Chapter 188 – Bird breeding

Edited by Ilesyt

The travel team moved on along the route as planned.

After leaving the regions of the Mang tribe and the Eight Limbs tribe, the travel team walked further for another six days, during which they passed through some small-scale markets or some medium-scale tribes in the central area and exchanged some things.

Shao Xuan marked every place along the way on the map he drew by himself, even the characteristics of every tribe being marked on the map.

As he had to hurry on with the journey, he didn’t exchange too many things, only in traded for some typical tribal items or small light souvenirs.

Certainly, on the way through some desolate mountains and woods, the team also ran into some wild animals and even ferocious beasts. The amount of ferocious beasts was relatively less than regular wild animals. Someone of the travel team pointed to the map and told Shao Xuan the position of most ferocious beasts, which was right in the direction of the old location of the Flaming Horns tribe where Shao Xuan intended to go.

It’s said that few human tribes lived there. It was a vast mountainous jungle with ferocious beasts wandering around and various other unexpected dangers. That’s the last place where all the travelers would go.

Shao Xuan had planned to take a look there. On this journey, he should go and see the old haunt of the Flaming Horns tribe and the secrets of this former location which the ancestors kept thinking about, as well as finding out what the “roots” from Lao He’s words was.

Since their target was in different directions, Shao Xuan would separate from the travel team.

“Do you really want to leave the team? It’s dangerous on your own.” After knowing Shao Xuan was going to leave, Yu tried to persuade him.

“I rarely go out of the tribe, so I want to look around. After seeing enough, I’ll catch up to you along the route.” Shao Xuan said.

Throughout the journey, Shao Xuan had drawn a map of part of the central area based on what he knew. Although there were still many places where the travel team didn’t go, the areas of these places on the animal skin volume were still reserved. Shao Xuan wasn’t in a hurry. He would just take his time to finish the map.

After saying goodbye to the travel team, Shao Xuan headed in the direction of the old haunt of the Flaming Horns tribe, where Lao He had told him. This time, he traveled alone. In order to hurry on with the journey, he would let Chacha carry him on his back for some a while if the landscape was difficutl.

One day passed by.

Shao Xuan looked at the map on hand. Based on the map, the region nearby was the territory of the “Lu” tribe. Usually when approaching a tribe’s territory, Shao Xuan would remind Chacha to watch out, as these tribes had very strict precautions.

They should be people of the Lu tribe. Yet Shao Xuan didn’t know why they were so cautious. Anyway, Shao Xuan had to be vigilant against them.

Rustle.

Sounds of friction against some tree branches and leaves resounded, as well as the pounding sound of footsteps coming close at a fast speed, which didn’t sound like human movements.

Shao Xuan jumped to a tree and intended to look from above. Though people of the travel team told Shao Xuan that the Lu tribe would not impose great threat, Shao Xuan still had to be careful. If they were not friendly, he would call Chacha to get ready for assistance.

Da~ Da~ Da~ Da~

The sound of footsteps came closer, so quickly that Shao Xuan couldn’t see clearly what it looked like. But from the movements of the tree branches, he could tell that it was tall and big.

With the sound of footsteps approaching, Shao Xuan hid behind the thick tree branches, looking out from the gaps between the leaves.

Dadadada~~Da~da~

It stopped for a while when passing through the tree where Shao Xuan hid himself, and then turned back.

With the knife handle in hand, Shao Xuan wondered if it had found him. The trees around were not tall, so Shao Xuan chose this tree, which was relatively suitable to hide his body.

While thinking, Shao Xuan saw the tree branches below being pulled open. He lowered his head and saw a big bird head right in front of him, with a fruit in its mouth. The fruit belonged to this tree.

Obviously, this bird was just looking for the fruit, not Shao Xuan, but saw him hiding inside when it pulled open the tree branches to eat the fruit.

One man, one bird, looking at eachother.

The place where Shao Xuan hid was at least 5 meters high from the ground, while this bird head was less than one meter away from Shao Xuan, which showed the height of this big bird.

Remembering Ah-Guang’s phorusrhacos, Shao Xuan always guarded against this kind of big birds. After the tree branches were pulled open, Shao Xuan took the stone knife in hand and intended to give the bird a slash.

Nevertheless, before Shao Xuan took actions, that bird quacked with a scream, turned around and ran away immediately, without caring about the fruit chips falling out of its mouth.

Shao Xuan was left speechless.

What’s the use of even having such an enormous size?

If it were Ah-Guang‘s phorusrhacos, which used its head as a hoe, it would probably peck at Shao Xuan immediately. But this bird looked more surprised than Shao Xuan, and escaped in panic and fear, as if a little white rabbit ran across a big bad wolf.

Shao Xuan pushed aside the tree branches and looked at the bird running away like wind.

Like Ah-Guang’s phorusrhacos, it couldn’t fly, as its upper limbs had become vestigial. Also its body looked fatter than Ah-Guang’s bird, whose lower limbs were relatively larger and fleshy.

Whoosh~~

The figure in the sky caught that big bird, which didn’t run far away and flew up again.

After Chacha snatched up the big bird, a team of seven people rushed out of the woods. At first, they didn’t notice Shao Xuan, but watched and shouted loudly at the sky. One of them even threw the long spear in his hand, but the spear missed by quite a big margin, as Chacha flew too fast and also swerved.

“It’s caught.”

“Where did the eagle come from? I’ve never seen it before.”

The men over there shouted and then realized Shao Xuan standing by their side.

“Who are you?” One of them asked with suspicion on his face.

“I’m just a passerby. Well, that thing in the sky was my eagle.” Although those men were not in good mood, Shao Xuan saw that they didn’t mean to throw more spears. So he whistled and gestured to the sky.

With that struggling bird in his claws, Chacha circled above and then landed to the ground.

Those men still worried that Chacha would throw down the big bird directly from the sky, but only when nearing the ground did Chacha throw the big bird in front of Shao Xuan and then fly up quickly. He didn’t have a good impression on the man throwing spears at him.

The big bird on the ground only had some claw marks on its body and was a little frightened, not having recovered yet. After a few breaths, it intended to sneak away but was tied up in straw ropes by those men.

“Are you really just a passerby?” The leader of those men asked with a relatively good attitude this time.

“Yes. I was resting here when that big bird showed up.” Shao Xuan answered.

“I’m sorry for what happened just now. I thought that eagle was going to take away the bird we raised.” That man said with a smile. Every eagle in the surrounding region which stole their food, he knew them all, but that eagle he saw just now looked really foreign. Moreover, it was different from a domesticated eagle and a wild eagle. But just now he saw some drawings on the claw of that eagle. Although he didn’t see the drawing clearly, he guessed it should be something like totem tattoos.

Usually, the Lu tribe would not start a feud with others, so they would not offend many tribes, even if they were not familiar with them. And the young man in front, who could raise such a big eagle, the tribe he belonged to should be a relatively large one.

“Lu tribe - Yan Jiu.” That man introduced himself.

“Flaming Horns tribe - Shao Xuan.”

Flaming Horns tribe? Those men looked at each other, seemingly having heard the name for the first time. Could it be that the tribe was far away from here?

“Did you come here with the travel team?” One of them asked.

“Yes. I just left the team not long ago.”

He was really from far away. Those men thought.

Taking a look at the eagle in the sky, Yan Jiu said to Shao Xuan, “Shao Xuan, can you do us one more favor?”

“What is it?”

Yan Jiu told Shao Xuan briefly. So the story was that every once in a while, the Lu tribe would carry the animals they raised out of the tribe and return after exchanging things with the other tribes. But there was an accident early in the morning today: the fence was broken and didn’t get repaired on time; one big bird rushed out of the fencing and then several more ran away in succession.

They sent five teams to search for the birds in five directions, but didn’t find them all till now.

“So I’m wondering if you…can have your eagle give a hand and see if it can find the birds.” Yan Jiu said.

“No problem.” It was nothing difficult, so Shao Xuan called Chacha down to give him some words and then had him fly away.

Those men had been bustling about the whole morning, and had rarely gotten a chance to take a rest. Three of whom sat down on the ground directly, and thinking that if that eagle didn’t find the birds, they would still have to keep on searching.

“Hey, it’s coming back.” One man who fixed his eyes on the sky said excitedly.

In the past, they only saw eagles in the sky taking away their livestock; it was the first time that they had an eagle help them get the escaping livestock back.

This was only just the first bird brought back. About ten minutes later, the second bird was brought back. After that, Chacha didn’t bring back any more big birds.

“There should not be any birds in the surroundings. Let’s go back and see if the others found some.” Yan Jiu advised.

Meanwhile, to thank Shao Xuan, Yan Jiu also invited Shao Xuan. During the chat just now, Shao Xuan had shown great interest in raising those big birds. This also made the Lu tribe proud. They also liked to show their result of raising those birds, hoping that they could trade with people later on.

"Come with us, we have the largest farm in the central area. A lot of people have been trading with us....."

As Yan Jiu talked with Shao Xuan on the way to the tribe about the breeding of the birds, his tone was carrying a sense of pride.

When they arrived, Shao Xuan was surprised at the scene in front.

They stood on top of a hill, looking down, there were hundreds and thousands of birds. And although they had a big and fierce looking body like the ones before, but they were tame and only herbivores.