"It hurts so much?" Su Bai struggled to open his eyes. It felt as if his head had been hit by a hammer.
After resting for a while, he started to observe his surroundings. All he saw were brown fur pelts surrounding him. [This is a tent made of animal hide (Teepee)?].
Su Bai immediately sat up and lifted the tent flap to go outside. The moment he looked around, he froze in shock. Before him was an open area, surrounded by tall trees, with unknown plants covering the ground.
"No way… where am I?" Su Bai was a bit dazed as he frowned and tried to think carefully.
His eyes suddenly widened as he said in a trance, "I remember finishing a novel and deciding to go hiking to relax. Then, I accidentally fell off a cliff…"
"Hold on… am I at the bottom of the cliff?" Su Bai blinked, looked up and glanced around, but did not see any cliffs. Moreover, the nearest mountain was quite far away. He estimated it to be over ten kilometres away.
Looking down at his outfit, it was still the sportswear he had worn when leaving home. Only difference was it was now torn and tattered, like that of a beggar.
Carefully scanning his surroundings, Su Bai noticed signs of human activity and came to the conclusion, [This must be a camp. It’s just that there’s no one here at the moment…]
He walked around the camp, observing attentively. He saw a half-burnt bonfire. Judging from the layout, the tent he had been lying in was on the outskirts of the camp.
"No way. They just left an injured person on the edge of a camp ?" Su Bai muttered, his expression growing more solemn.
Walking further deeper, after rounding a few trees, he discovered more traces of human activity. But this only made him feel uneasy.
"What’s going on? There are bones everywhere and only Teepees?" Su Bai stood, blankly staring at the tents in front of him. He could see about thirty tents ahead.
He saw people, but their outfits were made of animal pelts or skirts woven from leaves.
"Are they Cannibals? Or just Primitives?" Su Bai exclaimed.
"Jiliguala…" "Lexingni…"
Hearing the sound Su Bai made, those people looked over and shouted something. But he couldn’t understand a thing. It was a tone he had never heard before, not Chinese or any other languages from countries like England, France or Germany…
It also didn’t sound like any other Chinese dialect. The intonation was completely different.
"Just where am I?" Su Bai let out a powerless cry in his heart.
A man came up to Su Bai, gesturing and talking.
"Zimimoshenjiaoqini, linaziblai…"
"…" Su Bai’s pupils contracted. Only when the man approached did he realise how strange this man looked.
Black short hair, a square face, and dark yellowish skin. The man was around 1.8 metres tall. In terms of normality, these were relatively normal. The abnormal parts were the pair of fifteen centimetres long black horns on his forehead, the sharp fangs filling his open mouth, and his bright brown pupils.
"Wujianqunidaiwo." Seeing Su Bai in a daze, the horned man grabbed his arm and led him deep into the camp.
"…" Su Bai didn’t resist. He calmed down and observed his surroundings. He noticed that the deeper they went, the taller the tents became, with more people and more bizarre Humanoids.
There were people with cat ears on their heads. Some had wings on their backs. Some had Snake tails connected to their bottom…
Of course, there were also Pure Humans like himself. It was just that they had different hair and eye colours: some green, some red…
*Tap tap tap…* After walking for about two or three minutes, Su Bai was brought to a massive tent. The tent was surrounded by people of all ages – old, middle-aged and young. Various sounds of clamoring came from inside.
"The Shaman can’t hold on for much longer. A few more days at most. We must find a new Shaman!"
"Everyone in the Tribe has already been tested! Not a single one has the talent to become a Shaman!"
"Then what should we do? If we lose our Shaman, our Tribe will be doomed! I don’t want to become a Wanderer."
"Isn’t there still one person left?"
"You mean that Wanderer we picked up three days ago?"
"Yes, him! Let him try! He’s the only one left who hasn’t been tested."
"Shaman, what do you think?"
Su Bai heard the tent quiet down. Then the tent flap was lifted and a man with a scar on his cheek, with nothing covering his bare upper body, walked out. He had a pair of thirty centimetres red bull horns on his head.
"Laigunai." The red-horned man waved at him and called out.
"You want me to go in?" Su Bai guessed based on the other party’s gestures. After a brief pause, he stepped forward into the massive tent.
The moment he entered, a sour stench assailed him. It was mixed with a strong smell of blood emanating from the few burly men inside. It nearly made him vomit.
There were six people total in the tent, including the red-horned man. Su Bai would make it seven. However, there was a particular person who attracted the most attention in this room. That was none other than the old man at the very back of the tent.
The Elder had shoulder-length white hair, thick white eyebrows and a beard. Despite his age, the pair of black eyes he had was very spirited. They were not at all what eyes an ageing man should have.
Su Bai was pushed and brought before the old man.
Su Bai felt nervous. He frowned as he looked at the Elder before him. At the slightest sign of trouble, he would take the old man hostage. He couldn’t possibly let these people use him as food.
"Hmmm?" The moment Su Bai’s eyes met the old man’s, his whole body became rigid. His mind was involuntarily drawn in by the old man’s gaze.
The next second, he seemed to be in the midst of stars. He was in darkness, in absolute stillness. He saw a flame ignite in the void, a small speck of light slowly expanding until it filled his entire vision.
"There’s something in the flames." Su Bai’s eyes widened as he saw a figure in the fire. When he got a clear look, his heart suddenly skipped a few beats. It was a creature that resembled a Snake but wasn’t quite a Snake. It resembled a Dragon but wasn’t quite a Dragon.
"Humph!" A muffled snort.
Information suddenly transmitted directly into his mind. He soon abruptly woke up, as if it had all been a hallucination. Everything from a moment ago vanished without a trace.
He saw the old man before him again, only now the Elder’s face was pale. His eyes were no longer bright with spirit. They seemed exhausted, as if much of his mental energy had been used up.
"Shaman, does he have the talent to become a Shaman?" The red-horned man immediately asked.
"Cough cough cough…" The old man coughed a few times, panting as he nodded.
"Wonderful, we will continue to have a Shaman!"
"The Totem and Ancestors have blessed us."
"Huh???" For some unknown reason, Su Bai suddenly understood what the people around him were saying.He also realised why they had called him over. [So, they want me to become the Tribe’s Shaman?!]
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