Yan Mo was in a bad mood and everything pissed him off.
That damn guide, the last punishment was blinding him. This time he’s paralysed from the waist down, what’s next?
“Unable to escape”… it said. He can’t even sit himself up right now!
Yuan Zhan helped him sit on the pelt mat and knelt on one knee beside him. He watched Yan Mo with a never-before-seen seriousness.
“What did you do this time? Tell me the truth.”
What truth? That I’m getting punished by the guide?
“Last time, you suddenly lost your sight. Primordial God punished you when you forcefully had Jiu Feng save that kid who should’ve died. What did you do, this time?”
Yan Mo heaved a sigh of relief and revealed a slightly heavy expression.
Yuan Zhan grabbed his chin and lifted his face up. “Say it!”
“There’s a price for everything. I used the knowledge the Primordial God passed on to me to build the tribe, Mother-Goddess and the God of Earth have sent down punishment on me.”
“What?” Yuan Zhan was shocked. “Why do Mother-Goddess and Earth God punish you?”
“Because I taught you the beginner training method. I told you that that’s a double-edged sword. I didn’t expect that the other edge wasn’t just aimed at you, but also me.”
“Explain.”
“Indiscriminate killing, slaughter, massacres that could have been prevented… As the Mother-Goddess noted down your wrongdoings, she would also put the sin and wrongdoings on my head. And, because I’m the priest with the knowledge from Primordial God and can hear the voices of gods, Mother-Goddess directly punished me now, and not when my soul have returned to her embrace like how it usually goes.”
Yan Mo told Yuan Zhan that Mother-Goddess was both in charge of managing the life and death of all living beings and the judgement of good and evil. Normally, when someone had done something wrong when living, Mother-Goddess will punish them at later opportunities, and if she didn’t, she will met out the punishment to their souls when they have died. They will be punished until they have paid back all of their sins, and only after that will Mother-Goddess allow them to return to a living body.
“You don’t want to know what how the souls are punished… It’s very painful and hard to bear.” I’m a living example, I can’t die even if I want to.
“So that’s why you made those nine rules, because you know that all wrongdoings will be punished?”
“Yes. Paying for your wrongdoings while living will always be lighter than getting punished after death.”
Yuan Zhan fell into a long silence. Then, he said with solemn mood, “I’m a warrior, I have to kill.”
“I know. The rule for that punishment is you can fight back, if the other side was the first to attack or had malicious intent towards you. As for killing for food… Mother-Goddess will not punish it as long as it’s not overboard. ”
“That’s very vague.”
“I didn’t tell you these to tie up your hands and feet. If you have to kill, you have to kill. As long as you touch on your conscience when you do things.” Yan Mo placed one hand on the place of Yuan Zhan’s heart. “Mother-Goddess will be the judge. But you must remember to not kill indiscriminately or in a cruel way.”
Yuan Zhan didn’t make any promises, but Yan Mo smiled nonetheless. It was a smile from his heart, he even stretched out a hand to gently stroke Yuan Zhan’s face. This big child was actually not very old yet, but he could always make others forget his true age.
Yuan Zhan leaned his head sideways and nuzzled against Yan Mo’s palm.
The wood in the fire pile crackled, and the water in the pot propped on the stones was bubbling up. The people in the tent were still the same as before, but something in the tent seemed to have changed. Or maybe, it hadn’t changed at all.
Yuan Zhan grabbed onto Yan Mo’s hand. His hand wasn’t good-looking at all, but he can’t stop himself from taking a bite of it.
Yan Mo quickly took back his hand. “If you’re hungry, boil meat and eat that, or eat your own hand!” He said with a temper.
The corners of Yuan Zhan’s mouth twitched.
“Why did Earth God punish you? Because of this city and those defensive rivers?”
“You guessed it.” Yan Mo used his hands to pat his unfeeling legs and judged the degree of seriousness. “Just like you said before, human beings are not the masters of this world, or are we the only one living being in the world. The Gods treat all beings equally. While making our city, there were creatures that lived within this area that had been affected or died because of the construction. We have also largely modified the terrain, and it had affected the lives of the creatures living in the surroundings.”
“The god of Earth should have punished me, I was the one who modified the terrain, you just made the suggestion.”
“If I didn’t suggest it, if I didn’t draw it and didn’t explain it to you, will you have build this city and dig out the moats?” Yan Mo didn’t wait for him to reply, “You won’t think of those things in a short time, at least.”
Yuan Zhan clenched his fist. The priest’s punishment, coming straight from gods, it made him feel powerless. If he could just meet the gods… even if he couldn’t defeat them, he wouldn’t let them off easy!
“How long will this punishment last?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“36 vjsr.”
Tejc Itjc ribkis ifa bea atf ygfjat tf’r tbivlcu, “Ktja’r ubbv.”
“Ktf tfii la’r ubbv! Kgs yflcu qjgjisrfv obg j wbcat sbegrfio! P kjr pera vlrjyifv cba ibcu jub, jcv cbk atfs oemxlcu wjvf wf ecjyif ab kjix jujlc.” Ktf jcufg kfca bnfg Tjc Zb’r tfjv.
Tejc Itjc ofia gfjiis eqrfa, yea cbk tf tjv j revvfc eguf ab ijeut. Rbk atja tf atbeuta bo la, kjrc’a tlr qglfra mgjkilcu ktfc atfs olgra wfa?
“You’re laughing! Keep laughing and you can just eat plain boiled meat tonight! Don’t even think of adding a speck of salt!”
Yuan Zhan immediately entered serious mode. “Don’t worry, I won’t leave the tribe and your surroundings this month, unless it’s really important. You can order me around if you need anything, count on me for when you eat, drink, pee, and shit!”
“No need. “Disciple answers when master's in need“. I have Wu Chen to take care of me.”
Yuan Zhan understood the gist of it and bared his teeth in response, “That boy’s legs aren’t even as thick as my fucking arms, what can he do?”
“He can do everything.” That boy Wu Chen was quite the diligent one.
The other guy snorted disdainfully, “Fuck off, the most he could do is empty your piss bucket. You think he can walk around in the snow with your weight on his back?”
“There’s not much snow left around the tribe grounds.” Yan Mo didn’t know that a smile was hanging on his face.
“There’s ice! You want that little boy to drop you so your upper half can be paralysed too? There were people like that in Yuanji tribe before, so many people had slipped on the ice, broke their arms and legs, and even died from the fall! Or you want that boy to break his bones carrying you?”
Yuan Zhan’s expression looked so real to the point Yan Mo was embarrassed to suspect his words to be lies.
“In a while I’ll bring that woman over, maybe she can heal you.”
“I don’t think her powers can surpass a god’s.” Would the guide even allow that sort of bug? Yan Mo didn’t think so.
“We should still try.” Yuan Zhan frowned, indicating that the topic was over. He was hungry, where’s the meat!
“Tomorrow.”
“Hm?”
“She will probably come to me herself to offer to heal me tomorrow.” Yan Mo had thought of a plan. Now that it had come to this, he might as well make good use of it.
Seeing that Yan Mo had made up his mind, Yuan Zhan didn’t insist. He got up and went back to the fire pit to continue cutting meat.
Yan Mo also took out a few things from the medicine pouch and started to make the dipping sauce.
One of the most important spices is the imitation sesame paste, made from stir-fried seepweed seed ground with animal fat and salt. As a Hua (Chinese) person, there’s no such thing as “tired” when it comes to researching food.
Another main seasoning is the sea buckthorn fruit that merpeople sent them. He mashed the little fruits’ pulps with a stone pestle, mix them with the fake sesame paste, and then add in some royal jelly and some roasted salt. Mixing everything will make a sweet, sour and slightly salty dip, a sauce with rich flavours.
Just smelling it made Yuan Zhan drool. Even if you take everything else away from his Lord Priest, as long as he can still cook, just his cooking can subjugate an entire tribe.
Yan Mo was also very satisfied with the dipping sauce he had perfected through many tries. Last time he made a goat meat shabu-shabu, he tried eating the meat with these sauces because he wanted a change of flavour, but it was unexpectedly delicious.
While feeling bitter he was also happy; this was the primitive world with primitive seasoning. As long as those people adapt to this taste, he will immediately turn into god, god of food!
That glutton Yuan Zhan remembered this sauce just after one meal. Last time they had this meal, he ate two whole goat legs with the sauce. And that’s the version with less royal jelly and sea buckthorns, because Yan Mo didn’t want to spend too much of those ingredients on it. If he had, this guys might’ve had eaten another half of a goat.
Once the dipping sauces were done, Yuan Zhan dumped the already cut meat to the pot like someone was chasing him, impatiently swirled the ladle one circle, then spooned it out from the water.
“Hey hey hey! I told you so many times, can you not cook so many at once, don’t you see how much sauce it takes when you do that? This bowl’s for you, you will only get that many, I’m not going to give you more if you finish that bowl!” Yan Mo shielded his own bowl from Yuan Zhan.
Yuan Zhan agreed on the surface, but his eyes had long locked onto its target: the other bowl across from him.
He knew just what to do to get more sauce from his stingy priest. After he finished his own sauce, he’ll go sit right next to his Lord Priest and stare at him while he ate. He’ll give up within a minute.
When they laid down at night, Yan Mo thought that Yuan Zhan would take advantage of the situation. He had even had his needles out and ready, but the other guy just pulled him into his arms, bit him twice, then went to sleep without playing any other tricks.
The body enveloping his own was burning hot, you can’t find a better indoor stove than this. Yan Mo didn’t want to lose the warmth, and he had grown used to sleeping with the guy hugging him like this. He slowly relaxed its vigilance, his body followed and became less and less stiff. He quickly fell into deep sleep.
Within faint lighting from the fire, Yuan Zhan opened his eyes again. The large amount of goat meat he had just eaten made his young body feel like it was burning up, but…
”
”
Yan Mo had a dream that night. He dreamed that some beast with a human face was chasing him. He ran with all he had, but he can’t move no matter how hard he tried. That human-faced beast instantly caught up and pushed him down, and bit down on his neck.
He begged it to let him go. That human faced beast didn’t kill him right away but made a game out of him, like a cat playing with a mouse. The torture went on for a long time. Then, when he was completely worn out and thought, I’ll really be eaten now, he really got eaten. But in a different sense of “eating”…
When he woke up in the morning, Yan Mo had black lines over his face. He didn’t need to look to know, that sensation on his lower half… he had a wet dream. This body had fully grown up.
But… wasn’t that dream too hardcore? He didn’t just dream of getting pushed down, his partner was… why can’t it be human at the very least!
Yan Mo’s anger went up to his head and he felt the urge to go find that beast with too much energy, who had rubbed on him all night, and bite him back. He vividly remembered that face. Those narrow and ruthless eyes… who else can it be, but that beast?
Someone lifted open the tent curtain.
Yuan Zhan came in with a stone bucket.
Yan Mo reached out with his hands, “Quick! I’m about to burst!” He shouted. It’s an emergency!
Yuan Zhan made a proud smile and put the stone bucket in front of Yan Mo, “Look, I made it just now, you can just use this from now on. It’s cold, this way you won’t even need to go out.”
Yan Mo stared at that stone bucket. Is this the world’s very first toilet?
”
”
“Lord Priest can’t walk!”
The news of Yan Mo’s now disabled legs spread through the tribe through the kids who came to the class that morning.
“What happened? How can priest’s legs go bad?” Everyone in the tribe got thrown into disarray. Everyone piled questions onto the children.
Ye Xing, who was the most well-informed in the group, told everyone with a heavy heart, “It’s because Lord Chief used the power of god to build the city for everyone. Primordial God wants to punish our laziness, but Lord Priest takes all the punishments on his own shoulders.”
There were a collective “Ah”s. A’wu people had always lived sharing their burdens together, but now, before they could even learn how to sit and enjoy the fruit of their labours, they got a taste of extreme guilt and shame.
When Yan Mo saw the anxiety and worry in the faces of shaman Wu Cheng and the others who visited him, Yan Mo took the opportunity and told them to summon everyone in one place because he will talk about this in detail.
All the residents of the tribe gathered in front of the stone tablet at noon without anyone reminding them.
Yan Mo appeared in front of everyone, carried by Yuan Zhan.
The ground rose by itself. Wu Chen spread a large piece of pelt he was hugging to his chest, until the pelt covered the earthen platform.
Yan Mo made a sign to Yuan Zhan to let him down and sit him down in a cross-legged position.
The earthen platform was high enough that everyone around could see him even if he was sitting down.
Yan Mo raised a hand.
Everyone below immediately became quiet.
“My tribesmen, hard-working and brave people of our tribe. The spring has come, the ice and the snow are melting. We still have a lot of things to do. Primordial God will punish our laziness, but also reward our diligence. My people, let us show how good we can be, so that Primordial God can see it! Let us work hard together, starting from now. Let’s all build our homes together!”
The crowd of people started to stir at those words. They didn’t know how to respond to it, but many among them started yelling.
“Our tribesmen are diligent people, all the lazy ones can get the fuck out.” Yuan Zhan said with a voice that rose above all others’. “You haven’t passed the test of the Primordial God. You are living on this land on borrowed time. The priest and I provide you with safe homes, food and fire to warm yourself, because god doesn’t want to forsake his people. But, you lose the right to keep staying here when you do things that displease god.”
Everyone fell silent again. When they heard the translation of what Yuan Zhan had just said, many among them showed a panicked expression.
They were just hopeful and filled with expectations when the tribe hadn’t been built, it was just going along with the situation. They didn’t have a very strong sense of belonging toward the tribe yet.
But later there were two moats around the tribe. There were strong walls around the outer city, then another strong protective walls around the inner city, this place had become a much safer place to stay in. By that point, they no longer wanted to leave.
There’s also the newly published rules, as A’wu people started to understand what some of them meant, they were filled with more hope for the future.
They hope, they have things to look forward to, they crave that life.
Because of that, their lives before felt more like living to die one day, they go through every day numb without feeling.
There’s no one who wanted to leave the tribe.
This year’s winter was just as cold as those before, but this was the happiest winter in their lives, everything was good. There was enough food, enough firewood, no one starved to death or froze, and no one was eaten by the beasts.
Who would still want to live that uneasy life where you could die at anytime, when they’ve spent a winter in such luxury?
“Hard workers stay! Kick out lazy ones!” Someone in the crowd shouted.
And a moment later, that same call resounded all around.
“That’s right!” Yuan Zhan looked all around him. “Your kind Lord Priest thought that the winter is too cold, and the ground was too hard for people to work on. That’s why he took over this punishment that was for you. But only this once. I won’t allow a second time! Freezing cold is no excuse! If you can’t dig the soil, there are other things to do. Now the spring is here. My tribesmen, work hard with me, so that the priest of the Primordial God would continue to bless us!”
A’wu people then realized that they would not be abandoned and they still had a chance to work hard in the future. Everyone who had a voice and mouth issued a joyous cheer.
“Work hard! Build our tribe!”
“Raarghhh! Have to be diligent! Can’t be lazy!”
“Work hard! Study well! So Lord Priest can walk again soon!”
The corners of Yan Mo’s mouth twitched hearing those childish shouts that sounded like slogans. He really wanted to laugh, but he held it in. Those brats, what a ruckus!
On this opportunity, Yuan Zhan and Yan Mo also announced a couple of important matter.
First, they established the circle of elders, and appointed two of its members immediately after: Wu Cheng and Mu Changming.
They also established two separate armies: the Yulin Army and the Military Legion.
Wu Cheng was also appointed to be the head of healers and to monitor the sanitation of the tribe. Sa Yu’s mother, Sa Yun, would be in charge of the textile production, while Ye Xing’s grandfather, Ye He, will take care of the leather production.
The Yulin Army is a specialized unit that will protect the chief and the priest, mainly the priest. The reason why Yan Mo decided on this name is because the word happened to have ‘feather’ (yu) in it, and who has feathers? That’s right, Jiu Feng.
There were only four people in the Yulin army at the moment, they work in pairs and take shifts to be on duty. The four people who got chosen were extremely excited, they seemed to radiate a glow with their faces, and the obvious joy made everyone around look at them with envy.
As for the Warrior’s Legion, Yan Mo took the inspiration from his original world and combined several types of army. Their main duties are to guard the tribe, to be dispatched in wars, construction, and hunting. At present, they will focus more on the latter two. When they get more people in their tribe later, they can redistribute the duties.
The head of the Military Legion is Meng. The deputy is Mu Changming, after them, there are two more group leaders, Pang Ze and Huhu.
And lastly, Yan Mo introduced the concept of having separate areas of the tribe to serve different purposes.
No one understood why they have to separate the residential, market, production, administrative and the army barracks but they know one thing for sure, and that was: they can’t just build anything at any random place, it needed to follow the instructions.
Within the crowd, Dofie’s face gradually turned white. The scale and composition of the city, those nine rules and everything that was announced today… Dofie was now sure that this young priest must have come from one of the upper cities in the Three Cities. He might even be from the most mysterious and dangerous city, the Holy City.
She was the daughter of the lord of a lower city, but even she had never heard of these things he mentioned.
Around her, the crowd was starting to disperse as the mass meeting closed to an end. Even if the other party really came from the famous Holy City, Dofie didn’t want to lose this opportunity.
“Lord Priest!” Dofie squeezed through the crowd of people and went to the front of the platform. “My ability also came from the gods, I might be able to help you walk again.”
Padam: Is it just me or stroking face is a very lover-y thing to do? You don’t do that to your younger relative or friend, right???
Aghh I’m so sorry I’m always so late TT __ TT I don’t even know if next week’s update will be on time, people keep wanting me to accompany them everywhere, I feel like both a mascot and a hanging rack.
Yan Mo: those brats!
Me: have you looked at a mirror?
😂😂😂😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Your comments are always epic! 🤣
thanks for the update!
Thank you for the chapter!
Thank u for the chapter
I really love slow development it makes me excited to see the tribe growing strong
In the 56th paragraph, Yan Mo called himself a “Hua” person and you noted that to mean “Chinese” but aren’t the Chinese known as Han people? Or at least Hui people? I’m confused, can you explain?
Yes, Huaxia is an old name for China, it’s separate from ethnicity so many people use it as an umbrella term in modern days.
After thinking about it, the author didn’t use the actual word for china, and it might be an alternate universe china, so I picked Hua as the country name, usually Yan Mo does say, “I’m a Hua person”.
It’s like obviously japanese-inspired country in fiction being renamed “Sakura country” for example, to separate it from the actual Japan in the real world.
ohhh i get it now! that’s so interesting. i love learning about chinese culture and history from cn’s 😍
I am curious, does Hua like “Sakura country” translated as “Flower country” or it is a different Hua character here? If so, what is the literal English translation of Hua country?
I’m so glad you are translating the story. I’ve already read it on another site but it was very mixed up a lot of the things you had to kind of think up on your own or try to figure out what they meant and the story was so good that you did it anyway. But reading this version that’s so nice and clear and understandable it’s just awesome. Thank you for the hard work.
Ah it’snot weird, different culture and family tradition. I guess your family must have skin-ship to show affection, touching face like that. I see some of my friends’ family do that. But my family specifically didn’t do skin touching very often, not even words. My family do service and giving gifts as showing affection, like doing extra work to help the problem of my brother facing(assignments, his personal project whatnot). Even giving gift is mostly without words.
Stroking someone’s cheek is a sign of some more intimate feelings who were born in YM because he is not related to YZ and don’t consider him as a friend but they are still close and YZ is the only one with the potential to be YM’s equal, especially since he complete him with his strength and managing skills. YZ helped lesser YM’s burden by a lot and is very attached to YM. But this dedication come with a price YM stubbornly refuses to recognize