You're Still Following Me? I'm Home!

Damn it, you two, go away already. I'm begging you. I really can't afford to raise you two! Waaah!

Luo Chong went over and pushed at their butts, but they didn't even bother to shake him off—no, they flicked their tails a few times, then continued curling grass into their mouths with their trunks.

I swear, I'm going to beat you to death.

Luo Chong circled around to their front and aimed a solid punch at its eye. But before his fist could land, damn it, the Dinophant looked at him with its innocent, enormous eyes. It didn't even dodge when the fist came over, just looking so aggrieved that it seemed ready to burst into tears.

MMP. Fine, have it your way. I really couldn't bring himself to bully a child.

Luo Chong withdrew his hand and turned to leave. Just then, the Dinophant curled up a bundle of grass with its trunk and held it out to him. The meaning was obvious: Come on, eat too. It's really tasty! It fluttered its huge eyes, looking utterly adorable and clueless.

"Ha, heh heh heh, good boy. You're so well-behaved. Eat it yourself, all right? Big Brother doesn't eat this." Luo Chong forced a smile uglier than crying, helplessly accepted the grass, and stuffed it back into the Dinophant's mouth.

"Pack everything up quickly. We're leaving at once." Determined to shake off these two leeches, Luo Chong secretly ground his teeth.

They packed their belongings and rearranged the Blue Antelopes that still hadn't eaten their fill into neat lines. Wuda and Ximen bleated unhappily.

Luo Chong went over and slapped them twice. "MMP! Why didn't you make a sound when they were stealing your food just now? What are you bleating about now? If you've got the guts, go fight them for it yourselves."

Once everyone and the Blue Antelopes had set off toward the river, Luo Chong stayed at the very back. He carried two bundles of grass over to the two Dinophants, left them there to eat slowly, and then took off running.

After they had gone a long way, Luo Chong saw that the two Dinophants were still eating grass. He couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief. He had no idea how those Cannibal Tribe people had raised them before or what they had fed them. They looked as though they had been reborn as starving ghosts.

The group headed west for an entire morning before finally reaching the former Tree Tribe. The enormous tree house was still giving off white smoke, but inside it had already burned to ash. The ring of large trees outside had not been badly damaged. There was no gasoline here, and completely igniting such huge living trees was no easy task.

Dashu and the others were somewhat sorrowful, but life had to go on, didn't it? Since they were still alive, they had to live even better. So they had to keep moving forward.

Once they reached the Tree Tribe, they were not far from the river. After another twenty-odd minutes, they arrived at the place where Luo Chong had once battled the lungfish. The lungfish were gone now.

Dashu and the others had never been to the other side of the river and had no idea what it was like. Crossing the river itself, however, posed no difficulty. The natural tree bridge above the water was the best way across. Luo Chong had crossed from there before, though he had fallen halfway over.

But not everyone knew how to climb trees. Take the Blue Antelopes, for example.

"Chieftain, how are we going to get across? What about those four-legged beasts?" Mutong looked worriedly at the herd of antelopes. Getting themselves across was one thing, but what about the antelopes—and the Stone Luo Chong had mentioned, the one that could let them eat three meals a day?

"Don't worry. They can swim on their own. They'll just swim across. First, go cut some long branches." Luo Chong spoke calmly.

Twenty minutes later, under the astonished gazes of everyone present, Luo Chong had once again lashed together a fish-skin dugout canoe. He also tied ropes to both ends of it.

He had Dashu climb across the tree bridge to the opposite bank first. Then Dashu grabbed the rope at one end of the canoe, while they put one of the large baskets carried by the Blue Antelopes inside the boat. Dashu pulled the canoe across from the far bank, took out the basket, and Luo Chong pulled the empty canoe back.

They ferried over one large basket at a time, then one person at a time. Eventually, everyone made it across by boat. Fortunately, the river was not very wide—only ten meters—so they moved quite quickly. It was just a little troublesome. In the end, only Luo Chong and eighteen Blue Antelopes remained.

To make the Blue Antelopes cross obediently, Luo Chong still had to strip naked, jump into the water, and lead them across one by one.

Once the antelopes had shaken their fur dry and put their baskets back on, Luo Chong had dressed again, and the group continued on its way.

The scenery on the west bank of the Small River was completely different. There were no impenetrably dense Black Iron Trees here, only tall, straight broadleaf and coniferous forests. Warm sunlight spilled through the woods, while the autumn wind mercilessly stripped Dashu bare, tearing leaf after leaf from the trees and scattering nuts for the pheasants foraging on the ground.

Whoosh.

Luo Chong shot another pheasant. Mutong happily picked it up. Following their new leader, they no longer had to worry about food.

By evening, the sky had grown gloomy and the sun was nearly setting.

Little Qu Bing was packing up by the river with his mother after finishing work, occasionally glancing north. Ever since Luo Chong had left, he had come to the river with his mother every day to fish, all so he could wait here for Luo Chong. His mother had told him that the Chieftain had gone that way, so he came to wait every day.

The sky was about to darken, and his mother had already begun gathering the fish they had caught. But the Chieftain had not returned today either. Qu Bing was disappointed. Why hadn't that Chieftain big brother, who had always been especially kind to him, come back?

"Mom, did the Chieftain abandon us?" Qu Bing tugged at his mother's hem and asked in the old tribal dialect.

"He won't. He's the Chieftain. He won't leave us behind." The woman rubbed Qu Bing's head and said with a smile.

But inwardly, the woman sighed. Luo Chong was indeed the Chieftain, but in her eyes, he was still just a minor. He had been gone for so long—who knew whether he was still alive? The outside world was so dangerous that even an adult would not dare venture out alone.

But she did not dare tell Qu Bing any of that, afraid it would hurt him.

The woman lifted two baskets of fish with a wooden pole and balanced them on her shoulders. Worried, she glanced north, but when she looked that way, she saw several figures in the distant woods.

"There are people over there! Grab your weapons!"

The woman suddenly pointed north and shouted. The women of the Fishing Team hurriedly set down the day's catch, each taking out a White-shafted Long Spear and pointing it north. Little Qu Bing was pulled behind them as well.

"Mom, it's the Chieftain."

Qu Bing poked his head out from behind them. With his sharp eyes, he recognized at a glance that the person walking at the very front was the Chieftain of his tribe.

"Qu Bing, I'm home!" At last, he was home. Seeing them, Luo Chong happily waved and shouted.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, two loud elephant cries came from across the river, drawing everyone's gaze over.

"Holy crap, you're still following me? I'm already home!"

Luo Chong nearly cried. He had traveled so far and still had not shaken off those two Dinophants. They were practically two Taotie. How much did they have to eat every day? What did I do in my past life to deserve you two?

The two Dinophants had actually followed Luo Chong all the way along the opposite bank. Only when they reached the Han Tribe did they emerge from the woods.

Luo Chong kept praying silently, Don't come over. Please, don't come over. But how could a little river eight or nine meters wide stop elephants? Elephants were born swimmers, for crying out loud.

With two splashes, the two Dinophants jumped into the river, sending up enormous waves. In less than ten seconds, they had climbed back up this bank, and Luo Chong was completely stunned.

The Dinophant "babies" were angry. Luo Chong had given them grass, then abandoned them and run off by himself. Fortunately, their sense of smell was highly developed, allowing them to track him all the way here.

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