I Steal the Ancestors' Sacrifices to Nourish Myself-Chapter 18: Lingyu · Water Manipulation Technique

Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Lingyu · Water Manipulation Technique

"Axie, go ask the Clan Chief if there are any new fragments found."

The young man guarding the cave entrance heard the order and quickly ran off.

Unable to discern any patterns, he could only pin his hopes on acquiring more fragments.

If he could piece together most of the Ironwood Ship, with more of the Beast Patterns revealed, perhaps he might get some inspiration.

A burly man walked into the cave.

"Uncle Shan, have you found anything?"

"No, witchcraft is a mystical art, derived from the Divine Techniques of the Great Wilderness Exotic Species. It’s not something you can understand just by looking."

The burly man was the Clan Chief of the Upper Huang Division, Huang Yunn.

"I’ve already sent out Huang Shi and Huang Shang, searching north and south. As soon as new fragments are found, they will be quickly sent back to the tribe. No one nearby can snatch them from me, the Upper Huang."

"Hmm."

The elder nodded, "We must quickly find where the Ironwood Ship broke. If we can find the person who sailed it, we might find the true wizard’s remains."

From the Beast Patterns pieced together on the Ironwood Ship fragments, it was clear that it belonged to a Great Wilderness Exotic Species, the Lingyu.

Only the Upper Lingyu Division considered the Lingyu as their emblem.

And the Upper Lingyu Division is over ten thousand miles from here, making it unlikely that a Lingyu Tribe Ironwood Ship, even if broken, could drift on floodwaters to the nearby wilderness.

There’s only one possibility, which is that a Lingyu Tribe’s Ironwood Ship broke down nearby.

"Rest assured, I’ve already sent people out to search. If a wizard from the Upper Lingyu Division truly died nearby, and if they had witchcraft on them, it would definitely be ours. Besides me, the Upper Huang, who else nearby is qualified to master witchcraft!"

Huang Yunn’s big eyes shone brightly, distinguishing between the Upper Division and Lower Division lay not just in Martial Dao but more in the Witchcraft Path.

The Upper Huang has stood for over five hundred years, and obtaining witchcraft heritage has been the aspiration of successive Clan Witches and Clan Leaders.

...

Blazing Flame Division.

Inside the cave, Shen Can lay on a stone bed with his eyes closed.

[Thirty more years you invested, repeatedly copying the Beast Pattern Map, mind moving at will, capturing a trace of spiritual rhyme like a swimming fish]

[This trace of spiritual rhyme complemented the rune you comprehended before, as if innate]

[After fifty years, following the spiritual rhyme, you naturally wrote out the second rune]

[The two runes intertwined, like ripples in water, waves surge, and reflections sparkle]

Shen Can opened his eyes, his thoughts churning, [Lifespan: 1011].

Inference Witchcraft was indeed difficult, consuming over three hundred years of lifespan bit by bit.

But it was worth it. The two witch talismans, or what might be called witch runes, were vividly printed in his mind.

The effects now confirmed, it was time to go all in.

"Sacrificial Tripod Cauldron, give me a thousand years."

Inside the Three-legged Sacrificial Tripod Cauldron, a shadow sat cross-legged, within the void, thoughts resonated.

[You’re getting stubborn, getting stubborn]

[You invested a thousand years of lifespan, aiming to infer the complete Water Manipulation Witchcraft] 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

[You’ve mastered two witchcraft runes, capturing a portion of the water’s mysterious nature within the witch runes, you continued inferring further along this mystery]

[The entire process is tedious and complicated, but you remain determined, copying Beast Pattern Maps whenever restless.

As the saying goes, persistence pays off; the third, fourth witch rune ... continuously being inferred by you.

As the number of witch runes increased, the Water Spiritual Light you felt became more radiant.]

...

[The ninth witch rune was inferred by you, the nine runes aligned in a row but underwent a transformation, amidst rippling water, the nine witch runes automatically reorganized.]

[After reorganization, the nine witch runes connected to each other, vaguely a bizarre wild beast with a human face, fish body, and four limbs appeared before your eyes]

[At first glance, this mystical wild beast seemed very ethereal, only a framework, with nothing inside]

[You immediately realized, you’d seen part of this wild beast’s fish body on the Ironwood Ship fragment’s Beast Pattern Map, except the odd wild beast before you hadn’t grown scales yet]

[Congratulations, after spending five hundred and seventy-three years, you’ve successfully comprehended the Lingyu Water Control Technique]

...

In the cave, Shen Can plunged his hand directly into the large clay pot he used for drinking water.

The water in the pot transformed into a stream, wrapping around his wrist.

As he raised his hand, the stream wrapped around his wrist climbed up to his shoulder like a transparent little snake, starting to wander over his body.

Maneuvering the stream was just a small skill; witchcraft contains too many variations, different witch rune sequences produce different mystical effects. This was a situation he had long understood through years of inference.

Spending over three hundred years to comprehend one witch rune, five hundred and seventy years to understand one witchcraft, altogether consuming nearly a thousand years of lifespan.

Yet Shen Can felt it was all worthwhile.

Looking back now, it seemed simple, but that’s because he had learned it.

He had a feeling that the so-called Lingyu Water Control Technique must be a grand system, and he had just unearthed a small corner of it.

He had now only managed to infer one witchcraft; there must be more than just nine Lingyu witch runes, this was evident from the slightly vague Lingyu phantom.

It wasn’t that the Lingyu was vague, but what he inferred could only vaguely form the phantom of a Lingyu.

"Lingyu... It really belongs to the Upper Division, to drift such a long distance, the Upper Division’s things must be incredibly resilient."

Shen Can’s thoughts returned to the Ironwood Ship itself.

The things from the Upper Lingyu Division, no wonder the Upper Huang Division had twice come to the tribe with threats and inducements. He now increasingly believed that the Upper Huang Division might have acquired more of the Ironwood Ship fragments.

The more fragments there were, the more Beast Pattern Maps there would be. If he had more Beast Patterns, it wouldn’t have taken so much lifespan to comprehend them.

Perhaps someone in the Upper Huang Division was also trying to comprehend the witchcraft on it, though who knows if their talent matched that of a genius like him.

Gathering his thoughts, he headed out of the cave.

Dawn was breaking, it was time to tidy up for the ancestors, and after tidying, he had to go patrol the tribe.

As long as the plague persists, he can’t relax.

He wasn’t sure how long the Clan Leader intended to keep people isolated.

"The Clan Leader is such a sly old fox."

Under the morning sun, Shen Can muttered softly as he walked out of the Ancestral Temple Cave.

Though muttering, he wasn’t complaining, rather he was quite pleased.

From the Ironwood Ship fragments to the Hidden Beast Blood, isolating the tribesmen, it all showed that the Clan Leader was on guard against outside prying eyes in advance.

Very cunning indeed.

...

At noon, when Shen Can came out from the isolation cave, from a distance, he suddenly saw someone approaching from outside the clan grounds.

Squinting to take a closer look, it was Huo Shan.

It just occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Uncle Huo Shan for a month.

As a prospective Celestial Vein of the tribe, second only to Huo Chang, the Hunting Team Leader, it was surprising that since the flood’s retreat over a month ago, he hadn’t shown up in the tribe even once.

What on earth had he been up to?

Again, he looked up at the Longing Stone-like Huo Chang above the clan grounds.

"Something’s off."

Shen Can muttered a sentence, returned to the Ancestral Temple, and devoured the lunch prepared by Huo Xian.

After eating, he returned to the West Ear Cave and began practicing the Kui Ox Fist.

...

"You’re saying that other tribes nearby all got lucky and didn’t suffer any large-scale attacks from the Plague Insects?"

In the cave residence, Huo Chang looked at Huo Shan, who had returned dusty and downtrodden, with a face full of regret, helplessness, anger... a mix of emotions.

The Antidote Witch Medicine maintained the tribe’s strength without any reduction.

Openly there were three new Mountain Openings, secretly there were six more.

This equated to the tribe’s Mountain-Opening Realm Martial Artist strength doubling.

His blade was sharpened and ready, alas... how did they not manage to pick up anything?

Clutching his chest, it took Huo Chang a while to recover.