Chapter 1520 - 455: [Burial]

Chapter 1520: Chapter 455: [Burial]

Chapter 455 [Burial]

Religion facilitated the development of this tribe. With religion came a stable power structure, and with a stable power structure, internal strife within the tribe seemed to lessen significantly.

However, a vast amount of wealth was spent on offering to the god within the stone—in fact, it was on offering to the so-called temple, or perhaps... that God Stick.

The God Stick was no longer just an individual.

A few people had gathered around the God Stick. Several young boys were chosen specifically to attend to the God Stick’s daily life, praying with him every day, and almost devoutly learning the various rules the God Stick had crafted over the years.

In addition, a few of the tribe’s youngest and prettiest girls were selected to serve the god within the stone.

The girls wore soft furs, neatly groomed, collected rainwater to store, and then wiped the Stone Tree clean every day.

The God Stick told everyone that these girls were chosen by the god to be servants.

Until one day, the God Stick told everyone that the god required new people to serve it, and these people must be of the purest bloodline of faith.

Thus, the God Stick used this excuse to claim those girls serving the god.

No one objected.

After all, the person with the purest faith was—the God Stick himself.

As the tribe expanded, the population grew, demanding more food and more game.

Thus, the expansion continued.

This tribe thrived for about thirty years.

In thirty years, the girls serving the God Stick had been replaced by new ones, young girls grew up and gave birth to the God Stick’s children, who were then raised in the temple.

The God Stick told everyone that these children would be successors of the future God Stick.

In thirty years, the God Stick had nine descendants.

In fact, more were born, but in this harsh ancient tribe, the mortality rate of newborns was still very high.

In thirty years, the God Stick himself gradually aged.

After all, from beginning to end, he was but a mortal.

Finally, at the peak of the tribe’s development, disaster struck.

The strongest believer, the only one whose body was transformed by the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi infused by the Stone Tree, possessing formidable strength.

He died.

After thirty years, in fact, he was no longer as powerful as he was in his youth.

Years of hunting, years spent aiding the tribe’s rise through battles, he had been injured many times. These injuries, accumulated over time, damaged his bodily functions.

Even though his body was transformed by the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, the ancient era’s medical conditions meant that none of his injuries ever truly healed.

Most of the time, his recovery relied on his robust physique’s strong immunity or healing ability.

But repeatedly undergoing this process exhausted much of his Primordial Qi.

Thus, he aged prematurely.

In fact, he aged even before the God Stick.

Of course, his body had been transformed by Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi; even in old age, he remained a courageous warrior, the tribe’s mightiest presence.

He could still single-handedly subdue the tribe’s robust young men and fight a beast alone.

But his abilities had greatly diminished compared to his youth.

Thus, he perished during a campaign.

When after a campaign, the tribe’s elderly, women, and children eagerly awaited the warriors with confidence, anticipating their triumphant return, but did not witness the usual glorious results.

The returning warriors brought back a repressive atmosphere, suffered significant losses, and carried back the strongest believer’s corpse.

His abdomen had been pierced by an enemy’s spear, and most of his blood had drained, leaving him long dead.

This campaign, in reality, was not a loss; it was a victory.

They destroyed a tribe that had migrated from afar to this area, killing most of the male members, capturing the remaining population, and seizing some of their livestock.

However, during the battle, the warrior who was once deemed invincible by the tribe, the strongest believer, was lost.

He was overwhelmed by several people from the opposing tribe, his strength and speed far inferior to his youthful days, resulting in a blow to his abdomen.

The strongest believer’s body was brought into the temple.

On the surface, the God Stick maintained a solemn demeanor but ordered the believer’s body placed beside the Stone Tree.

The God Stick was panicking!

He was well aware that the tribe’s growth to this point was primarily reliant on this magically empowered believer.

And he himself was nothing more than a fraud, incapable of anything.

Staring at the believer’s corpse laid beneath the Stone Tree, he began to pray internally, hoping for a miraculous power to revive this man, just like that magical night thirty years ago.

He hoped that this man could be resurrected to serve the tribe once more, with vigor and energy.

But this time, the Stone Tree remained silent.

Because, last time, the believer was critically injured but not dead.

But this time, he was truly dead.

The body was left under the Stone Tree for a day and a night.

From initial panic, the God Stick slowly came to terms with it.