Chapter 134 Stone Master
In the forest south of the Teng tribe, six young men were protecting an old man and walking cautiously.
The old man had white hair and beard, but he was in good spirits, and there was a horizontal line on his face, showing that he was a warrior.
In fact, not many tribal people can live to old age.
Because the living environment is so harsh, not only are people lacking food and clothing, but as they age, their body functions decline and their chances of contracting diseases are very high.
In such a harsh environment, once you get sick, if the witch in the tribe has powerful witchcraft skills, you may be able to survive. If the witch in the tribe is a half-baked one, whether you can survive depends on God's will.
There is another problem, which is that as warriors get older, their strength will gradually decline.
Even if you are an extremely powerful five-color warrior, when you are old and weak, you may become a two-color warrior, or even a one-color warrior.
If I get older and weaker, I won’t be able to draw even a horizontal line on my face.
Even at such an old age, this old man can still maintain the strength of a warrior, which shows that he was once a powerful warrior.
It can be seen from the six young men's careful protection of him that this old man has a very high status.
When they walked to the front of Leiming Mountain in Teng Tribe, they saw a huge stone with a totem pattern painted on it with mineral pigments.
At the same time, a pair of eyes were watching their every move in the bushes.
One of the young men said excitedly: "It's a totem pattern. We really found a tribe."
The others were also very emotional because it was not easy for them to get here. Many people died on the road. If they continued walking, they would probably all die.
This is the sadness of tourists. After losing the protection of the tribe, it is too difficult to survive in the dangerous jungle.
The six young men were about to move forward, but at this time, the old man stopped them.
“Don’t go in!”
The six young men looked back at the old man, obviously not understanding why he was stopping them from entering.
The old man said: "Many tribes will set up a lot of traps around for safety. If you rush in rashly, you will die without knowing how."
"Then...then what should we do?"
The young men suddenly understood, and then looked at the old man, hoping that he could make an decision.
The old man said, "Call out the people of this tribe. If they are willing to accept us, they will naturally take us in. If they are not willing to accept us, we can only bypass the territory of this tribe."
One of the young men immediately shouted, "Is anyone here? We are tourists seeking refuge..."
After the young man finished shouting, he looked at the empty forest and felt that it was unlikely that anyone would respond.
However, at this moment, a voice suddenly sounded not far away: "Wait where you are!"
The six young men looked at the still empty forest and felt creepy because they had no idea where the people were hiding.
At this time, they were extremely glad that they listened to the old man and did not rush in rashly, otherwise they would probably have died in obscurity.
In the forest, the one who responded was the secret sentry from the Teng tribe.
He hid in a pit in the thorn bush. After shouting, he quickly walked along the tunnel next to the pit for a while, then crawled out from behind a large and hidden rock, passed the message to the next person, and the next person passed the message back to the tribe.
Not long after, Jiang Xuan learned that some tourists were arriving.
"Go and have a look."
There is no shortage of food in the Teng tribe today, and it is more than enough to accommodate a few tourists.
When Jiang Xuan went out, Nanxing immediately took twenty guards with him, so as to protect the leader and show the strength of the tribe to the tourists.
When Jiang Xuan arrived at Leiming Mountain, the tourists were already waiting anxiously.
The only exception was the old man, who seemed very calm.
Jiang Xuan walked in front of these tourists and said, "This is the Teng Tribe. I am the leader of the Teng Tribe, Xuan."
Nanxing and others stood behind Jiang Xuan, holding weapons and staring at the tourists vigilantly.
After hearing what Jiang Xuan said, the tourists were a little surprised, because Jiang Xuan was too young, even younger than they were.
What's even more outrageous is that he has four horizontal lines drawn on his face, which means that at such a young age, he is actually a powerful four-color warrior.
Even the old man was very surprised. In all his years, he had never seen such a young four-color warrior.
Jiang Xuan was already used to other people's reactions when they heard that he was the leader. He continued, "Do you want to join our Teng tribe?"
When saying this, Jiang Xuan looked at the old man deliberately.
Although there is still a horizontal line on his face, he is too old. If it were any other tribe, they would definitely refuse to allow the old man to join.
The old man said, "We do want to join the Teng Tribe and ask Chief Xuan to take us in."
Jiang Xuan pointed at the young tourists and said, "There is nothing wrong with them, but you need to give me a reason to take them in."
It’s not that Jiang Xuan has a heart of stone. If he casually recruits an old traveler back to the tribe, I’m afraid the tribesmen in the tribe will have opinions.
After all, as you get older, you can do less work, and if you don’t have any special skills, you will be a burden to the tribe.
It would be fine if he was an elder of the tribe, after all, he had contributed to the tribe.
But he is a traveler and has no connection with the Teng tribe for the time being.
Those young tourists became anxious and wanted to plead with Jiang Xuan to let the old man stay.
But the old man stretched out his hand again to stop them, walked up to Jiang Xuan and said, "Chief Xuan, I can make stone tools, I won't eat for free."
"Yes, yes, Chief Xuan, the stone tools made by Grandpa Black Stone are very beautiful."
"That's right."
The young tourists echoed the sentiment and tried their best to tell Jiang Xuan how good and durable the stone tools made by the old man named "Heishi" were.
Jiang Xuan asked in surprise: "Are you a stone tool master?"
“I guess so.”
The old man Black Stone asked the young tourist to put down two animal skin bags, untied the bags, and revealed a large number of tools for polishing stone tools inside.
There are stone hammers, stone nails, stone chisels, stone drills...
Jiang Xuan felt that his eyes had been opened. It was the first time for him to see so many professional stone tools.
The Teng tribe polishes stone tools by simply and roughly smashing, knocking, and then grinding hard.
It is very rare to find someone equipped with so many tools like the old man.
Jiang Xuan suddenly realized that the tribesmen in this world have existed for a very long time. Although they are still in the primitive age, they have accumulated a lot of technology and experience.
For example, witchcraft skills and the techniques of polishing stone and bone tools were far more sophisticated than he had imagined.
The Teng tribe is currently in need of these professional talents.
When Jiang Xuan saw the pile of professional tools and noticed the thick calluses on the hands of the Black Stone Elder, he immediately said, "The Teng Tribe can temporarily take you in, but whether you can join depends on your performance."
"Thank you, Chief Xuan, for taking me in."
Jiang Xuan's words made the young tourists feel relieved. The old man's expression was relatively calm. It was obvious that he had experienced a lot and had become very steady.
"Come on, follow me."
Jiang Xuan led the seven tourists into the woods and advanced along a specific route. When they passed the cage vine area, they also dug a tunnel.
Along the way, with Jiang Xuan's casual guidance, the tourists saw a large number of terrible traps and terrible plants.
This made them very glad that they did not rush in rashly.
When they walked out of the forest, they saw a large open field of crops where many members of the Teng tribe were working.
There are also hundreds of houses of various sizes, neatly arranged.
The most shocking thing is the huge sacred vine that is entangled with the stone mountain, and the giant dragonflies that fly across the sky from time to time, stirring up strong winds.
They were shocked to find that this small tribe was different from other tribes in every way and felt extremely powerful.
After seeing the Teng Tribe, Old Man Heishi was finally moved. Although the Teng Tribe was not large in scale, it was definitely the most special tribe he had ever seen.
Jiang Xuan brought them to a newly built empty house on the right side of the tribe and said to them, "You guys stay here first. Take a rest today. Food will be delivered. You will start working tomorrow."
"Also, the one on the stone mountain is the guardian god of our Teng tribe. Remember, you must not offend the god, otherwise you will be expelled from the tribe."
The tourists nodded one after another, indicating that they remembered it.
Jiang Xuan said to the Black Stone Elder: "Old man, if you can show me your skill in polishing stone tools, I will consider letting you live in a separate house so that you can polish stone tools with peace of mind without having to do other work."
The old man Black Stone nodded without hesitation and said, "Okay, but I have to choose a stone first."
Jiang Xuan said to Nan Xing: "Go get some good stones!"
"yes!"
Nanxing took two warriors and immediately ran to the warehouse where the Teng tribe stored stones, found several stones of different sizes, and then brought them to the old man Heishi.
Jiang Xuan said: "Old man, now that we have the stone materials, can you show us your skills in polishing stone tools?"
The old man squatted on the ground, picked up a flat stone the size of a palm, and said, "It takes a lot of time to polish large stone tools. Since Chief Xuan wants to see it, I will polish some arrowheads."
"Can."
Jiang Xuan found a wooden stool and sat next to him, ready to watch how the old man Heishi polished the stone tools.
Old Man Heishi opened the two animal skin bags, then took out a stone hammer, a rough stone, and some tools whose purpose Jiang Xuan could not understand.
"Chief Xuan, can we light a fire in the fire pit now?"
Jiang Xuan nodded and said, "Of course, Nanxing, go get some firewood and fire."
Nanxing immediately took people to a nearby house where people lived, took some fire from the fire pit, and brought in a pile of dry firewood, dry bamboo and other things.
Then they started to build a fire in the fire pit in the middle of the room.
The young tourists also came over to help actively. The tribesmen were very familiar with things like making fire, and most of them could do it well.
Old Man Heishi rubbed the palm-sized stone carefully, looked at the patterns on it, and then threw the stone into the fire to burn.
While looking at the stone in the fire, he explained to Jiang Xuan: "This stone is relatively hard. If you smash it directly, it will only break into pieces and it will be difficult to peel off useful stone flakes."
"Use fire to burn it, and it will be much easier."
Jiang Xuan nodded without commenting, motioning him to continue.
Old Man Black Stone used a wooden stick with a charred end but very hard texture to turn over the stones in the fire from time to time.
When he felt the stones were almost burned, he asked a young tourist to fetch a bag of water with a water bag.
Then he used two wooden sticks to pick up the hot stones from the fire pit, put them outside the house, and poured water on the stones.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak…”
After the hot stones were poured with water, a large amount of white steam immediately came out.
Old Man Heishi poured out a pot of water, then immediately picked up the still warm stone, walked into the house, sat by the fire, held the stone in his left hand and the stone hammer in his right hand, and began to knock along the grain of the stone.
Every time the old man hit the stone, cracks would appear. After a few precise hammer strikes, the first thin piece of stone was completely "peeled off", just like peeling garlic cloves.
As the knocking sounds continued, a palm-sized piece of stone gradually turned into a dozen sharp-edged stone flakes and a small amount of waste stone.
Such sophisticated techniques opened Jiang Xuan's eyes.
This is not the end yet.
After hammering the stone into flakes, the Black Stone Old Man changed to a smaller stone hammer, placed the flakes on a large stone, and hammered them carefully, knocking them little by little into the rough shape of arrowheads.
Every time he struck with the hammer, he was confident. In his hand, the stone piece was hammered into the shape he wanted, and only very little waste was produced.
This may seem simple, but it actually requires decades of consistent technical training and extraordinary talent to achieve.
After knocking, the old man Black Stone put down the stone hammer, poured some water on the rough stone, and then carefully sharpened the edge of the rough arrowhead like sharpening a knife.
Jiang Xuan finally believed that this old man was really a stone tool master, and a very powerful one at that.
Because he had made stone arrowheads himself, he knew how difficult it was to hammer them into the desired shape accurately.
The Teng tribe has more than 500 people, all from many small tribes that have been destroyed, but no one can hammer the stone pieces into the desired shape as accurately as old man Black Stone.
If they wanted to make stone tools, they often had to go through many attempts, then select the more suitable materials, and then slowly process them.
Even so, the stone tools made were only barely usable.
The Black Stone Old Man turned the action of striking stone flakes into an art form. He was able to make simple arrowheads very beautiful and practical without wasting any stone.
This is a true stone tool master! When the Black Stone Elder handed the first polished arrowhead to Jiang Xuan, Jiang Xuan looked at the regular shape and sharp edges, and felt that it was as pleasing to the eye as a fine work of art.
Jiang Xuan handed the arrowhead to Nanxing and others. After seeing it, everyone praised it highly because the arrowhead polished by Old Man Heishi was so beautiful, many times better than those polished by themselves.
Jiang Xuan said: "Old man, you have superb craftsmanship. The Teng Tribe will not bury your skills. From today on, you will have an independent house dedicated to polishing stone tools for the tribe!"
The Black Stone Elder said in a neither humble nor arrogant manner: "Thank you, Chief Xuan."
Jiang Xuan immediately arranged a relatively good empty house for Old Man Heishi to live in and use for polishing stone tools, and also gave him some daily necessities.
From that day on, rhythmic knocking and grinding sounds were often heard from that house, and the people of the Teng tribe all knew that a real stone tool master had come to the tribe.
When the six young tourists saw that old man Heishi was treated so well, they immediately felt a good impression of the Teng tribe and worked very hard for the tribe.
(End of this chapter)
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