I am a Primitive Man

An arrow flew past the cheek of the Blackstone Tribe's chief, cutting a wound on his face, and blood immediately started flowing.

The chief of the Blackstone Tribe gasped sharply from the pain but did not retreat, because by then he had already reached the walls where the Bark Tribe was located.

Initially, he had thought that as long as they reached the cave, these timid fellows wouldn't be a match for his tribe. But upon getting close, he realized just how wrong he had been.

Because that strangely shaped cave was incredibly difficult to get past!

And the despicable people above—some had already abandoned those hateful weapons and picked up long, sharp sticks, stabbing fiercely down at them. People from the Blackstone Tribe were getting hit from time to time.

"#￥%!"

Seeing this, the chief of the Blackstone Tribe shouted angrily in shock, grabbed a wooden stick, thrust it at him, and pulled it down hard. The Bark Tribe member lost his footing and was dragged down headfirst!

Before the terrified Bark Tribe member could get up, the chief stabbed him in the belly with another weapon he held in his other hand.

That strange cave was still unbreachable for now. After a moment's hesitation, the chief shouted the order to retreat.

After the order was given, the chief suddenly had a wild idea. He grabbed the dying man, still bleeding on the ground, slung him over his back, and then turned to sprint back the way they came.

The rest of the Blackstone Tribe, hearing the chief's cries and seeing his actions, were already trembling with fear. Without hesitation, they copied their chief and fled.

At this moment, all they wanted was to leave as soon as possible.

The Blackstone Tribe's retreat greatly excited the Bark Tribe and the people of the Bark Tribe.

The Bark Tribe shouted for everyone to drop their sticks and switch to bows and arrows, shooting continuously at the fleeing Blackstone Tribe.

As arrows flew once more, two or three more Blackstone Tribe members fell to the ground, hit.

Most of the arrows hit the person who seemed to be the chief.

However, because he was carrying a corpse on his back, which almost entirely covered his upper body, he wasn't struck.

This made the Bark Tribe feel a little regretful.

Once the Blackstone Tribe had run out of arrow range, the Bark Tribe erupted in cheers.

Hearing the cheers behind them, the Blackstone Tribe ran even faster, worried those despicable people might come after them…

After the Blackstone Tribe disappeared, the Bark Tribe followed their chief's order and came out from behind the makeshift walls to clean the battlefield…

"#￥%…"

Looking at the heavy but extremely sharp weapon in his hand, Bark couldn't help but utter in surprise.

Because this weapon was astonishing — a very thick tree-stick weapon, yet it was chopped clean in a few strikes…

After some distance from his tribe, the panicked chief of the Blackstone Tribe finally dropped the corpse on his back.

At that moment, three arrows had pierced the corpse.

The chief looked at the arrows and silently thanked his quick thinking.

If he hadn't suddenly thought to carry that guy on his back, he might have been hit by those small but extremely nasty weapons.

He would have become like those hit members in the other tribes.

With that thought, the panting Blackstone chief remembered his tribe's losses.

He quickly looked around and found that almost half of the people who came with him were gone!

This made the chief both shocked and furious.

He broke the small but very poisonous weapon in his hand with great force, threw it on the ground, and kicked it twice.

After hesitating for a moment, he led the rest back toward the Bark Tribe's location.

After a while, these people returned, with two previously missing members rejoining the group…

Inside the Green Sparrow Tribe, Han Cheng was sitting on a bench, holding a pen and sketching something on a piece of paper.

After finishing, he called Hei Wa over.

Looking at the somewhat abstract little tiger on the paper, Hei Wa scratched his head, not knowing why the Godson wanted him to see this.

"Can you make this?"

Han Cheng asked Hei Wa.

Hei Wa looked at the little tiger lying down on the paper. Although confused, he nodded to indicate he could make it.

"Divine Child, what's this line?"

After nodding, Hei Wa pointed at the line that ran from the tiger's head down to its tail, splitting the tiger in half, and asked.

They had hunted tigers in the tribe, and he remembered tigers didn't have this line.

Seeing Hei Wa's question, Han Cheng couldn't help but smile.

"When you make it later, you'll need to split the tiger in half along this line."

"Ah?"

After Han Cheng's words, Hei Wa was surprised.

Making a mold and casting a bronze tiger was a bit troublesome and wasted some bronze, but the bronze tiger still had some use—it was a complete piece.

But now the Divine Child wanted to split it into two halves, which was hard to understand.

"Divine Child, what is this for?"

After Hei Wa asked, Han Cheng's smile became more intriguing, a mix of yearning and a bit of a mischievous satisfaction.

Han Cheng's expression was like a silly kid who had just solved a tricky problem, making Hei Wa even more confused.

"This is a tiger talisman."

Han Cheng said, with an odd smile he couldn't hide.

"At the right time, it's used to command troops. The left half stays with our tribe, and the right half is given to the tribes that will join the alliance.

But when the time comes for those tribes to send people to fight alongside us, we give them our half, and when the two halves are joined, it can mobilize those tribes' people."

Han Cheng explained to Hei Wa. The complicated concept initially confused Hei Wa, but he gradually understood what the Divine Child meant over time.

"Why not just tell them when the time comes? Those tribes wouldn't dare not come anyway…"

After understanding, Hei Wa scratched his head and said, still not quite understanding the purpose.

To him, the surrounding tribes would come when notified, and if they didn't want to, the tiger talisman wouldn't help.

So he felt the Divine Child's move was unnecessary.

Han Cheng, as a later generation, understood how vital the tiger talisman was.

It was proof for troop mobilization and a highly effective means of control by the king over external troops or vassal states.

Without a tiger talisman, you couldn't move troops or act without authorization, keeping the military firmly under government control and eliminating many unstable factors.

Hei Wa wasn't wrong; given the tribe's current prestige, nearby tribes generally came when called.

But this lacked formal rules to restrain them. In the future, when the tribe grew stronger or some people developed ulterior motives, the lack of proof for troop mobilization could spell disaster.

Han Cheng understood the importance of an obedient army more clearly than anyone else in this era.

So, as the tribal alliance was about to start, he planned to make the tiger talisman first.

At this stage, the tiger talisman didn't seem important, but over time, as the tribe grew and the meaning of the tiger talisman became deeply ingrained, its significant role would emerge.

It would become a vital force to maintain the Green Sparrow Tribe's stability.

Besides using it in the tribal alliance, the tiger talisman could be used in other places, like the Green Sparrow Tribe's subdivisions, the Bronze Mountain residential area, and other branches developed later.

This was much more stable than relying solely on goodwill.

With so many advantages, how could Han Cheng not promote the tiger talisman?

"Divine Child, what if others use fakes?"

Hei Wa's ability to accept new things deserved praise.

He barely hesitated on whether to use the tiger talisman before jumping to the deeper question of forgery.

Han Cheng was not very worried about forgery.

After all, this era was still far from 'which certification or stamp is stronger, you can find a wall anywhere on the street.'

Moreover, bronze mold making and casting weren't widespread yet, so forging wasn't easy.

Also, tiger talismans came in pairs, with differing styles and sizes, and inscriptions would be added at the right time, preventing one left half from matching multiple right halves.

After Han Cheng's explanation, Hei Wa's mind was a bit dizzy, but he understood enough to trust the Godson's plan to prevent forgery.

Hei Wa shook his head hard to clear it, stopping himself from overthinking confusing matters, and started pondering how to cast the tiger talisman perfectly.

And how to add inscriptions…

Far away, inside the Semi-Farming Tribe, an older female shaman sat seriously listening to the chief of the Semi-Farming Tribe talk about this expedition.

After listening, she frowned.

The chief hadn't found the six people who went out earlier.

Moreover, the original dwelling place of the Sheep Tribe was now deserted.

Regarding the secret of the Green Sparrow Tribe, apart from knowing its location, the many barren lands around it, and the large number of fierce wolves nearby, nothing else was known.

Besides this, they also lost the followers of the Sheep Tribe.

The only somewhat encouraging thing was that the chief roughly knew the path the sheep herd had taken, though no sheep were seen.

All these things together made the female shaman of the Semi-Farming Tribe feel heavy-hearted.

"￥%…"

The chief punched his chest angrily, cursing the damned followers of the Sheep Tribe and those damned wolves.

After cursing for a while, he said he was willing to bring more people to the Green Sparrow Tribe after some time.

He refused to believe those wolves would always linger there.

And if he brought enough people, he wouldn't fear the wolves, no matter how many.

However, to his surprise, after he said this, the shaman remained silent and just sat there.

After a while, the shaman finally looked up, didn't say anything, but shook her head at the chief.

This surprised the chief.

He thought his expedition had failed only because of the damned Sheep Tribe followers and the nasty wolves, nothing else.

The many wolves around the Green Sparrow Tribe were weak, and fighting them should be easy.

As for the Sheep Tribe followers' fear when approaching the Green Sparrow Tribe, he naturally blamed the wolves.

He thought that follower preferred punishment over moving forward because he knew there were wolves ahead…

He said his thoughts, but the shaman still shook her head.

This unprecedented situation made her uneasy.

She carefully asked the chief again about what they saw and heard on this trip, then called over the others who went with the chief and questioned them one by one.

This lasted until dark.

At night, the shaman of the Semi-Farming Tribe couldn't sleep at all, constantly thinking about what she learned today about the mysterious Green Sparrow Tribe.

The strange cliff walls, vertical and without any slope, were ochre-colored.

Around this cliff were large areas of land with little grass…

This…

The more the shaman thought, the more sleepless she became, feeling these things were somehow familiar.

When she crawled out of her hut and stood under the moonlight, looking around the tribe, seeing the harvested fields around and the mud walls of her tribe, she suddenly shuddered deeply…