After bidding farewell to the Tree Tribe, Luo Chong once again embarked on an exploration journey toward the northeast.
Advancing through the dense Black Forest, it was not easy to keep walking in a straight line. The surroundings looked exactly the same in every direction, so Luo Chong had no choice but to take out the Bark Rope and tie it around his waist.
As he moved forward, he dragged a long rope behind him, turning back from time to time for a glance. So long as the rope remained straight, his direction had not deviated. If the rope curved, that meant he had gone off course.
Relying on this clumsy but practical method, Luo Chong walked through the forest on foot for two days. As he went, he hacked down branches and stuck them into the ground as markers. At last, he emerged from that dark forest.
The Black Forest disappeared, replaced ahead by sparse woods, shrubs, and wild grass. Hoofprints from several even-toed herbivores had also appeared on the ground.
Elder Tree really didn't lie to me. Luo Chong muttered inwardly, drew his bow and arrows, and cautiously felt his way forward.
After walking for another twenty minutes or so, Luo Chong finally saw the animal Elder Tree had described. It was a herd of Blue Antelopes about the size of domestic donkeys. They stood roughly one point two meters at the shoulder and were nearly three meters long. A pair of half-meter-long sharp horns grew from their heads, curving backward.
They had sheep-like faces, donkey ears, horse bodies, Niu Wei, and blue-gray coats all over. Their limbs were long and slender, and manes an inch long grew along the backs of their necks.
Tsk, tsk. If he brought these back and used them as donkeys, that would work too, right? Luo Chong immediately thought of capturing them alive. But this would be difficult.
Donkeys were very docile animals, but Blue Antelopes were different. One look at those sharp horns on their heads was enough to tell that they were not to be trifled with. Blue Antelopes were naturally combative. Even the females would occasionally fight one-on-one over territory, butting horns and the like. If Luo Chong rushed over and they attacked him as a group, he would be finished.
This was a small herd, with only seventeen animals. Herbivores generally gathered into large herds only in summer. It was autumn now, the season when they mated, so there was only one adult male antelope in the entire herd. He was easy to identify: the largest one.
There were eight adult females and eight calves. That made things much simpler. So long as he could control most of the adult Blue Antelopes, the little ones would follow on their own. Calves would not leave the herd by themselves. After thinking it over briefly, Luo Chong came up with a plan and quietly retreated.
He first set the Back Basket aside, then tried to make a simple bolas. As it turned out, this damned place did not even have a single stone. With no other choice, he took two small Snakeskin Bags, filled them with soil, and tied them to the two ends of a rope to serve as weights.
With one bundle of Bark Rope, he made a retractable lasso as a backup. It was mating season now. So long as he controlled the adult male antelope first, he refused to believe the others would not obey. Otherwise, who would they mate with? Heh heh heh. Luo Chong indulged in some lecherous fantasies as he crept forward once more.
Hiding quietly behind a chest-high shrub, Luo Chong peeked out and immediately grimaced.
Emm, what an eyesore. The male antelope was riding the female antelope, happily singing away. This was a damn good opportunity.
He took two steps backward and rapidly swung the bolas. The swishing wind startled the herd of Blue Antelopes, and they warily clustered together, heads facing outward and horns pointed forward, shielding the calves behind them. Only the male and female were completely oblivious, lost in pleasure at their peak.
The bolas, spinning like a propeller and trailing a howl of wind, suddenly flew toward the male and female.
Whoosh—smack—thud!
"Eeuugh! Roar, roar, roooooar!"
The bolas instantly wrapped around the hind legs of the two Blue Antelopes. Their entire bodies shuddered, they gave a violent tremor, and then they collapsed onto the ground with a thud, immediately beginning to howl. No one could tell whether they were enjoying themselves or had been hurt by the fall.
Luo Chong swung a lasso in his hand and charged out at full speed like a cowboy from a Western movie. The herd of Blue Antelopes grew agitated. Seeing that there was only one enemy before them and that he was not a Wolf Pack, they immediately assumed a battle stance, lowering their heads and thrusting their sharp horns forward.
Thanks a lot. Stretching your heads out and letting me lasso you—how considerate.
With the principle that one would be a fool not to take advantage of an opportunity, Luo Chong suddenly whipped out the lasso. Smack! It landed around the horns of two female antelopes. "Damn it, what a mistake! I didn't even catch their heads."
The two antelopes clearly had not expected this two-legged beast before them to refrain from tearing them apart, instead throwing a lasso from far away. One of them suddenly charged over, intending to skewer Luo Chong like a candied hawthorn. But just as it took a step, the other beside it tugged it back.
Luo Chong quickly tightened the Bark Rope, firmly binding the long horns of the two antelopes together. The other female antelopes would not stand for that. They charged over at full speed, their sharp horns flashing with a cold gleam beneath the sunlight as they hurtled toward Luo Chong.
Luo Chong moved sideways at high speed, nimbly leaping and darting between several female antelopes. In just a few moves, he had entangled three of them together. Then he yanked the rope hard, dropping his entire body weight downward.
Thud, thud, thud! Several bodies hit the ground in succession. Luo Chong lay on the ground, desperately pinning down the rope. Five female Blue Antelopes had fallen, some with their necks caught and others with their legs entangled. They howled with a hoarse "hroh, hroh, hroh" while struggling.
The remaining two female antelopes saw what had happened and fled with the eight calves. Charging back in at this point would have been foolish.
"Hey, don't run! Come back here!" Luo Chong grew frantic as he watched the herd flee. This was not how he had expected things to go. There were only a few little ones left—shouldn't they have stayed with the herd?
Damn it. Luo Chong stared helplessly at the ten antelopes running away, unable to do anything. He reluctantly got to his feet, preparing to vent his anger on the seven he had left behind.
First, he cautiously went over and tied up their legs. Then he went to check on the male and female. Their hind legs were still bound together, and they had not managed to separate. They continued lying on their sides, twitching.
Now this was a true stud antelope. No, a breeding antelope. Tsk, tsk. Even in death, they had to be romantic spirits.
Completely subduing wild animals was extremely difficult, especially when they were already adults. It was not as if one could simply unleash a burst of kingly aura and make them obediently toil away without complaint. That was nothing but wishful thinking.
For a species as unruly and combative as the Blue Antelope, he first had to destroy its pride.
The ancients had a technique called Hawk Taming. To tame a fierce wild hawk, they would keep it awake for several days and nights after capturing it, making it utterly exhausted until its wild nature was worn away. In short, it came down to one sentence: Will you submit? If not, I won't let you sleep.
But Luo Chong clearly did not want to spend that long. He simply and brutally used the Stone Axe to smash off all the Blue Antelopes' horns, then used red-hot coals to cauterize the broken ends so they would not grow back.
One had to understand that their beautiful, sturdy horns were a symbol of their strength, as well as weapons for courtship and defending territory. Now that their horns were broken, it was like losing half their lives. The seven antelopes went from struggling violently at the start to becoming listless quails, a sign that they had lost their sense of security.
If Luo Chong had not wanted to keep the male Blue Antelope for breeding, he would not have minded castrating it. He did not need wild Blue Antelopes. He only needed them to work like oxen and horses for him. Even most ancient warhorses had been gelded, precisely so they would become docile and obedient.
A new day was about to arrive. He hoped everyone could cast him a recommendation vote at precisely midnight. He was deeply grateful and bowed in thanks.
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