Death... and me

Two weeks after Rean and Roan were born, Turen and Hamarlia decided to bring them over to the Tribe Elders. It was tradition to have the elders blessing the new babies. Also, they would be tested for their aptitudes. This is, after all, a cultivation world. Even though the majority would end working on the mines or doing the chores around, the Tribe also needed cultivators who could defend their homes.

Everyone can cultivate, this is common sense. But there are several differences in aptitude. The talent of each newborn determines if they will be allocated resources for cultivation or if they will need to fend off for themselves.

When they arrived at the elder's building, they could see that there were a lot more parents with babies around. It turned out that the aptitude check only happened once a month. So all the newborns would be brought at the same time.

The reason to have the aptitude tested at such a young age is that that is when the babies' bodies would be in their purest form. Not affected by the impurities of the world. It would make the test a lot more precise, preventing mistakes like overlooking a talent or promoting a baby without it.

Turen and Hamarlia talked happily with the other parents while holding their babies. Around an hour later, the doors of the building opened, and the guards inside invited everyone in. In total, there were 27 newborns in the last month, which is quite an average number.

All the parents moved to the hall, where three elders were waiting. One of them also happened to be from the family who leads the Tribe, the Varen Family. Seeing that elder, everyone showed even more respect. The actual peaceful situation of their Tribe could be said to have a lot to do with the Varen Family. By treating everyone in the Tribe equally, all the Tribe members did their best for the Tribe's future.

One must understand that most Tribes controlling families would extort their Tribe members as much as possible. They governed their Tribes based on fear and held the strongest warriors on their side, preventing others from rebelling. Everyone in the Varen Tribe knew very well about this, so they understood that they were fortunate to be born here.

Of course, it hasn't always been like that. In the past, Varen Tribe also used the same oppressing system. In fact, it wasn't called Varen Tribe, but Irik instead. But their residents were successful in their rebellion during a bloody fight. Although the Irik Family held the strongest warriors, they miscalculated and kept the power centralized in their family only.

Because of that, even though they had the strongest warriors, their number was simply too small to stop the rest of the Tribe. That day, the entire Irik Family was killed, and their loyal warriors exiled or killed as well. The Leader of the rebellion, Juri Varen, was then appointed as the new Tribe Leader.

Of course, not everything was flowers. After the rebellion, the Tribe's overall strength had plummeted more than 50%, and some smaller Tribes in the surroundings started to covet their land. Fortunately, Juri Varen was a smart guy. Because the rebellion had just finished, it would take some time before other Tribes tried something. So he left the Tribe on the very next day and visited a far away Tribe called Olort Tribe.

That Tribe was also a tiny one, not to mention that they lived in a quite bad place. However, Juri Varen had been in contact with this Tribe for five years now. He knew that their way of treating their people was the same one he intended for his Tribe. So he had made an agreement with this Tribe.

If they were successful in overthrowing the Irik Family's power, the Olort Tribe would move all their member to Juri's Tribe. The Olort Tribe was more than happy to accept such a deal. The terrain they had been living so far is terrible for growing crops and other things. Although Irik Tribe's territory isn't that much better, they at least had an Ore Mine. This is especially so since Juri Varen planned to have everyone treated the same way as the Olort Tribe did with its members.

The old Olort Tribe Leader even offered Juri a helping hand. He wanted to send a few of their Tribe's best warriors to help with the rebellion. But Juri rejected it. As bad as the Olort Tribe might look, they at least had a not too bad life. If they failed in their rebellion, the Olort Tribe families would pay the price just like the families in the old Irik Tribe.

"The irik Tribe's problem should be resolved by the Irik Tribe's families."

That's what he said. The Leader of the Olort tribe grew found of Juri and didn't force the issue. Today, they had finally succeeded, so the Olort Tribe immediately packed everything and moved out.

When the Tribes closer to the new Varen Tribe finally rallied up to start an attack, they were forced to stop on their tracks. By putting together both the survived warriors of the old Irik Tribe and the new ones from the Olort Tribe, the Varen Tribe immediately reached a power big enough to defend themselves.

The other tribes united could still force their way and take the Varen Tribe over. But the price for that would be way too high. Besides, it is not like those Tribes were real allies, they all followed the fear system, so they didn't trust the others to start with. Chances were that some of them would just pretend to help but wait for the others to expend their strength and get rid of the rest, taking all the benefits for themselves.

With such a lousy alliance and that much strength protecting the new Varen Tribe, none of them wanted to risk being the Tribe that got the short end of the stick. So the alliance immediately disbanded after a few hours of internal struggle.

The Leader of the Olort Tribe gladly passed his authority over his member to Juri, who wisely guided the entire Tribe to live in harmony up to this day.

At first, the Olort Tribe members were afraid of being suppressed by the actual Varen Tribe members. But Juri Varen made an iron-clad rule. There is no more Irik or Olort Tribe, only the Varen Tribe. Those caught doing such things will be exiled from the Tribe, no questions asked.

Slowly, but surely, the tension between both Tribes eased. After more than 20 years, several of their members married or befriended members from the other side. It could be said that either Irik or Olort Tribe didn't exist anymore, only a single Tribe called Varen.