Whether it was out of gratitude for the kindness the Black Python tribe had shown him, or to build good relations with rising stars like Henry Clark and Logan Clark, Ethan Brooks would never be so stingy as to begrudge a single cunning beast’s fang—he wasn’t really just a little brat, after all.

Logan Clark, seeing how easily Ethan Brooks handed over the long fang, was naturally overjoyed. Generously, he untied the animal hide pouch from his waist and spread out the “rare treasures” he had collected for Ethan Brooks to see: “Take anything you like, consider it a trade for your long fang.”

“So fussy, as if I’m some miser,” Ethan Brooks said, pretending to be displeased.

Henry Clark also mocked Logan Clark: “With your bag of junk, do you really think Ethan would trade you the long fang?”

Logan Clark scratched his head in embarrassment, feeling even closer to Ethan Brooks in his heart.

Just then, Nathan Reed led a group carrying a massive skeleton out of the stone hall, immediately drawing the attention of all the youths.

The snow-white, serpentine skeleton was coiled into a heap like a giant millstone. Two mid-level barbarian warriors lifted it with wooden poles, clearly struggling under its weight.

“Ah, Grandpa is going to boil this Black Python skeleton together with the cunning beast for the beast feast!” Henry Clark exclaimed in surprise, watching the clansmen hoist the python bones onto the earthen platform and toss them into the bronze cauldron.

The Black Python tribe revered the python as their sacred totem. In fact, a hundred li west of the stone village lay Snake Valley, where the black python reigned as king among snakes, incomparably venomous.

The most crucial ingredient in refining Black Python pills was the black python’s saliva, taken from Snake Valley.

Ethan Brooks had seen black pythons in Snake Valley that were eleven or twelve meters long—already enormous—but judging by this skeleton, if stretched out, it must have been twenty or thirty meters long. He wondered, just how many years had this python lived before it died?

Ethan Brooks thought to himself, the Black Python tribe must be bringing out all their best treasures this time, boiling them together with the cunning beast.

Chapter 010: The Mysterious Soul Sacrifice

At this moment, the shaman Edward Clark changed into a coarse gray hemp robe and, together with several elders from the village, walked out of the stone hall and ascended the sacrificial altar...

Afterwards, a dozen or so clansmen carried up basins of bloody meat chunks in large clay jars, pouring them into the bronze cauldron atop the fire altar.

Ethan Brooks wasn’t sure if this was the meat and bones of the cunning beast after it had been dismembered.

The shaman Edward Clark, now dressed in coarse hemp robes, held that pitch-black bone staff, tidied his attire before the altar, and swept his piercing gaze over the Black Python tribespeople gathering in the square. In a hoarse voice, he shouted loudly: “Soul sacrifice to the first barbarian!”

The shaman Edward Clark stepped onto the altar, while Nathan Reed led a team of barbarian warriors—some leading, some carrying, some restraining—all sorts of wild beasts and fierce birds, approaching from outside the crowd.

Ethan Brooks had never witnessed a soul sacrifice beast feast before, nor had anyone ever told him about it. But seeing these wild beasts and fierce birds—wild boars, green wolves, mountain martens, leopard badgers, tiger sparrows, mountain eagles, red-crowned storks—and Nathan Reed himself carrying a huge barbarian ox, its four limbs tightly bound with ropes, slung over his shoulder...

Ethan Brooks wondered, are they really going to slaughter them all and throw them into the bronze cauldron to cook together?

The bronze cauldron was enormous, but with the giant python skeleton, the cunning beast’s meat, and countless spiritual herbs and exotic plants already inside, how could there be any room left to stew all these extra wild beasts and fierce birds?

These wild beasts and birds varied in size, but just the barbarian ox alone weighed three or four thousand jin.

The barbarian ox was a relatively docile wild beast, but that didn’t mean it would meekly submit to slaughter. Only with its four hooves bound by ropes and Nathan Reed pressing down its massive head could it do nothing but let out mournful, helpless bellows. As Ethan Brooks wondered how Nathan Reed and the others would deal with these wild beasts and birds, he saw Nathan Reed lead the barbarian warriors around the altar, setting down the animals from their shoulders to form a huge sacrificial beast circle.

By now, night had fully fallen. The shaman Edward Clark ascended the altar, swallowed a handful of Black Python pills, and, waving his pitch-black bone staff, began to chant loudly.

Below the fire altar, Black Python tribespeople raised torches and lit the fire altar soaked in animal fat. With crackling sounds and billowing black smoke, the flames grew ever brighter.

Henry Clark, Logan Clark, and the other youths, as well as even younger children, now stepped out from the crowd, bare-chested, and walked to the open space between the altar and the sacrificial beast circle.

Henry Clark waved for Ethan Brooks to join them. Ethan Brooks hesitated for a moment, then looked up to see Grandpa Edward Clark nodding at him in affirmation. Only then did he step out from the crowd and stand within the beast circle.

The shaman Edward Clark stood atop the fire altar, his withered old face illuminated by the firelight, now glowing with a lustrous sheen.

As he chanted, a mysterious power gathered around him. Then Samuel Clark and three barbarian warriors from the tribe carried a giant wooden pole onto the altar, and a huge animal hide banner was hoisted up, appearing in the firelight like the Black Python battle flag.

One corner of the animal hide banner had been burned away, leaving scorch marks.

In the firelight, the tattered banner depicted a bare-chested, animal-hide-clad ancient barbarian war god, stepping forward and thrusting a giant spear. The sense of power condensed in that instant seemed as if it could pierce the heavens...

If the Roc Fist manual copied by the Green Wood Daoist on silk could be called a masterpiece of painting, then this battle flag’s giant image could be said to have reached the level of true mastery.