Volume 7: The Strongest Four Realms Chapter 54: Ancestor Worship
The fourth year of Tianyuan, the fifteenth day of the twelfth month of the Jiashen year of the barbarians.
It is taboo to bury the body. Instead, it is advisable to pray for blessings, fast and offer sacrifices to ancestors.
The ancestral land of the barbarians.
Lu Qingshan stood side by side with the Youxiong tribe leader, with Lake Namtso in front of them and the Western Rat King who had transformed into a giant silver-gray tiger next to him.
Namtso is an extremely large lake with a long lakeshore lined with nearly a hundred high platforms built of gray rocks.
In the center of Namtso Lake stands an extremely huge statue .
Only a small part of the statue is above the lake surface, while the rest is submerged in the water.
This is where the barbarians worship their ancestors.
Of the thousands of barbarian clans, 90% of them came this time and gathered around the shore of Lake Namtso.
There are no troublemakers in this kind of occasion. Besides, those who come are all monks with important status in each clan, and no one would be crazy enough to cause trouble.
So although there are many people, each clan just occupies a piece of land, some close their eyes and sleep, some chat, all living in peace and leisurely, waiting for the official start of the ancestor worship ceremony.
With so many clans, and each clan has at least one sacrificial spirit coming, the total number of sacrificial spirits can be imagined.
Because there are too many spirits being sacrificed, the entire shore of Namtso Lake is filled with a sense of wildness.
Each sacrificial spirit was surrounded by a fierce aura, and there were even many avian sacrificial spirits flying in the sky, their majestic postures were shocking to the eye.
Namtso is not a simple lake.
It is a sacred lake for the barbarians.
Deep in the center of the lake, there is a huge cave.
Every few years, some golden water would gush out from this cave.
These golden pools of water are extremely strange. No matter what kind of monster it is, as long as it enters the pool and meditates and absorbs the energy inside, its bloodline power can be greatly improved, and it can even break its own bloodline shackles.
In the history of the barbarians, many monsters grew into powerful monsters with the help of this golden pool water.
This underground cave is the most important secret place of the barbarians. It is also the reason why those monsters are willing to choose the barbarian tribes and serve as sacrificial spirits - Longmen!
In the final analysis, Ji Ling is just a high-end version of a worker.
Lu Qingshan thought secretly.
"Brother, why do you keep looking towards the center of the lake?" The Youxiong tribe leader asked tentatively when he saw Lu Qingshan constantly looking towards the center of Namtso Lake.
"I always feel that there is an inexplicably familiar aura lingering above that statue." Lu Qingshan thought for a while and said so.
"Aura? Why can't I feel it?" The Youxiong tribe leader was stunned for a moment, then shook his head, "Besides, this is my brother's first time participating in our tribe's ancestral worship ceremony , so how could he know the wild beasts of my barbarian tribe?"
The three words "my barbarian tribe" were emphasized by Chief Youxiong.
"Barbarian beast?"
"That's the name of this ferocious beast statue. Longmen is a secret realm discovered by the first generation of the Great Dream Wizard of my Barbarian Tribe. When the Great Dream Wizard discovered Longmen, this statue already existed. No one knew who made it, and no one knew what kind of ferocious beast this statue was. Therefore, the Great Dream Wizard personally named it the Barbarian Beast."
Chief Youxiong explained, "We, the Barbarians, have controlled this place for so long, but we still don't know what kind of beast this beast statue represents, let alone my brother's inexplicable sense of familiarity."
Lu Qingshan was silent.
In fact, the breath appeared and disappeared, and he was not sure whether it existed. After thinking about it carefully, what the bear chief said made sense, so he didn't say anything more, but turned to look at the terrifying monsters around him.
This was the purpose of his participation in the barbarian ancestor worship ceremony.
These monsters are clan sacrificial spirits. In terms of strength, the weakest ones are all peak third-grade monsters, and the strongest ones have even reached the seventh-grade realm. They are the best choice for observation.
Lu Qingshan's eyes wandered around and he saw winged pythons, pangolins dozens of feet in size, scaly blue cattle, and monkeys with nostrils as big as lanterns. There were so many species that it was like a zoo of all kinds of animals.
From here we can also see that the Youxiong tribe leader did not fool him. The barbarians indeed regard strength as beauty, and the sacrificial spirits of each tribe are all huge beasts, and you can never see small ones.
These ferocious beasts were extremely ferocious, with a turbulent aura, but they seemed to be afraid of something, so they were suppressing their aura.
"We, the Bear Clan, have not been able to win the Dragon Gate spot for more than 400 years," the Bear Clan leader said at this time, "Brother, in fact, it doesn't matter whether we, the Bear Clan, participate in this ancestor worship ceremony or not. With Niu'er's strength, he is definitely not enough to grab the precious 25 spots."
The Youxiong chief glanced out of the corner of his eye at a young barbarian standing behind the two of them.
He is the Youxiong tribe member who represented the Youxiong tribe to participate in the ancestor worship competition this time. He is Youxiongniu and has the cultivation level of the middle stage of foundation building.
With such an accomplishment at the age of less than thirty, he is considered the most outstanding among the Youxiong Tribe. However, compared with the more than a thousand clans of the barbarians, he seems insignificant.
You Xiongniu was obviously unaware of his family leader's evaluation of him, and was staring at Lu Qingshan with a fanatical look on his face.
He was one of the Youxiong monks who was fortunate enough to follow Lu Qingshan to conquer Julu. After seeing the invincible heroism of Elder Hao, his young heart was filled with admiration for Elder Hao.
The bear chieftain felt a little melancholy.
He has only been here for a few days. I have worked hard for the Youxiong tribe for so many years, so why have I never seen you look at this kind of person towards this tribe leader?
The world is not worth it.
"It doesn't matter whether I can win the Dragon Gate spot or not. I just want to bring my demon pet to see the world." Lu Qingshan replied with a smile, not caring at all.
Of course, this was just an excuse; it was actually him who came to see the world.
At this moment, a strange divine light flashed in his eyes.
His mind gradually wandered into the sky, and his heart was immersed in the bodies of those ferocious beasts.
Since arriving here, he began to observe these various kinds of sacrificial spirits, down to every scale and every pore of the monsters, so as to try to find a sword spirit that suits his own.
Up to now, he has observed more than sixty sacrificial spirits, and he has begun to clearly feel that his understanding of the sword energy transformation has improved a lot without his knowledge.
Although there is no sign of the birth of sword-energy creatures yet, it is obvious that something has been triggered.
I have finally come to the right place.
Lu Qingshan was happy.
If he continued at this rate, and could observe all the sacrificial spirits in the barbarian ancestral land, even if he could not produce the spirit of sword energy, he would certainly be close.
Moreover, he was actually very curious about what form his sword spirit would take.
According to Xia Daoyun, the sword spirit of the sect leader Qingyun Sword Immortal is Kunpeng, which can eat the sun, moon and stars and is a ninth-grade creature.
The spirit of Xia Daoyun's sword energy is Jinghong, or Youlong. Although its rank is unknown, Lu Qingshan is sure that it can be associated with "dragon" and is at least a creature of the seventh rank or above.
Thinking of this, he was even more looking forward to the final level of the lifeform his sword energy would create.
…
Boom boom boom!
At this moment, the sound of heavy drums suddenly came, and a sense of desolation surged.
The sacrificial spirits, who had been somewhat agitated, also calmed down at this moment.
Lu Qingshan was startled by the sound of the drum and suddenly woke up from his trance.
The Youxiong tribe leader standing next to him already had a serious look on his face.
Amid the sound of the barbarians' ancient and rough war drums, three people appeared from the sky.
These three people are the three with the highest status among the barbarians.
The leader was the Great Dream Wizard, who was wearing a beast robe and had his hair casually scattered on his shoulders. He looked like an old man in his sixties, with long flowing beard and a face full of wrinkles.
Standing on both sides behind him were the Great Dream Witch's disciple and the barbarian Khan with unparalleled combat power.
The Great Dream Wizard and the Great Khan are both powerful men in the eighth realm, and their status is self-evident.
As for the Great Dream Witch's new disciple, he was a young man who had just reached the fifth realm.
However, the Great Dream Wizard has always been a single-line successor, so if nothing unexpected happens, he will be the next Great Dream Wizard. Therefore, even if his cultivation is not high, his status cannot be underestimated.
Lu Qingshan just glanced at the barbarian Great Dream Wizard and the Khan, then looked away.
He didn't dare to look any further.
A cultivator at this level already possesses divine powers and has a very sharp spiritual perception. If he looked a few more times, he would most likely be noticed.
His night-traveling ancient jade magic weapon is useless in front of the eighth-level cultivators. As long as they take a quick look, Lu Qingshan's true face will be exposed, so he has to be very cautious.
But there is no need to worry too much. As long as he doesn't do anything out of line, the Great Dream Wizard will not sit idle and scrutinize the barbarians who are participating in the ancestor worship for no reason.
The figures of Da Mengwu, Da Khan and the other two slowly landed on the ancestral altar.
It is said to be an ancestral altar, but to be precise, it should be a part of the huge statue in the lake.
Lu Qingshan had no idea how big the statue was, but just the small part that was exposed above the lake was enough to block out the sky and the sun.
Due to its ferocious appearance, it was difficult to tell what part was exposed above the water, but there happened to be a huge space above it, and in the end it was used by the barbarians as an ancestral altar.
The ancestor worship ceremony officially begins.
Although the barbarians' lifestyle is a bit primitive, the cumbersome formalities of ancestor worship are no less than those of humans and are extremely annoying.
Lu Qingshan watched the ancestral worship ceremony for a while, and the strange feeling in his heart surged up again.
His eyes fell on the statue, of which only the tip of the iceberg was visible. An inexplicably familiar aura seemed to linger, making him feel puzzled.
Just when Lu Qingshan's mind was wandering, the sound of war drums stopped.
The Great Dream Wizard stood on the ancestral altar, looking down at the numerous clans and barbarians by the lake, like a lion king on the grassland counting his ministers.
A moment later.
The Great Dream Wizard waved his hand, and the disciples standing behind him hurriedly stepped forward, holding a prayer in their hands, and read aloud:
"I offer a sacrifice to the spirit of the Barbarian Ancestor: I wish the Barbarian Ancestor would welcome and support me... and bring prosperity to the four lands... I hope the gods will see through my words and offer my sacrifices!"
Afterwards, the Great Dream Witch burned the prayer text himself.
The drums started again.
Boom boom boom!!!
The sound of the war drums became heavier and heavier. After the ninth sound, the people from the major clans who were watching the ceremony immediately followed the sound of the war drums and chanted some strange but rhythmic syllables softly.
Lu Qingshan mixed in with them and could only imitate the hermit Nan Guo and fill in the gaps.
After another while, the recitation ended.
At this time, the ancestor worship ceremony was only halfway completed, but they had nothing to do afterwards.
Because the next part is the ancestor worship competition, and each clan will select a young and strong man to fight on the arena.
The duel arena is composed of nearly a hundred gray stone platforms located by the lake.
A total of more than a thousand clans come to participate in this ancestral worship ceremony, which means that more than a thousand young monks will take the stage to compete.
Even though there are nearly a hundred arenas, with so many cultivators, it will take at least ten days to decide the final twenty-five places.
This is exactly what Lu Qingshan wanted - observing the sacrifice to the spirits also takes time.
Under the expectant gazes of the crowd, batch after batch of young cultivators stepped onto the stage. This scene was similar to the Seven Realms Forum that Lu Qingshan participated in a year ago.
However, because the barbarians are all physical cultivators, the way they fight is very stereotyped and extremely unspectacular - it's just two barbarians fighting each other madly on the ring, punching each other flesh to flesh, until one side can't hold on first, and then the winner is decided.
That is, it is single and time-consuming. In the previous life, it would be the so-called bladder situation.
And in the ancestor worship competition, there will be more than a thousand such bladder games.
"This group of barbarians..." Even though Lu Qingshan had no prejudice against physical cultivators, after taking a closer look at the fight on the arena, he couldn't help but wonder in his heart.
The King of Western Rat yawned several times and felt extremely bored. Unfortunately, there were too many strong men here, so he didn't dare to jump around and could only watch the show.
As for the sacrificial spirits of the major barbarian clans, they were unusually quiet and watched the fight between the young cultivators with full concentration.
After all, this concerns whether they can enter Longmen for further studies.
Lu Qingshan carefully observed the sacrificial spirits who were watching the battle.
“You stand on the bridge and enjoy the scenery, while those who enjoy the scenery are watching you from upstairs.”
These words suddenly popped up in Lu Qingshan's mind.
The first day passed quickly, and the duel on the ring continued. The sound of punches hitting flesh continued, mixed with the roars of some hot-blooded barbarian teenagers.
This is also the interest of physical cultivation. In a fist-to-flesh fight, it seems that the output will be much higher if you yell at him at the top of your lungs.
The next day, Youxiongniu of the Youxiong tribe finally went into battle. After an hour-long fierce battle, he was gloriously defeated. He walked dejectedly to the King of the Western Rat and apologized to his new "sacrificial spirit".
Day 3, Day 4…
Time passed, and unknowingly, Lu Qingshan's mind, while constantly observing the sacrificial spirits, gradually heard a roaring sound, and a strange, indescribable power was generated in it.
He had now observed all the more than a thousand sacrificial spirits that had come from the entire barbarian ancestral land, but the creature that matched his nature still did not appear.
"After observing more than a thousand sacrificial spirits, including even a seventh-grade great monster, is there no creature that is compatible with my temperament?" Lu Qingshan felt a little confused.
He could feel that something seemed to be about to break out from his mind.
The feeling was very strong, but there was just a breath missing and it was stuck there, neither going up nor down. Lu Qingshan felt very uncomfortable and he desperately wanted to clear away the fog and break through the diaphragm.
Logically speaking, it shouldn't be so difficult for sword energy to transform into a shape.
Because if observing more than a thousand sacrificial spirits is not enough to form a living being that can transform sword energy into form, then how many sword cultivators in the world can reach the realm of transforming sword energy into form?
Powerful monsters are not cabbages. You can't find them just because you want to. Even if you find them, they won't sit there and let you watch. More often than not, they will:
"What are you looking at?"
"What are you looking at?"
…
Lu Qingshan happened to catch up with the barbarians' ancestral worship ceremony, which gave him the opportunity to observe so many powerful monsters without restraint.
But even after all this, he still couldn't give birth to his own sword creature.
"What kind of sword energy creature is compatible with me?"
He glanced blankly at the sacrificial spirits, but found that no matter how much he looked at these monsters, it was difficult for them to move him.
Reached the bottleneck.
It's just a thin layer of membrane, but trying to cross it is as difficult as climbing to the sky.
He glanced at the stage again and found that the ancestor worship competition was almost coming to an end.
…
Just as the ancestor worship ceremony was in full swing on the arena, two barbarians from a clan not far from Lu Qingshan had wandering eyes and were whispering to each other.
"Yinhe, are you sure?"
"It's confirmed. This place is indeed the sealed place of Lord Holy Beast. The so-called Dragon Gate should be the first seal of Lord Holy Beast. If these barbarians hadn't privately unlocked this seal, Lord Holy Beast might not have been able to send out the message for help. Speaking of this, we have to thank these barbarians, hehe..." Yin He laughed twice.
"We will inform Lord Shentu of this news as soon as possible."
"good."
…
