Chapter 1523 - 455: [Burial]_4

Chapter 1523: Chapter 455: [Burial]_4

What awaited them were the heaviest tasks, and the least amount of food. When they were near death, they’d be taken to the wild as bait for hunting.

The chief of this tribe walked into the temple that had already been set ablaze.

He didn’t come alone, he brought a sacrificial priest from his own tribe with him.

After carefully inspecting the cave, the chief and sacrificial priest saw signs of burning and noticed the untouched stone tree, both were shocked and felt as though facing a formidable foe.

The sacrificial priest told the chief that this was a powerful and evil force, the strange tree must be removed and then burned with the holy fire of their tribe to eliminate this wicked power.

This tribe, worships the flame.

But when the sacrificial priest attempted to smash the stone tree, breaking two stone axes without success, and then tried to set fire to it, burning several logs, yet the stone tree remained untouched.

The stone tree spoke.

It said two sentences to the chief standing beside the sacrificial priest.

The first sentence was: "I am not pleased."

The second sentence was: "Kill this obnoxious person, and I will give you power."

The chief looked at the broken stone axe, the charred wood, the untouched stone tree, and the sacrificial priest who was exhausted and breathless.

Suddenly, he recalled what the captive slaves had said earlier, that the Lion King was punished by the divine for burning the temple and was killed in the great river...

The chief picked up a knife and chopped off the sacrificial priest’s head!

The chief became the new God Stick, and also the new leader.

His tribe took possession of this place, becoming its rulers.

The stone tree could speak with humans now, but it realized not everyone could hear its transmitted will.

Only those with strong willpower could receive its mental transmissions.

Following the stone tree’s demands, the new chief restored the "temple" and chose a group of people to serve the divine tree.

Every day, the divine tree received attention as people polished its body, and kneeled in prayer before it.

The temple’s cave was redecorated to look beautiful once more.

In exchange, the divine tree granted the new chief a powerful physique, transforming his body with Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, and also created several warriors as strong as the former strongest followers.

As a further exchange, the new chief selected one of his sons to be the temple’s overseer, becoming the tribe’s new God Stick.

A hundred years passed, and this tribe reached its peak.

The tribe’s population exceeded ten thousand, and their territory spread from the hillside to the riverbank. More than ten surrounding tribes submitted to them.

The new chief, possessing a strong physique and rarely sustaining injuries in battle, lived until he was one hundred thirty years old. Upon his death, the temple’s God Stick had become his grandson—the preceding ones had all died.

Yet, in his later years, he found he increasingly couldn’t hear the stone tree’s voice.

Such communications were intermittent, sometimes audible, sometimes not.

He couldn’t tell if it was because, in his old age, his mental will had weakened and he often existed in a frail state, unable to receive the stone tree’s mental transmissions.

However, during his lucid moments, he asked the stone tree: I’ve become increasingly unable to hear your voice, what can I do to solve this problem?

After a moment of silence, the stone tree told the new chief the reason.

Simultaneously, it disclosed another matter: that the stone tree couldn’t speak to the chief’s descendants.

His descendants were weak-willed people.

"Is there a solution?"

The new chief was acutely aware that if the succeeding leader couldn’t converse with this divine being after his death, the tribe would immediately fall into a state of losing divine protection.

The stone tree offered a solution: it could actually communicate with another person within the tribe, someone who could hear its voice, someone with a strong enough will to converse with it.

The person the stone tree identified was a warrior in the tribe, a strong, brave warrior in his prime.

After hearing this, the new chief remained silent for a while, then left the temple.

The next day, he returned to the temple holding a human head!

The warrior who could hear the stone tree’s voice was killed by him, his head brought inside.

"Now, tell me, is there another solution? I hope that in the future, those who hear your voice are my descendants."

The stone tree provided him a second answer.

"Nurture me with your human blood, I can let more people hear my voice."

After the new chief’s death, the tribe grew stronger for hundreds of years, flourishing at one time, while heroes emerged in the tribe.

Each generation of chiefs passed down a secret: by watering the stone tree with blood, one could converse with the divine spirit.

Of course, this secret remained solely within the chief’s line of succession.

Over hundreds of years, the tribe developed into a larger power, they even declared themselves as kings.

The king announced that this land, its mountains, rivers, forests, and plains, all belonged to him.

Each generation of kings was healthy, strong, and long-lived.

The stone tree couldn’t leave the cave, but it learned from each generation of kings’ words how far this power had expanded.

Outside the cave weren’t just tribes but united subjugated tribes, they’d even built a city.

This process lasted eight hundred years.

Finally, it was destroyed overnight.

A massive earthquake struck this land.

The earth rolled, volcanos roared.

Overnight, the mountain, home to the stone tree’s cave, collapsed.

The earth’s tremors lasted several days, when everything settled, the peaks became land, rivers transformed into gorges.

And this powerful kingdom with a "king" disintegrated overnight.

No warrior can resist the might of heaven and earth.

No shield can withstand fierce wildfire.

The stone city built over hundreds of years was buried underground overnight.

Also buried were... the cave, the temple.

And, the stone tree.

[Typhoon transit, hope all brothers and sisters along the typhoon’s path stay safe! Wishing everyone well-being!]