After a century of worship, I became the ancestor of the tribe.

Chapter 18 Lingyu: Water Control Technique (Please continue reading)
“Ah Scorpion, go ask the clan leader if any new fragments have been found.”

Upon hearing the order, the young man guarding the cave entrance quickly walked away.

Unable to discern any clues, he could only pin his hopes on acquiring more fragments.

If he could piece together most of the ironwood ship and make the animal patterns on it more complete, he might get some inspiration.

A burly man walked into the cave.

"Uncle, have you found anything?"

"No, witchcraft is a supernatural art, derived from the divine abilities of exotic creatures in the Great Wilderness. How can it be discerned just by looking at it?"

The strong man was Huang Yun, the chieftain of the Shanghuang tribe.

"I have already sent out both Huangshi and Huangshang, one to the south and one to the north to search. Once new fragments are found, they will be sent back to the tribe as soon as possible. No one in the vicinity can compete with me, Huangshi."

"Ah."

The old man nodded. "We still need to find the broken part of the ironwood boat as soon as possible. If we can find the person who steered the boat, we might be able to find the real remains of the wizard."

Based on the animal patterns pieced together from the fragments of the ironwood boat, it is clear that it was a rare and exotic species of fish from the Great Wilderness, the Lingyu.

Only the upper part of the Lingyu fish is used as a clan marker.

The upper reaches of Lingyu are more than 10,000 miles away from this place. Even if a Lingyu tribe's ironwood boat were broken, the probability of it being able to drift with the flood to the nearby mountains and fields would be very small.

There is only one possibility: that a Lingyu tribe's ironwood boat broke down in the nearby mountains.

"Don't worry, I've already sent people out to search. If there really is a wizard from the Upper Lingyu who died nearby, and if he had any witchcraft on him, it must be ours. Looking around, besides my Upper Huang, who else is qualified to control witchcraft!"

Huang Yun's large eyes shone brightly. The difference between the upper and lower parts lay not only in martial arts but also in witchcraft.

Shanghuang has stood for over five hundred years, and obtaining the inheritance of shamanistic practices has been the long-cherished wish of generations of clan shamans and clan leaders.

……

The Blazing Flame Section.

Inside the cave, Shen Can lay on the stone bed with his eyes closed.

[You devoted another thirty years to repeatedly copying animal patterns, letting your heart guide your actions, and captured a wisp of spirit as elusive as a swimming fish.]

This wisp of spiritual energy complements the runes he had previously comprehended; the spiritual energy seems to be perfectly natural.

Fifty years later, as you pursue the essence of the spirit, the second rune comes to you naturally.

The two runes intertwined, like ripples on water, the waves surging and shimmering.

Shen Can opened his eyes, his thoughts drifting, [Lifespan: 1011].

Deducing witchcraft is indeed difficult; the intermittent efforts have already consumed more than three hundred years of my lifespan.

But it was worth it; the two shamanic runes, or shamanic symbols, were vividly imprinted in his mind.

The results have been proven, it's time to go all in.

"Give me a thousand-year-old sacrificial cauldron."

Inside the three-legged sacrificial cauldron, a phantom sat cross-legged, and a commotion arose within its mind.

[Stubborn one, you're starting to be stubborn.]

You have dedicated a thousand years of your lifespan to try and deduce the complete water-controlling magic.

[You have mastered two sorcery runes and captured some of the mysteries of water within them. You continue to deduce along this path of mystery.]

The whole process is tedious and complicated, but if you are determined and feel frustrated, you can copy animal patterns.

Hard work pays off; you kept deducing the third, fourth, and so on.

As the number of incantations increases, the aquatic light you perceive becomes increasingly brilliant.

……

[You have deduced the ninth rune. The nine runes, arranged in a single line, have changed. Amidst the shimmering water, the nine runes move together and automatically recombine.]

After being reassembled, the nine runes connected, and a strange, wild beast with a human face, fish body, and four legs vaguely appeared before your eyes.

At first glance, this strange and wild beast seems very flimsy, just a skeleton with nothing inside.

[You immediately realized that you had seen animal patterns on the ironwood ship fragments, which resembled part of the fish-like body of the beast before you, except that the strange beast in front of you had not yet grown scales.]

Congratulations! After 573 years, you have successfully mastered the Water Control Technique of the Lingyu.

……

Inside the cave, Shen Can plunged his hand directly into the large earthenware jar he used for drinking water. The water inside transformed into a stream that wrapped around his wrist.

As he raised his hand, the water flowing around his wrist, like a transparent little snake, crawled up his wrist to his shoulder and began to linger on his body.

Manipulating water flow is just a small trick; witchcraft contains too many variations. Different spell orderings result in different supernatural phenomena, which he had long understood after years of deduction.

He spent over three hundred years comprehending a shamanic script and five hundred and seventy years comprehending a shamanic technique, expending nearly a thousand years of his lifespan in total.

But Shen Can felt it was all worth it.

This thing seems simple now because he already knew how to do it.

He had a feeling that the so-called Lingyu Water Control Technique should be a very large system, and he had only dug out a small part of it.

He has only deduced a preliminary spell so far. There are more than nine Lingyu spells, as evidenced by the slightly ethereal Lingyu phantom.

It's not that Lingyu is a phantom; it's something he's deduced so far that it can only vaguely form the phantom image of Lingyu.

"Lingyu... it really is something from the upper part of the world. It can float over such a distance. Things from the upper part of the world are too tough."

Shen Can's thoughts returned to the ironwood boat itself.

The things on the upper part of the Lingyu fish—no wonder the Shanghuang tribe came to the tribe twice to coerce and entice them. Now he is increasingly convinced that the Shanghuang tribe may have obtained more fragments of the ironwood boat.

The more fragments there are, the more animal patterns they will have. If he had more animal patterns, he wouldn't need to spend so much lifespan to comprehend them.

Perhaps there are others in the Upper Yellow Tribe who are studying the magic above, but it's unknown whether they have the talent to match his genius.

After gathering his thoughts, he walked out of the cave.

It's almost dawn, time to clean up after our ancestors. After that, we'll have to patrol the village.

He cannot relax until the plague is over.

It's unclear how long the clan leader intends to isolate them.

"The clan leader is a cunning old fox."

Facing the rising sun, Shen Can muttered softly as he walked out of the ancestral temple cave.

Although he muttered, it wasn't a complaint, but rather a sign of great joy.

From the fragments of the ironwood boat to the hidden animal blood and the isolation of the tribespeople, it's clear that the chieftain had taken precautions against outsiders spying on them.

He is very experienced in doing things.

……

At noon, Shen Can emerged from the isolated cave and, while gazing into the distance, suddenly saw people approaching from outside the clan's territory.

Squinting, I saw it was a volcano.

I just remembered that he hasn't seen Uncle Volcano for a month.

As the leader of the hunting team, who was second only to Huotang as the tribe's reserve leader, he had not shown his face in the tribe even once in the month since the flood receded.

What were they doing?

Then he looked up at the firebox above the clan's territory, which resembled a waiting-for-husband rock.

"has a problem."

Shen Can muttered something to himself, then returned to the ancestral temple and began to devour the lunch that Huo Xian had prepared.

After finishing their meal, they returned to Xierdong and practiced Kui Niu boxing.

……

"You mean the other nearby tribes were all very lucky and none of them suffered a large-scale attack by the plague?"

Inside the cave, Huotang looked at the dusty, returning volcano with a mixture of regret, helplessness, and resentment.

The witchcraft medicine used to cure the plague has kept the tribe's strength intact.

Three new pioneers were officially added, while six more were added secretly.

This is equivalent to doubling the combat power of a warrior at the Mountain Opening Realm in a tribe.

His knife was so sharp it was practically falling apart, sigh... how come he didn't miss anything?

Holding his chest, Huotang took a long time to recover.

(End of this chapter)