Esdeath looked over the young clansmen following her with satisfaction.
They had all chosen her of their own volition, which made her happy.
Although unease still permeated the group, it was due to the uncertainty of the future.
“Very good, you have made a wise decision,” Esdeath said.
“Now, follow me.”
Ibia followed behind Esdeath.
“Boss, it really looks like there’s nothing here.
Should we find another place?”
Safi also added, “Yes, the clan has explored this area before, but they didn’t find anything and just left, so no one ever comes here to hunt.”
Nothing?
How could that be?
The dense aura proved that dozens of Danger Beasts lived in this canyon.
“Just follow me.” Esdeath rode her horse into the canyon.
The cliffs on both sides were covered in a thin layer of snow, and the bare, yellowish-brown soil had not a single blade of grass growing on it.
Activating the Eye of True Sight again, she saw the pale red auras extending onto the cliff walls, and Esdeath finally understood where these Danger Beasts were located.
They were all nesting in holes in the cliff walls; ordinary people passing by wouldn’t notice them at a glance.
Esdeath stopped at the bottom of the canyon, leaving the others confused.
Subsequently, she took out her pistol and fired a shot at a spot on the cliff wall.
With a sharp bang, a few seconds later, a snake with a triangular head, a body as thick as a fist, and a single horn on its head crawled out from a hole in the cliff wall.
The clansmen, who had been watching Esdeath’s movements closely, did not miss this sight and exclaimed, “It’s a Horn-Drilling Earth Python.”
The Horn-Drilling Earth Python is a Level 3 Danger Beast.
It is fast and, unlike ordinary snakes, it can burrow into the ground like an earthworm.
Their nests are often several meters underground, making them very difficult to find.
However, this type of snake reacts extremely violently to noise.
As long as it is disturbed, it cannot help but crawl out of the soil.
Perhaps they think that by drilling to the surface, they can escape this place and avoid the noise interference.
This type of snake is large, its meat is delicious, but it is not very aggressive, making it one of the harder Danger Beasts to find.
The reason it is defined as a Danger Beast is entirely because if that horn on its head accidentally drills into a person, an ordinary person’s body would definitely be pierced through.
The matter did not stop there.
Esdeath fired six more shots at the cliff wall in succession, and one Horn-Drilling Earth Python after another crawled out, with over a dozen of them covering the cliff wall.
Rune was dumbfounded: “This is like poking a snake’s nest.”
“What are you still standing there for?
Use your bows and arrows to hunt!” Esdeath reminded her stunned clansmen.
The clansmen were extremely excited.
With their arm strength, dealing with these non-aggressive earth pythons was naturally a piece of cake.
One fist-sized earth python after another was shot and fell down.
Esdeath lured out all the Horn-Drilling Earth Pythons on the cliffs on both sides, and the dozen or so clansmen hunted and killed thirty or forty of them in succession.
The smallest ones weighed over ten jin, while the larger ones weighed dozens or even a hundred jin.
“Hahahaha, with so much prey, it will be difficult to even carry it back now.”
The young clansmen beamed with joy, one after another using ropes to tie up the hunted prey.
“Boss Esdeath, you are truly amazing.
With such a harvest, we can go back today.
This is practically a week’s worth of prey in one go,” Ibia exclaimed.
In just one morning, they had secured a bountiful harvest that would last three days.
At this moment, these clansmen were incredibly glad they had chosen to follow Esdeath.
One by one, the youths rode their horses, pulling the prey and singing as they returned fully loaded.
The logistics team saw the youths returning ahead of schedule before noon from afar and were confused.
“Uncles and aunts, this is all the prey we caught.
Please skin and process it.” Esdeath directed the youths under her command to place the prey on the open ground outside the kitchen.
The dozens of earth pythons piled up like a small mountain first left the logistics uncles and aunts speechless in shock, and then they skinned and cut meat until their hands cramped.
But everyone working was filled with joy; the first Hunting Team to return had found so much food that they definitely wouldn’t have to worry about this winter.
“Uncle Hanba, roast a snake for us to taste first.”
Everyone sat around the campfire, laughing and chatting.
Uncle Hanba agreed, chose the largest one, skinned and cut it into segments, applied seasonings, and roasted it slowly over the charcoal fire.
The aroma soon drifted throughout the entire camp.
Accompanied by traditional strong liquor and eating the delicious, tender roasted snake meat, the happiest moments of winter were nothing more than this.
“Everyone, eat together, don’t be polite.” Once the snake meat was roasted, Esdeath urged those left behind in the tribe to eat, and asked Rune to send a few jin to the guards as well.
“Come, Ibia, bring the cards, let everyone play some poker.”
The friendship of youths is nothing more than adventuring and playing together.
Esdeath was exceptionally approachable.
These young clansmen, who were initially unable to relax due to Esdeath’s serious image during the day, slowly opened up under the influence of the liquor and roasted meat.
In just one day, Esdeath had temporarily captured the hearts of this group.
In a few more days, they would sincerely become Esdeath’s subordinates, just like Ibia and the others.
The youths played for the whole afternoon, and by dusk, the other Hunting Teams also returned one by one, carrying their prey.
The first to return was the team led by the chieftain, Alei.
Seeing the tribe littered with wine bottles and a group of youths playing cards, he was about to lose his temper.
He had only made Esdeath a team leader to temper her, yet Esdeath had actually taken her subordinates to drink and play cards!
Before he could erupt, Esdeath came before him: “Father, come quickly and see the prey we caught today.”
After being pulled to the warehouse and seeing the mountain of prey piled inside, the scolding that Alei had been brewing for a long time was swallowed back.
He didn’t speak for a long while, and finally, he could only say four words: “Well done.”
The father had brought back five or six large crocodiles with his clansmen, which looked like a decent harvest, but compared to Esdeath’s haul, it was far inferior.
After all, crocodiles have a lot of inedible bones, whereas every part of a snake is edible.
Next, every Hunting Team that returned saw Esdeath leading the group of youths in play.
Just as they were about to complain about these youths not doing their proper work, Esdeath would make them look at the harvest she and her group had obtained, and then these adults would fall silent.
It was Esdeath’s first time leading a team, and these adults were also looking forward to seeing the harvest of this team composed entirely of youths.
Consequently, as every Hunting Team returned, they would ask about the harvest of Esdeath’s team while putting down their own prey.
They also knew the difficulties of hunting today, so most of them held the intention of offering comfort, only to have all their words stifled by the mountain of prey.
Later on, the Hunting Teams that returned earlier simply stayed on the sidelines to watch the reactions of the teams that returned later.
Watching them get shocked just like they had, they would snicker while feeling happy.
After all, the youths of the clan were the future; the adults couldn’t be happier that they performed well.
Tuck and his group were the last to return.
Their harvest wasn’t large either, only carrying back four horned antelopes, but for seven people, it was an acceptable harvest.
When Tuck and his group returned, Esdeath was still leading Ibia and the others in drinking and playing cards.
Seeing that Esdeath and the others were actually drinking and playing cards, Tuck and his group were furious.
Looking at the wine bottles on the ground and the large amount of charcoal burnt to ash, they must have been playing for the entire afternoon.
So they were out hunting, while this group was actually playing cards in the tribe?
Tuck sneered in anger.
He had automatically assumed that Esdeath and these people couldn’t find any prey, gave up, and simply returned to the tribe to eat and drink.
This time, it was Lemoka who mocked them on Tuck’s behalf: “Yo, as expected of the chieftain’s daughter, you don’t even have to hunt for prey now to eat and drink.
Having fun, aren’t you?”
As soon as these words were spoken, before Esdeath and her group could respond, the expressions of the adults who had returned to the camp earlier and those who stayed behind turned strange as they looked at Lemoka and his group.
Lemoka was momentarily intimidated by the looks from these people, so he raised his voice to embolden himself: “Did I say something wrong?
Although it is very difficult to find prey now, and there isn’t much prey in the places we can go, we have all been working hard to hunt today.
Yet Esdeath has been leading these people to play in the tribe!”
In order not to let his son be even more embarrassed, Lemoka’s father had no choice but to say irritably: “What nonsense are you talking about!
Esdeath and her group also brought back prey.”
Lemoka’s father did not want to make his son more embarrassed, so he did not mention the quantity of prey that Esdeath and her group had hunted.
But Lemoka was unwilling to let it go and shouted: “I know, didn’t the dozen or so of them just catch two rabbits?
Let me see how much prey they brought back.”
The Hunting Teams also needed to eat outside at noon, and they often chose to eat a little of what they had hunted.
According to Lemoka’s thinking, with Esdeath leading a dozen or so people, they would at least have to eat a deer, so how much prey could they have brought back?
Lemoka wanted to make Esdeath and her group make a fool of themselves in front of everyone, so he insisted on seeing the prey that Esdeath’s team had brought back.
The clansmen’s expressions became even stranger.
Although they didn’t know why Lemoka and his group were at odds with Esdeath, even they couldn’t bear to watch this behavior of rushing to be slapped in the face.
Tuck’s father had to step in.
He originally thought that by letting Tuck and his group secretly come to his own hunting grounds, they wouldn’t fail to catch prey, but he hadn’t expected Esdeath’s luck to be so good.
“Alright, it’s almost time to cook, move all the prey over there.”
The clan elder stepped forward and forcibly stopped the farce that was about to unfold.
If Lemoka and his group were really allowed to see, with everyone watching, comparing Tuck’s team’s harvest with Esdeath’s team’s harvest would leave his son with nowhere to hide his face, wouldn’t it?
Esdeath felt a bit of regret.
She had remained silent the whole time just to see the wonderful expressions on Tuck and his group’s faces later, but unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to see it.