Aji Ga was still underage.
Even in the bitterly cold land of Heishan Baishui, children still enjoyed a few privileges, such as playing.
Aji Ga was four years away from adulthood, and he was no longer an infant, so he was at an age full of curiosity and energy.
Every day, he would either pester the hunters of the tribe to go hunting together or chase after the merchants who occasionally traveled to the civilized cities, asking about the colorful world outside.
Originally, their tribe had no so-called traveling merchants.
The lifestyle of the tribe was very simple, as if it had not changed for millions of years, merely self-sufficient, occasionally intermarrying with other nearby tribes.
However, in recent years, changes had begun to occur.
With the strongest tribes supported by the ancestral beasts stepping out of Heishan Baishui, more and more tribes joined them, calling themselves the Jinren, uniting under the ancestral beasts to become one nation.
Thus, they stepped out of Heishan Baishui to conquer everything...
It was a beautiful vision, a bright future; they could finally escape the bitter cold of Heishan Baishui and head towards that prosperous, colorful world.
But all of this suddenly changed dramatically just a few dozen days ago.
The ancestral beast died! The ancestral temple deep within Heishan Baishui collapsed, and all the bloodline descendants of the ancestral beasts went mad and self-destructed.
Then news came from outside Heishan Baishui that of the tribes that had ventured out, only one in ten survived, and the remaining survivors fled back into Heishan Baishui, heading further north, to colder and more desolate places.
"There is a terrifying immortal pursuing us!"
Terrifying... immortal? This description seemed off.
Even the primitive tribes of Heishan Baishui had myths about immortals.
But how could any immortal be associated with terror? Terror was associated with demons, ghosts, and monsters... for instance, their ancestors could be described as terrifying.
But how could an immortal possibly be terrifying?
Aji Ga had heard the scattered tribespeople who fled speak of this terrifying immortal.
He treated it as a myth, after all, how could anyone possibly defeat an ancestral beast with mere fists? Moreover, they said this terrifying immortal would kill everything, burn everything, and seize everything.
He would even pick through the bones and remnants after killing and burning everything...
Today, Aji Ga was happily chasing a small beast in the jungle, picking some mushrooms and gathering firewood, exploring this unknown world.
Suddenly, he felt a chill all over, as if something terrifying was peering at him.
Aji Ga was startled and immediately dropped everything he had gathered, wanting to flee.
This must be a mountain ghost or a malevolent spirit!
In the past, the ancestral beasts would drive away and restrain mountain ghosts and other terrifying entities.
The tribe only needed to offer sacrifices on time, and the ancestral beast would protect them.
But ever since the ancestral beast left months ago, these ghosts and malevolent spirits began to appear in Heishan Baishui.
"These ghosts and malevolent spirits are the most terrifying, specifically feeding on human essence and blood. They have no rationality as living beings, cannot communicate, and feel no sympathy. In their eyes, there is only the singular desire to kill us..."
"Run! Towards the sunlight, towards the crowd, towards the ancestral graves, run!"
Aji Ga turned and ran.
In this rugged terrain, filled with trees, his speed was not slow.
As a child of the primitive tribe in the mountains, even children had basic survival skills in Heishan Baishui, and their games were often centered around these survival skills.
However, Aji Ga was still young, and despite his agility, the coldness behind him was rapidly closing in.
He grew increasingly terrified, screaming in fear, his face covered in snot and tears.
He had sensed death; instinctive terror enveloped him, and everything before his eyes began to distort gradually.
Trees twisted like human bodies, the earth polluted like entrails, he breathed in a stench, and his skin felt a fleshy touch, as if he were running in a hellish nightmare.
This made Aji Ga scream in despair, and then the coldness behind him surged... rushing past him.
Aji Ga fell to the ground, cut by the rough stones, but he paid no heed, only looking ahead, where he saw a scene he would never forget, one that was utterly incomprehensible.
A group of ghostly monsters, bizarre and terrifying, either skeletal, or a grotesque combination of rotting human and animal parts, or various tentacles and mouths proliferating, a sight that could scare an ordinary person to death—about thirty or forty of them—were madly, horrifically, recklessly charging forward, even ignoring the "delicacies" that had fallen to the ground, rushing forward mindlessly.
Behind them was a tall man, shrouded in blood flames, who was rapidly catching up to these ghostly monsters, smashing them to pieces with his claws and palms.
The blood flames were like fire, while the ghostly monsters were like ice; as soon as they touched the blood flames, all the ghostly monsters emitted extremely tragic sounds, quickly dissolving and disappearing, and this human immediately charged towards other ghostly monsters.
Aji Ga stared blankly at all of this.
In his eyes, these incredibly terrifying ghostly monsters were being devoured by a human...
No! That was definitely not a human!!
At that moment, the tall young man suddenly turned to look at Aji Ga.
Aji Ga saw the young man smile at him, revealing his teeth, as if he were laughing heartily...
No, that was not hearty at all! Aji Ga only saw a blood-red tiger showing its fangs at him.
That was definitely not a human; it was a gigantic blood tiger, far more terrifying than the ancestral beast, not a wild boar or mountain pig, but the true king of beasts!!
The next second, Aji Ga was so frightened that he fainted.
When Aji Ga awoke, the sky was already dim.
He struggled to sit up, moving his cold, stiff body.
Thankfully, it was not the harsh winter with heavy snow, and he had not frozen to death.
Aji Ga immediately rushed back to the tribe, finally returning to the safety of the tribe before it was completely dark.
Although he was young, Aji Ga understood the importance of urgency and caution.
He quickly found the tribe's leader and priest, recounting his experiences from earlier that day, especially detailing the blood-red tiger and its devouring of the ghostly monsters.
"I, Aji Ga, swear to the Eternal Heaven and the ancestral beast that all of this is what I witnessed with my own eyes, absolutely no falsehood!"
Aji Ga concluded this account with the tribe's highest oath.
The leader and priest looked grim and pained.
They comforted and rewarded Aji Ga, allowing him to leave first.
Once he had gone, the priest spoke first, "Noble leader, warrior favored by Eternal Heaven and the ancestral beast, it is time to make a firm decision!"
The leader's face was pained as he struck the animal skin carpet beneath him forcefully, saying, "But this is the place where my grandfather, my grandfather's grandfather, and my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather lived. Our ancestral graves are here, the spirits of our ancestors are here. How can we abandon this land and venture into the depths of the ice hell?!"
The priest remained silent, waiting for the leader to vent his emotions before he slowly spoke, "The ancestors have spirits. We only need to take the ashes from the ancestral graves, and their spirits will follow us. But if we all die, the ancestors will not receive blood sacrifices. At that time, not only will the ancestors gradually weaken and die, but we will also become wandering ghosts, Alada, you must think clearly."
Alada's face turned ashen as he fell silent.
He was old, already forty years old.
Though he still appeared strong and robust, he could no longer endure the harsh and cold winters.
Here, relying on his authority and long-standing rules, he could still be the leader for at least another ten years.
By then, his son would have grown up, and he could push his son into the position of leader.
But if they migrated now, his son was only thirteen, far from the age of becoming a hero.
His strength and power were insufficient to bear the responsibilities of the leader during such a migration.
Soon, the strongest youth in the tribe would challenge him...
But if they did not leave, he would die, his son would die, his wives would die, and all his wealth would be lost...
"Is there really... no other way? If it is a tiger demon, we could also offer sacrifices, even double the offerings, can't we!?" Alada asked unwillingly.
The priest stirred the fire pit, saying softly, "These matters were not meant to be told to you, but it doesn't matter now... The ancestral beast is not actually our ancestor; it is a terrifying wild boar demon. Do you really think it was like this from the beginning?"
"No, it was we, the priests, who sacrificed countless lives to make it what it is today!"
"According to secret oral traditions, it initially slaughtered all living beings. Our ancestors were almost wiped out by it. We had no choice but to use the Horse-Running Secret Technique to refine ourselves, distorting our own souls to offer them for its slaughter. This distortion would turn our souls into a kind of toxin, and the more it killed and devoured, the more this toxin would gradually infect it."
"Later, influenced by this toxin, especially after devouring those souls, it began to grow close to us, at least not killing us all. Then, through sacrifices, we transmitted the poison of faith to it, and it, oblivious, became our ancestral beast, protecting Heishan Baishui. It seems to enslave countless souls, but in truth, they are all sacrifices carrying the beliefs of our ancestors."
"It took us hundreds of years to change this terrifying pig demon, transforming it from a monster that destroys everything into an ancestral beast. Otherwise, do you really think a monster would protect humans? Even if humans offered sacrifices, would it protect us?"
Alada was dumbfounded; he could not have imagined such secrets.
The priest sighed and continued, "There are also distinctions among demons. The remnants of the tribes that fled back told us that the being that killed the ancestral beast is an immortal. But now we know it is actually a more terrifying tiger demon. Tigers eat wild boars; it is only natural. The king of beasts, that is the true terror!"
"The tiger demon already possesses the great ability to gather wandering ghosts. Our poison of faith and our sacrificial methods are completely useless against it. Moreover, the intelligence of the tiger far surpasses that of the wild boar. It will only kill us, turning us into wandering ghosts, unable to seek life or death!"
Alada suddenly closed his eyes.
After a moment, he resolutely said, "Pack everything we can take overnight. At dawn, we will set off, heading north, advancing into the depths of the ice hell!"
When Wu Qifu found this abandoned tribal ruin, it was already two days later.
In the deep mountains and forests, direction was hard to discern, and there were many ghostly monsters.
He eradicated all evil; as long as he discovered them, he had to pursue them to the end.
Thus, all the traces of human habitation he found along the way had become such ruins.
"Indeed!"
Wu Qifu looked at the ruins, observing the signs of panic, and said fiercely, "Those Jinren are indeed brutal and terrifying!"
"They must have retreated back to this old mountain forest, their ferocity unchanged, burning, killing, and plundering, not even sparing the primitive tribes of the same kind, looting everything as they went further north!"
Wu Qifu hated these Jinren to the extreme.
He punched a giant tree, bending it in half, and said to Qiu Qiu, "Let’s go! Continue the pursuit!"
"I must kill all these beasts!"
(End of Chapter)