Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

The giant snake in front of them suddenly moved.

Despite being a giant wooden snake, complete with wood grain, it actually raised its head!

"Rumble, rumble—"

The giant wooden snake raised its head and stretched its body, then, as if it had discovered something, it turned its head and sniffed around.

Immediately afterwards, the wooden snake turned its gaze to the altar.

With just a flick of its head, the giant snake swallowed the mountain of roasted meat whole.

"How can this be?"

The young guard immediately felt his brain not working properly.

No matter how you look at it, it's just a wooden snake. How could a wooden snake possibly move or even eat?

But right before the young guard's eyes, the giant serpent was indeed devouring the food. Soon, the delicacies piled on the altar were swept away by the enormous wooden serpent.

"How did they do that...?"

The young guard was completely baffled; everything before him was far too challenging to his understanding.

But at that moment, he suddenly noticed that among the crowd surrounding the giant snake, there was a young man just like him pointing in the direction of the snake.

With a flick of the finger, the giant wooden snake returned to its coiled position once more.

But its raised head still looked so majestic.

"What... what kind of power is this?"

The young guard was stunned for a moment.

His intuition was frantically telling him that he seemed to have seen something, something extraordinary.

----------

"It seems that this harvest festival went fairly well."

Before the giant wooden serpent, the former Ignis people nodded in agreement.

Although they had fled into the mountains to escape the harvest festival's sacrificial offerings, after living there for a while, they had come to miss the festival. Of course, they didn't miss the tyrannical magicians; they simply missed the atmosphere of the festival back then.

So they recreated the festival from that year. Although the snake god seemed to be still asleep and did not allow them to worship it as a deity, it did not stop them from carving a wooden snake to enhance the festive atmosphere.

"But I still owe you a lot for today's matter."

Thinking of this, people turned around and thanked the rather young figure behind them.

“If you hadn’t intervened, this wood carving probably wouldn’t have been able to move… After all, our understanding of the Dao is still far from complete.”

"How could that be? What do you mean by 'hard work'?"

Faced with everyone's gratitude, the young man waved his hands repeatedly.

"While it is true that I made this wooden sculpture move, the premise is that the structural support of the wood is stable enough... The person who carved this wooden snake, Tiberius, and the craftsmen who followed him in the path of craftsmanship, are the ones who truly worked hard."

These humble words naturally garnered even more approval from the people, who praised him as truly worthy of being the first person to arrive at the sacred mountain.

After that, they all gathered around the wooden snake. There was a wooden slide on the snake's back, and the food that the snake had just swallowed would soon slide down the slide.

As for the delicacies that slid down, they were shared by everyone present, so as not to waste these specially prepared dishes.

However, there was only one person who did not participate in this grand event: the young man who had manipulated the wooden snake earlier. He simply hid among the crowd, gazing into the distance.

Looking into the distance, I could see the direction where another young man was hiding.

"In that case, I guess I've fulfilled the promise I made to you back then?"

Recalling the last words he heard that day, the young man sighed.

"I have asked you to protect your people, and I have done so before, but your people are just... sigh."

"So I won't deliberately give him anything; I'll just let the kid see for himself."

"I hope he can understand, and then take the Dao back to your people."

"Otherwise, your people will have no future."

Chapter 63 After Eating Too Much

The story begins on the day Akakage passed away.

On his deathbed, Akakage asked an old acquaintance, the deserter, to protect his people—a task that, while a little troublesome for the deserter, wasn't too difficult.

Even if these so-called clansmen were once royalty, it doesn't matter.

Simply because he is no longer the deserter he once was.

He has become a man of the mountains, found his own path, and at this moment, he is far more powerful than all the magicians combined. There is already a qualitative difference between those who have the Way and those who do not.

"So this shouldn't be a big deal."

Although he complained about how troublesome the matter was after being entrusted by Akakage, at that time he thought it was just a trivial matter.

After all, these magicians, who were once high and mighty in his eyes, were no longer worth mentioning to him, who had already comprehended the Dao.

"I never imagined that you, who were once so high and mighty, would stoop so low as to need to survive in this way."

That's what he was thinking at the time.

With this in mind, he kept a close eye on the Ignivas people down the mountain, watching some of them head south and those who didn't leave continue to live on this land. In the meantime, he would occasionally intervene behind the scenes, giving them a helping hand when they were about to meet their end, and dealing with those deadly situations in advance.

This behavior seemed quite novel to him, much like herding livestock on a ranch when he was a child. As a shepherd, the saber-toothed tiger and mammoth grew up under his watchful eye.

"When that serpent... the Ancestor of the Dao, was he looking at us, did he also have this thought in mind?"

He once thought that way.

But soon he realized that these Ignivas were not saber-toothed tigers or mammoths.

At least saber-toothed tigers and mammoths, no matter how stupid they are, would not actively seek death.

He would never see the Ignivas who left this land, and as for the Ignivas who remained... well, it's a long story.

Initially, when these Ignivas were struggling to manage the ranch, seeing that these former royalty didn't know how to do their work, he secretly released a few breeding stock into their ranch—those mammoths were created by people in the mountains who specialized in breeding. Their meat quality might only be average, but their breeding ability was quite astonishing.

Even mages who don't know much about manual labor can feed these mammoths; given their enormous size, they at least won't starve.

He thought well.

Even at the beginning, everything seemed fine. The Ignivas avoided starvation and even started eating meat again. But after they had meat, their first priority was not to survive, but to immediately fight the giants.

After a major battle, several ranches that had just resumed production were completely destroyed, and the mammoths, as resources fought over by both sides, were devoured clean.

The situation of the Ignivas did not improve; instead, it worsened, to the point of near extinction.

"No, this?"

The results of his actions puzzled him greatly, and, refusing to believe in superstition, he began his attempt once again.

This time, he offered planting techniques that neither the Ignivas nor the giants possessed—although they certainly had done things like burying seeds in the soil, it was clearly not comparable to true cultivation.

From reclaiming land to using manure to improve soil quality, and then to specific planting and cultivation methods, those in the mountains who are interested in cultivating fruits and vegetables have gradually begun to figure out a relatively complete process.

Although the serpent god's excrement could not be given to these Ignivas people, after trying it several times, the people in the mountains discovered that human excrement had a similar effect—of course, compared to the improvement that the serpent god's excrement brought to the land, human excrement was far inferior, but it was still better than nothing.

Thus, after receiving this technology, the Ignivas people living at the foot of the mountain were finally able to escape the brink of extinction once again.

Seeing that these Ignivas wouldn't starve, he felt a little relieved, having been observing them from the shadows. At that time, he thought the matter wouldn't be complicated, just a simple favor. After that, he went about his own business, since he had his own path to follow and couldn't keep an eye on these Ignivas every day.

However, in the short time he was away, something unexpected happened to the Ignivas.

When he finished his work, he discovered that the Ignivas were starving to death again, and the plantation had been destroyed once more. This time, it wasn't even because of the giants—after solving the food crisis, the Ignivas had broken out into a civil war on their own. The reason was that some people were working hard, while others didn't want to work.

"Can this also start a fight?"

Although he could understand the reasons why these Ignivas were fighting, in his eyes, these Ignivas had only just recovered from the crisis of their genocide, and after only a few days of good times, they were already fighting amongst themselves. He simply couldn't understand what these people were thinking.

This kind of thing has happened countless times.

Each time, he saved the Ignivas from extinction, and each time, the Ignivas managed to bring about their own demise—like a saber-toothed tiger in a pasture starting to tirelessly bang its head against a tree, or a tall mammoth suddenly grabbing and gnawing on poisonous grass.

Even the most foolish animal wouldn't do such a thing; this behavior of rushing headlong towards death can no longer be explained by normal logic.

But through repeated cycles, he gradually discovered the pattern.

“Every single time, it’s after I’ve eaten my fill.”

"I always look for death after I've eaten my fill."

"Even if people in the mountains are well-fed, they won't deliberately seek death, because they all know what they should do. But these people don't know what they should do, so no matter how much we help them, it's meaningless."

"What they lack has never been a way to survive, but rather their own way of life."

At that moment, a realization dawned on him.

"No wonder that Dao Ancestor specifically reminded us to find our own Dao..."

Recalling the serpent god's teachings, he felt as if he had found a solution to the problem.

Chapter 64 The Way is Not Easily Passed Down

Following the teachings of the serpent god, the former deserter began his new round of actions.

At this point, he no longer deliberately helped the Ignivas. After all, it had been proven that if the Ignivas did not find their way, then no matter how much help he gave them, it would still be meaningless.

Just as it's better to teach someone to fish than to give them a fish, it's better to help these Ignivas find out why they live than to simply provide them with a way to feed themselves.

But how can this kind of knowledge be taught?

"Just tell them."

That was his initial thought.

Passing on his understanding of the Dao was the most reliable method he could think of, and in his view, it was no big deal, even easier than secretly watching over these Ignivas people before.

After all, before, he needed to provide mammoth cubs or seedlings of fruits and vegetables, but now, he only needs to speak.

All it takes is speaking; it's practically free. He just needs to say what he thinks and understands, and the knowledge will multiply from one copy to two, or even more.

"And these are things I've painstakingly come to understand over decades..."

At that time, he felt that what he was about to tell was very valuable, and that when he told these things, the people down the mountain would surely be able to get rid of their lack of morality and gradually begin to find their own way.

"Just like what that Dao Ancestor did to us."

In a daze, he even felt that he had grasped the profound meaning of the Dao Ancestor.

He even felt at one point that he had also stood in the position of the ancestor of the Dao.

It was at that moment that he understood what the feeling of being on par with the gods really meant—it was never about combat strength. After all, the royal family of the past had already proven this point: having combat strength but lacking the right principles will only lead to self-destruction.

The true measure of being on par with the divine lies in the Tao itself.

This is the true path to godhood.

"And now, I will pass all of this on to you."

At that time, he said this to the Ignivas people he had recruited.

“I have already taught you these secrets about the Tao. You must take this knowledge back and share it with your people… When you all understand the meaning of the Tao, your people will continue to thrive.”

At that time, he felt that he had succeeded, and that these Ignivas people would surely find their own way and the meaning of their lives, just like the people in the mountains before them.

But who could have imagined that the Ignivas would laugh it off and ignore his words?

The Ignivas did learn something, but what they wanted to learn was how to gain greater power. After trying several times and finding that they couldn't use the various supernatural abilities like the mountain people, they eventually turned their attention to the traditional magic of the Ignivas themselves.

Whether something is powerful or not ultimately needs to be proven, and the best way to prove power is naturally to kill enemies.

So, naturally, these Ignivas went to war again, against the giants, and even against each other. They all felt that they had a deep understanding of everything, and that as long as they were strong enough, everything could continue.

"When did I say that to you?"

By the time he realized something was wrong, it was too late. After all, the tradition of the Ignivas was to exchange food for fighting power—and as the bellies of those mages grew larger and larger, the already ravaged land became increasingly barren.

"Why is this happening?"

Seeing the Ignivas people on the verge of extinction once again, he was completely dumbfounded.

In an effort to help these Ignivas escape annihilation and find their own path, he tried several more times. But each time, these Ignivas always managed to come up with something new—heaven knows what these Ignivas were thinking. He had explained the path so clearly, yet they still repeatedly chose to walk down the path to their doom.

At this moment, he would no longer say anything about being on par with the gods, after all, that snake god, or rather that ancestor of the Dao, had not fallen into the same predicament as him.