Orc Girl's Tribal Daily Life

Chapter 129 The Awakening Ritual of the Orc Warriors

Go was the first to notice the cub's awkwardness, but there was nothing he could do.

At this moment, he was a guard standing beside the wooden platform. He had to be loyal to his duty, and could not leave his post without permission, nor could he even linger his gaze on the cubs for too long.

The second person to notice the cub was Mao. Although he was surrounded by several newly acquainted peers and talking to them, Mao kept an eye on the cub's condition.

In Mao's eyes, Yuzai is a child who knows how to enjoy "solitude". She never feels that being alone is bad because she can use "time when she is all alone" to do a lot of things.

On the contrary, being too enthusiastic in catering to the children can put pressure on them—Jiang Luoluo, who is an adult at heart, does indeed feel helpless when faced with the children's enthusiasm.

Therefore, Shigeru is more accustomed to silently watching the cubs from the sidelines until the cubs need him.

"Luo, let me hold you so you can see." Pushing himself out from the crowd of children his age, Mao stretched out his arms toward the cub.

With a look of surprise and delight on the cub's face, Mao lifted the cub onto his shoulder and sat it down so that the cub could see the scene of the ritual clearly.

The shaman on the wooden platform had finished his opening remarks, which essentially stated that the Yanshuang tribe had lived here for many years, entirely thanks to the protection of their ancestors. It was their ancestors who had brought them this way of life, and they wanted to thank and worship them.

He then talked about the various changes that have taken place in the tribe in recent years, especially after Chief Jing took over the throne, and gave a basic explanation of the current situation of the tribe.

This included data on food availability, tribe hunting casualty rates, and the proportion of newborns, and then they urged the birth of a child.

Finally, some visions for the future were made, such as having more children in the tribe, having more orc warriors, and hunting more food...

Jiang Luoluo felt like she was at a company's annual meeting, summarizing the year-end.

The difference is that company leaders always say "Let me add a few more points..." when they speak, while Wu's speech is just a very simple description without much elaboration, so even though he has a lot of content, it doesn't take up too much time.

After the speech, it was time for the actual ritual of worshipping the ancestors.

In Jiang Luoluo's experience, the usual practice here is to offer some sacrifices, light a few sticks of incense, say a few auspicious words, and then go downstairs to distribute the sacrifices—after all, the ancestors won't get to eat them.

Although she wasn't quite sure how the tribe performed the rituals, she figured it shouldn't be too different... Jiang Luoluo thought.

Before the thought had even finished, Jiang Luoluo saw the leader, Jing, leap down from the wooden platform and walk towards the fire, stopping right next to it.

Behind Chief Jing, from behind the wooden house, a group of orc warriors carrying several huge beast bones walked towards the fire.

Some tribesmen were carrying half-filled wooden buckets of red liquid... If I'm not mistaken, it should be beast blood.

Even from a great distance, Jiang Luoluo could smell the pungent stench of blood.

Uh, these are sacrificial offerings? Jiang Luoluo looked at the several huge skeletons... No, why are the offerings just bones? Where's the meat? Could it be that the meat was cut off beforehand and given to the tribespeople to avoid waste?

...It's something that a tribe would do.

And what about those barrels that weren't full? Were they just mixing the beast blood among themselves to make up the difference?

Jiang Luoluo was still happily watching the show when she suddenly noticed that the tribesmen who had been carrying wooden buckets of beast blood had scattered and walked into the crowd, carrying those buckets of beast blood that seemed to have been laced with something.

The tribespeople were used to it; they took out their stone knives, made a random cut on their arms or fingers, and let their blood drip into the buckets of beast blood.

Huh? The offering is myself? Jiang Luoluo panicked a little as she watched a member of her tribe carrying a wooden bucket walk towards her with a clear purpose.

Mao noticed the cub's panicked expression, so he raised his hand and patted it reassuringly, saying something that Jiang Luoluo didn't expect.

“Lo, the fire needs to burn continuously, but burning requires fuel.”

Mao's gaze met Jiang Luoluo's, and he said what he hadn't finished: "Our ancestors were the fuel that ignited the flame, and so are we."

All the burning was for the better and longer continuation of the tribe.

Jiang Luoluo blinked and saw her blood dripping into the bucket, mingling with the beast blood and the blood of others.

“My father said so,” a grown child beside him explained softly, looking at the seemingly confused little boy.

"What burns in the fire is the consciousness of our ancestors, who are burned by the flames without stopping until they are completely consumed."

"If we don't want the consciousness of our ancestors to disappear, we must use our blood, which is connected to our ancestors by blood, to replace their consciousness and burn in their place."

Beside the fire, Chief Jing had already taken the first bucket of blood mixed with beast blood and splashed it onto the flames.

The fire quickly intensified.

Then came the second bucket, the third bucket...

When the flames grew to a certain size, Chief Jing took two steps back, grabbed the giant beast bones behind him, and threw them into the fire.

Jiang Luoluo pondered for a moment: So the embers weren't entirely made up of the ancestors' ashes.

The thought of ancestral ashes mixed with those of wild beasts, then used for all sorts of things... it just feels even more hellish.

Of course, Jiang Luoluo later learned that the bones of these giant beasts were actually used to replace firewood to maintain the physical combustion of the flames. Because they contained abundant energy, they could sustain the flames for up to a year.

Otherwise, with such a large campfire, it would take countless trees to chop down just to add firewood and keep it burning.

As for the firewood piled up in the campfires you usually see, it is actually just a "decoration" placed there to maintain the shape of the fire, and it is not normally used for burning.

After this step, the awakening ceremony for Mao and his group of children began.

Although Jiang Luoluo was put down by Mao and lost her high vantage point, she also became a front-row audience member with no obstruction.

All the children awaiting awakening knelt down, facing the flames, around the fire.

The shaman stepped down from the wooden platform. In the distance, another group of orc warriors carrying wooden buckets approached. Jiang Luoluo subconsciously covered her arm. Although it didn't hurt much, she didn't want to get cut again.

Fortunately, the wooden tub was full this time, and Jiang Luoluo breathed a sigh of relief.

It still looks like some kind of animal blood, but the taste is a little different. It doesn't have that strong bloody smell anymore; instead, it has a herbal smell... Could the herbal juice that the shaman and his men processed in the cabin a couple of days ago have been mixed with this animal blood?

Just as Jiang Luoluo was guessing whether the next step was to drink it or something, Wu did something she hadn't expected.

The shaman brought out a pile of red stones, which were cinnabar stones called "red blood stones" by the tribe... Zhuang had initially taken these stones from his home to exchange with Jiang Luoluo for jam.

Several strong clansmen practiced their fists and feet, quickly pounding a pile of crimson bloodstone into fine powder, then shook the powder off their arms and made a graceful exit.

Someone brought clean water and used it to brew the powdered bloodstone until it turned a blood-red color.

The shaman took out a long needle with a groove in the middle, dipped it into a liquid made of bloodstone powder, and then made the children take off their clothes, exposing their bare backs.

The shaman then used the tip of a long needle to pierce the backs of these children, and a liquid, whether blood or crimson stone water, flowed down their spines.

Jiang Luoluo wasn't quite sure, but it seemed to be a real tattoo... So the big red wolf that occasionally appeared on Ge and the others was tattooed like this?

The pain caused the children's bodies to tremble slightly, but no one struggled or cried out in pain.

This process is somewhat slow, since a shaman can only tattoo one child at a time.

However, the process is much faster than a normal tattoo. It's as if the shaman has done so many tattoos that he's become so skilled that his movements are so swift that there isn't a single unnecessary step.

Jiang Luoluo watched the whole process without blinking, only to find that it only took Wu Wen to complete a child's tattoo in a dozen minutes.

Wait a minute... what if someone with clumsy hands became a witch? Wouldn't that be a disaster?... Future generations of children would just be stuck with ugly wolf tattoos...

Wait a minute, Jiang Luoluo thought back for a moment, something's not right. How come the brown tattoo, the red tattoo, and the dagger tattoo she remembered seeing were not all the same shape?

It doesn't look like a mass-produced product at all.

Unfortunately, Jiang Luoluo couldn't clearly see the shapes the witch had tattooed on each child's back. The crimson blood stone water and blood had covered the entire back, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

Jiang Luoluo's eyes were sharp, and she suddenly realized something. The tattoos she had seen before seemed to have some on their chests as well... Wait, was she going to get another one on her chest later?

There were girls inside too?!

Although the separation of men and women in the tribe wasn't as strict, and it was common for them to be naked together occasionally without anyone saying anything, it was still a different story in front of thousands of tribespeople...

At least for now, everyone is facing the fire, so you can only see their backs. If they were to turn around... wouldn't that be a bit too awkward?

Perhaps Jiang Luoluo's mindset hadn't fully shifted yet; in any case, she couldn't quite accept such "openness."

The number of children awaiting awakening this year is not large. Jiang Luoluo roughly counted, and there were fewer than thirty, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

When she got to the middle of the count, Jiang Luoluo was momentarily distracted. When she came to her senses and continued counting, she was a little unsure.

I did the math, and it would take at least five hours to complete the tattoo. Does that mean the first kid to get a tattoo has to wait for five hours with his upper body bare?

Fortunately, no.

After the witch finished tattooing the first ten children, she didn't make them turn around to get tattooed again. Instead, she paused briefly and began the next step.

Jiang Luoluo felt that getting a tattoo like that must be tough for Wu, and that he was probably taking this time to rest.

A member of the tribe came forward carrying a wooden bucket. The shaman took out a wooden ladle from the bucket, filled it with a ladle full of mixed beast blood, and splashed it onto each of the ten young men and women who had their backs tattooed.

Everyone suddenly felt a shiver run through them.

Jiang Luoluo looked at the beast blood mixed with some unknown substance, and then at the wounds on everyone's backs, where needles pierced through flesh and blood, and cinnabar water was mixed in... This seemed to be no different from rubbing alcohol on wounds.

The shaman seemed to be chanting some prayers in a low voice, but Jiang Luoluo couldn't hear them clearly from this distance; she only saw the shaman's lips move.

The shaman strode over the kneeling children and walked toward the fire. He stopped at the edge of the fire, then raised his arm and plunged it straight into the fire.

Jiang Luoluo's eyelids twitched.

The shaman pulled his arm out of the flames; the entire arm was intact, except for a wisp of transparent flame burning on his palm.

Jiang Luoluo was just watching from a distance, but she instinctively felt that the flame was so close.

The shaman raised the flame in his hand, walked back to his original position, and after standing firm, gently flicked his arm at the ten children whose backs were tattooed and who were covered in beast blood.

The flames split into ten parts, which floated lightly towards the ten children and landed on their backs.

Like a raging fire meeting hot oil, the flames ignited instantly, completely engulfing the ten children.

Self-immolation...? The scene, resembling the murder by some unhealthy cult, made Jiang Luoluo's heart stop for a moment.

However, what happened next made Jiang Luoluo's eyes widen in disbelief.

All that could be seen were ten human figures amidst the flames, when suddenly a red, beast-like shadow began to move, as if it were alive, running and roaming in the flames and on the bare skin of the ten children.

Jiang Luoluo could vaguely hear them roaring and howling.

And the flames are burning, burning.

Then, at a certain moment, with the roar of those beast shadows, the flames suddenly began to shrink, gradually retreating back onto the backs of all the children, merging with the red beast shadow.

Jiang Luoluo then realized that the Crimson Blood Stone Water, blood, and beast blood mixed with herbs on the children's bodies had all been burned away by the flames, leaving no trace.

Only lifelike red wolf tattoos appeared on their bodies, as if they were alive... No, Jiang Luoluo clearly saw that the red wolf tattoos on each child's back made different movements and expressions.

And it's still moving!

move???!!!

The first child suddenly developed crimson fur, and then its body shape changed, growing larger and larger as it approached the "wolf form".

It stopped growing after reaching a height of seven or eight meters, thus fixing its size and shape.

The first boy to successfully transform into a beast stood still, shaking his long red wolf fur, looking quite energetic.

He seemed to have some trouble controlling his body. He tried to take a step and almost fell. He barely managed to regain his balance, which caused a burst of low laughter from the crowd.

He didn't fall, but another child nearby didn't have such good control. He not only fell to the ground, but also rolled over like a ball, knocking over several people.

Ten giant red wolves, each seven or eight meters tall, crawled and rolled on the ground like wolf cubs just learning to walk, getting used to their new bodies.

Sometimes, when you're doing something perfectly well, your companions might "drag you down" and knock you over. Hearing the laughter of the tribespeople around you, you might get so angry that you turn around and start a fight with them.

Then, without realizing it, she ended up at the edge of the crowd... Jiang Luoluo finally understood why she had gotten injured.