Ch93.1 – Giant Salamander
Ma Xiao listened to these people’s curses, and his smile had already frozen on his face.
Their Giant Tiger Tribe was so powerful, but they were still being cursed like this by these people…
He would definitely kill all these people!
However, he only thought that in his heart. On the surface, he still needed to keep a conversation flowing with these people.
Xiong Ye was lying on the hay, finding this scene a little hilarious as he watched it.
He didn’t interrupt, and most of the people of the tribe didn’t interrupt either. In order to avoid being exposed, some of the people present didn’t even know that Ma Xiao was from the Giant Tiger Tribe–the priest had only told them that they couldn’t let anyone else know that the Big Bear Tribe was doing well.
They also didn’t want other people to know that the Big Bear Tribe had become rich in resources.
The cold winter with its shortage of food was coming soon. Many tribes had a very difficult time making it through the winter; if these people learned that the Big Bear Tribe had an abundance of resources, they might run over to join the Big Bear Tribe and try to get their share of food!
They didn’t want to have to share their food!
So, these people remained silent as they listened to the priest and the others curse the Giant Tiger Tribe.
After a period of cursing, it was time for dinner. Xiong He began to distribute food for the meal.
He had specifically had someone pull out all the smallest earth eggs, and what was distributed was precisely that. Additionally, they also distributed some of the plants they had gathered.
“Our tribe goes hunting every other day. Today wasn’t a hunting day, so…” Xiong He gave Ma Xiao an embarrassed look, then gave him some earth eggs that had already gone bad from being left for too long along with a piece of rotting salted meat.
This salted meat came from his stores.
Before, when the tribe was short on salt, he had tried to cure meat with less salt. That meat had gone bad, but he had originally planned to eat it anyway even if it had spoiled. However, Zhou Ji had then come up with the method to make smoked meat, and then tribe had picked up a lot of meat and were no longer short on meat…
He had placed that piece of bad meat in the sun to dry it out, then hung it in the firewood shed, intending to save it for food in the future–the smell of this salted meat was really unappealing, and he couldn’t stand smelling it at home.
Once he set it aside, he had completely forgotten about it and only remembered it now.
The corner of Ma Xiao’s lips twitched violently when he received this piece of rotting cured meat. He hadn’t eaten such stuff in many years!
However, he was now acting as a helpless, unfortunate person who had come out to trade for salt and had had his goods stolen… Ma Xiao could only grit his teeth and choke it down.
For a moment, he even wondered if the Big Bear Tribe had seen him coming and was deliberately playing around with him, but he soon dispelled his doubts.
This was because he saw that Zhou Ji had brought over a big basket of grass for Xiong Ye to eat.
Xiong Ye was said to be the most powerful warrior of the tribe, but he could only eat grass…
Some of this grass were things he had never seen, but there were other types that he recognized and had even eaten before… In any case, they all tasted bad and didn’t look appetizing, either.
From Xiong Ye’s expression, it was clear that he certainly didn’t like to eat these things, but ate them anyway…
The Big Bear Tribe must be a very poor tribe.
Of course, in general, the poorer the tribe, the more they liked to store food for winter. However based on the Big Bear Tribe’s current situation… The food that they had stored up couldn’t consist entirely of rotting cured meat, right?
Ma Xiao felt a little disgusted.
He was thinking that just as Xiong Ye looked over and smiled at him.
Ma Xiao returned his smile and watched as Xiong Ye went back to eating grass again.
Xiong Ye felt quite depressed as he ate. After all, the taste of this grass was really bad, but it contained energy that could make him stronger… He ate it seriously, and as he ate, he suddenly thought of something, “Zhou Ji, do you want to eat some?” As he spoke, he took out a relatively better tasting plant and pushed it toward Zhou Ji’s mouth.
“It’s pointless for me to eat it.” Zhou Ji took out some other plants–these were much tastier than the ones Xiong Ye was eating.
Xiong Ye didn’t realize that they tasted different. Seeing that Zhou Ji was leaving the energy abundant grass for him, he was a little moved–Zhou Ji was too good to him!
Yet, how did Zhou Ji know that these grasses held energy? Did the Beast God tell him?
Xiong Ye puzzled over this for a while, but then he let it go.
He had discovered that Zhou Ji was fond of all kinds of plants and was very good at distinguishing between them. It should be a skill given to him by the Beast God.
Xiong Ye slowly went through his basket of grass as he ruminated over this, earning him admiring gazes from Xiong He and the priest.
The priest and Xiong He: Xiong Ye was really trying so hard！He was even eating grass so that the people of the Giant Tiger Tribe would think they were weak! And he was eating it all raw!
It hadn’t been early when Ma Xiao came to the Big Bear Tribe, and so after everyone had eaten, it was already dark.
Ma Xiao’s group of three was arranged to live in the cave that Zhu Zhan and his men had lived in before. As for Zhu Zhan and the others… They weren’t allowed to return to the tribe today because they looked too healthy and strong, and had instead been temporarily sent to live in the place where pottery was fired.
The priest had also given them the task of going out on patrol at night. They had to make sure that the people of the Giant Tiger Tribe didn’t discover the place where they were raising dinosaurs and farming crops.
If they appeared very rich, the Giant Tiger Tribe might attack them due to greed, but they might also choose not to attack them out of fear.
However, if they appeared very weak, the people of the Giant Tiger Tribe would definitely come, and they wouldn’t even take them seriously!
Therefore, Zhu Zhan had to take people with him and keep watch throughout the night.
Xiong Ye and Zhou Ji didn’t need to do anything else. After eating ‘grass’, they returned to their own home. Knowing that Xiong Ye definitely hadn’t had enough to eat, Zhou Ji dug up a large piece of smoked meat and cooked it for him to eat.
Xiong Ye was injured, and his body was recovering. It wasn’t good for him to eat too little.
After that one night, Xiong Ye felt that his body was much improved. Even the energy in his body was fully restored.
Sleeping was really the best way to recover!
Only… He had clearly had enough to eat last night, but he was hungry again today. In fact, he was very, very hungry…
“Time to eat.” Zhou Ji said.
When Xiong Ye came outside, he saw that Zhou Ji had made fried wheat pancakes.
This time when Zhou Ji had made fried wheat pancakes, other than putting some chopped vegetables inside, he had also added some diced smoked meat. Because there were more ingredients, the pancakes were a little messy. Even so, it was very delicious.
Xiong Ye once again felt that this was the tastiest thing he had ever eaten.
It only took Xiong Ye two or three bites to finish one of the fried wheat pancakes that Zhou Ji had given him. He then thought of something, “Are we running short on meat?”
He had been occupied with the building of the house a few days ago and had also gone to fight against Zhu Zhan and his group. He hadn’t had enough time to spare and hadn’t done much hunting outside of the collective hunts. He had only used peppers and some other things to trade with others for some fish for Zhou Ji to eat.
As a result, they hadn’t saved up any food.
Now that they had moved in and settled down, it was time to prepare a little more food for winter–that empty room they had was just the place they could use for food storage.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough, it’s that we don’t have anything.” Zhou Ji said. They still had quite a lot of barley and earth eggs, but all of the meat had already been eaten up.
They had first moved recently, and then Xiong Ye had had to eat more because he had been injured, so they had ended up finishing everything.
“I’ll go out hunting today!” Xiong Ye said.
Zhou Ji: “……” You’re injured, what kind of hunting do you want to do?
Zhou Ji didn’t want Xiong Ye to hunt, but Xiong Ye was very insistent, “The priest and Xiong He are both in the tribe, and they don’t need me there. This injury of mine isn’t very serious…”
“I’ll go with you.” Zhou Ji said.
It was alright for Xiong Ye to go outside in his current state, but if it came to hunting… He could probably only catch small prey if it showed up right in front of him.
But he might encounter danger.
In that case, Zhou Ji might as well follow. If something happened, he could pick up Xiong Ye and run away.
“I’m hurt and might not be able to protect you.” Xiong Ye was anxious.
“Then call over a few more people.” Zhou Ji suggested.
Zhou Ji’s gaze was firm. It was obvious he was unwilling to change his mind, so Xiong Ye could only agree, “Alright…”
Xiong Ye planned to ask Zhu Zhan, but Zhou Ji suddenly asked him on the way there, “Isn’t it good if it’s just the two of us? Do you have to call over someone else?”
Xiong Ye privately also wanted to go out alone with Zhou Ji. Hearing Zhou Ji say so, he immediately gave up the idea of inviting anyone else and brought Zhou Ji with him to the river near the tribe.
If there were only him and Zhou Ji, they certainly couldn’t go and fight dinosaurs. It was a better idea to try and catch some fish and shrimp to bring back and eat. It was quite safe over here…
People often came to the riverside, and their lingering scents were quite strong. No dinosaurs would come here to drink water, but there were still some fish and shrimp swimming around in the river.
Fish and shrimp weren’t smart. Regardless of how much they caught, there would always be more that swam over. Additionally, the people of the Big Bear Tribe generally avoided eating fish and shrimp when there was sufficient food.
Xiong Ye planned to go into the water to catch fish but was stopped by Zhou Ji, “It takes a lot of energy to catch fish. Even eating all the fish that you manage to catch won’t make up for it.”
That was true… The people in the tribe liked to lay there unmoving during winter because even if they went out to hunt in the bitter weather, the prey that they caught might not necessarily make up for the amount of strength they used up during the hunt. Since that was the case, what was the point in even going out to hunt?
As for the current Xiong Ye, the fish he could work hard to catch wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gaps between his teeth. What was the point in catching them?
Zhou Ji suggested, “Shall we move on?”
Xiong Ye nodded and walked on with Zhou Ji.
While walking, Zhou Ji used his spiritual powers to keep an eye on their surroundings and check if there was any danger or food.
With this scanning, he actually managed to find something to eat.
A big salamander lurked up ahead at the bottom of the river.