Ch5 – Doubts
The Scelidosaurus slowly gnawed on the plant in front of it, its spiked tail swaying leisurely behind its body.
Xiong Ye first changed back to human form and slowly snuck up to it before hiding himself again. By this time, Xiong Bai had already crept to the other side of the Scelidosaurus.
The two waited quietly for a while, then Xiong Bai abruptly fell down from a tree, giving the Scelidosaurus a scare.
The Scelidosaurus subconsciously ran to where Xiong Ye was hiding. Xiong Ye immediately shifted to his animal form and rushed out.
The Scelidosaurus was far slower than the bird-footed dinosaurs. It was already too late for it to run by the time it saw Xiong Ye. He first pinned the dinosaur down, and while it was still twisting its head and attempting to lash out with its tail, he forcefully shoved and tipped it over.
And then even before the Scelidosaurus could flip itself back over and escape, Hu Yue and Xiong Bai dashed over and attacked its exposed abdomen.
The three of them worked together and soon killed the Scelidosaurus.
The Scelidosaurus was over three meters long and weighed approximately two hundred kilograms. After removing the inedible scales and bones, it was still a good hundred kilograms.
It was inconvenient to directly bring such a big fellow back. The three of them simply tore apart the Scelidosaurus using their claws with practiced ease, then turned back into human form and split the meat up evenly. Xiong Ye and Hu Yue’s portion of the meat was of a slightly higher quality, while Xiong Bai’s was slightly inferior.
Xiong Bai was already very satisfied with this since she hadn’t contributed as much as Xiong Ye and Hu Yue to the hunt.
After dividing up the meat, they were left with only the bones and dinosaur skin–the Scelidosaurus’ skin was actually made up of scales, which couldn’t really be used, but the bones were useful if rather troublesome.
Xiong Ye: “I’ll take it if you guys don’t want it.”
Hu Yue: “Okay.”
Xiong Bai had even less of an opinion. She even said, “I can help you carry it!” She knew what Xiong Ye wanted to bring these bones back for; she had mooched meals from Xiong Ye before as a child.
“No need. I can handle it.” Xiong Ye said.
He wrapped his portion of the meat along with the bones in the Scelidosaurus’s skin with the bone spikes facing inwards, then turned back into his bear form, running back to the tribe with the large package of things piled on his back.
The smell of blood would attract carnivorous dinosaurs; they should return as quickly as possible!
Xiong Ye had changed back into his animal form, but Hu Yue and Xiong Bai stayed in their human forms. Hu Yue’s animal form wasn’t good at carrying things, and Xiong Bai stayed in human form to chat with Hu Yue.
It was still drizzling. The rain fell on Xiong Ye’s body, but it was unable to wash away the bloody smell that had sunk deep into his long fur. However, Xiong Ye actually liked this kind of bloody smell and didn’t mind at all.
When the three of them approached the tribe, others immediately noticed their group and turned envious one after another.
They had returned with meat!
For the people of the tribe, food was the most precious and important thing. Weren’t they all busy doing this and that every day just for a mouthful of meat and to ensure that they had enough to eat?
However, it was very dangerous outside, and it was impossible for some members of the tribe who had awakened weaker beast forms to catch such big prey, so many people could do nothing but sigh and envy them.
When Xiong Bai received these looks, she proudly straightened her back and stuck out her exposed chest. Very quickly, there were some men from the tribe who went over to pay tribute to her. Of course, Hu Yue also had her share of men.
Those who were powerful would always be sought-after, regardless of whether they were male or female.
Xiong Ye didn’t involve himself in these affairs. He carried his own animal skin parcel and went towards the east side of the valley, arriving at the big, west-facing mountain cave.
The tribe hadn’t dug out this cave; it had existed since before the people of the tribe came to this place. Of course, the tribe had made the cave a little bigger after they had moved in.
Those who lived in this cave were the elderly, children, and disabled who were unable to participate in the hunts.
It was said that a hundred years ago, their tribe was like a big family, and everyone lived together.
At that time, they hadn’t found this valley, and life had been very difficult. There were very few people in the tribe and it was basically impossible to tell whose child was whose, but nobody minded, and everyone raised them together.
The elderly and disabled were often abandoned because they were short on food.
It wasn’t until later, after one of their tribal chiefs inadvertently saved Grandpa Priest’s master and their tribe gained a priest that all this slowly changed.
The priest had knowledge about many dinosaurs and knew each dinosaur’s weakness, knew a more refined version of their language, could heal people, and knew how to preserve meat…
Ever since they gained a priest, people in the tribe rarely ever starved to death. At the same time, they began to pay attention to their relatives and start collecting some private property rather than sharing everything with the tribe as a whole.
It was all of this that allowed more and more people in their tribe awaken stronger animal forms. Everyone’s life was improving, and the number of people in the tribe continued to grow; the tribe now had over four hundred people!
However, although some changes had taken place, not everyone would raise their own children, and unexpected, sudden deaths still happened, so most of the tribe’s children were still raised collectively by the tribe. The elderly who couldn’t move around were also cared for by the tribe.
The amount of food they were given wasn’t small, and the children especially were given special care as the tribe attached great importance to them. Even so, these children’s lives were not as good as those of the children who lived with their parents.
Xiong Ye had a dream. He wanted to be the tribal chief, make the tribe stronger and stronger, and he hoped that nobody in the tribe would ever have to starve again.
When Xiong Ye entered the cave, he saw a group of elderly people lying down inside. There was also someone sitting in the corner talking to some of the children.
Additionally, there were several eleven or twelve-year-old children roasting earthworms to eat.
Children were always hungry at this age, and the food distributed in the tribe was often not enough for them to eat their fill, so they would find other ways to get themselves something to eat.
“Brother Xiong Ye!” They were all excited when they saw the huge brown bear.
Xiong Ye put down the bundle on his back and turned into his human form. He wrapped a piece of leather around himself, then said, “Hu Yue and I went hunting and brought down a Scelidosaurus. The bones and this dinosaur skin is for you guys.”
“Thank you, big brother Xiong Ye!” The children cheered, and the elderly who were lying there also sat up. The person who had been talking to the children of the tribe added, “Xiong Ye, you still never forget to worry about us.”
“I didn’t do anything.” Xiong Ye said. He wanted to stock up on food for himself, and it wasn’t good for the children to get used to getting something for nothing, so he didn’t give them any meat, but it wasn’t a big deal to give away some bones and skin.
He had always liked listening to the old people in the tribe recount stories from the past ever since he was young. It was said that their tribe used to be very weak, and the most powerful amongst them had only awakened into black bears. It was very difficult for them to hunt dinosaurs, so they would usually eat all kinds of plants or wait for carnivorous dinosaurs to finish with their prey and then bring back the leftover skins and bones to eat…
Carnivorous dinosaurs generally wouldn’t cleanly eat their prey and would always leave behind small bits of meat. Besides, bone marrow was also a good thing.
They never wasted anything.
Even now, when the people of the tribe went out hunting, they wouldn’t leave the bones behind. Hu Yue and Xiong Bai had left the bones to him because they didn’t need them and had known that he would bring them back for the elderly and children of the tribe.
Xiong Ye set the bones down and left to go look for Shi Li.
This time, he saw Shi Li even before he reached the entrance to Shi Li’s cave–Shi Li was standing on the stone platform in front of his cave with an unhappy look on his face.
At this moment, not only was his body wrapped up tightly in skins, but even his hair that had always been loose and scattered in the past was now tied up with a piece of string.
Shi Li really wasn’t very happy at the moment.
In his previous life, after he grew more and more powerful and became a Beast King, life became more and more refined and elaborate. Right now, he really couldn’t quite get accustomed again to this dirty and disorderly tribe.
Not mentioning anything else… He found it difficult to accept that each and every one of the women in the tribe were so open, walking around with their chests exposed.
Women wouldn’t dress like that in those big tribes.
These people… Really didn’t have a single ounce of shame!
Seeing that so many people still rushed up to flatter Hu Yue and Xiong Bai while they were both still so bloody and messy, Shi Li began to consider whether or not he should leave the tribe early, but he quickly rejected that idea.
He was too weak now, and it was too easy to encounter danger elsewhere. But if he stayed here… He basically knew what kinds of things they would encounter next, and he was also clear on how to deal with them.
Moreover, he was once the leader of this tribe, and back then he had many loyal subordinates in the tribe. He didn’t want to give up these people.
Of course, besides his subordinates, there were also people here who he hated. For example, that Hu Yue… Shi Li began to consider how to kill some people off.
Shi Li was thinking about the future when he noticed Xiong Ye.
Xiong Ye looked like even more of a mess than Hu Yue and Xiong Bai.
Hu Yue and Xiong Bai had only been carrying meat when they returned, and the two of them had shifted back to human form long ago, giving them the chance to wipe themselves down a little on the way back, but Xiong Ye hadn’t had the chance to do any of that.
“Shi Li.” Xiong Ye was smiling as he called out.
Disgust flashed through Shi Li’s eyes, and he dodged to the side as Xiong Ye approached.
Xiong Ye noticed his unwillingness and hesitated slightly.
To the people in the tribe, Xiong Ye had always been carefree, casual, unconcerned about outside matters, and happy to help others.
But only he himself knew that he wasn’t actually like that.
His mother and father hadn’t stayed together for long. They separated after he was born, and his mother took care of him alone.
Three years later, when he was a little older, his mother had become interested in a good-looking man and given birth to a second child, after which she no longer cared about him as much. When he was five, his father, who had occasionally taken care of him, died.
Having grown up in such an environment, he was actually very good at reading people’s expressions from an early age.
Some of Shi Li’s reactions yesterday hadn’t fazed him, but Shi Li’s rejection today upset him.
Still, he was a little puzzled–why did Shi Li suddenly change?
However, Xiong Ye didn’t reveal any of his thoughts. Instead, he said, “Shi Li, I took down a Scelidosaurus. Do you want some?”
Shi Li actually was slightly disdainful of the meat that was a mix of blood and flesh on Xiong Ye’s back, but he suddenly remembered that there was no more meat at home.
He hadn’t gone out hunting with Xiong Ye, so he could only cut off a portion of the meat that Yang Ying and Yang Su had gnawed on before to eat.
If he was the Shi Li from the past, if there wasn’t much food at home, he would simply eat a little less, but the current Shi Li no longer had that conscientiousness.
How could he accept going hungry after experiencing decades of privilege?
And also… When he cultivated, he would become hungry very quickly.
At this moment, Shi Li had finished all the food that the tribe had distributed yesterday and was hungry again.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come out.
“Just leave it here.” Shi Li was very reserved as he spoke.
Xiong Ye heard his words and didn’t even hesitate before asking, “Shi Li, do you still remember what you said when we first agreed to become mates?”
Juurensha: Awwww, Xiong Ye is so earnest and needs to kick Shi Li to the curb. (Also why does Shi Li want to kill Hu Yue, she seems cool????)
xiin: i love that XY isn’t as naive as he appears~
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