Ch56 – Little Brook Tribe

Zhou Ji had changed into his new clothes today.

These clothes were made out of the plant fibers he had extracted from the vines. They had initially been white, but the clothing had turned a yellow brown color after a while and now looked more like the coarse sacks that Xiang Tian had worn that day.

These clothes were much closer to Zhou Ji’s idea of clothing than the dinosaur leather skirts and robes. After he used his powers to soften the plant fibers, they also became much more comfortable to wear.

However, although he had clothes, he had no underwear.

Riding a bear…

Zhou Ji was a little hesitant.

“Zhou Ji, just let Xiong Ye carry you!” The priest said, then repeated to the people in the tribe again, “Zhou Ji has a very important job to do this time, so you guys must protect him well and make sure to bring him back safely even if you’re unable to trade for any salt!”

Although salt was very important, they wouldn’t die without salt. If they were able to get a bumper harvest of earth eggs this year, they could hold on until the next year before trading for salt again.

On the other hand… It was the Beast God’s will for Zhou Ji to leave the tribe at this time. The Beast God would definitely be angry if something happened to him!

The priest was thinking about this even as he stole a few peeks at Zhou Ji’s clothes.

He had seen Zhou Ji weaving things over the past few days, but he hadn’t known what he was doing. It turned out that he had been making clothing…

This clothing looked really good. When Zhou Ji returned, he had to learn how to make a set for himself.

Xiong Qi agreed to the priest’s request without a second thought. As for Xiong Ye… He turned into a brown bear and looked towards Zhou Ji.

Zhou Ji ended up sitting on the bear’s back after all.

The salt team set out.

Brown bears could stand up on their hind legs, but they spent most of their time on all fours. Zhou Ji was quite stable sitting on the brown bear’s back.

It was just that Xiong Qi, who hadn’t turned into his animal form, was a mild annoyance

“Xiong Ye, your animal form is as big as the tribal chief’s! How amazing!”

“Xiong Ye, your wounds recovered really fast; your body is in great shape.”

“Xiong Ye, you walk so steadily!”

……

Zhou Ji: “……”

Xiong Ye: I suddenly feel very glad that I’ve turned into my animal form, and there’s no need to answer.

People around them: Hadn’t Xiong Qi been chasing Lang Yin recently? But he kept following after Xiong Yi all the time… he hadn’t fallen for Xiong Ye, right?

Xiong Qi didn’t know what everyone else was thinking. He had been saved by Xiong Ye after getting injured during their previous salt trade excursion, and then when he and Xiong Ye had gone out hunting and encountered arthropleura, it was Xiong Ye who had saved him once again.

Xiong Ye had saved him twice, making him extremely grateful towards Xiong Ye.

“Xiong Qi, Zhou Ji’s clothing is so beautiful, you’re so impressive!” Xiong Qi continued.

Xiong Ye: “……” Zhou Ji’s clothing had nothing to do with him! However, Zhou Ji had agreed to make him a set… Zhou Ji was really so good to him!

He took special care when walking so that he didn’t rock Zhou Ji too much.

In Shi Li’s memories, this salt trading team had been led by Xiong Ye. Not only had they come back empty handed, they had also lost some people. However, it was different this time.

Xiong Qi was still alive, and the captain of the salt team was still Xiong Qi. Xiong Ye was mostly just following in order to learn.

Although Xiong Qi sometimes spoke out of turn, he did things very reliably, sharing a lot of his experience of traveling farther afield along the way.

“Life outside is not as good as it is within the tribe. The most troublesome thing is when it rains, because it’s especially difficult to travel during rainy days.” Xiong Qi chattered on, “Before it gets dark, we have to find a good place to set up camp and settle down. At least one side of the camp should be against mountains or stones, but it shouldn’t be next to water. There are many animals and dinosaurs that like to stay near bodies of water.”

The salt team’s first destination this time was the Little Brook Tribe that Xiong Qi had gone to last time to trade for salt. They also planned to ask the Little Brook Tribe for news about the Giant Tiger Tribe.

“The Little Brook Tribe might not have much salt left. If that’s the case, we will bypass the Green Hills.. no, the Giant Tiger Tribe, and head east to take a look.” Xiong Qi said.

It was Xiong Ye’s first time on such an expedition. He listened very seriously but didn’t express his opinion.

Only one leader was needed in a team.

The weather was fine on the first day of their departure. Xiong Qi took them to find the cave he stayed in every time he went out to trade for salt.

This cave was made of dirt rather than stone, and was a little damp and muddy, but it could be slept in if they laid out animal hides. It was arranged for Zhou Jito sleep in the innermost part of the cave, while Xiong Ye and the others lit a fire outside and split shifts to keep guard.

Zhou Ji naturally had no objections to this. He lay down a few pieces of wood in a crisscross pattern on the floor, covered it with a layer of animal hides, and then used his energy to isolate himself from the smell in the cave before eating a full meal––he hadn’t had a chance to eat during the day.

The next day, the salt team continued on their way.

Zhou Ji had visited almost all the areas in the tribe’s surroundings before and was very clear about what plants were present there. Although he had constantly been using his spiritual powers to study the plants around him this whole time, trying to find new types of plants that could be matured, harvested for seeds and brought back for farming, he hadn’t been successful. However, from the third day on, he began to find some useful plants.

These were mostly fruit and vegetable plants.

For the people of these primitive tribes who burned a lot of physical energy, they required food that was high in carbohydrates and protein. Because of this, Zhou Ji most wanted to find plants that could be used as staple foods.

However, they weren’t that easy to find.

On the way, he saw some plants that looked like wheat but only discovered after careful study that they were a type of very small grass seeds and weren’t suitable for consumption at all.

“Stop for a moment.” Zhou Ji called for a stop once again.

“What did you find this time?” Xiong Qi looked at Zhou Ji curiously. He was very happy.

“There’s a type of edible plant over there.” Zhou Ji pointed to a bunch of plants not far away. If he wasn’t mistaken, they should be pumpkins.

Pumpkins weren’t very suitable as staple foods for very physically active people since they would quickly become hungry again after eating it, but it tasted good and should be quite popular.

“We’ll go pick it right away!” Xiong Qi was very excited. Xiong Ye, who was in his animal form and couldn’t speak, gave two grunts and rushed over right away, carrying Zhou Ji on his back.

They had already been on the road for four days. Zhou Ji hadn’t done anything at all during the first two days, and Xiong Qi and the others couldn’t help but grumble a little in their hearts. However, in the past two days, Zhou Ji had discovered a lot of edible things, and some of them were actually extremely delicious! For example, the melon they had discovered not long ago had been very sweet.

Unfortunately, Zhou Ji had only given them half of the melon. He ate a bit of the remaining half, and then fed the rest to Xiong Ye!

Xiong Qi ran after Xiong Ye. He previously had always felt that Xiong Ye had gotten the worse end of the deal in mating with Zhou Ji, but he now felt that… Zhou Ji was pretty good.

Not only did he eat very little, he was very caring and always looked out for Xiong Ye!

As for how weak he was… He was willing to listen to the team’s arrangements and hadn’t caused them any trouble.

He wondered what kind of thing they would be able to pick up this time… Xiong Qi was looking forward to it.

The pumpkin that Zhou Ji had discovered this time wasn’t ripe yet, but he used his powers to ripen them before he approached, simultaneously making one of them especially ripe so that he could obtain its seeds.

That day, the salt team set up camp early as usual and split into two groups, with half the team going out to hunt.

The salt team had brought a lot of earth eggs and some smoked meat with them, but nobody had eaten any of it, hunting and foraging for their own food when they got hungry instead.

Although these things could be eaten, they would prefer to use these things to trade for a bit more salt.

They went so far as to save up the prey they hunted on the road if they couldn’t finish it that night, storing it for the upcoming trade.

They hadn’t managed to catch much prey that day, but it could be considered barely enough if they split it up amongst the team. They lit a fire and roasted the meat while listening to Xiong Qi describe the Green Hill Tribe, “The people of the Green Hill Tribe are quite weak and are often unable to catch enough prey, which is why they were very willing to let us trade the prey we caught for salt…”

Zhou Ji roasted the pumpkins by himself.

There were a total of seven pumpkins. After he finished roasting them, he gave four to Xiong Qi to share amongst everyone, ate one himself, then gave Xiong Ye two.

These plants belonged to him and didn’t need to be divided equally.

“What is this?”

“Pumpkin.” Zhou Ji said, “Try it and see if you like it or not.”

Xiong Ye opened his mouth wide and took a bite. His eyes lit up, “It’s sweet!”

Xiong Ye didn’t like sour food, but he very much enjoyed sweet things. This pumpkin wasn’t actually very sweet, but it was enough for him to enjoy it a lot, so he ate both pumpkins in one breath.

The salt team had a total of fifty people. The remaining forty odd people’s eyes were all red with envy––each of them could only taste a small bite!

“This pumpkin is really tasty!” Xiong Qi ate his own bite and sighed.

“This kind of pumpkin will be available to the tribe later on.” Zhou Ji said, “It has a very high yield, and you guys will be able to eat as much as you like.”

The eyes of the hunting team lit up as they collectively swallowed down their saliva.

They used to hate eating grass. Of course, that didn’t include earth eggs––earth eggs weren’t grass!

However, ever since they started traveling with Zhou Ji and spent time together, they suddenly discovered that many types of grass were actually tasty…

That melon thing and this pumpkin thing were really quite delicious.

Even if they weren’t able to trade for salt this time, it was still pretty good that they would be able to bring back so many types of plants!

Everyone was very happy after eating the roasted pumpkin. But it began to rain that night.

The things that they had brought that couldn’t get wet had all been wrapped up in dinosaur leather and would be fine, but because they hadn’t set up camp in the cave, they were all wet. Only Zhou Ji…

Xiong Ye told him to stay up in a tree, then gave him a very, very large piece of dinosaur leather to cover his head with, so that he wouldn’t get soaked.

They didn’t sleep well that night and had to walk on through the rain the next day. By this time, even Zhou Ji was soaked through.

When evening came, the rain still hadn’t stopped. They had clearly managed to catch a dinosaur, but they couldn’t build a fire to roast it with.

While the crowd was frowning and troubled, Zhou Ji pointed in one direction and spoke up, “We should go that way.” He had constantly been using his spiritual powers to search for a place to rest and had discovered that there was a big stone there, under which some lizards had dug out small den.

They could take over that den and rest there.

In fact, not only did they snatch away the den, those lizards ended up as their food.

“Zhou Ji, you really live up to being someone blessed by the Beast God, you’re too amazing!”

“We can finally get a good night’s sleep.”

“This hole is so spacious…”

……

The people of the salt team were very satisfied; only Zhou Ji felt rather helpless.

He was already quite dissatisfied with life within the tribe, but it was even worse after he traveled outside.

Fortunately, it was still better than during the apocalypse––there were still things to eat and drink here.

With the den, everyone’s quality of life improved immediately. Xiong Ye first toasted himself dry, then turned back into his animal form and slept with Zhou Ji in his arms.

What was even more worth celebrating was that the rain stopped the next day.

They had traveled very quickly and had spent most of the time running, similar to the way flocks of cattle and sheep migrated on Earth.

By the eighth day, they had already reached the Little Brook Tribe.

“The Little Brook Tribe is in front of us.” Xiong Qi pointed to the low structures built next to a hill, “The Little Brook Tribe has over two hundred people, and the people of their tribe have all sorts of different animal forms. Most of them aren’t very strong.”

“Let’s go and take a look.” Zhou Ji came down from Xiong Ye’s body and gave Xiong Ye a set of clothing.

On the way here, he had also woven a ‘sweater’ for Xiong Ye… No, more like a sack.

Zhou Ji had already used his spiritual powers to explore the situation inside the Little Brook Tribe when they neared the area, and had found nothing unusual. However, when they arrived at the Little Brook Tribe and met the people there, he could sense that something was wrong––the expression that these people used to look at them made it very clear to him that there were problems with these people.

The people from the Little Brook Tribe were extremely happy when they saw Zhou Ji and the others.

No, it couldn’t be said that they were the people from the Little Brook Tribe––the Little Brook Tribe had already been taken over by the Giant Tiger Tribe. The people living in this territory now were actually people from the Giant Tiger Tribe.

A flock of fat sheep had come by… How could they not be happy?

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