility. With the hope of the entire tribe, could he abandon everything just because he wanted to cultivate and seek immortality? Thus, Feng Ye temporarily put aside his cultivation and made a vow to ensure that the tribespeople could have enough to eat.

Indeed, just enough to eat, Feng Ye was quite self-aware. Talking about having no worries about food and clothing was too unrealistic. Feng Ye knew his own limits; if the entire tribe could be fed and no more elderly would commit suicide, he would be grateful.

As for using future technology to change the food supply, it was not that Feng Ye did not want to, but he dared not and could not.

If he were to create something far ahead of his time, who knew what would happen? The chain reactions and consequences would be beyond what Feng Ye could bear. Moreover, was it so easy to develop technology? Without a cause, how could one expect a result? Was that not just a joke?

Unlike in later generations, in the primitive age, there were only two sources of food: foraging and hunting. Foraging would eventually lead to agriculture, but at this point, even the most basic planting techniques did not exist. Well, regarding planting, Feng Ye could still think about it and even mimic some methods. However, the fundamental problem was the source of seeds. Where could he find the five grains? How could he obtain vegetables and other crops? These were the issues that lay before him, and they could not be solved with just effort.

Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs to determine what was edible and what was not. How could Feng Ye identify them? Should he follow Shennong's example and taste the herbs? Well, indeed, Feng Ye did just that. Using some methods from later generations, such as color and smell, to determine if plants were toxic, and having animals test them first before introducing them to the entire tribe.

However, around the Sui Ren tribe, there were only tall trees that grew extremely slowly. Feng Ye did not encounter any crops that could be planted and harvested annually. Moreover, in this primordial world, plants could become spirits over time. How could they be eaten? It was a question of whether you would eat them or they would eat you. Many women were swallowed by these spirit trees while foraging, so planting was not feasible at the moment.

Hunting would eventually lead to the domestication of prey, which would become livestock. However, with the tribe barely able to feed itself, how could they have the leisure to domesticate prey? Moreover, domestication was not something that could be accomplished in a day. The wild beasts were still fierce and would need to be watched over by dedicated people. But where would the tribe find the extra manpower? Even if some able-bodied men were reassigned from the hunting teams to guard the captured prey, how could they watch their fellow tribespeople starve while feeding the animals? Not to mention, there were several revered elders above Feng Ye, all of whom possessed some supernatural powers. If he did not work hard for the tribe and treated the people this way, they would not hesitate to strip him of his position. Thus, this path was also ruled out. Since the problem could not be solved at its root, the only option was to improve efficiency.

Efficiency in foraging could be improved through better division of labor, and increasing the lethality of weapons to capture prey was the only method Feng Ye could think of.

Year after year, the environment of the Sui Ren tribe gradually improved. Finally, no one was starving to death.

Speaking of time, it must be mentioned that in this era, there was no specific method for measuring time. There were no hours, months, or calendars. At most, a day was defined as one cycle of the sun and moon, and 360 days were called a year. In the Sui Ren tribe, two elders were responsible for calculating time by tying knots in ropes, a method known as "knot-tying for record-keeping," which was used by ancient people to keep track of time and events.

However, this method was extremely cumbersome. The craftsmanship of this era could not match that of later generations, and the quality of the hemp ropes was not good. They could only tie a few dozen knots at most. Although there were so-called "year ropes" that could tie 360 knots at once, they were difficult to transport and made from tree bark, which was susceptible to fire, insects, and decay, making them hard to preserve. Even with the supernatural powers of the elders, it was not very effective.

Thus, Feng Ye came up with an alternative method: symbols! Using symbols to represent events and time carved on stones was more convenient than using ropes. Moreover, if events were recorded, they could be depicted as murals, which was much better than using ropes.

In later generations, symbols were considered the萌芽 (germ) of human writing. Feng Ye's improvement of the knot-tying method advanced human civilization, and he earned great merit. Seeing this, Feng Ye was once excited to directly create a writing system for the human race, but after several days of hesitation, he did not dare to proceed.

On one hand, he feared the legendary heavenly punishment. It was said that when the historian Cang Jie created writing, ghosts and gods cried out in shock. Feng Ye was not Cang Jie, nor was he from this era. Who knew if creating writing would be feasible, and if not, the ghosts and gods might come and eat him.

On the other hand, the human race did not need writing at the moment! The creation of writing was not so much a creation out of nothing by Cang Jie, but rather a summary of symbols recorded by predecessors, forming a basic and standardized prototype of writing.

Moreover, population size was a significant factor. Consider this: with just two people, communication could be achieved through speech. But as the population grew, the need to record thoughts, events, and knowledge arose. The Sui Ren tribe, with only about a thousand people, had no major events that required writing, and oral tradition sufficed. With several long-lived elders, there was no need for writing, as they possessed the divine script widely used in the primordial world. The divine script was a powerful form of writing and the most important means of communication in the primordial world.

In short, writing would only emerge when the sparks of civilization collided to a certain degree, which was a result of the development of civilization. Even if it were created now, it would not bring much merit because the human race did not need it.

The human race was struggling for survival, and material civilization was not yet guaranteed. How could they talk about spiritual civilization? Spiritual civilization must go hand in hand with material civilization, so the creation of writing should be left to the historian Cang Jie.

Feng Ye had been the leader for sixty years and had not achieved famous feats like creating the Eight Trigrams or establishing human ethics. However, under his leadership, the tribe did not decline. If Feng Ye had dared to claim the merit of Fuxi, who knew if Fuxi would not have already died and been reborn, preparing to become the human emperor of later generations. If he had claimed the merit of such a great deity, Nüwa would not have let him off.

In the current Sui Ren tribe, although the elderly still received very little food, they could survive without resorting to suicide. Seeing the tribe flourish under his leadership and no longer worry about food and drink, Feng Ye's initial vow was fulfilled, and he began to think about cultivating and becoming an immortal again.

After grooming a successor and passing on the leadership, Feng Ye settled in a cave on Mount Sui, not far from the Sui Ren tribe, to cultivate in peace. However, as a new leader, the new chief faced resistance from many elders, leading to the initial conflict.

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