Chapter 1038 - Legacy
Li Shentan had thought that if he offended the Lian tribe"s chief, she might retaliate with a series of actions against him, such as tying him to a wooden stake and whipping him, or hanging him up and refusing to give him any water to drink.
But he was not afraid of that. The people from the Lian tribe had underestimated his power of hypnotism and thought they could really place him under captivity with these copper and silver corpses.
If they actually attempted to kill him, the people from the Lian tribe would get defined as "bad people" in Li Shentan"s mind, and he would not feel any guilt about hypnotizing them to join the Prosperous Northwest together.
Li Shentan had promised Ren Xiaosu to be a good person and live with a ray of light in his heart. As such, everything he did now would have to be based on this philosophy and match its logic, so he could not hypnotize the good people, only those who were bad.
Although Ren Xiaosu was not here to keep an eye on him, they were still carrying Chen Wudi with them.
Little Liren had previously asked him: "When will Big Brother Wudi wake up?"
Li Shentan"s answer was that Chen Wudi would wake up once certain conditions were met.
It would have to be something that could convince someone who had sealed himself away that it was meaningful for him to wake up, and that the world still needed him as a ray of light.
Therefore, Li Shentan told Ren Xiaosu that Chen Wudi might wake up when a widely acknowledged fiend like him truly turned good. At that time, the Demon Whisperer would finally receive his salvation as well.
With Chen Wudi "spectating," how could he hypnotize good people so casually?
But now, she didn"t even intend to take revenge on him. Instead, she wanted to bring him back to become her consort?!
Li Shentan suddenly felt that Lian Yi did not seem normal either. For some reason, he even felt like he had encountered his own kind.
But what the h.e.l.l was this? If any other man heard about this, his first reaction would probably be: "Such a good deal exists?!"
Lian Yi was a very beautiful girl, and her tanned skin even added a very unique charm to her.
How was this revenge? She was clearly returning injury with kindness!
Of course, Li Shentan was not a lecher. It was just that he found it a little difficult to determine whether Lian Yi was a good or bad person. As such, he could not use his hypnosis on her anymore.
Li Shentan turned his pleading gaze to Little Liren next to him, but Little Liren asked Lian Yi with great interest instead, "The romance novels I"ve read don"t have as bold a plot as this. If you have a baby together after bringing him back, whose surname will the baby take?"
"The baby will take the surname of our Lian tribe, of course," Lian Yi replied proudly. "In our Lian tribe, women are the head of the family."
Li Shentan mouthed to Little Liren, "Get these silver and copper corpses away from me."
Little Liren nodded upon seeing this. Then she said to Lian Yi, "In that case, hurry up! Take him back and marry him already!"
Li Shentan was confused.
With that, Little Liren revolted against Li Shentan. She even seemed like she was extremely looking forward to the marriage.
The women of the Lian tribe immediately looked at Little Liren with an even kinder gaze. Someone even promised to roast some meat for her after they returned to their village stronghold.
As such, dozens of copper and silver corpses escorted Li Shentan to the south of Xiuzhuzhou. Meanwhile, Lian Yi, Little Liren, and the others chatted and laughed happily as they followed behind.
Li Shentan stared blankly ahead and said melancholically, "That little girl has revolted!"
At this moment, Little Liren carefully sized up those copper and silver corpses. Then she asked Lian Yi and the others curiously, "Are these your former relatives?"
"You could say that." Lian Yi replied, "Actually, we don"t know some of them either. For example, the gold corpse that I control was actually pa.s.sed down through the generations. The reason why we were able to survive and escape all the way here from the Southwest before The Cataclysm was due to the existence of the gold corpse. You can say that he"s our ancestor we respect a great deal."
When Li Shentan, who was walking in front of them, heard that, he was stunned. "The gold corpse existed before The Cataclysm?"
Lian Yi frowned. "Don"t interrupt when the women are talking."
Li Shentan was speechless.
He wondered if the men of the Lian tribe really did not command any standing.
However, Little Liren still helped him to clarify his doubts. "But supernatural beings have only appeared in recent years. How did you guys gain such a powerful power before The Cataclysm?"
"That"s nothing new." Lian Yi thought for a moment and explained, "During the Pre-Cataclysm times, our tribe was not the only one that could wield powers beyond common skills. There was a Rider who went by the name of Ren He who visited our village and was already very powerful at that time. He could not be beaten even with two of our village"s gold corpses fighting him. That happened before The Cataclysm, so he had already become a supernatural being before that. I"m not making this up. It was recorded in the chronicles of our tribe."
"Oh, I see." Li Shentan nodded. It seemed that a tiny fraction of people had already possessed superpowers before The Cataclysm. However, the Rider"s way of unlocking those powers was different from his. Based on his deduction, the Riders" progression was to complete a set of specific tasks to unlock the shackles within their bodies.
The Riders and the Lian tribe were a little unique in the current era. The majority of superhumans relied purely on "luck" to awaken their powers, while the Riders and the Lian tribe had developed a mature inheritance system.
The existence of such legacies should be extremely rare. Since the world was so big, he wondered if similar legacies also existed outside the Alliance of Strongholds?
Li Shentan had never paid attention to these matters before, but he thought that maybe he could ask Grandpa Hu Shuo if he knew anything about these interesting stories.
Li Shentan suddenly said curiously, "But it looks to me like you"re very skilled. It shouldn"t be easy for someone as skilled as you to fall sick, or maybe even never. You said you practice corpse refinement to keep your dead relatives around. But since you guys don"t fall sick, how would you have any relatives who pa.s.sed away from sickness?"
Lian Yi did not tell him to shut up this time but replied coldly, "Do you think we wish to see our relatives dying from illnesses? There"s only a few hundred people in our tribe who can practice corpse refinement. The rest are just normal people. I only encountered y"all this time because I was out gathering medicinal herbs. Many of our tribespeople become sick during the seasonal transition from winter to spring. No matter how hard we try to look after them, they aren"t able to recover fully. It makes us really worried as well."
"What kinds of illnesses?" Li Shentan asked.
"Currently, we have more than twenty villagers suffering from sore throats and fevers," Lian Yi said.
Li Shentan was stunned. "Isn"t that just a simple fever? It might be caused by viruses, mycoplasma, germs, or fungal infections. They should recover after taking some antibiotics. Even if antibiotics aren"t available in your tribe, you guys should definitely have developed some folk remedies for treating illnesses since you"ve survived for this long."
"We migrated here from other places. As we couldn"t find the herbs used to treat the illnesses here, we could only test out the different herbs that we find here to see which works." Lian Yi said, "But after so long, we still haven"t found any suitable herbs to treat them with. In fact, some of our tribespeople even died after consuming poisonous plants."
Li Shentan suddenly felt that this might be the opportunity for him to coerce the Lian tribe into joining the Prosperous Northwest!