I am a Primitive Man 905

I am a Primitive Man

Chapter 905: Civilization Must Guide Barbarism

“What? We are the tribe of the gods?”

Han Cheng the Divine Child, who prided himself on having seen the wider world, couldn’t help blurting this out in astonishment after hearing the truth from the female primitive holding a child.

Before Mao asked her, no matter how hard Han Cheng tried to imagine it, he would never have thought that such a bizarre reason lay behind these people’s actions.

Could it be that his own guess had actually been right—that because he often stood beside the totem pole, receiving the prayers and worship of the shamans and others, he had somehow gained a halo?

Han Cheng let his thoughts wander.

But after calming down from the initial shock and thinking it over more carefully, he realized that this conclusion wasn’t entirely without basis.

Things like traps and war drums seemed commonplace to people of later generations. Even among the Green Sparrow Tribe—who, under his guidance, had grown increasingly familiar with these things—there was little sense of surprise.

But for people who had never seen such things before, these were indeed objects worthy of fear and awe.

From there, it wasn’t strange at all that they would mentally construct a whole chain of explanations.

It was truly a beautiful misunderstanding.

Once he had calmed down, Han the Divine Child shamelessly thought so.

Looking at those people whose hands had been tied with ropes into long chains by his tribe—people who didn’t even think of resisting and instead gazed at them with reverence—Han Cheng couldn’t help rubbing his nose. If only all future enemies were so good at imagining things, how wonderful that would be.

Then his tribe wouldn’t need to put much effort into attracting large numbers of people.

Of course, this was nothing more than a fantasy, and even he knew it could never really happen.

After all, people think differently; not every tribe would imagine things the way these people did.

Just like not every rabbit would obligingly crash into a tree stump and wait for someone to pick it up and give it a hot bath.

Still, Han Cheng didn’t have Mao tell the female primitive that they were, in fact, not a tribe of gods.

Sometimes, preserving a beautiful misunderstanding was quite a good thing.

With all these imagined ideas in place, these people would become much easier to control.

Often, spiritual control was even more terrifying and reliable than physical control.

Much like brainwashed members of pyramid schemes who couldn’t be dragged out no matter what.

Of course, Han Cheng wouldn’t deliberately promote this sense of mystery.

As these people interacted with them more and grew accustomed to things, they would gradually shed their imagined notions.

But by then, even if they realized that this wasn’t a tribe of gods, it wouldn’t matter.

After such a long period of contact, they would already have been almost completely assimilated into his tribe.

There was no need to fear that they could stir up any trouble.

Han Cheng was now very confident in his tribe’s ability to assimilate others.

With its far higher standard of living, his tribe was like a trap pit to anyone else living in this world—once you fell in, you couldn’t climb back out.

“Let’s go. We’ll move ahead and rest after we reach their tribe.”

After checking that everything had been packed up and that those injured by the wooden spikes in the traps had all been cleaned, medicated, and bandaged, Han Cheng issued the order.

From the female primitive holding the infant, Han Cheng had learned that there were still people at the cave where her tribe lived.

Moreover, aside from her tribe, the two tribes that had come to attack them also had people remaining behind.

After all, no tribe consisted only of adults.

If they gathered up the minors from these two tribes, his own tribe would gain a considerable number of new people.

And since these two remaining tribes were some distance away from the woman’s tribe, sending people to bring the rest over would take time.

Thus, staying a few days at the woman’s tribe seemed necessary.

After all, compared to a temporary camp, living in caves was far more comfortable.

With Han Cheng’s order, everyone set off, leaving this place and, under the guidance of the female primitive holding the child, headed toward her tribe.

The leader of the Nose Ring Tribe hadn’t broken his leg—a wooden spike had merely pierced it.

However, because of his later struggles and the beating he took, the wound had torn further. Although the bone wasn’t broken, the injury was still terrifying.

At the very least, the Nose Ring Tribe leader himself was badly frightened by it.

With such a severe wound, the chances of it healing on its own were slim. In his eyes, and in the eyes of his tribe, this was no different from a broken leg.

He had already resigned himself to being killed and eaten by these people from the divine tribe, or simply being abandoned here.

But what happened next completely exceeded his expectations.

He wasn’t killed, nor was he left behind.

These people from the divine tribe untied the wide ropes that had bound his legs, then tightly bound his bleeding leg.

Something miraculous happened. Once the rope was tied tightly, the blood that had been gushing out slowed dramatically.

And this wasn’t all.

After binding his leg, they poured some clean water from a very fine-looking container they carried, added a white, stone-like substance, and used it to wash his wound.

Then they took a small, golden, shining rod and pierced his wound.

A thin thread trailed from the end of the rod.

Another miracle occurred.

After this series of actions, his terrifying wound actually closed up!

Next, they picked some grass, chewed it thoroughly in their mouths, and applied it to his wound.

Finally, they wrapped his leg with white material that looked like animal hide, yet was very different from it.

Seeing all this, even though he had never witnessed such wonders before, the Nose Ring Tribe leader understood that these people were saving him.

At this moment, he was moving along with the group.

Even after being bandaged, his leg couldn’t possibly recover enough for him to walk.

He was being carried.

He lay on a stretcher made from two poles and leg wrappings removed from several people.

One of the carriers was from his own tribe, the other from the Earring Tribe.

Like him, four others were receiving the same treatment.

Lying on the stretcher, turning his head to look at the people of the divine tribe nearby—carrying strange items on their backs and leading prey animals—the Nose Ring Tribe leader became even more devout and respectful.

These people had to be a divine tribe. Otherwise, how could they possess such great power?

How could they have so many miraculous objects and abilities?

And if they weren’t a divine tribe, how could they save them and carry the injured along instead of killing them?

Such things were often strangely ironic: when they happened to others, they seemed ordinary, but once they happened to oneself, the feelings were completely different.

The Nose Ring Tribe leader was no saint. He had personally killed or severely injured members of his own tribe more than once, and at the time, he had felt it was only natural.

But now that it had happened to him, the man who once did such things without hesitation became afraid.

Thus, when the Green Sparrow Tribe didn’t kill him but instead treated him and had him carried forward on a stretcher, his loyalty to them became absolute.

At this point, if anyone in his tribe dared to question the decisions made by the divine tribe, he would jump off the stretcher on his one good leg and smash that person’s head with his fists…

Led by the female primitive holding the child, the group walked three to four li forward before veering off the path Han Cheng and the others had cleared on their previous trip, angling diagonally ahead.

After walking a while longer, they gradually approached the tribe where the woman had lived.

“#￥%RT!”

The people from the two tribes who had stayed behind at the cave saw the large amount of prey and the many additional people, and couldn’t help but shout excitedly.

They cheered for their tribe’s bravery and plentiful harvest, feeling immensely proud.

Cheering, they ran toward them to greet them.

But once they got closer and saw the situation clearly, they froze on the spot. Their cheers cut off abruptly, and they all looked utterly bewildered.

They couldn’t understand why their own people were walking back tied with ropes, while those strangely dressed people looked unrestrained.

What they saw didn’t look like their tribes had captured a strange tribe rich in prey. Instead, it looked like the people with abundant prey had captured their tribes.

Their confusion deepened when those tied-up tribesmen began shouting at them.

Among them, the Nose Ring Tribe leader—lying on a stretcher—shouted the loudest and with the most tremendous fervor.

“#￥WED…”

“#￥5W%…”

Conversation continued. Han Cheng stood to the side, watching, without stopping them.

He couldn’t understand what they were saying, but that didn’t matter. The female primitive holding the child was there, and she could understand them.

Later, he could have Mao communicate with her in more detail.

Besides, Han Cheng understood one principle: traitors are often more dangerous than the enemy.

The analogy wasn’t perfect here, but the idea was the same.

What happened next was much as Han Cheng had expected.

After some conversation, the looks these people gave Han Cheng and his group gradually changed.

“@34@!”

The Nose Ring Tribe leader, his leg wrapped in cloth, hammered the corner of the stretcher with his fist and roared.

At his roar, those who had still been hesitant immediately stopped hesitating.

They all prostrated themselves on the ground to show submission to the divine tribe.

Not only them, but the remaining members of the female primitive tribe also prostrated themselves.

Han Cheng had no intention of refusing such a gift delivered straight to his doorstep.

He immediately had the female primitive holding the child lead the way, binding everyone who did not belong to her tribe.

After this was done, Han Cheng’s gaze fell on the open ground outside the cave.

The place was hard to look at—there was a great deal of dried blood, reeking of stench.

And that wasn’t even the worst part.

The worst was that there were more than a dozen corpses of slain adult male primitives.

There were also nearly twenty minors of various ages.

Most of the bodies were still intact, but some were incomplete.

Looking again at the scattered bones near the fire pit, it was easy to imagine what had happened here.

Han Cheng suppressed his irritation and unclenched his fists.

If this had been when he first arrived in this era, he would have felt anguish over such things, perhaps even a desire to kill those responsible.

But now, he no longer did.

After living here for so many years, he had come to understand much about this era.

Many concepts from later times didn’t apply here.

What had happened now was one such example.

In later times, it would be unspeakably evil. But in this era, it wasn’t particularly rare.

When people were barely able to survive, they didn’t have the luxury of considering much else.

Still, understanding didn’t mean approval, nor did it mean allowing such things to continue.

Civilization could not always be defeated by barbarism. Civilization had to guide barbarism.

“Tell those people that from now on, they are not allowed to do such things again. Whoever dares to do this will be killed!”

Han Cheng said to Mao.

Mao’s expression was just as grim. Influenced by the Divine Child, he too didn’t want to see such things.

And, of course, there was another, more practical reason: if these people weren’t killed, his tribe would suddenly gain quite a lot of new members.

After receiving Han Cheng’s order, Mao nodded firmly and began to convey the message—speaking and gesturing—to the female primitive holding the child, who then passed it on to the Nose Ring and Earring Tribes.