Chapter 1519 - 454: The Birth of [XX]

Chapter 1519: Chapter 454: The Birth of [XX]

Everyone must become a disciple of the gods within the stone.

In this way, unconsciously, the sanctity of the original disciple is diluted.

If everyone is a disciple, then disciples are no longer unique.

To strengthen this effect, he came up with a solution.

This solution is: stir things up!

He announced that when the gods in the stone were speaking to him, they told him that they felt there were too many people in the cave and it was too noisy.

Therefore, everyone moved out of the cave to live elsewhere, leaving the cave for the gods within the stone to reside—while God Stick, as the only one who could communicate and interact with the gods, could continue living in the warm cave.

Others had no choice but to move out of the cave and live outside it.

They chopped trees, wove grass covers, and transported stones to create simple houses—or rather, shacks.

And the original cave became the place to offer tributes to the gods.

Thus, the "Temple" was born.

God Stick continued to assert himself, telling everyone that the gods demanded tributes and more offerings should be dedicated to the gods.

Hence, the meat of the plumpest part of every hunted animal was the god’s property and had to be offered at the Temple.

Disciples also needed to spend time gathering shiny stones and grinding them into powder, turning them into colorful dyes, mixing them with water to create paints.

They used the paints to decorate the Temple in various beautiful colors.

Thus, the "Ritual" was born.

As the rituals became more complicated, after everyone put in hard labor and expended considerable sweat...

No one seemed to notice one thing: God Stick’s status seemed to be rising.

Because in every matter, it was God Stick giving orders, and everyone unconsciously followed God Stick’s commands, gradually forming a habit.

Eventually, everyone looked at the beautifully painted and imposing Temple, at God Stick adorned with the most beautiful and precious gems and ornaments looted...

It seemed he ought to be high above.

The ritual serves as an invisible brainwashing, a long-term, continuous brainwashing.

Even the original powerful disciple seems to have forgotten to compete against God Stick.

He began to conform, or rather, he wasn’t that smart in the first place.

As the tribe increased in number, voices also grew. With more people, more voices, his words seemed less important.

He still held a certain status, but this status only came from his superior Combat Power, however... He was no longer the sole disciple, because everyone kneeled to the gods, everyone worshipped the gods.

He was merely one among many.

The tribe continued to grow stronger.

They seized more people, but the newly captured ones were frail and became slaves, while women became the tools of reproduction in the tribe, and the children born became new members of the tribe.

Slaves had no rights to reproduce; once captured, they were ordered by God Stick to be emasculated, leaving them only with the fate of laboring, or when old and weak, being taken out for hunting—acting as bait during the hunting process.

The original disciple remained the strongest in the tribe, but... he had been firmly fixed beneath God Stick in status.

Moreover, God Stick seemed to trust other disciples more, especially the one who ran away for a year and then returned. That guy, after becoming a disciple, grew very close to God Stick, who liked him a lot and gave him high status, allowing him to be responsible for constructing more items needed for rituals.

The powerful disciple objected, but God Stick offered two reasons.

The first reason was merit. The powerful disciple initially robbed only three women and three children.

But the runaway returned and brought back a few people—even though weak, they were males. Men are stronger than women, better able to work.

The second reason was that the gods favored this guy.

The second reason was fairly undefeatable.

God Stick claimed that this guy ran away, wandered outside for a year, and didn’t die, which was the gods’ favor.

The gods let him bring back more people, thus keeping him alive all along.

The powerful disciple complied.

He became the tribe’s sharpest knife, the sturdiest shield.

And the most useful... beast of burden.

For hunting, he was the main force. For looting, he was the main force.

After repeated hunts and battles, they became the strongest tribe in the surrounding area.

With a population exceeding several hundred.

The original cave, now the Temple, was decorated to be more and more imposing.

People used collected animal bones to form a small fence outside the cave, inserting white bones into the ground to create a barrier.

The cave entrance was adorned with sparkling stones and various colored feathers, looking exceptionally extraordinary.

This extraordinary appearance, at first glance, instinctively incites astonishment and awe.

Additionally, God Stick established many rules: every disciple must kneel to the gods at a fixed time, and everyone must contribute a portion of their daily hunting gains to the Temple.

Thus...

"Faith," or rather "Religion," was born.