Chapter 201 - Why did you not come sooner?
Translated by Lesyt Team
Edited by Ilesyt
Sitting on the stool, Shao Xuan wasn’t threatened by Jiao Wu.
“You cannot defeat me.” Shao Xuan said.
Jiao Wu grunted and said, “We will beat you together, two to one.”
“Even you two together cannot defeat me.”
“You...” Jiao Wu was ready to beat him, but was stopped by Yan Zhi.
Sitting on the stool next to them, Yan Zhi looked at Shao Xuan, and said, “Say your goal.”
Shao Xuan didn’t state his intention immediately, but asked, “I want to know why you are so alert? Do you question my identity?”
When it came to this, Jiao Wu became silent, as anger flashed in his eyes. His anger wasn’t for Shao Xuan, but he thought of something.
Silent for a while, Yan Zhi said, “We feel those of our tribe are kind when we first meet them. I have to admit that I feel you are very kind, and we don’t doubt your identity. But even though you also come from the Flaming Horns tribe, so what?”
Shao Xuan thought about it, and said, “Have you been betrayed?”
Jiao Wu wanted to say anything, but he glanced at Yan Zhi, and held back. He sighed deeply, but he was not irritated by Shao Xuan.
“Alright.” For this, Shao Xuan was also helpless. He had thought that the wanderers of the Flaming Horns tribe led a similar life to Yan Shuo. After meeting Old He, he found everyone in the tribe led a difficult life. But they always kept their faith, and all of them were tough. However…
Shao Xuan was told by Old He that not every descendant of the Flaming Horns tribe could get on well with each other. Not each of them was loyal, so few traitors did exist. They had to be alert of those who betrayed their beliefs!
When Shao Xuan left the Feng tribe, Old He also reminded Shao Xuan that if he found wanderers, he needed to observe them first. If they looked evil, he shouldn’t bring them back to the tribe.
Those evil men would also be excluded by the Shaman even if they went back to the Flaming Horns tribe. The Shaman set a high standard of selecting candidates of totem warriors. The traitors would not be included.
Shao Xuan wanted to find some wanderers who were good at shipbuilding, but he still had to observe them. He would treat different people in different ways.
Shao Xuan met with Jiao Wu and his brother for a very short time. But they left a good impression on him. Jiao Wu was a little impatient, and his brother was calm. But neither was evil.
Shao Xuan sighed, and no longer delayed his plan. He took out a stone plate, and put it on the table.
When Yan Zhi saw the pattern on the stone plate, he felt he stopped breathing. He was staring at the stone plate. Jiao Wu wanted to pick it up to have a look, but he was afraid of being scolded by Yan Zhi. He was so anxious that he kept scratching his cheeks and didn’t know what to do.
After a while, Yan Zhi said, “Is this the totem pattern of our tribe? This is the first time I have seen such a clear totem pattern.”
While talking, Yan Zhi took out of a small stone knife, the length of a palm. On the small wooden table, he carved a pattern according to that pattern of the stone plate, little by little. He carved very slowly, and carefully.
Jiao Wu next to him was staring at him, and became very still, for fear of making a little movement and disturbing him.
Shao Xuan admired them again. Fortunately, they deserved to be cultivated.
After finishing carving the pattern, Yan Zhi carefully touched it, as if he wanted to remember it forever.
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When Yan Zhi raised his head, he looked at Shao Xuan with much ease, and felt grateful to him.
“Sorry.” Yan Zhi gave a wry smile, “We have been betrayed before...”
Yan Zhi told what had happened to him briefly to Shao Xuan.
At that time, Jiao Wu had been a boy at the age of ten plus. Working on the ships, Yan Zhi did all heavy work. There had been several men from their tribe living in the Longboat tribe together. Including Jiao Wu, eight men in total had gotten along very well, and always believed that everyone from the same tribe would live in harmony forever.
Until one day, a guy from the Flaming Horns tribe appeared. He had been chased and was almost killed. He had gotten injured. Yan Zhi and the others saved him and brought him back. Later, he had lied and said that there was a very good place where people were much more friendly than those of the Longboat tribe. He had advised everyone to go there with him.
He had described it as a good and attractive place, so those working hard and suffering a lot in the Longboat tribe had looked forward to going there very much.
Later, everyone worked together to build a boat. Although it was not as large as the boats of the Longboat tribe, it was much better than those in the wanderer area. Everyone had stayed together and had intended to leave together. But when they had arrived at a place on the boat, this man had managed to push everyone off the boat.
“In that place, two rivers converged into one. The water in one river was black, and that in the other one was muddy yellow. The water in the fork had two colors, and in that place, there were a lot of fish with long teeth. Eight men fell into the river and only three finally survived. The traitor rowed the boat downstream. I still remember that he used the wooden paddle to beat the men in the water... Later, we three walked along the river upstream and came back to the Longboat tribe. Everything left by generations of our ancestors were used to build the boat. That man left with our remaining savings, and no longer appeared.”
Yan Zhi told this story in a very calm voice, but there was much hatred in his eyes. This was the main reason why they were alert against Shao Xuan. They had suffered such a terrible experience.
Having been betrayed and suffering a bad experience, they remained vigilant when they met descendants of their tribe.
“To save me, my brother was bitten by the fish and he was close to death. Even though he survived, he is no longer as strong as before. Yan Zhuo’s brother pushed Yan Zhuo to the bank, so he did not survive.” Jiao Wu said with tearful eyes.
The Yan Zhuo mentioned by Jiao Wu was another wanderer of their tribe. He lived in the wooden house next to them. Now he must still be working outside and hadn’t come back.
“Some time ago, the totem patterns appeared on our body. We have greater strength and I became healthy.” Yan Zhi looked at Shao Xuan, “Did the totem patterns appear on your body?”
“Totem patterns?” Shao Xuan was puzzled.
In the beginning, Yan Zhuo saw the blurred outline of the totem patterns on his body, but according to Yan Zhi and co and Old He, they had never seen the pattern before. Why did the pattern suddenly appear?
Asking about the specific time when the pattern appeared, Shao Xuan found that it was the same day when he was at the old fire pit.
It seemed that the old fire pit still worked.
Shao Xuan did not answer him, so Yan Zhi thought the pattern never appeared on his body. They had intended to comfort him. But when they were about to say something, they saw the clear outline of the patterns on Shao Xuan’s face, which was much clearer than theirs!
In general, only totem warriors had such a clear outline of the totem patterns.
“You... you...” Jiao Wu pointed at Shao Xuan, and failed to say other words.
Shao Xuan ignored the two brothers who were excited, took out an animal skin roll and a pen, and asked Yan Zhi, “What is man’s name?”
“Who?” Yan Zhi failed to respond at once.
“That traitor.”
“Dao Yu. He is called Dao Yu.” Yan Zhi carved the name in the corner of the table with a stone knife. He had been educated by his parents at a young age. After the death of his parents, he often worked on the boats of the Longboat tribe and learned some words. He never forgot this name.
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Glancing at the two words, Shao Xuan wrote them down on the animal skin roll.
“The traitor will never be forgiven. Wherever he goes or what other tribes he depends on, we will punish him as long as we have such an opportunity.” Shao Xuan said.
When Shao Xuan tells the Shaman about it, he believed the Shaman would make such a decision.
If the wanderers depended on other tribes to make a living, the men of the Flaming Horns tribe would inevitably feel disappointed, but may not blame them. After all, the wanderers led such difficult lifes. But even if the traitor depended on other tribes, he or she would absolutely not be forgiven. In the Flaming Horns tribe, he or she would even be executed. Shao Xuan knew that for generations, the shaman of the Flaming Horns tribe on the other side of the river punished those who broke the rules in a cruel way no matter what he was like and whether the rule-breakers lived on the mountain.
“What is in your hand?” Yan Zhi saw the corner of the animal skin roll, where a lot of words were written, but he did not understand many of these words.
“These are to be brought back to the shaman.” Shao Xuan said.
“The shaman! The shaman of our tribe!” The two brothers screamed at the same time.
“Of course. Our tribe still exists, and the fire seed remains, it’s just far away from here. Otherwise, how do you think I, a totem warrior, came here?”
The totem patterns were the most powerful evidence of a totem warrior. He was different from the traitor, for the totem patterns rather than words proved his identity. Yan Zhi and his brother never doubted it.
“So... so... can we... go back?” Yan Zhi was always calm, but stammered at this time.
“Of course you can. But our tribe is a little far from here and it’s dangerous for you to travel there.”
“We are not afraid!” They both said.
“Wait a minute. I have to look for Yan Zhuo first. Shao... Shao Xuan, right? Can you wait here for a while?” Yan Zhi said, even begged.
“Don’t worry. I will stay here.” Shao Xuan said seriously.
“Thank you... Thank you!” Yan Zhi wiped his tears, took a deep breath, and opened the door to go out.
After Yan Zhi left, no one minded Jiao Wu, so he burst into tears. His loud voice almost scared Shao Xuan.
Jiao Wu did not think there was anything wrong, so he directly sat on the ground, and kept crying. He told Shao Xuan,“Why did you not come sooner? If you had come here a few years ago, we would not have been cheated by that traitor... Can we really go back?”
“Yes.”
On hearing Shao Xua’s answer, Jiao Wu cried even more loudly. He roared and then snuffled. He kept roaring and snuffling.
Shao Xuan looked at him and his face twitched. He grabbed inside his animal skin bag, took out cold roasted meat and passed it to him.
Stop crying.
Jiao Wu sat there, biting the barbecue and snuffling. Shao Xuan ignored him, and recorded all matters about Jiao Wu and his brothers in detail on the animal skin roll. On this animal skin roll, he also wrote down the things about Yan Shuo and Old He, including the traitor.