Orc Priest (7): 

Zhou Qinghao did not let Gu Juntian carry him.

It was only walking, after all. He was fast enough and didn’t need to be carried.

If he turned into a rabbit, he could move even faster.

But priests, in order to seem set apart, usually wouldn’t transform into their beast form in front of others.

The group followed the little monkey and soon arrived at where the monkey tribe was staying.

From afar, Gu Juntian saw that on the branches of some trees, tree beds had been made by laying leafy branches, and the people of the monkey tribe were sitting or lying on them. Some were in human form, some had simply remained in their beast forms.

Some primates, like gorillas, would make simple beds by breaking branches and laying them on trees before sleeping at night.

The tree beds of the monkey tribe were just like that.

The people of this tribe all looked sickly, their condition poor and far less spirited than the hippo tribe.

On seeing them, the monkey tribe’s chieftain immediately climbed down from a tree.

He was a man of about thirty, short but stocky, with a body full of muscle. Around his waist he wore a small skirt made of leaves.

His beast form was a gorilla, and in human form, he looked like one as well.

Looking at his thick arms, Gu Juntian thought he needed to train more.

He didn’t seek to have arms that thick, but he wanted to build more muscle of his own.

“What happened to your tribe?” Zhou Qinghao asked first, worried that Gu Juntian might pick a fight.

But as soon as he asked, he remembered—Gu Juntian disliked when he took the lead, when he spoke first before him.

Anxious, Zhou Qinghao glanced at Gu Juntian, only to see that Gu Juntian was staring at the chieftain’s arms and hadn’t noticed.

Meanwhile, the monkey tribe’s chieftain had already begun to explain.

Their situation was much like what Zhou Qinghao had foreseen: first, they had been hit by the storm.

That night, some clansmen were blown from the trees by the wind and either died or were badly injured.

Worst of all, their priest had also been blown down and killed.

Without a priest, the monkey tribe panicked. Then a few carnivorous dinosaurs attacked, forcing them to flee here.

“Priest of the hippo tribe, I would like to ask a few favors,” the monkey tribe’s chieftain said with some embarrassment.

“What help do you need?” Zhou Qinghao asked.

“We want to rest here for a few days. Many of our people are sick and can’t travel. We also hope the honored priest can tend to our ill clansmen and guide our new priest, teaching him how to commune with the beast god.” The more he spoke, the more embarrassed he looked.

It was a lot to ask—especially to have Zhou Qinghao heal the sick and instruct their new priest.

Communicating with the gods was exhausting. Who knew if the hippo tribe’s priest was willing to help?

Zhou Qinghao turned to Gu Juntian and asked, “Chieftain, are you willing to let them rest here for a few days?”

“No problem,” Gu Juntian said.

So Zhou Qinghao told the monkey tribe’s chieftain, “I accept your request. You may rest here for a few days. During this time, I will tend to your sick, and your new priest may study with me.”

“Thank you!” The chieftain was grateful. “We’ll do more hunting during this time and share it with you.”

Gu Juntian, hearing this, grew worried for Zhou Qinghao. “Priest, won’t this tire you out?”

“It won’t,” Zhou Qinghao replied.

Gu Juntian thought for a moment, then added, “It’s still too much work. Let Zhuang and me bring some men with you and help.”

Tending the sick would mean Zhou Qinghao had to spend long hours with the monkey tribe.

In this era, if a tribe lost its own priest, they might try to steal another’s. Even though the monkey tribe had a new priest, Zhou Qinghao was exceptional, and they might be tempted.

With their tribesmen present, it would be harder for the monkey tribe to try anything.

Zhou Qinghao thought it over and agreed.

Gu Juntian immediately made arrangements, sending some men with Zhou Qinghao and the rest to hunt together with the monkey tribe’s young men.

The monkey tribe might not be stronger in combat, but they were excellent climbers, which complemented the hippo tribe in hunting.

Soon the hunting party left, even the monkey tribe’s chieftain.

Gu Juntian, seeing the elderly and weak left behind, felt a little helpless.

Didn’t the monkey tribe fear that he might lead his people to capture them all at once?

But it seemed the tribes here didn’t act that way.

It was only the body’s original owner who always dreamed of conquest—wiping out other tribes and enslaving their people.

And the tribe that later destroyed the hippo tribe had done the same.

As he was thinking this, the monkey tribe’s new priest approached Zhou Qinghao.

This man was about the same age as Zhou Qinghao, but his face was filled with panic and confusion, unlike Zhou Qinghao’s calmness.

Seeing Zhou Qinghao, he spoke respectfully: “Priest of the hippo tribe, I was the student of our previous priest. I haven’t yet been recognized by the beast god. There is much I don’t know…”

“Did you learn the knowledge your teacher taught you?” Zhou Qinghao asked.

“I did,” the man replied.

“Then assist me. Let’s heal your clansmen together,” Zhou Qinghao said.

The man nodded, following closely behind Zhou Qinghao, helping him constantly.

This made Gu Juntian uncomfortable, so he quickly followed too, also helping.

Among the monkey tribe, some were wounded, others ill, all weak and dispirited.

With limited means, Zhou Qinghao could only give them simple herbal remedies and tell them the beast god would bless them.

When he spoke, his expression was solemn. His demeanor lifted the spirits of the injured, and their condition visibly improved.

Seeing this, Gu Juntian realized that for people of this time, the priest was a spiritual pillar.

Zhou Qinghao’s healing was mainly psychological!

Of course, he did other things too—he told the monkey tribe to pound meat into paste with stones, then boil it into gruel for the sick and wounded.

At this time, Gu Juntian noticed the most severe injuries were two people with broken bones.

Zhou Qinghao had only applied ash to their wounds, nothing else.

That wasn’t enough.

Gu Juntian stepped forward and, with force, set one man’s broken shinbone back into place.

“Agh!” the man cried out in pain, struggling.

“I’m treating you. Don’t move,” Gu Juntian said, holding him down, then told Zhuang to bring some sticks. He bound the sticks tightly to the man’s leg with rope. “This way, your leg will heal straight.”

Zhou Qinghao watched thoughtfully, realizing this could work.

In the past, when people in the hippo tribe broke arms or legs, they often healed crooked.

If done like this, the bones should set straight.

Thinking this, he went over and gently pressed the injured man’s leg.

The man, who had been crying in pain, calmed under Zhou Qinghao’s touch, and after Zhou Qinghao blessed him, his spirit lifted completely.

Zhou Qinghao noted this and decided he would treat such injuries the same way in the future.

The new priest of the monkey tribe, however, looked discouraged. “You know so much. I don’t know anything.”

Zhou Qinghao glanced at him and sighed inwardly, planning to talk to him later.

In truth, the new priest wasn’t ignorant. He simply had never shouldered responsibility before. When the previous priest died suddenly, he panicked.

At such times, someone needed to speak honestly with him, to tell him that a priest must rely on himself, not on the beast god.

Not every priest was blessed by the beast god.

His teacher, and the former priest of the monkey tribe, surely couldn’t foresee the future.

Thinking this, Zhou Qinghao looked again at Gu Juntian.

He hadn’t expected Gu Juntian to work alongside him so diligently, without the slightest impatience.

He had thought Gu Juntian disliked the monkey tribe…

In the prophecy, their tribes clashed, which meant conflict must have arisen.

Thinking carefully, in the prophecy many in the hippo tribe died, food was scarce, spirits were low, and tempers surely short.

Without a priest present, conflict with the monkey tribe was no surprise.

But now everything was fine.

Zhou Qinghao turned to Gu Juntian: “Chieftain, can you tend the fire for me? I want to talk with the monkey tribe’s priest.”

“Alright,” Gu Juntian agreed.

Although he didn’t like the way that priest clung to Zhou Qinghao, he could see there was nothing between them.

Since they had business to discuss, he didn’t need to interfere.

Zhou Qinghao took the priest aside, while Gu Juntian struck up a conversation with the monkey tribe’s elders, asking if they knew anything about the outside world: “I’m young, I don’t know what it’s like beyond here.”

In the original story, after Bai Yutian left the hippo tribe, he joined a tribe called the Sky Wolf tribe.

The Sky Wolf tribe had newly moved near the hippo tribe and taken the territory that once belonged to the monkey tribe.

Gu Juntian wondered if the monkey tribe elders knew about them.

The elders, grateful to him, spoke of the outside world. By chance, they mentioned the Sky Wolf tribe: “Beyond us, there is a powerful tribe called the Sky Wolf tribe. They attack other tribes and use captives as sacrifices to the gods…”

As the elders spoke, Gu Juntian grew increasingly uneasy.

The Sky Wolf tribe was numerous and constantly expanding.

Perhaps, even without the matter of Bai Yutian, they would have wanted to attack the hippo tribe.

Right now, the hippo tribe was too weak. He himself was too weak.

Was there a way to grow stronger?

He wasn’t like the body’s original owner, obsessed with enslaving others. But he wanted to become the strongest man alive!

With that thought, ideas began to rise in his mind.

He could now transform into both animal and human, almost like a demon. Could he cultivate demon techniques?

He seemed to recall a set of such techniques.