Chapter 280
C280 - Caught Up
Posted on October 12, 2018 by AzureOrchid92
On the map given by Huang Ye, the marked location of the gathering place of the travel team was not a place with a lot of people, but was surrounded by mountains and ridges, presumably because of the weather. This side of the region has rare rains, and the mountain vegetation was not as thick as the Ferocious Beast Mountain forest. There were basically no fierce beasts and the number of large beasts was not too much.
Such a barren land and wild mountain ridge was unexpectedly, the gathering place of the expedition team. If no one led them, it would be difficult to those wanting to find the accurate place.
At the top of a mountain, there were several wooden or rattan houses. Currently, some people dressed in different ways were looking around in front of a house.
"What's the situation?" Huang Ye came out of a bamboo hut and asked a middle-aged man standing outside.
"The people of the Long Boat tribe have just arrived, and the rest that were not here were the Tian Shan tribe and the Hui tribe," said the man.
"What about the Flaming Horns tribe?" Huang Ye inquired.
"The Flaming Horns tribe?" The man had forgotten for a moment what tribe the Flaming Horns tribe was. It took him a few seconds to remember it, and he suddenly smiled, "It will be the first time they took part, they may not find the way."
"There was no one to lead the way for the people of the Flaming Horns tribe," another man came over and said.
These were the people who had participated in many trips before. Although they would not participate next time, with the rotation every few years, each one would have an experienced elder. If all participants were first timers in this team of young warriors, you could say they might not even find a place to gather as no one was to take care of it. How many people would die then? It's possible for the whole army to be annihilated.
"I heard that the Flaming Horns tribe will have three this time? I don't know if they will come out of this alive."
"Don't even say whether they can survive, them finding this place on time was still unknown."
Several people were discussing when they heard from nearby some people call, "Come!"
In the air, there were two flying dots.
"Hui tribe? Or Tian Shan tribe?" Only these two tribes would trabel by birds.
No one could say for a moment, but after the two shadows flew nearer, someone said, "It's the people of the Tian Shan tribe."
"How did you know?" The young warriors who participated for the first time were puzzled.
"The birds are different. The bird's belly of Tian Shan is white. It's not the Hui tribe," said one from the Feather tribe. Even though he was a first timer here, he knew the birds of every tribe, which could be judged according to the morphological characteristics of the bird.
"It really is."
The two figures in the sky flew closer and closer, rushing straight towards this side.
Huu~
Vigorous flapping of wings sounded.
Dust and gravel were slammed. Strong claws gripped on the rock floor, easily leaving deep claw marks.
It was two giant eagles, with their wings standing on the ground, five meters high, and they were even bigger once they stretched their wings. The upper half of their plumage was generally dark brown, with some shades of pattern on their feathers, some of which were complex, while the belly part was pure white. There was no trace of variegation. Because they have a few hard and short crest on their heads, at first glance, they looked as if they have horns, so they were called horn carvings.
As a giant among flying birds, only a handful of birds, such as the giant mountain eagle could compare with it.
The sharp beak was hooked, with strong claws and sharp nails that could easily grasp the skull of the prey. It has a strong posture and fierce appearance, especially when the hair on the head was blown up to look at people. It was like a vicious beast staring at you. Some young warriors swallowed as they looked at the eyes of the pair of birds. It was ferocious.
Each angle carved body stood five people, each carrying a big bow. There were three long feathers in their heads.
Looking at the ten people who came, Huang Ye smiled and greeted the person who led the others his age, and inquired about their travel, whether it was smooth.
Meanwhile, Hong Xi, Gu Zhi and other people of the Feather tribe had no good face to show the Tian Shan tribe.
As for the other tribes, especially some young warriors, they looked at the two eagles of the Tianshan tribe, revealing their envy. When they came over, they had climbed several mountains and travelled on the road without climbing. However, for the Tian Shan tribe, they could get here directly by sitting on the bird, which was more refreshing.
The people of the Tian Shan tribe were completely oblivious to the bad stares around them. But for those with envious eyes, they returned a smug smile.
Shortly after the Tian Shan tribe arrived, the Hui tribe also arrived. As before, there were two giant eagles, but this time, they came with only nine people.
"Everyone's here, so should we rest today, or start now? Or have a two-day break?" The middle-aged man in the Tian Shan tribe swept his gaze around the circle.
"Let's rest for another two days. The people of the Flaming Horns tribe are not here yet," said Huang Ye.
"There are other people? Flaming Horns tribe?" Hearing this name, several people in the Tian Shan tribe had a change in their expressions. Looking at each other, the corner of their mouths hooked and their laugh was a bit gloomy.
"The people from the Flaming Horns tribe were coming this time? With no guide?" The Hui tribe looked at the people of the Tian Shan tribe, frowning with worry.
"The first time I joined the team, naturally, I had no guide," someone said.
It was hard to find the place without a guide.
"Then, let's wait for two days. If, two days later, we have not yet seen the Flaming Horns tribe, then we will go," said the man of the Tian Shan tribe.
Several other tribes have no objections. These two days was the last chance of the Flaming Horns tribe. After two days and they were not here yet, they would not care.
Two days later.
In the morning, all the people from the top of the mountain came out of the houses, looked at the rising sun, and packed their things for departure.
The man from Hui tribe looked at a distance and shook his head with a sigh.
There was no way for Hong Xi and Qu Ce to change the rules. Even if they want to wait for people of the Flaming Horns tribe, it was impossible.
Mang, Eight Limbs, Hui, Tian Shan, Feather, Thousand Masks, Long Boat and some other small central tribes came over, forming a line of nearly a hundred people on the top of the mountain. In their walk to the mountainside, a few eagle calls were heard from the air, the Hui tribe's mountain eagles and the Tian Shan Tribe's horn carvings.
"Come on!" someone from Hui tribe said.
In the sky, a smaller figure than the other four birds appeared, issuing a loud eagle call as it dived down towards the team's side. In its sweep of the team, three figures jumped off.
It was Shao Xuan and two others!
"We've finally caught up. Sorry, we were delayed the first time." Shao Xuan said to several senior people. For the other few, they shared a looked with a little malice in their eyes, but they didn't care.
Huang Ye nodded. "You caught up just fine. Can you start travelling now?"
"No problem." Shao Xuan said.
Not taking a rest, Shao Xuan and the other two went along with the team down the mountain.
Down the course, Shao Xuan observed this team and found that the undercurrent in the team was not as harmonious as on the surface.
Shao Xuan drew back to remind Tuo and Lei to stay alert.
Although Tuo and Lei remained vigilant, but, because they were accustomed to a tacit cooperation in a hunting team before, they listened to what Huang Ye said that this was a united team, a partnership, which made them slightly relaxed. However, some of the other tribes surrounding them were chatting, but, since Shao Xuan reminded them to be careful, they were wary, especially to those who they were against, the Tian Shan tribe.
Seeing Tuo and Lei not understanding, Shao Xuan did not say much and just prompted a few words. "Don't think that the half of the people they said died, died in the hands of the slaves and slave owners."
Not dying in the hands of others, but this side had not much fierce beasts, so it was only... their own!
Although they were in the same team, but everyone here were from different tribes, not fully counting the others as their own people. Taking a closer look, those people were all gathered together by tribes, each group maintaining a certain distance of vigilance.
After leaving the gathering place, the team went in one direction, which was in a direction Shao Xuan had never been before.
A day later, they saw a long, two-hundred-man slave team on the road.
The long vines strung the slaves together, and there were others with whips on the side of the line. Those were the slaves of higher rank.
Note: Determining the tribe names was a little difficult. (^_^;)
Has anybody read the paywalled chapters on Lesyt? I feel like what I've read from the MTLs had some discrepancies with the current translator's so I also wanted to compare this to the Lesyt translated, but I don't wanna pay for it. (^_^;)