The most important thing in a tribe is customs and rules.

Tribes without rules will eventually collapse, and tribes without customs will eventually be assimilated.

Since I was 10 years old, whenever I listened to the teachings of the tribe with all my peers, I was able to learn about the past and traditions of our tribe through the mouths of the witches.

I am a son of the forest, a native of the Abasarom Mountains in the Flamelands. In Children of the Forest, all children are taught the art of war from the age of ten, join the hunting team, and protect our sacred forest with our lives and force.

These are our customs, traditions and rules.

Originally, we didn't need to emphasize the protection of the sacred forest. In the ancient past, before the Flamelanders arrived, we roamed freely among the mountains, walking with the moving sacred forests that constantly migrated through the mountains, crossing the mountains and leaving behind a sacred crystal path.

Before the arrival of the Flame Landers, we didn't know how valuable that thin crystal path was, and although it was bright, it would disappear into the earth in a rainstorm.

But those scholars of the Flying Flame Land were stunned to call it 'natural high-purity essentia crystals', and our sacred forest was called the living plant crystal vein...... This caught the attention of the witch priests, who were already on the lookout, and their next actions angered our ancestors even more.

They want to expel us and take the sacred forest for their own use.

They didn't succeed.

We march and fight together with our hometown and the Sacred Forest. In the face of the army of the Flying Flame Land, the power of the Sacred Forest descended on the witches, and the power of the mountains and forests twisted and spread, and the endless emerald green mixed with anger turned into the mountain giant gods hundreds of meters high, expelling those unkind visitors, leaving them with wreckage all over the ground.

We have won, the Greedys of the Flamelands have not succeeded, and our ancestors have guarded their homeland.

But we also failed. The forces and powerhouses of the Flame Lands have forced us into the depths of the mountains, and we have become lost dogs that are constantly fleeing and slowly dying.

But we didn't abandon our traditions and rules.

Every time I wake up in the middle of the night, I always feel like my heart is burning, which has become a great witch festival. Inheriting the ancient memories of the witches, I always dreamed of a great destruction—the flames of the falling from the sky, the wrath of the gods poured out, and the world collapsed.

The oldest patriarchs, who released the Holy Spirit sealed in a bottle in a white palace. The Holy Spirit, named 'Tinder,' promised him three wishes.

The ancestors prayed for 'life', 'survival' and 'order'. So a seed fell into the palm of the patriarch, and the patriarch nourished him with blood, causing the holy sapling to grow and eventually turn into a sacred forest for the people.

To this day, the dead will return to the Sacred Forest, and the scholars of the Flying Flame Land say that we have nourished the ancient xenomorph monster with our blood and soul, so that it will continue to be restored to its wholeness, and when it is complete, we will be swallowed by the Sacred Forest.

Haha, they're getting closer to the truth. But they simply don't understand the connection between us and the Sacred Grove. It was promise, covenant and faith. That is our culture, the foundation of the children of the mountains and forests.

That is the customs, traditions and rules of the children of the mountains, and the meaning of why we are the children of the mountains and forests themselves.

To this day, I still hear those instructions in my dreams, in the memories of the witches, and in the intermittent words of the ancestors.

- Remember, the sons of the mountains and forests will live forever in the sacred forest.

- Remember, outsiders are never allowed to enter the Sacred Grove, and their feet are not allowed to trample on the dirt of the Sacred Grove.

- Remember, we are the guardians of the Sacred Forest, and the Sacred Forest is our guardian. We guard the Sacred Forest in life and return to it when we die, and the Sacred Forest gives us strength and the Sacred Forest sustains our existence.

- And, most importantly, ...... The 'truth' that only the Great Witch Festival can know.

- Remember, the Sacred Forest must not be allowed to grow and spread. The scale of the Sacred Forest must not exceed the 'limit'! As soon as it approaches, the 'sacrificial ritual' is carried out to seal the will of the sacred forest.

- And the consciousness of the Sacred Forest will allow itself to be sealed by us. This is the agreement, and we maintain a tacit understanding for thousands of years.

This is the trust and promise that our sons of the forest are proud of.

Remember.

Remember those.

Remember those customs, festivals. Remember the taboos, the rules.

Remember those vows, promises. Remember those rituals, the history.

The Flamelanders have violated the taboo of the Children of the Forest, so we must make enemies of them.

Yes, the Flamelanders are so powerful that the Children of the Mountains can repel an attack from them, but they can't really defeat them, and we are forced to flee into the Holy Mountain, into the rift between the Flamelands and the Empire. We have been forced to stay away from the 'civilized world' and to be in the company of countless magical beasts.

We lost a lot. Life, parents, siblings, hometown, peaceful life, children's smiles and songs.

So we are angry, we have to rebel, we have to protect our land, we have to protect our homeland.

The Flamelanders can banish us and repel us, but they will never be able to defeat us and change us.

Our anger, our beliefs, our will, our culture, our customs, and our obsessions are indestructible and will never change!

I've always believed so. Because we are the children of the mountains and forests, we are a people who are blessed by the sacred forest, we abide by traditions and contracts, we adhere to our own customs and beliefs, and we will never compromise with outsiders.

Again, even so, even though the clan is already struggling, I still firmly limit the size of the 'Sacred Forest' and never allow it to exceed the limits set by our ancestors, and the Sacred Forest will accept this outcome.

Even if I knew that this would cause the power of the Sacred Forest to stagnate at this level, making it impossible for us to defeat the Flame Landers.

I think we can stick with it, it's not that hard.

Until a whole new group of people comes to us.

They called themselves 'Silver Peak Leaders', and each of them was wrapped in silver metal armor nearly three meters high, like towering little giants.

They are a new force, from the Flazy Empire, and their leader has overcome the Lower Flamelanders, who often infest us, defeating the strongest bloodline with the surname Abasarom.

That's nice. I wanted to celebrate the news with a warm reception, but it soon became clear that they were no different from the Flamelanders.

The Silver Peak Leader, wrapped in silver armor, stared at me with a cyan observation port, their atmosphere cold and silent.

Even through the opaque glass crystal, I could still feel the view from above.

[Returning to the Yinfeng Leader, the Son of the Mountains and Forests needs to obey the orders of the General Political Bureau]

The Yinfeng people led by him said in a tone that could not be refused: [The inside and outside of the Abasarom Mountains are already the territory of the Grand Duchy, and you are the barbarians who have turned into foreign people, and you need to register along with your holy forest. Also, from today onwards, you must not come into contact with this dangerous Alien Flame God Hatchling, your primitive sacrifices and savage sealing rituals have tormented him to the sea, and Silver Peak comprehends to accept him and do his best to restore him to normal, which is a good ending for both of you]

[The General Political Bureau will arrange your belonging]

The Son of the Mountains and Forests would not accept such an arrogant order - it was simply ridiculous that he would ask the Sons of the Mountains and Forests to leave the Sacred Forest!

This group of freaks is no different from the people of the Flying Flamelands, and without the slightest hesitation, I will go to war.

[You say we're the same as the Flamelanders?] 】

However, when the supersonic wooden spears of the tribal warriors, the bows and arrows wrapped around the psionic energy bombarded the armor of the Yinfeng people, these instincts pierced through the ordinary steel carapace, and the attacks that pierced through the chariot were all in vain, and at most a little pattern was worn out.

And all the Silver Peak people who were attacked didn't care about this, their eyes lit up with silver brilliance, making an indestructible shield on the outer layer of the armor, and the leader of the leader, the Silver Peak people who called themselves 'Miles', said calmly before launching an attack: [Listen, the biggest difference between us and them is that we will ask before asking, and after you refuse, we will not draw our swords at the first time]

But like the people of the Flamelands, we will definitely achieve our goals. Sons of the Mountains and Forests, you don't know what your sacred forest is and what its value is, but I know that all the resources in this world must be in the hands of adults, and it is a complete waste in your hands.

Moreover, we will not kill you until the end. Even if you don't want to, you will be brought back by us to civilize, to educate, to abandon the traditions and rules that may have been very important in the past, but now have no meaning, and finally ......]

【Become Us】

Before the Yinfeng people raised their weapons, I took the lead in the charge, taking all the clansmen with me.

Not because of anger, but because of fear.

Because I felt that everything we had held on to was meaningless to this group of monsters, who didn't care about our culture, our festivals and rituals, who didn't want to know about our past, who didn't want to study our history, and who naturally didn't understand our dream of wandering freely among the forests and mountains, or our love and restraint for the Sacred Grove.

They are monsters, arrogant demon armies, enemies we must not defeat.

And then......

We lost.

In just ten minutes, our anger and dreams, our customs, traditions and culture, everything, were crushed by a more powerful silver torrent.

The anger, the fighting, the blood and tears, the smiles and the faces, the struggle and battle that began in the Flying Flame Land six hundred years ago have finally come to an end.

We were disarmed, we were knocked to the ground, we were gathered into cabins, we were changed into new clothes, we were bathed, we were treated, we were sent to the abominable, debilitating, out-of-town rock huts, pressed against soft white beds that were neither vines nor leaves.

I fell asleep, faster and more comfortable than I had imagined.

And when I woke up, through the transparent glass window, I saw the dazzling and bright sun that was rarely seen in the dense forest.

I wept bitterly.

The history of the sons of the mountains and forests is over.

Silver Peak Territory, the most abominable demon land.

Ian Silverpeak, the most abominable demon king of the Demon Lands.

He destroyed everything we have for the last thousand years, all our persistence, all our beliefs, and all our history...... The Silverpeak Leader told us that we are descendants of researchers from the ancient Pre-Era Civilization Laboratory, and he told us that our ancestors unleashed an alien fire god that had been safely stored in order to survive, and used many methods to restrain and seal his will, making it a living doomsday refuge.

They say that we have been living in symbiosis with the alien gods for thousands of years, and that those rituals, those traditions, those customs, are all 'methods' to control the alien gods. Our ancestors have turned all the commands, seals, and maintenance methods into a ritual, and we don't need to know the principle, we just need to do the same thing every year, make the same sound, and the alien god will never wake up.

They said that our ancestors and the Sacred Forest were the saints of the Lost Age, they restrained each other and saved each other, and the Sacred Forest did not become the god of the fire raging in the Lost Era, and our race could also be saved from natural disasters, and the two sides wrote to each other to maintain the inheritance of the race.

They say that our clan is an extremely rare example of symbiosis, so the living conditions will be good.

And also. They said, "Welcome to Yinfeng Ling."

……

The more I read, the more I studied, and the more I learned about Ian Silverpeak and the Silverpeak Leader, the more I hated Ian Silverpeak, and the more I hated Silverpeak Leader.

Because they are too arrogant, because they treat everything like toys.

The Demon King named Ian Silverpeak ruthlessly destroys everything in others for the sake of his dreams.

All this, just because he wanted, so it happened naturally, he didn't care about the past of the son of the mountains and forests, didn't care about our perseverance, faith and past, everything we believed in was just dust in his eyes.

He just wants to migrate out the restless elements in our group of Abasarom Mountains and turn them into his labor force and population, and then recycle the sacred forest, restore it to normal, and turn it into the intelligent fire creatures he needs, and then cooperate with it as an efficient elemental crystallization biofactory.

We, as weak people, did not resist the right in the slightest, we were defeated by him, contained by him, absorbed and digested by him, treated by him as toys, and placed wherever he wanted.

……

But, I know that too. I actually love him paradoxically.

I'm not stupid, and I'm not stubborn. With the power of psionic power and the Sacred Forest, I have inherited the memories of the witches, and of course I know that the source of all the contradictions and strife in this world lies in the difference between 'us', 'you' and 'them'.

If we want to persuade each other and understand each other, the world will not be able to be peaceful in the true sense of the word for 10,000 years, 100,000 years, or even millions of years.

On the continent of Terra, only power can break all barriers, and only the strongest can destroy all 'you' and 'them', and all different beliefs, cultures and customs can be integrated into one.

I know, of course I do.

Only the one who tramples on all our history, our past, our hatreds, our beliefs, our dreams, our desires, and the hearts, wills, souls, determinations, loves and hatreds of all other people in this world, as our own cornerstone, as a toy, and then steps towards ...... A person who walks to a place that no one knows about.

Only he, the one who tramples on fairly, plays the whole world fairly, and regards everyone and everything as his favorite toy, is the person who treats everyone in this world fairestly.

Only that Ian Yinfeng is the king who can change the world and truly rule the world.