Ch57 – Acting
Zhou Ji felt that the people from this primitive era were really too simple. Any thoughts they had were shown on their face.
As they approached the Little Brook Tribe, some people came out of the tribe to meet them. And when those people saw the goods they were carrying, their eyes gleamed with indescribable greed.
There was something very wrong with these people, yet Xiong Qi, Xiong Ye and the others actually hadn’t noticed anything.
“We’re from the Big Bear Tribe. I’ve been here before, and I’m looking for your tribal chief Bao Cheng.” Xiong Qi spoke up.
The person at the head of the group who had come out was an unshaven, burly man. He glanced at Xiong Qi and laughed gleefully, “Big Bear Tribe? Come with me.”
Xiong Qi was about to lead everyone inside, but Zhou Ji frowned and said, “We’ve already arrived. Isn’t the Little Brook Tribe’s tribal chief going to come out to greet us?”
Xiong Qi froze when he heard these words. He was somewhat unable to gather his wits together as he turned around to see Zhou Ji standing at the back of the team, his brows furrowed in an unhappy expression… What was Zhou Ji doing?
Xiong Ye was equally puzzled. Zhou Ji didn’t concern himself with anything and was very gentle and moderate. He had never shown an expression like this before. Was something wrong?
Xiong Qi was about to ask about it on the spot, but Zhou Ji abruptly spoke up again and forced Xiong Qi to stuff his words back down his throat.
Zhou Ji’s tone carried traces of discontent, “Are the people of the Little Brook Tribe… really so impolite?”
Xiong Qi and the rest of the people from the salt team were all bewildered. Polite?
As for the man standing opposite to them, his expression turned solemn as he looked towards Zhou Ji.
He had already planned to take all their goods as soon as he saw Zhou Ji and their team. He was even more determined after learning that Zhou Ji and the others were from the Big Bear Tribe.
They were people from the Giant Tiger Tribe.
The Giant Tiger Tribe was a large tribe of over two thousand people. After their population had reached a thousand, they could no longer support so many people in the tribe due to lack of food, so they had been faced with two options.
One way was to split up the tribe and send a group of people out to another place to live. The other way was for the entire tribe to migrate together.
They had chosen the latter option.
At first, they had only wanted to find a place with enough food so that the tribe could thrive, but it was difficult to find a place that could accommodate a tribe of over a thousand people––they had so many people that they would end up hunting and eating all the prey in the surrounding area within a few months no matter where they went.
They had no choice but to continue migrating, and many of their elderly and weak had died as they wandered.
And it was at that time that they inadvertently entered another tribe’s territory.
The people of that tribe had tried to drive them away, which incited them to the point where they had directly destroyed that tribe.
A year later, when there was no longer enough prey left to hunt in that tribe’s territory, they left that tribe and decided to move everyone to the next tribe.
They continuously invaded other tribes and repeated the same actions, eventually making it here.
They wouldn’t kill all the people of every tribe they attacked. When they encountered strong people, they would keep them alive and ask them to join their tribe. Of course, there were those who were unwilling to submit, and they also wouldn’t be merciful when they killed them.
After so many years of this, they now had over two thousand people in their tribe!
Just before the previous winter, the Giant Tiger Tribe who once again didn’t have enough to eat attacked the Green Hill Tribe and took it over.
They obtained a lot from the Green Hill Tribe, including the salt trade routes and a lot of salt. If they were willing to, they could have used salt to trade for a lot of things from the surrounding tribes.
However, the demand for salt from the tribes in the area was limited, and it wouldn’t be enough for them to feed two thousand people no matter how much they traded, so they never intended to do this kind of business at all.
They only wanted to bring down all the other tribes around the Green Hill Tribe.
The Green Hill Tribe was located in an area with lush vegetation and lots of prey. There were also many tribes around them that they could invade, so they felt that they could live well here for a good many years.
The Giant Tiger Tribe was already accustomed to using aggression to get what they wanted, so when the salt team from the Big Bear Tribe had come last time, they had attacked without thinking twice. However, they hadn’t been well prepared, and the majority of the people from the Big Bear Tribe had managed to get away.
However, that didn’t matter. They would bring down the Big Bear Tribe sooner or later. Of course, the Big Bear Tribe was a little far, so they had chosen to first take over the Little Brook Tribe that was near the Green Hill Tribe instead.
It was rumored that the Big Bear Tribe had several hundred people, and the area they occupied had plenty of prey. The people of the Giant Tiger Tribe were planning to wait until the coming winter before attacking the Big Bear Tribe.
They had already learned about the Big Bear Tribe from the people of the Green Hill Tribe––the majority of the Big Bear Tribe’s warriors were bears. And bears… weren’t very effective during the winter!
The Big Bear Tribe didn’t know anything about the Giant Tiger Tribe, but the Giant Tiger Tribe already had some knowledge of the Big Bear Tribe. And the person leading this group of people to face them was one of the people who knew about the Big Bear Tribe.
However, now when he saw Zhou Ji arrogantly accuse them of being impolite, he suddenly felt that… things didn’t seem to be the same as what he had expected.
This person’s name was Hu Tiao. He had originally been dissatisfied with Zhou Ji, but after seeing Zhou Ji’s appearance, his heartbeat began to speed up in agitation.
The Big Bear Tribe wasn’t close to their tribe, and it must have taken them many days to arrive. It had rained a few days ago, but the people in this team were very clean, and this person who had spoken up was even cleaner than their own tribal chief.
And the clothes this person was wearing weren’t made out of animal hides… No, not only was this person wearing this kind of clothing, the person next to him was dressed like that too.
Their Giant Tiger Tribe had invaded many tribes, and so their thoughts were a little more complex. They understood that there were other large tribes outside the wild forest, and it was rumored that the people there didn’t wear clothing made from animal hides… That clothing seemed to be similar to what the person in front of him was wearing?
At the time, their tribal chief had also obtained a set of clothing from the people of that other tribe. It wasn’t as nice as the one in front of him, but their tribal chief treated it like a treasure and would only wear it on important occasions like the Beast God Sacrifice.
The clothing worn by these two people, if he could obtain it and give it to the tribal chief…
“What are you staring at?” Zhou Ji sneered, then walked up to the front––Xiong Ye had needed to put on his clothing after changing back into his human form, which was why they had been at the back.
Hu Tiao was a little irritated by Zhou Ji’s attitude, but at the same time, he no longer dared to look down on Zhou Ji.
The people of the Green Hill Tribe had said that the Big Bear Tribe was nothing but an ordinary tribe, but how could an ordinary tribe have such clothing? How could their attitude be superior to that of their own chief?
Nevertheless, they would capture them first and talk about it later.
Hu Tiao said, “Our tribal chief isn’t here right now. Why don’t you come in first?” It was too easy for people to run away if they tried to catch them outside. If he could bring them into the tribe, they would be unable to run away.
“I don’t want to step into that kind of dirty place. It would dirty my shoes.” Zhou Ji said. He had just made himself a pair of shoes, which hadn’t changed color yet and was still as white as snow.
Hu Tiao was even more shocked when he saw his shoes.
“Xiong Ye, set up a clean place for me to rest.” Zhou Ji ignored Hu Tiao and spoke to Xiong Ye.
Xiong Ye had also realized that something was off about Hu Tiao and the others, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he swiftly took out some of their animal hides and laid them out on the ground before setting up a chair for Zhou Ji to sit on.
They had obtained too many animal hides recently, and they weren’t rare at all.
As for the chair… This was something Zhou Ji had asked him to make. Niu Er carried it when they traveled, and he would bring it out for Zhou Ji to sit on when they set up camp. It could also act as a support for sleeping when they slept out in the wild.
However, Hu Tiao didn’t know all this. He only saw that these people were using animal hides to cover the ground, wore shoes, and didn’t look common at all––even their tribal chief didn’t wear shoes like that, and none of them owned any shoes like that.
“What are you all carrying so much stuff for? Just put it down here and have them move it after trading for salt.” Zhou Ji instructed.
He had already used his spiritual powers to scan through the tribe. There were over a hundred people in this tribe, three of whom were as powerful as Xiong Qi and Xiong Ye. The others were pretty powerful as well.
The salt team only had fifty people.
If they turned around and tried to escape at this time, some of them would be able to get away, but it wasn’t likely that everyone would be able to escape. Of course, if he revealed his strength, he could leave everyone in front of him unscathed, and the salt team should be able to get away.
However, they didn’t know if there was another powerhouse like his body’s original host’s father behind this tribe.
Additionally, he also wanted to probe for information…
Zhou Ji used his spiritual powers to observe the situation in the tribe and obtain more information. At the same time, he used his powers to secretly cut the rope that tied their arthropleura shells and animal hides into a bundle on Niu Er’s back.
These things held up fine under the rain, so they had only been tied up with rope instead of wrapped up in animal hide. After he cut the rope, everything toppled and clattered all over the ground.
Hu Tiao was really shocked this time.
What was he looking at?
Arthropleura shells, dinosaur scales, giant alligator skins… Those were all from prey that even their Giant Tiger Tribe didn’t dare lightly provoke!
How could the Big Bear Tribe have obtained so much of it?
The Big Bear Tribe hadn’t brought these kinds of things when they came to trade for salt before!
Was the Big Bear Tribe actually much stronger than they knew?
“I heard that you guys don’t have much salt left, but these things should be enough to trade for some? If not, there are other things.” Zhou Ji sat on his chair and spoke in a tone full of complaints, “How troublesome. Finding a few people to handle this kind of small matter would have been enough, but father actually made me come…”
Xiong Qi and others were all staring blankly––what exactly had Zhou Ji just said? His father… should be the man who had taken Shi Li away, right? Hadn’t that person run off already?
Zhou Ji was still using his spiritual powers to observe the situation within the Little Brook Tribe, but Hu Tiao also wanted to inquire about the Big Bear Tribe’s situation… Hu Tiao asked, “What else do you have?”
“Earth eggs.” Zhou Ji replied and gestured for Xiong Qi to take out the earth eggs.
Xiong Qi did so, bringing out the large earth eggs that the priest had picked out to trade––since they had come out to trade for salt, they should bring some good things with them.
Hu Tiao was shocked again.
The Giant Tiger Tribe also ate earth eggs, but he had never seen such large earth eggs before.
Where had the Big Bear Tribe gotten them from?
Could it be that the Big Bear Tribe was actually very rich in resources?
“Are you here to trade for salt?” Hu Tiao asked.
“We aren’t here only for salt. My father told me to take a look at the Green Hill Tribe’s situation. That Giant Tiger Tribe or something killed our tribespeople, and my father wants to destroy them.” Zhou Ji’s expression was at ease as he spoke, acting as though wiping out the Giant Tiger Tribe was just a small, passing matter.
His spiritual power had already spread out to cover the entire tribe, and he could hear the conversations of the people inside. After they had arrived, the people of this tribe had begun to discuss various things, bringing up the matter of wiping out the Big Bear Tribe.
So, Zhou Ji had also brought up the matter of destroying the Giant Tiger Tribe in order to give these people a scare first.
Hu Tiao’s expression darkened as soon as he heard these words.
Xiong Qi was startled, then shocked and delighted as he asked “Really?” Zhou Ji’s father really wanted to destroy the Giant Tiger Tribe? How great was that!
Zhou Ji: “……” He was casually trying to deceive some people, but his own people had fallen for it first…