Chapter 103: Arrival at the Suiren

The swindler was sent away, but the bad influence he brought remained; seeing that there were no outsiders left, the tribespeople burst into loud wailing together, demanding to know why the Tribal Chief did not ask him to stay and perform a sacrifice for the tribe to avert disaster.

Baifeng was a bit speechless; people nowadays were truly too easy to deceive. Most people would not fabricate complex lies, at most hiding some food, and if you asked them, they would only say they had none, but the truth was written all over their faces. It was no wonder they were fooled by Wangzuo's words.

"Did you hear him say which tribe would have a great disaster?" Baifeng shouted loudly.

The group stopped their wailing and said unconfidently, "The... the Zhi Tribe."

"Then which one are we?"

"The Baifeng Tribe!" This time, they were all very confident.

Baifeng put his hands behind his back: "Then the Zhi Tribe having a great disaster, what does that have to do with our Baifeng Tribe? Everyone, go get to work!"

The crowd was instantly happy, no longer dwelling on the matter of the sacrifice, and one by one they went to busy themselves with their work, no longer worrying about the great disaster.

Baifeng did not tell the tribespeople that Wangzuo was a swindler and that everything was fake; if he had, they might have felt pained over the food they gave him, and might have even run out to stab Wangzuo to death on the Wasteland.

Baifeng also felt a bit pained; the price paid was too high, and who knew everything was fake? He spent so many things, listened to a pile of nonsense, and looked at a rotten tortoise shell.

But let Wangzuo go and plague Baoxi; although Baoxi was already far stronger than the humans of his era in every aspect, without relevant knowledge, he might not necessarily be able to distinguish the true from the false.

Baifeng had indeed guessed correctly.

Wangzuo carried the food and walked happily onto the Wasteland, thinking that although he didn't swindle much on this trip, it wasn't a wasted journey. In fact, his biggest gain was that Bronze Knife and Fork; he thought his movements were swift and hidden, and that he hadn't been discovered when he stole it.

In reality, the Baifeng Tribe didn't care much for that item; it was loot from the war with the Zhique Tribe. Because that knife and fork had likely eaten human flesh, no one in the Baifeng Tribe was willing to use it, and they planned to trade it for grain later. Furthermore, they had Iron Knives and chopsticks for eating meat, so the knife and fork were very troublesome to use and had already been phased out by the Baifeng Tribe.

Wangzuo happily wondered how much grain this pair of knife and fork could trade for in those small tribes. Anyway, he had been eating, swindling, and stealing all the way, and in the entire world of Sages, he could be considered wealthy and lived very comfortably.

He had many pieces of Bronze Ware on his person; every time he ran out of food, he could use the Bronze Ware to trade. It was hard currency that everyone loved to have.

Whenever it was afternoon, he would start looking for a place to set up camp. These Sages were not necessarily very wise, but their means of self-preservation were first-rate. They knew how to distinguish animal trails, judge the territories of wild beasts, and had many methods for driving away beasts.

If they didn't become Sages and became hunters instead, at worst they would be upper-middle-level hunters.

As for the reason why wild people would become Sages, it was probably because they had some "miraculous encounter" or were born with strange features, felt they could communicate with the gods, and then left the tribe to wander when they had the ability. It was just that most had no real skills, only the ability to fabricate.

The so-called miraculous encounters were nothing more than meeting a pure white deer, a fish that could carry people, seeing mountains in the sky, and so on. Natural strange features were deformities, such as having six fingers, double ears, or getting vitiligo or psoriasis and then claiming they were different, before happily heading out to find immortals.

Wangzuo, however, clearly knew he was just an ordinary person. At the time, he accidentally heard two Sages discussing, one of whom was a true descendant of the Fuxi Clan, talking about the Eight Trigrams, the Five Branches of the Great Knife, and such things. Later, he was lucky enough to obtain that Tortoise Shell by the sea, which was how he went further and further down the path of swindling.

At night, he chose to sleep in trees, building a temporary sleeping platform like the Youchao, covering himself with wood. The Tortoise Shell on top was also a sturdy protection. Just like this, he wandered safely through the Dahe basin.

On the way to find the Suiren, he encountered two small tribes, but they were also very poor. Wangzuo was too lazy to waste time swindling them into performing sacrifices or anything, so he just divined and fabricated other answers to swindle food and drink.

He traveled slowly alone for twenty days before arriving at the territory of the Suiren.

Previously, the outer areas belonged to the Suiren's subordinate tribes, which had great freedom. But after Baoxi became the Tribal Chief, he directly abolished most of the so-called subordinate tribes. Any tribe within a five-day journey of the Suiren's main camp was directly under the Tribal Chief's control, while those beyond a five-day journey remained subordinate tribes of the Suiren.

Upon learning that this Sage was actually a descendant of the Fuxi Clan, those subordinate tribes did not dare to be negligent, treating him with good food and drink, and escorting him all the way into the Suiren's jurisdiction. Baoxi was also very happy to learn of such a person; he now needed all kinds of talent to develop the Suiren. If this Sage were willing to stay in the Suiren, it would be even better. He now increasingly felt that the abilities of his tribespeople were insufficient, and the things he wanted to do were difficult to carry out freely.

After meeting Wangzuo, Baoxi did not ask him to divine or perform sacrifices, but only invited him to stay first, arranging a clean cave for him, paved with thick grass and covered with animal skins. Beauties were also indispensable, and several were sent into Wangzuo's cave, which Wangzuo accepted without any hesitation.

After Wangzuo had rested well for a day, Baoxi invited him to eat meat together and then asked about his experiences along the way and his knowledge of this world.

Wangzuo was truly not good at divination or sacrifice, but in terms of knowledge, most Sages might not compare to him. Thus, he vividly described to Baoxi the vastness of the sea and fish as big as mountains that could spray water.

He spoke of the boundless plains, the great marshes full of swamps, poisonous insects, elephants, rhinoceroses, and dragons. Just the blood-sucking poisonous insects made Wangzuo feel fearful in retrospect.

Baoxi listened to these strange experiences and kept praising them. He longed for the world in the distance and also thought about occupying the entire continent as the territory of the Suiren, but he always knew too little.

Therefore, whenever he met a Sage, he would ask about these things. Some of the things Wangzuo said could be verified by what other Sages said, and were even more detailed and vivid. There were also many places he was hearing about for the first time, so Baoxi felt that Wangzuo must be a Sage with real skills, and thus developed the intention to win him over.

He knew that the pursuit of many Sages was to find immortals, and he was also afraid that Wangzuo's pursuit was the same, so he did not say it directly. Instead, he first used the highest courtesy to let Wangzuo settle down without making him do anything. After a period of time, when Wangzuo was familiar with the Suiren, he would propose this request.

But what Baoxi did not know was that Wangzuo was desperate to stay in these large tribes; it was just that after swindling for a long time, it was easy to be exposed, so he didn't dare stay in one place for too long.