Under the morning sun in a valley, a small settlement with wooden houses can be seen, and the activities of people around the settlement can be seen. The people living look similar to humans with the difference of extra eyes on their forehead and snake scales on the back of their bodies.
On the gate an old man with silver color hair and a silver color pupil on the third eye on the forehead and a woman with black hair and a green color pupil on the third eye. They are gazing at the mouth of the valley with worry.
The woman speaks," Elder, do not worry Al, and the hunters will be able to sufficient food for our tribe to pass the winter."
The old man says, " Al has awakened his blood, I am not worried about the hunt but of the snake tribe."
" They want our tribe to become their vassal and if they discover Al's awakened his blood, then they will intensify their search."
A frown appears on the woman's face and speaks," The valley is protected by the totem, they will not be able to find us."
The old man shakes his head not optimistic of their situation saying," Even if they cannot find the entrance of the valley, they can block the area around the entrance. And prevent us from hunting."
The woman says," If our totem awakens then we will be not in this situation." She does not why their ancestor selected a statue as their totem, unlike other tribes whose totems are spirit beasts.
She always wanted to ask the elder about the ancestor's choice of the totem and today she decided it was the time. She asks," Elder, why did the ancestor select the statue as our totem."
The old man understands why she asks this question every tribe member has this question. If they awaken spirit eye like him they would have this question. He explains, " If you have awaken spirit eye, you would not ask this question."
" In our spirit eyes, when I see you in my spirit vision, your spirit is grey and most totem beasts's spirits are white and some are black and bronze."
" But our totem's spirit is silver with flecks of gold in them. According to ancestors, ordinary people and the beast's spirit color is grey, and when their spirit or blood it changes to white color. And as they grow stronger it changes to black, then bronze, silver, and gold."
" WinterMoon wolf emperor's spirit color is the same color of our totem."
The woman went wide hearing this, which means their totem strength is the same as WinterMoon wolf emperor the overlord around the area. She always thought other tribes nearby had to pay tribute to the WinterMoon wolf Clan every winter. But, they do not come to our tribe to collect the tribute.
She does not think their valley is hidden from the Wintermoon wolf clan, as she saw them roaming on the valley's edge during winter.
Thinking of the upcoming winter, She suddenly remembers she has to channel energy to the fruit trees, so they can bear fruit during the winter. She says," Elder, I suddenly remember, I have to take care of the blood fruit trees."
The blood fruit trees produce fruits in the winter season with striking red color by absorbing the blood of living beings. Eating a fruit from blood can keep the body warm for a whole night. Their tribe is weak they cannot provide the blood required for the tree to bear the fruits.
So, She has to channel wood energy to the tree, so it can bear fruit.
The Old Man," Via, you can go I have to go to the mouth of the valley for five-point herbs. I have to prepare some healing potion for the return of the hunting party." All the time the hunting party went to hunt they were not injured but most time they were injured.
He takes a glance at the stone statue in the center of the tribe bows down to pray for the safety of the hunting party and walks towards the mouth of the valley.
Via follows the elder prays to the totem and watches as the elder with a slow step walks toward the valley's mouth. She knows the elder does not have many years to live. And no one in the tribe awakens the spirit eye which adds burden upon the elder.
She does not how the tribe will function without anyone awakening the spirit eye after the elder dies. She awakened the wood eye and will have to work as an elder after the elder is no more. But it would have been better if she awaken the spirit eyes.
Spirit eye can learn to control all elements and innate control of spirit. Whereas her wood eye can only control wood energy. As she starts walking the street of the tribe the blood trees are on the other side of the tribe.
She sees tribe members bowing and smiling at her as they get on their work. As she reaches the center of the tribe, she bows and walks past the totem. Nearing the blood trees, she hears laughter and shouting.
She finds the children playing by the lake near the blood trees. She smiles seeing them, they are the future of the tribe. But she would be jubilant if any children were born with colored eyes instead of black eyes with no power. Among 100 tribesmen She and Elder are born with colored eyes.
If they awakened the power of blood like Al, then it would also be good. But they have to practice and not play in the mud.
" Where is Vak, he should now be training them not letting them play?" She mutters. The children by now notice her and all of them stand up with mud covering their bodies and face her with guilty expressions.
She saw them standing and looking at her, She smiled," Where is Vak? Is he again leaving all behind to play?"
One of the children, a girl named Mel answers," Teacher Vak did not leave, he went to bring a spear, he will teach us how to catch fish."
Via hears footsteps from behind, she finds Vak walking with some short spears used for fishing in the lake.
Vak speaks," Via are you again speaking ill about me."
Via says," I telling them not to be lazy like you." She turns to our children and speaks," Children do you know your teacher Vak was a genius par with Hunting Chief Al but he is lazy."
" We can see Chief Al awaken his blood but your teacher Vak did not."
Vak is annoyed hearing Via say nonsense to the children. He speaks to clarify:" Children do not listen to elder sister Via; she is lying. I was not able to awaken my blood at the same time as Al because the injuries I got from the last hunt are still not healed."
" Via, why are you here?"
Via answers," To feed the blood trees."
Vak with annoyance speaks," Then do that, do not speak nonsense with my student." and to the children," Follow me, you guy I will teach you how to fish with a spear."
Via watches them enter the lake and Vak starts teaching them fishing. She watches them for a few seconds and then turns toward the blood trees. There are 22 blood trees inside the valley and all in one place.
She observed the trees and found the blood fruits started to bear on the tree, they were very small, green in color, and not ripe. When they are ripe, they will be thrice the size and in color of blood.
She takes out a green stone from her satchel. The green stone is wood energy she collected from trees and plants that are not needed by the tribe. The tribe can only use their wood after she absorbs the wood energy from the trees, they are easier to cut and dry.
Via with a palm on the tree and the other hand holding the wood energy stone, starts feeding the trees. She asked the Elder before at the gate, why their totem is not a spirit beast like most tribes.
Because of the difficulty facing the tribe, she knows that even if their totem was a spirit beast they would face the same difficulty in other ways. They would have faced the danger of other magic beasts attacking their settlement, also other tribes attack and they would not have these blood trees.
Blood trees are unique trees that are found only in their valley or maybe not found in the area around the valley. An elder said the blood tree spirit is similar to their totem. The shape of the blood tree and its fruits are similar to pear trees.
According, to the elder, blood trees are mutated pear trees by the power of the totem. The totem's power is so great that no spirit beast or magic beast that finds their valley's entrance ever enters the valley.
She finished feeding the trees and went to feed the new one.
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Outside the valley, a man with bulging muscles is fighting a boar with his spear. Many people circle the fight, the people attack the boar at the first chance they get.
After a hard struggle, the man finally drove his spear inside the head of the boar through its eye. Then everyone along with the man sits on the ground, taking deep breaths. The man's muscle starts shrinking returning to normal.
The man speaks," Pan, Lute start preparing the boar to carry back the tribe."
Pan and Lute nods and replies at the same time," Yes, chief." And they get up and break a large tree branch. Then they start tying the boar's leg on the branch.
Among the people, a female speaks after she finds the preparation of carrying the boar is finished," Chief, Will we hunt for another beast or return to the tribe."
Al is circulating blood all around the body rapidly, his use of the burning technique damages his body, and hears Bae. He answers after taking a glance at the sky, the sun is directly above their head, which means they have 4 or 5 hours of sunlight," We will not return to the tribe now."
Al feels the strain heal, so he stands up his mind thinking about the spring after the winter passes and starts searching for beasts to hunt. In the spring season, his tribe visits the market held by silver sword people starts of spring at the start of the fall season every year.
He visited the market at the start of fall this year and found combat techniques for the blood awakening realm. He also learned that there are practice methods for the blood awakening realm to advance to the spirit blood realm. He already knew from the elder that there were advanced realms after the blood-awakening realm.
But their tribe is a small tribe with no combat techniques or practice methods. So, he thought to advance the spirit blood realm one has to exercise their body before they awaken their blood. However, after learning about the practice method, he inquired at the market if he could buy it but found it was not available at the market.
Because the market held by silver sword people is a small one, they can be found in medium or larger markets. So, he has to buy some combat techniques for the next spring market. The burning technique he has cannot be called a technique as every blood awakens after they awaken their blood they gain the ability to control their blood and can perform the burning technique by burning the energy in their blood for a boost for a short time.
Then when all the energy in the blood is they will weaken before energy again fills their blood. Al suddenly stops walking and also trains off his thoughts as he hears a roar. He recognizes the roar, it comes from the overlord of their hunting ground, a dire bear.
Before he awaken his blood, he would have steered clear of the dire bear path but now he wants revenge. The dire bear killed many of their tribe's members while hunting and the dire bear is very close to advancing a spirit, magic, or feral beast. So, killing it now will serve two purposes because after it advances and does not move from this area then their difficulty while hunting will increase expontienly."
Al looks at the eyes of his tribe's members around him and whispers" Today, we will hunt the dire bear." He continues after seeing the determined looks of his tribe members and their nods of agreement," Same strategy, I will face and attract the dire bear, you all find chances to attack it." with one last look at his tribe members, he ordered them," Disperse."
Before he faces the dire bear, Al takes out a meatball from his pouch and puts it into his mouth, fighting the dire bear will require more energy than what is available in his blood. While chewing the meatball, he with a heavy step comes out from his hiding place to face the dire bear beside the river's bank.
His heavy footsteps alert the dire bear who is drinking water to raise his head to look at the daring intruder. And finds a hairless monkey coming to challenge him. Which made him confused as the hairless monkey always ran from him while screaming in fear.
He finds this hairless monkey looking directly into his eyes and still walking toward him aggressively. Sensing this is a challenge to him, the dire bear roars at Al and charges at him.