Spring is the season of budding and sprouting; everywhere in the tribe bustled with a joyful atmosphere.

Today, the entire tribe was given a day off. Everyone washed themselves clean, standing in line waiting for the moment they could set foot into the Temple. Barton led the members of team 1 to maintain order, allowing fifty people to enter the Temple at a time.

The majestic God statue stood tall behind the Altar. The people only dared to look up once before immediately lowering their heads, dropping to their knees on the ground to bow. Kaelen stood on the high platform, calling down:

"Everyone, do not bow your heads. Raise your heads and take a good look at the majestic appearance of our Crimson Beast God."

With the Priest’s permission, the people present below nervously raised their heads, craning their necks to stare fixedly at the God statue above with reverent eyes. Crimson’s Beast God was a towering, imposing beastman with dragon horns on his head, holding a child in one hand and a sharp spear in the other.

Behind Him seemed to be His beast form. It was a species shaped like a snake but possessed legs and horns, and was vastly larger than a snake. At this time, Kaelen said:

"I’m sure everyone has never seen a beastman form like this before, right? Let me introduce to everyone, this is the Eastern Dragon."

"Eastern Dragon? Little Priest, if there is an Eastern Dragon, does that mean there are also Western, Northern, and Southern Dragons?"

Kaelen chuckled dryly: "I only know of the Eastern Dragon and the Western Dragon. As for the Northern and Southern ones, forgive me, I have never seen them before."

He then cleared his throat: "Alright, let’s put this topic aside. Now we will learn about the Twelve Zodiac Animals!"

Saying so, he waved his hand, and Elian and Cecil immediately stepped forward, removing the covering cloth over the twelve porcelain statues. The clansmen once again widened their eyes, their hearts pounding. Kaelen walked to the front of the statues and began to explain.

"As we know, a year has four seasons, taking spring as the starting point and winter as the ending point. During that period of time, the moon above our heads will undergo twelve cycles of waxing and waning.

Corresponding to those twelve cycles, we divide a year into twelve months, simply named in order from January to December so that everyone can easily remember the planting and harvesting schedules.

However, as time passes year after year, to calculate age and remember long-term milestones, we have used the twelve Beastman forms on the continent to act as symbols representing the years. They are collectively called the Twelve Zodiac Animals!"

Kaelen walked along the display platform, stopping in front of the first statue. It was a statue depicting a Mouse clan Sub-Beast holding a lump of earth in his hand, with the beastman form of the Mouse clan behind him, looking incredibly lifelike. He slowly explained:

"First is the small but cunning Mouse. Next is the hardworking Ox. After that is the courageous Tiger, then the agile Cat..."

Just like that, Kaelen walked all the way to the last statue:

"From now on, each year will be represented by a spirit beast. This year is counted as the Year of the Mouse; next year will be the Ox, and so on, twelve years alternating in a never-ending cycle. The children born in a certain year will carry the destiny and protection of that year’s spirit beast."

Kaelen paused for a beat, adding: "Everyone has gone through the elementary class, so you also know a year has twelve months, a month has thirty days, and a day has twenty-four hours. Try telling me, what day, month, and year is it today?"

As soon as Kaelen’s words fell, a row of hands was raised simultaneously. Kaelen smiled and pointed at an Antelope clan Sub-Beast. The young Sub-Beast stood up and shouted:

"Great Priest, today is the sixteenth day of the first month in the Year of the Mouse!"

Kaelen nodded in satisfaction and said: "Has everyone understood the purpose of the Zodiac Animals?"

"Understood, Great Priest!!"

...

After that day, the entire tribe was buzzing with noise; everyone was discussing the Beast God and the Twelve Zodiac Animals. Also on that day, the tribe issued the annual calendar. Besides the watermark image of the Zodiac Animal representing the year on the paper, the calendar also had several bolded dates, representing the major holidays in the tribe.

Additionally, the tribe would conduct household registration. Every clansman would go to the administrative area to record their name, age, and clan.

For the older clansmen who couldn’t remember their birth date clearly, they would take the day they came to register as their birthday, while the year would be calculated for them by the administrative staff based on the age the clansmen themselves remembered.

As for the beast cubs, it was relatively easy, because the adults in the tribe remembered the day they were born.

The reason Kaelen requested the clansmen to declare their household registration was, firstly, to make management easier, and secondly, because he planned to make ID cards for the Crimson clansmen. Sane had found a loophole in the Temple’s totem, thereby researching and improving it, causing the energy maintaining the ID card to be effective for up to ten years.

Moreover, it truly was a blind cat finding a fried fish; while researching to increase the totem’s maintenance energy, Kaelen discovered the underlying rule within it, transforming the totem representing the Temple into a new type of totem with an added master-recognition function.

As long as the owner dropped a drop of blood from the center of their forehead onto the totem, then from that point on, the totem would only recognize this one master. When the wearer was not the owner, this card would immediately shatter into tiny fragments.

To prevent clansmen from dropping it, the ID card was made of melted magic stone. After engraving the totem, it was fashioned into a necklace worn around the neck, so even when shifting into beast form, it wouldn’t fall off.

Initially, the clansmen didn’t know this, and some mischievous ones swapped cards with each other. It wasn’t until the cards shattered that they hastily hurried to the administrative area to apply for a reissue. Naturally, they were thoroughly scolded before being issued a new one.

Barton, the security team captain, also stated clearly that the tribe only provided the card once. If anyone intentionally lost it, they would be considered a person without household registration, expelled from the tribe to fend for themselves!

From then on, everyone cherished their identity verification card, not even daring to take it off while sleeping.

On the twenty-sixth day of the first month in the very first Year of the Mouse, the tribe welcomed new joyful news. The Chief and the Great Priest would hold their mating ceremony on the fifth day of the second month in the Year of the Mouse. The entire tribe began busily preparing for the mating ceremony, all wishing to organize a truly grand ceremony for the two leaders of the tribe.

Draven held the white tiger’s front paw, looking at the joyful atmosphere outside, lowering his head to whisper in the tiger’s ear:

"Look, Sane and Kaelen are about to become mates, and their children are also half a month away from breaking their shells. If you still refuse to wake up, I will go find another beastman to give birth to beast cubs!"

The tiger remained perfectly still without the slightest movement. Draven let out a long sigh, nuzzling his face against the tiger’s head, whispering:

"I was just joking, don’t be mad at me. I will still stay here waiting for you. Even if you can never wake up, I will still choose you as my mate."

Somewhere else, a beastman who was engrossed in his work suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, unable to resist clutching his chest and falling to a sit. Almost immediately, he was struck on the back by a thorny whip, and a somewhat sinister voice fell into his ears:

"You bastard, daring to be lazy, huh? Believe it or not, I’ll beat you to death! Get up and work for me right now!"

The beastman, whipped until blood seeped out, pursed his lips, stood up, and continued to work, his mind still a blank slate. The beastman didn’t know who he was or where he came from; he only knew that not long after he woke up, while wandering, he was captured and brought to this place as a slave.

In this place, besides him, there were many other slaves. Just yesterday, the slave working next to him was crushed to death by a rock, and the person working next to him was replaced by another beastman. This beastman was old, his claws were worn out, and each time he could only chip away a small piece of stone.

A gust of wind swept by. Seeing that the old beastman was about to be whipped into a bloody mess, the young beastman who had just been scolded couldn’t hold back anymore, standing up and tightly grabbing the whip. The thorns on the whip pierced his hand, creating bloody holes, but he didn’t seem to feel it.

Although the young beastman couldn’t remember anything about his background, he felt a surging rage within his heart. It shouldn’t be like this; he was not someone who would let others beat and scold him at will like this.

Who... who exactly was he?!

The slave driver, intercepted mid-way, raised his leg and kicked the young beastman down, then swung his whip forward while cursing. The young beastman lay on the ground, using his arms to protect his head, while overlapping whip marks gradually appeared on his body, a gruesome mess of blood and flesh.

[It’s not supposed to be like this! That is not you!]

[You are the bravest warrior! Get up quickly!]

[Bite his throat off! Tear him to pieces!! Send all these cursed bastards down to the Avici Hell!]

The young beastman discovered a surging power within his body, forming a tornado that directly struck the slave mark on his back.

*Crack crack!*

The slave mark, like a thin sheet of ice, made a few cracking sounds and shattered. The young beastman instantly sprang up, letting out an earth-shaking roar. A phantom image of a white tiger appeared behind the young beastman, the fierce pressure causing everyone present to go weak in the knees, dropping to the ground unable to lift their heads.

Amidst the blinding sand and wind, the young beastman walked forward step by step, very quickly arriving in front of the slave driver. He swung his hand, and the slave driver’s head instantly detached from his neck, rolling a turn before falling into a dirt pit.

Warm blood splattered onto the beastman’s face, but he seemingly didn’t feel it, strolling leisurely past the slave driver’s corpse, heading straight to the slave master’s tent.

The young beastman was gone, yet everyone remained prostrated on the ground, trembling and not daring to make a single sound.