This world is truly fantastical, the things that appear not only defy geographical space but also transcend time.
Discovering pepper so soon is a wonderful surprise!
Without a word, Hu Li immediately untied the animal skin bundle hanging on Bing Qiu’s body. This was specifically used to hold fruit.
Pepper originates from the tropics and was once considered a luxury in ancient China. It can be used not only for seasoning but also as medicine.
But since it was discovered during the cold season in this beastman world, it might just resemble pepper but be a different species.
Bing Qiu watched as Xue Tuan deftly stuffed the unknown small fruits into the animal skin bag. He tried to stop Xue Tuan with his paw. The result was a “smack!”—a small slap on the head from his younger brother.
“Ouch!” Bing Qiu released the animal skin bag and covered his head with his paw.
He can’t control him at all! Bing Qiu sullenly lay down, watching Xue Tuan busy himself.
After picking the peppercorns, Xue Tuan ran to the other side to pick some white mushrooms.
Bing Qiu glanced at them. “These are edible,” he thought. “Dad picked them before. My little brother has a good memory.”
Xue Tuan, still basking in his joy with the peppercorns and mushrooms, suddenly heard the sound of flapping wings behind him.
Turning around, he saw Gray flying back with something in its beak.
The thing looked a lot like the jujubes he’d eaten in his past life.
Gray landed on Xue Tuan’s shoulder and offered the bunch of jujubes to his face.
“Thank you, Gray,” Xue Tuan said, taking the handful. Gray was getting more and more worried these days, even remembering to bring him food.
Did Gray really think he was some fragile cub needing to be fed?
“You don’t need to bring any next time, I have food,” Xue Tuan said affectionately, rubbing Gray’s forehead with its fingers.
Gray, seemingly oblivious, kept staring at Xue Tuan and chirped as if to say, “Why aren’t you eating?”
Bing Qiu walked over, casually snatched a fruit, and ate it. He loved this fruit too, it was crisp and sweet.
Seeing Bing Qiu eat Xue Tuan’s food, Gray flapped its wings twice in protest: “Chirp!”
Then Gray flew up and landed on Bing Qiu’s head, pecking at its forehead in annoyance.
“Woo!” Bing Qiu jumped around wildly, its claws desperately trying to grab Gray and pull it off.
While Bing Qiu and Gray were playfully fighting, a mournful howl suddenly came from afar.
Xue Tuan and Bing Qiu immediately exchanged a glance.
“Father and mother must have caught something,” Xue Tuan said.
“Then they can go find Father and mother now, right?” Bing Qiu crouched down, and Xue Tuan quickly climbed back onto his back. Bing Qiu then immediately carried Xue Tuan in the direction Feng Yan and Rong Shan had gone.
Sure enough, they hadn’t run far when they saw their father and mother, now in human form, already processing their prey.
The prey looked somewhat like a chicken from their previous life, but at least ten times larger. It was covered in snow-white feathers with brightly colored tail feathers.
“Father, Mother, you caught a White Feather Beast?” The moment Bing Qiu saw the adults, he transformed into human form and rushed over to help.
Feng Yan and Rong Shan each wielded a sharp bone knife, deftly disemboweling the White Feather Beast and processing it on the spot.
The plucked feathers scattered to the side, and only a few pretty ones were collected by their mother for decoration. The White Feather Beast’s hide wasn’t suitable for making animal clothing, but the meat was still edible.
The situation was the same as when they migrated. While the adults busied themselves, Xue Tuan would wander around looking for anything useful. He’d usually pick up a twig and start digging here and there, that’s when he found onions, ginger, and garlic.
After Rong Shan discovered Xue Tuan’s hobby, he even made him a miniature wooden stick shaped like a hoe to help him dig.
Right now, Xue Tuan pulled the miniature stick out of his bag, his hands itching to dig.
However, after searching through the nearby grass for a while, Xue Tuan found nothing, but he did manage to dig out a small hole.
Xue Tuan blinked: Hmm?
He carefully parted the weeds and peered into the hole.
Feng Yan and Rong Shan were not far away, and kept a close eye on Xue Tuan’s movements, not letting him out of their sight.
Rong Shan, processing the prey, continued their conversation:
“Those animal footprints look like…” Rong Shan’s brows furrowed slightly, his expression grave.
Feng Yan pondered for a moment, then nodded, confirming Rong Shan’s guess. Judging from the tracks alone, the animal was much larger than the two of them combined. They were beginning to suspect it was a ferocious beast.
Feng Yan said, “Let’s ask the tribe elder when we get back.”
“Okay.” This was Rong Shan’s thought as well. Large prey meant danger, but it also meant a guarantee of food.
Bing Qiu, listening nearby, only half understood. A mere white-feathered beast wouldn’t warrant his father making him and Xue Tuan stay put so they must have encountered some large wild beast.
He only hoped to grow up quickly so he could work with his father to fatten Xue Tuan up.
Just as Bing Qiu was about to ask more questions, he heard Xue Tuan calling him.
“Brother—”
Bing Qiu put down his tools, greeted his parents, and headed towards Xue Tuan. When traveling, his primary concern was Xue Tuan.
Xue Tuan had run several dozen meters away. When he reached Bing Qiu, Xue Tuan pointed to a small hole beside him, his meaning clear: he wanted to go in.
However, the hole was too small. The slender Xue Tuan could crawl in, but Bing Qiu, several times larger than Xue Tuan, couldn’t fit.
Bing Qiu hesitated. It didn’t seem dangerous inside, but he didn’t want Xue Tuan to go in alone. Frowning, Bing Qiu squatted down and placed his hands on Xue Tuan’s shoulders:
“Sweetie, it’s not fun in there, let’s not go in, okay?”
“I’ll be right back.”
Looking into Xue Tuan’s bright, watery eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
Seeing Xue Tuan’s insistence, Bing Qiu had no choice. He always gave his younger brother what he wanted.
Bing Qiu: “I’ll stay here and guard it. Hurry up and come out, or your bottom will get a spanking if Father and Mother find you.”
Although it would most likely be his bottom getting spanked anyway, Bing Qiu still gave a perfunctory threat to prevent Xue Tuan from actually playing around inside.
“Chirp.” Gray jumped on Xue Tuan’s shoulder, wanting to follow.
“Yes, Gray, keep an eye on Xue Tuan, understand?” Bing Qiu poked the little bird’s forehead with his finger and rubbed it.
So Hu Li led Gray into the hole.
He insisted on going in mainly because he smelled an unusual, pungent odor.
Hu Li slowly crawled in using both hands and feet. As he moved forward, the smell became increasingly strong. Fortunately, the crawling distance was short, and he was able to stand up after a while.
Suddenly, an open space appeared before him.
Hu Li dusted himself off. The cave was quite large, with a few beams of sunlight filtering through the ceiling, casting dappled patterns and preventing it from being completely dark.
The sight before him surprised Hu Li.
This used to be a hot spring!
The dried-up spring water exposed its bottom, with irregular pale yellow crystals on the surface, emitting the distinctive smell of sulfur.
Xue Tuan rummaged through his small bundle, took out a small gourd, untied the vines, and the gourd split in two, revealing berries inside.
He poured the berries into his bundle, picked up his small stick, and decided to dig out some sulfur to take back.
Even if he took all the sulfur, it wouldn’t be of much use. Thinking he could take as much as he could, Xue Tuan dug diligently.
“Tuan’er—”
His brother’s voice called from outside the cave.
Judging that his older brother, who was keeping watch, must be getting impatient, Xue Tuan filled the gourd halfway, then closed the other half and tied it tightly with the original vine rope. Mission accomplished.
Hearing his brother call again, Xue Tuan quickly scrambled out of the narrow opening.
As soon as he was out, his brother grabbed him by the back of the collar and lifted him up, Xue Tuan’s small body swayed in the air. Xue Tuan only had time to casually scrape the stone he was holding against the opening a few times, making a mark.
Bing Qiu simply carried his younger brother on his back and ran back to his father’s vicinity, pretending they hadn’t been gone too long.
Feng Yan and Rong Shan had just finished processing the White Feather Beast and were planning to pack up the divided meat and return the way they came.
The two parents weren’t worried about their cubs causing trouble anymore, after all, encountering any living creature in this area was quite rare, and if they did find one, it might become their food supply.
Feng Yan and Rong Shan specially set aside a large hind leg as food to be handed over to the tribe.
Generally, food distribution in the tribe is either done according to an agreement or more flexibly, with each person contributing as much as they could. Since the elders hadn’t made any prior agreement, their sharing of a quarter of the meat was already considered generous.
By the time the Snow fox family were almost back at the tribe, the sky was ablaze with the splendor of a sunset.
The patrolling beastmen were the first to spot their return, and the news that “Snowfox’s family has hunted a giant white-feathered beast!” spread quickly.
It soon reached every corner of the tribe, and many people pretended to peek out the door, ostensibly to see if the chief’s hunting party had returned, but their eyes were unconsciously fixed on Snowfox’s family returning from outside.
They actually caught food on their first day… The chief’s hunting party had been gone for two days and hadn’t returned yet, their hearts sank.
“This family is really lucky…”
“Otherwise, the chief and the others wouldn’t have to hunt in much farther places.”
“If only our family could hunt like this…”
The beastmen were mostly envious of their good fortune in being able to hunt for food in winter. They didn’t believe that family’s good luck would last, or that they would be like them in a few days.
The Snow Fox family ignored the stares and went straight to Elder Mu Shi’s house to give him the food.
Usually, hunting parties would share their food at the altar in the center of the tribe. Since they were outsiders, and only one family, it was faster to go directly to the elder.
Houses like the chief’s, elder’s, and priest’s were easy to find. Just as Feng Yan was about to knock, he heard arguing coming from inside.
“…I can’t make the decision…”
“It’s getting more frequent every day…I’ve had a bad feeling about this since before…”
“…The prey is getting scarcer, we should make plans sooner rather than later…”
“…We can’t delay any longer!”