novelraw Chapter 8 : Animal Husbandry and Farming
Chapter 8 : Animal Husbandry and Farming
Chapter 8: Animal Husbandry and Farming
Apollo looked deeply at the three of them.
He was thinking.
If these people, whose eyes were blinded by greed, were allowed to become priests, would what they conveyed still be the true will of the god?
Would they distort the god’s will to satisfy their own desires?
Would they…
In the end, lead the tribe onto the wrong path, causing the god to be completely disappointed and never descend again?
No! This must never be allowed to happen!
Apollo’s gaze instantly turned cold and resolute. Looking at the three kneeling on the ground, his voice carried unquestionable authority:
“From this day forward, the position of priest in the tribe will be held by me concurrently!”
“What?!”
The old priest’s grandson suddenly raised his head and cried out in shock.
“You are already the chieftain! How can you also serve as the priest? This breaks the rules!”
“Rules?”
Apollo let out a cold laugh, anger surging in his eyes.
“The rules are that people like you, whose souls have been devoured by greed, must not approach the altar!”
“What do you take the god for?”
“A tool to bring you power and authority?!”
“Only I, Apollo!”
“Am the one personally chosen by the god!”
“Only I can truly convey the will of the god!”
“Only I can ensure the tribe walks the path approved by the god!”
His words struck like thunder, carrying immense conviction and force, completely suppressing the three of them.
Though they were full of dissatisfaction, under Apollo’s gaze, they could only lower their heads and accept the outcome.
And so, relying on his unmatched prestige, Apollo successfully took over the position of priest.
From this moment on, the tribe’s divine authority and royal authority were concentrated in Apollo’s hands as never before.
He was both the chieftain who led the tribe in hunting, war, and construction, and the priest who communicated with the god, interpreted divine will, and presided over rituals.
He possessed absolute power—and bore unprecedented responsibility.
……
When the tribe’s population surpassed a thousand, new problems followed.
Apollo’s eldest son, En, now the captain of the hunting team, came before Apollo with a worried expression, reporting the grim reality:
“Chieftain, the nearby prey are becoming fewer and fewer.”
“The hunting team is spending more time than before, yet catching less and less prey.”
“If this continues, we won’t even have enough food to survive the winter.”
Apollo sat above, looking at his eldest son, feeling a moment of daze.
Since he had been chosen by the god, the tribe seemed to have completely distanced itself from hunger.
Now, hunger seemed to have returned.
He remained silent, his thoughts in turmoil.
Population growth had brought strength and security, but it had also brought the most fundamental pressure of survival.
En knelt down, a trace of pleading on his face.
“Father, we need to control the tribe’s reproduction. Otherwise, more and more newborns will only bring destruction to the tribe!”
Apollo stood up, a hint of agitation appearing on his face.
“No!”
He had just promised the god that he would make the tribe better—how could he stop now!
“Apollo, is that truly what the god thinks?” The old priest’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
Apollo felt as if all his strength had been drained, and he collapsed back onto the stone seat.
The agitation faded, and reason returned.
He knew En was right.
If things continued like this, everyone would starve to death.
He could not let the tribe pay the price for his own selfish desires.
Apollo let out a bitter laugh. He thought perhaps the god had already foreseen this, had seen his overestimation of himself.
Everything… would just end up like this.
Apollo agreed to En’s request.
A trace of relief appeared on En’s face.
He stood up, preparing to leave, but before turning away, he hesitated. In the end, he looked at his father—who seemed to have aged several years in an instant—and softly asked, his tone carrying a confusion even he himself had not fully realized:
“Father, is this really what the god thinks?”
The god was omnipotent.
If this was the god’s will, then why had they encountered hunger again?
Apollo looked at En, hearing the exact same words as the old priest, and remained stunned for a long time.
At this moment, he finally understood.
He was wrong.
Apollo walked step by step onto the altar, looked at the divine statue, and knelt down.
“God!” Apollo said in shame.
“Apollo.”
The god’s voice, as always, sounded directly within his heart.
Gentle, calm, without the slightest trace of blame—as if he had long anticipated his arrival.
This unchanging gentleness instead caused Apollo’s tears to overflow.
He did not know how to face the god, nor how to explain his failure.
Huang Xing descended from the divine statue.
“Have you encountered a problem?”
Apollo lowered his body even further, not daring to imagine how the god viewed him at this moment.
The looming crisis of the tribe’s future and the shame brought by his ridiculous oath clashed violently within him.
Finally, he raised his head, his gaze becoming exceptionally firm—this was the determination that came after recognizing reality and calmly accepting his own limitations.
“God! Apollo was wrong.”
“Apollo should not have arrogantly made a vow to you.”
“Apollo has disappointed you.”
Huang Xing’s gaze rested on Apollo.
That gaze seemed to pierce through time, as if seeing the young boy who once stood beneath the totem pole years ago.
Even though Apollo was now the father of three children, in his eyes, Apollo was still that same child.
He also clearly perceived the predicament the tribe faced—it was a bottleneck that inevitably appeared when the most primitive civilization developed to a certain scale.
“The survival method of the most primitive civilization is hunting and gathering. A further stage of civilization is understanding animal husbandry and farming.”
“I can teach you animal husbandry and farming.”
Apollo murmured, “Animal husbandry? Farming?”
These two unfamiliar terms confused him, yet he instinctively sensed the hope contained within them.
In the next moment, upon the altar, brilliant starlight bloomed once more!
But this time, the starlight did not gather upon Apollo. Instead, it intertwined and shifted in the air, forming clear images that arranged themselves before him one after another.
As Huang Xing calmly explained, the images changed accordingly:
“This is ‘farming.’”
“Choose suitable seeds, in the proper season, loosen the soil, bury them underground, and provide sunlight and water…”
“They will sprout, grow, and ultimately yield food many times—dozens of times—greater than the seeds.”
“This is ‘animal husbandry.’”
“Capture young and docile animals. Do not kill them. Build enclosures, feed them, and allow them to reproduce…”
“Their populations will grow, providing you with a stable source of meat, fur, and even milk.”
Scene after scene clearly displayed the entire process—from selecting seeds, cultivation, and harvest, to taming, breeding, and management.
This knowledge transcended time and space, imprinting itself into Apollo’s mind in an unimaginable way.