Chapter 62 – Returning home
Translated by Sunyancai
The tribe woke up early in the morning as usual. It was silent initially, and then got noisy gradually. looking calm and peaceful.
Ge yawned as he walked out of his door. It was yet another boring day, and he planned to go to the riverside to check on the kids fishing there.
He stretched his body while walking, but all of a sudden, he heard something, and looked towards the direction of the sound.
It came from the people, living near the Path of Glory.
And if you counted the time, you would realize that it was about time for the hunting team to return. These days, the other hunting team was already preparing to set off.
When Ge looked along those few people’s sights, and found that on the Path of Glory, two warriors were running up the mountain carrying a man. It seemed that the wounded man was unconscious, and those two warriors carrying him were quite anxious.
Was he badly wounded? Was it so severe that he could die any minute?
The man carried to the top was not a child but an adult, which relieved Ge, a little bit. During the days when the hunting team was supposed to return, old Ke was in a condition of anxiety almost always. He had not been sleeping well for a long time, and even when old Ke was wearing his stiff poker face, the others could tell from that frozen expression that old Ke was not in a good mental state.
“Well, is it that bad?” Ge slightly snapped.
或者明天便会回来了。
Since people sent the wounded warrior to the tribe, perhaps the main team would return this afternoon or early tomorrow.
Originally, Ge planned to drop by at old Ke’s place and tell him the news, but on second thought, Ge decided to wait a little longer, to see if there were any more wounded warriors or any unprecedented events first. Many people shared Ge’s thoughts, so those who had nothing particular to do just waited along the Path of Glory for the day.
Soon after, Ge and the others in the mountain foot district heard a noise, and the noise came from the mountaintop!
All of them looked up, only to find that a few people were rushing down from the mountaintop along the Path of Glory. To their surprise, one of them was the Shaman!
In the past when a hunting team returned, the Shaman would wait at the end of the Path of Glory, which was located at the top, to welcome them back. However, now the Shaman came down in a hurry. Two warriors guarded the Shaman on both sides, a bit afraid that he might trip or something. It seemed that if the Shaman wasn’t so old, he would have run down like a gust of wind.
When the Shaman passed the crowd along the Path of Glory, Ge and the others could see the expression on the Shaman’s face clearly. He was always calm and unperturbed usually, but now, he was quite anxious. It seemed that he was about to cry.
What the hell happened?!
Everyone who witnessed the scene was thinking the same question. No matter what had happened, it must be big, or else the Shaman wouldn’t act this way.
Thinking about something big was happening or had happened, everyone became anxious.
Ge hurried towards old Ke’s place.
Suffering from severe insomnia, old Ke had bags under his eyes. For the past few days, he had been sitting in the room as usual, since early in the morning to do some stone crafting. The only difference was that he was totally absent-minded. In fact, he knew at heart that it was impossible for him to craft any fine stoneware given his condition. But he wanted to keep himself occupied, or else he wouldn’t be able to persuade himself not to wait along the Path of Glory, or wait outside the tribe.
How anxiously he waited!
Caesar was lying beside his in low spirits as well. His fur had become dim and dark. He was lying on his sides, with a bone in his mouth. When he was bored, he would chew on the bone lazily.
All of a sudden, Caesar moved his ears and stood up, with his eyes looking at the window.
“Old Ke!”
Ge’s voice came in from the window, and it was filled with anxiety.
Old Ke was stunned as he was polishing a piece of stoneware roughly. Unconsciously, he pressed down on the half-polished stoneware and broke it into two pieces.
The next moment, Ge went inside through the window. Knowing that old Ke had no time nor interest in setting traps on the window, Ge was much bolder and he wasn’t as timid when going in through the window as he used to be.
“What’s wrong?” old Ke started the conversation this time.
“I don’t know, but something big happened!” Ge told old Ke what he just saw earlier.
Even though he was quite experienced in hunting, old Ke couldn’t figure out why the Shaman acted that way. He had no intention in stone crafting anymore, so he grabbed his cane and left his house. Maybe Caesar also sensed that perhaps the hunting team was about to return, he didn’t stay but went out together with old Ke.
When old Ke and Ge came to the Path of Glory, almost everyone in the mountain foot district was gathered along the path. It was said that many people even went to the perimeters of the tribe, and there were people along the path of glory in mountain side and mountaintop. The Shaman’s act earlier was unsettling to the crowd, however they couldn’t figure out what had happened.
Soon, someone came back, and the Shaman was still walking in the front. What was different now was that earlier, the Shaman’s facial expression showed only anxiety, but now, he was shedding tears.
The Shaman walked down the path and stood at the end of it, looking towards the direction of outside and waiting for the hunting team’s return.
The man that went outside to inquire about the situation returned as well. Like the Shaman, his eyes reddened from excitement. When came back, he whispered something to the others briefly.
“What?! The ancestors?!” a man with poor self-control yet out loud, stunned.
Before he finished his sentence, he was punched down to the ground by the others.
“Quiet!!”
Since they knew the reason why the Shaman was so excited, the unsettling feeling of the crowd reduced. Instead, their excitement rose as time went by.
Like how Mai and the others reacted to the news, people in the tribe were totally stunned hearing the news. Only when they heard that the hunting team had arrived, had they recovered from the daze.
The hunting team grew bigger. Even though there were less than two hundred warriors, but with all the game, it seemed pretty spectacular.
However, this time, no one in the tribe paid any attention to the game. Instead, they were staring at the wooden palanquin in the front.
When they returned to the tribe, Mai and the others had torn down the cover of the palanquin, so that everybody could see the four ancestors kneeling on their knees clearly.
In theory, since Shao Xuan was the one who found the four ancestors, he should be the one lifting the palanquin and bathing in the glory. Unfortunately, he was merely a kid, and it required tall and strong warriors to be the bearers. Relatively speaking, Shao Xuan was…far too short, for now.
Warriors in the hunting group felt sorry for Shao Xuan, but in fact, Shao Xuan didn’t share the feeling. It wasn’t just lifting the palanquin, all the bearers needed to watch the direction. Because no matter where they were, they needed to guarantee that the four ancestors were always kneeling towards the direction of the tribe. So when they were walking with the ancestors on that palanquin, sometimes they had to alter the angle, while sometimes they had to change the direction. So, all of them seemed just like idiots.
“We welcome the ancestors returning with all the respect!” the Shaman shouted out with arms stretching towards the sky. After the shout, he made a standard and sincere salute towards the ancestors.
All the others in the tribe kneeled down out of excitement.
Shao Xuan was barely able to drag the game, and his teeth ached listening to the sound of knees hitting on the ground.
After making a salute, the Shaman stood up and guarded beside the wooden palanquin. He was the Shaman of the tribe, and of course it was his honor and duty to guard the ancestors when they returned home.
The Shaman accompanied the wooden palanquin going up the mountain, but the others kept kneeling down on both knees. Only when the wooden palanquin passed them, did they have the chance to lift their heads and look at the hunting team walking behind.
The hunting team kept a distance of about ten meters with the wooden palanquin. As usual, all the warriors that returned showed their harvest of the game. Compared to the past, Mai’s hunting group had much less game, but since they were the ones who found the ancestors, they were the heroes during this hunting mission in the hearts of everyone in the tribe.
Shao Xuan had hunted a lot of game. He carried most of it on his back, but also had a rope in his hand. The other end of the rope was tied on a Thorn Black Wind.
Shao Xuan didn’t have enough strength as a kid, so Mao and some other warriors were helping him.
“Wow! That is…” people besides the Path of Glory sighed at his game.
It had ferocious black thorns, and armor-liked hard scales. Even dead, it was like a demon.
It was a Thorn Black Wind!
And there were three of them!
Oh, my goodness, it’s unbelievable!! What was even more unbelievable was that there were two kids dragging a Thorn Black Wind at the front!
However, with the shock they had from seeing the ancestors, this time they were less shocked at this situation. They were only told that it was Mai’s hunting group that found the ancestors, and they did not have the details.
Mao was a little ashamed. After all, he hadn’t contributed much in hunting down that Thorn Black Wind. Before this hunting mission, he wanted to make Shao Xuan yield to him. However, unexpectedly, he was the useless one when there was a real fight.
Shao Xuan looked around and spotted old Ke and Ge, who were standing at the outer circle of the crowd. Caesar was also there, wagging his tail crazily, with pleasure. Shao Xuan smiled at their direction, but deep down inside, he was thinking about how to tell old Ke about the tooth sword later…