Ch60 – Barley
The distance between the Little Brook Tribe and the Green Hill Tribe was smaller than the distance between the Big Bear Tribe and the Green Hill Tribe, but it still required a few days to complete the journey.
Xiong Ye understood this. He knew that it was impossible to hide from the people of the Giant Tiger Tribe, who were occupying the Green Hill Tribe’s territory, forever, but because it would still take them a few days to journey over, the time they were taking to rest right now didn’t matter much in the long run. This was why he had proposed bathing. As for catching fish… He felt a little uncomfortable seeing all those fish swimming in front of him without trying to catch them.
Only, catching fish in his human form was a little troublesome… Xiong Ye turned back into a brown bear and soon caught several fish.
The reason why the Little Brook Tribe was called the Little Brook Tribe was because their tribe was situated next to a brook. Many small fish swam here and there in the water.
The people of the Little Brook Tribe would also catch fish to eat, but most of them weren’t good at fishing. They couldn’t help but admire Xiong Ye when they saw him catch so many fish so easily.
As for Xiong Qi… Xiong Qi had come back to his senses by now and started praising him again, “Xiong Ye, the speed at which you catch fish is so fast! And you were so impressive just now! That Hu Tiao said he was going to kill you, but you ended up slapping him to death in one hit!”
Before, Xiong Qi had thought that releasing the people of the Little Brook Tribe was already enough. He hadn’t thought that Xiong Ye would actually come up with the idea of ambushing the people of the Giant Tiger Tribe and even manage to successfully take them all down in one fell swoop.
He had suffered some minor wounds in the battle earlier, but his heart felt indescribably refreshed. His lingering depression from the Giant Tiger Tribe’s unprovoked attack last time, when he had led the team to trade for salt, had also dissipated.
“Very impressive indeed.” Bao Cheng wanted to build a good relationship with Xiong Ye, so he immediately echoed Xiong Qi and complimented him as well. He even pointed to a woman and said, “Xiong Ye, this is the most beautiful woman in our tribe. She can serve you well!”
The woman that Bao Cheng was pointing to was truly very beautiful. Even though she had suffered some hardships when the Giant Tiger Tribe had taken over the Little Brook Tribe, she was still very attractive. She was standing naked in the brook, and at this moment, she straightened her chest, resulting in many of the men present being unable to move their eyes away.
However, nobody dared to try anything. This woman’s animal form was also a leopard. Earlier when they had fought with the Giant Tiger Tribe, she had been the first to rush out, biting one of them to death before they even had time to transform into their animal forms.
At the moment, she still had a wound on her chest that had been left behind from the previous battle.
“No need.” Xiong Ye said.
“Xiong Ye already has a mate.” Xiong Qi spoke up.
“Mate?” Bao Cheng was puzzled.
“Xiong Ye and Zhou Ji have formed a mated pair with the Beast God as witness. They will be together forever.” Xiong Qi explained.
“There is such a thing?” Bao Cheng was in a daze.
“Is there nothing like that in your tribe?” Xiong Qi asked.
The Little Brook Tribe really didn’t have anything like that in their tribe. They didn’t even have a priest.
Xiong Qi chatted with them and suddenly felt a sense of superiority.
And there was no doubt that the Little Brook Tribe didn’t understand the concept of mates, because the woman who Bao Cheng had pointed out then asked, “I don’t want to become your mate. I just want to have a baby with you. Can’t I?”
“No. I already have a mate.” Xiong Ye unhesitatingly refused.
The woman’s name was Bao Yu. Seeing that Xiong Ye had refused, she could only say helplessly, “Alright… Your mate must be a very beautiful woman.”
Xiong Ye soon showed up in front of them.
“Zhou Ji, I caught you some fish.” Xiong Ye said.
“How come you were gone for so long?” Zhou Ji asked.
“We did some things…” Xiong Ye was a little proud.
“Zhou Ji, Xiong Ye led us to kill everyone from the Giant Tiger Tribe… Xiong Ye was truly extremely amazing!” Xiong Qi spoke for him.
Xiong Ye, who had originally wanted to tell Zhou Ji about his achievements himself, “……”
“You guys are also people from the Big Bear Tribe?” Bao Cheng asked.
“Yes.” Zhou Ji looked at Bao Cheng and his group.
The people that Xiong Ye had taken with him from the salt team were all quite powerful fighters. Although many of them now had wounds on their bodies, they weren’t severe. On the other hand, these people from the Little Brook Tribe all had new injuries on top of their old ones, and they were all quite heavily injured. Amongst them, there were a few who were already on the verge of death.
They were already like that, but these people still went to take a bath… Weren’t they worried that their wounds would become infected?
“We really have to thank you this time. If it weren’t for you guys, perhaps nobody from the Little Brook Tribe would have been able to live on.” Bao Cheng said.
“This is something Xiong Ye did. It’s enough for you to thank Xiong Ye.” Zhou Ji said, then suggested, “You guys should treat your wounds.”
“Treat?” The people of the Little Brook Tribe didn’t understand.
“These are healing herbs. You can apply them to your wounds.”
“Healing herbs?” The people of the Little Brook Tribe were even more confused.
Zhou Ji suddenly realized that this tribe was even more primitive than the Big Bear Tribe. Speaking of which, if the Big Bear Tribe hadn’t had picked up a priest for free so many years ago, their lives would definitely be worse off than they were now.
Although the old priest didn’t know very much, he was already considered very knowledgeable in this place.
Zhou Ji brought out some herbs and told the people of the Little Brook Tribe chew them up before applying them to their wounds. He also took out a pot and boiled some herbs together, telling the injured to each drink one bowl.
The things he cooked looked a bit like poison, but the people of the Little Brook Tribe believed in the Big Bear Tribe and weren’t suspicious at all. They accepted the medicine and drank it all down.
Of course, it was inevitable that they would all have frowns on their faces from the bitter taste.
While Zhou Ji was boiling medicine, he also poured out some oil and began to fry up the fish to make fish soup.
At this kind of time, it was quite appropriate to boil some fish soup for everyone to have a bowl and warm themselves up.
“I caught them for you. You should eat more.” Xiong Ye picked out the largest fish and gave it to Zhou Ji.
Xiong Ye’s attitude towards Zhou Ji was incredibly attentive. Seeing this, Bao Cheng went to ask Xiong Qi curiously, “Is this Zhou Ji a very strong person in your tribe?”
At the same time, Bao Yu who was currently drinking fish soup suddenly spoke up, “I’ve never had such delicious fish before. You’re also very attractive… I want to have a baby with you.”
The people of the Little Brook Tribe were committed to establishing a good relationship with the Big Bear Tribe, and Bao Yu was very focused on her task. Since it wasn’t possible to have a child with Xiong Ye, she immediately went for Zhou Ji, who appeared to be even more powerful than Xiong Ye.
“……” Xiong Ye looked expressionlessly at Bao Yu, “This is my mate.”
Bao Yu was dumbfounded.
The people of the Little Brook Tribe, who were a little more primitive than the Big Bear Tribe, were only focused on breeding and creating offspring. They truly couldn’t understand the concept of two men getting together.
Two men could be together? Why would they be together when they couldn’t have any children?
Zhou Ji looked at their expressions and couldn’t help but want to laugh.
The people in this place were all struggling for enough food and warmth for sheer survival. They didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, so they definitely wouldn’t consider emotional matters. Compared to everyone else, Xiong Ye was definitely the oddball here.
But, he liked this kind of oddball.
After eating the fish soup and some other things, Zhou Ji pointed out a few of the injured and had others carry them along the way. Everyone set out again.
They needed to hurry back to the Big Bear Tribe.
There were wounded in their group, and they couldn’t move very fast. This was compounded by the fact that Zhou Ji still wanted to talk to Xiong Ye, so he chose not to ride on the bear and walked together with Xiong Ye in human form instead.
Xiong Ye liked carrying Zhou Ji, and also liked talking to Zhou Ji. As they walked, he told him about all the things he had encountered. He also wondered out loud, “That Giant Tiger Tribe actually wants to attack us! Why would they want to do that?”
“It should be for the sake of stealing food.” Zhou Ji said.
“Then why don’t they go hunting? Why do they attack other tribes instead” Xiong Ye continued to ask.
“Attacking other tribes should have other benefits aside from obtaining food.” Zhou Ji explained. Although the Big Bear Tribe and the Little Brook Tribe hadn’t evolved towards a slave society because they hadn’t even developed farming, perhaps a tribe like the Giant Tiger Tribe had already begun to raise slaves.
Otherwise, it didn’t make sense for them to have kept the people of the Little Brook Tribe alive.
Zhou Ji had been too lazy to talk to the people of the tribe about these things before.
Firstly, he hadn’t known much about the tribes outside at the time and felt that the people in the tribe didn’t need to know so much. Secondly… He hadn’t interacted much with the people of the tribe back then.
However, he was now becoming more and more interlinked with the Big Bear Tribe.
“Zhou Ji, how did you know that they were people from the Giant Tiger Tribe?” Xiong Ye asked.
“I just knew.” Zhou Ji laughed, “It was quite obvious from their expressions.”
Zhou Ji explained his own analysis briefly.
Xiong Ye remembered it all in his heart and couldn’t help but say, “Zhou Ji, you’re so smart!”
Zhou Ji said, “Isn’t it because I received the blessing of the Beast God?”
He didn’t believe in the Beast God at all, but he was always pulling the name of the Beast God out to fool others… Zhou Ji felt a bit of sympathy for that supposed Beast God.
After journeying for a day, they found a place to settle down for the night.
The people of the Little Brook Tribe were already extremely tired. When they arrived, some of them immediately lay down and went to sleep. On the other hand, the people of the Big Bear Tribe were using sticks and dinosaur leather to create tents for themselves.
Some pieces of dinosaur leather were large enough to become a tent on their own. It was even waterproof that way, how useful!
The people of the Little Brook Tribe were very envious as they looked on––the Big Bear Tribe seemed to be very powerful. Although they also knew how to dig a hole in the ground and then cover it on top to build a makeshift shed, their lives weren’t so good when they traveled outside their tribe.
Zhou Ji wasn’t tired, so he roasted meat for Xiong Ye and even took out some honey to make a bowl of honey water for Xiong Ye to drink.
Xiong Ye was delighted as he drank it down, suddenly thinking of something as he drank, “Zhou Ji, I have something to give you!”
He had obtained a bag of seeds from the Little Brook Tribe. He had originally wanted to give it to Zhou Ji as soon as he saw him, but he had also caught some fish at the time and had completely forgotten about it.
Xiong Ye opened up that leather bag and said, “Zhou Ji, I heard that this is edible. See if you like it or not.”
Zhou Ji hadn’t paid any attention to the small leather bag that Xiong Ye and the others had been carrying with them before. He only looked at it now that Xiong Ye had opened it up, and a glance left him startled.
This leather bag actually contained barley!
Zhou Ji was still feeling surprised when he heard Bao Cheng say in a rather embarrassed tone, “Although these seeds can be eaten, they’re not very tasty. They’re very hard to chew, and people will feel uncomfortable if they eat too much.”
Did that mean that these people had been chewing it directly?!