Chapter 12 – Beat them up (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

It was indeed a sunny day today.

The surface of the river was quite calm and quiet. A few days earlier, wind would blow up light waves that washed against the shore. However, there was no such scene today, for there was no wind at all.

It’s too calm, weirdly calm.

The water was the opposite of clear. At the shore it was fine, but a meter away from the shore where the water was deeper, no one could see the situation down there.

In such a dangerous world where no common sense could be applied to, even the slightest detailed risk could not be ignored or underestimated. Ignorance led to death. For what’s worse, just like the black swamp, the river was originally regarded as a high risk zone by people in the tribe. All the fishing in the past few days did not mean that it was safe.

Seeing Shao Xuan acted like that, all the kids got puzzled but still they stopped what they were doing and stepped backwards, even though one minute earlier they were very excited. Yes, they were voracious and no one would describe them as smart kids. But they were not stupid and every one of them cherished their lives. Also, Shao Xuan had earned their trust after all these days’ leadership, so they all stared at Shao Xuan for his further command after they stepped back.

Shao Xuan stood at the bank, thinking as he looked at the quiet waters.

The surface was still calm, and aside from that, it was just like another normal day. The water did not change its color and nothing suspicious could be observed.

Was he just being paranoid?

Suddenly, some white translucent creatures appeared in front of Shao Xuan. They were similar to some upside-down shuttlecocks, with lots of whisker-like tentacles. And they move as the tentacles swayed.

Judging from former experiences, Shao Xuan learnt that such circumstances do not appear for no reason. There should be that kind of creatures in the water, and they are supposed to be very dangerous.

Shao Xuan grasped a straw rope with a stone worm tied on its end, and tossed it into the river. It dropped at a spot that was less than two meters away from the bank. However, from the other end of the straw rope he held in his hands, Shao Xuan did not sense any intense struggle like a piranha taking the bait.

The black float was vibrating gently. One would assume that it came from the stone worm’s struggle if not observing carefully. But Shao Xuan was very familiar with the stone worms’ struggle beneath the water since he had quite some experiences in fishing. The truth now was that, the vibration amplitude of the black float on the surface was slightly smaller than before, and it had a trend of getting smaller and smaller.

Shao Xuan pulled back the straw rope, and every whelp got around together as the stone worm revealed itself.

Placing the changed stone worm on the ground, Shao Xuan used the back of his stone knife to strike on its body.

Click!

After a slight sharp snap, the stone worm was broken into pieces as if it was made of glass. It had no more the soft body as before.

All the whelps standing aside began to feel extreme terror. Would a person turn dry and crisp if he were in the river?

No one dared to try, and they moved away without the slightest intention to touch the water.

Shao Xuan tossed another few stone worms down the water, and every time it was the same result. Only after a few seconds, a lively stone worm would become a crisp dried worm, and no fish would take the bait no matter how long it had been placed in the water.

“Either the fish have no interest in dried worms, or there is no fish nearby at all! Perhaps all the fish has run away since something dreadful is in the water. I guess they will only return after that kind of creature leaves.” Shao Xuan took back the straw rope and analyzed.

“Then… when will the fish return?” asked a kid. Now kids from the cave did not fear that ferocious-looking piranhas, instead, they look forward seeing them, and piranhas were missed dearly even with only one day’s absence.

“Not sure. We’ll come back and check tomorrow.” Shao Xuan shook his head and he even went to the guarding warriors and explained the situation, to warn them that they should pay extra attention to keep people in the tribe from going into the river. Also, he left a dried stone worm so that they could review on it.

“Let’s go back. We shall weave more straw rope for next time’s fishing.” Shao Xuan advised. The consumption of straw rope was quite large, for normal straw rope had bad qualities so it would break only after a few times’ fishing. Since they could not go fishing today, Shao Xuan asked them to collect enough grass and sit in the cave to weave straw ropes.

Even though seeing that dried stone worm made the kids terrified, their hearts were filled more with reluctance and unwillingness.

How many fish could they have captured if it were just another fishing day today? At least four! They could have gotten more, if Caesar had dug out more stone worms. For the sake of their own lives, fishing was no longer an option for today. According to Ah-Xuan’s words, they should come back and check tomorrow. But what if tomorrow was no different than today? And what would happen the day after tomorrow? Then what would happen ever after? What if they could never go fishing?

It was too scary to even think about it.

The children in the cave were anxious, and their minds were wandering even when they were physically weaving straw ropes in the cave.

Shao Xuan sat at the entrance of the cave, rethinking about the creature he “saw” earlier as he bathed himself in the sunlight. Incidentally he would think about the coming winter.