Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 183
Chapter 183
The thunderstorm raged on for three full days and nights. The little wolf cub had already woken up on the day the ice wall collapsed. Its eyes had darkened into a deep, intense gold, and when it stared quietly at someone, it carried the oppressive aura of a creature born to rule—so overwhelming that no one could meet its gaze for long.
Yet the moment Chen Qi called its name, that lofty intimidation shattered instantly, and it reverted back into its usual silly, adorable self—like a husky that had suddenly grown one size bigger.
Chen Qi set a large platter of freshly pan-fried hydrochoerus dragon meat in front of it. The little wolf cub nudged its head into Chen Qi’s palm before happily snapping up a slice of meat. It barely chewed twice before gulping it down, looking as though it were starving.
“Slow down,” Chen Qi said as he rubbed the little wolf cub’s head, now covered in noticeably longer fur.
The little wolf cub gave a soft grunt in response, and sure enough, its eating slowed considerably.
Aze pushed the door open and stepped inside. He wore a straw raincoat and a grass hat coated with several layers of waterproof gum fruit sap. The moment the door swung open, wind and rain surged in, soaking a wide patch of floor near the entrance.
“Are the drainage channels cleared?” Chen Qi picked up a clean towel and went over to wipe the raindrops off him.
“En. Everything’s taken care of. The water in the tribe is draining smoothly into the moat.”
The melted water from the snow, combined with the nonstop torrential rains of the past few days, had overwhelmed the crude drainage channels they had set up earlier. On the first night of the downpour, water pooled throughout the tribe, and the road outside the gate had risen nearly to ankle-deep. If it continued, the houses would soon be flooded. With no other choice, Chen Qi led a group out in the storm to inspect the drainage system and quickly devised a new repair plan.
Aze had been worried that Chen Qi would get sick if he stayed in the rain too long. Once the plan was finalized, he sent Chen Qi home and then took the tribe’s females to work through the night, reinforcing the channels until the trapped water finally began to recede. Only then did he return.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“It only rained once last summer. Why is it raining so long this year?” Chen Qi muttered as he pulled Aze into the room to change out of his soaked clothing.
Aze shook his head. The plains were sunny most of the time, but once in a while, strange weather like this appeared. He recalled that one summer, the heavy rains had lasted for more than a month. Every house in the tribe had flooded, and the tribe chief had led everyone to take shelter in the cave behind the ancestral home. Many people came down with high fevers, but once the storms finally passed, their fevers subsided, and there were no casualties.
“Will the animals on the plains migrate back this summer?” Chen Qi changed the subject.
The plains had been devoid of wildlife for far too long. Chen Qi missed the creatures that resembled those of his original world—gentler, cuter, and far less terrifying than the dragons of the forest. And when they returned, he would no longer have to rely on pickled meat and fish every day.
“En.” Aze nodded as he buttoned his newly changed shirt. “They came back on the first day of summer. It’s just that animals rarely show up near here to begin with. The main migrating herds probably haven’t reached this area yet.”
Then he lifted his head and looked at Chen Qi. “When the rain stops, I’ll go hunting. What do you want to eat?”
Because they couldn’t enter the forest all this time, Chen Qi had eaten almost nothing but fish for nearly two years. No matter how many ways Aze prepared it, anyone would get tired of it eventually. Whenever he thought about being unable to hunt fresh prey for his mate, Aze felt frustrated at his own weakness.
Chen Qi’s eyes brightened at his words. After last summer’s foraging and preservation efforts, he had discovered and stocked a variety of new seasonings. And as his memories of his past world grew ever clearer, recipes he had never cooked before began surfacing vividly in his mind. He could hardly wait to try making some new dishes.
He licked his lips, nearly drooling. “There are so many things I want to eat… tender lamb, wild buffalo, rabbit, warthog—though warthog meat is too tough. The wild boars you hunted before tasted much better…”
Chen Qi kept talking while Aze silently committed every word to memory. When he finished, Aze looked at him helplessly. “Why don’t I just hunt one of every prey on the plains for you this summer?”
“That’s a great idea.” Chen Qi nodded in full agreement. “Then I can make a collection of all kinds of meat, categorize the ones that taste the best, and when all the animals finish migrating back, we’ll only hunt those.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“I wonder if we can catch a few easy-to-raise animals and keep them. Winter is troublesome because of the cold, but if we could make a warm room just for them, we’d still have fresh meat even in winter. Even if we can’t hunt dragons, at least we won’t have to eat fish every single day.”
The more Chen Qi talked, the more excited he became. He even picked up a pen to jot things down. “I’ve heard rabbits breed really well. It’s a pity I’ve never raised them before. This summer let’s catch a few live rabbits and try raising them. I’m not sure if they reproduce in winter… but we have the cellar for storing vegetables now, so raising a few shouldn’t be a problem…”
Aze watched him affectionately as he rambled on, practically itching to run out right this moment to test Chen Qi’s idea by hunting a few animals. He even thoughtfully brewed a cup of flower tea so Chen Qi’s throat wouldn’t get dry from talking so much.
As the rainwater in the tribe gradually drained into the moat, the water level—which usually wasn’t very high—had already risen to nearly level with the ground. The interconnected pits and traps outside the walls had all turned into small water reservoirs.
Because the heavy rainfall came too suddenly, several dragon corpses that hadn’t yet been disposed of were still lying outside the city. Worried that the corpses might start rotting as the summer temperature rose, the guards had moved them to the outermost edge of the traps. This ended up benefiting the predators who had returned early to reclaim their territory—starving after their long migration.
A strong male cheetah had just returned to its former territory. The hardships of migration had worn it down, and it had even lost its mother, but it had not weakened. It returned earlier than other cheetahs—or even the elephant herd that usually led the way.
But its old territory was now filled with the scent of beastmen everywhere, and in front of it stood a reddish-brown city wall it had never seen before.
The male cheetah grew uneasy. Its old territory had clearly been taken. It couldn’t stay here anymore. The strong beastman scent meant a tribe had formed here, and beastman tribes never tolerated danger lingering nearby.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Keeping a safe distance, it circled the reddish-brown wall. The rain soaking its fur didn’t bother it. If anything, the rain helped mask its scent so the beastmen wouldn’t detect it.
Suddenly, not far away, it saw a small hill formed entirely from piled-up hyena-drake corpses. Even through the heavy rain, the energy lingering in their flesh and blood seeped sharply into its nostrils.
The male cheetah crouched low and, using the cover of newly sprouting grass, crept toward the motionless creatures.
It sniffed them. These hyena-drakes had clearly been dead for days. Their blood was stiffening, and a faint rot had already begun to emanate from their bodies. For a cheetah used to eating fresh meat, the smell made it wrinkle its brow.
It had returned earlier than the main migration group, but it had eaten well before leaving them yesterday. It wasn’t hungry now and could easily wait until tomorrow, when the herds reached the Chishui River, to hunt fresh prey again. So even though this dragon meat clearly held plenty of energy, the male cheetah still couldn’t bring itself to eat it.
In the end, it flicked its tail, glanced one last time at the territory it once led, then turned toward the Chishui River. Its mother’s territory lay on the opposite bank. It could inherit that land—hopefully without another beastman tribe suddenly appearing there as well.
Although the cheetah wouldn’t touch the decaying meat, that didn’t mean other predators felt the same. Once it left, a few coyotes that had been tailing it quietly emerged. These scavengers had originally followed the cheetah to find out where it lived so they could steal scraps later when hungry. They didn’t expect to stumble upon such a feast the moment they arrived.
Many small, hungry predators liked to follow herds of large herbivores. With their small frames, the coyotes didn’t dare hunt openly within the migrating herds. Many predators like them followed solitary hunters such as cheetahs—dangerous enough to hunt alone, but not strong enough to threaten them—to steal leftovers. Yesterday, they had even eaten two bites of antelope the cheetah discarded, though hyenas later stole it. Still, coyotes could endure hunger better than cheetahs could, and hyenas wouldn’t leave the migration early. So the coyotes could fully enjoy whatever prey the male cheetah abandoned next.
Now, seeing the mountain of corpses before them, the coyotes completely forgot about the cheetah. They dragged one hyena-drake out without hesitation and skillfully tore through its scales, digging in greedily.
Soon after came lions returning to their home range, big-eared foxes, vultures circling down from the sky… The predators that once lived in this region hadn’t expected to return home to a free banquet. With so much food piled high, they behaved surprisingly peacefully, keeping their movements quiet—afraid of drawing beastmen over.
The guards sheltering from the rain in the watchtower had, of course, seen all of this, but none of them made a move to stop it. They had already stripped all the iron shells they needed from the dragons and hauled them back to Qi Ze City. Letting the predators devour the mountain of meat saved them countless trips of carrying the remains away.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: 2 of 3 for the week.
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomKnight73
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.
