In the wooden houses where the Rain tribe arranged for visitors to rest, the people of the travelling team put up for a night. As for how they slept, it could be known the next morning when looking at their worn out expression.
When Shao Xuan opened his eyes, the house was very dark, but with the biological clock formed over the years, he knew that the sun had already risen now.
The wooden houses here were poorly built, and there were many gaps in the roof and surrounding wooden walls. So if there was sunlight outside, it could penetrate through these gaps.
However, the atmosphere in the house was just like the night before the dawn. Even though there was a little bit of light, it was still mostly dark.
“What happened?” Tuo rolled over and got up from a wooden hay bed which was slightly high above the ground. He also felt that the sun should be hanging in the sky at this time, but he did not see any light. Instead, he felt the atmosphere was a little gloomy and depressing.
“Huh?” Tuo said in confusion.
Shao Xuan also rolled over and felt a layer of soft sand on the ground in the house as he landed.
Creak…
Shao Xuan opened the door.
The dusty wind suddenly blew in, which almost choked the people inside.
The door was opened and there was a bit of dim light shining into the house. By the light, the three saw the situation inside the house.
Original translation from wangmamaread.
Except for the place where they slept, a thick layer of dust covered the whole house, and a lot of dust was falling from the roof.
The people of the Rain tribe were thoughtful enough. On the top of the wooden bed, near the roof, they covered it with a straw mat, and the dust falling from the roof fell onto the mat.
“No wonder I I kept hearing a rustling sound last night, which made me sleep badly.” Said Lei with a yawn, while looking at the situation in the house.
People who often hunt in the mountains would certainly not sleep soundly. A little bit of noise would alert them. With extraordinary hearing ability, they could even hear the sound when the sand and dust fell very clearly in the quiet night.
“The weather is so bad, would we go?” Asked Tuo.
“We wouldn’t go today.” Shao Xuan heard the footsteps near the house.
Soon, Huang Ye appeared at the door of their house.
“The team would stay here for two days and wait for the weather to get better.” Huang Ye said to the three people.
“OK.” Answered Shao Xuan.
“Be careful. Every time this kind of dusty weather appears, some creatures would come out. Be on guard against it.” Huang Ye intended to warn these young warriors who came to this place for the first time and by the way mention that these creatures were horrible so that these young warriors who were prone to take things lightly would be careful.
However, as he spoke, Huang Ye found that the atmosphere became weird. Raising his head, he saw the three pairs of bright eyes and couldn’t continue to say more words.
Thinking about it, Huang Ye suddenly realized something.
The people of the Flaming Horn tribe were different from those of other tribes. These Flaming Horn people lived next to the beasts. How could they be afraid of those creatures that suddenly appear? Maybe they were thinking about how to catch those creatures as food.
What Huang Ye thought was right. Shao Xuan and the other two were exactly thinking about catching a few such beasts as food. People of the Flaming Horn tribe still liked meat, and those hard cakes couldn’t provide them with enough energy.
Huang Ye sighed. Anyway, he had brought them the information. Then he turned to another wooden house to inform other people.
Shao Xuan looked at the sky outside. In the distance where the Rain tribe located, there was a tinkling sound. Due to too much dust, he couldn’t see the situation there. Yang Sui said the Rain tribe was building an altar for praying for rain.
Thinking about praying for rain, Shao Xuan gave out a sigh. When he was about to close the door, his hands suddenly stopped. Lei and Tuo behind him also stopped their work and darted their eyes to the place near the wooden table in the cabin.
A thick layer of sand had gathered around the legs of the table, but now its surface bulged slightly and moved. Obviously, there was something beneath the blanket of sand.
Lei and Tuo looked at each other and took action nearly simultaneously.
“It’s mine!”
“It belongs to the person who gets it first!”
When that creature beneath the sand noticed the danger approaching, it suddenly accelerated and rushed out of the cabin.
Shao Xuan saw a slender and earthy figure flashing through the door and rushing into the ground outside.
“It’s a snake!” Shao Xuan reminded them to be careful. In such a place, snakes always had the ability to defend themselves, which may be very poisonous.
In the house, Lei and Tuo had to restrain their action, for fear of destroying their dwelling place. Seeing that the snake ran out, they were delighted and rushed outside.
The snake buried itself deeply under the sand, but as Lei and Tuo approached closely at a fast speed, it ejected out like a spring. It was a snake, around one meter long and as thick as one’s thumb. With its upper body upright, the snake opened its mouth, exposed two fangs and squirted the poison.
Though Shao Xuan stood in the doorway, he could also hear the sound of poison corroding the sand.
Tuo chopped off the snake’s head, one step ahead of Lei, and then he crushed the head of the snake with a sword. When they hunted in the forests, they always disposed of the snake in this way because some snakes could also bite people even though their heads had been cut off. After learning the lesson, they would act in this way to avoid potential danger every time they encountered snakes, no matter which kind of snake it was.
“Ha, it’s mine!” Tuo held the snake’s headless body and swung it towards Lei.
Lei didn’t turn his head to look at it. It seemed he was listening to something carefully. He turned back, took two steps forward and jumped up. Lei tensed the muscles on his arms, half of which was covered by the Flaming Horn totem. He swung the stone sword and cut it vigorously at one place.
Bang!
The hard earthy ground exploded and under the cover of the flying clods and the rising sand and dust, something quickly leaped out.
Shao Xuan stared at the creature that had rushed out.
Pangolin?
No, the scute of that creature looked much thicker than pangolins’, and its body was much longer, nearly two meters long. Its body color was sandy yellow, similar to the color of the earth. While that creature didn’t move slowly because of that hard scute, on the contrary, they were very agile.
The creature had been trying to run away or drill into the ground, but Lei and Tuo didn’t give it the chance. Under Lei’s and Tuo’s joint action, it was chopped off within three seconds despite its struggle.
They didn’t stay outside for a long time. Lei dragged the creature and took time to peel. Though it was the first time to see such a creature, they encountered something similar before. It was not rusty for them to peel it off, so they disposed of it immediately, not expecting to get extra water to clean it. Lei carried it toward the house and today their food was due. The hard scute was left to wear as armor, only if disposing of it simply.
They wanted to catch one more, but it was a pity that even if there still had some more, all the creatures under the ground would avoid the place near their house because of their loud actions. So they couldn’t but wait patiently.
Lei’s and Tuo’s actions attracted others’ attention. The people who had rested in the houses opened their windows or doors to see what had just happened outside.
Shao Xuan didn’t take action just now, in order to guard against others, not just including the people of the traveling team. There were also some people of the Rain tribe nearby. Not everyone in the Rain tribe was friendly to them. Just now someone wanted to grab it, but when they saw Shao Xuan staring at them, they gave up the idea.
After Shao Xuan and others entered the room, other people withdrew their eyesight.
Original translation from wangmamaread.
“People of the Flaming Horn tribe are really…” Said someone in the room.
For really how? Everyone thought differently.
Shao Xuan and the other two ignited the fire in the house and began to roast the beast meat. Although the meat was unpalatable and a lot of sand was attached to it, it was much better than the hard flatbread.
Having some meat, Shao Xuan planned to go out for a while.
Lei and Tuo had known that Shao Xuan was acquainted with the current Shaman of Rain tribe, so they didn’t say much and started to have a rest after eating. They thought they could catch another one or two beasts after their sleep.
Against the wind and sand, Shao Xuan went to the hill yesterday he had been.
Yang Sui was still staying in the wooden house, holding an oxtail in his hand. He had probably come early in the morning, as a layer of dust had fallen on his body.
“Why do you need oxtail to pray for rain?” Asked Shao Xuan when he entered.
Hearing what Shao Xuan asked, Yang Sui came back to earth. He waved the oxtail in his hand. He told everything, it’s not a serious secret.
“It’s said that in the ancient time when the ancestors prayed for rain, they sacrificed stones. And those stones were special, which were called ‘rain stones’. You can find some if you dig in the nearby mountains. They are black and cold even on hot days. The rain stones we use to pray for rain are as high as a man. When we pray for rain, the oxtail will be the whip to lash the rain stone.”
“The rain will come like that?” Asked Shao Xuan.
“A sacrifice dance is also necessary, but that is not important. Whipping the stone to pray for rain is indeed the earliest mean. But later, I don’t know when the way to pray for rain has changed. The ancestors said that there is the older spirit of ancestors behind rain stones, which is the protector of good weather, farming and harvest in the tribe, and is able to eliminate diseases and disasters. Therefore, everyone began to fear rain stones. In order to protect the prosperity of the tribe, we no longer whip rain stone. Otherwise, we believe we will suffer disasters and those who whip rain stones will not live longer.”
When Yang Sui said these things, his tone was a little bit ironic. It was not because he did not respect his ancestors, but he was only skeptical about some things, which normal people did not dare to doubt and would not think too much about. Only people who knew it well would get to the bottom.
As for the statement that those who whipped rain stones did not live long, it was probably because the task of praying for rain consumed too much energy and shamans had to sacrifice some for it. Those who were weak would probably be exhausted after praying for rain. Moreover, as what Yang Sui said, praying for rain was getting harder and harder and shamans naturally had to bear great psychological burden as the Rain tribe had burned shamans to death before. Under both physical and psychological pressure, shamans who had to pray for rain had never been relaxed. If a shaman was weak, praying for rain once must consume all his physical strength.
“Since you don’t have to pray for rain by whipping rain stone with oxtail now, why are you still practicing with oxtail?” Shao Xuan pointed to the oxtail in Yang Sui’s hand.
“It’s used to ask for ancestors’ and the Rain God’s forgiveness. We offer up the oxtail to atone for our crimes.” Yang Sui swayed the oxtail casually, and his eyes were full of sarcasm, “I’ve heard that there was a shaman who was whipped by the Rain God after praying for rain.”
Shao Xuan was shocked.
So, the way to pray for rain had been changed from the concept that “If you don’t rain, I’ll whip you” to “ask for rain and ask for punishment”. Were people in the Rain tribe playing whipping and SM games with the Rain God? But there was no rain even after the shaman was whipped!