Chapter 68 – A good hound serves as the hunter’s eyes and ears (2/2)

Ta had heard of some of the details in the last hunting mission. The more he learnt, the more satisfied he was with Shao Xuan. At first, he assumed that Shao Xuan was only a little bit stronger than his son, with more advanced night-seeing ability and a little bit of good fortune. However, when Keke had tested him later, he realized that the kid was making prompt progress… Perhaps that was the reason why the Shaman liked him?

Ta had mentioned Shao Xuan’s fast speed of progress to no one. He asked Keke and Tuo to keep it a secret as well.

Even if there was no clear rule that prevented newly-awakened warriors to join the advance group, they would normally choose some senior warriors with more experience in hunting missions. They would be able to protect themselves if anything happened. Truly there was no precedence of recruiting a newly-awakened warrior into the advance group.

The next hunting trip was approaching, and Ta planned to discuss with the Shaman these days, and recruit a newly-awakened warriors into the advance group. Although there was no clear rule, he had to ask first. As for the Chief… The Chief was his father, of course he would be on his son’s side. Naturally, the Chief wouldn’t be an obstacle there.

He heard that Shao Xuan was training in here these days, so he came to check on him. However, he found that Shao Xuan was merely learning about setting traps with some old guy who quit from the hunting team! It was such a waste of his talent! Such a disappointing thing!

As Ta and Old Ke were judging each other with unfriendly looks, Shao Xuan came back from his meditation, “Hey!”

Ta looked along Shao Xuan and Old Ke’s sights, and found that the wolf labeled by the Shaman was running up the mountain from below. He was running happily, who would think that he was a wolf?! He was so lame compared with the wolves in the forest!

Ta had no appreciation for Caesar. In his perspective, it was better to chop it and feed it to the people in the tribe, or he would just waste more food if he was kept alive. The more he thought about it, the more dissatisfied he became. Ta felt that Shao Xuan had many things that he didn’t approve of, if he weren’t seeking for the ancestors blessing, he wouldn’t allow Shao Xuan to join the advance group, even if Shao Xuan grew into an excellent mid-level warrior.

At the other side, Shao Xuan didn’t care for other people’s opinions, for he was busy being happy about his training for Caesar.

Caesar cheerfully ran to Shao Xuan with a palm-sized animal skin bag in his mouth. He placed the bag in front of Shao Xuan, and sat down next to him, waiting to be praised.

“Good job!” Shao Xuan praised him generously, and tossed him a long prepared beast’s meat as his reward for getting the task done.

“What are you doing, Ah-Xuan?” Old Ke was curious.

Shao Xuan poured out a few fruits from the animal skin bag, and then collected the bag into his pocket. He smiled, “There’s a saying, that a good hound serves as the eyes and ears of the hunter. I’m trying to train Caesar into a good hound. Perhaps he would be able to help in the hunting missions later.”

Ta was about to leave disappointedly, but at that word, he stopped in his tracks and kept listening.

“Good hound?” Old Ke was confused.

“Even the slyest fox couldn’t escape from a hound’s nose.” Said Shao Xuan.

“Hound?” asked Old Ke.

Ta was paying attention to Shao Xuan’s explanation, too. He felt pretty interested in taking advantage of the wolf’s sense of smell.

“Hound. It’s a trained wolf.”

Shao Xuan was training Caesar, and he taught him to find things by smell. At first it was clothes, then bones, and fruits afterwards. Now, Shao Xuan wanted to ask Caesar to find something with even fainter smell.

“Wolves have sharp nose.” Shao Xuan smiled.

“The Shaman taught you that? It is a good method.” Old Ke said without much interest.

At Old Ke’s words, Shao Xuan responded with a single “Um”, and gave no further explanation.

In fact, he would love to bring the scene depicted on the walls of the orphan cave back to life. However, since someone deliberately covered it up with stone powder, Shao Xuan chose not to reveal the secret easily. Before he left the orphan cave, he painted a layer of stone powder on the fresco when the other kids were fishing outside. The window of that stone room was blocked as well, and no one had noticed that.