Chapter 135 – The Only Exception
Translated by Sunyancai
After the first teamwork, the following teamwork went smoothly. At the same time, these young warriors became more cautious.
Shao Xuan did not join them, sometimes he let Caesar go with them but did not give him any other orders.
“Are you ignoring Caesar?” Lang Ga was curious and asked him. Since the hunt of the huge bear, Shao Xuan had let Caesar take actions freely.
“I am developing his independence. Caesar is very smart, and sometimes, too much attention doesn’t help.” Said Shao Xuan.
“Don’t you often tell them to develop their beasts’ dependence? Why do you mention independence now?”
“We should adopt different ways to solve problems.” Shao Xuan replied.
Lang Ga did not understand it and gave up thinking about it. Then he went to have a look at what they were hunting.
Standing in the tree, Shao Xuan looked at the narrow stream in front of the tree. Some fallen leaves and small sticks were floating on the stream.
The ancient people observed the fallen leaves and gained the idea to make a boat. They found the wood floating on the water, so they knew how to make a boat.
In fact, it was not as difficult to build a boat as Shao Xuan had imagined. What he needed was just a trunk.
In the forest, there were many sturdy trees, and a trunk could be changed into a canoe.
But he still needed to carefully select a suitable tree type.
…
Their beasts did not draw the attention of those high-level ferocious beasts in the woods that occupied some places as their respective territories. For them, they were just a few small beasts, so they did not pay any attention to them.
Mai led his hunting group, as well as a few beasts, travelling smoothly from the first location to the third, in spite of some small troubles. For the hunting group, this was a novel trip.
A cry was suddenly heard.
An eagle was screaming in the air.
Shao Xuan looked up and Chacha intended to fly to other places.
When they reached the third location, they had already spent two thirds of the hunting time, so the hunting group would not go any further. Moreover, they knew nothing about the terrain and species there. So in general, they would stay here for a few days, and then turn around and go back.
However, it seemed that Chacha wanted to continue flying further. If Shao Xuan had not been here, it would have flown away.
In the sky, Chacha’s unique flying routine told Shao Xuan that he wanted to go there. From the first location to the third, Chacha had manifested his strong desire to fly in that direction.
“Uncle Mai, do you know what that place is?” Shao Xuan pointed in the direction Chacha wanted to fly at, and asked.
Mai thought about it for a while and shook his head. He said, “Some old warriors have mentioned it, but I do not remember. But I know it is not a place where we can go. That place is called the Severing Land.”
“Severing Land?”
“Maybe.” Mai replied with uncertainty. He really could not remember much of it, he had just heard some old warriors say they couldn’t go there when he was young.
Since the ancestors stopped here and did not move forward, they had their reasons. Because of their trust in the ancestors, each group leader stopped here, and would not continue to onward. Even if they went further, they did not go in that direction.
“Don’t go there.” Mai stared at Shao Xuan, and asked him to make a promise.
Shao Xuan paused for a moment, then he nodded and said, “OK, I understand. We won’t go there.”
Hearing Shao Xuan’s promise, Mai finally smiled, looked at the sky, waved to Shao Xuan, and said, “It is time to go back.”
Shao Xuan whistled, and then made a gesture to Chacha, who was flying in the air.
Another cry was heard.
Chacha was unwilling to return, so he circled the original place, before finally following Shao Xuan back to the third holdout. Due to his bad mood, it fought with an unknown bird on the way and was defeated. The unknown bird only suffered slight injury, but Chacha was badly hurt, and was even stripped of some feathers.
He was feeling even worse.
Shao Xuan was comforting him, while applying a drug to his wounds.
“When I go back, I will ask the Shaman what that place is. If we can go there, I will take you there.”
As the day to return was approaching, those who went hunting with their beasts began to feel worried. Although they thought their beasts had a good performance, which did not fight, or cause any big trouble to the group, and also helped with hunting a lot of prey, but only the animal skin roll written by Shao Xuan would be read by the Shaman.
Lei was particularly worried, because he had had a conflict with Shao Xuan. He was afraid that Shao Xuan still remembered their conflict. It occurred to him that when he got angry, following the others’ behavior, Lei dragged out a ferocious beast. This ferocious beasts level was not high, but it was the only ferocious beast caught by him and Meng. Until now, if he went hunting alone, he could only catch a beast.
Shao Xuan looked at the prey in front of him and did not know what to say for a long time.
He was obviously bribing me!
He thought quite a lot.
The others also followed Lei and dragged their prey to Shao Xuan.
The phorusrhacos kept by Ah-Guang moved its big feet to come in front of Shao Xuan. It shook its neck, and then lowered its head to spit out a bone in front of Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan: “…”
Shao Xuan looked a little bad, so Ah-Yang and Ah-Guang hurriedly pulled away the phorusrhacos.
Shao Xuan did not record the bribes in the animal skin roll, but when he returned to the tribe, he reported to the Shaman that those beasts were payment for his hard work.
The Shaman did not care about this, and he took the animal skin roll that Shao Xuan passed him. He continuously studied it for three days.
Lei, Mao, Ah-Yang and Ah-Guang did not know Shao Xuan took records in the form of the Shaman Volume, and also drew several pictures, which depicted the scene of these beasts hunting the prey.
Their advantages, disadvantages, and tempers were all recorded in words and pictures in the volume, so Shao Xuan did not need to explain it.
After the first hunt, the Shaman did not make the final decision immediately.
The Shaman arranged that they would undertake several hunting missions. These beasts still stayed in the same hunting group, but not in Mai’s group. Their routes were different for different missions.
Shao Xuan obeyed the Shaman’s order to follow them one by one. He followed several other hunting groups along their hunting routes, so he generally learned about the distribution of species along each hunting group’s hunting routes.
After each hunting mission, Shao Xuan also painted a map with more details, on which the general locations of the beasts, ferocious beasts, herbs, huge trees were marked. Shao Xuan only told these to the Shaman, even Old Ke did not know.
Shao Xuan brought Caesar and Chacha along the other hunting groups along their routes. Once, after arriving at the third location, Chacha again showed his strong desire to fly in that direction. Since then, it no longer did so.
Shao Xuan asked the Shaman why this happened. The Shaman did not give a definitive answer, but he said he would read the Shaman Volumes left by the ancestors to find whether there was a detailed record.
Shao Xuan would not take Chacha to that place until he was clear of the situation there, for nobody knew that place and whether they could come back safely.
The Shaman had talked to those who raised the beasts, including Lei and Mao, so they tried to hunt more food before winter.
This winter, the Shaman would perform the craft on several beasts one by one, except Caesar and Chacha. He asked Shao Xuan to be present, if he could not finish the ritual, Shao Xuan could help him. And as the next Shaman, Gui Ze was also asked to be present.
He would perform the craft next to the flame pit. In order to ensure that He would have enough spiritual strength, Shao Xuan was responsible for throwing a fire crystal into the flame pit.
It was a snowy day, but near the pit, there was not a snowflake or a water drop. Compared to the other places on the mountain, the place next to the flame pit was like a big stove.
Shao Xuan put a piece of fire crystal into the flame pit, and watched the fiery red energy drift in the direction of the Shaman, as well as himself. Gui Ze’s power was not awoken, so she could not absorb the energy of the fire crystal.
“Let’s start.” Said the Shaman.
The first one brought here was Lei’s “Meng”. The person who brought Meng here left immediately, and Lei could not stay here. They waited in another stone house.
Next to the flame pit, at the top of the mountain, there were only 3 people; namely the Shaman, Shao Xuan and Gui Ze.
Sitting on the animal skin blanket and looking at the beast that was lying down but still higher than him, he reached out.
The familiar Flaming Horns totem appeared in the Shaman’s palm, the blue totem gradually formed, but he spent more time on this than Shao Xuan. When the totem completely formed, the Shaman had been sweating, but fortunately, his energy could be quickly recovered by the fire crystal.
This time, the Shaman did not need to be vigilant like Shao Xuan, who had to keep a wary eye on the surrounding area that night. It was very safe here.
He did almost the same as what Shao Xuan had done, but after the formation of the totem, it took him more time to brand it on the beast. Fortunately, in the end he succeeded in branding the whole totem on the beast before it scattered.
When he finished branding, he was so exhausted that he fell back. If Shao Xuan responded slowly and failed to catch him, he would’ve fallen down directly on the stone near the flame pit.
After the first completion of the craft, the Shaman found that he could only perform the craft for one beast at a time. It would took him more time to perform it on seven beasts, for he had to rest for a few days after one ritual.
When he finished the ritual for the last beast, half of the winter time had almost flown by.
According to the ancient volumes, the success rate of the ritual for the hunting animal was fifty percent, so the Shaman did not expect the craft to work on each beast. But it turned out that the ritual for these seven was successful! Although, when he branded the totem on four, the totem almost scattered, but in the end, it quickly coagulated so he finished the branding.
The seven beasts were also in good condition.
This winter was over, and the seven beasts grew a lot, but their change was not as dramatic as that of Caesar. It was in line with the records in the animal skin volumes passed down by the ancestors, which is a gradual and moderate process.
At the same time, Chacha became listless all day.
It was abnormal for Chacha, that used to be energetic most of the time. Was it the only exception among the nine beasts in the tribe?
But the Shaman had said he would not perform the craft on him. That was not because he did not want to do so, but he could not. Shao Xuan had tried once, but he had failed.
The Shaman also said that Chacha was a real giant mountain eagle, and this kind of eagle had its own source of power.