Facing this strange, terrifying shriek.
Among the Holy Tribe present, only the white-haired priestess maintained her composure.
Her tone was even calm: "Qing Bazhi, take Xiang Shou's head to them. It was placed in my meditation chamber, and I have already paid my respects."
Qing Bazhi gritted her teeth and left without a word.
This was tradition.
This was the tradition...
Qing Qishu and Qing Jiuye remained silent, guilt written on their faces.
"Young traveler from afar." The priestess looked at Jiang Chen: "Did you not ask me what the predicament of the Land of Divine Shade is? Our Holy Tribe has been forced to have our young warriors fight each other to the death, and then offer up the heads of those who die in the Xiang Shou... that is the predicament we face."
"What causes this predicament?" Jiang Chen's voice was slightly hoarse, affected by the oppressive atmosphere: "That cry just now?"
The old priestess looked at him and told such a story—
Long ago.
A tailless swallow came to their door, speaking in human words: "Kind people, I am starving, about to die of hunger. Could you give me something to eat?"
A kind Holy Tribe girl brought some fruits.
The tailless swallow said: "No, I don't eat this."
The Holy Tribe girl then brought it a bowl of rice and a bowl of water.
The tailless swallow said: "How can these things fill my stomach?"
The Holy Tribe girl grew angry and said: "What exactly do you want to eat?"
The tailless swallow then revealed its vicious nature, saying: "Only your head can slightly ease my hunger."
With that, it lunged at the Holy Tribe girl.
This scene was witnessed by a Holy Tribe warrior, who raised his bow and shot the tailless swallow dead with a single arrow.
But what was terrifying was that the next day, the tailless swallow appeared again.
Identical, without a single feather harmed.
It even pleaded with people in the exact same tone: "Kind people, I am starving, about to die of hunger. Could you give me something to eat?"
People already knew its vicious nature, so no one answered. The brave Holy Tribe warrior immediately shot it dead. To prevent this strange tailless swallow from resurrecting again, the warrior even burned its corpse to ashes.
But on the third day, the tailless swallow appeared again.
This time it cried: "I am about to die of hunger, please give me a human head to eat."
Of course, no one agreed.
The Holy Tribe warrior killed it again, but in the process of killing it, the warrior discovered that it was much stronger and more agile than last time, and killing it was no longer so easy.
The fourth day...
The fifth day...
Every time the tailless swallow was killed, it would appear again the next day, perfectly intact. And it would be stronger than the previous day.
No matter how they treated its corpse—burying it, chopping it up, even some warriors roasting and eating it—it could always resurrect.
Finally, one day, the Holy Tribe warrior was no match for it and was killed in the fight.
The tailless swallow pecked off this poor warrior's head and ate it in a few bites.
Then it happily told the people: "This is the hundredth head I have eaten. Kind people, thank you! I am full! See you again in a year!"
With that, it flew away.
And indeed, it did not appear again until a year later...
When the tailless swallow appeared again, the Holy Tribe warriors had prepared for an entire year, setting traps and working together to kill it. They bound its corpse with chains, placed it in a coffin made of Divine Dragon Wood, and buried the coffin before the Altar of Trees, hoping to use divine power to suppress the evil creature.
But what was despairing was that the next day the tailless swallow resurrected again.
And just as before, it became even stronger.
In a great battle, it killed seventeen Holy Tribe warriors and pecked off the head of one warrior to eat.
As it left, it said: "I am full, thank you for the hospitality! See you again in a year!"
A year later, facing the tailless swallow's return, people had different opinions. Some practiced their combat skills to fight the swallow again, while others tried new methods to prevent it from resurrecting.
At this time, a Holy Tribe warrior stood up and said: "It only needs to eat one human head, why must so many of us die?"
This warrior committed suicide before the tailless swallow, offering up his own head.
After the tailless swallow pecked and ate the head, it indeed left without harming anyone else.
This "head offering" continued to the present day, becoming the predecessor of the Holy Tribe's "Xiang Shou" tradition.
This story was not long, but it was exceptionally dark and despairing.
A monster that could never be truly killed, growing stronger the more it was fought against, turned the horrifying act of swallowing human heads into a habit.
People feared it, and also grew accustomed to it.
The white-haired old woman finished telling the story.
Jiang Chen and the other two remained silent.
The Holy Tribe's "Xiang Shou" tradition was a great history of sacrifice.
But from another perspective, was this not also a history of the tailless swallow taming the so-called "Holy Tribe"?
"I have a question." Wu Quji asked directly: "Since that tailless swallow only needs one human head a year to be satisfied. Why not offer the elderly who cannot work or children, instead of letting the tribe's young warriors die? From the perspective of value trade-offs, this is not appropriate. Young warriors should be the guarantee of the tribe's survival, right?"
The old priestess looked at him deeply: "The elderly are history, children are the future. Lose history, lose honor. Lose the future, lose everything. We have no tradition of letting the elderly and children die."
Qing Jiuye glared at Wu Quji: "Although our Holy Tribe has been forced to submit, our spines are not broken!"
At this moment, Jiang Chen asked: "That tailless swallow, is it the Yan Owl?"
Before entering the Land of Divine Shade, Qing Qishu had mentioned this seemingly taboo name, leaving a deep impression on him.
"Yan Owl?" Before the priestess nodded, it was actually Su Qi who spoke first with curiosity.
While the priestess was telling the story of the tailless swallow, he had been lost in thought, as if connecting it to something.
"Young man, you know the Yan Owl?" The old priestess's cloudy eyes looked at Su Qi.
"I once came across an ancient text that contained a passage recording the Yan Owl." Su Qi hesitated.
Jiang Chen's heart stirred. An ancient text that existed in the present world recorded the monster from the Senhai Source World—the tailless swallow?
This matter was becoming increasingly mysterious.
Everyone looked at Su Qi expectantly.
He thought for a moment, first clarifying: "I am not sure of its authenticity, I will only say what I have seen."
"Speak freely."
Su Qi organized his words and recounted: "According to that ancient text..."
"Swallows are good birds, owls are evil birds.
Ancient people despised owls greatly.
They would cut off an owl's head and hang it on a tree for public display.
This is the origin of 'displaying a severed head for public view'.
This also became a punishment that humans still use today, often cutting off the heads of the condemned and hanging them on wood for public display.
It is said that after an owl dies, its evil thoughts do not end. Among a hundred thousand owls that are beheaded and displayed, only one extremely evil bird will be born from the severed head.
Called the Yan Owl.
It is said that this creature is the owl's evil thought, because it hated that humans loved swallows so much while being so hostile to owls, so it took the form of a swallow. It wanted to kill in swallow form. To harm humans in the form that humans 'like'.
Because it was born from a severed head, it has a head but no tail from birth, so the biggest difference in appearance between the Yan Owl and a swallow is that the Yan Owl has no tail.
The Yan Owl is the most evil among owls, born cruel, feeding on the heads of living beings."
At the end, Su Qi's voice even trembled slightly—
"The Yan Owl's cry must be fed a hundred heads!"