Chapter 22: Devil Frog

Devil Frog

Shi Li and Xiong Qi were fighting for quite a few reasons.

The original cause for the fight was Lang Yin.

It was a normal occurrence in the tribe for a woman to have two suitors, and having these two suitors fight in order to determine who had the right to be with her was also very normal. In fact, there were also cases where two women would fight over a man.

Xiong Qi had long been interested in Lang Yin, and it was natural for him to be angry now that he had been preempted by Shi Li.

However, Lang Yin had already invited Shi Li to live in her cave, and even if Xiong Qi won, it would be a pointless fight. Adding on the fact that he had been injured while trading for salt, Xiong Qi hadn’t gone to make any trouble for Shi Li until they started interacting more over the past few days.

After the salt team had returned, Xiong He divided the warriors into two groups whenever they went out to hunt. One group would be led by him, while the other was led by Xiong Qi.

Xiong He had been cultivating Xiong Ye, so Xiong Ye was always in his team. Since Xiong Ye and Shi Li’s relationship had turned sour, Shi Li had been assigned to Xiong Qi’s team.

Shi Li and Lang Yin had been assigned to Xiong Qi’s team together. While in front of Lang Yin, Xiong Qi hadn’t done anything excessive to Shi Li, but he had definitely arranged for Shi Li to do more of the hard work or sent Shi Li to be the main attacker when they went after prey.

And Xiong Qi even had a good reason for doing so–he was still injured, and Shi Li, as someone who had a strong and powerful animal form, was naturally expected to do more.

If it had been Xiong Ye who had been given these arrangements, he would’ve been very happy. After all, this gave him more opportunities to practice. But Shi Li wasn’t Xiong Ye.

Several days after his rebirth, Shi Li realized that he had been wrong at the start. He eventually decided to be with Lang Yin properly and began to try harder to adapt to the life he had today. He participated in every hunt, but at the end of the day, he was already different. For example, he was already unable to make himself use his mouth to tear at the neck of their prey.

How dirty and disgusting were those dinosaurs’ bodies?

Unfortunately, for male lions, the most powerful weapon he had was his teeth.

Before, when Xiong Qi wasn’t the one leading the team, Shi Li would rarely make a move himself while using the excuse of guiding and teaching others on how to catch prey. Nobody felt that it was strange, and some even felt that Shi Li knew a lot and was very amazing. However, now that Xiong Qi was here, he had no chance to guide others at all.

During the hunt, the conflict between the two sides inevitably became even more serious.

Shi Li felt that Xiong Qi, who was already doomed to die early in his mind because he had no impression of him from his previous life, was deliberately making trouble for him and was truly abhorrent. He really wished he could kill Xiong Qi, while Xiong Qi felt that Shi Li had no true ability and was wasting his strong animal form since he was unable to catch any prey.

There was a rule in the tribe that they weren’t allowed to fight amongst themselves during the hunt, and they weren’t allowed to fight outside the tribal grounds. However, when they returned to the tribe today, neither of them could hold back anymore. They first had a verbal quarrel, and then they began to fight!

“Xiong Qi put Shi Li in charge of intercepting that Heterodontosaurus today, and Shi Li was clearly capable of catching it, but he ended up letting the prey escape. It’s no wonder Xiong Qi is so angry.”

“Shi Li is going against Xiong Qi intentionally, right? He never does anything that Xiong Qi asks him to do properly.”

“Say, who do you think will win?”

“It’ll definitely be Xiong Qi!”

……

Basically, everyone in the tribe thought that Xiong Qi would win.

Xiong Qi was one of the strongest, if not the strongest fighter in their tribe, but he wasn’t much younger than Xiong He. This was also why Xiong He had skipped over him when selecting the next tribal chief.

Xiong He was still in his prime period where his strength was at its peak, and it would take several years, or even a decade before he stepped down from his position as tribal chief. Xiong Qi would also be quite old by then!

However, although the tribesmen believed that Xiong Qi would win, Zhou Ji thought otherwise. He felt that Xiong Qi was going to lose.

He has interacted with Xiong Qi before and taken stock of Xiong Qi’s situation. He had discovered at the time that some of Xiong Qi’s injuries were actually internal injuries.

Xiong Qi was wounded, and his fighting power was reduced, but this didn’t mean that he would lose. The main reason he would lose was because Shi Li was somehow managing to make use of the energy that was everywhere around them.

Although the amount of energy he could use was very limited, he seemed to know exactly where Xiong Qi’s wounds were, and every single time he attacked, his hits would land precisely at those places.

Xiong Qi roared in anger, but at the end of the day, his movements were limited since the place they had chosen to fight in was not the narrow platform outside the cave that Shi Li and Xiong Ye had fought on, but the spacious valley below.

Shi Li’s animal form was particularly agile and dexterous in the valley. It appeared as though he was constantly dodging away from Xiong Qi, but in fact, he had firmly grasped the upper hand a long time ago.

Zhou Ji was very curious about Shi Li.

Xiong Ye also found it very strange, “Shi Li didn’t fight like this before…”

Niu Er was an extremely, extremely quiet person. During the past few days of living in Xiong Ye’s cave, he would be sent into a deep sleep with a bowl of Zhou Ji’s calming soup at night, but he didn’t say much even during the day. It made others feel as though he didn’t exist.

But at this time, he spoke up, “Xiong Qi is injured… When we were on our way back from trading for salt, we were chased by a carnivorous dinosaur… Several people were bitten to death, and we weren’t able to retrieve the salt they were carrying. Later, Xiong Qi saw that the dinosaur seemed to have eaten enough and was probably full, so he took some people with him to try and take back the salt. As a result, he was hit by the dinosaur’s tail.”

Niu Er only summed it up in just a few words, but the situation back then had indeed been very tragic.

A carnivorous dinosaur was eating their people, but they needed to get close to it so that they could take back the salt that their fellow tribesmen carried…

So many people had already been sacrificed; they had to at least bring the salt back.

Zhou Ji glanced at the depressed Niu Er, then continued to observe the situation below and saw that Xiong Qi’s movements were getting slower and slower… Shi Li had won.

Shi Li pounced on Xiong Qi and intended to bite Xiong Qi, this person who dared to offend him, but first of all, he couldn’t make himself use his mouth to bite people, and secondly, they were in the tribe… The tribe didn’t ban fighting, but murder was forbidden.

The giant lion could only use his front paws to press down on the polar bear’s neck and roar up into the sky.

Everyone in the tribe worshipped the strong. Shi Li had actually managed to win against Xiong Qi, so the way the people in the tribe looked at Shi Li changed.

Shi Li also felt quite proud in his heart.

Losing to Xiong Ye just after his rebirth had left a sense of unease and dissatisfaction in his heart, but now he had won against Xiong Qi!

When he lost to Xiong Ye back then, it was definitely because he had underestimated his opponent!

Shi Li looked in the direction of Xiong Ye’s cave, saw that Xiong Ye was looking at him with a seemingly worshipful gaze and roared again.

Zhou Ji noticed this scene and looked towards Xiong Ye only to find that Xiong Ye had already shifted his gaze, his expression firm.

“I didn’t think that Shi Li had become so powerful! I definitely have to work hard!” Xiong Ye’s fighting spirit was rising.

Zhou Ji learned from the priest, “The Beast God will bless you.”

Xiong Ye nodded, then added, “I want to eat more meat!”

The food that Zhou Ji had been allocated had always been the smallest amount in the tribe. Niu Er couldn’t go out and fight, so the amount of food he was currently being given wasn’t much either. Precisely because this was the case, Xiong Ye hadn’t dared to eat as much as he pleased when he had eaten meat over the past few days and would only eat around five kilos a day. Zhou Ji would make him more food according to his appetite, but even so, he had only eaten at most seven or eight kilos of meat each day.

Of course, if the vegetable soup and fish soup that Zhou Ji stuffed him with was included, he hadn’t gone hungry at all. In fact, it had been less than ten days since Zhou Ji had come to live with him, but his animal form already looked roundert, and his fur was now sleek and shiny.

Now that Xiong Ye said he wanted to eat more meat… Zhou Ji put all of the meat that Xiong Ye had been given that day into the pot to boil.

Boiling the meat was a little healthier than roasting it, especially since he had found a type of spice that Xiong Ye loved, which made the meat taste a lot better when it was cooked together.

Dinosaur meat would foam a lot and give off a stench when it was boiled in a pot. Zhou Ji picked up a spatula and transferred the foam into a bowl to the side, frowning slightly as he did so.

He didn’t like this smell.

“I’ll do it.” Xiong Ye immediately spoke up. Zhou Ji’s skin was so delicate and tender that he was really embarrassed making Zhou Ji do any more work!

Zhou Ji jumped on this opportunity and handed over the spatula. He rather missed the wooden houses that had individual rooms and metal pots from his old life.

The stone pot he used to cook things for Xiong Ye now had been left behind by his mother. The mother of the original owner of this body would roast and boil meat in order to take care of her rather stupid original son and thus made a stone pot.

This stone pot had been polished so that it was quite thin, but it was still extremely slow when it came to cooking things and really consumed people’s patience…

After handing the pot over to Xiong Ye, he went back to his own room and lay down to continue observing the energy in the air around them. He also took the chance to take a look at the crystal core in his own body and found that the white crystal core had now taken on a slight yellow tint.

Could it be that the crystal core would change after it had accumulated a sufficient amount of energy?

And… It turned out that the beastmen in this place were also able to use the energy in the air?

Since Shi Li could, did that mean that Xiong Ye could as well?

Zhou Ji began to turn the idea over in his mind to try and find a way to let Xiong Ye use the energy like Shi Li.

He didn’t want Xiong Ye to be inferior to Shi Li.

Of course, it was already dark outside, so he should get some sleep first…

Zhou Ji silently began to absorb the energy from his surroundings.

Outside, Xiong Ye and Niu Er were eating the cooked meat.

Niu Er hadn’t recovered completely from his injuries, but they were no longer life-threatening. He said, “Xiong Ye, I’m going back to live by myself tomorrow.”

“You can stay here for a few more days.” Xiong Ye said.

“I can’t live with you all the time.” Niu Er said. He had constantly been eating Xiong Ye’s food while he lived here over the past few days. Although Xiong Ye didn’t mind, Niu Er didn’t feel good about it.

“I’ll send you back tomorrow.” Xiong Ye said, with plans to give Niu Er another piece of meat when he sent him back.

A small smile appeared on Niu Er’s dark face, and then he thought of something else, “Xiong Ye, what’s going on between you and Zhou Ji? Are you planning to form a mated pair with Zhou Ji?”

Niu Er had been mostly unconscious the first few days after he’d been brought back by Xiong Ye and hadn’t noticed anything, but after he woke up and was more aware of his surroundings, he had already learned about the matter of Xiong Ye and Shi Li’s break up from Xiong Ye.

Xiong Ye and Shi Li were no longer together, and he was now living with Zhou Ji; could it be that he wanted to become mates with Zhou Ji?

At first, Niu Er had thought that Zhou Ji wasn’t good enough for Xiong Ye, but recently, after eating quite a lot of food that Zhou Ji had made, he felt that Zhou Ji was pretty good.

He didn’t eat much and could make good food!

Men weren’t able to have children anyway, so it didn’t matter if Zhou Ji’s strength was a bit weak since it wouldn’t affect future generations.

“Nothing’s going on.” Xiong Ye didn’t even think twice before answering, “It’s very late. Go to sleep!”

It was already dark, and there were only a few people left in the valley outside. Xiong Ye went back to his own nest and prepared to sleep.

Niu Er soon fell asleep, his breathing evening out, but Xiong Ye was a little sleepless as he started to mull over Niu Er’s words.

In fact, Zhou Ji was really quite good. If he and Zhou Ji became mates…

Xiong Ye clutched at his hair, feeling sleepy, and then soon fell asleep.

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After Xiong Ye fell asleep, Zhou Ji got up. He used his spiritual powers to draw the energy from the surroundings into Xiong Ye’s body and took the opportunity to study how Xiong Ye could absorb the energy in the air on his own.

Xiong Ye had saved his life. Helping Xiong Ye become a powerful person could be considered a reward.

Zhou Ji sent a lot of energy into Xiong Ye’s body and let it move around inside, studying it for a long time before going back to sleep.

On the other hand, Shi Li was bitterly working hard to cultivate as he strenuously tried to absorb the energy from around him.

Although he had won the fight against Xiong Qi today, it hadn’t been easy. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he already knew Xiong Qi’s injuries were very serious and where they were, he wouldn’t have been able to win at all.

That was bad enough, but after that one fight, not only did he have several wounds on his body, the energy he had cultivated through so much bitter hard work had almost all dissipated.

Everything was difficult at the beginning, and it had also been like this in his last life, which was why he had almost given up back then and stopped trying to cultivate.

Of course, although that fight had been difficult, it was worth it.

Early the next morning, Shi Li had just woken up when he was met with Lang Yin’s smile, “Shi Li, you’re awake? Would you like something to eat?”

Lang Yin handed him a large piece of roasted meat as she spoke. This piece of roast meat was even larger than the one he hadn’t been able to finish yesterday… Shi Li knew that this piece of meat must be Lang Yin’s.

After discovering that he was very strong, Lang Yin, who had turned her nose up and frowned at him, had immediately changed her attitude.

Shi Li felt somewhat proud, but it also made him look down on Lang Yin a little.

Shi Li ate until his belly was round. When he emerged from Lang Yin’s cave, the attitude the tribespeople held towards him had also changed.

The people of the Big Bear Tribe all worshipped the strong, and Shi Li’s performance yesterday had been amazing. Everyone would naturally treat him with enthusiasm as they greeted him one after another, “Shi Li!”

“Shi Li, are you going hunting?”

“Shi Li, how did you win against Xiong Qi?”

“Shi Li…”

……

Shi Li was surrounded by people, and it felt like he had returned to his previous life–In his previous life, the gazes people had when they looked at him were just like this.

However, at that time, Xiong Ye had also been there receiving these gazes with him.

Shi Li subconsciously searched for Xiong Ye.

His was definitely stronger than Xiong Ye now. He would become more and more powerful in the future, and he would certainly be able to leave Xiong Ye far, far behind him. What would Xiong Ye be like then?

Shi Li had begun to look forward to the time when Xiong Ye would become one of his men.

As for Lang Yin, Shi Li didn’t have a smidgeon of interest in her now.

Shi Li didn’t manage to find Xiong Ye.

After seeing Shi Li’s performance yesterday, Xiong Ye had been a little energized and had gotten up even before daybreak today to go into the forest and bustle about. He wasn’t even in the valley right now.

However, at this moment, Zhou Ji slowly climbed down from Xiong Ye’s cave.

“Zhou Ji.” Shi Li called out to Zhou Ji. He wanted to build up a good relationship with Zhou Ji, but he had been busy cultivating these past few days and hadn’t had time to come out and socialize.

Zhou Ji stood calmly in front of Shi Li and didn’t speak.

Shi Li only learned now that Zhou Ji was as tall as he was… This person had little fighting power and had really grown so tall for nothing.

Shi Li felt little disdainful as he looked at him, and then he suddenly found himself thinking that Zhou Ji was actually very good looking.

The truth was, Shi Li still preferred men over women. Although Zhou Ji was a bit weak, he was very much in line with Shi Li’s preferences. Not to mention Zhou Ji had a father who was a Beast King…

“Yes?” Zhou Ji was a bit upset by Shi Li’s evaluating gaze.

Shi Li asked, “Are you used to living with Xiong Ye? His temper isn’t that good. Has he gotten angry with you?” He remembered that Xiong Ye had always been a little adverse to people who didn’t have much ability. For example, Xiong Ye had always hated Yang Su.

“No.” Zhou Ji replied. Xiong Ye had a bad temper? He felt that Xiong Ye was very good-tempered and easy to get along with.

“Niu Er also moved in recently. Was it difficult for you to adapt?” Shi Li pressed.

“No.” Zhou Ji’s reply was distant.

“What are you going to do now?” Shi Li continued to ask.

“Gathering.” Zhou Ji kept to his single word replies.

“Is Xiong Ye not giving you meat to eat while you’re living with him? Do you need to go out and collect food for yourself?” Shi Li looked at Zhou Ji with sympathy.

Zhou Ji: “……” Ever since he’d come to this tribe, everyone he’d seen had been very straightforward and direct, saying whatever they wanted to say. This was the first time he’d encountered someone who was trying to drive a wedge between others.

Only, this attempt was too clumsy and unskilled.

Shi Li’s face held contempt for him that couldn’t be hidden, but he still tried to get close to him. What was even more disgusting was that this Shi Li seemed to be interested in him…

Zhou Ji no longer paid attention to Shi Li and directly left.

He didn’t want to waste his time on a conceited lion.

Seeing that Zhou Ji was leaving just like that, Shi Li’s expression turned a little ugly, “I’m giving you respect, but you don’t want it!” What did Zhou Ji amount to? If it hadn’t been for his powerful parents, he would’ve died long ago!

Shi Li was angry for a while, then felt that it was pointless. This Zhou Ji had a problem with his brain; what was he kicking up a fuss for?

Xiong Ye just liked to be kind and benevolent and gone so far as to let Zhou Ji live in his cave.

After Zhou Ji left the tribe, he went out to study the plants in the environment as usual, but he went a little further today.

His aura was almost fully integrated with his surroundings, and the animals in the forest practically ignored him.

He wandered around and suddenly discovered that in the woods, one of the birds from an unidentified species that was bouncing and jumping around had a very high concentration of energy.

The bird was surrounded by others that looked similar, but weren’t as big as it was. It held its head and chest high as it stood there like an emperor amongst those birds. Some of the other birds were chirping beside it, and it looked like they were trying to gain the big bird’s favor, but it ignored them and looked disdainfully at its own kind.

Zhou Ji enveloped the bird with his spiritual power.

The bird gave a sharp, frightened cry, but it simply couldn’t move. All the feathers on its body sprang up and stood on end.

Zhou Ji approached and observed it carefully, then took back his spiritual power and let it go.

After it was released, the bird let out an even shriller cry as it flapped its wings and tried to fly away. However, it was too anxious and couldn’t fly well, toppling down from the tree instead. Fortunately, it recovered quickly, disappearing from Zhou Ji’s sight in an instant after letting out one last, long cry.

Its peers, who had been left behind, looked around in confusion one by one before they finally followed the bird, chattering and chirping as they went.

Zhou Ji continued on.

While Zhou Ji was wandering around the forest, Xiong Ye was busy cutting down trees.

Before Shi Li went back on his word, he had been determined to chop down more wood and bring it back to make some tree stumps for sitting on or some other things to decorate his cave with, but after Shi Li had bailed, he hadn’t been in the mood.

Now, however… Even if he didn’t mate with Shi Li, he could still improve things in his cave.

After Xiong Ye finished cutting down the trees, he changed back into animal form and scratched and bit at some trees in order to refamiliarize himself with his animal form’s strength. After training this way for a long while, he eventually went to the river to catch fish. While he was looking for more fish, Xiong Ye suddenly smelled a different scent…

Xiong Ye hadn’t intended to go far today, so he originally thought that the only prey he would be able to catch was fish. Unexpectedly, he managed to find a big frog!

This big frog was completely different from an average frog. This kind of frog was called the devil frog, and they weighed around five kilograms. They had armor on their back, sharp teeth in their mouth, could jump high, and weren’t easy to deal with. They were generally very difficult to catch.

Xiong Ye had suffered from this kind of devil frog before as a child. Not only had he lost his prey to them, he had also been bitten by one. Fortunately, he had turned into his animal form in time and escaped from the devil frog’s mouth.

After that, he had found a way to catch devil frogs–rubbing poisonous grass onto fish or other prey of a similar size, then throwing it at the devil frog from far away.

The devil frog was quite stupid and would stick its tongue out to pull prey into its mouth by habit. After it ate the poisoned meat, it would also be poisoned.

It wasn’t easy to have both fish and poisonous grass on hand when encountering devil frogs, but he had just caught some fish today and had also seen poisonous grass nearby!

Xiong Ye caught that devil frog and was extremely delighted as he picked it up and carried a few pieces of wood back to the tribe.

Devil frogs tasted really, really good and were very delicious even when eaten raw. He felt that Zhou Ji would probably enjoy it.

Shi Li was talking to the tribesmen in the valley when Xiong Ye returned.

Shi Li, who had won against Xiong Qi, was very popular in the tribe now. The people who had thought that Xiong Ye and Shi Li separated because Xiong Ye looked down on him no longer thought so.

“I broke up with Xiong Ye because I wanted a child.” Shi Li was saying to those people, “If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have refused to fight back when Xiong Ye hit me back then.”

Shi Li didn’t want anyone to feel that he had been abandoned by Xiong Ye.

Clearly he’d been the one who wanted to break up with Xiong Ye!

Most people wouldn’t have believed him if Shi Li had said this before, but now, everyone believed him.

Shi Li could even beat Xiong Qi, so it was impossible that he had simply been unable to fight back when Xiong Ye beat him.

With this in mind, people’s gazes were sympathetic as they looked at Xiong Ye after he returned.

As for Shi Li, he saw the devil frog that Xiong Ye held in his hand.

He had always liked to eat devil frogs, and Xiong Ye used to let him eat the devil frogs he caught and would even purposely go after the difficult-to-catch devil frog for him…

“Xiong Ye.” Shi Li called out to Xiong Ye.

“Yes?” Xiong Ye frowned as he looked at Shi Li.

“This devil frog…” Shi Li wanted to trade for the devil frog with Xiong Ye. He hadn’t eaten anything delicious since his rebirth, and he really missed all the various delicacies from his memories.

“Zhou Ji!” At this time, Xiong Ye caught sight of Zhou Ji and no longer had any attention to spare for Shi Li, immediately heading towards Zhou Ji. “Zhou Ji, I caught a devil frog. It’s for you!”

When Zhou Ji heard Xiong Ye’s voice, he also saw that Xiong Ye was holding something almost as big as a modern dog in his hand. Was it a… toad?

juurensha: HAHAHA GET WRECKT SHI LI

xiin: … i’m torn between being kinda grossed out and kinda fascinated by this devil frog…

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