While Cao Yun was staying at the Ancient Obsidian tribe, the Raging Volcano tribe was in uproar. The tribesmen who had gone out with Jin'ao had come back with news of his death. Although they had tried to keep it quiet at first, Chieftain Rong Shan made it impossible.
Chieftain Rong Shan was a powerful warrior, probably stronger than anyone in the entire region. In fact, he was afraid of only one person. Chieftain Rong Shan was much bigger than any Flameborn, and he was almost all muscles. When hunting, he had been seen crushing the necks of fire beasts with his bare hands, beasts that were ten times larger than any Flameborn. This middle-aged man was feared and admired by many. In fact, his only weakness was his fire arts. Although his fire was powerful, his control was limited. Clearly, he was brute force, a force of nature, like a raging volcano.
As soon as he heard the news, he stood up and literally pulverized his own throne. The entire tribe shook as if a volcano was erupting. In a sense, a volcano actually had erupted.
"Who killed my son?!"
Chieftain Rong Shan's voice spread all over the tribe. At this point, he didn't care about anything else. Although his son was stupid and immature, Chieftain Rong Shan loved him very much. Not only had he been killed, but Chieftain Rong Shan didn't even have his ashes. Obviously, he was furious. No one had ever seen him that mad. The young tribesmen were shocked and didn't dare to hide anything. They told Chieftain Rong Shan absolutely everything, without missing any details.
Slowly, Chieftain Rong Shan's rage seemed to transform.
"What did my son do?!"
"He... he tried to grab Jinyang and Jinyue, saying that he wanted to savor them and teach them. When Xuanhui tried to stop him, Jin'ao killed him. And..."
"And you didn't stop that stupid son of mine?! What were your orders?! What did I tell all of you?!"
No one thought that Chieftain Rong Shan could get even madder, but he just did. All the tribesmen were worried. The parents of the young tribesmen genuinely feared that he would kill them all. Others were afraid that Chieftain Rong Shan would declare war immediately. This wasn't the best idea right now. Honestly, they didn't care much about the Ancient Obsidian tribe, but other tribes wouldn't like the Raging Volcano tribe to extend its territory. Besides, there were all those legends about Ash Bringer. Although it wasn't their main concern, the Raging Volcano tribe had to admit that they wanted to find out whether the rumors were true or false.
Shaman Zhamian was observing all that. Unfortunately, he didn't have much power in politics. Even among the various Flameborn tribes, the position of shaman could differ a lot. Some shamans were almost absolute moral authorities while others were just seen as spiritual leaders completely removed from any political decision. Obviously, Chieftain Rong Shan was the absolute leader of the tribe. Behind him were a few important figures who formed his council, but he was the one with the final say.
If Chieftain Rong Shan declared war right now, the Raging Volcano tribe would go to war. Some would want it, but they didn't think it was the right moment. They had worked hard to push the Ancient Obsidian tribe to its limits and beyond. Now that victory was smiling at them, they didn't want to spit in her face by acting stupid. However, no one was going to tell Chieftain Rong Shan that avenging his son was stupid...
"Chieftain, you ordered us to harass the Ancient Obsidian tribe, but to never physically harm them first."
"Did Xuanhui initiate the conflict? Did the twin sisters initiate the conflict?"
"No, Chieftain."
"Who initiated that damn conflict?!"
"Jin'ao did."
"And you did nothing to stop him! That idiot son of mine had to be kept on a leash! I should have whipped and spanked him some more before sending him on any mission... Ah!"
Chieftain Rong Shan screamed a bit more, the ears of the tribesmen genuinely hurt at this point.
"I hate his guts for what he did, but I can't punish him! That bastard can't even let me mourn him properly, he had to tarnish his own death! If I were that Cao Yun, I would have done the same! No! I would have done much worse!"
No one really knew how to react or what to say. As such, everyone stayed silent and simply waited. For a while, Chieftain Rong Shan simply cursed both his son, Cao Yun, and his own tribesmen. At some point, he cursed himself for failing to teach his moronic son. He even cursed his own life fire for having produced such useless offspring. But, despite all his grievances against his son, Chieftain Rong Shan couldn't deny that he loved him. It was precisely this love that had blinded him to how nefarious his son's mind actually was. Chieftain Rong Shan himself had beheaded a man for abusing a woman once. During a conflict with another tribe, a fellow tribesman had taken advantage of a woman who was protecting her child, so Chieftain Rong Shan made him pay in accordance with their laws and cut him apart.
Thinking back on that scene, Chieftain Rong Shan wondered if Cao Yun had not saved him in a sense. Now, he didn't have to wonder if he would have applied the same law fairly to his own son.
Once his rage had passed, Chieftain Rong Shan turned to Shaman Zhamian.
"Can you prepare the rites for my son's ashes?"
"Yes, Chieftain. Of course, we will need his ashes, but I can get everything ready."
"Good."
Turning toward his council, Chieftain Rong Shan addressed them directly for the first time.
"Prepare a messenger for the Ancient Obsidian tribe. If I go, I might not be able to control myself. We will try diplomacy, for the time being. But, one way or another, the Ancient Obsidian tribe will submit to us. Even if I have to dig up the old fossil Cangfeng myself and crush their spirit, their pathetic tribe will submit and be absorbed. Whether the legends are true or false doesn't matter anymore. We will take everything that they have."
-
In the Ancient Obsidian tribe, Cao Yun stayed in Jinyao's place. The hunter's daughters were serving Cao Yun. The human was still observing the entire tribe with his senses. At this point, he didn't really care about the political aspect of the tribe. In fact, he cared much more about the Dao of Fire. All day long, he observed children manipulate fire as a game. Although there were adults, Cao Yun mostly cared about the kids. Indeed, the adults already exceeded his level by too much. The kids, though, were good enough to be interesting but not so good that Cao Yun was completely lost. He hoped to gain some insight.
What Cao Yun truly realized was that their Dao of Fire didn't follow any course or ranking system. Red Calm himself in 'Red Calm on a Sunny Day' had explained that his techniques weren't in a specific order. But Cao Yun realized that the Dao of Fire was vaster than he had imagined. Even if he mastered every technique in 'Red Calm on a Sunny Day', he wouldn't have a true comprehension of the Dao of Fire. He had to actually explore the Dao himself and find his own path. Of course, he could still follow someone else's methods. However, he shouldn't adhere to them as dogma. Freedom and imagination were more important. The ultimate goal of his cultivation wasn't to imitate or mimic, it was to create anew.
At some point, Cao Yun used his stealth and simply left the tribe without anyone noticing. It didn't take him long to hunt down several large fire beasts. Cao Yun was after their flesh. In his spatial ring, he had a lot of food, but it was foreign to this world, so he couldn't just take it out as he had planned. Instead, the human hunted down enough fire beasts to feed the tribe for a few months. Then, he simply gave some meat to Jinyao.
Jinyao didn't dare to accept at first. Unfortunately, his tribe truly needed it. Cao Yun simply asked him to keep his involvement quiet. Jinyao thanked him and even kowtowed before Cao Yun, who was a bit embarrassed but knew that it was coming. Then, Jinyao was able to help feed the tribe. It had been a long time since they had been able to enjoy such meat. Indeed, the Raging Volcano tribe was limiting their hunting expeditions. On the one hand, they protected their own hunting grounds. On the other hand, they mostly hunted on the Ancient Obsidian tribe's hunting grounds, in order to reduce the number of fire beasts. In fact, Cao Yun had been forced to go to the hunting grounds of several other tribes. Of course, he didn't care at all, and no one could tell he had been there.
Obviously, Jinyao was seen as a hero. Many tribesmen suspected something, but no one said anything at all. What most of them suspected was that Jinyao had broken the rules of the hunting grounds. But they all knew that the Raging Volcano tribe was doing it, and no other tribe had intervened to help them. Even now, a few tribesmen hoped that the Fire Thearch would help them and uphold the ancient laws. Soon, they could get to him and hopefully make their case. However, many had even lost that hope. Jinyao helped restore a bit of hope.
Ironically, now that hope was coming back, Cao Yun heard more Flameborns suggesting that they should give him up to the Raging Volcano tribe. After all, they simply wanted to live in peace, and they thought that Cao Yun's presence would just make them even more of a target. If the Fire Thearch could help them resolve the matter peacefully, their harboring of Cao Yun would prevent the Raging Volcano tribe from backing down. Thankfully, this wasn't the majority opinion. But many Flameborns seemed to think that way, while the others wanted to thank Cao Yun for saving their fellow tribesmen. That being said, they didn't want him to overstay his welcome.
Cao Yun truly wasn't sold on defending this tribe. Out of respect for Emperor Nuwa, and just because he couldn't let people suffer right in front of him for no reason, he would make sure that they survived. However, he had no intention of going further than that, for now.
While Cao Yun was judging the Ancient Obsidian tribe, Shaman Heiyan went underground in an old temple. It was a large structure under the tribe. Most of it had fallen apart because of a lack of care. After all, the tribe didn't have the resources to maintain its own people. So they certainly didn't have any resources to waste on an old underground temple, the one on the surface was enough.
Shaman Heiyan created fire in his hand as he walked through the dark corridors. He was looking for several murals. Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly remember where they were. As such, it took him much longer than expected. In the end, he found what he was looking for. Sadly, the murals were deteriorated, and he couldn't make out every detail. That being said, he remained underground to study those murals as best as he could. They were all related to Ash Bringer and to her legend. There was little text, but everything was written in Primitive Nuhua. Although Shaman Heiyan could speak it, reading it was a bit different, and he had a hard time with many of the characters that weren't present in his few books written in Ash Bringer's language.
-
The messenger from the Raging Volcano tribe finally arrived at the Ancient Obsidian tribe. He was received by Huishou, who led him to the temple where Huilu and Huichi were waiting. Each brother had a very different attitude, and the messenger could tell immediately that they disagreed. In fact, he could see that Huichi was ready to kill him just to declare war, even if the Ancient Obsidian tribe would be in the wrong before the Fire Thearch. Thankfully for the messenger, Huichi was still rational and restrained himself. Huilu was obviously the man who was easier to deal with, so the messenger seemed to address him more than the other two.
"Chieftain Rong Shan wants to apologize for Jin'ao's terrible actions and the inaction of his fellow tribesmen. No one in the Raging Volcano tribe condones the crimes of Jin'ao. Thus, our Raging Volcano tribe is ready to offer reparations to your Ancient Obsidian tribe. We are ready to hear a price from the victims of Jin'ao's crimes. However, we also have a few demands. Despite his terrible deeds, Jin'ao is still the beloved son of Chieftain Rong Shan. According to our reports, his murderer, Cao Yun, has the ashes of Jin'ao. We would like the Ancient Obsidian tribe to intercede with him so that the ashes can be given back to his father for the funeral rites."
Of course, Huilu was ecstatic to hear the messenger's words. On the other hand, Huichi didn't like that they had a few demands but had only made one so far. Without even waiting to talk about this with his brothers, Huilu spoke first.
"Our Ancient Obsidian tribe will honor Chieftain Rong Shan's reasonable demand. We will send him back the ashes of his son. Even if Cao Yun were to refuse, the ashes will go back to the Raging Volcano tribe."
Huichi and Huishou were quite upset, but they were mature enough to hold themselves back in front of the messenger.
"Thank you, noble leader. Speaking of the murderer, I would appreciate it if I could speak with him directly. Chieftain Rong Shan also has a message for him."
"Of course!"
Without any hesitation, Huilu called for guards and sent them to fetch Cao Yun. This time, Huichi and Huishou were on the verge of stepping in. Their brother was very close to actually betraying their tribe. Cao Yun was their guest. As such, they had the duty to protect him.