Chapter 4 - Hunting (1/2)

Ch4 - Hunting

Zhou Ji didn’t speak after that.

Xiong Ye felt that there should be no such animal called ‘Ji’. He thought that Zhou Ji had most likely seen that everyone else had two-character names and wanted to be the same, so he gave himself a name like ‘Zhou Ji’.

After being busy all day and moving the pieces of wood to the entrance of his cave one by one, Xiong Ye was very tired even though he was in good health. He sank into a deep sleep as soon as he lay down.

It rained the next day; a continuous drizzle.

When Xiong Ye opened the door, he was met with a face full of rain and mist and shivered.

He began wondering if he should wear animal skins on his upper body like Zhou Ji but soon rejected the idea.

It would be too much of a hassle, not to mention that he basically always hunted in animal form. Not only was he unafraid of the cold, the skins would just become a hindrance.

The cave Xiong Ye lived in faced south, which was great, but it was positioned rather high up and accessing it was somewhat inconvenient. Before he had moved in, there had only been a narrow platform at the entrance and no stairs leading up to the platform.

However, in the past few years, he had deepened the cave and widened the platform. He even chiseled out some grooves into the mountain face to make climbing up and down much easier.

Recently, the entrance to the cave was piled high with wood that made access difficult again, but Xiong Ye’s movements were dexterous, and he wasn’t concerned about it at all. In the blink of an eye, he’d already arrived at the base of the valley.

He was going to find Shi Li again.

The tribe’s hunting team went out every other day, and on days when they didn’t hunt together as a tribe, he would generally always go hunting with Shi Li.

His animal form was much heavier than Shi Li’s, and he was also more powerful, but his movements weren’t as agile as Shi Li’s animal form, so his overall fighting power wasn’t much higher.

In the past, they would combine the strengths of their animal forms by choosing a good place to wait and lie in ambush. When prey passed by, they would both leap out together with Shi Li aiming for the prey’s neck while Xiong Ye attacked from the side. As long as he could tip their prey off their feet, it would be as good as theirs.

The two of them had been hunting together for several years. They cooperated very well and were able to bring down some prey together from time to time, but Shi Li had become lazy ever since he joined the tribe and no longer had to spend all day worrying about his next meal…

This was a common problem for those who awakened lion forms. If nobody watched over him, and he was full, Shi Li could even sleep away an entire day and night.

However, Xiong Ye was different from Shi Li in that he would feel uneasy if he didn’t have any food saved up. Also… Shi Li had to support his mother and younger brother.

In their tribe, it was already pretty good for someone in Shi Li’s situation to support his mother, and they normally wouldn’t also raise their younger brother. In any case, their younger brother wouldn’t die of hunger, and beastmen who had reached his age could already go out and do some work.

However, Shi Li wasn’t like that. He treated his mother and younger brother very well and would usually rather starve himself in order to see them fed.

As a result, they required more food-Shi Li’s brother was growing and could eat more and more each passing day.

Xiong Ye arrived to the entrance of Shi Li’s cave and shouted. Yang Su came to open the door.

Yang Su’s attitude towards Xiong Ye was very good when he was still a child, but after he had awakened his sheep animal form at ten, his attitude towards Xiong Ye plummeted sharply. Xiong Ye had been very puzzled and had made it a point to ask Shi Li about it. Shi Li told him that after awakening into a useless sheep, Yang Su was unhappy about it and blamed them.

Xiong Ye felt that Yang Su shouldn’t act like that; hadn’t Mao Jin, who had awakened as a small cat, still taken on the responsibility of guarding the door?

Yang Su had awakened as a mountain goat, and according to the Grandpa Priest, this kind of animal could trot calmly along steep cliffs, use its horns to fight, and run pretty fast. In fact, it wasn’t that bad… But not only had Yang Su never practiced these skills, he was even reluctant to shift into his animal form and adapt to his new body.

“Yang Su, where’s Shi Li?” Xiong Ye asked.

Yang Su rolled his eyes at Xiong Ye but still replied, “I’ll go get him.”

Xiong Ye nodded but didn’t go in. He waited at the door.

Shi Li’s cave was divided into two halves. One half belonged to Shi Li-Shi Li did not like being disturbed when he was sleeping.

At this time, Xiong Ye watched as Yang Su walked over to where Shi Li was and called, “Elder brother, brother, Xiong Ye came to see you!”

“So noisy!” Shi Li’s voice was full of irritation.

Yang Su was stunned, then glanced at Xiong Ye and said, “It’s Xiong Ye who came to see you.”

Shi Li finally came out of the room. He clutched at his messy brown hair and said, “I’m hungry. Where’s the food?”

“It’s over there!” Yang Su pointed to the stone bowl that was sitting on a wooden table nearby.

Shi Li looked at the stone bowl and took in the meat and internal organs with teeth marks torn into it and suddenly felt disgusted with everything.

This was… making him eat what others had left behind?

Yang Su boasted, “Elder brother, mother and I left you most of the heart.”

“This heart was originally meant for me, right? You only left half of it for me? ” Shi Li was dissatisfied as he spoke. How long had it been since he had to eat anything that others had gnawed on beforehand?

Yang Su was already a little unhappy about Shi Li roaring ‘So noisy!’ at him when he went to wake him up earlier. Now that Shi Li was acting like this, he was even more shocked.

Shi Li’s character was a bit overbearing. He liked it when others followed him in all things, but he had always been very generous towards them. He had never bothered to nitpick about things within the family. Even if they had eaten all the meat that they had brought back yesterday, Shi Li would generally just find a way to go out hunting again rather than say anything about it to them.

It was precisely because of this that they didn’t want Shi Li to mate with Xiong Ye.

Could Shi Li and Xiong Ye really still treat them so well after they became mates and moved out?

Would they still be able to obtain a share of meat to eat from Shi Li?

Especially since Xiong Ye had always been indifferent towards them.

As of now, Shi Li and Xiong Ye hadn’t even become mates yet, but their family was already no longer being given meat!

Yang Su was instantly on guard and nervous.

After Shi Li lost his temper, his attention turned to Xiong Ye.

The current Xiong Ye was not very similar to the Xiong Ye he remembered.

The Xiong Ye in his memories was very strong and had an intimidating air. But the Xiong Ye in front of him was different. He looked young and immature, and especially tender.

Upon seeing him, Xiong Ye even smiled a little. His smile was very attractive.

Shi Li’s heart was moved. When he was young, he really, genuinely liked Xiong Ye. In their tribe, there was nobody more outstanding than Xiong Ye. However, after a long time, he became bored.

It was impossible for him to become mates with Xiong Ye again, but even if he didn’t become mates with him, he could still be together with him. The two of them could live like the vast majority of people in the tribe, and in the future, if they no longer felt suited for each other, they could part amicably.

No, there was no need to separate. When he became powerful, he would naturally have a lot of people by his side.

Those Beast Kings-many of them had dozens of wives and over a hundred children!

As for Xiong Ye… Although Xiong Ye was stubborn in his youth and wholeheartedly insisted on finding a mate to spend his days with, after many years passed, he would also change. As long as Shi Li was strong enough, Xiong Ye wouldn’t leave him, nor would he be able to leave him.

Shi Li was wrapped up in his thoughts, but Xiong Ye didn’t really notice. He just felt that the gaze that Shi Li was using to look at him was weird, and… Shi Li had wrapped a piece of hide around his upper body, just like Zhou Ji.

Didn’t he used to find it a bother to wrap himself up in hides? It had been to the point where he’d almost rather not wear a leather skirt around his waist.

Xiong Ye: “Shi Li, let’s go hunting.”