Ye Xi cried out in alarm, "Shaman! Are you okay?"
The shaman's complexion was tinged gray and green, but he waved his hand and weakly said, "I'm fine." After sitting for a while, he gripped his bone cane and tried to stand back up.
Ye Xi hastily moved to assist him.
With Ye Xi's help, the shaman slowly stood back up. Once he was steady, he voiced his thanks to Ye Xi. His calm and peaceful face made him seem like an ordinary, kind-hearted old man.
As Ye Xi helped the shaman, he found the shaman's arm to be horrifyingly thin.
The shaman slowly turned around and began to walk into the depths of the cave, Ye Xi accompanying him every step of the way.
The shaman slowly said, "Good child, there's no need. Go and take in some sun."
Ye Xi wanted to say that he didn't want to get any sun, but seeing the determined look on the shaman's face, he could only let go.
The shaman bent down and slowly ambled into the depths of the cave.
Worried that the shaman would collapse, Ye Xi followed from a distance, all the way until the shaman clambered up to the stone platform and sat cross-legged upon it. Only then did he leave.
Ye Xi walked out of the cave.
The sunlight was so bright that his eyes teared up.
The insect flood had left a devastated land behind it.
The ground was covered in sticky fluids and excrement left behind by the insects, as well as the remains of creatures that had failed to escape in time.
The jungle had been trampled so thoroughly that it looked like a tornado had been through it. Many of the thinner trees had been knocked sideways, and not even the leaves and bark had been spared, bearing signs that they had been gnawed on.
The jungle was extremely quiet, not even the cry of an insect or the chirp of a bird to be heard. A strange scent floated in the air—one that had been secreted by the insects.
Ye Xi stood in the clearing and looked around, feeling like he was looking at an entirely different world.
He turned and glanced at Little Mud Mountain, feeling truly fortunate.
It was fortunate that they had a cave, and that Little Mud Mountain had protected them like a guardian god. Without its protection, this vast insect flood would have pounded them to death long ago.
In this prehistoric land overrun by dangerous creatures, a human's greatest fortune was a sturdy cave.
His stomach suddenly twisted.
He had not eaten in three days, and now that the danger had passed, he finally began to feel his intense hunger.
Ordinary tribe members were also in front of the cave, searching for food to feed their starving stomachs.
The Warriors had not slept for three days and nights, so once they had moved aside the rock blocking the entrance and seen that the danger had passed, they were overtaken by extreme exhaustion and returned to the cave to sleep.
Only the chief, his eyes bloodshot, had wanted to stay up to keep watch, but Ye Xi persuaded him to go back.
Ye Xi looked at the devastated jungle and felt like there was a fire in his stomach.
The chances of there being any food after the insect flood weren't high, but he still had to go and search for some. There wasn't any food left in the tribe.
Hunger had made his body rather weak, but his formidable will spurred him into a run, his eyes like floodlights that carefully examined every inch of the jungle.
But there was nothing besides the bones of creatures, not even a rabbit!
The insect flood had seemingly rendered extinct all wildlife in the jungle. The fruit trees had also been wiped out, not a single Whitefruit left! Not even the bark had been spared.
Gulu!
His empty stomach seemed to cry out in protest, and then came the familiar twisting pain. Ye Xi pressed on his stomach and tried to ease the pain.
As he looked at the white pith exposed on the tree trunks, he mournfully thought, Will I really have to eat bark as well?
Ye Xi sorrowfully walked back to the tribe, and when he walked by the traps, he suddenly froze.
...
In the tribe's clearing, the tribe members began to return from their searches for food. None of them had found a thing, and they painfully held their starving bellies, their spirits low.
Some of them began to peel tree bark, removing the coarse outer part and gnawing on the softer contents within.
The other tribe members hesitated for a while, but in the end, their hunger defeated them, and they began to peel off the tree bark, even squatting down to pluck grass to eat.
Out of the corner of their eyes, they spotted Ye Xi coming back and were struck dumb.
Ye Xi was dragging the corpse of a giant insect behind him.
Pheasant Eye, who was eating grass, looked in disgust at the insect corpse, then she asked, "Ye Xi, why did you bring this back?"
These things had forced them into their dire food shortage and almost killed them. She hated them down to their bones.
Ye Xi helplessly said, "I looked all over the jungle, but there was no food to be found. I brought it back to see if it was edible."
The tribe members gnawing on the tree bark came over, looking at that ugly insect corpse and curiously asking, "Can we eat this thing?"
The insect was about the size of a rhino, and it was covered in a black shell. Its stomach was sporting several large holes from the spike trap that were bleeding black blood. It was utterly disgusting, and they found it impossible to associate it with the word 'food'.
"Maybe. We have to try."
Ye Xi borrowed a bone saber and began to remove the back shell, cutting along the grooves.
Once he revealed the flesh beneath the shell, his eyes brightened. To his pleasant surprise, the flesh under the shell was white like fish. It seemed edible.
The insect's blood wasn't poisonous, and there was a high chance of it being edible. Not even roasting it on the fire, he cut off a piece and brought it toward his mouth.
"Don't eat it!"
The tribe members eating bark saw that Ye Xi wasn't joking and was really putting the insect meat in his mouth, so they called out to stop him.
What if this insect meat was poisonous? How could he so casually eat it?!
"I'll eat it first!" someone said.
Ye Xi turned and saw that it was Horn, that man who had almost executed him on the first day of his transmigration.
Horn solemnly said, "What if there's poison? I will eat it first!"
Ye Xi looked at that soft and tender insect flesh, upon which his stomach convulsed in hunger again. He was anxious to have something to fill his starving stomach, and there was a ninety percent chance that the insect meat was edible…
But when he looked up and saw the stubborn gazes of the tribe members, he decided to compromise.
Horn took the insect meat, closed his eyes, and took a bite like he was eating poison.
The crowd gasped as they watched Horn swallow the meat.
The majority of them were not as open-minded as Ye Xi, who had no psychological inhibitions preventing him from eating insect meat. The vast majority of them were more willing to eat tree bark. When they saw Horn swallowing the meat without a word, they felt both admiration and disgust.
After eating the insect meat, Horn gagged in disgust.
A few moments later, he didn't feel anything strange. On the contrary, his stomach was less aggrieved with something to digest.
Ye Xi rubbed his belly and asked, "Can I eat now?" He was truly starving.
Horn rubbed his belly and found that there truly wasn't anything discomforting, but Ye Xi was far too important to the tribe, and he wanted nothing to happen to him. Thus, he hesitated before cautiously saying, "Why don't you wait a little longer? What if the poison takes time to take effect?"
"Eat some tree bark first?" The tribe members were worried that Ye Xi was hungry, and passed their tree bark to him, suggesting, "The taste isn't bad!"
Tree bark in hand, Ye Xi was speechless.