Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 084
Chapter 84
The simple, sharpened wooden arrow pierced into the outer edge of the archery target made out of animal hide not far away. On the archery target, five circles were drawn alternately in red and blue. Chen Qi’s best result was the one time where he hit the bullseye, but he was very depressed when several of the 20 arrows he practiced every day always still missed the target.
After successfully providing cover for the females with the bow and arrows last time, even Ajing now practiced in the yard every day with a small bow and arrows especially made for him. Chen Qi’s daily exercise routine also went from push-ups and jumping rope to now include archery practice and jogging at noon when the sun was warmest.
Ka Luo could naturally see that Chen Qi’s physique had been getting better and better after doing these strange exercises for a period of time. When he first started, when the other man ran one lap around the yard, he obviously huffed and puffed with exhaustion, but after just a few short days, he was able to run two laps. Ka Luo’s physique was much better than Chen Qi’s and he could just barely be considered as being able to run two laps easily. Since then, besides his follower Ajing and the little wolf cub, there was one more person accompanying Chen Qi to exercise.
It snowed last night. Although it was not much, it was enough to cover the yard with a layer of white.
Ali and Aze came out with a large pile of freshly made wood boards and sharpened bamboo and wood sticks. “Chen Qi, the things you asked us to make are ready.” Ali called out loudly.
Chen Qi tidied up the arrows around the target before he went over. Picking up the piece of wood with several holes in it, he nodded with satisfaction, and put away the bow and arrows in his hands. “Let’s make some weapons.”
On the plains, there was a lot of gravel, but the slightly larger stones could only be found in the forest. So the only ready-made materials for the weapons Chen Qi wanted to make was the inexhaustible snow around him.
Because the ground was covered with a layer of soil mixed with melted gum fruit, at this time, as long as he grabbed a broom to sweep it lightly, the thin snow on the ground would be gathered up.
Chen Qi brought out a wooden bucket full of melted snow, tied several wood boards firmly with ropes, then covered them with snow, compacted them and then buried some sharpened bamboo or wood sticks inside, leaving only the sharp tips outside through the holes in the boards. Then he covered them with more snow, compacted them again, and added water to combine all the snow together. Thus, this strangely shaped, almost two football-sized piles of snow was put aside to let it solidify into ice.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
“Snow is so light, would it really hurt if this kind of thing hits you?” Ka Luo set aside the one he just finished making.
“Once it’s frozen, you can try it out for yourself.” Chen Qi suggested.
There were only a few hyena-drakes attacking last time and they could barely cope with them with the bows and arrows. Once their numbers increased or if there were some predators that knew how to climb the wall, the bows and arrows would be far from enough. Therefore, Chen Qi thought of making some pucks. When the time came that this kind of situation really occurred when he couldn’t use a bow and arrow, he could just smash a puck at their heads. It’s just that the effect of the pucks needed to be tested to be known. If Chen Qi were asked about it now, he had no clue either.
There was only enough snow in the yard to make 20 or 30 of them. Looking at the weather, it was likely to continue to snow in the next few days, so after clearing out the snow in the yard, Chen Qi didn’t make anymore. After the clean up, he filled up the oil lamps around the running track. Now, the oil lamps in the yard were almost always lit at night. The person on watch duty at night would pay attention to the situation beyond the wall as well as within the yard.
Azhang jumped down from the wall with two big bags of fish. Since most of the previously stored animal fat was used up when dealing with hyena-drakes, in order to continue using oil, Chen Qi could only redirect towards the big fat fish in the Chishui River. Since he took Azhang fishing that one time, the job of fishing was completely taken over by him and he’d catch a few fish every three days or so.
In order not to get bored of eating fish every day, Chen Qi often changed up cooking methods to make the food differently. Sometimes, biting into some of the things he made, if they were not told that it was fish, no one would be able to tell that it was. Thanks to Chen Qi, everyone now completely accepted fish as food.
Azhang didn’t even get to unloading the fish when he hurriedly told everyone, “Another locust dragon swarm has crossed the Chishui River.” Probably because he ran too fast, he was still a little out of breath.
Probably because Azhang had been hitting the fishing hole too hard these days, even if he tossed in a lot of bait into the hole in the ice he frequented, few fish would venture up to snag the bait. After observing this for two days, Azhang sealed that hole in the ice and opened a new hole further away to continue fishing.
Unexpectedly, just after catching two fish, he felt the ground vibrate, and the fish under the ice also dispersed. Azhang stuffed the fish into his backpack, found a tall acacia tree and climbed up. From there, he saw a swarm of locust dragons in the distance, striding with grandiose across the whole Chishui River, headed towards the most distant part of the Dora 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 appearance of one locust dragon swarm could be said to be accidental. However, to hear of a second swarm of this kind of creature, that was originally solitary in nature, gathering together and marching towards the same place, Azhang had to think more deeply. This time there were a lot of locust dragons. Seeing that the locust dragons were aiming for the opposite side of the river, Azhang didn’t wait for all of them to cross the river before rushing back to tell the news.
“More locust dragons?” The others were taken aback by the news. Now there was no doubt that something must have happened in the forest, or something appeared in the plains that could attract the locust dragons. Otherwise, it would’ve been impossible for the locust dragons to cross the Chishui River, swarm after swarm, to enter the hinterland of the Dora Plains.
“Should we have a look in the forest?” Azhang turned his gaze to Chen Qi and asked inquiringly.
After the last few events, Chen Qi had faintly become the decision-maker in this small group. However, if the locust dragons would come out to the plains, Chen Qi wasn’t sure if the other dragons in the forest would follow suit and come out of the forest. There were not many people in their small group. If they went to investigate, he was afraid that it would be difficult to get help if they encountered danger.
Chen Qi shared his worries with the rest, and Aze thought for a while, “Why don’t we follow the locust dragon swarm to see where they are going? The plains are much safer than the forest, and if we stayed a good distance away, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Azhang nodded, “As long as we find out where the locust dragons are going, maybe we can discover something.”
Everyone discussed the issue and finally decided that it would be better for Azhang to investigate on his own. There were too many people in the family who needed protection. Everyone was worried that if two females went to investigate together, it would be quite troublesome if there was another attack.
That night, Ali prepared a large bag of baked meat patties for him. After all, it would probably be inconvenient for him to make a fire if he’s near the locust dragons, so he could only let him eat it cold.
“You have to be careful. Don’t follow too close. If the locust dragons find you, you must run away immediately.” Ali had him carry the backpack full of necessities on his back, and then also placed an oversized white cloak, the kind that could practically wrap Azhang’s whole body, over him. The white cloak would help him hide in the snow so he would not be easily found.
“Don’t worry. How old do you think I am?” Azhang smiled. Recently, he found that Ali was becoming more and more worrisome. He would babble a lot of advice every time he went out.
Ali rolled his eyes at him . “I only say this because I know how old you are. No matter how old you are, you’re still an impetuous brat.”
Seeing that Ali was about to turn on nagging mode again, Azhang helplessly rubbed his nose. The first time he’d followed Chen Qi and Aze fishing, he was accidentally dragged into the water by a fish that was too strong and nearly became a popsicle almost not returning. It seems it was since then that Ali would keep harping on with a few extra words every time he went out.
In the end, Ali saw that Azhang was distracted and wasn’t listening to him at all. He couldn’t help sighing as he helped tidy up his clothes. “Let’s become mates when you come back this time.”
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Azhang was stunned by this sudden change of topic. When he came back to his senses, Azhang hugged him and rubbed his head against the crook of his neck. “You’re the one who said it.”
“En.”
The Chishui River had frozen over. The number of locust dragons this time was much greater than before, so their pace was also slower. After Azhang crossed the Chishui River, he found that the locust dragon swarm was not too far from the Chishui River. Azhang stood on the top of a tall acacia tree, half crouched down, quietly waiting for the locust dragons to pass by. After they walked a certain distance away, he continued to look for another acacia tree, and then repeated the actions of stalking the locust dragons.
The next morning, it began to snow on the Dora Plains again. It was unclear if it was because of the snow, but the locust dragon swarm stopped moving today. All the locust dragons quietly stood in place. White snowflakes fell on their tall bodies. From a distance, they looked like ice sculptures.
Azhang also seemed to completely blend into the acacia tree. Crouching quietly on the top of the acacia tree, the big hood almost covering his eyes, and the white cloak became the best camouflage.
Azhang thought that the locust dragon swarm would stay like this until the snow stopped. However, in the evening, there seemed to be a commotion with the locust dragons on the farthest end of the swarm. Azhang was located at the tail end of the swarm. So no matter how good his eyesight was, he couldn’t make out what was happening that far ahead. After thinking about it, Azhang silently descended the acacia tree and slowly walked a long way around to get closer to the front.
A snow-white adult giant wolf, almost three meters in height, stood not far from the locust dragon swarm, its beautiful golden eyes slightly narrowed. It seemed that the leading adult locust dragon slowly walked out of the swarm, with two long antennae raised high from the corners of its mouth, as if communicating with the giant wolf.
It wasn’t known whether the giant wolf had the ability to communicate across species or not, but it just stood quietly at the front of the swarm, neither moving nor responding to the locust dragon’s communication.
Locust dragon seemed anxious. Its huge mouth opened slightly, and let out a long and strange tone. Then the locust dragons beside it also began to stretch out their antennas and shook them slightly in mid-air, their mouths uttering the same syllable, seemingly in response to the chief locust dragon.
“Giant wolf-god?” Azhang, who ran over from behind, had just found an acacia tree to hide in. Seeing such a scene, he couldn’t help but let out a low exhale as he took in the scene of this impossible encounter in disbelief.
The white giant wolf-god finally made a move, but it did not react to the locust dragon swarm’s actions. Instead it raised its head up slightly and stared a few seconds in Azhang’s direction with a cold glare. Then it took a step forward, turned around and quickly left the place. Even the giant wolf-god’s footprints were not left on the snow, as if its appearance just now was just an illusion.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: Dun dun dun…
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.
Instead of some conflicts with other beastmen or tribes, we got the beast-dragon conflicts?
Thank you for the amazing translation~
The plot thickens… Thank you for reading and commenting.
Is the wolf god looking for his son?
Thanks for translation