Ch123 – Crossing the River
The two people inside the small tent hugged each other tightly, and the atmosphere between them was very good.
Only Xiong Ye was a little self-conscious, “There are people outside…”
“I used energy to block out all the sounds and smells. They won’t be able to hear or smell anything.” Zhou Ji smiled and said.
Xiong Ye became interested immediately, “How do you isolate it?”
Zhou Ji blocked his mouth once again–he didn’t want to talk about these kinds of things at a time like this.
However, the two of them didn’t have time to get up to anything when they heard someone outside cry, “The tribal chief’s tent has collapsed!”
“Chief, Zhou Ji, are you alright?” Someone else asked.
Zhou Ji released Xiong Ye, “We’re fine.”
“We’ll fix it for you right away!” Another person added.
Zhou Ji: “… No need.”
Only after Zhou Ji refused repeatedly did he manage to send everyone away.
After everyone left, he gave Xiong Ye another kiss, “Sleep.”
The two of them cuddled together and slept until dawn.
Zhou Ji woke up early the next morning, but he was too lazy to get up. On the other hand, Xiong Ye had gone out very early, and he didn’t know where he’d gone…
Zhou Ji didn’t come out from the tent until he was hungry. He then smelled the strong scent of roasted meat–the people of the Big Bear Tribe had lit a fire on the beach and were roasting meat.
Seeing that he’d come out, someone immediately asked, “Zhou Ji, what would you like to eat?”
“Fish.” Zhou Ji was quick to answer. He glanced towards Hai Feng who was eating roasted meat to the side, “Have people bring back some fish.”
Hai Feng finished the roasted meat in his hands in one gulp and helplessly called over the people of the Beach Tribe so that they could go and catch fish.
It was still early; Zhou Ji first boiled some water to wash his face, and because the sun shone down very strongly by the water, he even used a wicker-type plant thing to weave himself a straw hat and wore it on his head.
By the time he’d finished weaving, someone had already brought over some fish and shrimp.
At the same time, Xiong Ye’s voice also rang out, “Zhou Ji, take a look at what I brought back for you!”
Zhou Ji lifted his head and saw Xiong Ye coming back with a very, very large snake.
“Titanoboa!” The people of the Beach Tribe cried out in surprise.
It turned out that this snake was called a Titanoboa… Zhou Ji looked over and discovered that this snake was about fifteen to sixteen meters long, and the thickest part of it was even thicker than Xiong Ye’s waist.
This snake’s weight… had probably reached one or two tons?
“Zhou Ji, I wanted to go find you something to eat, and then I ended up seeing this big fellow…” Xiong Ye set down the big snake in front of Zhou Ji, thought about it, then again kicked away the big snake’s head that he had smashed, sending it twitching into the grass to the side.
Zhou Ji started, “It’s very big… It can’t be finished one go. We can make jerky with it.”
“Yes!” Xiong Ye agreed, then said, “I’m going to finish off this snake and wash it clean!”
Saying so, he picked up the snake that was about to escape, and noticed the fish stacked up next to Zhou Ji. He picked those up too, then his foot tapped lightly against the ground, and he ‘flew’ away.
“Beast Kings are really powerful…” Those who were at the scene were all dazed. Only Hai Feng opened his mouth in curiosity–he couldn’t do that!
Xiong Ye had suddenly become a Beast King, and the attitudes of the people around him all unconsciously improved a lot. For example Zhu Zhan no longer treated Xiong Ye the same way he did before.
However, Xiong Ye was the same as ever.
He was a powerful Beast King, but he still went out to catch snakes and kill fish, running circles around Zhou Ji and acting like his assistant.
Zhou Ji as well; he was a powerhouse at the Beast King level, and he was also the Beast God’s messenger, yet he personally made his own food to eat.
As for Hai Feng… This was the Beach Tribe’s respected Sea God, a Beast King whose power was incomparable, but he was sitting on the beach and drooling over Zhou Ji’s food.
These Beast Kings really didn’t put on any airs at all. Zhu Zhan had been a little restrained at first, but he was slowly unable to remain reserved any longer.
Most of the seafood that Zhou Ji had made today was steamed. After all, if it was fresh, steaming seafood was the best way to enjoy its taste.
Of course, there was also some seafood that was more suited to being stir-fried.. Someone had brought back conches that day, so he had people pick out the meat before frying it up.
After stir-frying the conch meat, Zhou Ji gave a small portion of it to Hai Feng, “Try it.”
“For me?” Hai Feng was incredibly delighted. He used his hands to pick up a piece of conch meat and ate it.
“Hiss…” He had just eaten something spicy, “What kind of taste is this.”
“This is spicy.” Zhou Ji used chopsticks to pick up a piece of conch meat, eating it together with some steamed fish.
Seeing how enthusiastic Xiong Ye and Zhou Ji were as they ate, Hai Feng gave it another try.
Although this kind of taste was a little harsh, it was inexplicably delicious!
Hai Feng was still in the midst of being excited when Zhou Ji gave him an entire steamed fish.
Hai Feng often ate grilled or boiled fish, but they were not as delicious as the steamed fish that Zhou Ji had made by adding a bit of oil and seasoning.
He ate the entire steamed fish in a few bites.
Seeing this, Zhou Ji gave him a steamed fish made with preserved vegetables.
Steamed fish that was made with preserved vegetables sprinkled on top was also very tasty. Hai Feng once again finished it off in a few bites.
He felt that Zhou Ji was really a pretty good person. Back then, he had attacked Zhou Ji for no reason, yet not only had Zhou Ji not killed him, he was now even giving him good food to eat! Hai Feng was a little touched, and then he heard Zhou Ji say, “We’re leaving this place tomorrow… You’re coming with us.”
“Where are you going?” Hai Feng asked.
“To the Beastman Continent.” Zhou Ji replied. He planned to go to the Beastman Continent with Zhu Zhan, and he’d also decided to bring Hai Feng along.
Hai Feng’s animal form was very large, and he was completely capable of carrying people across the river. Not only that, when they arrived at the Beastman Continent, Hai Feng could also be used as a powerful fighter.
Although his animal form was useless on land, didn’t he still have his human form?
“I don’t want to go…” Hai Feng started say, but then he felt pressured by a powerful force.
Which meant that he couldn’t actually refuse…
Hai Feng acknowledged his fate. He even started to think about the advantages. For example, he would have delicious food to eat if he followed Zhou Ji…
After dealing with Hai Feng, Zhou Ji divided everyone into two groups.
He had the people who had originally belonged to the Green Hill Tribe or other tribes to bring the salt that they had obtained from the Beach Tribe back to the Big Bear Tribe. As for him, he would lead the team that consisted of the people of the Big Bear Tribe as well as Zhu Zhan and the rest to the Beastman Continent to go take a look.
“Have Xiong He help with managing the affairs of the tribe. Also, tell the priest that we’ll be back before winter.” Zhou Ji instructed.
Those who were to bring the salt back to the tribe all expressed that they understood.
After that, everyone started to pack up and divide up the things they had.
For the sake of convenience, Zhou Ji brought along most of the pottery that they had. Not only that, he also brought along all sorts of daily necessities as well as the remaining barley and seasoning.
After all, they would be gone for a long time this time.
Early the next morning, the Big Bear Tribe had split into two groups who both set out from the Beach Tribe.
As they left, the people of the Beach Tribe, led by their tribal chief Hai Pang, all tearfully said their goodbyes to them.
The people of the Beach Tribe were truly sad, because not only had the Big Bear Tribe taken away the goods they had brought here to trade for salt with, they were also taking away their salt and Sea God.
Taking the salt was bad enough, but they even took away their Sea God!
How could the people of the Beach Tribe not cry?!
Even Hai Feng’s eyes were red.
He had lived here in the sea for decades, and he was now quite reluctant to leave…
However, while they were sad, the people of the Big Bear Tribe who were about to go to the Beastman Continent were all very excited.
Their previous priest had described the Beastman Continent as a very wonderful place. Zhu Zhan and the others who had also come from the Beastman Continent were also experienced and knowledgeable, making it so that they also wanted to go and see what the Beastman Continent was actually like.
Of course, the ones who were most excited were definitely Zhu Zhan and his group.
They… could finally go back!
They walked along the coastline and soon reached the mouth of the big river.
Zhou Ji had always been carried on Xiong Ye’s back in the past, but he didn’t receive this kind of treatment now. Of course, this wasn’t because Xiong Ye wasn’t willing to carry him, but because… Xiong Ye’s animal form was now too big.
Xiong Ye’s animal form was now as tall as a modern three-story building. It was very inconvenient for him to change into his animal form, so he naturally could no longer carry Zhou Ji on his back.
However, Zhou Ji didn’t have to walk by himself.
Xiong Ye had added a few wooden poles to the chair that he had previously used to carry Zhou Ji. Zhu Zhan had then picked out two of his own subordinates to carry Zhou Ji along as they traveled.
No, it couldn’t be said that Zhu Zhan had ‘picked out’ two people from amongst his subordinates; in fact, Zhu Zhan’s people had all been competing to carry Zhou Ji.
Zhou Ji was a Beast King! They all wanted to get closer to a powerhouse like that!
If it hadn’t been for Hai Feng and Xiong Ye’s reluctance to be carried, they would also have been happy to carry Hai Feng and Xiong Ye as well.
Their team was full of powerful fighters, and they also had Beast Kings to act as deterrence. The speed of their journey forward was very fast. It didn’t take them long at all to arrive by the river.
They had only just gotten close to the river when Zhou Ji saw a crocodile over ten meters long climbing out of it.
The ten plus meter long snake that Xiong Ye had caught before had already been shocking enough, but now there was actually a crocodile over ten meters long… Zhou Ji subconsciously used his spiritual strength to scan the surroundings… Alright, not only was there one of these ten plus meter long crocodiles, there was an entire group of them mostly hidden amongst the plants under the water.
A relatively large dinosaur came to the river to drink water, and while it was drinking, a crocodile opened its mouth as it leapt out of the water, biting down on the dinosaur’s neck and dragging it down, back into the water.
That dinosaur let out a pitiful whine, but the crocodile didn’t let it go. Instead, the other crocodiles bit down on its body, tearing it apart and sharing the food.
They had only just arrived by the river. There were many more powerful prehistoric giant beasts hidden inside the river.
Zhou Ji finally understood why Zhu Zhan had been so afraid to cross the river before.
Xiong Ye went so far as to say, “Zhu Zhan, you were pretty lucky to have managed to make it over before.”
“Indeed.” Zhu Zhan agreed. “Anyone who managed to make it over to this side of the river had pretty good luck.” There were times when the giant beasts in the river were full and would therefore ignore the ‘meat’ that was floating around nearby. However, this situation was really rare and definitely required a lot of luck.
It had taken the sacrifice of many of his subordinates in order for him to make it to the other side of the river alive. He even wondered if those giant beasts that chased after them had only stopped because they had gotten full from eating his subordinates.
“Let’s go.” Zhou Ji said. He then looked towards Hai Feng.
Hai Feng directly shifted into his animal form, then turned his head and ate two of the crocodiles–he hadn’t been as big as he was now when he lived in this river back then, and he had been bullied by this kind of crocodile before. Now when he saw them, he wanted to turn the tables and eat them instead.
Hai Feng soon finished chewing and eating the crocodiles and then couldn’t help but feel a bit of disgust–these crocodiles really didn’t taste good…
Recently, even if he couldn’t eat the food that Zhou Ji made, there would still be people from the Big Bear Tribe to make food for him to eat. He had been eating well every day and now couldn’t bear to eat food raw anymore.
While Hai Feng was still lamenting, he heard Zhou Ji say, “If you eat them directly like this, you’re eating the… cough, cough… in their stomach as well.” Out of consideration for Hai Feng, Zhou Ji didn’t say the word ‘shit’ out loud.
But Hai Feng still understood what he meant. Once Zhou Ji mentioned it, he suddenly felt really nauseous!
After Hai Feng caused a stir, the giant crocodiles that had originally been lying leisurely on the shore waiting for their prey to send themselves to their door, all scattered and ran away.
By the time Hai Feng had released all his power… Even the bigger living creatures in the sea all dispersed and hid.
Hai Feng said, “Come up, you guys!” Beastmen were generally reluctant to allow others to ride on their bodies, but Hai Feng had grown up alone from childhood and had no concept of this. Coupled with how he had been oppressed recently, he didn’t feel that there was anything wrong with this at all.
Zhou Ji and the others walked up onto Hai Feng’s back, but when One-Eyed Wolf and her team who had been following them wanted to come up, she was rejected. “Hai Feng is a Beast King and won’t carry people casually. You guys should swim behind us on your own.”
One-Eyed Wolf: “……” Even if they swam, they wouldn’t be able to swim like Hai Feng!
However, Zhou Ji had already spoken, and they really didn’t dare to object… One of One-Eyed Wolf’s subordinates hurried off to gather a few pieces of wood, which they then held as they jumped into the river.
They weren’t able to keep up with Hai Feng, but after Hai Feng had released his power and crossed the river like this, those scary creatures in the river would surely be too busy escaping, so that this section of the river would be temporarily safe.
They should take advantage of this opportunity and cross the river as fast as possible.
One-Eyed Wolf and her people swam desperately.
While everyone was crossing the river, Shi Li, in the Beast God Temple, was thinking of the people of the Big Bear Tribe.
The people of the Big Bear Tribe should have already lost their homes by now.
The Beast God Sacrifice would be happening soon. As a Beast King, he would make an appearance at the Beast God Temple during the Beast God Sacrifice and be worshipped by countless beastmen. As for the Big Bear Tribe… In his previous life, the current year’s Beast God Sacrifice had been hosted by Xiong Ye.
They hadn’t even been able to eat their fill.
A strong sense of superiority made Shi Li very happy.
He decided to wait and for Xiong Ye to suffer more bitterness before going out to find Xiong Ye. By then, Xiong Ye would definitely be willing to follow him!