Chapter 567
Leaving?
After the hunting team returned, Shao Xuan told the shamans and chiefs about what they saw and reminded everyone to make preparations in advance.
Everything seemed fine now. The weather had no abnormalities. It wasn’t too hot or too cold. It was as if nature returned to its original order, but for the Flaming Horns and other tribes on land, this drought after the scorching winter troubled them.
There were many streams, water pools, small and medium-sized lakes formed by groundwater on this continent. As winter passed, rain arrived, and the weather was slowly becoming normal, but the water levels remained low, making the situation even worse than before.
There were not many water sources available, and competition for resources once again broke out.
Spring was a season of blooming and liveliness, but this year, it filled the land with an inexplicable panic.
Dry brown bloodstains smeared the grass beside the river, filling the air with residual murderous rancidity. It told passengers who passed by the tragic stories that had happened here.
As they received the news brought back by the team that had just come back from afar, Shao Xuan and the other leaders of the tribe were silent.
After a while, the shaman finally spoke.
“These are all signs. We need to prepare ourselves in advance.” The shaman sighed as he slowly walked towards the window. He looked up at the blue sky and white clouds outside. “It might even be worse than what our ancestors encountered thousands of years ago.”
Everyone was surprised upon hearing the shaman’s words. They could no longer sit still, and each one jumped up nervously as if a needle had poked them.
“What?!”
“Shaman, did you mean...”
“Do you think we will encounter the same things our ancestors encountered that year?”
Neither the chiefs nor hunt leaders could calm down now. They only thought about the hardships they suffered in the past winter and didn’t foresee anything else. Still, as the chiefs and leaders listened to the shaman’s words, they thought, ‘We’re going to face what our ancestors encountered thousands of years ago? Doesn’t that mean the degree of destruction would be..?!’
Zheng Luo and Duo Kang looked at the shaman who was sighing in front of the window. They turned to look at the shamaness who had not yet spoken, “What do you mean?”
The old lady sitting there lifted her eyelids and glanced at Zheng Luo and Duo Kang helplessly. They had spent so much time together that Zheng Luo and Duo Kang could guess what she felt by just a glance.
The old lady’s reaction clearly showed that she agreed with the shaman. In other words, she had the same feeling.
They were shocked. Fear and panic struck them all at once. After all the emotions swam through their heads, only a mere blankness remained.
They were all familiar with history. Although the tribesmen had not experienced the disasters that happened thousands of years ago, they learned enough from the records left behind by their ancestors. If their powerful ancestors couldn’t avoid it, what could they do?
Thousands of years ago, a natural disaster hit the Flaming Horn tribe hard and dethroned them from their previous glory. Following that, conflicting ideas caused the tribe to divide into two. Once brilliant and glorious, the Flaming Horn tribe fell into the dust and faded out of sight.
It was the decision made by heaven and earth. Even their ancestors could do nothing about it. What could they do?
So what if they knew in advance? Didn’t their ancestors also anticipate the disaster? Even if they could not predict specific things, they probably sensed something was coming. But in the end, the result was still the same.
If it were other things, perhaps the Flaming Horn tribe could stand firm against it. But if it was the same natural disaster as it was thousands of years ago, they were terrified.
“What should we do?” Ao’s fists clenched beside him as he shivered slightly.
What could they do? This was something every one of them wanted to know.
The house was once again silent like the night, surrounded by an unknown pressure that sent chills. Even when the warm winds blew in from the windows, it did not improve the fear-induced cold. The worries in everyone’s minds started spreading in all directions. The more they thought about it, the more panic-stricken they became. The more they thought about it, the colder they felt from the fear.
It had only been less than four years since they returned to their homeland.
They thought they could start anew, but now, as they heard the news, all of their hopes went out like a blown candle.
If this disaster was humanmade, it could be stopped. But this was the decision of the heavens. It could not be helped. At least this was what every tribesman thought.
They forgot how much time had passed, but suddenly, all their eyes glanced over at Shao Xuan, who was deep in thought. As he sensed their glances, he looked up and saw everyone staring at him.
“What?” Shao Xuan wondered.
“Can’t you tell the fortune with your ropes?” Zheng Luo asked.
Shao Xuan could use the knotting technique to tell the fortune, and everyone knew it.
“I tried it several times already. I’ve had no success.” Shao Xuan shook his head.
The other people seemed depressed and hopeless. They looked down gloomily on the ground with colors of disappointment. They thought that if the shamans could not do anything about it, perhaps Shao Xuan could use his fortune-telling skills to figure it out. But now it seemed like they could no longer rely on that.
Duo Kang scratched his head, “Can’t we call upon the power of our ancestors?”
“The power of the ancestors?” They were all puzzled, and then they looked at Shao Xuan with eyes shining of expectation.
That’s right! Why didn’t they think of their ancestors’ powers?
Didn’t they rely on their ancestors’ powers when they crossed the sea?
Their ancestors’ energy was so powerful that not everyone could use it. Even their ancestors from a thousand years ago couldn’t summon as much power as Shao Xuan could.
Shao Xuan took out the bone necklace that he had been wearing, took a deep breath, and then sighed, “The ancestor bones may not be usable. We already used too much of its power when we crossed the sea. Even if we can use it now, it probably can’t help us much.”
The six bone ornaments on the necklace were still dim, but it was already brighter than after they used it to cross the sea. It was like a tired man who hadn’t gotten enough rest to recover. Its energy was not at its maximum. If they were to use it for this situation, not only could it not reach its full potential, they might even lose its power entirely.
They could not put their hopes entirely on those bones. They had to think of other ways.
“If we can’t use this or that, what can we do? Do we really need to leave our homeland?” Duo Kang muttered.
As soon as he said those words, they all glanced over fiercely. What a thing to say! This was their homeland! How could they leave it behind?!
But... the situation now was indeed different from what it was a thousand years ago.
There was no longer any fire seed here.
Even if the entire tribe wanted to migrate, it was possible in theory.
But the fact was, nobody wanted to leave even if there was no longer any fire seed left. They felt a sense of belonging to the place. But wasn’t this a special case? They could leave their homeland first and return after the disaster had passed.
If you thought about it this way, it made sense.