Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 081
Chapter 81
“What should we do now?” Ali had not directly participated in a battle in a long time. The last time the hyena-drakes attacked the tribe, he was only responsible for taking people to a safe place like the ancestral house. Looking at the three hungry hyena-drakes in the courtyard at the moment, he felt a little uncertain.
“Let’s wait for Uncle Azhang to return from his check before deciding.” Aze thought for a while. Right now, the only females who could fully display their strength were him and Ake, but there were three hyena-drakes. With just them two, it would be impossible to win in a fight with all three hyena-drakes.
Ake had been keeping an eye out on the female hyena-drake, whose idleness showed that it seemed to have already concluded that these beastmen were already in its pocket. He asked with some uncertainty, “Uncle Ali, did you notice what the hyena-drakes that attacked last time looked like? I think this female hyena-drake looks like the one that escaped before.”
Ali looked at it and shook his head. “It was too dark at the time. I didn’t see the hyena-drakes clearly.” His eyesight wasn’t very good, it was at night and he was too far away to see the hyena-drakes at all. He could only vaguely make out the outlines of the hyena-drakes.
“Aze, I think it looks like the hyena-drake we first met.” Chen Qi also found the problem. The scar on the female hyena-drake’s head was too distinct. Moreover, that was Chen Qi’s first time seeing a dragon, so it left a deeper impression in his memories.
Aze nodded and said with certainty, “It is the one we met.” When he first encountered this hyena-drake, he didn’t feel it would be too difficult to deal with. Now, even though it was known that it was inconvenient for this hyena-drake to move about, its threat level was still higher than that from the other two normal hyena-drakes.
The female hyena-drake raised its head and let out a loud roar. The hyena-drakes that were wreaking havoc in the houses snorted angrily and came out. They were already in extremely hungry states, but these two stupid guys were still wasting their energy here.
One of the male hyena-drakes walked up to the female hyena-drake and rubbed its head against the female’s neck, only to receive a smack from the female’s paw. The female hyena-drake let out a loud cry, and the other two hyena-drakes obediently laid down beside it and closed their eyes slightly to rest.
Beastmen were cunning and difficult to deal with. They must maintain enough of their physical strength in order to take down the beastmen 100%. As long as they could catch a beastman, even if they could only eat a few mouthfuls, that would be enough for them to survive this winter. Thinking up to this point, the two hyena-drakes’ irritable moods also gradually settled down.
Chen Qi stared at the huge black hole, which was half blocked by the snowmen on the ground. He walked a half-circle along the wall and reached the section that was nearest to the hole. Aze watched Chen Qi leave and hurried to follow, protecting him tightly.
Ali and Ake looked at each other and also followed.
“Chen Qi, what are you looking at?” Ake followed Chen Qi’s gaze but didn’t see anything special aside from the snow bear, who continued to pretend to be dead at the mouth of the cave.
The snow bear seemed to sense Ake’s unfriendly eyes and slowly leaned more towards the snowman beside it. The snowman was not firmly piled up, so when it was hit by the huge furry body, the snow on top fell over and buried most of the furry mass. Feeling the familiar coldness, the snow bear felt a lot more at ease and continued to pretend to be dead, its posture motionless. As long as those damned guys who dared to threaten him left, it could then return to its warm cave. This time, it must wait until the first snow next year before reappearing. Then it will find a beautiful, soft, lady bear and nest together in the cave it dug to give birth to a bunch of small white fluffy dumplings. The snow bear silently imagined its beautiful future.
Ake looked at the snow bear buried in the snow, ground his teeth, and said fiercely, “I will definitely peel off this guy’s fur after we get rid of the hyena-drakes.”
Everyone else nodded in unison. If it weren’t for this guy, the hyena-drakes could not have entered the yard.
Chen Qi pointed to the hole. “Do you think the tunnel extends downward?”
“It definitely extends downward. Otherwise, with us having people guarding on top of the wall every day, if that tunnel is not deep enough to isolate the sound then we would have long since found it. Hyena-drakes don’t walk silently like snow bears do.” Ali looked at it and replied.
Ake was relatively quick to react. Hearing Chen Qi’s question, he knew what the other party must’ve thought of. “Chen Qi, do you have a way to deal with these hyena-drakes?” If they simply fought outright, even if they won, they would still suffer heavy losses. For the few of them who were practically family members, they couldn’t afford even a little loss.
Chen Qi thought for a moment, then said with uncertainty, “If the hyena-drakes are allowed to escape again, I’m afraid they will find other companions and return to attack us again. This time, we found them early, but we may not be so lucky next time.” Having spoken up to here, Chen Qi paused, “If you were to fight directly with the hyena-drakes, with their powerful fighting strength, even if they could not beat you, it would not be a problem for them to escape. But if you wanted to wipe them all out, it’s not that there is absolutely no way.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
The beastmen couldn’t help being surprised to hear that Chen Qi, a male, would say that there wasn’t absolutely no way they could wipe out this many hyena-drakes. Ali asked anxiously, “What can we do?”
Chen Qi pointed to the hole under the wall. “We can use this tunnel to hunt them instead. We also need to wait for the results of Azhang’s check. If there are still a lot of hyena-drakes out there, we can only drive away these hyena-drakes and can’t wipe them all out.”
The few of them straightened their expressions and Chen Qi explained his thoughts to them in detail.
“I think this method can be tried.” After hearing the explanation, Aze made the conclusion, looking at Chen Qi with a bit of pride. This was his mate.
The other two held a little shame in their eyes, but they held even more admiration. They never thought that Chen Qi, a male, would have thought of such a way. Before, they could only use brute force and strength to kill or drive away the hyena-drakes. But they never thought that there was such a way to outsmart them with other things.
Azhang did not leave for too long. As soon as he returned, he explained the situation to everyone. “The tunnel exit is near the bamboo forest. Originally, there were two hyena-drakes guarding it, but now the two of them are already lurking at the foot of the wall, planning to catch up to us when we leave the wall to run away.” On his way back just now, he was discovered by the two hyena-drakes. Fortunately, he was so fast and only half of his cloak was bitten off by the hyena-drakes, and he was not injured.
Azhang took off the remaining half of his cloak and handed it to Ali, grinning and rubbing his head sheepishly. “Next time, help me make a new one. I’ll get you the best fur.”
Ali gave him an unamused look and couldn’t be bothered to take the cloak, so Azhang put the cloak back on again.
Chen Qi also told Azhang about his plan. Azhang pondered for a while after hearing it. “Your method is theoretically feasible, but in this way we have to split up into two groups. Our numbers are already small, it will be even more dangerous.”
Chen Qi naturally recognized this problem, but this was the only way to wipe out the hyena-drakes. He couldn’t just stay back and watch the females go all out to battle the hyena-drakes. “Then we can only drive away the hyena-drakes in the yard, and I’m afraid we’ll have to be even more vigilant with guard work in the future.”
“No,” Azhang shook his head. “I just said it will be even more dangerous, but it is not impossible. The safest way for us is to wipe out all of these hyena-drakes.”
From the very beginning, Azhang noticed that the female hyena-drake with the scar was the same that attacked the tribe in the beginning of winter, and was the hyena-drake that got away. In just a few months, it was able to find so many lone hyena-drakes, and even managed to break in with the help of the snow bear. They must not let this hyena-drake survive.
Chen Qi thought for a moment, “I can pin down one of the hyena-drakes here with the bow and arrows. Which of you will go and deal with the two outside?”
“Ali and I will go.”
Chen Qi looked at Azhang in surprise. He thought Azhang would have Ake or Aze go. “How are Uncle Ali’s legs? What if the hyena-drakes catch up to him?” With Ali’s speed, there was no way he’d escape.
Ali patted Chen Qi on the shoulder and smiled. “Don’t worry, he will carry me on his back.”
“Then both of you have to be more careful.” After Chen Qi gave everyone directions, they split up to prepare things.
For defenses, the watchtower had several bows and a few large bundles of arrows. Chen Qi took a large pottery plate out from the watchtower and a large pile of firewood. He placed a few planks under the plate to keep the heat insulated, then put the firewood into it and lit a fire.
Aze and Azhang went to divert the attention of the hyena-drakes in the yard while Chen Qi covered the two of them. Meanwhile, Ake quietly went around to the back, taking advantage of the hyena-drakes being drawn away. Using the tall fig tree in the yard as a cover to get down to the ground, he walked to the large wooden box where the animal fat was stored.
The hyena-drakes in the yard saw the beastmen dispersing and stood up. The three hyena-drakes stood back to back, staring at the beastmen in different directions, waiting for them to come down at any time so that they could pounce at them as quickly as possible.
Chen Qi drew his bow and launched an arrow. The arrow flew out and accurately struck the back of the female hyena-drake. The arrow with the bone arrowhead made a slightly dull noise when it came into contact with the hyena-drake’s hard scales. Then the arrow fell to the ground.
The female hyena-drake was obviously a little surprised by this little thing that flew over suddenly. It cocked its head and looked at the arrow lying on the ground, then it raised one of its front paws and stepped heavily on the arrow. The wooden arrow body snapped in half.
Chen Qi’s lips pursed. Sure enough, the bow and arrow could not break through the hyena-drake’s scales and practically had no effect.
Aze and Azhang flipped themselves over and down the wall with their fingers transformed into beast claws. The female hyena-drake gave a loud roar and the two male hyena-drakes on its left and right rushed towards the two of them. Aze dodged the first wave of attacks and didn’t retreat, instead attacking further, inserting his right hand into the scales on the back of the hyena-drake’s neck and turning over to jump onto its back. Then using the body’s gravity, the sharp claws tore off a piece of scales before he retreated quickly.
The hyena-drake’s eyes were red from the pain. It turned around nimbly and swung its tail like a whip in Aze’s direction, barely sweeping past Aze’s body and pounding into the snowman next to him. The snowman instantly turned into a pile of crushed snow, white dust swirling in the air towards the ground. Fortunately, Aze retreated fast enough. Otherwise, he would have been seriously injured if he was hit by that forceful tail.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
The female hyena-drake saw that Aze was difficult to deal with. Just as it was about to step forward to help, a gust of wind suddenly came straight towards its eyes. The female hyena-drake tilted its head slightly and raised its tail high, directly smashing the flying arrow into two pieces.
When one arrow failed, Ali shot out another, and as soon as the arrow left the bow, the third arrow followed. Each arrow was precisely aimed at the female hyena-drake’s eyes. The female hyena was obviously angered by this annoying move, but Ali was on the wall and couldn’t be reached, so it decided to change its target to help the other hyena-drake deal with Azhang.
Unexpectedly, just as it changed directions, another arrow flew towards its eyes. This arrow was not as fierce as those before and the female hyena-drake had no interest in removing the flying object this time. Evading flexibly, it had already dodged it and arrived in front of Azhang.
Azhang naturally would not fight the two hyena-drakes head-on. Their aim was to restrain the hyena-drakes for a period of time so that Ake could move the necessary materials back to the wall. Azhang untied the half-cloak on him and swung the hood over the head of the female hyena-drake. Taking advantage of its momentary loss of vision, he turned around and started running on the track.
The male hyena-drake saw that the prey was about to run away again. It clawed at the soil under its feet angrily and, with the female hyena-drake, flanked Azhang from both sides. The snowmen around them were knocked down by the hyena-drakes one by one. Seeing that they were almost about to catch up to Azhang, several arrows fell in front of the two hyena-drakes one after another. Taking advantage of the hyena-drakes’ distracted efforts, Azhang grabbed the wooden ladder next to him and quickly climbed back onto the wall.
Azhang’s face was a little red from the intense running. After a short moment of catching his breath, Azhang let out a whistle, signaling for Aze to withdraw.
The two hyena-drakes under the wall found Azhang had cunningly climbed back to the wall and they kept making threatening noises from their throats. The male hyena-drake even angrily bit the wooden ladder, forcefully tearing it off the wall. Unable to let go of its anger, he also added a few swipes of his claws and directly crushed the wooden ladder. Azhang raised a triumphant smile at them, then turned and walked towards Ali.
The two hyena-drakes had no choice and were preparing to go back to help their companion deal with the other beastman. Unexpectedly, that beastman had also cunningly distanced himself from the hyena-drake while they were turned around and had climbed a wooden ladder back onto the wall.
Their companion was not so lucky. It was slipped up by Aze for half a lap around the yard and there were several bloody incisions on its body. The scales that were forcibly torn off were scattered around and the bright blood was particularly conspicuous against the silver scales of the hyena-drakes.
The eyes of the female hyena-drake flickered. These beastmen were obviously more difficult to deal with than it had imagined. It turned its head slightly and secretly glanced at the dark hole, contemplating the possibility of retreat. But they hadn’t eaten since the beginning of winter and they dared not go to large tribes. If they couldn’t even take down such a small tribe with just a few people, then they will have to starve to death.
Ake had already returned. He was carrying a tall wooden box on his back, which was filled with all the animal fat they had made this winter. The fat had been frozen hard and touching it would leave them with oily hands.
Azhang crushed all the animal fat into pieces. Chen Qi put some into a smaller pottery dish and put it by the fire to melt. Then he gave a few large bamboo tubes to Ali. Ali put the bamboo tubes away in a backpack and wrapped several pieces of animal fat and stuffed them in as well. Ake handed him some torches they had made before, as well as turpentine-stained wood and several bundles of straw. Ali packed all the things into the backpack, one by one.
“Ali, your marksmanship is so good, you can choose a tall tree to cover Azhang. Wait for Azhang to lead the hyena-drakes into the tunnel before you go there.” Chen Qi reminded, and then repeated about what might happen during the plan.
Now it was approaching evening, and everyone did not want to delay killing the hyena-drakes until night fell. No matter how good the female’s eyesight is, it’s not as good as a hyena-drake’s. Once it got dark, it would only increase the chances for the hyena-drakes to escape.
After they finished talking, they started to act separately again. Aze had already aroused the hatred of the hyena-drakes just now, so he easily led them away from the tunnel. Chen Qi moistened an arrow wrapped in rags with melted fat. Then he lit it on fire, drew his bow and launched an arrow straight towards the head of one of the male hyena-drakes.
Chen Qi’s marksmanship was not as good as Ali’s. He couldn’t aim every arrow at the hyena-drake’s eyes. He could only zoom in and target the larger object, the head. All animals had a subconscious fear of fire. Although Chen Qi was not expecting for his projectile to repel the hyena-drake, as long as he stopped the hyena-drake’s movements a little, he could buy enough time for the others’ actions.
Ake’s body was flexible, like a vigorous leopard, he led the other male hyena-drake towards the tunnel. Because Azhang had previously escaped from its grasp, the male hyena-drake was extremely anxious at the moment. It didn’t think about whether there was a trap ahead, and just wanted to catch Ake as quickly as possible.
After getting close to the entrance of the tunnel, Ake stopped running away and instead, took the initiative to attack. His sharp claws went straight at the hyena-drake’s eyes. The hyena-drake was frightened by this change and stepped aside for a moment, but it reacted quickly and swept its tail towards Ake at the same time.
Ake jumped into the air to avoid the hyena-drake’s tail. When he landed, he took advantage of the tail that was stopped, grabbing it with one hand and directly kicking the hyena-drake’s right hind leg. The body of the hyena-drake tilted and Ake took this opportunity to grab the hyena-drake by the tail with one hand and the hind foot with the other and directly tossed the hyena-drake into the tunnel, headfirst.
“Chen Qi.” Ake shouted, and Chen Qi quickly threw down the things they had prepared before.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Ake quickly took out a bamboo tube from his backpack, opened it and swiftly sprinkled its contents into the tunnel. Then he took out a large handful of straw, cutting through the rope keeping it bundled with a claw and poured oil from another bamboo tube into the tunnel. Chen Qi’s fire-lit projectile followed closely after, and the dry oil-sprinkled hay burst into flames.
Ake moved to the snow bear that was still hiding in the pile of snow, grabbed its hind feet, dragged it out of the snow and stuffed it into the tunnel to block the hyena-drake from coming out.
There was fire in the tunnel, and the snow bear had been frightened for a long time and just wanted to run away. Chen Qi shot an arrow directly at the snow bear’s big butt. The snow bear’s fur was not as thick as that of hyena-drakes, so the arrow pierced its beautiful white fur and a small pool of red quickly appeared. The snow bear suffered from this pain in the butt and did not care about the fire in front of him, only wanting to return to his cave.
The hyena-drake in the tunnel was rattled by the sudden fire, but it became angry again when it found the snow bear suddenly blocking the way. It had hard scales and was not afraid of this small, harmless fire. It just wanted to hurry out and devour that evil beastman alive.
Threatened by the fire and hyena-drake in front, the snow bear could only endure the pain and just wanted to withdraw from the tunnel. However, as soon as it appeared, Chen Qi followed up with another fire arrow. The snow bear was scared and squeezed back into the cave again. Because of the sudden isolation of air, the fire that had just started to burn in the tunnel was quickly extinguished. A thick, foul-smelling smoke came out from the straw. The hyena-drake was so choked that it could only retreat into the depths of the cave. However, the snow bear couldn’t stand it anymore and directly turned around to push through and get out of the tunnel, against Chen Qi’s flaming projectiles.
This kind of straw was not ordinary hay, but a common weed called tobacco. In summer, this kind of tobacco was a purple-green color, and when it dried up in winter, it looked no different from other weeds.
The tobacco that Ake threw into the tunnel this time was discovered when cleaning the yard. Chen Qi kept it because he thought it might be useful in the future. After all, once this kind of tobacco was ignited and burned for a while, it would emit a large amount of thick smoke. The thick smoke not only had an unpleasant smell, but also carried a slight anesthetic component in it. Although it was not toxic, it would still make someone unable to move if they inhaled too much of it.
The beast people were worried that they were not able to distinguish the difference between tobacco and other weeds in winter, so they usually didn’t consider burning weeds and just burned firewood instead.
As soon as the snow bear climbed out of the cave, Ake had already attracted the other male hyena-drake, that had been scarred by Aze, into the cave in the same way as before, then lit a handful of tobacco as usual.
The snow bear learned well this time. It was afraid that Ake would throw it into the tunnel again to be used as a meat shield to block the entrance. As soon as it climbed out, it stayed far away from the cave. Ake could only throw a large amount of firewood into the tunnel, mixing oil and tobacco to make the fire burn more vigorously, so that the hyena-drake could not climb out so quickly.
Now, only the female hyena-drake was left.
After Ake’s two operations, the female hyena-drake saw through the beastmen’s purpose. The beastmen had no plans to fight with them directly, but planned to use the cave to trap them or force them back.
The female hyena-drake was not afraid of the two strong beastmen females in front of it. It had experienced much more than the two young male hyena-drakes. It had rich fighting experience and hard scales protecting its body. Even fighting two against one, it would still be able to tear the two beastmen apart under its claws.
But now, the female hyena-drake was feeling uneasy and she moved a little further away from the tunnel.
While dealing with the female hyena-drake to try to lure it into the tunnel, Aze didn’t dare to get too close to it. The claws of the hyena-drakes had toxins that prevented their blood from coagulating. If he was scratched by the hyena-drake and could not be treated by Chen Qi like Ajing, he could only let the wound bleed incessantly. If the wound was too severe, the only way was to wait for him to bleed to death.
Although the female hyena-drake didn’t want to get close to the cave, the two beastmen were really annoying. Each time one attacked, they quickly retreated and then the other person attacked. The female hyena-drake could not help but find itself getting closer and closer to the cave.
Suddenly, Ake pulled out a thick rope from his backpack and tossed one end of it to Aze. The two men gripped both ends of the rope tightly and took advantage of the time when the female hyena-drake turned around to swap rope ends and wind it around it. Then one of them forcefully tripped the female hyena-drake into the cave.
The female hyena-drake growled, and its front claws gripped the edge of the tunnel, trying to climb out. The tunnel was not a straight-down structure, but had a slope. Seeing that the female hyena-drake was about to climb out, Chen Qi quickly shot out several arrows, but the female hyena-drake dodged all of them, letting them land on its scales without pain or itch.
The snow bear that had fled to one side was caught by Aze at some time and was thrown at the female hyena-drake from a distance. The snow bear with sufficient tonnage directly smashed the female hyena-drake back into the tunnel.
Ake moved quickly. Oil, tobacco and firewood were all stuffed into the cave like it didn’t cost anything. A fire arrow landed on the dry tobacco and a raging fire quickly covered up the entire cave entrance.
“It’s a pity about my snow bear fur.” Ake smacked his lips and said with a little regret.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Chapter not split, thanks to x**elle for the Ko-fi!
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomNight73
Proofreader: Yume
Editor stepping into the realm of MTL translating, starting with CLWP. Support this translation with a Ko-fi. Three Ko-fis will add an extra chapter from the stockpile to the next weekly release.
Thank you for the amazing translation and not splitting up the chapter (●´з`)♡
Aww Thanks 🙂 Thank you for reading
Poor snow bear 🤣