Chapter 12: Ancient Vine Revival
After returning from the Stone Mountain, Jiang Xuan solemnly carved the totem pattern of the Vine Tribe on a huge rock in front of the bamboo house. He also found some colored stones, crushed them, mixed them with water to make paint, and colored the totem pattern.
Although the totem pattern looked a bit like a child's doodle due to limited painting skills, Jiang Xuan didn't care much.
The totem pattern is the symbol of the tribe. As long as the tribe becomes strong enough in the future, no one will dare to despise it no matter how ugly its totem pattern is.
For example, members of some large tribes only need to paint the totem patterns of their tribe on their faces or on the belongings they carry with them. When they walk outside, other tribes will not dare to provoke them easily.
After drawing the totem pattern, Jiang Xuan began to prepare for the first sacrifice.
As a new tribe, the first sacrifice was very important. Even though there were only five of them, the sacrificial ceremony had to be done in a proper manner.
Because Jiang Xuan knew very well that through a series of rituals such as building altars, offering sacrifices, and drawing totem patterns, the tribe members' sense of identity with the tribe could be increased and the cohesion of the tribe could be improved.
Although there are currently only five people in the Teng tribe, Jiang Xuan will still complete this set of rituals.
He took Chishao and others and built a round altar with yellow mud at the foot of the stone mountain, and also built a staircase in front of the altar.
The altar has a diameter of about two meters at the bottom, a height of about one meter, and a diameter of about one and a half meters at the top. It is very small and simple.
But Jiang Xuan still carefully carved the totem patterns of the Teng tribe all around the yellow mud altar, including the top.
With the totem pattern, the altar gives people a more sacred feeling.
Afterwards, they began to hunt in the mountains and forests, fish in the streams, and prepare sacrificial offerings.
Three days later, the weather became warmer, the weeds on the ground began to grow, and the plants in the mountains and forests began to sprout.
Even the ancient vine has many new buds on its branches, looking full of vitality.
January 15th, the first year since the establishment of the Teng Tribe.
The first sacrificial ceremony officially began.
The yellow mud altar had dried. Jiang Xuan and four other people carried the offerings, walked up the stairs to the altar, and placed the offerings.
The sacrifices were a wild goat, a pheasant, and a large fish weighing more than 20 kilograms, all alive and tied with ropes.
All five of them had taken a bath in advance, put on their best animal skin clothes, and painted the totem patterns of the Teng tribe on their faces, making them look quite decent.
The sacrificial ceremony actually needs to be presided over by a witch. It is said that only a witch can communicate with the totem god, and only a witch can recite those ancient blessings.
But there were only five people in the Teng tribe, and there was no inheritance of witchcraft at all, so Jiang Xuan had to rely on himself.
Jiang Xuan recalled the sacrificial rituals of the Deer Tribe, then took a sharp stone knife and drained the blood of the wild goats, pheasants, and fish on the altar.
Blood flowed on the brand new yellow mud altar, staining part of the totem pattern.
Jiang Xuan walked down from the altar and put away the stone knife. He didn't know any sacrificial prayers, so he could only say a few simple words.
Jiang Xuan faced the ancient vine, thought for a while, and began to say the blessing:
“Please ask the Vine God to enjoy the offerings, bless the Vine tribe’s livestock to prosper, the crops to be abundant, and bless the tribe members to travel safely…”
Chishao and the three young men were stunned, because they had never heard many of the words Jiang Xuan said.
In addition, as they were performing a sacrifice, they subconsciously believed that it was the appearance of the vine god, so they worshiped more devoutly.
"Cry!"
At this moment, a bird's cry that could pierce gold and split rocks rang out above the bamboo forest, scaring the birds and beasts in the forest so much that they hid.
Jiang Xuan looked up and saw a huge ferocious bird covered with black feathers flying towards him, and its target seemed to be the sacrifice on the altar.
"not good!"
Jiang Xuan screamed in horror and subconsciously wanted to run away because the bird was so big. When it flew over, it looked like a dark cloud, which was intimidating.
This was not a ferocious bird they could resist at all.
"Buzz"
At this moment, the stone mountain suddenly shook slightly.
The ancient vine wrapped around the stone mountain suddenly burst into a brilliant green light. A tender vine grew rapidly, growing to hundreds of meters long, and then, like a whip, it lashed towards the ferocious bird at lightning speed.
“Bang!”
The ferocious bird was hit and let out a shrill scream. Blood splattered in the air. It flapped its wings desperately in fear, trying to escape.
However, Gu Teng had no intention of letting it go.
“Bang!”
The hundred-meter-long vine yanked hard again, and all the bones of the ferocious bird were broken. It was unable to fly anymore and fell to the ground crookedly.
"Bang!"
The huge ferocious bird landed not far from the altar, smashed a piece of bamboo, struggled a few times, and then became completely motionless.
Jiang Xuan and the other four were so shocked that they were stunned and couldn't even speak complete sentences.
“Teng…Teng…Teng God really showed up.”
Chishao opened his mouth wide. No one had expected that this ancient vine was so terrifying that it could whip a ferocious bird to death in just two strokes.
Jiang Xuan was even more frightened. A few days ago, they had climbed up the stone mountain along the ancient vine. If the ancient vine had become murderous at that time, I'm afraid none of them would have survived.
Although he knew from his memory that there were many magical creatures in this world, he had never seen them with his own eyes.
In his memory, when the Deer Tribe was exterminated, their totem god did not take any action. He didn't know what went wrong.
Unexpectedly, an ancient vine could be so powerful. I didn’t know whether it was really willing to be the totem god of the vine tribe, or because the vicious bird wanted to steal its sacrifice.
Jiang Xuan suddenly understood why there was not a single ferocious beast to be seen around the bamboo forest. Most likely, they instinctively sensed that there was danger here and did not dare to approach, or they were killed by the ancient vines.
“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…”
Suddenly, countless roots emerged from the ground. Some of them extended to the altar and wrapped the sacrifices layer by layer, while the other part entangled the huge ferocious bird and wrapped it up.
Jiang Xuan glanced at those terrifying roots out of the corner of his eye and felt his back wet with cold sweat.
It was unknown whether this ancient vine had agreed to be a totem god. If it had not agreed, would it attack them? After all, this ancient vine was too terrifying. If it wanted to kill them, Jiang Xuan didn't think he could escape.
After a long time, the roots retracted into the ground. Jiang Xuan glanced at the altar and saw that the prey had been sucked away, leaving only their hair and fresh bones.
The same thing happened to the ferocious bird, only its feathers and bones remained.
So scary!
Jiang Xuan gritted his teeth and continued to wait. He only hoped that the ancient vine would not make things difficult for them for the sake of the sacrifice.
At this moment, five tender branches grew rapidly on the ancient vine and finally extended to the top of the heads of Jiang Xuan and the other four.
"Teng...Teng Shen..."
Just when Jiang Xuan thought he was dead, a drop of emerald green liquid dripped from a young leaf at the end of the vine, fell on his head, and directly merged into his body.
In an instant, Jiang Xuan felt a tremendous force surging into his body, carrying a rich vitality that nourished his internal organs, flesh, blood, and bones.
He clearly felt that his strength, speed, vision, hearing, etc. were improving rapidly.
The same went for Red Peony Root, Uncaria Rhynchophylla, Stone Eel and Arisaema. They also got a drop of green liquid.
After Jiang Xuan realized what was happening, he immediately kowtowed with a look of surprise on his face and said, "Thank you for the gift from the God of Teng!"
Others also knelt down to thank Gu Teng. No one had expected that such a simple sacrifice could bring such benefits.
It seems that Gu Teng is really willing to be the totem god of the Teng tribe.
The five tender branches retracted again, and the green light on the ancient vine gradually faded. The ancient vine became silent again, and except for its huge size, it looked no different from other vines.
If it weren't for the skin, fur and bones of the sacrifices still preserved, Jiang Xuan would probably have thought it was a dream.
It was a long time before Jiang Xuan returned to the bamboo house, still in a daze.
This was the first time the world gave him a great gift.
With the protection of the ancient vine and Jiang Xuan's knowledge from his previous life, he believed that this small tribe would definitely grow and develop in the future!
(End of this chapter)
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