Chapter 695 - 23: Shelter on the Mountain
After resting for a night, Chen Zhou and the much-improved Paul set off on their mountain trek the next morning.
The paracord used to secure the shelter’s wooden beams was all untied and woven into a net bag, used to hold the clothes of the ninja and the American soldier, along with half a roasted bird leg.
Paul carried this net bag, which weighed about 20 pounds when full.
Chen Zhou initially intended to carry other items like the military pot himself, but Paul insisted on sharing the burden. Seeing Paul’s condition was much better, Chen Zhou did not refuse.
...
That morning, the grassland was rarely without wind, the cold white sunlight poured down, making the wild grasses look aged and white, a scene of tranquility.
The two left the camp, leaving behind the dismantled semi-permanent shelter.
The smoldering embers glowed red within the stone circle of the campfire, while scattered footprints and remnants of the giant bird lay in the gradually solidifying mud.
As for the traces of the other two challengers, the bloodstains left on the ground had quietly disappeared over time.
...
To care for Paul, who had just recovered from a cold, Chen Zhou did not quicken the pace.
The three young serrated tiger cubs, not yet weaned, had already started eating meat.
Though animal meat couldn’t match the nutrients of a mother tiger’s milk, it was plentiful and filling. Paul liked to cook for them, whether boiling or roasting, which made the proteins easier to absorb. Coupled with animal innards, the little ones didn’t miss out on growing, and in just a few days, they visibly grew larger, walking more steadily.
Since this journey was set at a slower pace to choose a site for shelter construction, Chen Zhou let the little ones walk on the ground instead of carrying them.
After a few days, the serrated tiger cubs regarded themselves as members of this "group." Chen Zhou walked in front, followed by their little hopping figures.
Being too short, they could not see Chen Zhou’s head, only his legs moving back and forth, so they fixated on those boots emitting a sweaty odor, wagging their short, stubby tails closely behind.
Sometimes, when entering taller grass areas, as Chen Zhou and Paul quickened their pace slightly, the cubs could no longer see the boots.
The biggest cub showed the most intelligence—
Maybe because its head was noticeably larger than its two siblings.
Whenever Chen Zhou was out of sight, it would open its mouth and howl wildly while chasing mindlessly, stirring the other two cubs into a frenzied cry.
Thus, whenever Chen Zhou heard their cries, he knew they had fallen behind and would turn back to assist them.
Of course, even when well-fed, the stamina of the young serrated tiger cubs was vastly different from that of an adult tiger, and they soon became exhausted. At that point, they could barely keep up with Chen Zhou and Paul despite their best efforts.
Chen Zhou and Paul would have to carry the little ones and continue moving forward.
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The skirmishes on the early autumn grassland were more frequent but had not yet evolved into the life-and-death struggle typical of the harsh winter months.
At this time, the land rulers, the mammoths, still securely sat on their "thrones," and serrated tigers or other predators hadn’t been driven to the desperate point of hunting young mammoths—
Many rare species sent by the Space-Time Administration Bureau were included in their diet.
Herbivores like tapirs, west ponies, giant tortoises, high-nosed antelopes, imaginary camels, and vicuñas from other continents, and carnivores such as North American cheetahs, fear wolves, and cave hyenas, which were weaker than them, greatly expanded their range of possible prey, thus avoiding premature intense conflict.
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During the days spent with Paul looking for a site to build the shelter, Chen Zhou gained a preliminary understanding of the terrain and geography of their location—
To the north was a vast, endless grassland, named the "Mammoth Grassland."
It wasn’t called Mammoth Grassland to distinguish it from the entire Ancient Siberia, which spanned from the Iberian Peninsula across the entire Eurasia to the Bering Land Bridge, including Alaska and the Yukon Territory, collectively known as the Mammoth Plain.
From the Mammoth Grassland northwards, as one nears the polar region, the wild grass gradually becomes sparse, replaced by a large number of cold-resistant plants like moss and lichen.
Moving southward, the scenery changes—
Lush vegetation, meandering rivers, occasional patches of sparse woodland, small forests, and even fertile soil suitable for cultivation can be found.
Paul was somewhat familiar with the terrain of the Arctic Circle and the Siberian Region, he speculated that the large river running across the Mammoth Grassland might be the prehistoric Yenisei River’s tributary, the Angara River; heading east along the Angara River would lead to Lake Baikal, to which Chen Zhou remained noncommittal.
A thousand years might not change the appearance of an entire continent, but river courses could change, or even entire rivers disappear—taking the terrain of a thousand years into the future and applying it to the present clearly wasn’t realistic.
However, to conveniently describe their direction in future planning, he adopted Paul’s suggestion and named the few large rivers they discovered as the Angara River, Little Yenisei River, and Yidu River.
Of course, these rivers combined couldn’t compare to the future Yenisei River, which was the largest river by volume in all of Russia, with a drainage area reaching 2.6 million square kilometers. Their challenge area was only a fraction of this drainage area.
Southeast of the Mammoth Grassland lay a towering mountain range, its undulating peaks partitioning the grassland, with large dense coniferous forests at its base.
The location chosen by Chen Zhou and Paul for building the shelter was situated on this mountain range.