"In the future, if I have time to organize my many years of experience as a witch doctor, and you don't want to learn, I'll choose a few others from the tribe to pass it on to."
"Can wants to learn."
Shen Can agreed without a second thought.
It's always good to learn more skills.
In his memory, the witches of the Great Wilderness World didn't have many divine techniques. At least in the Blazing Flame Tribe and nearby tribes, they leaned more towards healing and treating wounds.
Even then, they were inconsistent, and the witch doctor's manifestation in Huo Xian's place was medicine balls and medicinal soups.
Apart from healing, the witch doctors also bore the heavy responsibility of neutralizing the vicious aura of beast blood.
As for other aspects of the witch doctors, Shen Can was unclear. It might be that his perspective was too narrow to understand more.
After all, the strongest figure in the Blazing Flame Tribe was the Chief of the Tribe, who was only at the third level in the Martial Arts, the Celestial Vein Realm.
The cultivation methods were too rudimentary.
In the Blazing Flame Tribe, if one wanted to become a Tier One Stone-Breaking Realm Martial Artist, they would soak in the blood of Tier One Wild Beasts, eat beast meat, and practice the Quenching Technique, integrating the essence of the wild beast into themselves.
To become a Tier Two Mountain Opening Realm Martial Artist, one would soak in Tier Two Beast Blood, eat beast meat, and practice the Quenching Technique.
A Tier Three Martial Artist would soak in Tier Three Beast Blood.
Why did they all need to soak in beast blood?
Because the everyday means of eating beast meat and practicing Kui Ox Fist couldn't help the tribesmen break through their bottlenecks.
Tribesmen nearing the breakthrough to Stone-Breaking Realm or Mountain Opening Realm would have only the chance to forcibly breakthrough by soaking in beast blood and using the mighty power of the desolate beast's blood.
The Quenching Technique of the Blazing Flame Tribe was precisely the Kui Ox Fist, a technique inspired by the Mountain-Splitting Kui.
However, after becoming a Tier Three Celestial Vein Martial Artist, the Quenching Technique was no longer effective, and true Martial Arts Techniques were required to simulate the flow of blood energy within wild beasts.
Wild beasts' movements were easy to imitate, but the flow of blood energy within them was not visible at a glance.
The tribe chief of the Blazing Flame Tribe was able to progress to the Tier Three Celestial Vein through forcibly breaking through by soaking in Tier Three Beast Blood, but they were stuck without subsequent techniques.
This was because the tribe chief truly didn't know where the blood energy within them should course, only that the Celestial Vein Realm required the opening of celestial veins.
However, the Blazing Flame Tribe had been passed down for three hundred years, and after over a dozen tribe chiefs, they managed to test and find the location of a celestial vein using their bodies as test subjects.
These were not really secrets; they were all mentioned in memory during the tribe's teachings of the Kui Ox Fist.
The Kui Ox Fist was not only a body-tempering technique but also a physical training method before soaking in beast blood.
Tribe children from ages eight or nine were taught the Kui Ox Fist, and then each year they selected the youth who had adequately tempered to soak in Tier One Wild Beast Blood.
Why were they all built as strong as big bears, eating beast meat daily and practicing Kui Ox Fist? Their physical constitution steadily increased, which was normal.
The size of the physique was the simplest sign of one's strength.
Even so, the probability of successfully ascending to Tier One Stone-Breaking Realm Martial Artist in the Blazing Flame Tribe was only three or four out of ten, sometimes only one or two out of ten.
The root cause was that beast blood was too fierce; breakthrough depended not only on one's endurance but also on luck.
It was this risk-taking Martial Dao that provided a survival domain for the Human Race.
Apart from the dangers during breakthrough, the cultivation of Martial Artists, due to the impact of refining beast essence and the latent injuries left from fights with wild beasts, led many Martial Artists to perish on their cultivation paths.
Otherwise, over three hundred years, the Blazing Flame Division wouldn't have gone through more than a dozen tribe chiefs; none of these chiefs met a peaceful end.
Shen Can could only say that living here was tough, as one would never know when disaster might strike—earthquakes and floods were even more frequent.
Ayu was born during a flood.
In this life, Shen Can was born during an earthquake; at that time, the tribe suffered heavy losses, and his parents sacrificed to the heavens.
In comparison, the rain that lasted for more than sixty days was practically nothing.
The tribe history of Blazing Flame records that the longest continuous rain lasted a full year and a half, accompanied by earthquakes.
The Blazing Flame was not considered a big tribe; those tribes with thousand-year or even ten-thousand-year legacies must be even more astonishing.
This is the Great Wilderness, where danger lurks around every corner.
It's better to be Ancestral Temple Keeper; no need to leave the tribe.
As long as the tribesmen can regularly offer tributes to the ancestral temple, he could continuously steal the longevity of the hunted prey.
...
The hunted Mountain-Splitting Kui was swiftly divided, with its hide, bones, intestines, etc., being taken by the women in the tribe.
They used the hide to make leather armor, hardened bones for crafting arrows, and the intestines would be cleaned and eaten.
Today, Shen Can successfully moved into the ancestral temple after being hastily granted the role, becoming the tribe's next-generation reserved Ancestral Temple Keeper.
Now it depended on when Elder Huo Xian would hand over his duties.
"Clean out the West Ear Cave and settle in."
Becoming an Ancestral Temple Keeper meant living and staying in the ancestral temple, which is why young people in the tribe weren't keen on this role.
Offering sacrifices was nowhere near as thrilling as hunting outside.
In memory, before crossing over, Acan was quite reluctant to become a sacrificial priest; otherwise, he wouldn't have gritted his teeth and followed the hunting team outside.
Now, Shen Can's thoughts have naturally changed.
This role of Ancestral Temple Keeper, he'll take it.
He not only wants to take it, but he plans to carry it through to the end.
What's wrong with being the Ancestral Temple Keeper, the best at cleaning for the ancestors.
Silence.
During the annual hunt festival, the decade festival, or even the centennial great sacrifice, the Clan Chief would personally lead the hunting team to hunt a Tier Three Wild Beast.
Who knows how long the lifespan of a Tier Three Wild Beast is.
Shen Can was pondering this while tidying up the West Ear Cave.
A simple stone house and stone bed.
"Brother Acan, I brought your bedding for you."
Ayu carried the bedding into the cave and tossed it onto the stone bed.
After hesitating in place for a while, Ayu quickly said something and then briskly walked out of the stone house.
"Brother Acan, when I become a martial artist, the wild beasts I hunt will have a share for you too."
Shen Can, who was laying out his beast-skin mat, froze for a moment and turned to see Ayu's departing back.
"This guy."
"Unfortunately, your original Brother Acan has dissolved in water."
Spreading out the mat, Shen Can originally intended to take a good look at his golden finger, but then decided to get up and head towards the East Ear Cave.
"Master, does the Ancestral Temple still need cleaning tonight?"
Seeing the head peeking into the cave entrance, Huo Xian, who was sitting at the stone table flipping through beast-skin records, accepted Shen Can's address with a smile on his old face.
"In the evening, as long as the oil lamp doesn't go out, it's fine. Tomorrow morning, I'll take you through it once."
"By the way, if you're hungry, you can take some of the meat offering down and eat."
"Ah..."
Shen Can was startled by Huo Xian's words.
"What temple keeper wouldn't sneak a taste of the offerings? The ancestors are all divine tablets; shouldn't you help them taste the flavor?"
Upon hearing that, Shen Can felt more at ease.
His golden finger had seized the lifespan of the wild beasts, so it could be considered as sneaking from his ancestors' offerings.
After returning from Master Huo Xian, Shen Can lay on the stone bed, finally having the time to check his golden finger.
"Sacrificial Tripod Cauldron."
In his perception, this thing was incredibly ethereal within his body, three-legged with a round mouth, resembling the Blood Vase that held beast blood.
As he concentrated, information emerged once more in his thoughts.
Sacrificial Master: Shen Can
Martial Arts Realm: Non-tiered.
Sacrificial Artifact: Sacrificial Tripod Cauldron
Quenching Technique: Kui Ox Fist (Inferior) (Can be developed)
Cultivation Technique: None
Martial Arts Divine Technique: None
Lifespan: 33
"How does the development work?"
A thought popped up in Shen Can's mind, and he felt the ethereal three-legged Sacrificial Tripod Cauldron inside him blink.
He unexpectedly found himself possessing the power of "Introspection," seeing a hazy space within the tripod cauldron where a blurry figure emerged.
"Artifact Spirit?"
Seeing this transformation, Shen Can didn't rush to begin but cautiously called out.
Yet he received no response.
"System?"
"Ancestor?"
Still no response.
Although he received no reply, he felt the three-legged Sacrificial Tripod Cauldron should be the carrier of the data appearing in his thoughts.
"I'll first use one year of lifespan to taste the salt. Is that alright?"
Instantly, as his thoughts shifted, the blurry figure inside the tripod cauldron raised its hand in the starting pose of Kui Ox Fist.
The first move of Kui Ox Fist is called Mountain Opening, where the fist strikes like a Kui Ox charging forward.
As the blurry figure inside the tripod cauldron made a move, Shen Can suddenly felt more information emerging in his thoughts.
[Practicing the fist for one year, your fist form is stiff, muscles and bones unmoving, not knowing how to adapt, dumb as a rock.]
"Geez, this thing is insulting!"
"Let's try two more years."
[Practicing the fist for three years, your fist form is still stiff, not knowing how to adapt, dumb as a bag of straw.]
...
[Practicing the fist for ten years, you still haven't understood the principle of muscles and bones moving with the fist, a bag of straw with six of seven apertures open.]