The wooden bucket lying on the ground was huge, about the same size as the small water jar Luo Chong had fired himself. It had been made from an entire section of log—by setting fire to the middle of a solid-wood tree stump and burning out a hollow. Tsk, that was pretty clever.
From the looks of it, the two women just now had come to draw water. They had thrown down the wooden bucket and run off, and might even bring people back in a while.
Luo Chong had no choice but to arm himself first. He could not worry about getting wet now. He put on his robe and leather boots, slung on his quiver and longbow, stowed away the equipment in his back basket, and repaired the broken strap. Depending on the situation, even if he could not win and had to flee, he had to take the most important things with him.
Just as Luo Chong lit a fire by the river and began skinning the fish, a dense burst of footsteps came from the distant forest, followed by a sea of torches.
The two women who had come to draw water were unmistakably among them. There were exactly ten people—four men and six women. They wore white animal-hide robes, went barefoot, and wore their hair loose. Their skin was so pale it looked as if they had brushed on Frost Consort Powder.
The leader was a grown man of about sixteen or seventeen. His face was pale and beardless, his build sturdy, and he held a branch from a Black Tree in his hand. That was probably his weapon.
The group formed a semicircle around Luo Chong. They were all somewhat astonished by the huge fish behind him. The scene was utterly quiet, and neither side spoke. Only the torches crackled and popped as they burned.
The other side was also sizing up Luo Chong, the child with his hair tied up, boots on his feet, and a back basket on his back.
The man met Luo Chong's gaze and pointed at the wooden bucket beside him.
Oh, for fuck's sake, you want the wooden bucket? You could've said so earlier. You had me nervously worked up for ages.
Luo Chong rolled his eyes speechlessly. Using his spear, he passed the wooden bucket to the Chieftain, keeping his front facing them the entire time.
The Chieftain took the wooden bucket and handed it to a teenager with a bizarre, spiky hairstyle. The teenager slowly went around Luo Chong to fetch water.
"@#￥%...&&*..." The Chieftain babbled something, then pointed at the huge fish behind Luo Chong again.
This foreign language was hard to understand. Still, since he was pointing at the fish, Luo Chong might as well give it to them. It was so large that he could not finish it by himself anyway.
Luo Chong shifted to the side and moved the fish into view. The group suddenly rushed over and began beating the huge fish senseless. Several of the women even began sobbing.
The leading man smiled, hammered his fist against his chest, then extended that fist toward Luo Chong.
What the hell does that mean? A one-on-one fight?
Luo Chong wore a bewildered expression. But since the other man was smiling, he probably did not intend to fight. After hesitating, Luo Chong bumped his fist against the man's.
The man burst into laughter, warmly hugged Luo Chong, then began babbling and gesturing as he communicated with him.
Even if they did not share a language, they could still communicate through their eyes, expressions, and body language.
Luo Chong told him that he had come from the opposite bank of the river. Then he pointed at the clothes on the man's body, indicating that he was looking for an animal with horns growing from its head.
The man nodded to show that he understood. Then he told Luo Chong that many people from their tribe had once been eaten by this fish. He thanked Luo Chong for killing the monster and hoped to invite him to their tribe as a guest.
Luo Chong thought it over. It was already evening anyway, so he agreed. This tribe was only a little over half a day's journey from his own. He could first learn more about them, and if they had any specialties, he could trade with them in the future.
Luo Chong gestured for them to carry the fish up, explaining that it was edible. The people of the man's tribe were astonished. In their experience, they had only ever been eaten by fish—when had they ever eaten one?
Since the fish was too large, they could only butcher it first, then cut it into pieces and carry it away. Luo Chong had no choice but to keep working.
The silvery fish skin was peeled off. It was a full four meters long and three and a half meters wide, extremely smooth and elastic, and even waterproof. He absolutely had to preserve it. He threw away all the organs except the swim bladder, but to his surprise, he discovered a lung among the entrails.
Holy crap, it's a lungfish! The monster that was supposedly able to bury itself in the earth during the dry season and survive for half a year without dying.
The cleaned lungfish was cut into several large pieces and carried away. Luo Chong carried the fish head on his spear and followed them back to their settlement.
Their tribe was in the forest. After walking for less than ten minutes, they saw a gigantic treehouse. Seven or eight Black Iron Trees formed a huge circle, with a single tree hollow serving as the entrance and exit. The interior was not very large, only around a hundred square meters, and there was a Fire Pit in the open space at the center.
They had also burned hollows into these great trees to use as small rooms. The spaces were cramped, but sufficient for them to live in. That was mainly because their population was so small. From the Chieftain down to nursing infants, there were only thirty-two people in total.
Luo Chong named this tribe that lived inside tree hollows the Tree Tribe. The Tree Tribe had only five adult men: one half-dead Elder, the sturdy Chieftain Dashu, the short but solidly built Tree Stump, the spiky-haired Mutong, who was said to have burned those wooden buckets and accidentally burned his own hair as well, and a simple, honest man named Wooden Porpoise.
There were nine adult women, eleven youths over six years old, and seven children under six. It was truly a pitifully small population.
Since they had lived in this dark forest all their lives, their skin was very pale. They rarely basked in the sun, but that did not mean they knew nothing about the outside world.
The half-dead Elder Tree took Luo Chong and Dashu up to the Lookout Post. In reality, it was the roof of the enormous treehouse, woven together from the branches of the great trees. The Lookout Post stood somewhat higher than the surrounding Black Forest, allowing them to see a great distance.
The Elder's eyes were slightly cloudy, and he could no longer see far. He narrowed his eyes and looked toward the setting sun, then pointed east and muttered something.
Dashu beside him struggled to translate for the Elder.
"From that direction, once you leave the Black Forest, there's a mountain as lofty as the clouds in the sky." As Dashu translated, he pointed at the fiery clouds in the sky.
"The previous Elder told me there's an animal with horns on that mountain. They're as tall as people." Dashu gestured to horns above his own head, then compared their height to his own.
"That animal runs as fast as the wind and has fur the same color as the sky. No one can catch it."
Luo Chong stared blankly at Dashu's gestures and pieced together the general meaning through guesswork. Of course you can't catch it.
Two sharp horns on its head, blue-gray fur, and as tall as a person... It's probably some kind of large antelope. Even a leopard might not be able to catch it. Do you think you can outrun it? You'll need traps.
Luo Chong looked confident, but Dashu and Elder Tree did not hold out much hope for him. When Dashu saw that the Elder had stopped speaking, he recommended his own clothes to Luo Chong.
Only then did Luo Chong notice that the entire Tree Tribe wore clothes made from the same kind of animal hide. According to Dashu, it came from a huge rabbit more than half a meter long. Its fur was pure white, and it liked eating the moss and mushrooms in the forest. There were plenty of them in this Black Forest.
Luo Chong's eyes lit up. Rabbits were a wonderful thing. Everyone knew that rabbits reproduced as quickly as rats. Having more than five kits in a litter was commonplace. A baby rabbit reached sexual maturity at four months and could immediately begin reproducing, with one litter every two months. If they could be domesticated...
Tsk, tsk. One adult pair of rabbits, one litter every two months, six litters a year, five kits per litter on average—that's thirty rabbits! Even if the kits began mating and producing offspring at six months, the population would grow geometrically.
Emm, if I could bring back two adult pairs of rabbits, there'd be several hundred by the end of the year! Luo Chong fantasized about his rabbit-farming plans, saliva almost dripping from his mouth.
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Fellow readers, book friends, Qing Shu is asking for votes! Get those bookmarks and recommendations going! Even leaving a comment would help. This book is currently third on the Fantasy Contract Rankings, but it's about to be knocked on the ass by fourth place. Come save my chrysanthemum...
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