Ch33 – Misunderstanding
Shi Li felt that he had been rather unlucky today.
Last night, he had taken a fall. Although he hadn’t suffered any serious harm, he had still taken some slight injuries and wasn’t in good condition today. To make matters worse, he had just left the tribe with the hunting team when he was bitten on the heel by an insect.
His heel swelled up, and it was painful and itchy, making it difficult to walk, but none of the warriors in the hunting team paid him any heed. Xiong He was very calm when he said that this kind of wound from an insect bite would heal on its own in a few days.
He also knew that the insect bite would heal in a few days, but he felt really uncomfortable right now!
If Xiong Ye had been there, he would definitely carry him on his back and find him some medicinal herbs… When Shi Li thought of this, his heart sank again.
He used to feel that it was disgraceful to have Xiong Ye carry him on his back, but the current Xiong Ye would probably never carry him on his back ever again.
This was all that d.a.m.ned Zhou Ji’s fault!
Right now, Shi Li wanted to toss in the towel and refuse to contribute anymore, but many of the people in the tribe had reservations about him now, and he had to appease them properly.
After taking in a deep breath, Shi Li endured the discomfort in his foot and limped forward. Yet after walking for a while, he suddenly realized that something wasn’t right–why were there were so many random insects of all kinds buzzing around him?!
He didn’t know when, but at some point, many, many bugs had gathered near him. There were crawler bugs, flying insects, and a whole variety of other insects, and he had no way to get rid of them all.
Shi Li was about to go crazy, especially since he could see that there were no insects plaguing the other people around him.
After dusting Shi Li with the insect attracting pollen, Zhou Ji had then spread some pollen that repelled insects on everyone else in order to prevent the rest of the people from the tribe from being caught up in the mess.
This was good–Shi Li was the only one suffering.
At this point, Shi Li also realized that something was off about this situation. However, he really didn’t think that someone had plotted against him secretly. He only thought that he was very unlucky and had provoked something or inadvertently stepped on a plant that he shouldn’t have stepped on.
He didn’t believe that anyone would be able to plot against him without him realizing it.
The people in the tribe also thought so, “Shi Li, did you encounter some pollen that attracts insects?”
“Did you step on any particular plants when you left the tribal grounds?”
“Perhaps a certain kind of insect left some scent on you…”
……
The tribespeople looked at Shi Li sympathetically and then gave him another suggestion, “You should find a place to wash up. That should fix the problem.”
If Shi Li was able to find a place to wash himself, that would indeed be great. However, it just so happened that the place they had gone to hunt in today didn’t have a river!
Later, even though Shi Li was deliberately on guard against them, there were still some random bugs that rushed enthusiastically towards him. And when they finally came across a river, there was actually a group of alligators lying there on the riverbank!
Xiong Ye had been able to catch the alligator from before because it was on its own and relatively small. As for the alligators they saw today…
Dozens of alligators that were several meters long and able to swallow a person with one bite were all lounging together, filling up the river. At a time like this, only the brainless and incredibly thirsty dinosaurs would dare go near the river!
The tribespeople turned around and left immediately.
Even if Shi Li was very eager to wash up, he also didn’t hesitate at all before giving up this plan–being bitten and chased by bugs was much better than being bitten by an alligator!
In places where water was scarce, rare sources of water would often become the base for various predators.
There were alligators camping by this water source, and there were also quite a few carnivorous dinosaurs lurking in the vicinity. The people of the tribe decided to go hunt somewhere else.
However, they were unable to catch much prey. They were only able to harvest a few small fellows that weighed a few kilograms each.
“It’s getting late, let’s go back.” Xiong He finally proposed. They probably wouldn’t be able to catch anything more even if they went on like this. If they were lucky, they might be able to run into some prey on the way back.
Shi Li certainly had no objections to this. He now had dozens of swollen insect bites all over his body and couldn’t wait to go back and take a bath, then rub on some herbs.
Last night’s events had hit Shi Li hard at first. He had still been thinking about Xiong Ye at the start of the day but after being bitten and chased by insects all day long, he no longer had any such thoughts, and he just wanted to get rid of these bugs as soon as he could.
However, a huge insect rushed at him…
“Arthropleura!” Xiong He looked at the huge millipede in shock and surprise, “Hurry and kill it! This kind of insect’s meat is very tasty, and its sh.e.l.l can be used to trade for salt!” The Arthropleura’s outer sh.e.l.l was extremely hard, and it was very well suited for making weapons and utensils. The knife that he used to divide up the meat in the tribe was also made from the sh.e.l.l of one of these insects!
However, it was difficult to encounter this kind of millipede and generally when they did, they would usually be in groups that weren’t easy to deal with. Not only that, they moved fast, and the tribespeople couldn’t catch up!
Now, one of these critters had been drawn over by Shi Li and had come out alone. Xiong He was so surprised that he immediately shifted into his animal form, the other members of the hunting team quickly followed suit.
The millipede was besieged by the warriors and died soon after.
“It’s really a pity that the sh.e.l.l was flattened by our attacks.” Xiong He touched the corpse of the Arthropleura and sighed, “Shi Li, you really contributed a lot this time. I’ll definitely make sure you get an extra piece of meat!”
Although Shi Li hadn’t made a move, he was the one who had attracted this millipede over!
With that in mind, Xiong He wanted to clap Shi Li on the shoulder in delight.
However, his hand hadn’t yet landed when he noticed that there was a bug on Shi Li’s shoulder.
Xiong He discreetly drew his hand back to his side. He didn’t know what kind of thing was on Shi Li’s body; it was probably better if he didn’t pat him.
Shi Li: “……”
By the time Shi Li and the others brought the millipede with them back to the tribe, Xiong Ye had already returned.
Today, Xiong Ye’s luck had been very good as usual. He and his fellow warriors had caught two Scelidosaurus as well as a few smaller dinosaurs.
They might have been able to catch more if they had stayed out for longer, but Xiong Ye remembered that tomorrow would be the day for his mating ceremony and wanted to go back earlier, so they had come back ahead of time–they had already caught a lot of prey.
The group quickly returned back to the tribe, and Xiong Ye called out, “Zhou Ji!” He had gotten a lot of blood on himself again today and wanted to have Zhou Ji wash up and clean his hair with him.
“Big brother Xiong Ye, Zhou Ji went out!” Mao Jin, who was in charge of guarding the door, told him.
“Where did he go? Did he go out with the gathering team?” Xiong Ye asked.
Mao Jin replied, “No, he went out alone. I don’t know where he went.”
Xiong Ye knew that Zhou Ji liked to go out and wander around on his own. His tone carried traces of helplessness, “Alright. I’ll go look for him.”
Zhou Ji wouldn’t have gone far away and should be nearby.
Xiong Ye left the tribe and went to the place where the gathering team was, “Have any of you seen Zhou Ji?”
The members of the gathering team shook their heads. “No.”
The head of the gathering team added, “He didn’t even come out with us. How could we possibly have seen him?”
It was clear that the head of the gathering team had something against Zhou Ji. Xiong Ye sighed and decided to talk to Zhou Ji again that night to remind him to establish a good relationship with the people in the tribe.
If someone remained alone and aloof in the tribe, they would definitely suffer.
Since Zhou Ji wasn’t there, Xiong Ye went to another place to look for him. As a result, he ran a full circle around the tribe but still couldn’t find any trace of Zhou Ji’s scent.
Where had Zhou Ji gone? Did he run off?
Xiong Ye started to worry, but fortunately, he encountered Zhou Ji’s scent at that moment.
Xiong Ye immediately ran towards Zhou Ji’s scent and then saw Zhou Ji standing there under a tree, fiddling with some leaves.
“Zhou Ji!” Xiong Ye called out, “What are you doing?”
After running all this way, the ‘clothing’ that Zhou Ji had made using leaves had already broken apart. He had planned to make a new set when he discovered that Xiong Ye had arrived, which resulted in the current scene. “I accidentally ripped up my clothing today and wanted to make new clothing with these leaves.”
Now that Zhou Ji had mentioned it, Xiong Ye finally noticed that Zhou Ji’s hides, which had always been wrapped around him tightly, were all gone. He had only tied a large leaf around his waist with a vine in a similar way to the animal hide skirts they wore.
This was the first time Xiong Ye had a good look at Zhou Ji’s body, and he discovered that Zhou Ji’s body was as pale as his face.
Not only that… Zhou Ji actually had muscles!
Zhou Ji was really good looking! Xiong Ye sighed with feeling, then felt that it wasn’t too surprising for Zhou Ji to have muscles–Zhou Ji’s physical strength wasn’t bad at all. It was just unfortunate that he hadn’t awakened an animal form and was therefore weaker than other people.
Such a pity… Xiong Ye felt a little sympathetic towards Zhou Ji, then noticed that Zhou Ji had some small wounds on his arms and legs. He was shocked, “You got hurt?”
He anxiously rushed towards Zhou Ji, then took hold of Zhou Ji’s arm to take a closer look and saw dozens of fine wounds on his arm. They were especially obvious against his pale skin.
Speaking of which… How come he felt that Zhou Ji had become paler again?
Xiong Ye quickly threw the thought of ‘Zhou Ji was paler’ to the back of his mind and focused completely on the wounds, “Did you run somewhere far away? How did you get hurt?”
“I didn’t run far, but I was unlucky and encountered some plants that had sharp leaves and ended up with some cuts.” Zhou Ji explained.
Xiong Ye didn’t suspect anything. Those wounds were very small and indeed looked like wounds left behind by scratches from leaves, “You have to be more careful in the future! Your skin is so thin!”
Zhou Ji smiled and agreed.
His skin was actually very thick and especially after turning into his animal form, he definitely hadn’t been scratched by plants and trees. Those wounds had been left by that huge millipede.
Only, the wounds that had originally been quite large became much smaller after he returned to human form.
In fact, although his mammoth animal form was a little ugly, it was actually quite useful…
“I’ll help you put some medicine on it when we get back.” Xiong Ye said.
Zhou Ji nodded. He liked that Xiong Ye was concerned about him. It was just very unfortunate that the gift he had originally intended to give to Xiong Ye had ended up being swallowed down by himself instead.
Zhou Ji sighed in his heart, then suddenly realized that something was wrong…
After he had eaten the fruit, he had fled very quickly and focused on using the energy in his body to heal his wounds and restore his plant and spiritual powers that had been used up in the process of maturing the plant.
At the time, he had only felt that the energy in his body seemed to be inexhaustible, but now that he had stopped and wasn’t making use of it anymore…
His abilities and spiritual strength had all been fully restored, and he no longer needed to consume more energy, but there was still an extremely, extremely large amount of energy left in his body! There was really a little too much, and it was starting to run rampant within his body!
Zhou Ji opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Xiong Ye was still concernedly inspecting the wounds on Zhou Ji’s legs when he was splashed on the head by the blood Zhou Ji spat out.
“Zhou Ji, what’s wrong?” Xiong Ye was shocked, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Zhou Ji closed his eyes and focused all his spiritual powers on his body as he began to try and properly absorb the energy into his body.
This energy was too overbearing; if he didn’t absorb it, his current body would end up being overtaxed by the energy!
A rare, natural treasure like this was indeed difficult to obtain.
However, now that things had reached this point, Zhou Ji was very glad that the one to eat this fruit hadn’t been Xiong Ye.
Although he appeared weak, he knew very clearly that his body was actually much stronger than Xiong Ye’s. If the one who had eaten the fruit was Xiong Ye, he would probably be endlessly vomiting up blood by now.
Using his spiritual strength to help Xiong Ye absorb energy was much more difficult than using his spiritual strength to absorb energy for himself.
Zhou Ji had no attention to spare for anything else and focused completely on absorbing the energy.
Xiong Ye was incredibly worried by now. Zhou Ji said that he was ‘fine’, but he had his eyes closed and wasn’t moving at all… Zhou Ji hadn’t suffered some internal injury, right? Why else would he suddenly spit up blood?
How would Xiong Ye still have time to worry about the small wounds on Zhou Ji’s arms and legs at this point? He picked up Zhou Ji and ran back to the tribe.
Xiong Ye ran very quickly. Very soon, he had already returned back to the tribe with Zhou Ji in his arms and rushed straight to the priest’s cave.
The warriors who had been in the same hunting team as him were currently dealing with the prey they had taken down. They were surprised to see Xiong Ye come back with Zhou Ji in his arms, “What happened to Zhou Ji?”
“Why is Xiong Ye carrying Zhou Ji back?”
“Did Zhou Ji get injured?”
“Zhou Ji’s body looks fine. Where did he get hurt?”
……
At first, everyone suspected that Zhou Ji had been injured. Then, someone suddenly said, “When they came over here just now, I smelled the scent of blood on Xiong Ye’s body, as well as Zhou Ji’s scent.” The scent of Zhou Ji on Xiong Ye’s body was very intense, and even the smell of blood couldn’t cover it up!
The people of the tribe: “……”
Almost all of the tribespeople had awakened an animal form. Some of them had particularly good noses, and some had very good eyesight. Now…
“Did Xiong Ye and Zhou Ji, in the wilderness… Cough!”
“Probably, Xiong Ye smells like Zhou Ji.”
“Zhou Ji had some minor wounds on his arms and legs. Was it from when he was on the ground… scratches from the gra.s.s and leaves?”
“Zhou Ji usually wraps a lot of animal hides around him every day, but he only has one leaf around his waist today…”
“Was his clothing torn off by Xiong Ye?”
……
The people of the tribe almost immediately confirmed one thing–Xiong Ye and Zhou Ji had most likely been ‘fighting’ outside.
Most likely, it had been very intense.
Otherwise, why would they come back looking like this?
As for Zhou Ji being carried back by Xiong Ye… Xiong Ye’s strength was so great, so perhaps he wasn’t careful enough and accidentally hurt Zhou Ji…
During this discussion, there was even a woman who spoke with envy, “I wonder what it feels like to be with Xiong Ye… It’s probably very pleasurable?”
One of the men immediately spoke up, “In fact, I’m also very amazing! Do you want to give it a try with me?”
The people of the tribe laughed and joked around as they went back to work.
That was when the team that had caught the millipede returned to the tribe.
Xiong He was delighted when he saw the tribe’s harvest today. “You guys caught a lot of prey… Where’s Xiong Ye?”
When they heard Xiong He asking about Xiong Ye, someone immediately spoke up, “Chief, Xiong Ye injured Zhou Ji and brought Zhou Ji to find the priest.” When that person explained, he raised his eyebrows and shifted his gaze. His meaning couldn’t get any clearer.
Not to mention, the people around them also rushed up to vividly describe the scene that had just taken place.
Shi Li, who had returned back to the tribe with everyone and intended to go wash up after putting down his things, heard everything clearly and felt like he had suddenly been struck by lightning, “What did you guys say?”