Chapter 14: The Old Gods and the Chosen One

“Butterfly, you can pause weaving those baskets for now. Help us process the insects that Dashan and the others brought back. I’ll come back later and teach you how to weave other things.”

Butterfly and the others were much slower at weaving baskets than he was, yet by this time, each of them had managed to finish one. Together, that made five more baskets.

Counting the eight baskets already in use, they now had thirteen in total, which was sufficient for their needs.

Because the traps required quite a bit of manpower—each basket needed someone to watch over it.

Including Zhou Xu himself, their tribe numbered thirty-two people in all.

If nearly half of them were occupied with traps, there wouldn’t be enough hands for other tasks.

Naturally, they had to make some choices.

Judging by the sun overhead, it was around one or two in the afternoon. Dashan and his group clearly weren’t done working for the day.

After putting down the materials gathered in the morning and giving the gathering team a moment to drink water and rest, Zhou Xu led them once again toward the Black Forest.

On the way, as if recalling something, Zhou Xu asked Dashan a question.

“By the way, Dashan, that head you handed me earlier at the altar—where did it come from?”

Dashan was silent for two seconds before answering.

“That’s the head of the previous chief. He died in an earlier attack. I risked my life just to bring his head out.”

“What the hell?!” Zhou Xu almost cracked up on the spot upon hearing this.

“Your previous chief… he wasn’t summoned, was he?”

Dashan was stunned for a moment before quickly shaking his head.

“No, no. Our tribe is holding this ritual for the first time. Such a ritual can’t be done casually; you have to find an altar left by the Old Gods.”

Dashan’s voice grew heavy as he spoke of the former chief’s death, a hint of sorrow underlying his words.

Zhou Xu breathed a quiet sigh of relief at this answer.

If his predecessor had been a traveler from another world as well, that head might have ended up the same way he himself could—decapitated and sent to the next.

Of course, there was no guarantee his own head wouldn’t meet a similar fate after death.

“You risked your life to bring the head out because of the power inside it?”

From what he saw back then, Zhou Xu didn’t believe Dashan was unaware of the Eye of Insight.

Dashan didn’t hide it and nodded directly.

“That’s our tribe’s ancestral true word.”

To be honest, Zhou Xu hadn’t expected to hear the term “true word” from Dashan’s mouth.

The moment he heard it, he didn’t even have time to think and blurted out the question that had been weighing on his mind.

“What exactly is this true word?”

“In our tribe’s legends, the true word is the language of the gods, containing immense power.”

“Then why didn’t you keep the true word for yourself back then?”

Dashan was open with his answer.

“The true word chooses its master on its own. It didn’t choose me.”

“What do you mean by the Old Gods? And the altar they left behind?”

“The Old Gods are the original deities of this world. Legend says they’re dead, so we call them the Old Gods. After they died, their powers scattered across the world—that’s the true word.”

As they walked, Dashan answered Zhou Xu’s questions, then took a brief breath.

“The altar is said to have been built by the Old Gods. If you find the altar and perform the ritual, you might summon a ‘Chosen of the Gods.’”

If “Child of Destiny” was Zhou Xu’s personal interpretation, then “Chosen of the Gods” was undoubtedly the more orthodox term used here.

“So it seems my crossing over is somehow connected to those so-called ‘Old Gods’…”

“Have you ever seen other Chosen of the Gods?”

Dashan shook his head.

“How much do you know about the power of the true word?”

“The previous chief said this power gave him great insight…”

At this point, Dashan fell silent again. When he spoke once more, his voice was tinged with an unhidden bitterness.

“Though the true word chose him, it did not favor him. Even simple use was a huge burden. When we were attacked, he used its power to show us the way out, but the true word’s power drained him. He couldn’t escape alive.”

Zhou Xu found it hard to truly empathize with Dashan’s grief, but he gleaned a wealth of useful information from his words.

From what Dashan said, the true word and a person must have a certain compatibility; only those with enough affinity can wield its power.

The cost of using the true word depends on other factors. For instance, when Zhou Xu used this power yesterday, though he felt the fatigue, it wasn’t enough to overwhelm him.

This growing body of intelligence bolstered Zhou Xu’s confidence.

And that altar—if it was the key to his crossing over, he would have to find time to study it further. But for now, the most pressing matter was to solve the food problem and fill their stomachs.

Between their questions and answers, Zhou Xu and Dashan soon reached the edge of the Black Forest.

“Step lightly. Don’t disturb the finches.”

Any unnecessary noise here could scare away prey about to fall into the traps. That was the main reason Zhou Xu had sent the gathering team to other areas for resources earlier.

As Zhou Xu spoke, Fei Que suddenly tugged on his thin rope, then excitedly dashed over. He pulled a mouse from the basket and snapped its neck with practiced ease—far more skillful than Zhou Xu had been earlier.

Only after finishing did Fei Que notice Zhou Xu and the others.

Knowing they must have business with him, Fei Que hurried over.

“Chief.”

“How’s it going? How many have you caught?”

Mentioning this made Fei Que visibly excited. Swiftly, he showed off his trophies.

Counting the one Zhou Xu caught at the start, Fei Que now held three mice; he had caught two more since then.

Setting traps and waiting for prey is not an activity where efficiency can be strictly measured, as luck plays a significant role.

“The first time, I wasn’t careful and one got away. Otherwise, I could have had one more by now.”

Though the traps were simple to use, failure was always possible.

Truthfully, Zhou Xu had expected this from the beginning.

Given Fei Que’s results, Zhou Xu was quite satisfied.