Edited by Ilesyt
Many of these type of birds were raised to help scout out the situation, so now when these people saw the bird, they first thought the bird was raised by the Feather tribe.
“Will it tell our actions to the people of the Drumming tribe?” One warrior said with worry. They were more afraid of death than those of the Martyr tribe were, they did not want to gain nothing and lose their lives.
The leader cursed to express his anxiety and dissatisfaction.
“Give the bow to me!”
Taking the bow given by his follower, he pulled the bow back completely and stared at the white bird, which rested in a tree as if it was sleeping. His eyes looked vicious.
Whiz!
The bowstring vibrated.
The arrow flew at a high speed, and the friction of the air issued a sharp whistle.
The leaves in the front were pierced and fell from the branches.
Rustle!
The arrow was nailed into the branch of a tree, and the arrow tail was still shaking. However, it missed the target.
He had thought it would hit the bird, but it failed. The bird which had stood there disappeared!
“Where is the bird ?!” The leader had a sudden sense of danger.
This place of the Drumming tribe was dangerous! It was definitely not the same as they had thought. Perhaps others from the central region had also come here.
It was true that the tribes in the central region hadn’t directly launched an attack against the Drumming tribe, but no one knew whether they did something secretly. If the other tribes in central region besides the big tribes got involved, they would have to take that into account.
The bird, perhaps, was brought by the people of a tribe from the central region. And the beast roars they had heard may also be related to them.
Although he did not know what happened to the Drumming tribe, he could now confirm that this was not something that they could deal with.
“Withdraw!” The leader threw away the bow and cried.
However, it was too late.
A white shadow flashed.
The leader felt some coldness over his scalp. Something went over his head.
He did not feel a pain, but the running blood covered his eyes.
“Chief!”
“Chief!”
Their chief was missing a piece of his scalp, kept bleeding, and fell down. They saw this, panicked, and dispersed while shouting.
The white bird shook to get rid of the blood and meat on its claw. Then it found a tree to rest. It didn’t want to take actions at night. It had planned to have a proper rest. Unexpectedly, it was attacked. Being taken way from the green land by Gui He and successfully branded by the Shaman ofthe Flaming Horns tribe, it would not take the initiative to attack the people of the Flaming Horns tribe. But it was not friendly to the people of other tribes.
It was about to continue to rest, but at this moment a figure flew over it in the sky.
The white bird looked at Chacha, who flew over it. He then continued to rest.
Inside the Drumming tribe...
This invasion battle was close to its end, shorter than any of the previous battles the Drumming tribe had ever fought.
All the water moonstones in the Water Moon Stream had been collected out of the water, and the water gradually became murkier.
This time the Drumming tribe had a good harvest, for the output of the water moonstones was larger than ever before. The adults protected their children and hurried home.
The people of the Drumming tribe were happy, but the intruders hiding in the woods failed to retreat, so they felt afraid of death.
Ao dragged a man and walked towards the center of the Drumming tribe.
“Ha, ha ha ha!” Zhi was held by Ao in his hand and kept laughing derangedly. His face was twisted, so he looked like a crazy man.
The Martyr tribe and the Jian tribe had originally planned to grab many good things, but it turned out that none of them could leave safely.
The Flaming Horns tribe was such a strong tribe. Why had they never heard of it? Zhi was puzzled. If he had seen one battle between the Flaming Horns tribe and others, he would not have refused to let another one thousand men join them. Unfortunately this “Flaming Horns tribe” appeared suddenly and then gave the intruders a painful and unforgettable lesson in a very ferocious way.
Zhi couldn’t move now, and he knew the result of being caught. He was clear that those of the Drumming tribe hated him very much. He controlled the totem power of his body and let it gather in his heart and then hit.
Puff!
Blood spat out of the mouth of Zhi, and then he stopped breathing.
Ao lowered his head and glanced at him. His face looked calm, he did not even stop. He dragged the man to the Drumming tribe. He planned to give this man to the Drumming tribe in exchange for more things. It did not matter whether this man was alive or dead.
Ao didn’t care about those of other tribes.
Shao Xuan and the others were busy with the cleaning when they suddenly heard the cry of an eagle. Then, an object was dropped.
The creature that was dropped to the ground fluttered its wings for a while, but the wings were injured so it could not fly.
If the members of the Martyr tribe and the Jian tribe were here, they would surely recognize that it was the crown kite exchanged from the Feather tribe. It had not wanted to follow the order before and was now caught by Chacha. At this point, it was no longer arrogant, and just shrank like a quail.
“What is this?”
“It looks very tasty.”
“Do we have more for dinner tonight?”
Ke Ke and the others came here.
Shao Xuan picked up the crown kite and said: “For now we can’t eat it.”
Hearing what Shao Xuan said, Ke Ke and a few others were not interested in it and they continued to look for those hiding intruders.
Shao Xuan knew that because Chacha brought the bird back, it certainly had something to do with the intruders. He thought to bring the bird to the people of the Drumming tribe to see if he could get some useful information. If it was useless, they could eat it.
The crown kite which was traded by people in the central region at a high price was directly included in the list of things to be eaten by the Flaming Horns tribe.
When the sun rose the next day, in the Flaming Horns tribe, they had cleaned the places that needed cleaning three times.
“Done…”
“It’s over!”
The Drumming tribe people had a kind of unbelievable feeling, and were still in a trance.
They had thought it would be a fierce defensive war, and had planned to try to bring the crocodiles. But it turned out that they had really underestimated the strength of the tribe called “the Flaming Horns tribe”.
Although this time there were still casualties, it had been much better than they had imagined.
The Flaming Horns tribe also suffered casualties this time. Two warriors died, and a few were seriously injured. They were prepared for this, for they had also encountered such problems during their hunts.
A funeral was held for the deceased. They saw their bones engulfed in the flames of the fire seed.
The deceased warriors of the tribe were not allowed to be buried in other places. In accordance with the tradition, their bodies should be burned in the flames of the fire seed. The Shaman said that in this case the warriors’ souls would be integrated into the fire seed and returned to the old land with the others.
In order to thank the Flaming Horns tribe for their help, the chief and the shaman of the Drumming tribe presented ten baskets of water moonstones. These were gifts which many families were willing to give. They were the largest and brightest water moonstones. The baskets filled with these stones was several times heavier than those often used.
Ao accepted everything and also got a lot of pottery. Although since they came here many of the tribe had learned how to make pottery, they still liked the pottery given to them, for they had never had such things before.
After a fight, they had to rest for a few days.
The members of the Flaming Horns tribe stayed in the Drumming tribe for another several days. These days they also encountered difficulties. Those crocodiles who came back were vigilant against those ferocious beasts, so they often surrounded the fleet in large groups. If they were not stopped, they would go down to fight.
Among the beasts, the crocodile turtle was the most special one. Perhaps it had once lived in the river, so it could get along with those crocodiles peacefully.
“Let's head out when everyone recovers.” Ao said.
“Good, but where to now?” The Shaman asked.
Nobody answered.
After a long while, the Shaman called Shao Xuan over, who was talking to a crocodile below.
“Shao Xuan!”
Shao Xuan, who was talking to the grown dark-eyed “mute” crocodile, heard his name and knew that the Shaman had something to discuss with him. Then he patted the rough skin of the crocodile’s head.
“Go. I have to leave.”
And then Shao Xuan turned around, but he was bitten in the corner of his pants. The “dumb” crocodile also tumbled a few times. Different from the “death tumble” to tear food, it now rolled more gently.
“What happened?” Shao Xuan looked to the crocodile in the water. If it tumbled again, his pants would be completely destroyed.
Loosening Shao Xuan’s pants, that crocodile glanced at Shao Xuan and then swam into the deep water.
Shao Xuan went aboard and discussed the route with the Shaman. After the discussion, he went down from the ship. He was then blocked by the dark-eyed “mute” crocodile.
This time, it did not bite Shao Xuan's pants and tumble. Instead, it opened its mouth toward Shao Xuan.
“Something in your teeth?” Shao Xuan was not afraid that it would directly bite him. When Ke Ke and other people stared at them anxiously, he calmly looked closer and saw no meat but a stone as big as a bowl.
The mud-gray stone was like those in the bottom of the various rivers in the Drumming tribe, it seemed to be ordinary with an irregular shape.
“A stone?” Shao Xuan was puzzled.
“This is the gift it gives to you.” Fu Shi was ordered by the chief to come here, he when seeing the scene, he laughingly said.
“Give this to me?” Shao Xuan did not understand the customs here.
“They send thank gifts to those who help them, and the gifts are the stone they bring back. As you know, they leave every year in the rainy season and come back when the water in the river rises. At that time, the full moon appears. The Shaman says that when they come back, they also bring back some stones and spit them in the bottom of the Water Moon Stream, and some of these stones will later turn into water moonstones. If some people in the tribe get stones from them, they can put the stones in the Water Moon Stream. At the full moon night, the stones will become water moonstones.” Fu Shi said what he knew to Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan took out that stone from the crocodile’s mouth and asked, “This stone will change into a water moonstone?”
“I heard that the stones given by them will turn into water moonstones as long as they are put into the Water Moon Stream.” Fu Shi said.
In other words, if you want it to become a water moonstone, you have to put it in that stream of the tribe. But it was not absolute that it would change, and no one knew when it would change exactly.
However, Shao Xuan was not obsessed with turning the stone into a water moonstone. He was still happy for receiving such a special small gift.
“That year you left, it left with the group for the first time. When it came back, you returned to the tribe.” Fu Shi said, “So it will be hard to see you again, so it seizes this chance to give you the gift.”