Chapter 36 – Come and punch me
Translated by Sunyancai
Being a mid-level totemic warrior, Mai occupied an important position in the hunting team, so he had a lot to deal with when he came back to the tribe. Of course, he would not be as idle as Lang Ga. When Shao Xuan arrived, he was just assigning patrol missions to some warriors.
Shao Xuan waited and he came inside only after the other two warriors had left.
Inside the room, Mai was cutting the meat. During the hunting mission, warriors would just pretreat the meat, so after they came back, they needed to cut the meat into smaller pieces, and preserve some of them. Also, they had to sort out different kinds of meat for later use.
“Hello there.” Mai waved his hand seeing Shao Xuan entering the room, as he tossed a piece of meat covered in blood, the size of a watermelon, to Shao Xuan, “Here you go. Take it back with you later, for you get hungry easily after you become a totemic warrior. Training is exhausting.”
Many people would deduct their training time when there was a lack of food. After all, totemic warriors would consume a lot of energy when they trained themselves. Naturally they would eat more. Especially for those newly-awakened warriors like Shao Xuan, they were in the process of building up their bodies, so food became even more of an essential object.
“Thank you, uncle Mai.” Shao Xuan took the meat and handed over the mesh bag to him, “This is for you.”
Mai dropped the stone axe in his hand and looked at the mesh bag curiously, “Did you made them yourself?”
“Yep. They can’t of course be compared with your own tools, but I guess they could still be useful anyway.” Shao Xuan scratched his head. Unlike the stoneware he sent Lang Ga, he picked less stone arrowheads, but instead he added more spearheads into the mesh bag. Spearheads were used for throwing. Because the two people had different positions in the hunting team, the stone tools they tended to use were different.
Mai had already heard about Shao Xuan learning stone crafting with Ke from Lang Ga, however, it had been such a short time, so Mai did not expect anything fine from him. Shao Xuan was already thoughtful for bringing things here, and he would never trash the kid’s confidence and enthusiasm.
Mai smiled as he opened up the mesh bag. He planned to say something to encouraging him, “Actually, you can never rush yourself in the process of stone crafting. At your age and with such short time’s learning, you are already pretty good for making these, and in the future…”
His words stopped as Mai took a look at the fine-crafted spearheads in the mesh bag. He literally swallowed the next part of his words back into his stomach.
The well-crafted spearheads were just the same as those he often used. They had deeper ridges and the blades on the two wing edges were extremely sharp. The two wings stretched and joined one another on the sharp peak, which was very smooth without any trace of carving. Obviously the stone crafter paid extra attention while polishing them. Unlike most spearheads for other warriors, Mai liked the kind of spearheads with deep bloodthirsty ridges in the both sides, and Shao Xuan had noticed that, so he added them on his spearheads too!
Just like Lang Ga, Mai had given Shao Xuan some used stone tools for training as well. Most of his used tools were stone spearheads, but he had never thought about receiving such nice gifts in return when he offered Shao Xuan those used spearheads.
“Are… Are these… from your own stone crafting?!”
Mai stared at Shao Xuan, until he saw him nod. Then Mai looked back at the spearheads he had at hand. Indeed, he had not expected Shao Xuan to possess such amazing talent. Under the current circumstances, even if Shao Xuan could not improve his ability, he could live a peaceful life without starvation in the tribe, depending on his skills.
After a while’s hesitation, Mai laughed out, “Good! Excellent!”
Unlike Lang Ga, Mai had not bothered to pay so much attention on stone crafting after all, so he cared not that much for competition. In front of Shao Xuan’s handworks, he had pure admiration.
After properly storing those spearheads, Mai asked about Shao Xuan’s training lately and offered some advices. He was confident about Shao Xuan, but still he agreed with the idea that newly-awakened warriors should get as much trainings as possible, and they should not think about joining hunting missions in a hurry. Or else, they would be just like the lad named Ah-Fei, who only turned out to be a burden of the hunting team when it came to real hunting. He was too eager to succeed, but full of flaws when the time came.
Mai thought for a bit and reached out his palm, as he said to Shao Xuan, “punch my hand, and let me see how much strength you’ve got.”
An obvious occurrence for totemic warriors when they got any improvement was that they would obtain more strength. That was why Mai asked Shao Xuan to do that. He wanted to see his progress during this period’s training by that. However, Mai did not expect Shao Xuan to have much progress, for he was learning stone crafting these days after all.
“Okay.”
Shao Xuan placed the meat at a corner, and moved his limbs a little. In fact, he himself also did not know how he was different from other kids that awakened at the same time with him, aside from the special ability he got. Also he was unaware of which stage had he reached. Gaining Mai’s advice and judgement would be very beneficial to Shao Xuan’s training in the future.
Since it was a test for strength, he had to use the totemic power inside him.
After a deep breath, Shao Xuan urged the totemic power inside him and on his cheeks there were clear totemic patterns revealed immediately, and soon the totemic pattern spread from his face to the nape.
Seeing that Shao Xuan stimulated the totemic power so quickly and naturally, Mai was quite satisfied. Shao Xuan was already much better than some who took a lifetime to be able to stimulate their totemic powers like him.
Suddenly, Shao Xuan stepped on the ground with his right foot, while he rushed at Mai with a fast speed. He punched hard on Mai’s palm.
Bang!
It was a fist against a palm, but it was like two mountains crashing against each other.
Shao Xuan felt like he punched a piece of steel, and it felt totally different from his daily training when he punched at the mountain rock.
Shao Xuan’s body shook a little, and he stepped back as he withdrew his fist and rubbed his hand with the mouth open. In fact, it was not just the hand, he felt that his whole arm was hurting.
As expected, there was a huge gap between some newly-awakened kid and a mid-level totemic warrior. Looking at Mai, his palm did not even turn red as if he was just hit by a piece of tofu.
Shao Xuan also noticed that Mai had flashing totemic patterns on his body, which stretched over his elbows. They even got to his forearms. However, Shao Xuan’s own totemic patterns had only extended over his shoulders.
However, Mai was not as calm as he acted out. He was looking at Shao Xuan in surprise. Compared with the hurt at his palm, the totemic patterns on Shao Xuan’s body was the thing that shocked him most. However, the totemic patterns had gone, and Mai was not sure whether he was imagining it… But the strength of that punch was larger than most newly-awakened kids….
It was not wintertime, and the temperature grew higher every day. Since he had to train himself every day, Shao Xuan wore a sleeveless animal skin top in order to be more convenient. Naturally his totemic patterns were out in the open, even though they just extended over his shoulders.
Perhaps Mai was not so observant as old Ke, but compared with most people, he could exceed them easily.
“Again! Now use all your strength.” Mai commanded.
Seeing that perhaps Mai had some other thoughts, Shao Xuan did not hesitate to follow his order.
Taking a deep breath, Shao Xuan stimulated the totemic power in his body again, the totem in his mind lit up, and the flame covering those two horns rose up, which meant that he had fully aroused his totemic power.
Feeling enormous strength running through every piece of his muscles and every bone, Shao Xuan’s mind also reached the peak. After such a long time doing stone crafting, Shao Xuan’s precise control of totemic power showed its advantage, he became very familiar with the feeling of gathering up all his strength, for he could feel that every day during the process of stone crafting. Every time when that happened, he would feel extremely self-confidence!
In the meantime, the totemic patterns on Shao Xuan’s body became totally clear, one could feel the burning heat of the flame.
At the very moment that Shao Xuan took a step, the earth trembled slightly.
Whoosh!
Before the punch arrived, the wind pressure of the punch was already there.
Although Shao Xuan was just a primary warrior who had not been awakened for long, and his strength training was not good enough, Shao Xuan’s punch carried unmatchable momentum at the bursting moment.
Seeing the kid in front of him, who was only as tall as his waist, Mai’s eyes opened more.
Bang!
Clear sound of cracks rose.
Shao Xuan immediately felt the sharp sting all over his whole arm. It was like he got roasted on a bonfire, and constant burning pain that seemed to be impossible to be stopped.
However, Mai’s face froze for some time, but soon he recovered from his astonishment. Inside his heart he was still shocked, as he stared at Shao Xuan, while he forgot to take back his palm from the air.
The rebound made Shao Xuan step back a few steps and he had to shake his arm, as he created hissing sound out of subconscious. He did not expect it to hurt so much, and it felt totally different from the last punch.
“Ah-Xuan.” Mai said. His voice sounded somehow difficult and bitter.
“Yes?” Shao Xuan looked at Mai as he continued to shake his arm. He did not worry about breaking his bones, for even if that did happen, he would be fully recovered after a few days’ rest. That was the advantage of the physique of the tribe’s people.
“When you go back… you should prepare…”
At Mai’s words, Shao Xuan wondered if Mai would say the same thing that Lang Ga told him, such as to not show his face for three days or something like that. He stared at Mai for him to finish his sentence.
“Prepare… to join the hunting mission next time.”