Chapter 177 – The grassland tribes
Translated by Joycelyn
Due to the bloody way the Thousand Masks tribe got their revenge, the travel team talked about it for a very long time until they started setting out, and even then they did not stop. They had even started talking about similar events that had happened in recent years, giving Shao Xuan new information.
In addition to the Thousand Masks tribe, there were still a few other tribes mentioned by the ancestors on the beast skin scrolls.
With the new news Shao Xuan had acquired, he had noted them all down on a beast skin scroll, which he kept carefully hidden. Those were all to be brought back to the Flaming Horns tribe.
If the Flaming Horns tribe returned, would they still be able to go back to their glorious self of the long-gone past?
Shao Xuan highly anticipated that day to happen.
Shao Xuan and Yu did not mention to anybody about their meeting with the man from the Thousand Masks tribe. The group traveled for another two days on the river before abandoning their rafts to walk. The road ahead was not suitable to continue using them anymore. Although there were some streams, it was not faster than walking. They still had to walk up high lands on the road ahead.
The area in front of them had a higher terrain. It was said that in those lands there were grasslands that nobody could see the end of, and immeasurably high snowy mountains.
It sounded like the hunting area of the Flaming Horns tribe.
The grasslands were huge, with big and small tribes distributed all over the place. Often times, tribe wars broke out, so the travel team naturally did not set foot too deep into the grasslands, and definitely did not want to get caught in-between matters related to the tribe wars. They were just passing by the grasslands, and on the way trading a few stuff.
During that season, the grasslands were still green.
Walking along the river and stepping into the grasslands, Shao Xuan looked around.
The sky was high and the weather fine. There were some unknown little flowers blooming in the fresh green grass, bringing along a faint scent.
When looking ahead, the grasslands stretched beyond the horizon.
Other than the streams beside Shao Xuan and the brooks crossing into the grasslands, there were many small lakes scattered everywhere one looked, reflecting the blue sky.
Among them, there was also an even narrower river stream intersecting through the big and small lakes, its water clear. When one walked over, they could even see small fish swimming at very high speeds in it.
“This is the grassland. If we continue moving forward, we would enter the Feng tribe.” An old and experienced traveler on the side told Shao Xuan.
The Feng tribe was one of the tribes on the grasslands, and the travel team just happened to need to pass through the Feng tribe. The Feng tribe and the travel team were on good terms. They had been taking that route for many years, and both sides were able to understand each other well enough.
For the people of the Feng tribe, the tribes the people of the travel team belonged to were really far, so the problem of them snatching their territories was nonexistent. Besides, every time the travel team passed by, they would bring out their own tribe’s specialties to trade with items they wanted from the people of the travel teams.
Many people in the tribe liked those kind of trades. Without leaving the comfort of their own tribe, they could exchange some things they thought were rare. It was easy and it saved them trouble.
As for the people of the travel team, being able to trade while under the protection of the Feng tribe in that vast area of grassland was a win-win situation. They wouldn’t even mind taking a slight step back during the trades.
“Where are the people of the Feng tribe? I don’t see them.” Shao Xuan looked around in all directions and asked.
“They live in a place not too far from here, but this place is also within their sphere of influence. Sometimes they send scouts to patrol around the area. You could probably meet with some of the patrol teams after walking a little more.” The man beside him answered.
“The territory of the Feng tribe is so big!” Yu gasped.
“This is considered big? If you see the really big tribes in this grassland, wouldn’t your eyes pop out?” The guy beside chuckled, “Many tribes here breed animals, like cows, sheep, horses. They also hunt, but the prey here isn’t much. Therefore, they eat the animals they breed most of the time. And these animals only need to eat grass. The grass on the grasslands is for these animals only. If there wasn’t enough grass, they wouldn’t survive.”
Without breeding animals, there wouldn’t be any food. After listening to that person’s explanation, Yu nodded his head. This place was mostly all grasslands without any dense forests, so the beasts weren’t many. In the Pu tribe, even if the travel team didn’t bring anything back, they could at least go to the surrounding forest to look for food.
While listening, Shao Xuan heard roaring sounds. The ground below his feet also started shaking violently.
“Something’s coming.”
“Don’t worry, they are the patrol team of the Feng tribe.”
“Yeah, do you guys know that many warriors on the grasslands ride horses?”
“Horses?” Yu had eaten horse meat, but had never rode on one before.
Shao Xuan and the rest turned towards the origin of the thunderous sound.
There was a large protruding mound over there, fully covered with green grass.
After the roaring sounds stopped, on the place where the mound and the sky met, a large number of silhouettes appeared. Many more followed not long after, quickly entering the sights of the spectators.
The patrol team had around ten to twenty people scouting around. At times, though, they moved in large groups. And the incoming people were not necessarily all of the patrol team. Most of them were other members of the tribe. They would not constantly stay put and occasionally ride horses when they had the time, becoming the team now galloping through the grasslands.
Hundreds of people were galloping straight down from the green mound in the direction of the travel teams, bringing along a majestic atmosphere with them.
The group of horsemen slowed their speed down when they got close to the travel team. Midst screams and shouts, the horses gradually came to a stop, surrounding the travel team.
The various leaders of the travel team recognized the leader of the patrol team, put warm smiles on their faces and walked forward to welcome him, and started chatting. They also smoothly gave them some items that were rarely seen in the grasslands.
The guy leading the Feng tribe received the gifts, and said: “The people of our tribe have been waiting, a few days ago there were still some asking when you would be arriving. Today we finally meet again.”
Seeing the travel team, the people of the Feng tribe were very excited, too. Some were even shouting to go back immediately so they could prepare trading items, while some adjusted their horses’ speed in order to follow the travel team. While walking towards their tribe, they also started inquiring whether they had any fresh items for trade within the travel team. Some young ones had even started conversing with Yu. They were very interested in the frog poison he had brought, and even wanted him to teach them how to use those poisoned thorns.
Shao Xuan, too, had spoken a few words to the leader of the Feng tribe patrol team regarding the matter of Chacha.
The leader of the patrol team, named Yi Bei, looked towards the eagle soaring in the sky, then gave his agreement for it to stay in their lands.
There was no fear of birds like in the Pu tribe. Yi Bei and the rest did not reject such an enormous eagle. They only wanted it to not kill any of their tribe’s livestock. They were even pleased to let Chacha fly around in the sky in their tribe.
Many birds had been stealing their livestocks everyday, but the Feng tribe did not have any domestic eagles to use for protection. Normally, they would use some human tactics. Yi Bei had not expected that this time, the travel team would have someone bringing along a huge eagle, so he had showed a lot of enthusiasm towards Shao Xuan.
Seeing that Shao Xuan and the people of the Pu tribe were walking close together and were quite familiar with each other, Yi Bei had thought that he was also a member of the Pu tribe, although without any paintings around his eyes. The Feng tribe did not have much curiosity towards other tribes, there were also people like that previously. When they got to know them well enough, they had also not felt any freshness anymore. After all, they were just passing by.
There were also some members of the Pu tribe within the travel team who had temporarily cleared the paintings around their eyes before they left. That had somehow made Shao Xuan not too eye-catching.
The travel team and the people of the Feng tribe headed towards the Feng tribe’s base together. It had already become dark, so the travel team could not leave right after trading. After walking this far, they had to take the chance and stay at the Feng tribe for about two days to rest. A little after crossing the grasslands and they would already be entering the central tribes. At that time, they wouldn’t be able to rest.
The sight of the grasslands was unimaginably vast. One could hear people singing, and at the river and lakes, there were children playing and fishing. Around the area were all the adults and children riding horses. The impression they gave was that of a peaceful tribe, one you would not even think would battle with another tribe.
A little while back, Shao Xuan had noticed the houses made of beast skin, grass, and wood. Among them were some that even looked like tents.
“Tonight you can rest here. These are all yours.” Yi Bei said and pointed towards the row of simple wooden houses.
There may have been many wooden houses, but the people of the travel team were even more. They had to squeeze together again.
Shao Xuan, Yu and the rest went into the houses and tidied up a bit. After that, Shao Xuan looked out from the window, taking in the sights of the Feng tribe.
There was a wooden fence surrounding some weird-looking cattle and sheep. They were probably this area’s special kind of domesticated animals, different from the cattle and sheep Shao Xuan had seen before. Further in the distance, there were also people directing the herd of cattle and sheep back.
“Oh yeah, didn’t you say that the tribes in the grasslands also accept wanderers? Where do they all live?” Shao Xuan turned towards the few experienced travelers at the side and asked.
“The wanderers don’t live here, this is only for the members of Feng tribe. Some of the guests live here too, but other than that, people like the wanderers are all over there.” One of them answered, pointing at a place ahead.
Shao Xuan looked towards the area the guy had pointed to. There were a few protruding mounds over there, and on the other side lived the wanderers.
Although the people of Feng tribe asked the wanderers to help out and gave out small rewards, they were still cautious against them in general.
Over the mounds, Shao Xuan could also see some mountains that were not too high. The peaks were covered in green and there weren’t a great many trees, mostly just grass and stones.
Further past that, he could hazily see some white spots resembling mountains. Beyond that were the territories of other tribes.
Hearing that the travel team had arrived, many from the Feng tribe brought over some of their items, hoping to trade with the travel team. Shao Xuan originally had no plans to trade. On his way here he had hunted a bull, and he still had not eaten most of the roasted meat. He had also wanted to save the rest of his water moonstones when he reached the central tribes.
But when he was bored on the rafts, he would use some beasts’ bones or horns to carve out some stuff. He had two bone knives, and a variety of bone ornaments carved out to look like ferocious beasts in his hands, which were exchanged with a middle aged man for a sheep’s leg. That man had liked his carvings, and had thought of exchanging it for his kids back home.
When the day had slowly darkened, the people who came to trade became lesser. The travel team had also went back to rest after having their meal.
Looking at the black sky, Shao Xuan decided to go over to the area where the wanderers lived, to take a look. He had a feeling he would find more of his fellow tribesmen there.
