"Tell the great witch that as long as they are willing to exchange a large amount of lead ore with us, I can give him this sharp weapon!"
Xu Chen turned around and gave instructions to the Jia clan guide.
So the Jia tribe guide began to make gibbering gestures to translate. The great shaman seemed to be very moved. After being silent for a long time, he said a long sentence.
"What did he say?" Xu Chen asked.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, the great witch said yes, but he wants more of these weapons and salt. We can trade these weapons and salt with them for ore!"
Xu Chen almost laughed angrily.
These five ghosts are ugly but have beautiful thoughts. Not only are they difficult to deal with, they are also very greedy.
However, this also shows that the great witches of the Five Ghost Clan are very intelligent and know how to use their own advantages to seek greater benefits for themselves.
Not to mention salt, although it existed, it was very scarce. This kind of alloy dagger was even more scarce. He had worked hard for several years to only get one like this. It was impossible to exchange it in large quantities, so he shook his head and refused.
"Tell him, it's impossible. Both of these things are very rare and are magical gifts from the gods. If they are willing to pay a large amount of lead ore, they can exchange it in the future, but they must process the ore according to my method. The method and quantity of the exchange are also
You must comply with my request!"
The Jia tribe guide made another gibbering gesture to translate.
After hearing this, a group of hunters from the Five Ghost Tribe started making a fuss, pounding the ground with spears and clubs, and making loud threats.
Lei and a group of closely guarded hunters immediately became nervous, raising their spears, bows and arrows, and the two sides once again engaged in a tense confrontation.
"You are telling him that what I just said is the only way for them to get these two things. If you don't agree, there will be no trading opportunities in the future. This kind of ore is not only found here. We can also find it ourselves. Also tell
He, this tribe has been cursed by God, if they agree to my request, I can help them find a way to expel this curse!"
The Jia tribe guide began to translate with gestures again. This time, the entire cave was extremely silent after he finished speaking. A moment later, the great shaman stood up tremblingly with his staff in hand, and made a series of low and hoarse sounds from his mouth.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, the great witch said that if you can really find a way to expel the curse, he is willing to accept all conditions!" the Jia tribe guide quickly translated in surprise and joy.
Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief, motioned to Lei and others to put down their weapons and nodded, "Tell him, what I said is true, but I want to see their sincerity!"
So the Jia Clan guide made another sign and translation, and the great witch also asked the Five Ghost Clan people to put away their weapons, slowly walked to Xu Chen step by step, and lifted the animal skins on their heads.
"Ah~"
The two Jia tribe guides were so frightened that they knocked down several tree roots behind them and almost wet their pants in fear.
Holy shit!
Looking at this face that was almost deformed to pulp, terrifying and shriveled, Xu Chen was also frightened and took several steps back.
What a face this is.
Almost all of his hair and teeth were lost, and his face was dark and twisted. He looked more terrifying than the hobbit mutant Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. His lips and nose were almost split into one body, making people feel numb all over.
This is not a curse, but a complete genetic mutation.
"Cough cough cough cough..."
After a violent cough, the great witch stared at Xu Chen and said a long series of words.
"what did he say?"
Xu Chen suppressed his fear and asked two Jia tribe guides who were pale and trembling.
The two Jia guides finally calmed down and explained through a stammering translation:
"Witch...His Majesty the Witch King...the big...the big witch said that the tribe has been cursed by the gods for a long time, and the men, women and children are all sick. It's not that they don't want to communicate with foreign tribes, but they don't want to spread the curse to other tribes, and they don't want to spread the curse to other tribes.
It's not that they don't want to exchange more ore with us, but they can't because the ore is occupied by a group of man-eating demons. If we can help them get rid of these man-eating demons, they can collect enough ore!
"
Is this an NPC mission?
Xu Chen's face trembled slightly and he asked again: "What is the cannibal demon?"
"A dog... a very scary demon with a human face and a bird's body. It can swallow people alive in one bite. It is entrenched near the ore!"
This time, before the big witch could speak, the Jia Clan guide explained the reason, because they still had some contacts and transactions with the Five Ghost Tribe from time to time, so they were quite familiar with the situation here.
Xu Chen also instantly remembered that during the Witch Lords Conference last month, the Jia tribe sent lead ore and talked about some things about the Five Ghost tribe. They once specifically mentioned that the Five Ghost tribe had a kind of creature with a human face and a bird body called a dog.
demon.
Xu Chen definitely doesn't believe in demons or anything like that.
He speculated last time that this elusive strange human-faced bird might be a large mammal such as a human-faced eagle, similar to some demons and gods recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
The Book of Hai Nei records: There is a country of Ba in the southwest. Dahao gave birth to Xianniao, Xianniao gave birth to Chengli, Chengli gave birth to Houzhao, and Houzhao became the Ba people.
In addition, the Eastern Scripture records: Dongfang Jumang has the body of a bird and the face of a human, riding on two dragons.
The Xianniao and Jumang recorded in this record are both monsters with human faces and bird bodies, and are even the ancestors of the Ba people.
Although his tribe is also called Ba, Xu Chen definitely does not believe that his ancestor was a bird man.
Xu Chen agreed to the request of the Great Witch of the Five Ghost Clan without hesitation.
He actually wanted to see what this man-eating monster with a human face and a bird body was.
After receiving Xu Chen's reply, the atmosphere in the tree hole instantly relaxed. The great witch coughed and ordered the tribesmen to warmly entertain Xu Chen's subordinates. He also summoned the chiefs of the five tribes to bring out various foods and put them in the tree.
Xu Chen, Lei and others were entertained in the cave.
The Five Ghosts now also have some pottery, which was obtained from the Jia Clan using ores, but not many, because the Jia Clan originally didn't have many pottery, and they were two poor, remote tribes that ate dirt.
After meeting the heads of the Five Ghost Clan, Xu Chen roughly understood the reason why they were reluctant to meet others, because each one was uglier than the other, and even had some symptoms of disability, especially after they were covered in paint, they looked like
Like a group of mutants.
Xu Chen didn't dare to eat more of the other party's food for fear of being poisoned, so he only took a few bites to show that he was full. He spent more time communicating with the other party's great witch and several clan leaders through the Jia clan's guide.
Gradually, the general origin of the Five Ghost Tribe became clear.
They moved here not long ago, probably only about a hundred years.
But before they were relocated, the tribe had already begun to show symptoms of various diseases, starting with various skin diseases and large-scale ulcers, and many people died. Because the neighboring tribes were afraid of being infected by them, they launched several attacks on them.
During the expulsion war, they had to move here from the east, and later discovered that applying the soil here to their bodies would relieve the occurrence of skin diseases.
But later, more serious diseases gradually developed, and various symptoms began to appear in the body, including vomiting, diarrhea, and hair loss. Especially the children who were born, many had congenital disabilities, and there were even many stillbirths. The population of the tribe changed from the original
The number of nearly a thousand people quickly dropped to just over 300 people.
The great witch believed that his tribe must have been cursed by the gods, so he ordered the tribe to try not to have contact with foreigners, so as not to arouse fear in other nearby tribes and trigger a new war.
However, with the survival of this isolated state, the frequency of incestuous marriages within the tribe has become higher and higher, resulting in more and more deformities in the offspring, and many children will not survive at all.
In order to pray for forgiveness from the gods, they dumped severely deformed and disabled children in a nearby valley, hoping to alleviate the curse. However, they did not expect to attract even more terrifying demons, which not only devoured these cursed children, but sometimes also
In order to appease the tribesmen who attacked the tribe, the Five Ghost Tribe held fixed rituals every year, offering sacrifices to the tribesmen who died of illness and those children who were severely deformed and unable to feed themselves to the demons in order to seek peace.
After understanding this, Xu Chen felt speechless and at the same time full of sympathy for the Five Ghosts.
He had no way of knowing what caused the skin diseases in the past, but in such a harsh and primitive era, not only animals and plants were prosperous, but also various viruses and bacteria were more prosperous. In the absence of medical treatment, any small infectious disease could
, can cause a tribe to vanish into thin air.
After the Five Ghosts were driven here and moved here, they used lead-containing ores to smear their bodies and cured their skin diseases. However, lead poisoning caused more terrible lesions.
Lead poisoning is divided into acute and chronic.
Acute means inhaling excessive lead-containing dust or gas through the respiratory system, causing a sharp increase in blood lead. In addition, ingesting a large amount of lead-containing food through the digestive system can also cause acute lead poisoning.
Chronic lead is mainly caused by long-term trace absorption of lead through the skin or food, air, etc., resulting in long-term accumulation of poisoning.
In fact, pure metallic lead is not easy to cause poisoning. Lead is used in a large number of fishing gear and radiation isolation devices. Ordinary exposure is not a big problem. However, the poisoning process mainly lies in the collection and refining stage, dust and gas containing lead ions.
It is extremely easy to be absorbed by the human body, especially children who absorb it faster.
The Five Ghosts live here and smear lead ore powder on their bodies year after year. It is certain that the lead will be slowly absorbed through the skin. In addition, the environment here may also cause lead to be concentrated in various foods. Long-term consumption will further increase the amount of lead.
Lead absorption.
Therefore, the current state of the Five Ghosts must be due to living environment and habits.
In order to confirm his speculation, he had an in-depth exchange with the great witch and several clan leaders, and found that it was indeed the case.
The two families that like to paint themselves white or black with cerussite and galena have a much higher rate of illness and deformity in their offspring.
Because they are exposed to much more lead on a daily basis, and the two families have the smallest population, almost all the adults have various physical diseases, and the children are also born with various congenital defects, especially low intelligence.
.
Currently, the conditions of the women and children living in the tree cave of Dawu are not particularly serious, because all those children with terrible deformities were thrown into the valley to be fed to the devil.
While the great witch and the five clan chiefs were communicating with Xu Chen about the tribe's situation, they were also very excited that Xu Chen could break the curse and repeatedly asked how to break the curse.
Xu Chen did not give a clear answer, but said that it is not easy for the Five Ghosts to get rid of this curse. It will take a long time, and they must submit to the spiritual beliefs of the Ba tribe's great witch. Only then can he ask the great witch to pray to the old mother goddess to get rid of it.
Ways to curse.
Regarding Xu Chen's statement, the great witch and a group of leaders agreed after a period of silence, and expressed that if Xu Chen could really help kill the demon with a human face and a bird's body, they would be willing to submit to the spiritual guidance of the great witch of the Ba tribe and help mine and smelt lead ore.
.
After this simple verbal agreement was reached, the emotions of both parties were much higher. In order to let the Five Ghosts see the power of their tribe, Xu Chen had someone bring a map and marked the Five Ghosts on it by the fire pond.
He also pointed to the locations of each tribe on the map and introduced them to the great witch and the five clan chiefs one by one.
Seeing that Xu Chen now controlled so many tribes and populations, the five ghost clan shamans and the five clan leaders were frightened and excited, and their confidence in being able to help them kill the demons and exorcise the curse increased a lot.