Endless Ocean: Survival Begins with a Dugout Canoe

WHOOSH~

This was a battle without death!

But a victor had finally emerged.

The Priest, with his decaying steps, walked to the front of the stage and placed a crown woven from green leaves on Huozhuang’s head.

"Very good, child,"

"Go, stand in the place that belongs to a warrior."

"In the name of the King, receive the grace of the gods."

Huozhuang glanced excitedly at Shi Ming. Seeing his mentor’s nod of approval from afar, he followed the Priest’s lead to the center of the altar.

The Priest touched the black circle at the center with his Magic Staff.

That’s right—he was the only Awakened Shi Ming had found in this tribe.

Strange array patterns spread out from the black circle, and 72 totems lit up in sequence. Even from a distance, Shi Ming could sense a strange familiarity within those abstract totems.

The array patterns lit up one by one, but they seemed to be losing momentum.

There wasn’t enough power.

"Alas!"

The Priest sighed.

"How can a mighty warrior be born without lives withering away? The grace of the gods requires the blood of more failures to be awakened!"

"Child, this is a necessary sacrifice."

The Priest began to chant in a low voice.

His Magic Staff transformed into vines that crept toward the four other defeated youths still lying on the altar. The thorns at the tips of the vines easily pierced their necks. Blood gushed out, flowing over the mottled, old bloodstains. The difference was that the old stains were the natural result of combat in previous years, whereas this new blood flowed from the living, who had merely lost the ability to fight.

Some of the elders who had watched the selection many times didn’t seem surprised by this.

Huozhuang froze.

’This...’

’During the battle, he’d had many chances to run his competitors through with his Bone Saber, but he never dealt a fatal blow. Yet even so, he couldn’t prevent their deaths? All because the grace of the gods needed more blood to be awakened?’

’In the hundred-man brawls of previous years, was it because so many lives were lost that they never had to go this far?’

Standing in the center of the altar, in the position closest to the King, he felt something inside him shatter.

’If fighting for the King and protecting the King required sacrificing the lives of his fellow tribesmen, then what was the point of such a fight, of such protection?’

He looked at Shi Ming.

For the first time, confusion appeared in his eyes.

’Did receiving the grace of the gods really require such a price?’

’What if today’s victor hadn’t been him, but someone else? What if one of the losers lying on the altar had been someone close to him—his older brother, or the teacher he respected most despite only knowing him a short time? What then?’

Huozhuang didn’t have time to think any further.

The altar, renewed by the death sacrifice, began to seep with a massive amount of power that seemed to come from another world. It permeated Huozhuang’s skin, seeping into his body, his blood, and his cells—evolving his physical form, just as Shi Ming’s had during his own first Awakening.

"May our King protect us!"

"We are grateful for the grace of the gods."

The Awakening of different powers came with different experiences.

Some were scorching hot, some peaceful, some profound, some ice-cold, and some brought sudden enlightenment.

But Huozhuang’s Awakening,

was excruciatingly painful.

Every second was a skin-flaying agony. It seemed to last only a dozen minutes, yet also an eternity, until his body began to adapt to the invading power. Then, a strange, endless power began to well up within his limbs and bones.

So this was the so-called "grace of the gods"—an Awakening ritual that used the power seeping from the altar to transform one’s own body.

BEEP!

[S-Rank Skill: Death Holy Artifact]

[The possessor of the skill Death Holy Artifact can borrow power from the 72 ancient death totems. They can also establish a Death Territory. Within this territory, living beings will uncontrollably and rapidly lose their life force at an ever-increasing rate.]

[???]

[A very familiar feeling.]

[This is a low-spec version of "Skeleton Sanctuary." It seems there are seven other similar S-rank skills. Like ordinary S-rank skills, they are unique. Only upon the owner’s death is the skill released and bestowed upon the next warrior.]

[...]

[A certain pseudo-god, who will have some future entanglement with you and is keen on research, hopes to fuse the eight low-spec S-rank powers together. By doing so, they aim to comprehend a wondrous secret, thereby gaining a similarity to the gods and, by relying on the "Law of Similarity," bypass the blockade of the Tomb Star Realm and inherit the legacy of the First Civilization Cosmic Country.]

[Unfortunately, the ritual has been going on for who knows how many years. The guinea pigs have been replaced, one batch after another. Even "Zero" has found a new owner. Yet the person behind it all is still obsessed with an endless experiment to "cheat" their way out of the Tomb Star Realm.]

[How pitiful! How lamentable!]

[And soon, the anomaly will arrive as expected.]

A glint shone in Shi Ming’s eyes.

He had originally guessed that the so-called divine revelation was a remnant of power leaked when the altar connected to the Tomb Star Realm. He never expected it was truly about a pseudo-god cultivating lab rats.

The eight low-spec S-rank skills also possessed [Uniqueness].

Now that it had appeared in Huozhuang, it meant that the champion chosen five years ago was already dead. And five years from now, when a new champion was born, the previous one would inevitably be dead as well.

No wonder they went through batch after batch of those who received the "grace," yet there were still so few on this planet who possessed Awakened powers. Pitiful, those deceived youths. For the sake of the totems in their hearts, they threw themselves into a fraudulent dream, one after another, only to die. Even if they won the hundred-man battle and survived, they would only have five years left to live.