Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
Ye Xi stared at the tree-sized plant in a daze.
What does it look like… Ye Xi pondered.
The millipede continued to slowly carry him forward. Just when they were about to pass by the plant, Ye Xi suddenly realized what it was.
Right! Purslane!
Ye Xi had failed to recognize it immediately because it was as large as a tree.
Such a large purslane… Ye Xi’s eyes brightened.
“That plant is edible!” Ye Xi jumped down from the millipede and ran toward the purslane.
Found something?
The surrounding tribe members grew excited. Another edible plant had been found!
Plate and Carving jumped down from the millipede and ran to Ye Xi’s side.
The millipede failed to realize that the three were no longer riding it, and it continued to crawl forward at the same leisurely pace.
Plate energetically raised his bone saber and asked, “Which part is edible? I’ll cut it down!”
Ye Xi stroked his chin as he inspected this prehistoric purslane. It seemed the same as the ones from the modern era, with no changes. “Mm… the entire plant should be edible.”
Plate: “!”
Tribe Members: “!”
Such a large plant was completely edible?
Everyone’s eyes blazed to life as they stared at the giant purslane.
If the purslane were intelligent, it would probably be shaking in fear from all these frightening looks.
Just as expected, the entire purslane was dug up and carried away.
Stopping and going, they found two more kinds of prehistoric vegetables before finally reaching their destination.
This was a rare grove of fruit trees.
The fruit-picking team smoothly navigated through the fruit trees, seeking out ripe fruits and then climbing the trees to pick them.
Ye Xi had always wondered what sort of tree the Whitefruit grew on, and now, he finally saw it. They appeared a little like large palm trees, and Whitefruits that were either green or white hung sparsely from their branches.
Ye Xi wanted to try and climb a tree.
Over the last month, he had been constantly training his tree-climbing skills, and while this Whitefruit tree seemed as tall as a flagpole, it presented no difficulty for him.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Using both his hands and feet, Ye Xi easily climbed the tree.
“Carving, I’ll climb up with Ye Xi. You stay on guard down here,” Plate said.
The fruit-picking team only had the two of them as Warriors, and they had to consider the safety of the others. Carving remained under the tree so that he could promptly respond if the other tribe members were in danger.
Carving nodded while Plate climbed up the tree behind Ye Xi and stood on a nearby branch. The branch under Ye Xi’s feet was not very thick, and it would not be able to endure the weight of both of them.
Ye Xi carefully balanced his body, and after searching for some time, finally found a ripe Whitefruit.
Ye Xi twisted the Whitefruit off the stem and held it close.
“Come this way! Take it!” Ye Xi called out to a nearby member of the team responsible for catching fruits.
This man jogged over from another tree and held out a beast hide.
Ye Xi threw down the Whitefruit.
The fruit catcher nimbly caught it.
Several more fruits were plucked in this fashion until the tree was plucked bare.
Ye Xi planned to rest a little, so he sat down on the branch.
The surrounding scenery was gorgeous, but the Mud Mountain tribe members continued to diligently pick fruit.
A prehistoric dragonfly stopped on a stone beneath the tree, and a gray rabbit hopped past and also stopped near the tree.
Suddenly recalling the search for salty dirt, Ye Xi turned to Plate and said, “Right, I suddenly recalled another way to find salty dirt.”
Plate: “What is it?”
Ye Xi pointed at the gray rabbit on the ground. “Some animals will occasionally lick salty rocks or dirt to replenish the salt in their bodies. You can follow them and see where they go.”
Plate nodded. “Okay. Once we get back, I’ll…”
Suddenly, a hairy yellow arm thrust out from the tree leaves, grabbed Ye Xi by the waist, and carried him away!
“Ye Xi!” Plate swiftly slashed at the arm with his bone saber.
But this animal was extremely nimble, dodging the attack and jumping with Ye Xi to another branch.
Hearing Plate yell, Carving immediately looked up and saw that an Iron Arm Ape had grabbed Ye Xi!
“Ye Xi!” Carving paled.
The Iron Arm Ape, with Ye Xi in tow, swiftly flew into the distance along the branches.
Carving grabbed his spear and pursued the Iron Arm Ape on the ground.
Plate jumped down from the tree and joined Carving in a frenzied pursuit. At this moment, he was filled with remorse, hating himself over the fact that he failed to notice that creature even though it was right next to them! Iron Arm Apes were simply too good at hiding, and they were too agile in trees. By the time he had noticed and attacked it, it was already too late…
Ye Xi had been captured! The other tribe members realized what was going on. They no longer cared that they were not Warriors, and began to jump down from the trees to pursue the Iron Arm Ape.
But the Iron Arm Ape moved too quickly through the jungle, its thick arm grabbing branch after branch as it advanced. It wasn’t long before the ape and Ye Xi disappeared into the jungle.
“Aaaaah!!!” Carving roared in anger, the knuckles of the hand clenching his spear turning white. Ye Xi had been captured by the Iron Arm Ape! He had failed to catch up! What would they do!?
Plate was a little slower than Carving. Seeing Carving staring furiously and helplessly at the jungle, he charged into the jungle without a word, saber in hand.
Whether or not they could find him, they had to try. The chief had ordered them to protect Ye Xi, but Ye Xi had been captured right under their eyes. If they couldn’t find him… they would be too ashamed to go back!
Carving, realizing what was going on, clenched his teeth and followed Plate.
As the Iron Arm Ape moved rapidly between the trees, the captured Ye Xi almost felt like vomiting.
He had been captured by a large ape? Where was he being taken? He remembered that apes were herbivores, so why did it capture him… Were prehistoric apes carnivores?
Ye Xi bitterly thought to himself that this was not impossible… but why had he been the unlucky one? Was it because he was the thinnest and seemed the easiest to bully?
The ape traveled for some time before finally stopping on a large tree and casually throwing Ye Xi down.
Ye Xi’s chest struck the trunk, and he groaned.
His chest wasn’t what hurt the most. Rather, his waist was in the greatest pain. The ape’s hand was too strong.
Fortunately, a month of training had greatly strengthened his body. His past self would have already had a few broken ribs after being dragged around by the Iron Arm Ape for so long.
Ye Xi looked around at his surroundings.
The ancient tree beneath was abnormally large, the trunk so thick that the armspan of five to six adult men would be required to encircle it. The crown of the tree was as large as a basketball court, the branches and leaves extremely lush.
From where he was, he was about as high as a three-storey building.
There were many muscular, yellow-haired apes on the tree. Some of them were curiously looking at him while others ignored him and played amongst themselves.
The large ape that had captured him made a strange ‘woowoo’ roar into the distance before falling silent, standing to the side while looking to the east and the west, not even glancing at him.
Ye Xi was confused.
Since it was ignoring him, why not use this chance to escape?
Just as he was about to start moving, another ape, this one with a glossier coat of yellow hair, jumped over from another tree. When it saw him, its eyes blazed, and its massive body moved with incredible speed straight for Ye Xi.
Ye Xi was terrified and took several steps back, but his back ran up against the tree.
His hand silently grasped around the triangular bayonet on his waist. Gritting his teeth, he wondered how good his chances of escape were if he attacked the ape and then jumped down from the tree right after.
But after spotting all the apes around him, he gave up on the foolish idea. The apes could navigate this jungle with frightening speed, and he probably wouldn’t make it a few steps before being torn apart by the other furious apes.
The yellow ape madly charged up to Ye Xi. Just one of its muscular hands was the size of two of Ye Xi’s, and they were made of dense muscle. If they really got into a fight, Ye Xi wouldn’t be able to last a few blows.
The image of King Kong tearing apart a dinosaur flashed through his mind, and the frightened Ye Xi clenched his teeth and prepared to jump. But while his body was still in the air, a powerful and hairy arm snatched him and hugged him to the ape’s chest.
The ape’s two arms tightly hugged him and rocked him back and forth like he was a small child, soothing gurgles coming from its throat.
Ye Xi’s body went stiff. What was going on here?
The ape was hugging him very tightly as if it was afraid that he was going to run, but it did not injure him. On the contrary, it was treating him like a small child, even rubbing its hairy face against his head.
There were many mother apes with children on the tree, and while in the suffocating embrace, Ye Xi was able to spot out of the corner of his eye that those mother apes were holding their children just like this ape was holding Ye Xi. Suddenly, he understood. He… was being treated like a little ape?
So this big ape had brought him back to get on good terms with this mother ape? Ye Xi spotted the ape in question standing nearby, watching them, and took a glance between its legs. Yes, it was a male ape.
Ye Xi speculated that this mother ape had lost its child and was extremely sorrowful. Thus, the father ape had captured him to serve as the child for the mother ape.
When he understood the situation, Ye Xi could only sigh at the heavens that such a strange thing had happened to him! But he had no desire to be an ape’s child!
Why was it that he had been the only one captured out of so many people? Was it because he was the smallest among all the adults, so he looked rather similar to a little ape?
What terrible luck!