Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 087
Chapter 87
The antelope-dragon herd returned in about a week, and they were obviously much happier than when they left the forest. The serious and orderly herd discipline also loosened to each their own speeds. The originally small team ended up stretching out in length and all that could be seen in the smattering sightings were figures of antelope-dragons.
Of course, when in large numbers, there would be no beastmen that would attack them. However, the antelope-dragons were still part of the beastmen’s diet after all. Just because they didn’t personally undertake the task, didn’t mean that they wouldn’t get caught.
A mother antelope-dragon had just crossed the Chishui River for a short distance when it fell into a snow pit. The snow pit was very deep. The mother antelope-dragon squealed and tried to get out, but the snow walls of the pit had long been frozen solid. No matter how hard it struggled, it would only fall back to the bottom of the pit over and over again.
Baby-like squeals came from the entrance of the pit. The mother antelope-dragon raised its head and saw its juvenile child standing at the entrance of the pit, circling around it anxiously, seemingly testing whether or not to jump down.
The mother antelope-dragon quickly stopped it, and after hearing its mother’s voice, the little antelope-dragon quieted down, but it still stood by the mouth of the pit and looked at its mother, calling out to it every now and then, hoping its mother could climb up quickly. None of the antelope-dragons passing by wanted to come over to check on the situation. Some with young antelope-dragons even shouted to remind the little ones playing around to stay away from that dangerous place.
Antelope-dragons would leave their mothers to live alone when they became adults. Male antelope-dragons, like cheetahs, would not raise their children themselves, and unlike locust dragons, they would not take the initiative to help their fellow kind when they were in danger. Therefore, it was very normal to see that no one cared about the mother antelope-dragon that had fallen into the snow pit.
It wasn’t until the antelope-dragon herd was almost completely far away from this area that a strong, adult male antelope-dragon came over. It glanced coldly at the mother antelope-dragon at the bottom of the pit, lowered its head slightly, then gently arched the little antelope-dragon’s body with its thick horns and let out a sharp short sound.
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 little antelope-dragon trembled and looked at its mother for help. When the male antelope-dragon repeated its action a second time, it finally turned around to chase after the antelope-dragon herd with slightly heavy steps.
The male antelope-dragon called out once to the mother antelope-dragon at the bottom of the pit, then lifted its hooves and left.
Only a bunch of messy footprints remained on the vast snowfield, along with the helpless cries from the mother antelope-dragon.
A few beastmen stood quietly on the tall ice wall, their large white cloaks tightly wrapped around their bodies. If one didn’t look carefully, they might have thought that they were just a few ice sculptures in the snow field.
A few curious young antelope-dragons came to the wall, lightly touched the wooden stakes buried in the ice wall with their horns, looked up at the beastmen on the wall, then suddenly kicked up their hooves and ran back to the herd.
“Chen Qi, you really guessed it right. It really was the antelope-dragons that came back first.” Ka Luo excitedly broke the silence first.
“I wonder if those traps can catch antelope-dragons.” Ake licked his lips. Naturally, fresh meat tasted much better than frozen ones.
“Will the antelope-dragons know that we were the ones who dug those snow pits?” Ali was a little worried.
“They probably know.” Aze quietly looked at the male antelope-dragon who was walking behind the herd but suddenly stopped. the male antelope-dragon turned to look at all the people on the wall. The distance was too far away, and neither side could clearly make out the other’s expressions.
The male antelope-dragon raised its head and let out a long, far-reaching call. The antelope-dragons who were originally scattered in the distance began to slowly gather in the middle, and returned to the forest in the same orderly manner as when they’d left.
When the antelope-dragons had completely left, Aze and Ake climbed down the wooden stakes and went to the Chishui River. They found that only two of the three snow pits they’d dug had caught prey, both of which were adult female antelope-dragons. In the last snow pit, there were fall-like marks on the edge of the snow pit. Obviously, the antelope-dragon managed to get back up at the last moment and fortunately did not fall into the hole.
Worried that it would arouse the anger of the antelope-dragons, not many snow pits were set up, and they were made a far distance apart. It was great if it was able to catch something, but if it wasn’t able to, then there was no forcing it.
The two men swiftly handled the antelope-dragons at the bottom of the pits and filled them back in. The locust dragons would soon return too, and that was a group that they could not afford to provoke.
The two dealt with the antelope-dragons by the Chishui River, and also caught some giant prawns. These days, they’d eaten crucian carp and mackerel until they were tired of them. Chen Qi had asked if they could still catch those kinds of giant prawns. Thanks to the gifts from the two antelope-dragons, they had plenty of bait that attracted all kinds of fish, and the two unceremoniously caught all the giant prawns.
Locust dragons were slower than the antelope-dragons, and a whole week had passed before they slowly started catching sight of a few of them.
Ali’s expression had become more and more solemn each day since they saw the antelope-dragons return. The unconcealable worry inadvertently made everyone else feel worried as well.
The day after the locust dragon swarm went away, Aze finally sought Ali and said, “I’ll go look for Uncle Azhang.”
Ali didn’t answer, but turned to look at Chen Qi. Chen Qi nodded. “We have already discussed it. Right now, just waiting here is not the best option. In case Azhang has encountered any danger, it would be good if Aze can find him.”
Ali looked gratefully at the two men, the corners of his eyes red. Since Azhang left, he did not know why his heart could not calm down. He always felt that the other man had encountered some trouble. As the days passed, this feeling did not subside, but instead became more and more severe. Furthermore, with even the antelope-dragons and locust dragons returning to the forest, Azhang, who was supposed to be following the locust dragon swarm, was nowhere to be seen. He could not help but think the worst. “Then I leave it to you.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Ali looked at Aze solemnly, “I will help you protect Chen Qi.”
Ake jokingly bumped Ali’s shoulder with his own, “Uncle Ali, did you forget that I’m a female too? With me here, I will definitely not let anything happen to anyone.”
Ali smiled, and the atmosphere among the few of them in the room became a lot more relaxed because of this.
Chen Qi had already prepared things for Aze and after breakfast, Aze left with bags on his back. So from this day on, besides Ali, there was an additional Chen Qi who would be standing watch on the wall for long periods. Of course, Chen Qi did not move directly to the watchtower like Ali did. He was still very confident about Aze’s strength, considering that the other man had lived alone in the wilderness plains for several years before meeting him. His understanding of this place was much deeper than that of Chen Qi’s, a half-baked man who somehow arrived here.
Chen Qi just couldn’t help wanting to see that the other party had returned safely as soon as possible, so he’d climb to the wall every day to watch for a while.
Aze followed the tracks of the locust dragons. He did not expect to find that, after walking for a few days, the tracks would actually pass by the front gates of the Lion-Wolf Tribe.
“Aze?” A figure jumped down from a tall acacia tree. There were heavy dark circles around Ale’s eyes, his face was thinner and his previously childlike face had lost some of its vigor. Seeing Aze, he was obviously a little surprised. “Are you here to look for Uncle Azhang?”
It was almost half a day’s journey from the Lion-Wolf Tribe. He didn’t expect that there would be a female guard from the Lion-Wolf Tribe this far away. Aze looked back at him with surprise. “Why are you guarding around here?”
Ale smiled bitterly and briefly explained the situation to him. It turned out that after the avalanche, the chief of the Lion-Wolf Tribe thought that the incident was caused by the arrival of the locust dragons. Although the locust dragons had been here once before, the locust dragons were not fast then, so they did not cause the tribe to panic. However, this avalanche caused them to lose several males, so they had to be more vigilant.
Moreover, the locust dragons had come more than once. This was the second time, so in case they came again next time with this sudden frenzied pace, the locust dragons would have long arrived by the time the guards near the tribe found out about them. Therefore, it was decided that the tribe would extend the perimeter of their defenses between the forest and the tribe. So even if the locust dragons came again, there would be enough time for the tribespeople to evacuate for refuge.
Aze did not expect such a thing to happen to the Lion-Wolf Tribe. The number of males was already small, so the loss of a male was a great loss to any tribe, not to mention losing several at one time, and having many others injured. “Did anything happen to the tribespeople?” The tribe Aze referred to was naturally the people of the Rock-Mountain Tribe.
Ale shook his head. “Our tribe lives in a house just outside the snow-covered area. Everyone is fine aside from being a little scared.” After a pause, he added, “If you want to find Uncle Azhang, you can find him at the tribe. He was recently discussing with the Lion-Wolf Tribe’s chief about our tribe, but there is still some time before the end of winter, and it would be impossible for Uncle Azhang to pick up the tribe now. I still have to guard over here, so I won’t send you to the tribe.”
Aze nodded clearly and patted him on the shoulder. Seeing Aze’s figure getting farther and farther away, Ale climbed back to the top of the acacia tree.
Lion-Wolf Tribe was obviously much messier than what he’d seen before winter, and the beastmen guarding the entrance would not intercept the arrival of beastmen. After all, there was no so-called registration here.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
As soon as Aze arrived at the tribe, he caught sight of Ai Li, whom he had not seen for a long time. Before the male saw him, he quickly dodged into a corner to hide. Ai Li looked obviously a lot more haggard and his whole person gave off a gloomy air, with heavy footsteps, as if he had lost interest in all the things around him.
Because of the avalanche, many people in the Lion-Wolf Tribe were injured. Azhang stayed here to help take care of the wounded during this period of time. According to the method taught by Chen Qi before, if the wound was too large to stop the bleeding, he would sew them up using bone needles. Naturally, the people here had not deliberately set aside some catgut like Chen Qi had, so what Azhang used was thread made from wool cocoons.
Fortunately, every time Chen Qi treated their wounds, he’d always tell them to use boiled water to sterilize everything that would come into contact with the wound. Even so, there were still many injured people who started to develop fevers due to their wounds getting infected and it took several days for the fever to subside. Fortunately, no one lost their lives due to not being able to stop the bleeding.
Aze found Azhang in the tribal center. He stood at the door, surrounded by several people and everyone seemed to be asking about something. Aze found that Ai Li was also among those people, but Ai Li obviously wasn’t as enthusiastic as the others. After getting the answer he was looking for, he opened the door curtain and entered the house.
After Azhang finally got rid of the crowd, Aze called out to him, “Uncle Azhang.”
Seeing Aze, Azhang was obviously stunned and hurried over, “What are you doing here? Did something happen at home?”
“Everything’s fine at home. Everyone was just worried about you, so I came out to take a look.”
Azhang felt relieved and rubbed his aching head. In order to try to go back earlier, he had been keeping busy all day and night during this time and he was already quite exhausted. “Sorry for worrying all of you. I was going to go back today, but I didn’t expect that you’d find me first.”
Aze hesitated for a moment and asked, “Are the people here all right? Did their chief agree to you going back now?”
“They’re fine. I’ve already stayed here for too long, and I’m originally not from their tribe after all.” Azhang sighed, “I have already taught them everything I could, and they can handle the rest by themselves.”
Seeing Aze’s hesitant expression, Azhang smiled, “Don’t worry, I haven’t mentioned anything about Chen Qi to anyone.”
Hearing the answer he wanted, Aze’s frowning brows relaxed. “Since things are all right here, let’s go home earlier. Uncle Ali has been waiting for you on the wall every day. He won’t come down until you come back.”
Azhang felt his heart warm up. He went back to the house to get his hide backpack. After saying a few words to the people in his tribe, Azhang left with Aze.
In a corner that no one noticed, a male with wrinkled eyes quietly watched the two of them leave. It wasn’t until the two figures were completely out of his line of sight that he turned back to a nearby house.
In the house, on a slate bed covered with thick animal skins, laid a child, who wasn’t yet two years old, his legs wrapped in thick white bandages.
Ai Li fed him rice berries and saw another male come in. He could not help but frown. “Father, where have you been? How could you leave Ayan alone at home? What if something happened?”
“What could happen at home?”
Ai Li frowned even deeper, and even showed some traces of being fed up. Wasn’t Ayan at home when something happened?
“I saw Azhang follow Aze just now.” The male sat by the fire, seemingly talking to Ai Li, yet also seemingly just naturally talking to himself.
Ai Li paused in picking up the rice berry husk, but did not reply.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Happy Weekend!
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 update~
Hmm. Not sure I trust Ai Li’s father. 🤔