Chapter 112 – Blue Whale
Translator: xiin
Editors: apricot & juurensha
The people of the Beach Tribe lived next to a low cliff by the sea.
There were a lot of trees here, and they had built very simple, low houses out of wood and leaves. Others had directly dug out caves in the cliff to live in.
The environment here was very humid, but the people of the Beach Tribe didn’t mind that. This was very normal––their animal forms were all animals that either lived in or near the sea, and they very much liked this kind of environment.
Zhou Ji had just gone over when he saw a sea lion shifting its fat body across the ground in order to move forward and jump off the edge of the cliff to dive into the sea.
Another person came up to the edge of the cliff and also dove into the sea, turning into a dolphin halfway through the dive.
“You’re finally here! Why didn’t you come last year?” The chief of the Beach Tribe was an old man with a face full of wrinkles who didn’t look powerful at all… It was clear that the position of tribal chief wasn’t given to the most powerful person in this tribe.
That was also very normal. This tribe consisted of a group of fat seals, sea lions, dolphins, and walruses… They probably weren’t very good at fighting, right?
“Our tribe encountered trouble last year.” The people from the Green Hill Tribe summarized the matter of the Giant Tiger Tribe attacking them. They were a little downcast as they spoke.
“So that’s what happened.” The tribal chief of the Beach Tribe sighed rather emotionally and said a few words of comfort before coming over to speak to Xiong Ye.
Zhou Ji wasn’t involved in the conversation, but he had paid close attention to it the entire time. Only then did he learn that the people of the Beach Tribe didn’t follow the method of ‘animal form followed by a single word’ to name themselves. Instead, everyone used the word ‘Hai’ in as their surname.
For example, the chief of the Beach Tribe was called Hai Pang.
His human form appeared very thin, and it was unknown if his animal form was fat or not…maybe it was fat?
And the people of the Beach Tribe hadn’t lied when they said that they missed the people of the Green Hill Tribe.
However, it wasn’t so much that the people of the Beach Tribe missed the people of the Green Hill Tribe, but rather that they missed the things that the people of the Green Hill Tribe brought with them.
The Beach Tribe lived by the sea and usually ate fish. They didn’t lack food, but they were instead short on other things.
In the past, the Green Hill Tribe would come to trade for salt with them, exchanging dried vegetables, dinosaur leather, feathers, and other such things. Additionally, the Green Hill Tribe would bring flint with them every time they came to trade.
Regardless of whether it was the Big Bear Tribe or the Green Hill Tribe, they had both long ago started making use of fire. They would find ways to keep the fire alive, but it would still go out every now and then, and it wasn’t easy to bring fire with them when they travelled… so they would use flint to start fires.
The Green Hill Tribe hadn’t come last year, and the Beach Tribe was short on a lot of supplies!
This time, the Big Bear Tribe had brought a lot of things with them when they came to trade for salt. Other than the things that the Green Hill Tribe normally brought here in the past, they had also prepared pottery, barley, and other such items. At this time, Xiong Ye had people from the tribe set down the things that they had brought at the entrance to the Beach Tribe.
…”
“This is a pot.” Xiong Ye explained. “This thing can be used to cook food. It’s very convenient.”
“This thing looks pretty good. It’s much easier to use than our shells.” Hai Pang said. Only then did Xiong Ye and the others realize that there were a lot of seashells in the Beach Tribe. These shells were very large, and some were placed over the fire and used like a pot, while others were filled with sea water and placed on the edge of the cliff.
Xiong Ye and the others didn’t know why they did such a thing, but Zhou Ji could guess––the Beach Tribe was probably using those shells to evaporate sea water for salt.
This was definitely a good business that required no cost.
Of course, it still required time.
Zhou Ji had originally thought that pottery would be very useful when it came to trading for salt, but the Beach Tribe had a variety of shells that could be used for similar things, so pottery didn’t cause as much of a stir. Of course, they were still very interested in the pottery, primarily because the Big Bear Tribe used pottery to cook food to eat.
It was already afternoon by the time they arrived at the Beach Tribe. Everyone was hungry and had started to cook food, and the people of the Beach Tribe watched them as the members of the Big Bear Tribe also cooked.
“The pottery pot is deeper than shells and can cook a lot of things.”
“The food that they make smells really good!”
“What kind of meat is that?”
……
The people of the Beach Tribe didn’t eat much dinosaur meat. They weren’t able to hunt them, and so they were now very curious about the fresh and smoked dinosaur meat that the people of the Big Bear Tribe had brought with them.
Because Zhu Zhan and his subordinates had constantly been hunting hard along the way, the Big Bear Tribe wasn’t short on meat at all. Someone gifted the people of the Beach Tribe with a piece of meat, and not long after, someone from the Beach Tribe sent back some of the food that was unique to their tribe.
There was fish, clams, and other such seafood, as well as a plate of pickled mud snails.
“These are yellow mud snails. They’re extremely tasty, and they’re the Sea God’s favorite tribute food!” The people of the Beach Tribe recommended the food that they thought was delicious to the people of the Big Bear Tribe.
However… Although the people of the Big Bear Tribe ate it, they were mostly unable to get accustomed to that heavy fishy taste. Very few of them found the food to be delicious, fresh, or tasty. For example, Xiong Qi was one of the few.
Zhou Ji felt that this might have something to do with his animal form.
Polar bears were supposed to hunt for food in the sea.
As for the others… Zhou Ji didn’t even try a single bite of it. Just the smell was a bit too much for him, and the rest of the people weren’t willing to eat a second one after trying the first. “I would eat it if I was very, very hungry, but I’m not hungry right now… Also, this thing is too small, and it might not be filling to eat it when I’m hungry.”
This was the truth. Although the people of the Big Bear Tribe weren’t picky about food and were also willing to eat food that had gone bad, that was all for the sake of filling up their stomachs. Yellow mud snails were so small that there was no way to become full from eating them. Since that was the case, they saw no reason to make themselves suffer.
The people of the Beach Tribe were very disappointed, “This is such a delicious delicacy, but you guys actually don’t like it?”
“Your Sea God likes this kind of food?” Zhou Ji asked curiously.
Although the Big Bear Tribe and the other tribes all worshiped the Beast God, nobody knew what kind of food the Beast God liked. After all, the Beast God didn’t actually exist.
Yet, the people of this Beach Tribe said that their Sea God liked these yellow mud snails…
“Yes. The Sea God likes this kind of food. We often prepare it for him!” Someone from the Beach Tribe replied.
“Will the Sea God eat it?” Zhou Ji asked.
“Of course he eats it!” Someone from the Beach Tribe confirmed.
When he heard that the people of the Green Hill Tribe had seen the Sea God before, Zhou Ji had felt that the Sea God should really exist. Now that he heard the people of the Beach Tribe say this, he was even more certain.
The Big Bear Tribe had brought a hundred people with them, and the Beach Tribe had no way to provide enough shelter for so many people. Because of this, they ultimately found their own place to settle down and set up camp outside of the tribe.
By the time the people of the Big Bear Tribe had finished settling down, it was already dark.
Instead of sleeping, everyone lit a fire on the beach to chat.
“I’ll be leaving tomorrow.” Zhu Zhan spoke while roasting meat over the fire.
“I hope you’ll have a successful journey.” Zhou Ji replied.
“You can choose some things from the items we brought here to take away with you.” Xiong Ye offered. He had gone hunting together with Zhu Zhan and had killed the people of the Giant Tiger Tribe together with him, and their relationship had become one of deep friendship. He was actually quite worried considering that Zhu Zhan was leaving now and would be heading to a dangerous place.
“Thank you.” Zhu Zhan said. He suddenly laughed, “Can I take away a few more chili peppers?”
Zhou Ji gave him a pack of dried chili peppers.
Zhu Zhan laughed again, “Thank you.”
Zhu Zhan used leather to carefully wrap up the dried chili peppers, then said, “My woman should enjoy this type of seasoning.”
“The chili seeds inside the dried chili peppers can be planted. You can take them out and grow your own in the future.” Zhou Ji said.
“Alright!” Zhu Zhan agreed.
Everyone was still talking, but Zhou Ji’s brows suddenly drew together in a frown.
He could sense that there was a very powerful person nearby whose strength didn’t lose out in comparison to this body’s original owner.
The people of the Beach Tribe were actually quite weak. The most powerful amongst them were initial stage Beast Warriors, but this person was truly very strong, and his animal form was extremely large… This was a Beast King.
Zhou Ji slowly felt out the situation and discovered that the other party’s animal form was that of a blue whale.
Beastmen’s animal form would turn bigger as they became stronger. Normal blue whales were able to reach up to two hundred tons, and their weight could multiply by up to ten times after they became Beast Kings… That fellow weighed over two thousand tons.
It was a very huge creature… Zhou Ji had previously always felt that he was very large, but he now felt that he was a bit small.
His mammoth form really didn’t amount to much when it was compared to this person’s animal form!
The huge blue whale swam around for a while beneath the cliffs of the Beach Tribe before suddenly looking over at them.
At the same time… Zhou Ji sensed a wave of killing intent.
Just as he sensed the killing intent, a column of water sprayed towards them, soaking them all. A voice also rang out, “You’re all… people from the Beast God Temple?”
This sound had come from the blue whale… Were Beast Kings in animal form able to speak?
This thought had only flashed through Zhou Ji’s mind when even more columns of water shot at them. Not only that, the huge whale had also started charging through the water in their direction…