Chapter 38 – Preparation (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

Shao Xuan placed old Ke’s sabre onto the newly-made stone table in his room, while Caesar bared his teeth as he glared at the sabre, standing at least two meters away from it. Ever since he sniffed the sabre earlier, Caesar became extremely cautious and his eyes showed that he was extremely alert, for he kept his distance from the sabre all the time and never came near.

Shao Xuan reached out his hand to touch the sabre’s body, which was not the same cold feeling as normal stone knives. It had been decades, and the intense ferocious aura of the sabre finally settled down. After thousands of times’ polishing, the knife became smaller in size because of the abrasion. The blade was full of small dents once, but it became smooth and sharp again after old Ke re-polished it.

Shao Xuan sighed slightly and he used a leather bag to carefully cover the sabre. He did not expect old Ke to give him such a precious sabre, without caring about that he might lose it.

After placing it aside, Shao Xuan took out a piece of stone plate. The stone that it was made from was not of good quality, and Shao Xuan was merely using it as a writing board. He had been keeping record on how many stone tools he needed to craft and how many had already been completed.

Aside from spearheads and arrowheads, Shao Xuan planned to make a few stone balls to take to the hunting, which could be used for flying chains to trip the beasts.

For the next three days, Shao Xuan had been stone crafting in old Ke’s place and he was there listening to old Ke’s hunting stories.

Old Ke did not brag about his glorious days, and Shao Xuan did not ask further. He assumed that old Ke would tell his legends when he wanted to.

After they were finished with the work, old Ke asked Shao Xuan, “Do you know why people in the mountainside district rarely go fishing?”

That was something that Shao Xuan also wondered about, since people noticed that fishing was easy, why would so many people be so willing to risk their lives for hunting?

To be honest, pulling out fish was quite simple, so one would not go through much trouble as long as they mastered the tactics in it. Besides, as far as Shao Xuan knew, not every person in mountainside district had sufficient food.

However, in actuality, Shao Xuan had only seen a few old men, who had trouble walking around, come down the mountain and join the army of fishers. None of the kids living up there went fishing, let alone those warriors, except for those guards by the riverside. Basically no one would try to snatch the fish from people in the mountain foot district.

Old Ke raised up his hand and stared afar through the window. From that direction, the mountains afar could be seen.

It was never easy for totemic warriors to improve their strength. When they were hunting outside, they needed to be engaged in thousands of life-and-death struggles to improve themselves from first-level warriors to mid-level warriors. However, it would be extremely difficult if they wanted more progress. For warriors like Mai needed to be prepared to lose their lives every time they went hunting outside.

Among the whole mountain, people living in the mountain foot district were the weakest in ability, which also meant that they were relatively the slack group of the tribe. But even so, every time when hunting, Shao Xuan had not seen a single face of reluctance. Everyone was so positive, even when they already had enough fish to support their living.

Many warriors living up in the mountain would never allow their kids to come down the mountain for fishing. Perhaps they did not want their kids to have the concept of “obtaining food is easy”. From the admonition that passed down through generations, all they needed to know was that they had to take risks to obtain food. To earn food and clothes, one had to put himself into danger and fight against those fierce animals in the forest.

Pressure was the only motivation of improvement.

“Those warriors who had not been tested by hunting are no true warriors!” old Ke summarized.

It sounded cruel, but quite understandable.

Shao Xuan thought of the fresco he saw on the wall back in the cave, and the last sentence, “One day, we shall return to our previous land. Glory is still in the fire, and the fire of the Scorching Horn will never be put out.”

After leaving old Ke’s place and coming back to his own cabin, Shao Xuan counted the stone tools he made today, and sorted them out, while placing them at the same place where he stored the other stone tools.

The arrowheads that Shao Xuan crafted for himself were not the same as those he made for Lang Ga. These arrowheads had more streamlined bodies and the wings appeared more like flat strips. Aside from those, Shao Xuan crafted a few three-winged arrowheads. Unlike the stone tools for training purposes, Shao Xuan had carved his name on every piece of stone tool that he planned to take with him on the hunting trip, which was a custom of all hunting warriors in the tribe.