Chapter 203 – Too late

Edited by Ilesyt

The wanderer area’s condition was naturally unable to compare with the Longboat tribe’s ships.

Yang Sui looked at these old worn-out wooden huts in the surrounding, many that had big cracks in the wood. He seriously wondered whether they would freeze to death.

However, freezing to death was still better compared to being slaughtered.

Shao Xuan brought Yang Sui to Yan Zhi and his brother’s wooden house. Yan Zhuo and Jiao Wu left to trade for animal skins and had not come back. Yan Zhi was braving the snow to fix the wooden house.

Towards Yang Sui, they would inevitably have some suspicion and vigilance. If not for Shao Xuan, they would not allow Yang Sui to enter the room.

“You go ahead, I will help repair the wooden house.” Shao Xuan said to Yang Sui.

“Ok.” Yang Sui entered the room immediately, outside it was very cold, he did not want to stay outside and suffer the cold.

The logs that Yan Zhi brought had not been not been split, Shao Xuan used the blade and cut them into 2-3 pieces, and gave them to Yan Zhi.

Yan Zhi looked at the cuts on the planks, which were very smooth, the speed with which they were cut was obviously quite fast. This was a totem warrior’s strength.

Thinking he will be able to have such strength one day, Yan Zhi’s heart burst with expectance.

After the wooden house was repaired and reinforced, Yan Zhuo and Jiao Wu also came back with the items. However, they did come back holding the animal skins, but instead brought back some hay piles with the animal skins inside, seemingly to use for their beds or to light the fires.

This way was more covert and discrete, and it would not attract others' attention. After all, these two suddenly coming back while holding so many animal skins seemed suspicious.

Entering the room, Shao Xuan noticed that Jiao Wu and Yan Zhuo’s manner towards Yang Sui was full of vigilance and caution, but compared to the other emotions it was a lot less.

Later, when Shao Xuan and Yan Zhi entered the house, Yang Sui was telling his story of his travels, full of exaggerations and embellishments, fooling Jiao Wu easily. Yan Zhuo and Yan Zhi also listened with great interest. Although they knew that Yang Sui’s words were not completely true, but what he spoke of was truly interesting.

Seeing Shao Xuan come, Jiao Wu, who was unable to remain calm, hurriedly asked Shao Xuan: “Yang Sui said that he is a shaman candidate of his tribe. Is this true?”

Shao Xuan looked at Yang Sui, sees him not mind it, and then nodded, “It is.”

Obtaining the confirmation from Shao Xuan, the look of the several people towards Yang Sui became more excited.

A shaman, that is a tribe’s shaman!

Shao Xuan understood why these people were vigilant towards Yang Sui. Yang Sui probably also noticed their behavior and disposition, so he said his status so that his stay here could be a bit better.

Many people harbored a revering mindset towards shamans. Yan Zhi's group were such people, probably because the shaman of the Longboat tribe had a very high status. But the wanderers around the Rain tribe felt differently. Because after the shamans failed to pray for rain and were burnt by the tribe, the status of the shaman became lower compared to the other tribes. Naturally, if he succeeds in praying for rain, the status of the shaman would naturally increase tremendously.

“Right, elder brother, when I and Yan Zhuo were trading for the animal skins, we heard some wanderers were killed.” Jiao Wu said with a serious face.

“We heard they were killed while they were trading for food. Their corpses were thrown into the river.” Yan Zhuo also mentioned the matter.

“Killed by whom? Longboat tribesmen?” Yang Sui puzzledly asked.

“No,” Yan Zhi shook his head, “it’s a traveling group.”

“Every year, many wanderers here die at the hands of travellers. Longboat tribe only allows wanderers to live here, so long there is not too much racket, they will not bother with it. After all, they also do not want to have too many wanderers near them.” Yan Zhi answered lightly. Regarding this, he had already seen it before and was used to it.

In fact, it’s not only the Longboat tribe, no matter which tribe, the amount of wanderers surrounding them was always a stable number, it would not go beyond the range those tribe could accept. The tribes would not go out of their way to kill wanderers, so the secret fights and disputes helped them keep the numbers stable, therefor the tribes were naturally glad to stand aside and watch the fun.

When Yan Zhuo and Jiao Wu left to trade for animal skins, they were very cautious and careful, even concealing the items with hay. Besides guarding against other people from the wanderer area, it was also to guard against these traveling groups temporarily staying in the Longboat tribe. These were most likely totem warriors, making them a much bigger threat than wanderers.

“It’s them?!” Yang Sui looked towards Shao Xuan, “A while ago, I saw them and thought they had been up to no good, they were discussing together about having done something. It turns out it was about killing people.”

Shao Xuan recalled when he and Yang Sui disembarked, they ran into these people. It must have been them returning after having killed those people.

The atmosphere in the room became somewhat stiff.

“Be careful for the next few days, when the weather becomes better, we will leave.” Shao Xuan said.

Here, compared to the other side of the river at the Flaming Horns tribe’s place, the weather was different. In the winter, it did not snow all the time. Every so often the sky would clear up and the sun would break out, and a heavy snowfall was also rarely seen.

Hearing Shao Xuan’s words, Yan Zhi's group became very excited. this time they could truely leave here and return to their tribe, rather than being deceived or led to an unknown place.

“Yang Sui, when does the heavy snow come?” Shao Xuan asked.

“Should be in the evening. Wait, I’ll check again.” Yang Sui opened the window slightly and looked at the sky.

Yan Zhi's group did not dare to make any noise, fearing they would disturb the shaman candidate while he was looking at the weather. At the same time, they secretly thought: As expected of a shaman candidate, he can even predict the weather!

Half a minute later, Yang Sui closed the window, “Before dark, heavy snow will start to fall, tomorrow morning it will lessen, but later the heavy snow will start again. In about three days, the snow will completely stop, and it will be sunny weather for several days. At the moment I can’t deduce anything that will happen after.”

Regardless of what will happen after, Yang Sui has been able to predict at least the recent weather, moreover even more precise than the Longboat tribe’s shaman.

Seeing the the admiring looks on Yan Zhi's group’s faces, Yang Sui also felt quite self-satisfied, “I am the primary candidate as shaman!”

“Really amazing!” Jiao Wu was a person who easily showed his emotions and he immediately began to praise him.

What if it was the Flaming Horns tribe’s shaman? These people would immediately begin to worship on their knees probably. They seemed to be the easily deceived kind of people that shamans liked to meet, Shao Xuan thought.

As he was thinking, Shao Xuan heard a eagle cry. The sound was not loud, Yan Zhi's group were unable to hear it. However, the self-satisfied Yang Sui, that was being praised by Jiao Wu, looked outside.

“Jiao Wu, go outside and bring back the thing that’s dropped on the ground.” Shao Xuan said.

“The thing that’s dropped on the ground? What’s that?”

Jiao Wu puzzledly went outside and looked around. In the surroundings, many people know that there will be snow the next two days, so they taken many things inside and tightly shut the windows and doors, waiting it out inside their homes.

The ground, the roof, everything was already white.

“I don’t see anything.” The Jiao Wu quietly said. He looked around carefully again and again, trying to distinguish any object sticking out. But besides the white snow, he could not see anything.

Inside, Yan Zhi and Yan Zhuo were wondering what had been dropped outside.

Just about to ask Shao Xuan, Yan Zhi heard a ‘bang’ sound.

“What is it?” Yan Zhi asked Jiao Wu.

Jiao Wu powerfully pushed the door open and said towards the people in the house: “Wild... wild boar!”

Jiao Wu was looking around everywhere a moment ago, but he did not pay attention to the air. When he heard a sound coming from the sky, he looked up anxiously and noticed a bird diving very fast towards them.

Jiao Wu’s first thought was to run, but just as he took 2 steps forward, he saw something fall from the sky, dropping next to him. When he turned to look he saw a wild boar! A big one on top of that!

Taking a look at the sky again, that eagle had flown back up high again, and soon vanished from Jiao Wu’s view.

Looking at the dead boar on the ground, he noticed it was still warm. Unable to decide what to do, Jiao Wu stutteringly called the people in the house.

Listening to Jiao Wu shout, Yan Zhi and Yan Zhuo were confused. Wild boar? Why will there be a wild boar here?

“That’s it! Quickly, drag it inside!” Not even waiting for Shao Xuan to speak, Yang Sui hurriedly called out. He was quite hungry at the moment.

“But...” Yan Zhi's group were worried that the wild boar was someone elese’s game, if they stole the game, a deadly fight might occur. They did not want to have a conflict with anyone right now. Because of the conspicuous totem matter before, even some Longboat tribe people had become aware of them.

The Longboat tribe allowed wanderers to live here, but they definitely would not allow totem warriors to do so. If they decide that the Jiao Wu brothers are actually totem warriors, they will be driven away immediately. In the winter, during such cold days and with various dangers luriking around the corner, if they were driven out, their possibility of survival would be almost next to zero. They could only endure it and control the little bit of strength they had gained. And since that day, their totem patterns did not appear again.

Acting cautious was all good and well, but this is a wild boar… such great food! And delivered to their doorsteps!

They were hesitating. Jiao Wu looked back and forth from the wild boar on the ground to Shao Xuan, and back again several times.

“Bring it inside, that is our game.” Shao Xuan said.

Since Shao Xuan spoke, Jiao Wu then immediately dragged the wild boar inside.

“Prepare it.” Yan Zhuo said to his wife and then walked outside, “I will go clean up the bloodstains outside.”

Yan Zhi also opened the window and carefully observed the surroundings. Living in the wanderers area, they always had to be careful, after all, they did not have enough strength.

Shao Xuan had been thinking about going to a nearby mountain for a little exercise, but unexpectedly Chacha caught that thing, dropped it off and flew off again. He was not very happy about staying in the Longboat tribe’s domain, he much preferred staying in the mountain forests.

During the dinner, Shao Xuan told them about Chacha, so that they could be mentally prepared. Because after leaving the Longboat tribe, they would sooner or later meet Chacha.

For Yan Zhi's group, this day was full of non-stop pleasant surprises, the mood had been raised one after another in the evening. While Shao Xuan was thinking about what to do next, Yang Sui was sleeping like a pig.

That day, just like Yang Sui had said, before the darkness the snow suddenly increased. As big pieces of snowflakes fell, the night passed by, and outside the snow piled up ankle-high. Compared to the snow at the Flaming Horns tribe, this was nothing. But here it was different, such heavy snow was uncommon here, even in several years you would rarely see such heavy snow.

When they got up in the morning, the snowing had lessened, but the sky was still full of thick dark clouds.

Right now, Yan Zhi’s group completely believed in Yang Sui’s ability. According to Yang Sui’s words yesterday, the snowing would lessen in the morning, but after a while, it will start snowing heavily again. Before that happened, they had to prepare some things, such as water, food, etc..

Shao Xuan planned to go take a walk in a nearby mountain forest and maybe see if he can hunt some game, yesterday's wild boar had already mostly been eaten up by them. As usual, the Flaming Horns tribesmen’s appetite was quite big, even if they hadn’t awakened their totem power completely, Yan Zhi’s group, including Yan Zhuo’s wife, Yan Zhen, ate a lot.

Yan Zhi had thought about preserving it, but he had been stopped by Shao Xuan, they needed to increase their body’s strength during these days, because they won’t have a lot of opportunity’s to recover in the coming days as they had to hurry along as fast as they could.

Yan Zhuo and Jiao Wu planned to trade for some animal skin again today. After they heard about the wanderers that were killed, they were more careful, they planned to not trade for all the animal skins at ones, but to do so in several batches. Using the things Shao Xuan gave them, they could trade for a lot of animal skins, but that would be too conspicuous and would attract attention, like who the hell carries home a giant pile of hay?

Besides Yang Sui, the others had divided up their task for the day, as they were about to go outside, suddenly someone ran inside.

It was the two people Shao Xuan saw quarelling with Jiao Wu and calling out after him when he came here.

“You two, what happened?” Yan Zhi asked.

“Jiao Wu, Yan Zhi, quickly go and find a place to hide and look for Mu Qian, have her help you out! The two quickly shouted.

“What happened?” Jiao Wu asked. Although yesterday he had quarrelled with the two, but there was no enmity, their relationship was usually quite good, everybody stuck together.

“Yesterday, did you trade for some animal skin?” The two asked.

“Yes.” Yan Zhi did not hide this.

“Did you take along a jade stone?! I heard a person say that the person who traded the animal skins with you told this matter to the travellers. I think these people will be coming for you, you need to leave quickly!”

“Jade stone?” Before Jiao Wu could say something Yan Zhuo called out in alarm.

Because of the preciousness of jade stone compared to water moon stones and shell coins, therefore for safety's sake, Jiao Wu and Yan Zhuo did not plan to use the jade stone yesterday. But when Yan Zhuo was trading for the animal skin, he brought along a good friend of his who worked with him on a boat, But yesterday, when Yan Zhuo pulled out the shell coins, that person saw the jade stone.

Yan Zhuo made him swear to keep it a secret, and he quite trusted this friend, after all they usually helped each other a lot, they had quite a good relationship. And he had agreed to keep it a secret at that time, but now.... Was it him?

“You two, thank you.” Yan Zhi said.

“Ah, hurry up and go look for Mu Qian. It’s snowing now, even if you run, survival will be difficult. You should have Mu Qian help you.”

Yan Zhi did not want to cause trouble for Mu Qian, he decided to leave here and escape.

“Too late.” Shao Xuan said.

“What?” As Yan Zhi was thinking deeply where to escape to, hearing Shao Xuan’s words he did not react for a while.

Shao Xuan looked towards a direction.