Ye Xi was kicked awake.
He opened his drowsy eyes and was immediately forced to squint in the face of the blinding white light of the sun.
The massive boulder blocking the cave entrance had been moved away? He had somehow completely failed to notice.
"Get up. Eat a little, and then we're leaving."
The one who had kicked him was the cold-faced man the chief had called 'Plate'.
Ye Xi silently got to his feet.
Waves of heat came from the cave entrance.
In Ye Xi's fragmentary memories, he knew that this place had only two seasons, the dry season and the rainy season.
The weather of the dry season was incredibly hot and arid. Rain did not fall, rivers dried up, and the earth became a dry husk. The rainy season, on the other hand, was consecutive months of constant rain, flat ground turning into swamp. In the rivers, terrifying water monsters would crawl out of the earth and eat the creatures on the land until their bellies were nice and round.
It was currently the dry season, and the weather was unbearably hot.
In the clearing, the Mud Mountain tribesmen had already begun to work. Two men were honing something on a large rock. Ye Xi got closer to look and saw that it was a stone knife and a bone spade.
The edges of the stone knife and bone spade had been honed to a smooth finish and were completely usable, but the two men continued to put their backs into the honing, rubbing their edges against the rock to make the edges sharper and sharper.
Someone threw a white fruit at him.
Ye Xi grabbed it out of conditioned reflex.
After throwing the fruit, Plate coldly said, "This is your food for the morning. Hurry and eat it. Once you're done, we're leaving."
Ye Xi felt a faint pressure whenever Plate talked to him, like some large and fierce beast was squatting next to him.
Ye Xi glanced at Plate's left chest.
There was a complicated red totem tattoo, created from paint. In the center of the totem was a vivid flame seal, but this had not been drawn on with paint.
This was the symbol of a Warrior.
After receiving the memories, Ye Xi knew that this world's humans could seize the strength of savage beasts for their own. The humans that seized this strength would awaken as Warriors. Powerful Warriors had strength equal to dinosaurs and savage beasts, and could fight with them for food.
The Mud Mountain Tribe is actually sending a Warrior with me…
This thought only briefly rested in Ye Xi's mind before he placed his focus on the heavy and round object in his hand.
He finally had something to eat! He could finally soothe his stomach that was so hungry it was digesting stomach acid! Most importantly, he finally had some water!
Ye Xi impatiently took a bite.
This unknown fruit was about the size of an apple. Its skin was white and wrinkly like a honeydew melon. The pulp was sweet and packed with juice. It was surprisingly delicious.
"What is this called?" Ye Xi asked Plate.
"This is called a Whitefruit. Was your Wolftooth Tribe so poor that you never even saw a Whitefruit before?" A stranger's voice, rather sharp and shrill, spoke up.
Ye Xi turned his head and saw a young man with braided hair, his entire body covered in bone ornaments, lazily glancing at him with folded arms.
Ye Xi squinted and soon recognized this as the second person the chief had called out yesterday, Awl.
His forced reawakening after receiving the memories yesterday had led his memories to be extremely fragmentary. How could he recall if the Wolftooth Tribe had this fruit or not? Ye Xi simply smiled at him, gave a muffled grunt, and continued to eat the Whitefruit.
Awl raised an eyebrow.
Ye Xi savored each bite, and the fruit was soon gone. Only now did he realize that Awl had impatiently been looking at him the entire time, his arms still folded.
"This boy eats as slowly as a woman," Awl rudely commented.
"…"
The cavemen focused on devouring meat and gulping down blood, increasing efficiency. But modern society advocated eating slowly to encourage digestion. Ye Xi had been born unhealthy, so he had paid even more attention to his health. The habits he had developed over the years meant that even though he was thirsty and starving, he did not devour the fruit in just two or three bites.
But Ye Xi was rather surprised that Awl had not urged him to eat faster, despite his impatience.
At this time, Ye Xi spotted some men and women heading to the jungle, carrying bags made from beast skin and bone spades.
Ye Xi knew that they were going to pick fruits.
The Warriors of the tribe were responsible for hunting while the ordinary people were tasked with picking fruits.
The area where fruits were harvested was rather far from the tribe, and two Warriors went to protect the group. This did not mean that this was safe work, as the primordial jungles concealed danger on all sides. If one were incautious and ran into some formidable beast or was ambushed by some venomous insect, the group would suffer death or injury.
Ordinary people daring to venture into the jungle was already an extremely courageous act.
There was also a group made entirely of Warriors from the tribe. They were stalwart and savage, exuding the frightening and domineering aura of beasts.
This was the tribe's hunting team.
In Loose Grass's memories, the Wolftooth Tribe also had a hunting team made of Warriors. Alas, all of them had been sacrificed in the battle with the Blackpond Tribe.
The images of the gruesome battle between the Wolftooth Tribe and Blackpond Tribe welled up of their own volition in Ye Xi's mind. He shook his head to try and forget them.
After a little while, a member of the hunting team two meters tall, a bearded man brimming with muscle, yelled at the rest of the team, and they set off into the jungle.
Their figures gradually vanished amongst the brush.
They needed to head deep into the jungle. It was only there that they could contend against terrifying creatures for food.
Those who remained with the tribe, including Plate and Awl, silently watched as they left.
Once they were gone, Plate coldly glared at Ye Xi.
Ye Xi was confused.
Awl amusedly said, "It was Plate's turn today to go hunting, but the chief had him protect you."
Ye Xi was rather surprised.
In the face of danger and possible death, this man was angry that he couldn't take part rather than celebrating his luck.
He had a new understanding of the primitive people of this place.
"Awl, are you a provisional Warrior?" Ye Xi asked.
In every tribe, a member first had to pass the trials to become a provisional Warrior before becoming a Warrior. Only provisional Warriors had the right to obtain one of the precious Beast Cores, upon which they would awaken into Totem Warriors during the Great Ritual.
Ye Xi had believed that the chief would send a few provisional Warriors to protect him. This was because Warriors were too busy while ordinary people were too weak.
Could this still somewhat immature youth actually be a provisional Warrior?
Awl glanced at Ye Xi out of the corner of his eye and nonchalantly replied, "Of course. Why else would the chief send me?"
Ye Xi was surprised. Provisional Warriors apparently had to go through very tough trials, but this young man of about fourteen or fifteen had managed to pass?
"Let's go!" Plate impatiently said.
The hunting team had set out, so it was about time for them to leave. The sun would only get higher and higher, the weather hotter and hotter.
There was a rush of air as Plate stuck a white saber to his waist.
Ye Xi glanced at it.
It was a bone saber about three feet long, milky-white and naturally curved. It had a jade-like luster and seemed more like a work of art.
On the other side, Awl grabbed a spear. it was made of some unknown wood, dark and heavy, appearing to be quite hefty. The tip of the spear was a sharp blood-colored stone that seemed to possess unique properties.
Ye Xi got his own tool.
A bone spade used for digging was thrust into his hand. It was much cruder than those other weapons. After all, it was used to dig dirt…
Ye Xi, who had been hoping for a weapon, fell silent.
Beyond the clearing was the lush primeval jungle. Awl and Plate led the way with their weapons.
Ye Xi looked at the calm jungle, thinking about the dangers hidden within. After some hesitation, he followed.
The three of them entered the jungle.
Plate led the way, Ye Xi was in the middle, and Awl brought up the rear.
Past the bushes and shrubs was the primeval forest. The trees of this forest were much larger than those of Ye Xi's modern society, their tops soaring into the clouds. At a glance, each tree had to be several hundred years old.
All of these giant trees had two traits. One was that their root systems were extremely well-developed and thick, coiled roots thrust deeply into the earth. The second was that their roots swelled like gourds. This allowed the trees to collect water during the rainy season to support them during the dry season.
Many large shrubs and ferns grew between the giant trees, and some of the fern plants grew even higher than the trees, blotting out the sun.
Ye Xi looked up and saw a spider web laid out between the leaves of a giant fern, a yellow spider the size of a palm crawling upon it. He also saw a blue pterosaur the size of an eagle open its wings.
Plate asked, "Which way?"
Ye Xi came back to his senses.
How would he know where to go? He randomly pointed toward the northwest and said, "That way."
"Stay with us and don't try to run off."
"Okay." In the prehistoric jungle, running off was suicide, not something he wanted to try.
Plate: "Do you know how to climb trees?"
Ye Xi looked at those massive trees that seemed like nails pinning down the earth itself and hesitantly said, "…Maybe?"
When Awl heard, he turned to him and said, "You don't even know how to climb trees? Just how did you manage to live this long?" His tone was filled with disbelief.
Ye Xi said nothing.
Hah! Were these trees something humans could climb? Maybe for a reincarnated monkey!
The three of them softly made their way through the jungle.
None of the tribesmen here wore shoes, and their soles had direct contact with the earth and stone.
Ye Xi couldn't feel safe walking like this. He could endure it if he stepped into feces, but what he feared was stepping onto a sharp object that could pierce the bottom of his foot. Fortunately, the soles of his feet had developed a thick layer of calluses that protected his flesh like shoes. It would be fine as long as he was careful.
Awl suddenly pulled on his arm. "Turn around! Hurry!"
Ye Xi focused, and when he saw what was ahead of him, his hair immediately stood on end. Just ten centimeters from his face was a many-legged insect the size of a face basin, bristling with green hairs as it hung suspended by a thread from a tree. If Awl had not pulled him, he would have run straight into it!
"This insect is extremely poisonous, enough to poison giant beasts to death! Be more careful!"
After hearing Awl's words, Ye Xi did not dare to get absentminded. He kept close to Plate and Awl and walked exactly the same path they walked.
Thus, he managed to barely avoid a multicolored, palm-sized caterpillar that had dropped from a tree, a giant three-meter-long centipede disguised as the color of dirt, a cloud of poisonous mosquitoes the size of honeybees, a venomous snake that seemed like a tree root while motionless…
One could say that without Awl or Plate, had he wandered into the jungle alone, he would have spent every last moment of his short existence slain by a variety of monsters.
Suddenly, an object as large as a chicken passed by his feet!
Ye Xi looked over and realized that it was a small dinosaur! A green-skinned dinosaur about the size of a chicken!
The little dinosaur ran up to them on its thin legs, gave a chirping cry, and then continued on its way.
How could there be a chicken-sized dinosaur? Is it an adolescent? It looks a lot like a giant lizard, Ye Xi said to himself.
He looked at Awl and Plate and saw that they gave no reaction, as if they had not even seen the little dinosaur.
Sensing Ye Xi's gaze, Awl kindly explained, "That's a Greenskin Fourclaw, an incredibly sinister beast. It lures prey to a location where a large group of Greenskin Fourclaws are waiting. They are extremely difficult to deal with, and if you don't die, you'll still pay a heavy price."
Boom! Boom!
The sound of heavy footsteps slamming against the ground came from nearby, and the earth trembled.
Ye Xi felt goosebumps on his back.
These footsteps had to belong to a massive creature!
Plate gestured to Ye Xi, indicating that he should not make any sound.
Ye Xi nodded.
The three of them bent down and softly made their way behind a lush fern.
Ye Xi squatted down, clenching his fists nervously. If this was a large dinosaur like a Tyrannosaurus or Spinosaurus, how would they deal with it?
Thump! Thump!
Ye Xi could hear his heart fiercely beating.