Chapter 632 Downstream Travels (2/2)

Shao Xuan continued updating his maps. He could sense if there were tribes in the area. Due to the distance from the river banks, he could not sense the human auras but he could sense the fire seeds. They were very faint, plus some tribes even deliberately hid their fire seed’s auras. The shamans of many tribes might not even be able to identify these fire seed auras but Shao Xuan could.

Due to time constraints, it was impossible for him to scout out each tribe. However, as long as he sensed the fire seed, he could gauge their general characteristics. This was a newfound ability he discovered he had.

A few years ago, when he wanted to know what a tribe’s fire seed was like, he must be close to their tribe. It was just like how he only sensed the Drumming fire seed when he just crossed the river years ago. Now, he could sense them without going too close. Sometimes, he could only sense a faint trace if the tribe was too far away.

Ten days later, Shao Xuan had already made seven dots on the map. Four dots had totems drawn next to them, while the other three did not. The dots represented a tribe living in the area. Upon closer inspection, one would notice that the locations of the dots with totems were closer to the river banks. The rest without totems were farther away.

It was also impossible for Shao Xuan to pinpoint their exact location. He just had a general sense of where they were. This map would just be a rough reference. At least the Flaming Horns had an estimate of the number of tribes in the area around Flaming River.

In the future, when the number of people at Flaming River Trading Point increased, they’d receive more information and get to update their maps. They had to take baby steps first.

“If we travel further, we should meet that Gu tribe, right?” asked Duo Li.

“Yeah, that’s based on what Zheng Luo told me.” Shao Xuan looked at the notes on what Zheng Luo told him about the Gu tribe. It was the furthest from Flaming Horn, so Shao Xuan remembered it.

The Gu tribe was the one Zheng Luo mentioned, the tribe that traded fishing nets at the Flaming River Trading Point. Apparently they also lived by the Flaming River and were luckier than the Luo tribe that disappeared after the disaster. They did not suffer major losses. Therefore, he deduced that they weren’t very close to the river banks.

Shao Xuan straightened himself. If he couldn’t focus his mind, he might not be able to sense a tribe farther from the banks.

If the Gu tribe specialised in making fishing nets, they must catch fish often. However, before the disaster, this river wasn’t a good place to fish. They might have been fishing in another river farther from this one.

Shao Xuan instructed Chacha in the air to take note of other inland streams in the area, and to alert him if he saw any human activity.

Another day passed but Shao Xuan still hadn’t sensed the presence of another tribe’s fire seed.

Chacha, who had been given a massive responsibility, also did not see any signs of human activity. Worse, other than the Flaming River, he didn’t see any other rivers! There were no lakes either, just narrow mountain spring brooks at most.

Perhaps due to the lack of rivers, regions far from the Flaming River did not have dense vegetations. The rolling hills were simply plain. Both sides of the river had great differences. On one side was the land of beasts and lush vegetations. When one looked out from an elevated place, this entire area was green and ancient skyscraper trees could be seen. On this side, the grasses merely resembled short fur.

Without a water source, the lands in this area might not be suitable for agriculture either. And without dense trees, there might not be many beasts. Then the possibility of finding a tribe here would be low.

“Is that Gu tribe really here? Could they have lied to us?” asked Duo Li.

Not just Duo Li, other people thought so too. Not every person who went to the trading point always told the truth. Some of them only mentioned general locations, one might not be able to find them when visiting the actual place. Just like the Zhi tribe- everyone knew which piece of land they were on but very few could find their nest.

Some tribes told complete lies, even pointing in the wrong direction.

“Perhaps we've passed the Gu tribe already,” said Tuo.

Shao Xuan looked at the map. He hadn’t been able to sense the totem characteristics of three tribes. Perhaps the Gu tribe was one of them.

“That’s possible too.” Shao Xuan nodded in agreement of Tuo’s deduction but thought for a while and took out the fishing nets the Gu tribe had brought to the trading point.

The Gu tribe had brought these nets out for trade. They’d been kept by Zheng Luo, and afterwards Shao Xuan brought two Gu nets out for his expedition. If they couldn’t hunt any beasts, they would be able to catch fish.

The Gu tribe’s net was different from the Luo tribe. The Luo tribe’s net had finer mesh while the Gu tribe had both kinds of nets. Their weaving patterns were very different from Luo, and there could be different weaving patterns on just one net.

After looking at the nets, Shao Xuan turned to Duo Li, who was fishing using a fishing rod, and said, “Get Kun Tu here, I need to ask him something.”

Duo Li grunted, kept his fishing rod and rushed into the cabin looking for Kun Tu.