The day after the banquet, Jiang Ai felt a string of small, scattered things around her neck.

They are a brand-shaped pendant, a puppy tooth, and a blood bead strung together with a fox hair.

Jiang Ai looked at them for a long time, then tucked them inside her clothes so that no one else could see these little things.

The women of the Jiang tribe got up early in the morning.

The early bird catches the worm, and the early-rising women catch birds to eat. They step on dew-laden leaves to check the traps they set the day before, returning with a string of birds with broken wings.

The stronger men could help pluck the bird feathers; the weaker men could only wait beside the woman until she finished plucking them, and then ask her for some of the better feathers.

A little boy surnamed Ji tried to pluck a bird's feathers, but ended up scratching his hand on the bird's beak.

The women sternly snatched the bird's carcass from his hands and ordered him never to touch it again. The little boy stood there, clutching his hands in a daze, until the men who had rushed over took him outside.

He was given a severe scolding, and the men went inside to help the women; only the little boy remained standing outside the room, bewildered.

The little boy stood there for a while, thinking: Where is Jiang Ai? He needs her.

He held his hands, which were raw and calloused, and thought with a sense of grievance: He needed her.

Jiang Ai, whom he longed for, was sitting in the clan chief's room.

The clan chief was sitting upright on the bed in the room with his eyes closed.

Because she hadn't gone out, she wore fewer layers of clothing, making her appear somewhat thin. But the veins and muscles on her arms, which weren't covered by animal skin, were prominent, and no woman would look down on her because of her appearance.

The clan chief asked in a calm tone, "Were you telling the truth yesterday?"

Jiang Ai sat calmly in front of the clan leader and said, "Yes."

The clan leader kept her eyes closed. She didn't need to open them; she could weave together Jiang Ai's image from memory alone. Jiang Ai was the most powerful woman of her generation, and also a woman protected by the Mother Goddess.

Jiang Ai went hunting many times, but never suffered a serious injury. The only time she was injured was when a passing tiger pounced on her, tearing a piece of flesh from her shoulder.

The chieftain said that the tiger was a tigress with cubs. Tigresses with cubs are fiercer than usual, and they were just unlucky to be there that time.

The little boy surnamed Ji cried all night by Jiang Ai's bedside.

Later, Jiang Ai recovered—and they never encountered that tiger again.

The clan chief continued, "How do you plan to conquer the world?"

Jiang Ai thought for a moment. She had actually thought about it a lot, but she still needed to organize her thoughts to make the matter seem more formal.

Jiang Ai said, "I plan to befriend the more distant tribes. In the meantime, I will first merge with the nearby tribes. Once there are no more tribes to merge with, I will then merge with the more distant ones."

This is a very simple strategy: "befriend distant states while attacking nearby ones".

She explained it very clearly, and the clan chief, who wasn't raised in luxury, immediately understood what she meant.

"How do we fight further away?" the clan chief asked. "Since you're talking about merging, then naturally it doesn't mean they'll all be under the Jiang clan's name."

She would not allow other matrilineal clans to adopt the surname Jiang. They were connected by the character Jiang; how could they confuse their bloodlines for the sake of expanding their tribes?

If the Jiang clan becomes a large tribe in the future, the only people they can trust are women who share the same surname as them.

Jiang Ai said, "Then let's change their surname."

"Change your surname?"

“They will have a new surname, the one our Mother Goddess bestowed upon them,” Jiang Ai said. Her voice was steady, as if she were completely unaware of the shocking and blasphemous words she had uttered.

The clan chief frowned. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the young woman sitting in front of her.

The chieftain said, "You do not believe in the existence of the Mother Goddess."

Jiang Ai was taken aback. She didn't know which of her words had led the clan leader to this realization, but when faced with the clan leader's calm, deep eyes, she still nodded honestly.

The clan chief quickly smiled.

She said, "That's normal. You've never attended a sacrificial feast." She continued slowly, "You're only ten years old, and the sacrificial feast is held only once every thirty years."

“I haven’t heard my mothers mention it,” Jiang Ai retorted softly. She was indeed only ten years old, but she was already a woman of the Jiang clan.

The chieftain still smiled and said, "Your mothers have never participated in the sacrificial ceremony either—after all, the sacrificial feast is only held once every thirty years. The eldest of your mothers is not even thirty years old."

Jiang Ai silently met the clan leader's gaze.

She suddenly realized that the world she knew so well had undergone a slight change since her arrival.

The mugwort asked the ball of light, "Is there a god in this world?"

The ball of light chuckled angrily: "I told you before, that stone became a 'god'."

It mercilessly mocked the mugwort: "Even a naturally formed stone can become a mother goddess, so why do you deny the existence of gods? You should know that the Jiang tribe's faith is already considered rare among the surrounding tribes."

The ball of light continued, "And it did indeed develop its own consciousness, and it can influence reality through that consciousness. Just like the pendant around your neck—you can indeed pull a sword out of the pendant with your bare hands, but in modern society, you'd be taken to a mental hospital."

The Jiang clan believes in two deities.

One is the Mother Goddess, and the other is the God of Fire.

The Mother Goddess gave women the ability to bear children, and the Fire God gave them the ability to drive away wild beasts.

They worshipped the two gods equally.

But Ai Yuanyuan originally thought that these gods were beings created by women to maintain their rule.

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