After a while, Qie Ye finally ran in from outside. As soon as he entered the door, he ran to the bed, held the elder's skinny hand, and knelt on the ground with a "pop".
A happy smile appeared on the elder's face, and he said: "It'll be good if you come back, it'll be good if you come back..."
In addition to Gu Li and Qie Ye, other relatives of the elder also rushed over. They gathered around the house and looked very sad.
The elder smiled and touched Qie Ye's head and said, "Don't cry. Compared to other tribesmen of the same age, I have lived long enough. What else is there to be dissatisfied about?"
There was a look of reminiscence in the elder's eyes, and he said, "I want to ask you something."
Gu Li hurried over and said, "Dad, we will definitely do what you say."
The elder looked to the north of the tribe and said: "I don't want to wait to die here. I want to go to the pine forest where I used to hunt."
"this……"
Gu Li hesitated because the pine forest was far away from the red ant tribe, and no one could guarantee that the elders could make it there.
"Grandpa, I'll take you there!"
Qieye said very decisively, because he knew that this might be the last thing he could do for his grandfather in this life, and he must fulfill his wish.
The elder touched Qie Ye's head happily and said, "Okay, you are better than your father."
When Gu Li heard this, he felt ashamed. At this time, no matter whether he was willing or not, he had to help the elder fulfill his last wish.
"Dad, I'll make arrangements right away."
Gu Li got up and walked outside, found several hunting team leaders, and asked them to lead the hunting team to clear obstacles along the way for the elders.
Then, he found someone to quickly build something similar to a sedan, intending to carry the elder there.
Soon, all the warriors of the ant tribe became busy.
Not long after, the sedan was ready, and Gu Li ordered people to spread a layer of soft hay on it, and then spread two layers of animal skins.
Afterwards, Yu Qieye carried the elder out of the room and gently placed him on the sedan chair.
The witch also gave them some witch medicine that could temporarily kill them, so that they could carry the elder to the pine forest with more confidence.
"Let's set off!"
Guli himself and several powerful warriors carried the sedan and ran quickly to the pine forest. Qie Ye followed the sedan and kept talking to the elders.
Although the road in the forest was not easy to walk, because there was a hunting team leading the way, and the people carrying the sedan were some of the most powerful warriors of the red ant tribe, the sedan barely bumped as it moved forward and was very stable.
Along the way, the warriors of the red ant tribe eliminated all potential threats they could find, so that the elder could safely reach the pine forest where he often hunted in his youth.
Outside the Red Ant Tribe, Jiang Xuan did not leave immediately, but soon a large number of Red Ant Tribe warriors appeared and he was not allowed to stay nearby.
"What's going on?"
Even if an elder of a tribe dies, they should just prevent outsiders from entering the tribe, but why are all the soldiers of the Red Ant tribe running away now?
Jiang Xuan was puzzled by this, and the soldiers of the Red Ant Tribe had no intention of explaining it to him.
He could only climb a hill and observe the red ant tribe from a distance, hoping to get some information from it.
However, his actions were in vain, because he never imagined that the elder of the red ant tribe's dying wish was to visit the place where he once hunted.
Half a day later, with the full force of the red ant tribe soldiers, they finally carried the elder to the pine forest far away from the red ant tribe.
The sedan was gently placed on the clearing in the middle of the woods.
The leader Gu Li said softly: "Dad, we're here."
The elder was already very weak. If he hadn't managed to hold on for a breath, he might have died long ago.
He said weakly: "Gu Li and Qie Ye will stay here and let the others leave. I want to die peacefully here."
Gu Li wiped away his tears, stood up and said to the warriors of the Red Ant Tribe: "Everyone, go outside the forest. The elder wants to leave quietly."
"yes!"
Although the soldiers of the red ant tribe were a little reluctant to give up, they still followed the wish of a dying old man and exited the forest one after another.
After everyone left, the elder asked Guli to feed him some witch medicine, and then sat up, looking with infinite nostalgia at the forest where he had hunted and fought.
Gu Li and Qie Ye stood aside honestly, looking very sad.
After the elder looked around, he took Gu Li and Qie Ye's hands, pulled them in front of him, and then said in a low voice: "I'm going to die soon. Before I die, I must tell you something very important."
's secret."
"Secret?" Gu Li was stunned. What kind of secret requires leaving the tribe and telling it in a place like this?
Qieye asked: "Grandpa, did you ask us to carry you here for this secret?"
The elder nodded and said: "Yes, because in the tribe, I can never tell this secret."
Gu Li and Qie Ye were both shocked. They could not imagine that there was any secret that could not be told in the tribe.
Because in the thinking of tribal people, tribe is the safest place.
The witch medicine began to take effect, the elder's blood flow began to speed up, his heart beat faster, and an abnormal flush appeared on his face.
His waist was also straightened a bit, and his overall mental state was extremely excited.
He pulled Gu Li and Qie Ye closer and lowered his voice.
"This secret was told to me by the previous leader before he died. Now, I will tell you this secret."
Neither Gu Li nor Qie Ye said anything, because at this time, no one knew how long the elder could last.
"A long time ago, we were not called the red ant tribe, but the ant tribe. Our patron saint was a powerful black ant."
"But then one day, the red ants came. It went deep into the ant nest, killed our original patron saint, and used a special method to confuse the black ants in the ant nest, making those black ants support it and become the new one.
's patron saint."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "After the red ants became the guardian angels, they began to breed a large number of red ants. These red ants ate all the young ants and eggs of the black ants.
The black ants in the tribe were slowly replaced by red ants until they were all gone."
"Under the rule of the Red Ant God, our tribe has more and more rules, but the lives of our people are getting worse and worse."
"The previous leader said that our people have actually become slaves of the Red Ant God."
"At first, I didn't know what 'slave' meant. It wasn't until one winter that I saw many people in the tribe starving to death. There was obviously a lot of food stored in the ant nest, but the red ant god didn't do anything about it.
I am willing to use it to save people."
"It was only then that I realized that the previous leader was right. We have all become slaves without freedom and dignity, driven and exploited by the red ant god at will."
"Our tribesmen worked hard every day to hunt, search for food, and plunder the nearby forests. But in the end, everything they got was robbed by the red ants."
The elder said this with a very sad look on his face. Countless clan members have died of starvation and freezing over the years, but those red ants are multiplying faster and faster, each one becoming very fat.
The elder said to Gu Li: "I know you can't stand Qie Ye and think he always doesn't follow the rules, but do you know that these rules are the tools used by the Red Ant God to turn us into slaves!"
"When the Black Ant God was still around, our people were free and had plenty of food. But now, do you see what our people are like?"
The elder's words were like a heavy hammer, constantly hitting Gu Li's mind, causing his previously formed outlook on life to collapse, and his whole person felt like it was on the verge of collapse.
In contrast, Qie Ye is younger and his outlook on life has not yet been fully formed, so he is more likely to accept everything the elders say.
Qieye asked: "Grandpa, what should we do?"
The elder took a look at Gu Li, then held Qie Ye's hand tightly, and said: "Qie Ye, you are much stronger than your father. At least you know what to do in the future."
The elder's words finally brought Gu Li back to his senses. He looked at the elder with shame on his face, not knowing what to say.
"Listen!"
The elder's expression became extremely serious: "In the future, we must find a way to lead our people to escape from the rule of the red ant god. Only in this way can our people avoid the fate of being slaves for generations."
"This is also the wish of the successive leaders of the ant tribe."
When Gu Li heard this, he finally asked: "But even if we escape, we can't survive in the Southern Wilderness without a patron saint."
The elder did not directly answer Gu Li's question, but looked at Qie Ye: "You answer your father's question."
Qieye thought for a while and said: "Since the red ant god can replace our previous black ant god, then we can also find another god to replace it!"
Guli retorted: "How can it be so easy to find a big tribal guardian god? There are only a few big gods in the entire Southern Wilderness?"
Qie Ye said with firm eyes: "If you can't find the totem god of a large tribe, then look for the totem god of a medium-sized tribe. If you can't find a totem god of a medium-sized tribe, then look for the totem god of a small tribe. No matter what, it's better than being a slave!"
The elder looked at Qie Ye with approval and said, "Yes, no matter what, it is better than being a slave."
"Gu Li, haven't you noticed that the ant nests in the tribe are getting bigger and bigger, the number of red ants is getting larger and larger, but our clan members are getting smaller and smaller?"
"If this continues, sooner or later, our tribe will disappear completely and be replaced by those red ants!"
Gu Li fell silent again, the elder's words pricked a question that had been buried in his heart for many years.
The territory of the red ant tribe is getting larger and larger, but the number of tribesmen is getting smaller and smaller, and there is almost no contact with other tribes. However, the number of red ants is increasing year by year.
At this moment, the elder suddenly trembled, his legs stretched straight, and his skinny hands tightly grasped the bones and cut leaves.
"father……"
"grandfather……"
Both Gu Li and Qie Ye panicked. Although they knew that the elder had reached the end of his life, it was still difficult to accept the moment that really came...
The elder could no longer speak. He just kept looking at Gu Li and Qie Ye, his eyes full of expectations for the future of the tribe.
Gu Li hurriedly said: "Dad, don't worry, we will definitely look for opportunities to escape from the rule of the red ant god and fulfill the wishes of successive leaders."
After hearing this, the elder finally felt relieved.
He slowly closed his eyes, let go of his hands, and passed away.
Both Gu Li and Qie Ye burst into tears. Soon, the soldiers from the Red Ant Tribe heard the sound and rushed over. Everyone looked at the deceased elder, and many of them were wiping away tears.