Chapter 653 (1/2)

Nice to Meet You, Excavator

“Who are you?” Wei asked with an annoyed face.

The other person who just protruded his head retreated. Trembling with fear, he replied, “I–I’m from the Ya tribe!” He still spoke fast.

“Ya tribe?”

Shao Xuan also heard the people of the Gu tribe mention it once before. Bo Gu said that the people from the Ya tribe brought all the elders and children in their tribe to safety. Nearby, he only sensed the Gu tribe’s fire seed, so the Ya tribe was probably quite far away, but seeing that the Gu tribe could entrust their elders and children to them, these two tribes probably had a close connection.

Shao Xuan gestured at Wei to set down the blade in his hand, and then he said to the person who stood not far from them, “Are you here to look for the Gu tribe? Why are you creeping up on us?”

“I… I came to…. see the Flaming Horns……” the other person stuttered as he spoke. He then hunched his head and narrowed his eyes to look at Shao Xuan and Wei.

Shao Xuan was speechless when he heard this. It sounded like he was coming to a zoo to see some chimpanzees.

It was at this moment when Bo Gu was carried over on another person’s back.

“Wa Ji, why are you here?”

Bo Gu’s wounds were treated, but he did not rest like the others in the area that had been cleaned and arranged for people to rest. Instead he ordered people to carry him over because he wanted to ask the Flaming Horns a few questions about hunting fearsome beasts. He never antic.i.p.ated meeting Wa Ji from the Ya tribe here.

“How are they?” Bo Gu asked hurriedly, worried that the others who were sent away encountered an accident.

“They’re alright, very fine.” Wa Ji calmed down because Bo Gu appeared. It was clear that his tense feelings faded away, and although he still spoke fast, he no longer stuttered. “I came over to look after I noticed the sounds faded.”

Hearing that his people who escaped were safe, Bo Gu also loosened up and introduced the person who just appeared to Shao Xuan.

“This is Wa Ji, a member of the Ya tribe. Although the Ya tribe lives quite far away from us, they stop by our tribe quite often.” Bo Gu hesitated, but then continued, “The people of the Ya tribe live underground and have many tunnels. Their tunnels are wide and cover a wide range, so sometimes they help us deliver things. Before when we encountered giant beasts, they were the ones who helped bring our elders and children to safety.”

“But that doesn’t mean that he can creep up behind us like that. I almost went at him with my blade,” Wei expressed his dissatisfaction. “Even if he was curious about us Flaming Horns, can’t he look from farther away? Did he have to creep up this close?”

“(Cough), you must have misunderstood,” Bo Gu explained on Wa Ji’s behalf. “The people of the Ya tribe have bad eyesight.”

Shao Xuan looked at the other person’s narrow eyes and nodded. Before he felt that Wa Ji looked strange, as if he wanted to smile but didn’t look like it. So it was an eyesight problem.

“Shao Xuan of the Flaming Horn tribe.” Shao Xuan introduced himself, and then looked at Wa Ji. “Nice to meet you, excavator(the chinese characters sound like his name Wa Ji).”

“…… Wa Ji, I’m Wa Ji,” Wa Ji corrected him.

“Wa Ji, have your people ever thought about coming over to the Flaming River Trading Point to trade?” Shao Xuan asked.

“Flaming River Trading Point? I’ve heard about it, and Bo Gu told me about it too.” Wa Ji’s fingernails were long and his hands continued to dig at the ground restlessly. “I wanted to go before, but I didn’t dare to.”

“Why not? You know how to dig tunnels. Isn’t it much safer to go there underground?” Shao Xuan questioned.

Wa Ji lifted his head and looked quickly at Shao Xuan, and then lowered his gaze immediately, “I heard that the Flaming Horns are giant creatures with sharp fangs and claws and even eat humans!”

Wa Ji spoke rapidly and straightforwardly, and his words came rolling out of his mouth.

Bo Gu couldn’t even stop him in time even if he wanted to.

Shao Xuan and Wei were speechless. ‘What the heck?!’

Giants with sharp fangs and claws, that didn’t matter. People would know right away what was not true when they saw them, but “eating humans?” This the Flaming Horns could not accept.

“Nonsense! Who said we ate humans?!” Wei’s eyes glared at him furiously.

Wa Ji continued to shrink downwards, “I hear-d it! I didn’t make it up!”

“(cough), um,” Bo Gu had to explain this time, “The people of the Ya tribe hear a lot of rumours from many places, facts and false ones combined.”

The people of the Ya tribe liked to dig tunnels and also enjoyed socialising. When their tunnels opened up at a tribe, they chatted with them, and another group whose tunnels opened up at other tribes also chatted with other tribes, so when all of them grouped together, they would sometimes mutter nonsense and brag, mixing facts and false rumours, making it harder for people to discern which was the truth.

Wa Ji also noticed afterwards that it wasn’t appropriate to say these things in front of the Flaming Horns. He scratched his head with his long nails awkwardly and reached his other hand inside his s.h.i.+rt to look for something. He jumped out from the ground, revealing his short chubby figure. Before, Shao Xuan thought that Wa Ji’s neck was short because he was timid and had a shrinking stature, but now he noticed that his neck was already short in the first place. When he shrunk his neck even more, his head seemed directly connected to his shoulders.

Coming up from the ground, Wa Ji handed the thing in his hand over to Shao Xuan. “Would you like to have some?”

Sharing food was a friendly gesture among tribes. Wa Ji was trying to befriend Shao Xuan and Wei. If he could establish a good connection with the Flaming Horns, he could go back and brag about it to his other friends underground.