Ch15 – Elephant Bird
Zhou Ji hadn’t gone out today. What was the point in going out on a rainy day? He didn’t want to be caught in the rain at all.
However, after seeing that Xiong Ye and the others had returned, he swept some honey on Xiong Ye’s remaining Pentaceratops meat, added some spices, and reheated it for him over the fire.
The people of the Big Bear Tribe knew of several ways to preserve food, but the two most commonly used methods were curing it with salt or roasting it over the fire.
They would salt the food that they intended to store for a long time, and then hang it in a cool, ventilated place to let it dry out. For short-term food preservation, they would roast it or even roast it repeatedly.
Zhou Ji didn’t like either type of meat.
Because salt was very precious, the salt cured meat that the people in the tribe had was usually a little stale and carried a slight rotten taste. As for roasted meat… meat that had been roasted and left out for a few days wasn’t appetizing at all.
However, it seemed that food was scarce in this place, and they didn’t have much choice. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t very hot during this period and preserving food had been easy.
After roasting the meat in the fire again, Zhou Ji took the cured Scelidosaurus meat that Xiong Ye had given him and boiled it with some mushrooms.
Most likely, the people in the tribe didn’t eat mushrooms because they were unable to distinguish between the poisonous and non-poisonous ones, but this wasn’t a problem for Zhou Ji.
He finished cooking but didn’t eat any of it himself. He continued to gnaw on fruit and vegetables–Only dinosaur meat was available today, and he didn’t even want to try a mouthful of it.
Zhou Ji was already full by the time Xiong Ye returned, “I roasted your meat again and cooked some soup. Eat it while it’s hot.”
Xiong Ye soon noticed the improved meat and steaming hot soup.
Even his mother wouldn’t prepare food for him like this back when he was still living with her as a child–Back then, his mother would usually just tear off a piece of meat for him while roasting the rest for herself.
Xiong Ye couldn’t describe how he felt at that moment as he spoke in a low voice, “Thank you.”
“There’s no need for thanks, you’ve helped me a lot.” Zhou Ji said.
Xiong Ye put down the roasted meat he had been allocated today, then gave Zhou Ji approximately one kilogram’s worth of meat scraps that he had helped him bring back, “You didn’t go to get your meat again, so I brought it back for you! Also, what you cooked for me was made with your meat. That’s no good.”
When Xiong Ye had put down his meat, he had noticed that the amount of meat he had stored away hadn’t gone down at all. The meat that Zhou Ji had boiled for him should be the meat that he had given Zhou Ji yesterday.
“I don’t like to eat meat. This is for you.” Zhou Ji said.
“Don’t like to eat meat?” Xiong Ye stared at Zhou Ji in shock.
Zhou Ji calmly nodded.
Xiong Ye: “……” There are actually people in this world who don’t like to eat meat?!
“Will you be able to grow stronger without any meat?” Xiong Ye was very worried.
Zhou Ji felt that he was already very strong, “It should be fine.” As soon as he transmigrated into this body, he had already sensed that this body was full of energy and very powerful. Recently, probably because he had absorbed a lot of energy from the air, the white crystal core in his body had also grown much larger, filling his body with abundant energy.
Although Zhou Ji had said so, Xiong Ye still disagreed with him about not eating meat–He would have no strength at all without meat!
“You should still eat meat! Didn’t you eat fish yesterday?” Xiong Ye asked. Even if Zhou Ji didn’t participate in the hunts and therefore didn’t need to change into an animal form, he should still eat some meat.
“Fish tastes better than dinosaur meat.” Zhou Ji said.
Xiong Ye couldn’t help but envy Zhou Ji when he heard this.
It difficult enough for them to fill their bellies, but Zhou Ji could even afford to be picky about food!
Zhou Ji’s mother had really treated Zhou Ji well.
Xiong Ye was still thinking about it as he picked up the Pentaceratops meat that Zhou Ji had helped him heat up and took a bite.
He had been given approximately twenty kilograms of Pentaceratops meat. He had eaten about ten kilograms of it on the first day, then another five kilograms of it yesterday. Today, there were five kilograms left.
Generally speaking, meat that had just been sitting there for two days wouldn’t be very tasty, but Xiong Ye actually tasted a bit of sweetness when he bit down this time.
The sweet taste swept through his mouth, and Xiong Ye opened his eyes wide in surprise.
“This meat is sweet!” Xiong Ye couldn’t help saying.
“Yes.” Zhou Ji nodded. He had added some honey that he’d stolen from a beehive when he had roasted it… Sure enough, the little bear really liked it.
Xiong Ye was now a little reluctant to eat the meat too quickly, so he went to look at the pot of soup and was rather shocked, “Are those mushrooms in the soup? This kind of thing is poisonous and can’t be eaten!”
“Some mushrooms are poisonous, and some are not. This one isn’t poisonous and can be eaten.” Zhou Ji explained.
Xiong Ye glanced at Zhou Ji, then used his chopsticks to spear a mushroom. He first sniffed at it warily, then licked it, and finally took a small bite…
Zhou Ji added, “I’ve eaten it before. It’s not poisonous.”
After careful study, Xiong Ye also felt that it wasn’t poisonous and stuffed the mushroom into his mouth. He said, “You have to be more careful in the future and not eat this random stuff.”
Zhou Ji made a vague sound of agreement, then watched as Xiong Ye quickly gobbled down the soup and meat he’d cooked for him.
Xiong Ye’s appetite was really good, and Zhou Ji got hungry himself watching him eat. In a while, he would go back to his ‘room’ a bit earlier to make himself something to eat.
Xiong Ye finished eating five kilograms of Pentaceratops meat as well as a big pot of Scelidosaurus mushroom soup and didn’t eat anything else after that. He said to Zhou Ji, “I arranged to go hunting with Hu Yue and Xiong Bai tomorrow. I’m going to sleep first.”
He always used to think that Zhou Ji was really stupid and silly, but now it seemed that this was not the case.
Zhou Ji was actually very smart, he just didn’t like to interact with people–He had never seen Zhou Ji talk to anyone else but him!
“Alright.” Zhou Ji nodded.
Xiong Ye once again slept very well that night.
Zhou Ji, who had added a little bit of juice from the calming plant and tossed some calming grasses into the fire, kept his altruistic acts secret.
He preferred happy and energetic people, so he wanted Xiong Ye to sleep well instead of wallowing in melancholy.
After snacking on something, Zhou Ji, who had spent most of the day sleeping, went back to sleep.
In fact, he wasn’t quite sleeping… He was constantly using his spiritual power to reach for the energy around him and absorb it into his body while he was ‘sleeping’ with his eyes closed.
He would feel a sense of satisfaction after doing so; it was the same feeling as having eaten a full meal.
The next day, Zhou Ji woke up before the sky turned bright.
He yawned, then sat down near the entrance to the cave and grew two vines that struck two stones together to start a fire.
It wasn’t an easy matter to start a fire this way. People in the tribe would generally go to the collective cave where the fire was always burning to roast meat or start their own fires, but it wasn’t a big deal for him to use this method when he added his spiritual strength to speed up the process.
After lighting the fire, he put the meat scraps that Xiong Ye had obtained for him yesterday into the pot to make soup, then cut off a piece of the roasted meat that Xiong Ye had brought back yesterday, rubbing some spices on it before roasting it again.
The beastmen in the Big Bear Tribe were used to eating one meal a day, but Zhou Ji felt that it wasn’t healthy and casually made some breakfast.
When Xiong Ye woke up in the morning, he felt a hundred times more energetic.
He slept very well again last night!
Xiong Ye was a little puzzled by the situation, but he was also very happy. And when he smelled the aroma inside the cave, his heart inexplicably fluttered with elation.
After seeing that Shi Li had really gotten together with Lang Yin, he had thought that he would be very, very sad, but in reality, he hadn’t been sad at all.
He had in fact eaten well and slept deeply these past two days.
“When did you get up?” Xiong Ye looked at Zhou Ji curiously. He hadn’t noticed at all when Zhou Ji woke up!
“I haven’t been up long.” Zhou Ji said, “Were you really tired? You slept very soundly.”
“Probably.” Xiong Ye was a little embarrassed as he clutched at his hair.
Zhou Ji had hardly ever spoken with the people in the tribe before because he wasn’t really able to speak back then. However, he had spoken more with Xiong Ye these past two days, and his words were now more fluent, “Drink some soup. You can eat the roasted meat on the way there.”
“Thank you… But I’ll pass on bringing the roasted meat. The smell of the meat will attract carnivorous dinosaurs.” Xiong Ye said.
When Zhou Ji heard Xiong Ye say that, he suddenly realized that in fact, beastmen weren’t actually at the top of the food chain in this world.
There were all kinds of dinosaurs in this place. Since that was the case, the dinosaurs that were over ten meters long, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Tarbosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and so on would certainly also exist. When compared to those dinosaurs, even humans who could turn into wild animals seemed particularly small….
And he recalled that the largest dinosaurs were thirty or forty meters long.
While Zhou Ji was thinking, Xiong Ye had already finished all the roast meat and meat soup. Xiong Bai also arrived at this time.
“Smells good! Xiong Ye, are you eating roast meat?” Xiong Bai asked.
“Zhou Ji made roast meat and meat soup for me.” Xiong Ye said.
Xiong Bai then looked at Zhou Ji, “You’re pretty well behaved! In the future, be sure to take good care of Xiong Ye while you’re living here at his place!”
Zhou Ji nodded, but it was Xiong Ye who said, “I don’t need to be taken care of.”
Xiong Bai said, “Xiong Ye, he’s living in your cave. Of course he should help you do some work… It’s getting late. Let’s hurry up and go.”
Xiong Ye nodded, but he rinsed out the stone pot before saying, “Let’s go.”
After Xiong Ye and Xiong Bai left, Zhou Ji climbed down from the cave without taking anything with him.
The rain had already stopped today, but there was still no sun. Based on how the sky looked, it might rain again in the afternoon.
Zhou Ji didn’t mind at all and leisurely headed outside.
No one stopped him, but some people watched him with envy.
“Zhou Ji’s luck is so good. He’s actually living with Xiong Ye.”
“Xiong Ye is really generous. He might even share some of his food with him.”
“Not necessarily, right? Xiong Ye has always hated lazy people.”
……
While these people were talking, Yang Su came out of nowhere and spat at Zhou Ji.
Zhou Ji dodged away. This bear child was really a bit annoying. No, this was a sheep child…
Yang Su inexplicably tripped and fell, somehow landing in a heap of dung. He was so disgusted that he threw up.
Zhou Ji went outside of the tribe, and his spiritual powers spread out from his body to observe the situation around him.
The way he walked looked leisurely and slow, but in fact he wasn’t slow at all because he always stepped in the right place with every step he took. Not only was he never tripped by any plants, greenery would even grow under his feet so that he could walk more smoothly.
He ambled his way forward like this, as though taking a relaxing stroll, and his entire person melded completely into the forest.
On the way, he encountered some small dinosaurs about the size of a turkey and also saw some snakes, insects, rodents, frogs, and lizards. He watched them all with gusto but didn’t attack.
These little fellows were all alive, and he just enjoyed seeing them!
Zhou Ji kept going until he reached a huge beehive. And then, he started to… steal honey.
He grew a relatively large stalk of bamboo and broke off a section, then rinsed it clean and turned it into a container before using the newly created slender bamboo tube to steal some honey from the beehive’s honeycomb.
After collecting enough honey to fill up a section of bamboo, he continued on, observing the plants around him to see what could possibly be used while he walked.
Whenever he found something that could be used or eaten, he would bring the plant to maturity and collect its seeds.
His plant powers were rapidly depleted, but his body was replenished by the energy around him.
This was an extremely miraculous place.
While Zhou Ji slowly wandered around, Xiong Ye, Hu Yue, and Xiong Bai came across an elephant bird.
The elephant bird was three meters long, and it was about the same weight as Xiong Ye when he was in his animal form, making it at least four or five hundred kilograms. Its sturdy legs were much thicker than Xiong Ye’s legs when he was human.
Xiong Bai looked at the elephant bird that was several times larger than she was and proposed, “Elephant birds are very strong, and their claws are really sharp. They’re not easy to deal with… Should we find another target?” –This bird was too big, and its claws were so sharp.
But Xiong Ye stared at the elephant bird for a while and said, “I want to catch it!”
Hu Yue was always up for a good fight. When she heard Xiong Ye say this, she also became interested, “I also want to catch it! I want this bird’s fur after we take it down!”
“Sure.” Xiong Ye agreed, then asked, “What do you want the fur for?”
Hu Yue said, “I want to have a child, and I’m preparing things to make a nest for him!”
“Who are you going to have a baby with?” Xiong Ye was curious.
Hu Yue replied, “I haven’t thought about it yet. I’ll wait until the salt team comes back.” Xiong Ye and Shi Li were the two strongest males of the younger generation, but there were some adults in the tribe who were a little more powerful than them–Even if their animal forms were about the same, older people had more experience.
She was referring to those people of the tribe who had gone out to trade for salt.
Hu Yue wasn’t interested in men of the same age as her. If she wanted to find a suitable partner, she could only look for one from the salt team.
The three of them discussed it, then lay in ambush once again.
Their luck was good, and that elephant bird actually entered the scope of their ambush!
Xiong Ye and Xiong Bai pounced on the elephant bird’s back while Hu Yue attacked its neck…
Their attack immediately angered the elephant bird.
The elephant bird flared out its wings and kicked at Xiong Ye with both of its sturdy legs.
Additionally, its thick fur shielded it from Hu Yue’s bite, and she was only able to bite off a few feathers.
The two sides instantly fell into a brawl…
In the end, Xiong Ye and the others indeed won, but they looked like they had been tossed about rather fiercely by the elephant bird.
There was a long cut on Xiong Ye’s belly from the elephant bird’s claw.
“This elephant bird really wasn’t easy to deal with, but it was a good target for us to practice our team work on.” Hu Yue turned back into human form and rubbed her shoulders that had been pecked black and blue by the elephant bird. She felt like she’d learned a lot, “We’ll certainly be able to coordinate better and better in the future!”
“I hadn’t thought about it that much. I just felt that this elephant bird… should be quite tasty.” Xiong Ye turned back into human form and took at look at the wound on his stomach. He slapped some mud on it to stop the bleeding.
Hu Yue, Xiong Bai: “……” When did you start caring about taste?
xiin: so this happened while translating this chapter…
xiin:
[ Elephant bird /Scientific name: Aepyornithidae ]
should i call it Elephant Bird, or Aepyarnithwerlkjdaj ;aj
juurensha:
…lets go with elephant bird
and you can footnote the aepyarnithwekslkdfls