The entire ground water snake was twenty meters long. Xiong Yan and Xiong Xuan worked together to drag it ashore. Lu Xuan wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt the pool had become a bit shallower.
Xiong Yue was still telling Lu Xuan about all the benefits of the ground water snake.
“Its mucus is very sticky. When making hide shelters or hide clothes, if you don’t know how to sew, you can use the mucus to stick things together. And its skin is waterproof and moisture-proof. Its meat is extremely tender.”
“You eat its meat too?” Lu Xuan couldn’t believe it. How could anyone bring themselves to eat that?
Xiong Yue patted his chest in assurance: “It really is delicious. Ground water snakes aren’t easy to come by.”
With that, he couldn’t wait to rush off and collect the mucus. The ground water snake’s mucus was ruined as soon as it touched the ground, and Xiong Xuan and the others weren’t good at this kind of task.
Afraid that Xiong Yue might get a sudden impulse and call him over to help collect it, Lu Xuan quickly turned to Tian Xuan and said: “You said your leg hurt earlier. Let me take a look.”
By now, Tian Xuan’s leg no longer hurt. But seeing how nervous the sub-beastman looked, he still stayed quiet and let him examine him all over.
Lu Xuan dawdled and examined him for a long time, finally letting out a breath only after Xiong Yue had finished collecting all the mucus.
He swiftly bound on a new splint and said to Tian Xuan: “This time you got lucky and didn’t make your leg injury worse. Next time, don’t do that.”
In his heart, he marveled again at beastmen’s ability to recover.
“Mm.”
Tian Xuan nodded, but inwardly he found it very amusing. He didn’t expect the sub-beastman to be so afraid of the ground water snake.
He thought for a moment, then said: “The ground water snake doesn’t have much fighting ability. It lives in uncertain places, it can be in water or underground. Because its meat is tender and its skin and mucus are very useful, many beastmen hunt it to trade for supplies. But ground water snakes are hard to find. This pool wasn’t its habitat either, it might have just burrowed out of the ground.”
Hearing this made Lu Xuan feel much better. Even the basin of mucus that Xiong Yue brought over looked considerably less unpleasant.
“That long snake yielded only this little mucus?”
It wasn’t even a full basin.
But Xiong Yue was very satisfied: “This is already a lot. Mucus that touches dirt can’t be used. Once the mucus in this basin dries completely, we can store it. Next time we need it, just break off a piece and add a little water.”
Two words suddenly popped into Lu Xuan’s mind: glue.
How amazing.
A pile of foamy, bubble-like mucus suddenly seemed completely different.
Xiong Xuan and Xiong Yan were slicing meat by the edge of the pool. Lu Xuan and Xiong Yue went to the small grove to gather dry branches.
The trees in the grove were all short, as if malnourished, but there were plenty of dry branches on the ground.
“Looks like there aren’t many beastmen active around here,” Lu Xuan said.
Xiong Yue nodded in agreement: “There’s no prey nearby. Beastmen passing through here at most just stop to drink some water.”
The two gathered a pile of dry branches. Xiong Yue carried a bundle on his back first and said: “I’ll go get Xiong Yan to carry more. Wait here for a bit.”
Lu Xuan said: “Sure. I’ll pick some more wild fruit in the meantime.”
Xiong Yue’s eyes lit up: “Pick the red ones, they’re very sweet and crisp.”
Lu Xuan smiled and said: “No problem.”
Most of the red wild fruit was at the tops of the trees. Xiong Yue cautioned him: “Then be careful. Don’t fall. We already have two beastmen with leg injuries.”
Lu Xuan assured him: “Don’t worry. I won’t let myself get hurt. If I get hurt, there’d be no one to treat me.”
That reassured Xiong Yue. It was true, priest’s apprentices were very rare.
After Xiong Yue left, Lu Xuan partially transformed into his beast form, sprouting cat ears and a cat tail. He tried jumping onto the nearest tree branch.
It worked, very well. In fact, it worked so well that he almost lost his balance.
Lu Xuan was thrilled. He turned and climbed up the main trunk, moving fast and lightly.
The tabby cat’s tree-climbing skill had awakened.
He climbed all the way to the highest treetop. Standing on the canopy, he looked into the distance, an endless expanse of green, and far away, the silhouette of mountains on the horizon.
He had thought the wasteland was just barren, sandy ground. He had braced himself for eating dust. But before him stretched an endless green grassland, flat as a board, and the distant shadow of high mountains.
“Maybe it’s not as terrifying as the legends say.”
This environment was much better than the original owner’s tribe.
“How long are you going to stay up there?”
Lu Xuan looked down, goodness, what had climbed up so high?
Tian Xuan stood beneath the tree, looking up: “When are you coming down? The meat soup is almost ready.”
Lu Xuan’s calves were trembling. He… he didn’t really know how to get down from a tree.
“Wh-why are you here?”
“Xiong Yan is tanning the ground water snake’s skin. The others are all busy. Xiong Qi’s leg isn’t good for moving around.”
“I-is that so?” Lu Xuan laughed awkwardly.
Tian Xuan: “Come down and put the firewood on my back. My leg can’t bear much weight.”
“R-right away.”
Lu Xuan closed his eyes, gripped the tree trunk tightly, and after testing cautiously for a long time, finally stepped onto a lower branch and let out a breath. He continued to the next one.
Suddenly, his body felt light. The black bear had grabbed his hide tunic and lifted him down from the tree.
A tree seven or eight meters tall was no different from a sapling to a four-meter-tall black bear.
Returning to human form, Tian Xuan asked in confusion: “What were you doing up there just now?”
Lu Xuan: “…I couldn’t bear to leave the view from up high.”
Fine, he could see the look in Tian Xuan’s eyes that said words failed him. He took a deep breath and said: “Come on, bend down. I’ll put all the firewood on your back.”
The sun was directly overhead. Drinking hot soup, Lu Xuan could feel the sweat sliding down his back.
He took off his long hide tunic, revealing his fair upper body and his egg-white bald head.
Xiong Yue sprayed a mouthful of soup out through his nose.
“Cough, cough, cough, you’d better put your hide tunic back on.”
The others lowered their heads, stifling their laughs.
Lu Xuan said irritably: “It’s too hot. Animal hide doesn’t absorb sweat. Let me cool down for a bit.”
Lu Xuan ate his soup made from dried rabbit meat by himself. Everyone else was eating ground water snake meat. He had been sitting apart from the group anyway, and he moved a little further away, letting the breeze cool him down.
After eating and drinking their fill and regaining their energy, the group packed up and set off again.
With two invalids among them, the journey was very slow. With the beautiful landscape around them, Lu Xuan had the illusion that they were on a picnic.
“How much longer do we have to walk?”
From Lu Xuan’s perspective, there were plenty of suitable places to settle along this route. But on a question like this, the judgment of the people who actually knew the land was more reliable.
So he just followed them. But they had been walking for seven days now, what kind of place were they actually looking for?
Traveling continuously was exhausting, especially when they had to avoid groups of wandering beastmen and malicious exile beasts. For the past several days, they had deliberately taken difficult, out-of-the-way paths.
Tian Xuan lifted the three cubs onto himself: “I’ll carry them. You rest for a while.”
Lu Xuan didn’t argue. He really was tired.
Xiong Xuan also held his two little bear cubs in his arms. He was effectively the leader of the group, maintaining a high level of alertness the whole way.
Hearing Lu Xuan’s question now, he answered: “Too flat. No mountains, no large river. Can’t guarantee safety. We need to keep going.”
Lu Xuan understood. They wanted a place surrounded by mountains and water, easy to defend and hard to attack.
He looked at the distant overlapping mountain shadows and took a deep breath. He knew the saying: the mountains look close, but the journey is long. Were they really heading for the foot of those mountains that seemed to touch the sky?
Another ten or so days passed. Xiong Qi’s wound was almost completely healed, aside from a long scar, he had no other discomfort.
Tian Xuan’s bones hadn’t fully healed yet, but even his most serious shoulder injury had improved by seventy or eighty percent. This allowed the group to pick up speed, moving even faster than before.
The road beneath their feet grew harder and harder to traverse. In some places, the weeds were taller than half a person.
“Are we walking on a mountain?”
Lu Xuan could feel the slope underfoot becoming more and more pronounced.
Tian Xuan was as taciturn as ever: “Mm.”
Apart from Xiong Yue and Lu Xuan, the others rarely made small talk. They spoke when there was something to say and stayed quiet otherwise.
After a turn, the view suddenly opened up. Lu Xuan’s mouth fell slightly open, it turned out they had walked onto a mountain.
The mountain wasn’t tall, and its slope was gentle, but it stretched on continuously for a long way. The vegetation and trees were abundant.
“Right here.”
Xiong Xuan’s voice was steady but carried a note of happiness: “Let’s go down. First, rest and eat at the foot of the mountain. In the afternoon, we’ll choose a spot to settle and set up hide shelters.”
Lu Xuan let out a breath. Finally, no more traveling.
The sun was directly overhead. The group stopped by a stream at the mountain’s base. The water flowed down from the mountain, forming a small pool at the foot.
Clear to the bottom, with many fish inside, no fishing skills were even needed.
Tian Xuan and Xiong Qi, transformed into bear form, slapped their heavy bear paws in the water. One fish after another flew up onto the shore, flopping about.
Xiong Yuan was responsible for looking after the little cubs. Lu Xuan and Xiong Yue gutted the fish by the water.
Xiong Xuan and Xiong Yan went hunting, planning to bring back dry firewood as well.
Lu Xuan broke off a few broad leaves, he didn’t know what plant they came from, but they looked like ears magnified N times, and they were everywhere along the way.
He placed the cleaned fish on the leaves and squeezed some perilla leaf juice over them.
Xiong Yue asked curiously: “What’s that for?”
Lu Xuan: “It removes the fishy smell. But you can’t use too much, some people don’t like the taste of perilla leaves.”
Xiong Yue’s eyes lit up: “Really? Do we still need to add salt? But we don’t have much salt left. I wonder if Xiong Yan and the others found a place where we can get salt.”
Along the way, Lu Xuan had used various wild fruit juices to roast meat, or cooked meat soup with plants, and it all tasted very good.
Over this time, Lu Xuan had come to understand the dietary level of the bear tribe beastmen. Their production level might be quite high, but their cooking was still primitive.
“We still need salt. But since we have a lot of fish, we can season some with more perilla juice, some with less, and roast a few with just salt. Then everyone can choose according to their taste.”
“Great idea. I’ll go find some more wild fruit, and we can roast a few more fish with fruit juice.”
Xiong Yue shouted excitedly and ran off to the edge of the forest to pick wild fruit. This place really seemed to be rarely visited by people, many edible wild vegetables and fruits had rotted on the ground.
Just then, Xiong Xuan and Xiong Yan returned from hunting. The two of them were carrying a wild boar together. Everyone was surprised.
Xiong Yue immediately forgot about picking wild fruit and busied himself setting up a fire and kindling it.
Xiong Yan threw a large bundle of firewood onto the ground and laughed: “Everyone can have a full meal.”
The two little bear cubs hadn’t opened their eyes yet and couldn’t express themselves. The three cat-like cubs hopped around the wild boar, which was piled on the ground like a small mountain, completely ignoring the fact that they weren’t even as tall as the boar’s tusks.
Lu Xuan picked them up and moved them aside, saying gently: “All right, go play over there. When it’s ready, you’ll get your share.”
With such a big wild boar, the fish suddenly didn’t seem so appealing. Lu Xuan took the fish, rubbed more salt on each one, and planned to dry them into dried fish.
This bit of salt had been taken from wandering beastmen who had tried to rob them on the road, a case of black eating black[1] a term for criminals or crooks preying on other criminals rather than ordinary victims, here, robbers who tried to rob the group instead got robbed themselves jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2282799_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2282799_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
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