"What did you find?"
I paused for a moment, then realized.
Kaya had found a record of that black spider!
"Master, I found a record of the black spider on your chest on a piece of beast hide..."
I quickly covered Kaya's mouth. There were too many people here, and I didn't want my physical condition to be known by others.
Kaya understood my meaning. She pulled me up, and we returned to the tent.
"Master, it's like this. A long time ago, there was a tribe on this island..."
As Kaya spoke, I finally understood the origin of the black spider I had seen that day.
A long time ago, there was a tribe called Lasha on this island.
At that time, the Kasa tribe was just a small tribe, not as powerful as it would later become, so they could only submit to the tyrannical Lasha tribe.
The god worshipped by the Lasha tribe was called the Mother of All Creation, and their totem was a black spider with six eyes and eight legs.
In their mythology, this black spider gave birth to all things on earth, and all living beings were born from her abdomen.
Incidentally, I had been very puzzled as to why the gods worshipped by different wild tribes I encountered on the island were different.
The Kasa tribe worshipped the Sea God Qiye, while the Du'an tribe worshipped the so-called Shepherd God.
Kaya's answer was that although the wild tribes lived on this deserted island, the myths passed down in each tribe were completely different.
Moreover, Kaya told me that the myths she could see were different for each tribe.
This puzzled me, because in the outside world, although the mythologies of the East and West were different, they had similar records of major events.
For example, in the East, there is the story of Yu the Great taming the flood, and in the West, there is the story of Noah's Ark. Although the plots were different, both were about a catastrophic flood.
Logically, since all the tribes lived on the same deserted island, no matter how different the stories were, the background should have been the same.
Kaya could not answer this question. After all, although she was the former saintess of the Sea God Qiye, she only knew about this matter by flipping through the ancient beast hide scrolls.
Since there was no answer to this question for now, I could only keep it in mind and continue listening to Kaya.
At that time, the Lasha tribe had almost unified the entire deserted island and was the overlord of the island.
Their footprints were everywhere except in some forbidden areas.
The now aggressive Du'an tribe was merely a subordinate of the Lasha tribe back then.
However, a great change occurred on the island later. This event was not recorded on the beast hide scrolls. It was only known that the Lasha tribe, once a dominant force, perished in a very short period.
The Kasa tribe and the Du'an tribe at that time rose to power by relying on the legacy left by the Lasha tribe.
Perhaps the Lasha tribe had oppressed the other tribes too severely. After its demise, the Mother of All Creation, whom they worshipped, was cast down to the mortal world and was no longer offered sacrifices, gradually disappearing into the long river of history.
After hearing about this lost history from Kaya, I frowned, unbuttoned my clothes, and looked down at the black spider mark on my chest.
In just a few days, the color of the black spider mark on my chest had deepened, and even its previously blurred eyes had gradually become visible.
Although I didn't know the principle behind it, I had a bad feeling that if this spider became completely clear, something terrifying would happen to me.
"Kaya, does that beast hide scroll record anything about the situation on my chest now?"
"Master, that beast hide scroll only recorded a piece of history of the Lasha tribe. However, I suspect this is a kind of secret technique."
Kaya reached out and gently stroked the black spider mark on my chest. The cold touch slid down her fingertips, sending a shiver down my spine.
Secret technique?
My heart leaped. The Kasa tribe also had a secret technique passed down through generations, which was the Sea God's attendant that had almost cost me my life.
The thought of those killing machines transformed from living people made my back involuntarily shiver. If the black spider on my chest was indeed a secret technique of the Lasha tribe, would I eventually become an emotionless monster?
"Master, I know a place that might help you remove the mark on your chest, but..."
Kaya hesitated here, as if she had something unspeakable.
"What place?!"
My life was at stake, so I quickly grabbed Kaya's hand.
"I heard it from the great priest of my tribe before. Legend has it that in the east there is a sacred lake where all gods were conceived. All living beings are baptized there. Perhaps only by going there can the mark on your chest be removed."
East? Sacred lake?
Since arriving in this area, I had not explored any other regions.
The longer I lived on this deserted island, the more I understood a truth: if you don't court disaster, you won't die.
This deserted island was extremely bizarre, and I might run into some ghost and lose my life.
It seemed there was still some time before the black spider mark on my chest became completely clear.
During this time, if I couldn't find any other way, I would have to embark on this unknown path...