novelThe old haunt
| ← Ch.190 | Ch.192 → |
Chapter 190 - The old haunt
Translated by Lesyt Team
Edited by Ilesyt
The encounter with the Wan Shi tribe made those of the Lu tribe, who were originally talking happily, become quite silent.
After traveling with the team of the Lu tribe for some more distance, Shao Xuan said farewell to them. At this point, Yan Jiu and their team would move away from the direction of the ferocious beast mountain forest, while that was the way where Shao Xuan would go.
"It's still not that far away from the Wan Shi tribe. You can go a bit more further with us." Yan Jiu advised.
"No, thank you. You don't need to worry." Shao Xuan pointed to the sky above his head while saying.
Seeing the eagle hovering in the sky, Yan Jiu realized that Shao Xuan could indeed move on with the aid of the eagle. After all, it would be safer in the sky, as they hadn't heard of the Wan Shi tribe having domesticated eagles.
"Anyways, you need to watch out for the Wan Shi tribe." Yan Jiu said.
"Okay, thanks. Oh, wait." Shao Xuan took out an engraved stone given by the Shaman, which had the drawing of the totem pattern of the Flaming Horns tribe.
Showing the engraved stone to those men on the cart, Shao Xuan said, "This is the totem of our tribe. Maybe many people don't remember this right now, but I believe that everyone will recall it soon."
The men on the cart looked at the totem pattern on the stone, not understanding what Shao Xuan meant with "Everyone will 'recall it'". As to the totem pattern, they were sure that they had never seen or heard of it, but to show friendship in return for Shao Xuan's favor, they looked properly, thinking that they would probably not see him again in the future.
Noticing the expressions of those people on the cart, Shao Xuan didn't say more but smiled. Then he put away the engraved stone, said farewell to those men of the Lu tribe and gestured to the sky, then jumped on Chacha's back when he landed.
"Goodbye."
Waving towards Yan Jiu and the others, Shao Xuan tapped Chacha's head and "left".
Seeing the figure receding in the sky, the men on the cart pulled back their gaze.
"Do you think we'll meet Shao Xuan again in future?" Someone asked.
"I think people of the Flaming Horns tribe should be nice, at least much better than the people of the Wan Shi tribe. If the Flaming Horns tribe is not far away, we can take a trip to their tribe. But it's a pity..."
Several people were talking about Shao Xuan and the Flaming Horns tribe. After a while, they found Yan Jiu didn't say a word, so someone asked him, "Yan Jiu, what's your thought?"
Yan Jiu recovered his attention and looked at the others on the cart, "My thought?" Putting his hand up and pointing to the direction where Chacha was flying, Yan Jiu said, "Don't you think there is something wrong with that direction?"
"That direction?"
Just now, they were just thinking about the "Flaming Horns tribe" that Shao Xuan mentioned many times and the totem pattern of their tribe; when thinking back at the moment, they realized that the direction where Chacha was flying was right the way to the Wan Shi tribe and the ferocious beast mountain forest.
"Why would he go there?"
"Did he go the wrong way?"
"...Will we see that young man again in future?" Someone said worriedly.
That mountain forest was the only vast and dangerous land directly connected with the central area. Further outside, in the other directions out of the central area were the outer regions, where lots of small tribes were scattered. This was the only acknowledged dangerous place, where even the Wan Shi tribe seldom went inside. Everyone who entered the forest would go with companions in groups, but even so, many people still lost their lives in the forest.
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"Alas." Yan Jiu shook his head with a sigh, not speaking any more.
On the other side, Shao Xuan looked down to the ground on the back of Chacha.
He saw the team of the Wan Shi tribe, which he encountered before. After passing the group, they flew for some more time and saw the territory of the Wan Shi tribe.
Compared with the Mang tribe and the Eight Limbs tribe before, the Wan Shi tribe had more primitive and savage styles. Yet these men loved to decorate their houses with bone ornaments or stone ornaments hanging everywhere. There were many people walking around inside the tribe, and there were some livestock being kept in pens as well. But the livestock seemed nothing like they were being raised, but more as if they were robbed from other places and reared in pens. They didn't expect to raise the livestock for long, but fed them temporarily; whenever they would like to eat the livestock, they would just kill them. Moreover, the winter seemed to be coming soon. Who knows whether it would snow or not in the winter of this place.
It looked like something had happened to the Wan Shi tribe; many teams were running around, as if looking for something
At the moment, Shao Xuan didn't have the intention for more exchanges with them; what he most wanted to do now was to look for the old haunt of the Flaming Horns tribe, as Lao He had mentioned.
The totem flames in his mind had started rolling; the closer he got to that location, the more fiercely they moved; so active, that it was as if something over there was attracting them.
Though the Wan Shi tribe didn't have tamed flying animals, flying above the tribe at a low altitude would definitely cause them to get attacked intensively. When flying over the Wan Shi tribe from the sky at a high altitude, Chacha also pooped and left some droppings, giving a happy cry.
Those teams of the Wan Shi tribe below, who were running about, heard the eagle cry and looked up, guarding with their bows, arrows and long spears, etc. At times, in this place, some birds would fly out of the forest and snatch their food, and even take some people away sometimes. So at the sound of the eagle cry, they would warily watch the eagle high in the sky, waiting to attack the eagle when it lowered down.
But after a while, the eagle didn't fly lower, but they got some bird droppings instead, which fell on their heads, on top of the houses, in the animal pens, and in the storage houses, where they kept their food. Those who didn't dodge were wiping away the bird droppings on their heads and shouting with loud curses, which didn't do any harm to Chacha at all.
The animals in the pens were in tumult thanks to these bird droppings, running about for fear of being caught by the eagle in the sky. In their vague memory, some of their kind seemed to have been caught by this kind of birds flying down from the sky. With this sense of crisis, these enclosed animals, without care, hit the fences more violently; if not hitting the fences, they would hit the other animals by their side, most of which didn't belong to the same kind.
One of the sheep, whose horns were cut down, was chased by bull, running about while bleating; an old cow, which was grazing, was kicked over by a horse, falling directly into the haystack. The old cow got up, snorted and started fights against the horse.
The people of the Wan Shi tribe outside had to transfer some manpower over to put down the disturbance in the animal pens.
Chacha didn't know that his droppings along the way brought about a riot in the Wan Shi tribe. After having a pleasant crap, Chacha carried Shao Xuan and flew in the direction where Shao Xuan pointed.
Compared with places with lots of human activities, the mountain forest would make it feel more comfortable.
When he flew into the mountain forest, none of the noises from those human tribes could be heard.
The number of flying birds in the sky increased gradually.
With Shao Xuan on his back, Chacha would be limited in regards to maneuvrability, while Shao Xuan couldn't fully display his power. Therefore, he asked Chacha to put him down. He sneaked in stealthily in the forest and took a good look at this strange but kind of familiar region.
The human civilization which he saw before faded away. Here, everything returned to the most primitive state.
No house, no cart, no clothes with elaborate designs. The cruel rule of nature came on stage again.
Standing in a tall tree, Shao Xuan saw the forest in front of him and took a deep breath. From only one breath, he could smell the agitated and dangerous factors in the air. Nevertheless, Shao Xuan was not timid at all; instead, a long-lost exciting feeling was getting stronger.
From jumping down from the tree to walking through the forest. Almost from the first step into this forest, Shao Xuan had already adjusted himself to his best state.
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If Qu Ce from the Mang tribe and Xu from the Eight Limbs tribe saw Shao Xuan now, they would not believe what they saw. After all, what impressed them from Shao Xuan was a straightforward, savage and violent style, while now Shao Xuan looked completely different.
He was nimble, fast and covert, without any unnecessary presence exposed outside, as if already integrating into this forest.
In the forest, there were lots of wild animals as well as ferocious beasts. Many times, Shao Xuan slipped past those ferocious beasts. He was alone here; if not to hunt for food, he wouldn't bother those ferocious predators, as he had to save his strength to search the target.
His strength should only be used for the necessary situation. To survive in the forest, you had to use the least effort to get the best result and saving the remaining strength to preserve your life.
A vine was approaching Shao Xuan from behind noiselessly; even the rustling sound of friction was too small to be heard. On top of the vine was something like a bud, which opened suddenly like a big mouth with sharp teeth and bit at Shao Xuan's leg when near him.
A knife flitted through the "big mouth" on top of the vine. From the opening of the cut on the vine, some dark green juice flowed out and then the vine pulled back quickly.
Shao Xuan didn't look much at that vine, as he had seen many plants of the like in the hunting area before.
The old haunt was just around the corner.
Shao Xuan had already felt the excitement of the totem flames in his mind.
One huge rock caught Shao Xuan's attention.
The rock stood there, which seemed inharmonious with the surroundings. It was covered by some thick moss and various residual decayed leaves.
Scouting the surroundings and finding no dangerous objects, Shao Xuan approached carefully and shaved that thick layer of moss with the stone knife. The areas scraped away on the surface of the rock had some deep grooves.
Shao Xuan scraped another large area of moss and simply cleaned the rock, in order to see the grooves on the rock more clearly.
On the surface of the rock were carved some drawings, which were the characteristic patterns of the 'Flaming Horns' and some other characters.
Probably because of some reasons in the past, some areas on the rock were damaged; many dents couldn't connect each other; only the two largest characters that could be seen clearly was "Flaming Horns" while the other smaller characters were hardly identified.
After the removal of the thick moss and the residual decay, "Flaming Horns" was eventually brought to light again.
Just like the hill rock paintings of the Eight Limbs tribe, these huge rocks also played the part as landmarks, telling everyone who came here that this was the territory of the Flaming Horns tribe.
Apart from the huge rock, Shao Xuan also found several other rocks of the like in different sizes and different quality: some looked like they were cut open in half, while others were mostly buried under the earth.
Lao He mentioned that the roots of the Flaming Horns tribe still existed here.
Before coming here, Shao Xuan didn't know or feel the existence of the roots. But now, entering this region, Shao Xuan felt as if was being attracted over there by a beckoning force.
Having come here for the first time, but Shao Xuan had a familiar feeling somehow. He knew that it was the flame and the totem pattern.
Following the beckoning force, Shao Xuan headed over there with a quick pace. During the process, Shao Xuan also found one phenomenon.
It seemed that the closer to the center of that region he got, the fewer ferocious beasts would show up.
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Maybe just as Lao He mentioned that the roots of the Flaming Horns still existed, those roots also had some effect of the flame to the wild animals and ferocious beasts. But the effect was not as obvious the flame back home.
Without the distraction of more ferocious beasts, Shao Xuan moved forward more quickly.
Getting closer to that direction, Shao Xuan found more life traces of the tribe.
For example, houses and some towering stone columns, etc.
As a long time had passed by, some had lost their previous shapes. Moreover, the changes of the terrain caused even more damages. Because there were no human beings and very few ferocious beasts, it was almost covered by all kinds of plants in this region. In comparison with the growing situation of those plants in the forest, the plants here grew calmly and were not overgrown, or at least did not fully cover this region.
The tops of the collapsed houses had become the habitats of plants and micro-organisms. Shao Xuan had to scrape the above layer to see the real look below. Wooden things had already decayed. The only things left were some stone-made items as well as some pottery remains dug out from some places.
Entering this region, Shao Xuan stopped scraping or digging, but just took a good look at this region which had no human activity for nearly a thousand years.
Some stone houses fell down to the ground, while others were half on the ground and the other half in water. A stream flowed by, polishing those stones shaped like tiles.
Without tall trees as shelters, that high and thick stone column looked extremely eye-catching.
But the stone column had already been intertwined and covered by green vines. Shao Xuan pulled off all the vines with immense efforts while being careful not to damage the stone column.
With the vines pulled off, the carvings on the stone column also appeared. Compared with those huge rocks like boundary monuments that he saw before, the patterns on this stone column were better kept and clearer.
There were also some records with characters of the 'Flaming Horns', as well as drawings, which Shao Xuan could hardly read.
Were these used as a sundial or for sacrifices?
Probably for sundial Shao Xuan thought, as sacrifices were usually held nearby the fireplace. The place where the fireplace was located should be the one Shao Xuan was looking for.
The sun set gradually, with the dusk shining on this region of ruins, which added a desolate feeling of history.
Standing on the high stone column, Shao Xuan fixed his eyes to the distance. Far away, beneath that reddening sky were curving mountains and forests.
No matter how much it had flourished, it was just a weed-ridden land of ruin at the moment.
With a long sigh, Shao Xuan jumped down from the stone column and walked to another place.
There was nothing special there, but it was relatively flat with some small plants growing and some flowers scattered in between on the surface.
Walking around there in a circle, Shao Xuan came to the center and stopped, lowering his body and putting his hands on the earth.
He felt that there seemed to be something underneath the earth, surging and flowing.
| ← Ch. 190 | Ch. 192 → |