Chapter 7

Living in the cave, including Shaoxuan, there were a total of twenty-seven children, each one fierce. How could Shaoxuan, with his small arms and legs, manage them?

The cave was filled with many children who wanted to take Ku's place to get more food. Shaoxuan, who was clearly much smaller, taking over the management would obviously lead to dissatisfaction from the other children, and dissatisfaction would inevitably lead to conflict.

Two words—trouble.

The middle-aged man responsible for transporting food to the cave was named Ge. He wasn't as strong as Mai, and he had lost an arm during a hunting expedition. Now, he couldn't go hunting anymore and had retired from the hunting team, spending his days transporting food.

When Shaoxuan asked him about the reason, he didn't get much information.

After the food distribution was complete, Ge left with the empty stone vat on his shoulder, using just one arm. Even with one arm missing, his strength remained, and carrying the stone vat was no problem.

After Ge left, Ku entered the cave to announce the new decision and the person who would take over his job.

"Starting tomorrow, A Xuan will be responsible for distributing the food!"

The atmosphere in the cave had been peaceful after eating, without the earlier frenzy of competition. However, Ku's words made the atmosphere tense again. The children in the cave didn't complain or argue, but their faces showed their dissatisfaction.

Ku didn't stay longer or explain; he quickly packed up his bedding and left. He was old, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would awaken his totem power after this harsh winter, meaning he might not return to the cave.

Ku left easily, but Shaoxuan felt heavy-hearted.

Looking at the sky, it was around three in the afternoon, still some time before sunset.

Shaoxuan led Caesar back to the gravel field, sitting on the ground, pondering what to do next.

He had originally planned to live a simple life, waiting a couple of years until he was old enough to awaken his totem power. Even if his awakening was late, he would naturally awaken by Ku's age. Then he could build his own house and join a hunting team to live a life of hunting. Now, it seemed that this simple life was impossible. When he left the cave just now, several children were staring at him and Caesar with ill intent.

"Do you think they might crawl out at midnight and eat you?" Shaoxuan said, looking at Caesar, who was walking around the gravel field.

With Ku around, those kids didn't do anything serious. But once Ku left, the situation was uncertain. The children in the cave were more ruthless than those in the tribe, and they wouldn't think much. If they were really hungry, they might ignore the shaman's markings and join forces to roast Caesar. Shaoxuan alone couldn't fight against the twenty-odd children in the cave.

Caesar didn't realize the impending danger. Not finding any stone insects in the gravel field, he started to want to go to the black marsh.

There were two forbidden areas near the mountain where the tribe lived: one was a large black marsh, easy to get stuck in, and once stuck, it was almost certain death; the other was a wide river in front of the mountain, where river beasts lived. It was said that in the early days, a few strong warriors from the tribe went into the water to fish but never came back. With too many unknown dangers, the tribal leaders decided not to allow anyone to enter the water.

Therefore, except for the women of the tribe occasionally washing animal skins in the shallow waters, no one would touch the river. There was a small stream running down the mountain, and the tribe's drinking water came from there, so no one was willing to risk the unknown dangers of the river.

Whether it was the black marsh or the riverbank, there were warriors on guard to prevent people from entering these dangerous areas and to guard against any unforeseen dangers that might arise.

Without fishing or farming, the tribe relied mainly on hunting, which was why food was always in short supply.

Food was the priority. Caesar, a large piece of meat, walking around the cave every night in front of the hungry children, had already made the children in the cave drool.

"What to do?" Shaoxuan sighed again, inwardly complaining about the old shaman who gave him the mark but never showed up again.

The tribe did not allow people to enter the black marsh or go into the river, especially children who had not yet awakened their totem power. However, it didn't say anything about wolves approaching the black marsh. So, occasionally, Caesar would go to the edge of the black marsh to find things to gnaw on, like some strange beetles living there. After a while, the warriors guarding the boundary would turn a blind eye.

Animals have a keen sense of danger, and Caesar naturally knew the black marsh was dangerous, so he only wandered around the boundary.

Not sure what he found, Caesar ran over with something in his mouth, dropped it, and a black lump appeared in front of Shaoxuan.

The insect Caesar brought was one Shaoxuan had never seen before. Unlike the beetles from before, this one was softer, about the size of Shaoxuan's palm, flat and oval-shaped, with many long legs, and entirely black like the black marsh.

When Caesar was carrying it, the insect used its legs to poke Caesar's wolf nose.

A few times before, Caesar had brought insects back, probably just to play. There weren't many creatures in the tribe's living area that could interest Caesar, and catching rabbits was out of the question. As a wolf, it was quite pitiful that he had to deal with insects all the time.

When Caesar tried to catch the insect that was trying to escape, Shaoxuan noticed that the insect spat out a large amount of black bubbles, enveloping itself. Caesar didn't like these black bubbles and let go, throwing the insect away.

The black bubbles gathered together, forming a ball as big as a soccer ball, with the insect in the middle. Caesar circled around the black bubble ball but didn't bite it, clearly disliking the black bubbles, probably because of their bad taste.

After about fifteen minutes, Caesar gave up on the insect hiding in the black ball and returned to the gravel field to continue searching for stone insects.

Shaoxuan, however, was interested in the insect. He took out his stone knife and poked the black bubble. He found that the originally soft black bubbles had hardened and become brittle. With a strong poke, the black "soccer ball" split into two halves, and the insect inside, now much smaller and shriveled, ran away toward the black marsh.

Shaoxuan didn't chase the insect but squatted down to examine the split "ball."

Using the stone knife, he found that the two black half-balls were very light, almost weightless, and required some effort to crush.

After studying and crushing one half-ball, Shaoxuan looked at the other black half-ball. He thought for a moment, called Caesar back, and took the black half-ball to the river.

Even when the tribe members came to the river, they only cautiously moved around the shallow areas, which were relatively safe.

Shaoxuan naturally wouldn't risk his life by entering the water. Who knew what strange creatures were in there? He just wanted to test if the half-ball would float as he thought.

He untied the grass rope from his waist, tied one end to the black half-ball, and held the other end. Then he threw the black half-ball tied to the grass rope into the water.

Sure enough, as Shaoxuan had thought, the black half-ball floated on the surface.

This thing... could be used for fishing.

—

—

This update is for the 2nd, and there will be a double update on the 3rd.

It's been five days since the book opened, and I didn't expect so many people to support it. There's even a protector (Blue represents melancholy) and a leader (Cat Mimi). I see many familiar names, those who voted, supported, and commented. When I return to the cat, I will list each supporter, but later, due to complaints, I stopped listing them because people said they would hear those names during audio readings and could recite them by heart. So, I won't list them one by one for this book. The author's backend has a record of every supporter, and I want to say thank you to everyone for your support!

It's been more than four months since "Return to the Cat" finished, and many factors caused the delay in starting this new book. During this period, many people asked about the new book, and "Return to the Cat" still received votes. I am very grateful for everyone's unwavering support and for supporting me, Chen Ci.

Although it's a bit late, I still want to say: I, Chen Ci, am back!

This book will be a bit slow to heat up, but if you're interested, you can start following it. I will do my best to write this story well.

PS: I also want to share some news. "Return to the Cat" might be published in traditional Chinese, so those who read traditional Chinese can look forward to it.

Page flip AD starts

Page flip AD ends