Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 082
Chapter 82
The entrance of the tunnel was not very large, only big enough for an adult hyena-drake to get in and get out. Now the snow bear was blocking the cave entrance so even if the female hyena-drake wanted to struggle out, it had nowhere to release its strength. The hyena-drakes could rush out of the blazing cave because of their thick scales but the snow bear couldn’t do that. The raging fire behind it burned the snow bear’s beautiful white fur and it rapidly burned the fur with an unpleasant scorched smell. The snow bear was in so much pain it just wanted to escape from the scorching heat.
Since a lot of tobacco was stuffed into the cave between the first two hyena-drakes, the entrance of the tunnel was almost submerged in thick smoke and the two male hyena-drakes that were tossed in earlier had already lost half of their fighting spirit. Having inhaled too much of the smoke had made their heads dizzy. They could not get out of the tunnel, so they could only retreat further into the depths of the cave in order to stay away from the choking smoke.
Although the snow bear’s burrowing technique was very good and it could burrow underground silently without being discovered, it also had a disadvantage. Its burrowing speed was very slow. While the hyena-drakes’ claws were sharp, they were not suitable for burrowing, and once the claws became blunt, it would also mean that their hunting ability was lost, and it would be no different than for them to just wait to die.
The thick smoke was still continuously billowing in from the mouth of the cave, and the snow bear’s huge body was constantly pushing and shoving at it. The female hyena-drake had no choice but to leave first and find a way to attack later. It would be sure to shred these tasty and annoying beastmen to pieces.
The tunnel was very deep and was a long distance from the surface. Therefore, even with the hyena-drake’s powerful night vision, it was still impossible to clearly distinguish things in the darkness of the cave.
The female hyena-drake let out a low howl, signaling the two hyena-drakes to evacuate first.
Chen Qi had already climbed down from the wall. Because the snow bear kept retreating deeper into the tunnel, and the firewood added into the cave mouth also fell further into the tunnel depths. In order to prevent the fire from being extinguished, Ake added tobacco while adding firewood, and occasionally threw in some condensed chunks of animal fat to spur the fire further. It was imperative that the hyena-drakes inside had no possibility of escape.
“Chen Qi, can we really wipe out all the hyena-drakes this way?” Seeing Chen Qi approaching, Ake asked quickly, but his hand movements did not show the slightest intention to stop at all.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Although the few hyena-drakes had been successfully tossed back into the cave, the act of keeping a fire burning at the entrance of the tunnel could not cause direct damage to the hyena-drakes. Although it could prevent the hyena-drakes from coming out again, what if the fire went out and the hyena-drakes climbed out again? Wouldn’t that be a huge waste of their efforts?
The fire at the entrance of the cave became more and more intense, and some of the tobacco smell leaked and escaped out. Chen Qi handed Ake and Aze several wet cloth strips that had been folded several times and asked them to wrap them around their nose and mouth like he did, in order to avoid inhaling too much tobacco.
“Hyena-drakes also need to breathe. As long as the cave is filled with thick smoke, even if there is no way to directly harm them, theoretically it should still be able to suffocate them.”
Aze went to the woodpile at the back of the house and brought back a lot of firewood. He also carried two hide bags filled with tobacco. Aze threw one of the hide bags to Ake. “Go outside and check if Uncle Azhang and them need help. Just leave things here to me and Chen Qi.”
Ake nodded, carried the hide bag on his back, then went to the wall to grab a pack of solidified animal fat and left by climbing down the wooden stakes on the wall.
The female hyena-drake probably never imagined that it would meet the companions it had ordered to remain outside the cave inside the cave. Through the gap, the female hyena-drake saw that there were also strong flames at the tunnel exit, and the smoke poured continuously into the deep tunnel along the walls. The female hyena-drake felt its voice was about to dry out, its head was already a little dizzy, and its thoughts were not as clear as before.
But the female hyena-drake was indeed a hyena-drake that had been injured yet could live well into its old age. After panicking for a moment, it came back to its senses and roared at the hyena-drakes blocking the way ahead to get them to rush out of the ring of fire.
The male hyena-drakes didn’t have the same way of thinking as the female hyena-drake. They were not afraid of direct combat. In normal times, they would probably take advantage of their scales and have the courage to break through the current predicament even if it meant getting burned. But now, they had been trapped in the cave for too long and the stimulating smell of tobacco almost filled the entire tunnel. Their heads were dizzy from the smell of tobacco and they just wanted to stay away from the scorching fire according to their instincts.
No matter how the female hyena-drake roared, the male hyena-drakes were not willing to leave the cave. The damned snow bear behind them had fallen unconscious at some point. The cave walls were pitch black and the thick soil had long been frozen solid by ice and snow. The female hyena-drake clawed hard at the cave wall, leaving a few deep scratches and it let out a growl in despair. With a ferocious look in its eyes, it opened its huge mouth, revealing the sharp fangs within and turned to look at the snow bear, which was blocking the path not far away. Taking a bite, the dark cave was instantly filled with the unpleasant smell of blood.
Chen Qi did not dare to let the fire in the cave go out. So, he buried the tobacco deep in the fire, then covered the burning firewood with thick fur damp with moisture. Using a thick wooden stick, he stuffed the smoking tobacco deeper into the cave and a fire was lit on the surface.
Aze’s actions were very quick. From processing the tobacco to re-lighting the fire, it only took a few minutes. After the surrounding snow melted due to the heat from the fire, the snow water made the brown soil wet, and the animal hide boots were covered with mud when stepped on.
Seeing that there was nothing else that needed to be done, Chen Qi left the entrance of the cave to Aze. He went back to the house to get some food back to the walls. Since the hyena-drakes had broken into the house and caused trouble, the room was in a state of chaos, with all kinds of broken things scattered all over the floor. Chen Qi was not in the mood to take a slow inventory at the moment.
As there were people staying in the watchtower for long periods of time during guard duty, although the surface of the watchtower was made of thick ice walls piled with thick snow, the inner walls were covered with a layer of wood boards, which in turn were covered with a layer of animal hides for insulation.
The fire in the tower was lit in a large pottery dish, under which river sand and wood boards were used for insulation and the light from the fire warmed the surroundings. Ka Luo was sitting by the fire with Ayao in his arms, while Ajing was holding the little wolf cub as he stood on a high wooden stool, looking out of a gap to try to see what was going on. The people had long left the walls, so Ajing naturally could not see anything.
As soon as Chen Qi climbed up the wooden ladder, Ajing hurriedly jumped off the wooden stool and opened the heavy wooden door to run outside.
“Ajing, where are you going?” Ajing’s sudden movements startled Ka Luo, who was worried that the child would rush out to battle rashly, so he quickly opened his mouth to stop him.
Ajing turned and looked back. “It’s okay. Chen Qi is back. He’s carrying a lot of things. I’ll help him.” After explaining thus, he closed the wooden door to prevent the cold wind from blowing into the room and dispersing the temperature inside.
Ajing took the things from Chen Qi’s hand. Chen Qi was slightly surprised, and could not help but scold him, “Aren’t you supposed to stay in the watchtower? Why are you disobediently running out?” The watchtower’s walls were very thick. Even if the hyena-drakes managed to climb atop the walls, they should still be able to block the attacks for a while. It could be said that the watchtower was the safest place in their small settlement.
“I stopped hearing the hyena-drakes’ sounds.” Ajing’s head drooped as he explained.
Chen Qi sighed, “Next time, when you’re asked to obediently stay put, you should obediently stay put and wait for me to come get you, okay?” He didn’t want to see Ajing lying in front of him covered in blood again. For that kind of thing, once was enough.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“En.” Ajing nodded obediently and took over the hide backpack from Chen Qi’s hand and carried it back to the watchtower.
The big bag of things that Ajing was carrying contained rice berry flour that Chen Qi had dried over the stove during the period when he was confined indoors not long ago. After winter, the rice berries Aze gathered were bitter and astringent, so there was no way to directly use them to make meat porridge. Moreover, the fruit liquid in the rice berry was still a little sticky, so Chen Qi left it to bake over the stove until it was half dry to be used for frying various things.
It would take a lot of time if he were to start drying it right when he needed to use it, so Chen Qi took advantage of his idle time to process all the rice berries gathered after winter. After all of them were finished, there was enough to fill two large hide backpacks full.
Chen Qi had been worried that the rice berry flour would be contaminated with the smell of bacon in the storage room, so he kept the bag on the outermost side, near the door. When the hyena-drake came in to cause havoc, it naturally saw the two big bulging bags immediately. Without hesitation, It bit into one and pulled back, its sharp fangs tearing a large hole in the hide backpack and causing the beige rice berry flour to be scattered into the air with this tearing force. The hyena-drake was caught off guard and inhaled a mouthful, so it couldn’t help sneezing, its nose itching uncomfortably. Although it destroyed a bag of rice berry flour, it didn’t go back into the storage room again. So the food stored inside suffered no damage.
“What is the situation like now?” Ka Luo hurriedly asked when he saw Chen Qi walk in. He couldn’t keep an eye on the situation outside all the time because he had to take care of the little female. Although he was anxious, he could only wait patiently. Seeing Chen Qi come back, he couldn’t sit still any longer and he just wanted to know what was going on outside.
“Everything’s fine. Things have basically settled. Now we just have to wait until tomorrow morning, and when the fire at the entrance of the cave is removed, we will know the situation in the cave.” Chen Qi reassured Ka Luo and then explained to him in detail what had been happening.
Hearing that everyone was fine, Ka Luo let out a long sigh of relief.
“We’ll stay in the watchtower tonight and go home tomorrow, after the safety is confirmed.”
Ka Luo nodded and saw Chen Qi take out all kinds of things from the hide backpack. “Are you going to cook here?”
Chen Qi smiled with a tired expression since he’d been busy for a long time. “Everyone must be hungry after fighting for so long. I’ll make something convenient for them to eat.”
“Let me help you.” Ka Luo set Ayao down on the only wooden bed in the watchtower and asked Ajing to help look after him. Then he rolled up his sleeves and went outside the door with a pottery dish to fetch some snow for melting.
After the plateful of snow melted, Chen Qi took out a few bones from his backpack, briefly blanched them and removed the impurities, added a few slices of wild ginger, and left it to boil over the fire.
There was a lot of firewood piled up in the watchtower. Chen Qi took a relatively flat piece of wood with a large enough surface, wiped it with a rag and washed it with water before setting it by the fire to dry.
Ka Luo took out two large pieces of frozen hydrochoerus dragon meat from his backpack to defrost. Chen Qi instructed him to chop them into minced meat for later use.
After the wood board was completely dry, Chen Qi poured out a small pile of rice berry flour, added a little water evenly. Since he came here, Chen Qi had not eaten food made from wheat flour. Rather, it should be said that he hadn’t been able to eat food made from wheat flour. So this time he used up nearly one third of the rice berry flour. He made several pieces of dough and set them aside to allow the dough to ferment. Then he used a wooden rolling pin to roll a small piece of dough into a round shape, spread some seasoned meat stuffing in the center, then wrapped it carefully. Just like that, he used the rolling pin to continue to roll out meat-filled dough.
Having heated up a little animal fat in a pottery dish, he added the meat-filled dough pieces into it, then removed the pottery dish from the heat, carefully controlling the temperature and started baking them slowly, until both sides turned golden brown. Then he took them out and cut them into slices with the dragon-horn knife.
Chen Qi let Ajing and Ka Luo eat some first, then continued to bake the second batch.
The taste of this baked meat patty was completely different from the fried meat patties from before, which were entirely made of minced meat. Because the meat patty was wrapped in dough, the crust was crispy from the baking and the meat patty was mixed with minced scallion so the stuffing was fragrant and appetizing. Biting a mouthful of it gave the feeling of the whole meat patty exploding into flavor, and each bite made a delicious crunchy sound.
“Chen Qi, why don’t you eat a little to pad your stomach first? I can do the rest.” After watching him make two batches, Ka Luo felt that this method of baking meat patties was not difficult. Probably, the most difficult part was to control the temperature during searing. He handed the sliced meat patties to Chen Qi and intended to take over the other’s job.
Chen Qi wanted to refuse. Previously, when Ka Luo was learning to fry meat patties, he only learned it after frying a lot of them. There was not much rice berry flour left, so there was no material for him to waste.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Chen Qi, please come and have a look at Azhang. He was scratched by the hyena-drake.” The wooden door was suddenly opened and Ali’s anxious voice came in.
The few of them in the room were startled. Chen Qi hurriedly set down whatever he had, simply washed his hands in a pottery dish of hot water nearby and Ali had already helped Azhang in.
Azhang’s right arm was covered with a thick piece of hide, which had been dyed dark red with blood. His face was a little pale, probably due to long-term blood loss. “It was just a smack from a paw, not as serious as you said.”
Chen Qi frowned and then carefully lifted the hide piece wrapped around the wound. Azhang gasped with pain. There were three deep wounds on his left arm, about half a finger deep. The blood around the wound had clotted a little, but there was still blood oozing from the wound.
Ali laughed scornfully and glanced at him coldly. “It is indeed just a smack from a paw. The wound is not serious. It is just uncontrollably bleeding.”
Azhang gave a small sheepish smile. When he was hunting the hyena-drakes earlier, he did not manage to avoid being scratched in time. Because he was worried that Ali would see the blood, Azhang hastily wrapped it up with animal hides. After driving all the hyena-drakes down into the tunnel, Azhang still insisted on staying at the entrance of the cave to prevent the hyena-drakes from breaking out. It was his face that was turning increasingly pale that let Ali discover the abnormality. At that time, Ali was so angry that he wanted to directly roll up his sleeves and beat him up. After handing over the task of guarding the cave entrance to Ake, he dragged Azhang back in a hurry.
“Ali, first, boil a pot of water. Boil some clean clothstrips and use them to clean the wound. I’ll go back and get some herbs and a needle and thread.” After Chen Qi gave the instructions, he wrapped a few of the baked meat patties in some clean animal hides, then filled a bamboo tube with bone soup that had just boiled and had no taste before going down the wall.
After delivering food to Aze, who was guarding at the foot of the wall, he explained Azhang’s situation briefly, then hurried back to the house to find the bone needles and herbs for hemostasis.
Chen Qi was once again glad for the bag of rice berry flour in the storage room. Apart from the mess the hyena-drake made in the living room, almost all the other rooms remained in their original state. It was estimated that the hyena-drake first chose to enter the storage room and was repelled by a bag of rice berry flour.
After finding what he needed, Chen Qi went back to the watchtower.
Wounds from hyena-drake claws were difficult to heal, so it was best to suture them. Azhang’s wound had been carefully cleaned by Ali. Chen Qi soaked the bone needle in boiling water and set it by the fire to heat them for a while. Then he threaded the needle with catgut* and began to sew up the gashes on Azhang’s arm.
*Apparently, catgut is the term used for: tough cord made from the intestines of certain animals, particularly sheep, and used for surgical ligatures and sutures (and other things)
Both Ka Luo and Ali watched Chen Qi’s every move carefully and kept them in mind. Ali had not been present when he’d previously helped Ajing treat his wounds, but he had also heard Azhang say that, under normal circumstances, Ajing would not have survived from those wounds. So, he was always curious about how Chen Qi helped Ajing stop the bleeding.
At that moment, seeing Chen Qi’s actions on Azhang’s wound with the threaded bone needle that was like sewing, Ali felt that this method was very surprising, though he did not ask any questions so as not to disturb Chen Qi.
“Ali, help me crush these willow leaves into a fine powder. Ka Luo, mash those thistles into powder.” Chen Qi’s actions didn’t stop as he instructed the others.
The two men got to work upon receiving the instructions. After the wound was sewed up, Chen Qi applied the willow leaves on Azhang’s wounds, to relieve inflammation and pain, then applied the thistles to stop the bleeding. Then he tied a bandage over it to fix the herbs in place and that was all. The rest would depend on Azhang’s strong recovery ability as a female.
Chen Qi told Azhang not to move his injured arm for the next few days. Then he washed his hands and continued to make the baked meat pies.
With the chef named Ali, Chen Qi naturally didn’t have to worry about wasting materials. After Ali watched the process twice, Chen Qi handed the job over to him to take over. He picked up a piece of meat patty with a side of bone soup and began to pay tribute to the temple of the five viscera, which had already started to protest.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Merry Christmas (Eve)!
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomNight73
Proofreader: Yume
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