Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 74: Forgetting the Battle Will Lead to Danger

Chapter 74: Forgetting the Battle Will Lead to Danger
“I have received the wisdom from the One God.”

Upon returning to the city, the 27th Akakage summoned everyone he could and proclaimed the guidance of the serpent god to them.

Unfortunately, only a minority of people were willing to listen to the 27th Akakage. Most of them felt that the 27th Akakage had been making trouble for a long time, but the problem had not been solved at all. Some even said extremely presumptuous things, and they even felt that the Serpent God was just fobbing them off.

Only a few people thought that the Twenty-Seventh Akakage was right; most of them were the mages who had originally gathered around the Twenty-Seventh Akakage.

Clearly, there was another group of mages who also felt that the 27th Akakage was just giving them the runaround.

After all, the snake god only offered guidance, without providing any substantial help.

"The people of our tribe seem to be acting strangely."

It was this unexpected turn of events that led the 27th Akakage to discover some problems that had not been noticed before.

The clansmen seemed to have changed. In his memory, after he mentioned Taiyi's guidance and the ancestor of the Dao, the clansmen should have followed that guidance and continued to study diligently. After all, when they were researching the essence of food, the clansmen had done the same thing. Now it was just a repetition.

Even he himself has made mental preparations, and is even prepared to fight like his predecessors, for several generations.

But the tribespeople right now think completely differently.

The tribesmen had lost their ambition and only knew how to rely on the serpent god's blessings. When the serpent god stopped giving them blessings, they actually began to complain about him. These complaints were completely unreasonable, since the compost was not even a blessing; it was just that they had dug up the serpent god's excrement, nothing more.

"How could those fiery Ignivas people have become like this?"

He was indifferent to any hardships and difficulties, but he was truly bewildered by the state of his clansmen.

He longed to seek the serpent god's guidance again, but the serpent god had fallen into a deep sleep once more, and during their previous conversation, had strictly forbidden him from disturbing the serpent god.

"Besides, if I blindly rely on the serpent god's guidance, wouldn't I just be like them?"

The 27th Akakage thought to himself.

However, while he couldn't ask the Snake God directly, he could ask those who had once been closest to him. So, after a short rest, he went to seek out those seekers of the Way, those who had once lived in the mountains, to ask for guidance.

The person who came out to greet him was the same seeker of the Dao as before.

"The answer is simple: because the people have lost the Way."

Faced with the doubts of the 27th Akakage, the Seeker provided an answer.

“Long, long ago, at the end of the Old King’s era, the Ice People conquered the capital of the Ignis… After achieving victory and possessing everything, those Ice People were just like this, even more complacent than their people are today.”

Hearing the seeker recount that past history, the 27th Akakage felt a deep sense of empathy.

Before coming to seek answers, he had thought about this history, but he was still somewhat reluctant to compare his people to those icefield people of that time.

So, how should we deal with these issues?

The 27th Akakage expressed his doubts.

"How can we help our people find their way... Speaking of which, how did the people in the mountains back then, those original seekers of the Way, manage to do it?"

"This... is rather complicated to explain."

The seeker pondered for a moment, then continued speaking.

The story of how the Ignis people became the Mountain People, the original Seekers, is indeed quite complex—though later Seekers did manage to compile that history and glean some insights from it.

"The first seekers of the Way were persecuted by the mages... I'm referring to the mages of that time, the royal families of the Old King's era." Seeing that the 27th Akakage's expression remained unchanged, the seeker continued.

"The royal family of the old king's era caused them to lose everything, but after being saved by the serpent god, they regained everything... In the beginning, they were actually immoral, and even after receiving guidance from the serpent god, they were still immoral."

"Even after receiving guidance from the Snake God, he is still without virtue?"

This was the first time the 27th Akakage had heard this claim. It was completely different from what those seekers of the Dao claimed to have received guidance from the Ancestor of the Dao and then began their search for the Dao.

At that time, it even vaguely reminded him of this very moment.

"It simply omitted some unnecessary details."

Seeing that the 27th Akakage was still somewhat confused, the Seeker said this.

"Those people in the mountains back then did indeed receive guidance from the Ancestor of the Dao, but at the very beginning, they didn't understand what the Dao truly meant..."

The seeker continued to recount those past events.

The earliest seekers of the Dao had a rather confused understanding of it. At that time, they only felt that doing what they wanted to do was probably seeking the Dao. So at that time, they were more likely to act recklessly and even wantonly. Until the Ice Plains people attacked, but the Dao Ancestor did not appear. All the people in the mountains were captured by the Ice Plains people and made into slaves and prisoners.

"It was at that time that the people in the mountains realized that only by mastering the power to protect themselves could they be considered to have the foundation for seeking the Tao."

"what do you mean……"

The 27th generation Akakage vaguely understood something.

The seeker nodded.

"First lose everything, then gain everything, then lose everything again, and then take everything back with your own hands... That's what the people in the mountains did back then, and most of today's seekers of the Way have had similar experiences."

"But the people of our tribe now have everything, just like those who first entered the sacred mountain back then..."

At this point, the seeker paused.

The 27th Akakage also raised his head.

"But they didn't encounter those Ice People, so they didn't lose everything, is that what you mean?"

"Is such that."

The seeker nodded.

"When you are invincible, that is when you are most dangerous... Many times, the existence of enemies can actually help us grow."

"In other words, I am going to find an enemy for my people."

The 27th Akakage confirmed this once again.

But the seeker shook his head.

"It's not about finding an enemy."

"Instead, it will start a war."