Chapter 83 - Joining

The slaves of the Giant Tiger Tribe had just entered the Big Bear Tribe when they were already discovered. They had been noticed by Xiong Ye, who had led his people out to go hunting.

Xiong Ye was actually a little confused when he suddenly saw such a large group of people–where had all these people come from? What did they want to do?

He should’ve been a little wary, but these people looked so miserable. They were all scratched up, wounded, and thin to the point of starvation–not only that, many of these people didn’t even have a proper piece of animal hide wrapped around their bodies.

When faced with a group of people like this, he couldn’t even work up the urge to be on guard… He sent someone to inform the priest even as he asked the people who had appeared, “Who are you?”

These slaves had spent a long time in the Giant Tiger Tribe and not only had they suffered from brutal oppression, they hadn’t been allowed to show even the slightest hint of rebellion. Now that Xiong Ye asked them this, they immediately shared their story. They even knelt down in front of Xiong Ye, “Lord, please don’t kill us…”

Xiong Ye: “…..” Why would I kill you?

“Follow me back to the tribe.” Xiong Ye finally said. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do with these people, so he might as well bring them back to the tribe.

He knew that the tribe was short on people, but he wasn’t sure if so many people would be a little too much…

Hearing that Xiong Ye was willing to bring them back to the tribe, these people were all overjoyed, “Thank you Lord, thank you!”

This man was willing to bring them back to his tribe. Did that mean that he didn’t mean to kill them? Or perhaps, even if he planned to kill them, he didn’t plan to kill all of them?

That was great!

Hope ignited in these people’s hearts, and they began to whisper to each other, “We… Is it possible that we’ll be able to live on?”

“Will they give us food to eat?”

“Even if they don’t give us meat, maybe they would still give us some vegetables?”

……

They had had no meat to eat within the Giant Tiger Tribe and could only eat a variety of vegetables. That was bad enough, but the people of the Giant Tiger Tribe would also berate them, and some members of the tribe would torture them for enjoyment.

They didn’t even dare hope that they would be able to eat their fill now. They only wanted to be fed something, anything, no matter what the food was, and not get beaten.

Most of the people in the group felt this way, but Hou Shi’s woman was tugging on Hou Shi’s sleeve, “Hou Shi, ask him… How is our baby doing?”

Hou Shi replied, “We’ll talk about it later. We’ll be able to see little Hou when we get to the tribe. There’s no need to be anxious.”

Hou Shi’s woman nodded. They had encountered the people of the hunting team first. Xiong Ye was alright, but Zhu Zhan who was standing beside Xiong Ye was really too tall. He was even taller than Hu Tian, which led to the new people fearing him subconsciously. Because of this, even though she wanted to inquire for news about her son, she didn’t dare to speak up out of fear of being beaten.

These people stumbled as they walked, their steps uneven.

They hadn’t walked for very long when someone collapsed to the ground.

They had long been at the end of their ropes, so someone would always collapse every now and then.

The slaves who were walking together all noticed the fallen man, but nobody went to take care of him. Many of them had collapsed during this journey only to never wake up again, to the point where some small carnivorous dinosaurs even stalked behind them, waiting for the chance to eat any corpses left behind… They were already accustomed to death and didn’t concern themselves over these fallen people at all.

Even if those people might be their relatives.

On the other hand, Xiong Ye was shocked. He went over to check out the situation and discovered that the collapsed person was burning hot, with festering wounds across his body. He really couldn’t stand it anymore and picked the man up.

“Lord…” Some of the people who saw this scene were dumbfounded, “Lord, this person has a fever and is going to die…”

People who had a fever like this might infect others, so the Giant Tiger Tribe would just kill them off and throw their corpse away… Now, if this sick person passed his illness to the people of the Big Bear Tribe, would the Big Bear Tribe drive them away?

“It’s fine, we just need to bring him back and cure him.” Xiong Ye said.

These people had seen too much of the Giant Tiger Tribe’s attitude where they didn’t even bat an eye when they killed. Now, when they heard Xiong Ye’s words, they were so touched that tears filled their eyes, “Lord, lord, you’re really a good person!”

These people felt that they would most likely be able to live on. That was great!

They had already been completely exhausted, but they were now full of hope for the future. They even recovered some strength, and their walking speed picked up.

And at this time, the person that Xiong Ye had sent to find the priest had already returned.

“Xiong Ye, the priest wants you to bring the people to the place where we make pottery!”

“Alright.” Xiong Ye nodded and led the people there.

The place where pottery was made? What was pottery? These people were puzzled, but nobody dared ask any questions and could only follow behind silently.

They walked for three hours before they finally arrived at the place where the pottery was fired.

And from far away, everyone could smell a certain fragrance.

Was that… the smell of boiled meat??

The people of the Big Bear Tribe were actually eating earth eggs and boiling meat in broad daylight? Wasn’t that a bit too luxurious? Their tribes only ate one meal in the evenings!

These people instantly became extremely envious of the people from the Big Bear Tribe.

At the same time, that fragrance also made them pick up their speed.

Even if they couldn’t eat it… Smelling it was good enough!

This fragrance made the newcomers so excited over how good it smelt but for Xiong Ye, it had already become a very common smell since he had eaten so much of this stuff recently. He didn’t notice the scent at all.

The people of the Giant Pig Tribe also wouldn’t drool over such a small thing–earth eggs stewed with meat was a very basic type of food that they often ate back in the Giant Pig Tribe.

Seeing the situation, these slaves were secretly very surprised–the people from the Big Bear Tribe didn’t seem to notice the smell at all. Could it be that they often ate such things?

Even Hou Shi was surprised. He had interacted with the people from the Big Bear Tribe before when they had come to the Green Hill Tribe to trade for salt. Based on what he had learned of their situation at the time, although the Big Bear Tribe had a priest, their lives weren’t that much better than that of the Green Hill Tribe… Why didn’t they show any reaction when they smelled such a fragrant scent now?

He was very curious as they walked through some trees and arrived at a clearing where the trees had been cut down.

This place was very large and flat. There was a huge fire set up in the middle as well as some smaller fires beside it. Small pots were placed over the smaller fires, and weren’t those earth eggs and meat boiling inside?

Their eyes almost popped out of their sockets!

Just then, an old, white-haired man with robes that dragged on the floor came walking towards them.

This man’s robe was the same as the one that the Giant Tiger Tribe’s tribal chief wore!

However, he looked completely different from the tribal chief of the Giant Tiger Tribe. The Giant Tiger Tribe’s chief looked very frightening, but this man was different. He had a friendly smile on his face and gave off a friendly aura, making people subconsciously feel that he could be approached.

No, it wasn’t just a sense of closeness… There was a circle drawn in the middle of his forehead that made him appear very mysterious and simultaneously made people feel a sense of worship.

This man was the priest, of course.

Before, when Zhu Zhan had wanted to trade his clothes with Zhou Ji for chili peppers, Zhou Ji had refused. Later on however, Zhu Zhan had gone to find the priest, and the priest had agreed to this deal.

The priest promised to give Zhu Zhan a basket of the chili peppers that the tribe had planted, then obtained Zhu Zhan’s clothes in advance as payment.

The priest felt that Zhu Zhan’s clothing was particularly good looking and especially in line with his identity as a priest. The only drawback was that it was a little too large; the priest’s figure was considered to be on the smaller side within the tribe, and he had grown even shorter as he got older and was now a full head shorter than Xiong Ye. Compared to Zhu Zhan, he was two heads shorter…

Therefore, the clothing that was actually a little tight on Zhu Zhan was instead very loose and long on the priest.

However, it was also because that was the case that he now appeared to be floating… In short, the priest was very satisfied with his new clothing and had decided that he would wear this clothing whenever anything important occurred within the tribe.

“You’ve come… Have something to eat first.” The priest instructed. He then arranged for someone to bring out some wooden bowls and feed these people some food to eat.

He gave a ladle of boiled meat and earth eggs to each person.

The earth eggs had already been boiled to the point of breaking apart, and the meat had been cut into tiny pieces. In fact, after adding a lot of water, this bowlful of stew was actually very thin and didn’t contain much meat at all. Even so, these people were so delighted they almost fainted.

Was this earth egg and boiled meat stew actually for them?!

This had indeed been made for them to eat. The priest spoke gently, “Eat quickly. Only after eating will you all have strength.” Only with strength could they help out with all the work that still needed to be done!

The amount of earth eggs and meat that had been placed in the stew today wasn’t much. It was quite thin, but on the other hand, it was also good for this group of people–their current physical condition made it unsuitable for them to eat too much or too well, since that might cause them to end up suffering from diarrhea instead.

These slaves’ bodies were very weak, and the place where they waiting at now… This clearing had many fires, which had dried the moisture in the air and warmed up the area. It made them all feel very comfortable.

What’s more, they also had earth egg and boiled meat stew to eat!

The first person to obtain the stew opened his mouth and gulped down everything clean in one go, completely unafraid of the heat! And when they were finished, they returned the bowl so that it could be used to serve the next person.

Everyone was very excited, but the most excited person was actually Hou Shi’s woman. After arriving at this place, she had subconsciously begun to look around for her child, and then… she actually spotted him!

She clutched at Hou Shi’s hand and said, “Hou Shi, look! Our child!”

They both saw their child, and at the same time, their child also saw them. The little lemur ran towards them with his hands covered in mud.

Hou Shi hadn’t expected that his child really hadn’t died; he was instantly incredibly grateful towards the Big Bear Tribe and couldn’t keep his eyes from turning red with tears. He then patted his son’s head, “Silly boy, why aren’t you working properly and playing with mud!”

The child, who had originally been making things out of clay, hugged him and instantly covered him in mud.