"Great Lord of the Minotaurs, please enjoy the sacrifice."
The voice of the ritual crossed the void and entered Zhou Tieyi's mind, waking him from Zhou Guangxia's life experiences.
He felt as exhausted as if he had spent the entire night binge-reading a novel.
Pulling himself together, Zhou Tieyi realized that what had awakened him were Wu people from some unknown time and space. He controlled the bonfire and cast his gaze toward the shaman of the Minotaur tribe.
"How much time has passed?"
Zhou Tieyi asked.
Among the dozen strong men surrounding the fire pit for the ritual, fully half were injured, even though they had all been fine just before!
"According to your instructions, we have come to offer our sacrifice to you after one day."
The shaman's robust body also bore wounds, but his tone carried excitement.
"This time, we have also brought an offering."
"An offering?"
Previously, Zhou Tieyi's attention had been entirely on the people. Now, prompted by the shaman, he immediately noticed what the shaman was holding.
It was a tiger cub, roughly two or three months old. Its fur was white and lustrous, like fresh snow in the mountains, but its muzzle was injured. Its little eyes were filled with terror as it flailed its sharp claws in mid-air.
Yet even the future king of beasts was so frail and helpless in its infancy.
"What is this?"
"This is the cub of the Xishan Mountain Lord. We wish to offer this cub as a sacrifice to you."
Had it been his past life, Zhou Tieyi would never have dared to use an endangered animal for sacrifice. But the tribe had paid such a heavy price to find him an offering; if he refused now, it would likely dishearten them.
Moreover, having acquired knowledge of the Martial Dao, Zhou Tieyi now had something to bestow upon the tribe in return.
"Then let the ritual begin," Zhou Tieyi said indifferently, wondering how he might gradually abolish these bloody sacrificial rites in the future to spare the tribe from unnecessary casualties and losses.
With a respectful expression, the shaman drew a bone blade from his waist, chanted a prayer, and pressed the tiger cub against the opening of the fire pit.
A single blow from the bone blade was fatal, piercing the cub's throat. Fresh blood trickled out, flowing along the fire pit's opening toward the flames that carried Zhou Tieyi's consciousness.
[Mountain Lord].
An invisible force surged along with the blood into Zhou Tieyi's divine soul, leaving him—originally indifferent—stunned on the spot.
This barbaric ritual actually seemed to have some genuine power to it!
In mere moments, Zhou Tieyi had mastered three skills.
These three skills reminded Zhou Tieyi of a single word: divine powers!
[Drive Beasts]
The Mountain Lord is the sovereign of all beasts. Driving wild beasts is like herding sheep.
[Power of Earth Veins]
The Mountain Lord is the spiritual essence of the mountains, equating to the mountain itself, and can draw upon the power of the earth vein nodes.
[Usurp Deity]
The Way of Man diminishes the insufficient to offer to the excess. A traveler from another world slips away from the ordinary order, concealing heavenly secrets; thus can he seize divine authority for his own keeping and hold the universe in the palm of his hand.
A mournful tiger roar echoed from the depths of Xishan not far away, resounding within Zhou Tieyi's soul.
Zhou Tieyi's gaze naturally turned toward the not-so-tall peaks of Xishan. In the depths of his consciousness, he knew that he was now competing with the Xishan Mountain Lord for the divine position of the Mountain Lord of Xishan, and from this moment on, the two of them would be irreconcilable enemies.
The might of his first two divine powers was related to how much authority of the [Mountain Lord] he held. As for the final divine power, it should be an inherent trait brought with him from his transdimensional journey.
"You didn't finish off the Xishan Mountain Lord?"
Thinking this was the deity blaming the tribe for poor execution, the strong man beside the shaman hurriedly explained, "We had originally set a trap, but who could have known that the Xishan Mountain Lord would abandon its cub at the end and break through our lines despite its injuries? We were intercepted by the wild beasts it summoned and failed to catch up in time."
Zhou Tieyi looked at the shaman and asked, "How badly is it injured?"
The shaman answered steadily, "It was already weakened from giving birth, and now wounded by us, it will need at least ninety days and nights of recuperation."
"Once it recovers, it will surely find a way to take revenge on the tribe. However, once it leaves Xishan, its strength will be greatly diminished. By then, we will set traps around the tribe and will surely capture the Lord of Xishan for you."
Seeing that the shaman had a thorough plan, Zhou Tieyi roughly calculated the strength of the Xishan Mountain Lord.
Although the adversary was a natural-born mountain lord, Xishan was merely a ridge, providing limited power to its lord—at best, it was equivalent to a powerful tiger beast that the tribe could handle.
Moreover, with the knowledge he would provide, these ninety days would be more than enough for the tribe to undergo a transformation, giving them an even greater chance of victory!
"Shaman, I will impart the Way of Martial Cultivation to you as my first blessing to the tribe."
"Divine One, what is the Way of Martial Cultivation?"
The shaman asked curiously. According to the tribe's heritage, once a tribal deity's power grew strong enough, it could directly bestow its divine power upon the tribe's warriors, only that they had lost this specific knowledge.
Could it be that after awakening, the deity of their own tribe had recalled this lost knowledge?
Indeed, totem deities were born from the sacrifices of generations of tribal sages, so it was completely normal for them to retain lost knowledge of the tribe.
Zhou Tieyi organized the Martial Dao inheritance he had acquired. His voice, solemn and sacred, carried through the fire pit and out into the wind and snow.
"The Way of Heaven diminishes the excess to supplement the deficient; the Way of Man diminishes the insufficient to offer to the excess."
"The human body is fragile, and strength has its limits, but the Qi Sea of heaven and earth is inexhaustible."
"Therefore, ancient mighty figures simulated heaven and earth with the human body, transported primordial qi with Qi and Blood, and opened the Dantian Qi Sea to contain the essence of heaven and earth, laying the foundation of the Martial Dao."
"The Martial Dao I impart is named [Records of Jianbing Subduing Demons]."
......
Whether due to his divine status and the special connection he shared with the tribe, even though the tribal people had never been exposed to much of this knowledge, under Zhou Tieyi's tutelage, each and every one of them seemed suddenly enlightened. Their learning speed was not the least bit slower than Zhou Tieyi's own study through secret arts.
After half a day of explanation, he finally finished teaching the basics of Martial Dao practice to the shaman. Instructing them not to venture recklessly into the mountains to search for offerings during this period, Zhou Tieyi refocused his mind back upon his physical body.
The everlasting lamp inside the ancestral hall remained lit, and the morning light shone through the gourd-patterned lattice window onto the green bricks of the floor.
The moment he opened his eyes, Zhou Tieyi saw Old Ya looking at him with a face full of gratification.
"Thank you, Old Ya, for guarding my meditation."
Zhou Tieyi said respectfully to Old Ya. Since the other party was able to guard the ancestral hall for the Zhou family, it was naturally one of the Zhou family's trump cards, and no amount of respect was excessive.
Zhou Tieyi swayed slightly as he stood up, momentarily finding himself somewhat lacking in strength.
Part of it was due to maintaining a single posture for too long, and part of it was from sheer hunger.
After regulating his breathing for a moment, Zhou Tieyi quickly regained control of his body, returned the ancestral spirit tablets to their place, and stepped out of the ancestral hall.
Outside the bamboo grove, Zhou Tieyi caught sight of a fair maiden waiting for him at a glance.
"Elder Sister Baimei."
Baimei was Zhou Tieyi's senior maidservant. However, unlike the maidservants of merchant or scholarly families, senior maidservants of military noble households were preferably selected from the families of upright soldiers under their command, and thus possessed a bit more martial vigor than ordinary women.
Baimei stood as straight as a spear. Though her skin was not as delicate and flawless as a seductive demoness's, it was tinged with a healthy white and ruddy glow. Her nose bridge was high, her gaze restrained yet sharp, like a treasured sword still in its scabbard.
As Zhou Tieyi approached, Baimei spoke first, "Congratulations to the young master for achieving your wish and practicing the family's secret martial arts. In days to come, your martial prowess will surely surpass all armies. However, since the young master has now obtained the martial arts you've been yearning for, you must no longer squander your time as you did in the past, lest you live to regret it."
Zhou Tieyi revealed a faint smile; Baimei's demeanor actually reminded him of Xiren from *Dream of the Red Chamber*.
"I know," Zhou Tieyi replied, and then casually asked, "How long have I been in the ancestral hall?"
"About a day and a half."