Chapter 50   – Eating Meat

xiin

Editors: apricot & juurensha

The people of the tribe weren’t thinking as deeply as Zhou Ji was. They were currently far too happy.

Even though they had seen that giant beast yesterday, and some of them had been scared enough to wet their pants, seeing the huge amount of meat there was now, they were all immediately overjoyed.

They had never seen so much meat before in their lives. More importantly... there was even more meat in the distance, all over the mountains and plains!

The warriors of the tribe had already gone out to bring meat back once, and after setting it down they had gone out to get more right away. As for the weak and elderly of the tribe, they had begun to process the meat.

Many of the bodies that had been brought back were incomplete. The tribespeople simply cut them apart, setting aside the larger pieces of meat while tossing the smaller bits and pieces into a pot to boil.

The big stone pot in the tribe wasn’t big enough, so everyone brought out the small pots they had in their caves. Some people even went out to bring back some large leaves that they then wrapped around the meat and placed in the fire to roast.

The tribe was suffused with... A very unpleasant smell.

At the very least, Zhou Ji did not find it pleasant.

Of course, Xiong Ye didn’t feel this way. After tossing about for so long, Xiong Ye had been starving since a while ago. Normally, Zhou Ji would have prepared food for him to eat by this time, but Zhou Ji currently looked so pale and obviously couldn’t make anything.

Xiong Ye dragged his injured leg behind him as he went to the entrance to his cave and called down, “Xiong Mao!”

It was likely because Xiong Ye had cuddled Xiong Mao for a while during the Beast God Sacrifice, but Xiong Mao had constantly hung around closely to Xiong Ye over the past few days. Xiong Ye had also become much more familiar with Xiong Mao.

“Elder brother.” Xiong Mao scrambled over.

“Xiong Mao, do me a favor and help me roast this meat.” Xiong Ye said.

Xiong Bai had tossed down that piece of raw meat and then run off. Not only were the meat and blood mixed together in a nasty mess, it was also inedible...

“Alright!” Xiong Mao happily agreed.

That piece of meat looked to be around fifteen kilograms. Xiong Mao himself was only thirty or so kilograms, and before he awakened, he wouldn’t have been able to bring that piece of meat down to roast it even if he could lift it up. Now, however, it was an easy matter for him to take the meat down right away.

Xiong Ye added, “Are there any edible grasses in the tribe? Bring me some of that too.”

“There is, there is!” Xiong Mao nodded several times and sped away.

Xiong Ye finally looked at Zhou Ji, “Zhou Ji, that piece of meat has been taken away. Don’t be scared.”

“Thank you.” Zhou Ji laughed despite himself.

“Did you come looking for me yesterday? Were you frightened?” Xiong Ye asked again.

Zhou Ji nodded. “That giant beast...”

“He’s very terrifying, but don’t be scared. I’m here!” Xiong Ye patted his own chest to comfort his mate and accidentally hit the wound on his chest, which caused him to immediately cry out in pain.

Itbe Al: “......”

Xiong Ye was stunned and also began to worry a little.

In fact, the priest had also started to worry.

Raw meat rotted easily. It couldn’t be left there for more than a couple days. Previously, the tribe had relied on roasting the meat for short term preservation––roasted meat could be left for several days. If they weren’t picky, all they needed to do was cut off the outer layer and re-roast the inside. Meat could be kept for a while that way.

However, meat needed to be cured in order to preserve it for a longer time.

At this time in the past, their salt team would have returned with a lot of salt. If they suddenly came across this much meat, they would eat and drink for a few days, and then cure the rest of it so that none of it would be wasted. Now, however, they didn’t have enough salt!

If they didn’t have enough salt to cure the meat, then the meat couldn’t be preserved for a long time, and it would spoil!

The priest was almost worried to death.

There was so much meat, wasn’t it a pity to waste any of it?

While he was still thinking it over, the hunting team had already brought back another batch of meat. Xiong He said, “There isn’t even a single wild animal over by the mountain. There’s nothing but meat everywhere. Everyone in the tribe who can move should come with me to go and collect meat!”

When they saw the giant beast, they were unable to leave the tribe behind and run away, but all the animals had run away...

They hadn’t come across a single one of the terrible dinosaurs and snakes that they used to come across occasionally!

Xiong He felt that he could take the people of the tribe out to see more of the world.

The priest agreed, and the tribespeople all turned out in full force to go and bring back more meat.

Xiong Mao hurriedly brought Xiong Ye his roasted meat before leaving along with them. Of course, he didn’t forget to give Xiong Ye some vegetables.

“Zhou Ji, it’s time to eat.” Xiong Ye called Zhou Ji over.

Even the children of the tribe had gone out to carry meat, but nobody had asked Zhou Ji to go with them.

Everyone knew about what had happened yesterday––Zhou Ji had gone out to look for Xiong Ye and had actually passed out after running all the way there from exhaustion. He even needed to be carried back... Wasn’t asking him to go and help carry meat just asking for trouble?

After Xiong Ye called out to Zhou Ji, he began to gnaw on a large mouthful of meat.

Zhou Ji looked at the ‘vegetables’ that Xiong Mao had brought over and felt a little powerless.

These kinds of vegetables that the people of the tribe often ate didn’t taste good at all, and he normally wouldn’t eat them. That was bad enough... but these vegetables weren’t even fresh. They were also very dirty.

“Xiong Ye, I’m not hungry. I’m going to go lie down for a while.” Zhou Ji said. He was actually hungry, so hungry that his front was sticking to his back and really needed to eat something.

However, most of what he had killed yesterday were arthropleura and the like. He didn’t want to eat a single bite of that kind of meat.

Therefore, he was better off using the small amount of energy he had restored in order to produce some plants to eat.

“Go and rest then.” Xiong Ye spoke hurriedly as he took another bite of meat.

Zhou Ji went into their ‘bedroom’, let down the animal hide curtain, and began producing plants to eat.

Then, he discovered rather helplessly that no matter how much he ate, it wasn’t enough.

Later on, he simply stopped eating and began to cultivate. As he did so, he also thought about how to improve Xiong Ye’s strength.

He had already developed a method that would allow beastmen to absorb energy into their bodies on their own, but it wasn’t perfect and still needed to be modified.

If Xiong Ye was to cultivate with a technique like this, he would certainly be able to improve his strength at a much faster pace.

However, figuring out how to give this technique to Xiong Ye was a problem.

He could do as the priest had said before and make up a story saying that this technique had been passed down to him by the Beast God. However, if he shared the method like this, based on Xiong Ye’s character, he would definitely share it with the entire tribe to cultivate with.

If that was the case, not only would it affect the ecological balance, if others discovered this abnormality within the tribe...

He would be putting something into the hands of the innocent that would only land them in trouble.

Based on how Xiang Tian acted, it could be seen that the powerhouses outside were mostly unaware of this kind of cultivation. In that case, if only Xiong Ye became stronger within the tribe, it could be said that he had eaten some natural, rare treasures and become stronger. If the entire tribe became more powerful, what kind of reason could they come up with to explain it away?

If he really did it that way, perhaps they would be destroyed before the tribe was even able to achieve anything.

After all, he had already studied this before. If he didn’t help out at all, it would require at least a year or two of cultivation before they could reach Xiong Ye’s current level of skill. For those who were born relatively weak, it might even take them five years. As for reaching his own present level...

If he didn’t help Xiong Ye, Xiong Ye would be considered lucky if he was able to reach his present level when he was in his fifties or sixties.

As for the others... It was likely that they wouldn’t be able to reach this stage within this lifetime.

If Xiong Ye wanted to grow stronger rapidly, not only did he need to train and cultivation, it would require Zhou Ji’s help.

If it was going to take another fifty or sixty years before Xiong Ye became as strong as he was, it would be far, far too late––Who could say what might happen in those years?

It was necessary for him to intervene, but how to do so was another problem to consider.

He was very powerful, and it was very easy for him to bluff others, but he was in fact a paper tiger that could be torn through with a single poke. Contained within was a bomb that wounded others and also harmed himself.

Once this situation was discovered, dealing with and disposing of him would become very simple. If he showed his identity to Xiong Ye in order to teach him, it would be too easy for others to find out––Xiong Ye wasn’t someone who could hide his own thoughts.

During the apocalypse in his previous life, those zombies would have been able to kill him off easily if they had any brains. All they needed to do was drive him crazy and then take advantage of his exhausted state in order to kill him.

The zombies had no brains, but the people of this place, even if they were simple and naive, still had brains. His weakness couldn’t be discovered by others.

And, he didn’t want to face the series of problems that would arise after he revealed his identity.

There was no need to speak of anything else, just Xiong Ye alone was a problem.

Xiong Ye was currently very fond of him, and he was very sincere and genuine, but this set of feelings had, on the one hand, come from the fact that they were mates, and on the other hand, it been because he was very weak, which stimulated Xiong Ye’s protective streak. If the status quo between them changed, who knew what kind of changes would take place in Xiong Ye’s heart?

Would he look at him worshipfully every day? Or watch him with trepidation?

Zhou Ji rubbed his nose. He then saw Xiong Ye come over, dragging his injured leg, “Zhou Ji, Xiong Mao brought back a few fruits. These should be tasty.”

Xiong Ye gave Zhou Ji a few fruits that Zhou Ji often ate. It was precisely that kind of high energy fruit that was very sour.

The fruit had clearly been washed.

Zhou Ji didn’t think that this fruit would be tasty at all, but he still accepted it and ate it.

It was really sour...

The people of the tribe were constantly busy and didn’t stop even when it was midnight.

The valley turned into a sea of blood and corpses.

Zhou Ji was a little glad that he had already adjusted his mental state and recovered quite a bit of his spiritual strength so that pile of things couldn’t affect him anymore.

In fact, as long as he didn’t make a move himself, nothing bad would happen.

However, as soon as he took action himself, it would be like a stress response, and he would immediately begin to slaughter.

In fact, this kind of thing wasn’t uncommon. After the world wars on Earth, there had often been soldiers who had experienced battle and been triggered while watching movies in the theatre. They would believe that they had returned to the battlefield and begin to kill everyone around them, including their wives and children...

It was already dark, so the people of the tribe no longer went out to carry back meat. Instead, they began to eat.

These primitive people who lived in an environment where there was often insufficient food all year round would never waste food. Regardless of whether it was minced meat or intestines that still carried some unpleasant taste, they would reject none of it and eat anything.

Zhou Ji used his spiritual powers to observe the situation in the valley, and felt that he was watching some type of Big Stomach King competition.

These big stomach kings were each more impressive than the last. Even if they were small and thin, they were still able to eat over ten to fifteen kilograms of meat, constantly stuffing their mouths until their bellies were bulging.

As for Xiong Ye... Zhou Ji had watched him eat over twenty kilograms of meat. At this moment, his stomach was bulging, and his original fit figure had disappeared.

Zhou Ji rubbed Xiong Ye’s belly and discovered that it felt quite nice to touch.

Xiong Ye also found it quite amusing, “Zhou Ji, look at my stomach. Doesn’t it seem like I’m pregnant?”

Zhou Ji: “......”