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

Chapter 28: A Great Plague, Nine Out of Ten Departments Empty (Please continue reading)

The appearance of the winged plague worms threw the tribe into chaos.

Fortunately, during this period, the tribe established an emergency prevention system.

Campfires burned everywhere, and spare potions were placed right next to them.

Soon, thick smoke mixed with the aroma of medicine billowed up.

The swarm of plague insects was dense and gathered in mid-air, forming a swarm that stretched for four or five miles.

As they rushed toward the clan's territory, they smelled a strong medicinal fragrance and began to linger outside the clan's territory.

Only after the tribe increased the amount of witchcraft medicine burned did the swarm of plague insects turn around and head southwest.

Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

A few days later.

The frequency of Winged Plague Bug appearances has increased dramatically, with several appearances a day outside the tribe, ranging in size.

The women and children of the tribe all went into the fumigation cave, and the construction of the city not only did not stop, but actually accelerated.

Huotang personally led the team, wanting to quickly surround the tribe with city walls to prevent the appearance of the winged plague insects and their possession.

Shen Can also increased the amount of the medicated soup he was brewing, and told them not to drink meat broth with their meals, but to drink the medicinal soup directly.

A bowl of herbal soup and a bowl of meat.

……

Inside the ancestral temple.

Huo Xian distributed the witch medicine, and a dozen or so young people from the tribe received the medicine and quickly left.

His face was full of worry. "This is a plague that has not been seen in three hundred years. May our ancestors protect us and help us overcome this disaster."

To prevent this, the bonfires within the tribe are no longer being extinguished, in order to maximize the release of the medicinal aroma.

Shen Can strode in from outside and saw Huo Xian standing at the entrance of the ancestral temple, lost in thought.

"Master, let's go back into the cave quickly, the plague is strong outside."

Shen Can pulled Huo Xian into the ancestral temple.

Inside the cave, a fire pit was dug out, with a hanging pot above it, from which medicinal soup was steaming.

After drinking the medicinal soup, Shen Can went to the fumigation cave.

Before entering the cave, I rinsed myself with medicinal soup.
The Great Wilderness Humans had long noticed that even without contact with the plague worms, people could become infected after they passed through, confirming that the plague worms lingered in the areas they passed through.

In the mouths of Huo Xian and Huo Tang, it is called plague miasma, and Shen Can calls it plague qi.

After checking on the women and children in the clan, most of them were in good condition, with only a few weak children showing signs of lethargy.

In fact, the facts have proven that the tribe's improved witchcraft works. Both the possessing plague insects and the winged plague insects hate the smell of the burning witchcraft.

Avoiding direct contact with the plague insects already minimizes the infection rate.

Next, we need to ensure the health of our clansmen.

When the plague is completely over and the power of the Blazing Flame Clan is not lost, that will be the time for them to truly grow stronger.

……

Half a month later, with Huotang leading the tribe to work day and night, the tribal city wall was completed ahead of schedule.

The establishment of a new city is a major undertaking, and it's a good opportunity to announce it to our ancestors.

There's also a whole clan celebration, with barbecue, dancing, and maybe even some wrestling in the evening.

Unfortunately, a plague struck.

The entire city has walls on the east, west, and south sides, while the north side is simply built on the mountain.

Zushan is the largest of the surrounding mountains, stretching for nearly four miles.

However, the entire Zushan Mountain was not used as the northern section of the city wall; only the section with caves was used, which is about a mile long from east to west.

In the southeast and southwest corners, there are two independent hills, each over fifty feet high, which have been developed into corner towers.

The idea before building it was to make it as small as possible for better defense, since the tribe had a small population.

However, due to construction methods and terrain, the city's perimeter was also close to five li.

On the city wall, there was a fire pit every thirty feet and a small storage building every hundred feet, storing supplies such as animal oil, herbs, and timber.

Near the hearth, there were also large pots and large water storage tanks.

It was used to boil medicinal soup once plague insects appeared.

The moat outside the city was also dug out and piled with grass and wood for use as kindling.

The tribespeople also make wooden guns, which are simple and easy to make, and easier to throw than arrows.

After being shaped, the tip of the spear is soaked in animal oil.

All preparations are in preparation for a possible large-scale outbreak of parasitic pests.

As for ordinary plague worms and winged plague worms, they are much easier to deal with.

……

Huotang's eyes were bloodshot as he shoveled food into a bowl of meat and rice.

Shen Can's eyes were also bloodshot.

Both of them looked exhausted, their hair disheveled, and they didn't resemble temple deities or clan leaders at all.

The two squatted at the cave entrance, each shoveling three large bowls into their mouths, and then gulping down another large bowl of medicinal soup.

"Ah... phew..."

Shen Can leaned against the rock wall and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Just hang in there, it'll pass eventually."

Like the flood, the plague came with equal ferocity, and plague insects flew over the tribe every day.

Although there are no plague insects attached to them, they fly over every day, so people have to be on guard at all times to avoid being taken advantage of by the winged plague insects.

Huotang dripped the last drop of soup into his mouth and said, "I'll go meet up with Huoshan and the others."

After listening, Shen Can took out several talismans and stuffed them into Huo Tang's hand.

They packed up the firewood and left.

From the beginning of the plague, the volcano was responsible for going out to investigate, while the fire dragon was responsible for moving supplies.

He was thinking of taking advantage of the plague worms that were possessing him to make some profit.

However, the severity of this plague was beyond human comprehension. Huotang then ordered the two to return to their clan as soon as possible, to ignore the outside world for the time being, and to return to their clan and guard it.

However, the volcano scouted out several tribes and gathered a group of remaining people.

After receiving the order to return to their tribe, they met up with Huo Kui. The two hid the supplies on the spot, but they couldn't just throw away the remnants of the tribe they had gathered.

This was a woman the old bachelors in the tribe had been longing for, and also an opportunity to strengthen the tribe.

The reason why Volcano and his group returned with difficulty was, in fact, due to the tribe's judgment on the plague. The situation of the plague, like thunderstorms, can change in an instant.

I thought that with the epidemic weakening, I could take advantage of any remaining opportunities.

But when you actually go out and try to find something to fish for, you realize that the epidemic is like ocean waves. Once the waves subside and the surface is calm enough to catch fish, you'll find that you can actually catch fish.

Unexpectedly, an even bigger wave followed.

It's like a little toy that the God of Disaster repeatedly torments and plays with.

After Huotang left, Shen Can also got busy.

Unlike the previous two hundred people from the Yanshan tribe who could be included in the tribe's joint management, this group of newcomers absolutely could not enter the tribe, so he had to make arrangements in advance.

A few days later, they saw the remnants of the various tribes brought back by the volcano.

The clan warriors, dressed in full protective gear, took over the arrangements for the remaining people.

They were a sparse, scattered remnant, like refugees, forming a long line that stretched for miles. They were thin and emaciated, with dull eyes.

When they arrived, some people fell to the ground and were then dragged away and burned by their tribesmen.

"Everyone stripped naked and washed in the medicinal pool, and their clothes were thrown into the fire to burn."

There were two caves ahead of the procession, and large medicinal pools were dug out inside the caves. The remaining people, separated by gender, entered the medicinal pools in the caves to soak in the medicine.

Shen Can originally wanted to dig the medicine pool outside, one would be enough, but after thinking about it, he realized that people would eventually have to be brought into the tribe, so he had to save face for them.

"When I first brought them out, there were quite a few people, almost two thousand."

Even after soaking in the medicinal pool, the volcano still couldn't hide the strange smell on its body.

He went to great lengths to guide these people.

First, settle people in one place, then go to the next place to find other people.

I don't know exactly how many remnants of tribes they gathered, but there were seven or eight of them.

"When we encounter young and strong plague insects, we go out to attract them, but they die along the way. We don't know if we can save these few children."

As Shen Can watched the last person enter the cave, he counted the remaining people in his mind: a total of 712.

Among them, there were only forty-seven able-bodied warriors, four children, and the rest were young and middle-aged women.

There were seven or eight tribes, which should have numbered at least twenty or thirty thousand people, but only a few hundred are left.

He wasn't sure how many of them would survive in the end.

The volcano has no way of exploring what the situation is like in tribes further away.

But the plague's range is not limited to the distance of seven or eight tribes; it can be five hundred miles, a thousand miles... who knows?

However, this scene is easy to describe; it only takes a few words: "Great Epidemic of the Year"...

At this moment, they began dragging corpses out of the cave again, pulling out more than a dozen bodies and throwing them into the campfire.

Seeing this, Shen Can said, "Uncle Volcano, you cannot return to the tribe for the time being. You will have to stay outside for a while."

“Ah Chan, we’ll do whatever you say. It’s fine if we don’t go back. I was thinking of bringing back the resources we’ve collected. Without the burden of the disabled people, we can move things quickly.”

At this point, Volcano pointed to a dozen or so large bags piled up in the distance.

“Ah-chan, I know you are interested in Tibetan scrolls from various ethnic groups.”

"Hide the rest of the items where they are. The scrolls were carried back by me and everyone else. They're in those bags."

……

half a month later.

into the night.

Ancestral temple.

"Ah-chan, there are a total of thirty-five people from our tribe in quarantine today."

The oil lamp flickered as Shen Can sat behind the stone table, writing down numbers on an unfolded animal hide scroll.

Today is the 35th, yesterday was the 39th.

The number of people showing symptoms within the group has been declining for two consecutive days.

The plague struck too fiercely, with nearly eight hundred members of the clan showing symptoms, including more than a dozen martial artists.

These eight hundred people include the women from the Yanshan tribe who were previously included.

The remaining civilians brought back later were not included in the statistics.

More than ten days later, no more members of the clan showed symptoms for two consecutive days.

After more than a month, the clansmen began to gradually recover.

The feared attack by the possessing plague worms did not occur.

This greatly relieved everyone in the clan.

Huotang, who had been keeping watch at the highest point of the tribe for days, finally gave up and lay down, snoring loudly. No one from the tribe went to wake him.

……

Inside the ancestral temple, Shen Can took out a scroll of animal hide with bold characters at the top: The Beginning and End of the Treatment of the Plague.

He continued writing on the scroll, which already contained a lot of content.

"Of the 712 remaining civilians, 357 survived."

"Of the 2,233 tribes, 2,175 survived."

“Within a radius of three to five hundred miles outside the tribe, there are remote and isolated places such as Fushan, Yanshan, Jishi, and Jiangsha, and the directions beyond are unknown.”

After he finished writing, he put the animal skin scroll away.

Suddenly, Shen Can felt like he was on fire, wanting to write everything down for the clan to use as a reference.

Noises were heard outside the cave.

"Ayu, what's wrong?"

Firefish rushed into the cave excitedly, "Brother Can, Uncle Volcano and the others are back! They brought back so many things, let's go take a look!"

(End of this chapter)