Duel Before The Gods

Looking at the cauldron and feeling that deep calling from his cells, Lu Chen totally lost the mood to greet his peers in the room. Instead, his eyes fixated on the cauldron as if trying to discern what was brewing in it.

The other teenagers also ignored Lu Chen after glancing at him.

Although they are still teenagers, they are the geniuses of the village. We have never actually gotten along before.

As he thought, Lu Chen also noticed that the teenagers were also staring at the cauldron with the same anticipation he had.

Time passed by as they continued to stare closely at the cauldron. An hour later, Wuzu finally stopped adding ingredients and his dancing ritual. It turned out to be hot soup that he was cooking inside the cauldron.

Looking at the cauldron of hot soup and sniffing the familiar smell, Lu Chen squinted his eyes.

This is… The hot soup that saved me that night.

While Lu Chen was still lost in his surprised, Wuzu picked up a huge clay bowl and filled it with the hot herbal soup.

The young barbarian Shi smiled brightly in shock as he saw the big bowl of hot soup while on the other hand, another young barbarian’s face turned sour.

Oh nice, this is more than half the usual amount. Has Master Wuzu finally acknowledged my strength?

The barbarian tribes had few rules, but they had always followed a golden rule: Justice is whatever is decided by the strong.

Other than the mysterious Wus, whoever wanted to do anything in the village, whether it be become chieftain, or be given more food, one had to earn the privilege with their own strength.

At the same time, the strong ones would always be prioritized over the rest.

The distribution of the hot herbal soup followed the exact same rule.

Every time, the hot herbal soup would be distributed to Shi first. This was not just because of his father’s position as the chieftain, but also because Shi was the strongest among his peers.

However, those who could enter the room were all geniuses in their own right. Hence, even if Shi had always been the first to be given the hot herbal soup, the volume more or less the same as the rest.

But that no longer seemed to be the case. Shi knew that the situation would change from today onwards.

However, the biggest reason for Shi’s excitement was not just the fact that this signified an elevation of his status among his peers, but something more fundamental—an elevation of his prowess!

Most barbarians were uneducated. Other than the mysterious Wus, their strength was simple and brutal. They didn’t have any fancy skills and techniques, and all they relied on was their body constitution, strength, and Vigor to face the dangers of the Wilderness.

But Vigor, that didn’t just come from nothing. Cultivating martial arts and strengthening their bodies both required immense resources.

Tree bark and vegetables provided the least Vigor to the body. They wouldn’t even suffice for maintaining the general wellbeing of their bodies, let alone support them in their cultivation.

Other than that, the meat would be able to provide enough Vigor for the body. But it had one flaw, meat was oftentimes hard to digest.

There was a limit to how much meat an ordinary human could digest in a single day.

This in turn led to some of the cultivators creating martial arts that could enhance their digestive ability. But martial arts like these were far beyond the reach of the common barbarian tribes.

Other than the martial arts that could enhance one’s digestive ability, there were some other talents in this world with mysterious powers that could extract the essence from food.

The Wus were among one of them. They could mix the medicinal herbs, meats, and all other kinds of poisonous snakes and scorpions together to extract their energies out into a cauldron of nutritional hot soup.

Not only were these soups filled with nutrients, they were also fast and easy for the human bodies to absorb. This way, the problem of digestion wouldn’t be an issue anymore.

Cultivating with a bowl of hot soup was equivalent to a 3-day stint of cultivation of an ordinary man. As time went on, the gaps between these teenagers and their peers would only grow bigger and wider.

This was why when Shi saw the huge bowl of hot soup, he could already see himself excelling much further than the others in the room.

Whereas Jian and the rest held sour faces looking at the bowl of hot soup.

Other than feeling jealous toward Shi, they were also worried about the lessened amount of hot soup that would be distributed to them.

The hot soup was naturally good. But other than the time he was possessed by the White Wander Roaming Spirit and was given a bowl of hot soup, Lu Chen could not recall anything about the hot soup’s presence in Chen’s memories.

The reason for this was simple. The hot soup was undoubtedly good, but searching for its ingredients was a difficult task.

Most of the time, they could only find a few of the ingredients scattered around the village. But most of the ingredients would come from the Savage Beasts living in the Wilderness and also herbs guarded by these dangerous beasts. Thus, in order to cook a cauldron of the soup, the hunters would have to venture into the Wilderness.

This posed a limit to the amount of hot soup that Wu could cook. Naturally, when someone was given a bigger portion, someone else would have to drink less.

While Shi was happy about the huge bowl of hot soup, the rest of them were not looking happy at all.

But, in the next second, all of them were shocked by Wu’s actions, including Shi.

Wu didn’t give the bowl of hot soup to Shi but instead, passed it into Lu Chen’s hands.

Everyone in the room was stunned on the spot, but they were quick to regain usual their composure again.

Ah’Chen was possessed by an Evil and nearly died from it. It’s true he needs it to recover his body.

Thank the ancestors. Shi’s volume didn’t change and Ah’Chen will only be here for three days at the most. After three days, we will get back to our original volume.

…

Lu Chen’s inclusion in the distribution of hot soup made the teenagers disappointed at the reduction in the amount of the hot soup they would be given for the next few days.

But looking at Lu Chen’s pallid face, they didn’t right about complaining.

One must say, despite the importance of the hot soup to them, the innocent barbarians would still not place the hot soup over the lives of their people.

Just put up with it, three days will pass very quickly.

They could only comfort themselves in their hearts and wait for Wu to distribute the rest of the hot soup.

However, what Wu said after put the rest of them in shock.

“Xiao Xia, remember, Ah’Chen will have the same amount as Xiao Shi and Jian in the following distribution of the soup.”

“Eh? Ah, understood.”

Xiao Xia, who was also the little timid girl who called Wu teacher answered.

Xiao Xia was only surprised by Wu’s decision, but the rest of the teenagers were clearly unhappy about it.

They could stand Lu Chen taking away a portion of their share temporarily to recover his health. After all, they were fellow villagers from the same village, they wouldn’t sit by and watch Lu Chen suffer on his own.

But they would never be able to stand Lu Chen sticking around for long as that would mean a permanent reduction in their share of the herbal soup, which would ultimately affect their cultivation progress.

“Master Wuzu, only with enough prowess can one protect the village. We cannot stand a waste of resources on the commoners.”

“That’s right. The supplies, the herbs, our father fought their lives for it.”

“Master…”

The teenagers thought Master Wuzu only took Lu Chen in because of the unfortunate incident he had gone through.

To that, Master Wuzu’s wrinkled face smiled.

“I understand what you are saying. The village’s resources have to focus on the strong as only the strong ones can protect the village and help us hunt more food. I am old but I have not lost my mind yet.”

The teenagers didn’t dare to say anything in response.

Then, Wuzu looked at Lu Chen and said, “I have my reasons to include Ah’Chen in. The possession of the evil spirit sure did harm Ah’Chen, but perhaps, this may not entirely be a bad thing. Whatever it is, we will see in three days’ time.”

“Give Ah’Chen three days to recover himself. After that, those of you who are still against this can proceed with the rules of the tribe. I will not stop you.”

“En, other than Ah’Chen. The rest of you will also be the same. This time, we will make it a mini test for everyone.”

After he finished, Wuzu turned to Lu Chen and said, “You only have three days. After three days, the young ones will proceed with the rules of the tribe. By then, it will show if you are a worm or a dragon. You are on your own to prove yourself worthy.”

“I understand, Master Wuzu.”

Then, Lu Chen drank the bowl of hot soup in one go.

After he drank the hot soup, a hot stream emerged from his stomach and spread across his body.

And energy slowly recovered in Lu Chen’s body that was weakened by the fusion of the Gold-grade skill.

As his body was slowly recovering, a strong sense of power also gradually filled Lu Chen’s mind and soul.

It was a feeling that he was ten times stronger than he was before. The true power of the Gold-grade skill was slowly unfolding before his eyes.

At the same time, the immense power within his body stimulated Lu Chen’s willpower.

On the other hand, after hearing Wuzu’s explanation, the teenagers in the room were all fired up. They looked at Lu Chen and their peers with eyes that shone with fighting spirit.

As was explained before, the barbarian tribes had few rules, but they always followed their golden rule.

In the Wilderness, the strong was always right.

But the barbarians were mostly pure and simple-minded. Although competitions and conflicts did exist among them, not everyone would kill their opponents in the duels. After all, if they were to do so, the barbarians would’ve gone extinct long ago.

The strong one was the right one; and there were conflicts; but they couldn’t simply take the lives of their fellow villagers.

The above reasons gave rise to a special culture among the barbarians.

“The duel before the gods”, or more commonly known as the Totem Duel.

Whenever conflicts arose between the barbarians, the involved parties would hold a duel before the Totem—the resting place of their ancestors’ souls.

The winner would then decide what justice meant.