Thump!
A bloodstained object dropped to the ground.
Ye Xi jumped down from Allo and bent down to pick it up.
What he found was a mysterious blue jewel, translucent and about the size of his palm.
Clack.
Before Ye Xi had time to examine the jewel, he heard movement from the stone mound.
Ye Xi was frightened, worried that this creature was waking up. He jumped onto Allo, but before he could ride it away, he saw cracks beginning to appear all over the stone walls.
Ye Xi patted Allo on the head, ordering it to ride away. It had only run a few steps when a great din of crashing and groaning came from behind Ye Xi.
Ye Xi turned and saw that the stone mound had collapsed into a pile of large rocks.
He stared at the debris in shock.
“Awooo!”
Allo and Saurus roared at the pile of rocks while Scaly anxiously hissed.
Ye Xi looked down at the jewel. Had the mound collapsed because he had removed it?
Ye Xi used some beast hide to wipe the blood off the jewel.
With the blood cleaned off, the object was even prettier, like a pool of clean water with shallow ripples of deeper blue. Just looking at it made one happy.
If that stone mound had been some unknown creature, then this jewel had a high chance of being a Fiendbeast Core.
But the Fiendbeast Core he already possessed was green and about the size of a date. This Fiendbeast Core was as large as his palm and appeared like the highest quality of crystal.
The difference between the two was too much… Ye Xi wondered if he was wrong.
Crush! Crssh!
Noise came from the jungle.
Ye Xi came to his senses, and after soothing the anxious Allo, he patted it on the head, ordering it to run.
The creatures had probably been drawn over by the commotion, and he wasn’t strong enough at the moment, so he needed to avoid whatever conflicts he could.
The three beasts and one human quickly departed.
The tribe.
“Ye Xi, why are you coming back so late today?” At the tribe’s sentry post, Graybeak called out to Ye Xi, a smile on his face.
Ye Xi smiled back and replied, “I was slightly delayed.”
Once he got back to the clearing, he jumped down from Allo.
Seeing Calm Bulrush honing his weapon, Ye Xi called out, “Uncle Bulrush!”
Calm Bulrush turned his head.
Ye Xi pointed at Allo and Saurus. “These two fellows have been running all day and are starving. I’ll leave it to you.”
Ye Xi was slowly passing over Allo and Saurus to Calm Bulrush and Courage, often having them feed the two beasts. Slowly, the two pairs had become familiar with each other.
“Alright, coming!”
Ever since Calm Bulrush and Courage had learned that these two Terror Beasts were being trained for their sake, they were very proactive when it came to feeding them, worried that Ye Xi was tiring himself too much.
Ye Xi ran toward Little Mud Mountain.
He wanted to see how the sweet potatoes were doing.
Midway up the mountain, small terraces had been dug out of the slope, the widest being only three meters.
The green sprouts of sweet potatoes grew out of the terraces, and they seemed to be growing well.
A hoe had been used to make the soil of the terraces soft and loose. Ye Xi walked on the path running beside the terrace and lightly flicked the sweet potato buds. After determining that they hadn’t been damaged by insects, he relaxed.
There had been a time when numerous flesh worms had appeared in the terraces and specifically gone after the sweet potato buds, causing Ye Xi much heartache. It was only after a savage extermination that the number of flesh worms significantly dwindled.
Plop!
A raindrop landed in the dry terrace, the soil greedily absorbing it.
Ye Xi looked up in shock.
Without his realizing, a dark cloud had appeared overhead.
Plip! Plop!
Several more raindrops descended, once more vanishing into the dry soil.
It was… raining?
It was a faint drizzle, the raindrops falling for only a little while before stopping, and that faint dark cloud soon scattered.
But Ye Xi knew that this was a notice, a notice that the dry season was about to end and the rainy season was fast upon them.
The Mud Mountain Tribe’s abundant water supplies meant that Ye Xi had not found the dry season that insufferable, but he also knew that the members of other tribes and the creatures living on this land had been enduring a severe water shortage this entire time.
In this week alone, he had found ten-some dried-up and decaying corpses.
He had also heard that the struggles by the lake were growing more gruesome. The creatures were no longer able to endure the drought and ran to the lake to drink water, heedless of the danger. The creatures in the lake feasted, and the waters were dyed crimson.
Ye Xi returned to the base of the mountain.
Many people were discussing the small drizzle just now.
“The dry season is almost over. This year went by so quickly that I hardly felt it.”
“That’s right! I almost died of dehydration the last dry season. I spent almost every day just counting down with my fingers.”
“Now that our tribe doesn’t lack water, we naturally have nothing to fear from the dry season.”
“The other tribes are probably cheering. I hear that even the Blackpond Tribe was starting to run out of water and risked a trip to the lake to get water.”
“I heard that too. Apparently, a Warrior even died.”
“Tsk, tsk, if even the strongest of the tribes is struggling, I can’t imagine how the other tribes fared.”
“What do you mean, ‘you can’t imagine’? Just think about how our tribe fared and you can get a good idea.”
“Five people in our tribe died of thirst last year…”
The crowd became somewhat disappointed and frustrated. One of the five had been a healthy hundred-year-old elder who had nevertheless died of thirst.
“Stop thinking about it. Instead, think about how the tribe will be holding the Great Ritual in two days.”
“Right, the Great Ritual is soon!” The crowd became excited.
“After this year’s Great Ritual, our tribe will probably have another ten Warriors!”
“Hahaha, we’ve got the Earth Tribe’s Fiendbeast Cores, so we really should have about ten more Warriors!”
They grew happier and happier as they talked, their eyebrows almost flying off their heads. They were all looking forward to the Great Ritual.
Ye Xi slightly chuckled. Stroking the object in the beast hide pouch at his waist, he walked into the cave.
The depths of the cave.
Ye Xi bowed to the shaman and then presented the jewel to him. “Shaman, can you tell if this is a Fiendbeast Core?”
The shaman’s eyes widened when he saw the jewel, and he almost jumped off the stone platform. His eyes shone with an ardent light as he hastily said, “Where did you get this?”
Ye Xi was given a fright. He had never seen the shaman so excited before!
“I dug it out of an extremely strange creature that was already dead.”
The shaman gave Ye Xi a strange look, and then he lowered his head and stroked the jewel with his wizened hands. “This really is a Fiendbeast Core, and it might be of an even higher level than a pureblood Fiendbeast Core.”
“Even higher than a pureblood Fiendbeast Core?” Ye Xi curiously asked. “I thought that pureblood fiendbeasts were the strongest fiendbeasts.”
The shaman chuckled, his eyes looking into the distance as he thought back. “‘Pureblood fiendbeast’ is just an umbrella term used to separate them from mixed-blood fiendbeasts. In truth, there are also differences in level within the pureblood fiendbeasts.
“I do not know what the strongest fiendbeasts are like, but I do know that above the pureblood fiendbeasts are the barbaric fiendbeasts.
“I was lucky enough to see a barbaric fiendbeast, a massive eagle. It flew over our tribe and made everyone shiver in fear. When it cried out, even the Warriors bled from their mouth and nose.”
Ye Xi looked at the Fiendbeast Core, his mouth feeling a little dry. He swallowed and said, “Shaman, are you saying… that this Fiendbeast Core might have come from a barbaric fiendbeast?”
“There’s a chance, but it could also be from a special kind of regular pureblood fiendbeast,” the shaman said as he handed back the Fiendbeast Core.
Ye Xi gripped the Fiendbeast Core, his eyes flashing. He sensed that this Fiendbeast Core was definitely not normal.
“The Great Ritual will be in a few days,” the shaman said. “Do you plan to become a Warrior this year?”
“Yes, I think that I’m ready.”
The shaman nodded and did not try to stop him. Every provisional Warrior was ready to be awakened, no matter what age they were.
As he looked at Ye Xi’s immature face, the shaman sighed. “…Thirteen! You might be the youngest Warrior in the centuries-long history of our tribe.”