Chapter 536
The Slaves' Traces
The team originally planned to stay in a cave that night. They found this cave before when they went for a hunt, but the cave was too small and couldn’t be used for storing larger prey. After making comparisons between the different caves, the Flaming Horn hunting team chose another location as their resting point for the night and reserved this one for other purposes.
Shao Xuan and his team definitely wouldn’t take these people to their private resting points, so they could only come here. They could choose to set up their camps here. Only fools would bring outsiders to their own private bases. Shao Xuan did not trust these people.
They prepared some firewood, boiled some water in a pot they just made, cooked a pot of soup, and roasted some meat.
In the woods outside the cave, there were some creaky sounds echoing from a distance. They weren’t sure what creature was calling out, but it sure made their hairs stand on end.
The mud they pasted on the body had dried and became solid pieces on their bodies. They didn’t know whether they would encounter another scourge of mosquitoes again, so they didn’t dare peel off the mud crumbs. The good thing was that the smell of the mud after it dried wasn’t as bad so it was easier for them to bear.
As the saying went, people could grow used to anything as time went by. They were already accustomed to it.
At first, some people worried that Shao Xuan was trying to play a trick on them by telling them to apply some poop mixture onto their own skin. Later, they found out that this mud mixture actually came from a pit near the stream. Inside the pit lived a beast that preyed on mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were scared of this beast, so as soon as they sensed this smell, they would think that the beast was near and would avoid getting close to it.
After they found out about this, they became calmer and settled.
What they didn’t know was, many animals that walked to the stream to drink would also poop into the pit. Although the Flaming Horns looked composed on the outside, they were laughing their heads off inside.
"What is that?" Qu Ce pointed below them.
Shao Xuan looked down the mountain. In the dark night, curved lights glowing brightly and stretching into the distance.
There was a small river, and those glowing things were actually small creatures living beside the river. They would usually float atop the river at night and gather near the river bank and release light to attract some beasts to walk towards them. If any beast came into contact with those creatures, they would stick on like strong glue, and the beast would not be able to break free. Helplessly, the beast would then be dragged into the bottom of the river and be devoured by these small creatures.
"Don't go there. Those creatures eat people," Shao Xuan said.
Not every place that glowed had jewels and gems. Some places were highly dangerous, especially in a forest like this.
On the fifteenth day after they entered the forest, the team had already passed the hunting area of the Flaming Horns. As they entered the heart of the forest, they knew that they had to be more cautious than before because even the Flaming Horns had no clue now what lay ahead of them.
Their pace slowed down.
Shao Xuan, Duo Kang, and Mai, and the other two seemed to be discussing but in reality, the other four were actually just helping Shao Xuan cover-up.
This situation where the five grouped together was already a common sight for them, so the others had already grown used to it. The people from the other six tribes didn’t pay too much attention to them and just gathered to discuss in their own groups.
Where the others couldn’t see, Shao Xuan was tying knots on a grass rope rapidly.
After Shao Xuan opened his eyes, he looked at the grass rope that was completely knotted, he interpreted the hints given by the knots. He pointed towards a direction and said, "There."
Right when the Flaming Horns decided on the direction, they heard a slightly arrogant voice saying, “I looked at the sky and speculated that there will be rain tomorrow. It would arrive latest by the day after tomorrow. This rain will not be light, and will probably last for two to three days. What are your plans?”
Shao Xuan looked at the person who was speaking. He was an elder from the Longboat tribe named Mu You. Along the way, he had been telling them about his speculations and his observations of the sky. A few days ago he was talking about it too. He mentioned that there wouldn’t be rain for the next three days.
In fact, there had not really been any rain since they entered the forest. Even if there was, it was only a few drops. Most of the time it was sunny, and the temperature was rising.
Looking at the people from the other tribes, it seemed like they had a lot of trust in Mu You’s words.
The four people from the Flaming Horn tribe glanced at the old man who was sitting there pretending to look deeply at the sky, and then looked towards Shao Xuan. They didn’t believe anyone other than Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan shook his head.
Mu You’s expression grew even more arrogant than before. He felt that he was superior in observing celestial phenomena and no one knew more than he did. Perhaps the shamans of the Flaming Horn tribe had similar abilities, but it was definitely not the same as his. Shamans used magic. What he used was completely based on his own rich experience. Plus, there was no shaman with them anyways.
The Longboat tribe spent most of their year on a boat, following the flow of the river. Thus they had more experience than the others. Observing the celestial phenomena was also one of the necessary skills of a boatman. It could help them make forecasts about the weather and make early preparations so they wouldn’t suffer huge losses.
When they finally had the chance to show off their skills, the Longboat tribe felt a strong sense of pride and happiness. No matter how skilled the Flaming Horns were in their forest techniques, they probably couldn’t forecast the weather like the Longboats. At least the Longboats never heard about forecasting from the Flaming Horns for the past few days. Maybe the most they could manage to do was predict the next day’s weather according to the celestial phenomena from the previous evening.
They also thought that what Shao Xuan meant when he shook his head, was that he couldn’t forecast the weather.
The other tribes were discussing about a hiding place from the rain in advance, and making preparations for the next two or three days. They did not want to continue travelling in the rain.
The four people of the Flaming Horn tribe knew that what Shao Xuan meant when he shook his head was, “Don’t listen to this idiot. He has no idea what he’s talking about. There’s no rain and we need to hurry in the direction the knots were leading us to.”
This was the first them they had a huge disagreement since they entered the forest.
The Flaming Horns decided to continue in the direction the knots were leading them to, while the other six tribes were more inclined to follow the words of the Longboat tribe, which was to look for a place to hide from the rain.
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