In his sleep, Xu Que suddenly felt that there was nothing beside him. He subconsciously reached out and groped around, but he couldn't find anything!
His heart tightened, and he opened his eyes to scan his surroundings. He found that the roar he had been longing for was lying in the cave, drawing alone on a stone slab not far from the grass mat.
Xu Que breathed a sigh of relief, mustered all his strength, and tried to get up with a cool and stylish carp-like jump, but failed because he couldn't get his waist and body in harmony.
Hearing the sound, Hou turned around and glanced at Xu Que, then chuckled at him before turning back to continue creating.
Xu Que slowly climbed up from the straw mat and put on his clothes and shoes.
He came to Hou's side, straddled the empty stone slab behind her, gently put his arm around her waist, rested his chin on her shoulder, and whispered in her ear: "It's so well drawn! Isn't this me roasting meat by the fire?"
Hou set aside the twig he had sharpened into a pen, picked up the flat, thin stone, and began to explain in detail to Xu Que: "Hmm! The person roasting meat by this fire is Brother Tianshen, and the person leaning on Brother Tianshen's shoulder is me! Look! The person peeking out of the cave over here is me! I'm peeking at you roasting meat!"
"From the moment I saw my brother, Hou started to feel uneasy and my heart was pounding!"
"Look here, this is the first time Hou has mustered up the courage to approach his brother! Here, Hou is hugging his brother's head, looking for lice in the gaps in his hair!"
Hou picked up a flat, thin stone: "This is the first time my brother taught me how to hold hands. This is a gift from my brother to me!"
"This thing that looks like Pigsy's rake, is that the comb I gave you? This Nezha Universe Ring is a bracelet! And what's this that looks like seaweed running from your head to your feet?"
Hou pointed to the red hair tie on her ponytail: "This!"
"This set of paintings mainly records the little things about how Hou and his brother met, got to know each other, and fell in love! This version only has four stones painted, and there are still many more to be painted! I'll give them to you as a souvenir once I finish them!" Hou said, then picked up the stone he hadn't finished painting and started painting it again!
Xu Que looked at the animal-hide food bag on the stone slab, which was filled with thin stones, and asked in confusion, "I've never seen you pick up stones when we go out together! Did you pick up these stones just now?"
"No! I pick up one or two pieces each time we go out, you just didn't notice. Over time, they add up!" Hou finished drawing the stone piece he had only half-finished, then stared at a figure on it, hesitating as if he was stumped by some problem!
"What's wrong?" Wasn't this rock painting quite good?
"Look! How do we depict this skin tone that's like your face?" Hou scratched his head, at a loss!
“Scrape off the surface of the stone, and you’ll see the beige and white parts. Dirt the cheeks of the figure on the stone a bit, and the outline and sense of layering will come out! Here, scrape it with a knife!” Xu Que handed the boning knife he had prepared to Hou.
Hou gently scraped the stone with the tip of his knife, then rubbed dirt along the dividing line of the figure's face on the stone slab. When viewed from a distance, the three-dimensional effect came out.
"Wow! You're so clever! You've invented another technique for drawing on stone without me even realizing it! It's amazing! I'm so envious! Teach me, please!" Xu Que praised Hou without holding back.
"You want to be a painter too?" Hou asked Xu Que with a touch of arrogance and a sense of accomplishment.
"Then first acknowledge me as your master, and I'll teach you!"
Xu Que pulled Hou tightly from behind, bringing his mouth close to her ear: "Master, please accept my bow!"
Outside the cave of the Black Stone Tribe, in addition to the members of the Giant Deer Tribe who had agreed to learn how to make fire by friction, several new faces appeared.
The Blackstone tribe chief ordered his tribe members to accept the live cattle offered as sacrifice by the Giant Deer tribe.
The chieftain said to the members of the Julu tribe, "We'll accept live cattle for now! Next time, we'll stipulate that we'll only accept live animals! Only cattle, sheep, horses, donkeys, and chickens!"
"The rules for exchanging fire-making techniques and tools are as follows: one live cow can be exchanged for five sets of rope drill fire-making tools and fire-making techniques! Horses and donkeys are equivalent to cows! One live sheep can be exchanged for one set of fire-making tools! Ten chickens can be exchanged for one set of fire-making tools!"
"Huh? Why has it changed to exchanging live animals again? All the animals die after we hunt! Live animals are too hard to catch!"
"Capturing a full-grown bison is harder than hunting three! Several members of our Giant Deer tribe were gored by bison recently and haven't fully recovered yet! If it weren't for the hunting team leader's extensive hunting experience, who killed the bison with a single blow, that member would probably be dead by now!"
"Killing a bison on the spot is this difficult! You can imagine how difficult it is to capture a bison alive!"
"As the leader of the Blackrock Tribe, I know all this! As long as you are willing to cooperate with us, I will provide you with a guide on how to capture all kinds of living creatures! If you follow this guide, it will be much simpler! And the success rate will be extremely high."
After some persuasion, Ji, the leader of the Black Goose tribe, has reached an agreement with the leaders of the three downstream tribes.
She is now heading to the Falcon Tribe, the largest, most powerful, and most populous of the ten tribes downstream.
In the Falcon tribe, there was a strongman named Chi, whose abilities were on par with Hagang! Legend has it that he was born a few days later than Hagang, and was jokingly called "the eternal second-best" by the people.
Chi has a dream: to one day have a fair and just competition with Hagang of the Black Stone Tribe and Pingyao of the Giant Deer Tribe! To see who is the strongest king on this land.
Gu, the strongest guardian deity of the Seven Tribes Alliance in the middle reaches, mysteriously disappeared while carrying out a tribal mission in the heart of the primeval forest and has not been heard from since. Therefore, only three of the Four Heavenly Kings remain.
“Recently, a man named Xu Que has come to the Black Stone Tribe! Have you heard of him?” Ji, the leader of the Black Goose Tribe, said to the leader of the Falcon Tribe.
The Falcon Tribe chief shook his head: "Never heard of it!"
"I've heard from other tribes that Xu Que is a god who controls heavenly fire! It's all over the place among the tribes upstream! I think he's a fraud!"
The Falcon Tribe chief raised an eyebrow: "Why do you say he's a fraud?"
"He actually said that the public order and good customs that we have passed down and protected for generations are garbage! They should be eradicated and overthrown! Our tribe member Bahan was caught and beaten up by Xu Que and Ha Gang and others for snatching a girl in front of the Black Stone Tribe cave! He even threatened: From now on, if anyone dares to snatch anyone again, we will kill them on sight!"
After hearing Ji's words, the chief of the Falcon tribe flew into a rage: "Back then, the leaders of the ten tribes downstream were all criminals abandoned by other tribes! Our downstream tribes were able to grow and prosper entirely through plunder! This Xu Que is openly opposing us, so we won't let him have an easy time either!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com