Ch38 – Xiong Mao
Zhou Ji hadn’t had a chance to see anyone awaken ever since he had transmigrated into this tribe, but he had observed the people in the tribe and had asked Xiong Ye some questions about things related to the awakening, so he had some thoughts and speculations on how the tribespeople awakened.
What kind of animal form the people of the tribe awakened as was related to the individual’s physical fitness. Generally speaking, those who were in better shape would awaken a more powerful animal form. As for exactly what they would awaken as, that was uncertain.
It was precisely because of this that Zhou Ji could awaken as a mammoth even though he had clearly been a fool.
As for how to improve their physical fitness… Their parents’ physical condition as well as the child’s own diet and exercise as they grew up would all have an effect on their physical fitness.
Take Xiong Ye as an example. Xiong Ye’s father, Xiong Zheng, had been the previous tribal chief. He was very powerful, and his mother, Xing Shu, had awakened as a large orangutan, and she hadn’t been weak, either.
He had grown up in good health since childhood and liked to scavenge and hunt for food everywhere. He had taken very good care of his body, and so he naturally awakened a very powerful animal form when the time came.
On the contrary, some children in the tribe were born very weak, and they weren’t well cared for, so their awakened animal form may also end up very weak.
Just like this younger brother of Xiong Ye’s… Zhou Ji could see that this child was very small and thin, and he would most likely be unable to awaken a powerful animal form.
Zhou Ji had thought through many things, but Mao was cluelessly still eating meat. As for Xiong Ye, he was explaining Mao’s situation to Zhou Ji, “Mao and I have the same mother. He’s ten years old this year, and he currently lives in the collective cave.”
Xiong Ye’s father had already passed away, but his mother Xing Shu was still alive.
He was Xing Shu’s eldest child. When Xing Shu had just reached adulthood, she had been like many women in the tribe and had been focused on finding a strong man to have a baby with, so she had gotten together with Xiong Zheng, who had been the tribal chief back then, and given birth to Xiong Ye.
After Xiong Ye was born, Xing Shu and Xiong Zheng had separated, and she had concentrated on raising Xiong Ye. A few years later, she had a second child with a very attractive man.
Xing Shu and that man had a total of three children together, two of whom had survived up until now. Mao was the younger of the two children.
Six years ago, that man and Xing Shu had separated. Xing Shu had found a third partner to have children with and had yet another child. Currently, Xing Shu was living with her third partner as they raised their young daughter together.
Xiong Ye wasn’t close to Xing Shu, and he also wasn’t familiar with Xing Shu’s other children, which was quite a common occurrence within the tribe. However, even if they weren’t close, they were still connected by blood, and their relationship was a little different than just pure strangers.
For example, Xiong Ye wouldn’t normally give Xing Shu a share of the prey he caught for himself, but if Xing Shu grew old and didn’t have enough food to eat, Xiong Ye would definitely do what he could to give her some meat to eat.
This was something that the people of the tribe usually did for their elders.
Zhou Ji listened as Xiong Ye finished explaining about Xing Shu, then said, “In the future, you can introduce your mother to me so that we can get to know each other.”
“Alright.” Xiong Ye smiled as he spoke. In fact, people in the tribe all generally knew each other. Zhou Ji was the only weird one who probably didn’t even know who Xiong Ye’s mother was.
Zhou Ji indeed didn’t know who Xiong Ye’s mother was. After all, he hadn’t concerned himself with the affairs of people in the tribe before. As for recently… Xiong Ye hadn’t been in contact with his mother, either.
While the two of them were talking, Mao had already finished all the meat that Xiong Ye had given him along with the meat he had originally had.
“He ate a lot.” Zhou Ji pointed out.
Xiong Ye frowned at Mao and suddenly said, “He may be about to awaken.”
After saying so, Xiong Ye looked at Mao, “Do you still want to eat?”
Mao didn’t hesitate at all before he nodded, “I’m still a little hungry.”
“He should be about to awaken. I’ll take you to get something to eat.” Xiong Ye looked at Zhou Ji, “The priest said that we should feed children who are about to awaken more food. I’m going to take him to eat more meat. You…”
“I’ll go, too.” Zhou Ji said.
Zhou Ji followed Xiong Ye to the place where everyone was roasting and eating meat. He discovered that the priest was also there along with five other children who were about the same age as Mao. They were also frantically devouring their food.
“Mao is about to awaken too?” The priest saw them and immediately guessed why they had come. He smiled as he said, “There are many children who are awakening after the Beast God Sacrifice this year! There are six, or maybe even more… The Beast God must be watching over us.”
During the winter before the Beast God Sacrifice, none of the children had awakened due to a lack of food. However, they would eat pretty well before the Beast God Sacrifice, and could then eat as much as they liked on the day of the Beast God Sacrifice, so there would be children who awakened during this period every year. In the past, three or four children would awaken during this time.
Counting Mao, there were a total of six children who were about to awaken. All of them were eating furiously, and as they continued to eat, the most robust boy amongst them abruptly collapsed to the ground.
Everyone looked over at him expectantly, and then, while everyone watched on, he suddenly transformed into a black bear.
Many people in the tribe had awakened as black bears. This was considered a pretty good animal form!
Although this child was already ten years old, he still lived with his parents. At this time, his mother came up to hug the little black bear on the ground, “This child’s animal form is the same as mine, how wonderful!”
The little black bear nudged his mother affectionately.
The remaining five children looked on enviously at their mother-child interaction. Soon after, one of the girls awakened and turned into a wolf.
Only, while Lang Yin was a beautiful white wolf, this girl had awakened as a very common yellow wolf.
Of course, if they were to talk about combat effectiveness… If she was willing to train hard in the future, she might not be any weaker than Lang Yin.
For basic animals, it would be difficult for them to break through their limits no matter how much their strength improved. However, they weren’t mere animals–they were also human.
They could use their wisdom to increase their combat ability.
The beastmen’s animal forms had much higher combat power than the animals in Zhou Ji’s memory. When a group of different animals gathered together, the strength they could put into play wasn’t as simple as one plus one equalling two.
Unfortunately, the strength of those dinosaurs also couldn’t be underestimated, so survival was still difficult for the beastmen.
After that, another child awakened.
The child who had awakened this time was very thin and weak, and he turned into a squirrel.
The little squirrel crouched on the ground and looked very dismayed, but the priest picked him up, “Your animal form is very good. You can help everyone by scouting.”
The little squirrel visibly cheered up and nudged against the priest’s palm.
Mao soon also showed signs of awakening.
Zhou Ji had observed the first couple of awakened children and discovered that the animal form they awakened as was related to their own physical fitness as well as the amount of energy they had in their body.
After all, their crystal cores were made out of energy.
Of course, people who were fit and in good health would generally have plenty of energy in their bodies.
Mao’s physical state was very mediocre, and there wasn’t much energy in his body… Although he hadn’t known that this child was Xiong Ye’s brother until today, he had paid some attention to him when he was idle and knew that he was a rather shy and introverted child.
A child like that wouldn’t run around everywhere or spend all day thinking about food.
Since that was the case, the animal form he awakened probably wouldn’t be very satisfactory.
“I want to awaken as a bear just like my elder brother.” Mao whispered to himself as he fell to the ground.
Zhou Ji heard him and sent a little energy into his body.
He hadn’t finished condensing all the energy in his body yet, and it wouldn’t affect him if he released a bit of it. There was no hope that the child would be able to awaken as a bear on his own, but he could give him a little help.
He also quite liked bears.
A child’s awakening was a big event, and almost everyone in the tribe was paying close attention to the events taking place here. Shi Li was no exception.
Shi Li had heard Mao’s words as well, and he internally sneered.
Mao would awaken as a sheep. A sheep with a coat of very long hair.
He still had an impression of this child. He had wanted to awaken as a bear, but he had ultimately awakened as a sheep just like Yang Su. He heard from others that Mao didn’t like sheep, and had cried for a long time because of this, but it had already happened, and he had no other choice!
When people awakened, some of their own thoughts would also influence the process. For example, there was a chance that they would awaken as the animal they wanted to awaken as the most, or perhaps… they would awaken as the form they hated the most.
After all, the latter was something they often thought about in their hearts as well, right?
There was discontent between Yang Mao and Yang Su, so he didn’t like sheep, but he just so happened to awaken as a sheep anyway. It had been the same for Yang Su, who had his heart set on awakening as a lion just like Shi Li but had ultimately still become a sheep.
Shi Li ate another bite of meat as he thought.
And then, he saw the Yang Mao that he still had an impression of in his memories, turn into a fuzzy white ball on the ground.
No, it couldn’t be called a fuzzy white ball. There was also black fur on this ball!
This was… a panda?
Pandas were a type of bear, but they were very rare. In short, they had never appeared before in the Big Bear Tribe.
However, Shi Li had seen them before.
Adult pandas could weigh up to one hundred and fifty kilograms, and while their fighting power was certainly incomparable to Xiong Ye who had awakened as a brown bear, it was similar to that of a black bear–an adult black bear would also weigh around one hundred and fifty kilos.
Yang Mao should awaken as a sheep. How could he have awakened as a panda?
“What is this?” The priest looked worriedly at the animal on the ground. When beastmen awakened, they would be named after the animal form they had taken on. But the priest had never seen an animal like the one on the ground before…
It appeared very cute. Perhaps it was a cat? In that case, they should call him Mao Mao…
The priest had encountered many animals he didn’t recognize during his lifetime. He would then arrange for them to be named according to a species he knew about.
Speaking of which, he had never seen a lion before Shi Li had arrived at the tribe. At that time, if someone had awakened as a lion, he might actually have been regarded as a dog, and Shi Li would then have been named Gou Li.
Thoughts churned in the priest’s head. Zhou Ji glanced at Mao, who was still on the ground, and raised his brows, “Panda?”
This animal was the panda that was considered as their national treasure…
He had helped Mao a little and made it so that Mao’s body had a little more energy, but Mao hadn’t been able to absorb much of it. Finally, the amount of energy in his body ended up being similar to that of the child who had awakened as a black bear.
And then, he had awakened as a panda.
For the sake of participating in the Beast God Sacrifice, Mao had cleaned himself very thoroughly. This panda was also very clean, and it looked especially pleasing to the eye.
“This looks a bit like a bear, so it should be a bear. In the future, you will be called Xiong Mao!” The priest heard Zhou Ji call Mao ‘Xiong Mao’ and felt like Mao’s awakened animal form looked a bit like a bear, so he immediately categorized him as a bear.
Hadn’t Mao always wanted to awaken as a bear? It wasn’t a big deal to go along with the child’s wishes!
xiin: don’t forget to read/check the footnotes for this chapter with the names… there’s lots of puns that are based around chinese animal words that don’t translate properly into english!
Juurensha: This is so cute. Also I love that ZJ is like, I also like bears, let’s have more bears around here.