Chapter 1123 - Primitive Tribe, Mysterious Totem!
Chapter 1123: Primitive Tribe, Mysterious Totem!
Translator: Lordbluefire
Beside the lake, the smell of blood assailed their nostrils.
“Even if I want to save it, I have no tools to do so.”
Even the cleverest housewife couldn’t cook without rice.
The bear’s bone wasn’t broken, but it had many bite wounds and Sun Mo needed to staunch its bleeding and sew its wounds. However, Sun Mo didn’t have any thread or needle.
“I know Teacher will definitely be able to do it!”
Lu Zhiruo felt blind worship toward Sun Mo.
“I’ll give it a try then!”
Sun Mo placed his hands on the bear’s wound.
With no spirit qi, the effect of the ancient massaging technique was greatly reduced. Let alone not being able to summon the genie, even for staunching bleeding, Sun Mo had to continuously press down on the blood vessel.
In any case, it was better than nothing.
“Check the surroundings and see if there are any dragonblood grass and green thorns. Oh right, if you run into grass mushrooms, pluck some as well.”
Sun Mo instructed. “But do not run off too far!”
“Mn!”
Lu Zhiruo immediately did as instructed.
…
After stopping the bleeding, Sun Mo applied medicinal herbs and fed it water. He was kept busy all the way until the evening before he finally had time to take a break.
There was no time to find a cave to stay now. They could only rest beside the lake tonight.
Although the brown bear was close to death, it was still a ferocious beast and its threatening aura was still there. So, before that white tiger came to drink from the lake tomorrow, this place should be safe.
“Eat some!”
Sun Mo tossed a cooked pheasant to the bear.
The brown bear sniffed. Because the cooked food was too near, it scalded its nose and this caused it to immediately roar in pain.
“Let me help you!”
Lu Zhiruo ran over and helped to tear the meat into slices before feeding them into the bear’s mouth.
“Zhiruo, can you communicate with it?”
Sun Mo was curious.
He knew beast taming techniques but without spirit qi, there wouldn’t be a good effect.
“Mn, I roughly know what it is saying.”
The papaya girl nodded and this caused Sun Mo to be extremely shocked.
Because they were in the desolate wilderness with dangers all around them, Sun Mo didn’t have the mood for idle chat. Therefore, he got Lu Zhiruo to rest quickly, as they needed to swap shifts for guard duty in the latter part of the night.
When dawn arrived, Sun Mo was shocked away by a heavy booming sound.
“What’s going on?”
Sun Mo stared into the distance and saw some birds flying away due to shock, rising into the sky.
That bear also lifted its head to look and revealed a heavy expression.
Sun Mo placed the remaining roasted pheasants from yesterday on the bonfire to heat it up. He then took out a few bird eggs from the ashes and split them with Lu Zhiruo.
After that, he helped the bear change the medication and left behind two wild pheasants for it.
“Brown bear, we have done our utmost. Whether you can live on or not, that will have to depend on your constitution.”
Sun Mo packed his stuff and prepared to set off. He naturally wouldn’t want to waste too much of his time on a bear.
“It should be able to live.”
Lu Zhiruo was very happy. The constitution of the bear was truly very good, and its wounds had formed a scab.
Ao!
The bear was no longer filled with hostility. Instead, it lifted a claw and pointed at the west.
“What do you mean?” Sun Mo laughed. “Are you asking us to head there?”
The bear couldn’t understand Sun Mo’s words, but Lu Zhiruo was here as a translator.
“It says that there’s a human village over there.”
Lu Zhiruo translated.
“Thanks!”
Sun Mo set off, however, there was a heavy feeling in his heart. In the stone era where resources were rare, humans who were living should be savages. To them, he was food.
Moreover, even if he wasn’t eaten, it was unknown whether they could even communicate with each other.
After walking for over an hour, the two of them saw a tattered village. The houses were all round-shaped and made from rocks and stones. Several stone houses had even collapsed.
“There’s no one!”
Lu Zhiruo was disappointed. It was clear with a single glance that it had been a long time since people inhabited the village. But even so, Sun Mo was still very cautious as he silently entered the village.
The village was very large, and the distance from the eastern end to the western end was over 1,000 meters. There were no corpses or any traces of a slaughter. Many of the stone houses had collapsed because no one took care of them for years.
Sun Mo walked one round around the village and discovered an altar in the northern direction.
The altar was very simple. It consisted of eight large columns with mysterious diagrams engraved on them, and they were buried in the soil in a certain formation. Among them, three were already broken.
Sun Mo moved closer to the totem pillars and to see if he could understand something from them.
Sadly, he was clueless.
“Let’s go!”
An hour later, Sun Mo was prepared to leave.
“Teacher, let’s check this place carefully again. That mummy bear said that there’s good stuff here!”
Lu Zhiruo’s eyes were very bright. “Maybe, there might be treasures buried here!”
“How would a bear know if there really is a treasure?”
Sun Mo rolled his eyes. He mentally mused that if there were good stuff, it would surely be the altar. However, he had wasted quite a lot of time when he headed over to check them earlier.
Usually speaking, there must be wealthy people or people with high statuses in the village. The houses they resided in would also be larger. So, Sun Mo chose the largest stone house and entered it.
This stone house was the size of half a basketball court. There was nothing here. However, Sun Mo wasn’t in a hurry and he slowly prodded the ground with his spear.
“Oh right, maybe there’s a basement.”
Lu Zhiruo realized this in hindsight and also started prodding the ground.
Five minutes later, the two of them shifted their locations to the second-largest stone house. Sadly, they didn’t manage to find anything.
“Let’s leave!”
Sun Mo lost his patience.
“I believe that the mummy bear won’t lie to me.”
Lu Zhiruo was determined. She then entered the stone house at the side.
Sun Mo stared at the sky, and he was contemplating so much, feeling so much worry that he wanted to pull all his hair out.
What exactly was the condition to clear the game?
Sun Mo didn’t smoke but at this moment, he really wanted to smoke a cigarette to relax.
“Teacher, come quickly!”
The papaya girl’s shout interrupted Sun Mo’s thoughts.
Swish~
Sun Mo dashed into the stone house and saw a hole on the ground.
“Teacher, there’s really a basement!”
The papaya girl was very excited.
“…”
As expected of the lucky mascot. Her luck was incomparable.
He lit a torch and shone it into the basement.
Using the illumination provided, Lu Zhiruo felt somewhat disappointed when she saw that the basement wasn’t big. Even if there were treasures, there couldn’t be many.
“Wait for me here!”
Sun Mo instructed and jumped down.
On the left side of the basement, there were over ten beast skin bags that were the height of half a human, and a few of them were already broken. Various types of grains that Sun Mo didn’t know the name of flowed out.
Sun Mo immediately opened two other sacks for a look.
Rice grains could be considered rations. These must have been kept for many years, and their taste must have deteriorated. But at this moment, they could fill their bellies.
“There’s 50 jin of rice grains in a bag. There are a total of 16 bags here, and after removing the rotten ones, we should still have over 500 jins of rice. If there’s just the two of us eating, this would be enough for us to eat for a year.”
Sun Mo heaved a sigh of relief.
In this era, rice was life. At the very least, they didn’t need to worry about starving to death because they failed to hunt prey.
Beside the bags with rice, there were beast-skin sacks that were tied up with ropes that had frayed from age. Even if one didn’t use much force, it was easy to break them.
The sacks were all filled with weapons.
“Teacher, what are in the sacks?”
Lu Zhiruo was curious.
“You should come down and see.”
“Wow, a stone blade!”
Lu Zhiruo jumped down and happily cried out after seeing a stone blade of about three feet long in Sun Mo’s hands.
This stone blade was a creation of the highest-skilled stonemason of this village. Because it was coated in animal grease, it was very well maintained. Even now, it was very sharp.
Naturally, even if this item was no longer sharp, Sun Mo could just use a grindstone to sharpen it. After all, the most precious aspect of stone blades lay in the stone material that the stonemason had chosen to use.
If it wasn’t for this unexpected windfall, Sun Mo wouldn’t have a weapon for at least three years.
“Nice!”
Sun Mo took a stone blade and cut the air twice. It felt very comfortable.
“There are 30 of them, and there are more than ten knives here.”
Lu Zhiruo was taking count of their spoils and was smiling happily.
Other than blades and knives, there were also bows. However, their bowstring made from ox tendons had almost rotted. Fortunately, there was a sack filled with over 300 arrows and this caused Sun Mo to feel joy bubbling in his heart.
If he coated these with poison, their killing prowess would surely be very great.
The remaining items were five handaxes, two stone hammers, some spearheads, and ten slingshots. However, the slings had rotted away.
“We have profited greatly!”
Sun Mo happily hung the stone blade on his belt. He would already be extremely happy even if they only found this stone blade, let alone this many.
“Let’s have porridge tonight!”
Sun Mo immediately decided to treat this place as their stronghold. Just when he wanted to repack the weapons, the sound of a dog barking drifted into his ears.
“A wild dog?”
Sun Mo’s face was filled with joy. Just when he wanted to ask Lu Zhiruo if she could capture the hunting dog, a whistle suddenly rang out and this caused Sun Mo’s expression to change.
A savage?
(Damn, that’s not a wild dog; it’s one that was tamed and trained.)
“You wait here for me!”
Sun Mo instructed in a low voice and climbed out from the basement. He hid behind the stone door and peeked out.
A youth clad in beast skin was currently heading in the northern direction.
“Is he going to the altar?”
Sun Mo observed.
The youth had a bow and two quivers with him. There was a stone blade strapped to his left and right waist, and both his left and right legs had a scabbard with a dagger tied around them.
He was carrying a basket with various herbs and the corpse of a roe deer.
Because the youth would come here frequently, he knew that it had been a very long time since anyone came to this abandoned village. This was why he wasn’t wary at all. In fact, he was even humming a tune.
Ultimately, he sat beside the altar. He took a twig and copied the diagrams on the altar onto the ground.
Sun Mo didn’t dare to get close. Half an hour passed before that hunting dog felt bored and decided to leave this area.
“Chance!”
Sun Mo held a bow in his hands and snuck over.
The youth was too immersed in his contemplation and basically didn’t sense anyone getting close.
Sun Mo originally wanted to first injure the savage’s leg. Now, he decided to skip all the trouble and directly placed his stone blade next to the youth’s neck. Only then did the youth finally react.
“Don’t move or I’ll kill you!”
Sun Mo roared in a low voice.
Sadly, their languages didn’t match.
The youth jumped up violently. His right hand grabbed the stone blade to prevent it from cutting his throat, while his other hand shot toward Sun Mo’s stomach.
By doing so, his right hand might be crippled, but the youth didn’t seem to care.
“Damn!”
Sun Mo cursed and twisted his body, avoiding the savage youth’s attack. At the same time, he aimed a punch at the savage’s head.
Bang!
The savage suffered a blow and his head felt somewhat giddy. However, he forcibly endured it and ferociously punched out at Sun Mo.
Bang! Bang!
Sun Mo suffered two blows to his stomach. He felt that his guts were almost going to break from the impact.
“I should have injured one of his legs earlier.”
Sun Mo regretted it. However, now was not the time to show mercy. He turned his wrist and then continued on with the momentum, cutting down at the savage’s shoulder.
Swish~
The beast-hide shirt was cut, and a wound opened on his body.
The savage didn’t even blink. However, because he was injured, there was a change in his movements. Sun Mo took the chance and struck out twice more with his stone blade, aiming for the savage’s body.
Swish~
Upon realizing he was not a match for Sun Mo, the savage wanted to flee. However, Sun Mo used the back of the stone blade to whack the savage’s neck, causing him to faint.
Woof! Woof!
When the hunting dog heard the commotion, it ran over.
Sun Mo aimed his bow.
Woosh~
An arrow shot out and pierced the chest of the dog, causing it to roll over on the ground.
…
After Hui Shi woke up, he felt his head being very heavy. He subconsciously tried to rub it, yet he discovered that he was tied up.
“You are awake now?”
Sun Mo’s lips twitched.
Woof! Woof!
The hunting dog barked and bared its teeth at Sun Mo.
Sun Mo lifted a stone and tossed it over.
Bang!
“If you bark again, I’m going to roast you tonight!”
Sun Mo berated.
If it wasn’t for Lu Zhiruo pleading mercy, Sun Mo would have killed this dog.
“Who are you? This is the hunting area of our Gray Rock Tribe. All intruders must die!”
Hui Shi roared.
“Teacher, what is he saying?”
Lu Zhiruo couldn’t understand.
Sun Mo kneaded his glabella and felt somewhat rueful. No wonder all those people couldn’t clear the game. Damn, the NPC was talking in the ancient Nine Provinces language. Only a few people would understand them.
“You are now my captive. If you don’t want to be eaten, you have to honestly answer my questions!”
Sun Mo used the ancient language and threatened him.
The savage youth clearly didn’t understand his position. He was still shouting and roaring at Sun Mo. There was no solution to this. Sun Mo could only punish him.
Sun Mo picked up a wooden rod and smashed it ferociously on the savage’s skull.
“Now, can we converse properly?”
Sun Mo squatted beside the savage and used his wooden rod to prod his face.
“I won’t betray my tribe.”
The savage had an unyielding character.
“Good!”
Sun Mo smiled. “In that case, do you like being roasted or stewed? Let me clarify first, I don’t like eating sashimi-style. Oh, You don’t know what sashimi is? It means slicing off your meat bit by bit and dipping it into sauces before I eat it.”
The expression of the savage didn’t change at all.
After being captured by those from the Red Rock Tribe, the captives would usually end up being eaten.
“Fine, I’ll eat your dog first.” Sun Mo chortled.
“Don’t eat my dog!” the savage shouted.
“Haha!”
Sun Mo was happy. The savage wasn’t scheming at all?
Since the weakness had been spotted, it would be easier for him to do the interrogating later.
This youth was from the Grey Rock Tribe. They were the owner of this lake and the area around, ranging several tens of miles.
The tribe wasn’t large. They had a total of 500 to 600 people, and they usually made their living by hunting. Their smallest hunting group would consist of about ten members before they moved out.
“What are you doing here alone then?” Sun Mo continued to ask. “Is there anything strange about that altar?”
The youth didn’t want to answer.
“I can only say sorry to your dog if you still refuse to answer.”
Sun Mo coldly snorted.
Under threat, the youth unwillingly divulged the secret to Sun Mo.
So, this abandoned village was the Grey Rock Tribe’s previous location. A prophet had told them that a huge calamity was coming and they should relocate themselves, or their tribe might be annihilated.
Some people trusted the prophet and left with him. Some others didn’t believe him and had chosen to remain here.
“The prophet is very strong. His witchcraft is extremely powerful.”
When he mentioned the prophet, the youth had a look of worship on his face. “It’s said that the secret of witchcraft lies in the tribe totem. I wish to learn it.”
This savage wished to become his tribe’s prophet.
“Witchcraft?”
Sun Mo’s eyes brightened. Could he learn that then?