Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 104
Chapter 104
The two brothers waited until it was dark and their stomachs were growling with hunger before they saw Chen Qi and his group return.
Ale was refilling and lighting the oil lamps on the main road. Animal oil would spoil if stored too long in the summer. In order not to waste it, the oil lamps in the tribe were lit at night, and the vicinity of the main road was illuminated brightly. Even people with poor eyesight could go out at night with the light, unlike before, when it was pitch black at night and the tribe’s people could only stay at home.
Ashu was sitting bored in front of Chen Qi’s house, playing with a red ghost needle flower, when he suddenly saw a mighty crowd pour in through the city gate. He got up quickly with a grunt to greet them, “Why did you all take so long to come back? My brother and I have been waiting for a long time.”
Chen Qi noticed the two brothers and was clearly taken aback, “Why are you two here?”
Axu pointed to the two bulging backpacks on the ground, “We told you before that we would come to exchange things with you.”
Chen Qi looked at the two brothers with surprise. He thought that the exchange would at least have to wait until the tribal gathering after the first snow. He did not expect that they would come look for him in the summer.
However, Chen Qi’s astonishment was only momentary. He smiled and opened the courtyard to invite the two brothers inside to talk. After all, if they were going to talk business, they couldn’t just stand at the door to do so.
Axu hesitated for a moment and looked at Aze standing next to him. After all, Chen Qi was a male, and it might not be appropriate to rashly invite him and his brother, two single females, into his home. Axu could tell that Chen Qi didn’t seem to care about such things, but he didn’t know if his partner would mind.
Aze nodded. He remembered this pair of brothers. Chen Qi very much liked the octopus exchanged from them.
After receiving Aze’s nod, Axu smiled and picked up the backpack on the ground to follow the few people into the house.
Azhang and Ali took Ka Luo, who had drunk a stomach full of water, and Ayao, who had fallen asleep, back home. Since Ake hadn’t returned yet, Ali stayed to help take care of the big and small one of that household.
Azhang did not expect people from other tribes to visit. If he recalled correctly, these two people should be the sons of the chief of the Salt-Water Tribe.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
After sending Ka Luo home, Azhang went home first and changed into a set of clean clothes. When he came out, he saw the others were still standing by the door and he walked over with a smile. “You are Axu and Ashu from the Salt-Water Tribe, right?”
Axu turned his head to look at him. He recognized Azhang and nodded slightly to him. “We are here to exchange things with Chen Qi.” His beautiful blue eyes turned to look forward again. “If you don’t mind, our Salt-Water Tribe also hopes to exchange with all of you.”
This tribe had so many novel things, all of which he had never seen before. Although the only thing they could offer was the salt stone, judging from Chen Qi’s interest in the octopus last time, he felt that exchanging food should also be a good option. After all, most creatures in the Salt-Water Lake do not migrate away. Axu quickly made some calculations in his mind.
Azhang was stunned into a daze. He hadn’t expected the other party to suddenly mention exchanging between their tribes. If they could directly exchange things with the Salt-Water Tribe, there would be no need to wait for the annual tribal gathering after the first snow. After starting to cure food with salt, Azhang knew that the demand for salt stones would only be greater this year. The salt stones they’d exchanged back last year had long been used up. If it weren’t for Chen Qi exchanging a lot of salt stones, they would likely have fallen into a state of salt shortage by now.
After eating refined salt, no one in Qi Ze City would use the salt stones directly anymore.
Azhang laughed heartily and patted Axu on the shoulder. “Of course, we can talk about the exchange in detail tonight. For now, you can take a look at what you want to exchange with us this time.”
Azhang led the two brothers into the house. Chen Qi placed the lifebuoy, which had been damaged with several cuts, by the door. The lifebuoy was still dripping with water, and the cuts on it were obviously made by the beastmen’s sharp claws. It was already fortunate that they didn’t tear the entire lifebuoy in half in panic. Chen Qi sighed. It seemed that they would have to make another lifebuoy tomorrow if they wanted to continue swimming.
“Ajing, take the little wolf cub and go take a bath.” Chen Qi patted Ajing’s head. The clothes Ajing wore for swimming were wet, and Chen Qi was afraid he might catch a cold.
Ajing nodded and obediently took the little wolf cub, who didn’t want to take a bath at all, into the bathroom.
Chen Qi and Aze went back to their room to change out of their wet clothes first. Chen Qi wondered if they should set up a changing room by the Chishui River next time. Otherwise, it would be strange if they didn’t catch a cold after wearing wet clothes for so long.
When the two men came out, Azhang had already skillfully brewed a pot of chrysanthemum tea and was pouring two cups to offer to the two who had never drank tea before.
As soon as he entered the door, Ashu looked curiously at everything around him. He had thought before that these houses were twice as tall as the houses of the Lion-Wolf Tribe that he had seen. When walking inside, even people as tall as his brother didn’t need to bend over. Moreover, they were not sitting on the ground, but on these strange wooden things.Everything in the room was completely unfamiliar to him, and Ashu almost could not resist the urge to walk forward and touch everything.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Ashu took the pottery cup. There was no one in their tribe who knew how to make pottery, and the clay around the tribe was not suitable for firing pottery. Therefore, when they exchanged goods with other tribes each year, pottery ware were essential. Also because pottery products were so rare, many tribes made large pottery items. This was the first time Axu had seen such a small piece of pottery.
Looking at the light orange-yellow liquid in the cup, with a fully bloomed beige colored daisy flower floating in the slightly swaying water, it was hard to resist the urge to take a sip.
Axu brought the pottery cup to his nose and sniffed the aroma before gently taking a sip. The tea was a little hot, but it tasted very different from the plain boiled water without any flavor. It had a faint sweetness to it, and although it didn’t taste as good as the laiche fruit juice, it was a fresh and new experience for Axu who had never had tea before. He couldn’t help but take another sip.
“It’s hot!” Ashu did not use as refined movements as Axu had. Because the insulation effect of the pottery cup was quite good, it made him mistakenly think the tea wasn’t very hot. When he took a big mouthful, it turned out to be scalding hot and he jumped up, holding his mouth.
“Drink it slowly.” Axu helplessly reminded his impetuous younger brother.
Chen Qi, who had just changed clothes, could not help but smile when he saw this scene. He sat opposite the two brothers and asked curiously, “What did you bring to exchange with me?”
Now that it came to the topic of exchanging, Ashu hurriedly put down his cup and lifted his hide backpack onto the table. The table shook a bit due to the sudden weight. Proudly, Ashu said to Chen Qi, “This is your favorite octopus. I brought a full bag of it, enough for you to eat for a year.”
Chen Qi looked at the opened backpack filled with dried octopus and was speechless. Did their tribe have no other food besides octopus?
Ashu pointed to Axu’s backpack too. “My brother’s bag is full of salt stones. Not sure if you still need them. If not, we can exchange it with others in your tribe.”
“……” Well, he shouldn’t expect anything special to be available for exchange in this primitive society.
The giant wolf-god, full and satisfied, licked the blood-stained fur around its mouth. The giant dragon in the water waited patiently for the giant wolf-god to finish eating, and then said unhurriedly, “It is not easy to keep an ichthyosaur alive here. Since you are full, you should leave now.”
The giant wolf-god gave it a scornful look. “I didn’t expect the renowned Azure Dragon would feel sorry for an ichthyosaur that was so thin that only its bones were left. If you really wanted to eat it, was there anything in this world that you couldn’t eat?”
There were no waves in the dragon’s eyes, and it just calmly replied, “You shouldn’t have appeared on the plains.”
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 giant wolf-god stood up and looked at the other’s scales that were the same color as its fur. It felt particularly glaring to the eyes, “Why? Worried that I will be eaten by you? Or worried that I would eat you?”
The dragon did not reply.
“I didn’t expect that having not seen you in just a few years, your scales have changed very quickly. You shouldn’t be called Azure Dragon in the future, maybe you should change your name to White Dragon instead.”
Not far away, there was a faint rustling sound coming from the tall grass. The giant wolf-god narrowed its beautiful eyes and casually grinned, “Do those little mice come to bother you every day? They’ve been around for so long yet they still haven’t managed to bite a piece of meat off you.” The giant wolf-god clicked his tongue twice, “Hyena-drakes nowadays are becoming more and more useless.”
As soon as the words of the giant wolf-god fell, several gray-white figures appeared not far away. Seeing the giant wolf-god, the lead hyena-drake clearly hesitated for a moment, then let out two low growls.
The giant wolf-god tilted its head. “It’s been so long yet you still haven’t learned to speak the human language. No wonder you were driven out of the forest. If you can tear off two pieces of flesh from this stupid dragon, maybe you will be allowed to go back.”
The dragon’s tail churned twice in the water, and its eyes showed an obvious hint of hostility as it looked at the chatty giant wolf-god, “I said, you should leave now. Go back to your forest.”
The giant wolf god sneered, “Do I need to remind you who made me appear here?”
The dragon narrowed its eyes slightly and softened its tone. “You shouldn’t have appeared on the plains.”
The giant wolf-god paced back and forth in frustration for a moment before deciding not to say anything more to the dragon. As it turned to leave, it suddenly stopped as if it had just remembered something. “I found a funny little thing on the plains. It’s being raised by the beastmen, and it had a scent like my younger sister.”
The giant dragon’s golden eyes turned dark black for an instant. Although they quickly returned to normal, the giant wolf-god who had been watching it naturally noticed. The corners of its mouth curled up slightly, and it didn’t say anything more. It flashed into the nearby tall grass and disappeared in no time.
The completely ignored hyena-drakes snarled and bared their teeth, looking fiercely in the direction where the giant wolf-god had left. Finally, it shifted its gaze to the giant dragon in the water. The lead hyena-drake roared and several champsosauruses lurking in the water slowly approached the dragon. On the other side, a few ironshell-drakes suddenly rushed out of the grass.
The dragon moved its tendrils menacingly. “I am in a very bad mood now. Since you dared to come, you should be prepared to stay.” Its golden eyes were slowly replaced by pitch black darkness, and a long dragon roar sounded. Its huge tail rolled up the water waves and attacked the approaching champsosauruses.
Bright red blood quickly stained the surface of the water. This battle was doomed to be a one-sided massacre. Why didn’t they understand?
Sure enough, low intelligence was their greatest weakness.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Sorry slower pace, there is this and two more on the docket for release.
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.
Thanks again, Miiya for the chapter.
Omg is the little wolf the dragons and the wolf gods child prolly???