Ch8 – Pentaceratops
When Xiong Ye returned to his cave, he first hung up the Scelidosaurus meat, then ate the leftover piece of Struthiomimus heart that he hadn’t eaten last night as well as a large piece of meat.
Because he was in a bad mood, he wanted to eat even more.
After eating, he pulled out the small amount of salt he still had left and rubbed it all over the Scelidosaurus meat.
Using salt to cure the meat was one of the methods the priests had taught them to use in order to preserve it, but there was no salt near their tribe, so they needed to trade for salt from elsewhere.
Generally speaking, they would go to trade for it every spring.
Around this time, some of the more experienced warriors of the tribe had already gone out to trade for salt. He had originally also planned to go and learn a bit about how it was done, but he ultimately hadn’t gone because he was about to mate with Shi Li.
When he thought of Shi Li, Xiong Ye felt that his chest was about to burst from unhappiness. He rubbed his bulging belly that was full of meat, then shifted into his animal form. He poured himself onto the wooden bed he had made and fell asleep.
Xiong Ye was awakened by the sound of knocking on his door. Xiong Bai’s voice also rang out along with the knocks, “Xiong Ye, Xiong Ye! We’re going hunting!”
Xiong Ye opened the door and saw Xiong Bai.
Today, Xiong Bai didn’t look quite the same as usual. A vibrant dark green crown made of vines and small flowers adorned her head, and she had wrapped her chest with a piece of red dinosaur hide.
It looked quite cumbersome.
“Let’s go.” Xiong Ye said, and went out directly without bringing any weapons.
Those in the tribe who had relatively weak animal forms often wouldn’t take on their animal forms when they hunted. Instead, they would choose to fight in human form with weapons. However, it was different for him, and his animal form was his biggest weapon.
“Xiong Ye, why did you fight with Shi Li yesterday?” Xiong Bai asked as she chased after Xiong Ye.
Yesterday, Xiong Bai had watched with her own eyes as Xiong Ye and Shi Li fought. It had given her quite the scare.
Xiong Ye and Shi Li had never fought before. People within the tribe would often spar with each other, and Xiong Ye and Shi Li were no exception, but yesterday, their fight hadn’t looked like a practice spar at all!
Xiong Ye usually humored Shi Li, and Shi Li wouldn’t truly make a move against Xiong Ye, but yesterday… Shi Li had actually been clawed up by Xiong Ye, and he had even left several big wounds!
She felt that Xiong Ye and Shi Li might have broken up.
After guessing this, Xiong Bai was really quite happy–If Xiong Ye and Shi Li broke up, did that mean she could have a child with Xiong Ye?
Xiong Ye was strong and good-looking. Her and Xiong Ye’s child would definitely be very outstanding. Additionally, Xiong Ye treated all the children in the tribe who had no relationship with him so well; he certainly wouldn’t ignore their child if they had one!
Xiong Ye sped up his pace and didn’t speak.
“Xiong Ye, Xiong Ye, they’re all saying that Shi Li is too lazy and annoyed you, which is why you beat him up. Is that true?” Xiong Bai continued to ask questions.
Xiong Ye really didn’t want to answer.
Although Shi Li’s reaction and words yesterday really left him dejected, the two of them had known each other for eight years. He kept feeling like Shi Li hadn’t been sincere when he had said those words yesterday.
In the past, Shi Li had always been so happy when they talked about the future. There had basically been no sign that he was unwilling to be with him at all.
Perhaps Shi Li would come and find him later to reconcile with him.
Xiong Ye didn’t want to answer Xiong Bai’s questions, so he casually found a topic to talk about, “How come you’re wearing something like that on your head today?”
Xiong Bai saw that Xiong Ye had paid attention to her appearance and no longer concerned herself with Xiong Ye and Shi Li’s affairs. She asked quickly, “Does it look good?”
“It took quite a bit of time to make that thing, right? Just for the sake of looking good?” Xiong Ye said, “Next time you have free time, you might as well just weave a basket.” In a bit, when they hunted, Xiong Bai would definitely shift into her animal form. When that happened, the hide tied on her waist would still be there, but this kind of flower crown would surely end up falling off!
Xiong Bai: “……”
Xiong Ye obviously didn’t find Xiong Bai beautiful, but a few of the youths in the tribe came up to surround Xiong Bai, “Xiong Bai, you look really good today.”
“Xiong Bai, I have some dried meat here…”
“Xiong Bai, I went out yesterday and caught two frogs. Let me give you some roasted frog.”
……
Women in the tribe would actively pursue strong or good-looking men, and the men in the tribe would also pursue powerful or beautiful women.
“I caught a Scelidosaurus yesterday!” Xiong Bai was very proud when she faced these young men. She stepped out from the crowd of youths and left to find Hu Yue.
Everyone waited in the valley for a while, and once the hunters had all arrived, there was a group of over a hundred people gathered together.
Xiong Ye searched through the crowd with his eyes and spotted Shi Li, but Shi Li didn’t even spare him a glance, so Xiong Ye also shifted his gaze away.
Now that everyone was gathered, their tribal chief Xiong He ordered, “Let’s go! We’ll go and catch a big one to bring back!”
“Good!” The crowd responded and followed him to depart from the tribe.
Most of the warriors in the hunting team were youths, because most of the older warriors had gone to trade for salt.
As Xiong He led the way forward, he would also take some time to share a bit of his knowledge and experience.
After they had traveled some ways away, Xiong He divided the hunters into groups of ten so they could split up and search for prey.
Xiong Ye, Hu Yue, Shi Li, and even Xiong Bai were all leaders of their respective teams.
Xiong Ye took his team with him and cautiously scouted the way forward.
They had all cooperated together many times before and had a strong tacit understanding. Xiong Ye was the first to catch the scent of prey after walking for a while, and the rest of the team quickly also followed the scent forward. They could feel the earth tremble–They had discovered several gigantic Pentaceratops
Xiong Ye had the largest animal form in the tribe, but those Pentaceratops had to weigh at least ten times as much as him!
Xiong Ye carefully hid himself, not wanting to get discovered by any of the Pentaceratops. It was at this time that he noticed that Hu Yue and her team were also lurking nearby.
The two of them exchanged glances, then left behind a few people who had smaller animal forms and wouldn’t easily be discovered to follow the Pentaceratops before heading back.
By the time they returned, there were already a lot of people waiting with Xiong He. Some of these people hadn’t managed to find any prey, while others had only found small prey.
For example, Shi Li and his team had only found a few Heterodontosaurus.
Xiong He deliberated for a while then finally said, “Let’s go and catch the Pentaceratops.”
Pentaceratops was a kind of horned dinosaur that had five horns on its head. Mature Pentaceratops were eight meters long, weighed over five tonnes, and were already considered large dinosaurs to the people of their tribe.
If it had been a hundred years ago when they didn’t have priests, they would have rushed to hide and run away, but now, they could also ‘hunt’ these dinosaurs if they worked together.
“Chief, aren’t Pentaceratops really big? Are we really going to go catch one?” Someone was both nervous and excited.
“I’ll take you guys over to give it a go.” Xiong He laughed and said, “It’s still early, so if we aren’t able to catch one, there’ll still be time to catch something else.”
Everyone agreed and headed towards the location where the Pentaceratops had been spotted. Xiong He told them some facts about the Pentaceratops along the way, “There’s a shield on the Pentaceratops’ head that’s very strong…”
Shi Li heard his words and frowned immediately, “The Pentaceratops’ shield is hollow and is only used for courtship.”
“Really?” Xiong He was a bit surprised, “I’ve seen Pentaceratops before but have never hunted them. I didn’t know that it was hollow!” The frill on top of the Pentaceratops looked really solid!
Shi Li: “The Pentaceratops’s head is very big, and it has horns. When we attack, we can’t go from the front and should attack it from behind instead…”
Shi Li spoke a lot, and it was all taken from the experience he had gained in his previous life.
The people in the tribe listened very carefully.
Many people had seen how Shi Li looked after getting beaten up by Xiong Ye yesterday, but the people of the tribe didn’t concern themselves too much about other people’s affairs.
So what if Xiong Ye and Shi Li broke up? The two of them were still very strong, and most of the tribe admired and looked up to them.
Besides, most people who had awakened as bears preferred Xiong Ye, while those who had awakened as other animals tended to like Shi Li.
Shi Li’s fierce animal form and his enthusiastic and flamboyant character made him very likable.
Of course, the main reason why nobody said anything was because… It had been Xiong Ye who beat up Shi Li yesterday; Shi Li hadn’t really fought back and even had injuries on his body now!
Shi Li saw that the people from the tribe were gathering around him and continued, “In a bit, we should do this. Some people should go forward and attract the Pentaceratops’ attention while the rest of us attack from behind…”
He began to make arrangements for how everyone should hunt.
However, Xiong Ye interrupted Shi Li while he was still talking, “If we go up against the Pentaceratops directly, people will die!”
Was the Pentaceratops so easy to provoke? This was a giant dinosaur with armor and long sharp horns on its head!
“How should we do it then if we can’t hunt like this?” Shi Li retorted. Although he hadn’t hunted for a long time, the experience he had gained during those years when he and Xiong Ye had led the tribe to roam everywhere was still there. He believed that the method he had brought up was definitely the best way to kill the Pentaceratops!
As for those who might die… Those who died were just too weak.
Xiong Ye glaned at Shi Li and said, “Drive the Pentaceratops into the swamp.” He had listened when Grandpa Priest talked about the ways his old tribe used to hunt prey that were as big as a Pentaceratops. They would generally herd the big ones to a swamp and trap them there so that they could slaughter them as they liked.
Shi Li was stunned, and finally remembered a series of events-the tribe had indeed used this method in the past.
However, the swamp that the tribe used to trap their prey wasn’t available all year round, and it was difficult to encounter such a big dinosaur. Because they hadn’t done it often, he had long forgotten about such a method and didn’t even remember where the swamp was.
“I decided that we should hunt the Pentaceratops this time just to let you guys see the swamp.” Xiong He spoke up and began to discuss how to drive the Pentaceratops there with the rest of the tribe members.
Xiong Ye had gone to observe the swamp the other day and had shared some of his own ideas with him when he returned.
Many people had paid attention to Shi Li when he was talking before, but now, everyone focused on Xiong He and Xiong Ye instead.
Xiong He and Xiong Ye were walking together. The two of them looked very similar, and they also appeared to be very close.
Indeed, they were uncle and nephew and had both awakened as brown bears. They were currently the only two brown bears in the tribe, and their relationship would naturally be good. Shi Li knew that Xiong He had always seen Xiong Ye as his successor.
In his previous life, after Xiong He had died, there had been too much going on in the tribe, and Xiong Ye had been unable to deal with it all by himself. He had also needed to find a new place to trade for salt and couldn’t always remain with the tribe, which was why Shi Li had become the new tribal chief.
Now…
Shi Li suddenly realized that all his previous actions had been a little reckless.
His foundation in the tribe wasn’t as deep as Xiong Ye’s. If Xiong Ye wanted to make trouble for him…
If it had been before, Shi Li might still have wanted to remain together with Xiong Ye even if they didn’t mate, but after yesterday’s events, he had already abandoned this plan.
First of all, he knew that Xiong Ye would never agree–the young Xiong Ye wouldn’t tolerate a single grain of sand in his eyes.
Secondly, he couldn’t get past the barrier in his own heart–he had been suppressed by Xiong Ye in that fight, and he certainly couldn’t show weakness to Xiong Ye now!
Since that was the case… Shi Li suddenly realized what he should do.
Everyone in the tribe had gone to listen to Xiong He and Xiong Ye talk, and nobody was paying attention to him. Shi Li was a little annoyed, but a beautiful young woman suddenly came up to him, “Shi Li, you’re really amazing. You know so much about the Pentaceratops.”
Shi Li noticed this girl, and his heart jolted.
He still remembered the young woman in front of him. She was the most beautiful woman in the tribe and Xiong He’s favorite child, Lang Yin.
Lang Yin had always liked him, but compared to Xiong Ye, Lang Yin who had been raised in privilege from childhood was really too weak!
At this age in his previous life, he had never considered Lang Yin at all, but after Lang Yin had died at a young age during that catastrophe, he had often thought of this beautiful young woman who had once expressed affection for him.
Juurensha: Xiong Ye, show everyone what a proper tribal chief is like!
xiin: i love XY’s indifferent reaction to Xiong Bai’s dressing up – ‘it just looks cumbersome’ haha. also, fanart from Cat for the previous chapter of XY sadly digging for earthworms!