Chapter 68 â A good hound serves as the hunterâs eyes and ears
All the residents in the mountain foot district knew that Old Ke didnât take any work in stoneware crafting anymore. People didnât know what he was doing all day, but everyday, early in the morning, he would sit on a wolfâs back with his cane in his arms, and only late at night would he return homeâŠ
While Old Ke didnât have to trade for food himself, for Shao Xuanâs game was beyond enough for both of them. In Shao Xuanâs words, he was âpaying the tuitionâ with the meat, and Old Ke didnât decline his offer after thinking about the proposal.
One person set the traps, while the other made every effort to break them. Although Old Ke was very tired these days, he was in quite a good mood. Finally, he could practice and perform all he had learnt after he left the hunting team. Although his skills werenât as good as during his days in the hunting team, they were enough to benefit Shao Xuan after all.
Seeing that Shao Xuan got schooled by those traps and lassos every day, Old Ke had a good laugh. In his youth he was also being schooled that way. However, he wasnât as talented as Shao Xuan now, and his schooling took much longer. So long, that even now, he refused to think of those days. Hence, Old Ke took every single minute to prolong Shao Xuanâs experience in feeling those âmysteriousâ moments.
Old Ke knew at heart that Shao Xuan was very talented. Perhaps after some time, all the traps he set wouldnât be able to stop him. If Old Ke was at his peak, he could have been able to âschoolâ Shao Xuan for longer.
âAlasâŠâ Old Ke was a little upset, but not as gloomy as he used to be.
âWhat are you sighing about?â Shao Xuan climbed up the mountain with a face full of mud, and sat beside Old Ke. These days Old Ke made a few advanced traps, and in order to avoid the short arrowshots from the brushwood, he was hit in the face with a ball of mud. That mud seemed to know that he was going to present himself there at that time, and it was just waiting for him. Since Shao Xuan had no time left to dodge it, he had to meet the mud with his face. What if it werenât mud but anything else?
Shao Xuan felt that he still had a lot to learn.
For the one that got hunted, he could only be considered an expert if he could see through all kinds of traps. Being the one that hunts, one could only be considered an expert if he could set a trap that could ascertain the kill.
Even so, many people in the tribe felt that learning that skill was more or less a useless option. Who would have so much time to set a trap in the hunting grounds? Everyone had to fight brutally by force!
But Shao Xuan had the feeling that perhaps it could be of great use later if he learnt it now.
Old Ke harshly criticized Shao Xuanâs movements earlier, and then looked at him to check his response. He noticed that Shao Xuan was thinking hard while he stared at the trap zone beneath. Old Ke felt comforted seeing that Shao Xuan didnât get upset or reluctant because of his criticism.
Even though Old Ke was making harsh comments all the time, deep down at heart he was worried that Shao Xuan might have some problems with him. It was rare for him to find such a young talent with all his skills. If Shao Xuan quits halfway, Old Ke would be vomiting blood out of his chest.
Old Ke told Shao Xuan that he back in his days did better than him, and it was only because that he had been learning more than one hundred days. However, it had only been less than twenty days since Shao Xuan started learningâŠless than twenty daysâŠ
Shao Xuan was still thinking about Old Keâs comments earlier, and compared Old Keâs comments to his own movements. when Old Ke felt something and looked at somewhere on the hill. There was no one there a minute ago, but now, someone was standing right there.
It was Ta, the team leader of Shao Xuanâs hunting team, also the trueborn son of the Chief. He was one of the few senior totem warriors in the tribe, and a candidate for the next Chief election.
Old Ke recognized him with one glimpse.
Old Ke did not have much connection with Ta. At his peak, Ta was merely a junior warrior, just as Mao now. When Old Ke quit from the hunting team, Ta was only a group leader in one of the hunting groups. However, Old Ke had heard the stories from some old pals, that Ta didnât value setting traps at all. And he was even more so after he entered the advance group. Only a few warriors in the advance group knew a thing or two about setting traps, and there was no expert at all.
They were of two different opinions, and people holding different opinions could hardly be friends. So Old Ke had no good impression of Ta all the time.
And, Ta wasnât looking at Old Ke in a friendly way either.
Originally, Ta planned to recruit Shao Xuan into the advance group. Of course it was just an attempt. He thought that since Shao Xuan was under the protection of the ancestors, he should have the good luck blessed by the ancestors. Wouldnât taking Shao Xuan into his hunting group increase their chances of a successful hunting mission with loads of things to harvest?
Since last year, the hunting results for Taâs hunting team had a sharp drop. Although Taâs team would bring back many ferocious beasts after every hunting mission in the eyes of the public, in fact, they hadnât finished lots of their tasks. Regarding the achievements, Taâs teamâs wasnât as good as the other hunting teamâs.
The team leaders of both hunting teams were candidates for the next Chief election, and they had been competing with each other ever since. Seeing that the other side was exceeding his team for quite some time, Ta was quite anxious. This time, since the incident with the ancestors happened, he focused his attention on Shao Xuan, who was almost the same age as his own son.
Ta had heard of some of the details in the last hunting mission. The more he learnt, the more satisfied he was with Shao Xuan. At first, he assumed that Shao Xuan was only a little bit stronger than his son, with more advanced night-seeing ability and a little bit of good fortune. However, when Keke had tested him later, he realized that the kid was making prompt progress⊠Perhaps that was the reason why the Shaman liked him?
Ta had mentioned Shao Xuanâs fast speed of progress to no one. He asked Keke and Tuo to keep it a secret as well.
Even if there was no clear rule that prevented newly-awakened warriors to join the advance group, they would normally choose some senior warriors with more experience in hunting missions. They would be able to protect themselves if anything happened. Truly there was no precedence of recruiting a newly-awakened warrior into the advance group.
The next hunting trip was approaching, and Ta planned to discuss with the Shaman these days, and recruit a newly-awakened warriors into the advance group. Although there was no clear rule, he had to ask first. As for the Chief⊠The Chief was his father, of course he would be on his sonâs side. Naturally, the Chief wouldnât be an obstacle there.
He heard that Shao Xuan was training in here these days, so he came to check on him. However, he found that Shao Xuan was merely learning about setting traps with some old guy who quit from the hunting team! It was such a waste of his talent! Such a disappointing thing!
As Ta and Old Ke were judging each other with unfriendly looks, Shao Xuan came back from his meditation, âHey!â
Ta looked along Shao Xuan and Old Keâs sights, and found that the wolf labeled by the Shaman was running up the mountain from below. He was running happily, who would think that he was a wolf?! He was so lame compared with the wolves in the forest!
Ta had no appreciation for Caesar. In his perspective, it was better to chop it and feed it to the people in the tribe, or he would just waste more food if he was kept alive. The more he thought about it, the more dissatisfied he became. Ta felt that Shao Xuan had many things that he didnât approve of, if he werenât seeking for the ancestors blessing, he wouldnât allow Shao Xuan to join the advance group, even if Shao Xuan grew into an excellent mid-level warrior.
At the other side, Shao Xuan didnât care for other peopleâs opinions, for he was busy being happy about his training for Caesar.
Caesar cheerfully ran to Shao Xuan with a palm-sized animal skin bag in his mouth. He placed the bag in front of Shao Xuan, and sat down next to him, waiting to be praised.
âGood job!â Shao Xuan praised him generously, and tossed him a long prepared beastâs meat as his reward for getting the task done.
âWhat are you doing, Ah-Xuan?â Old Ke was curious.
Shao Xuan poured out a few fruits from the animal skin bag, and then collected the bag into his pocket. He smiled, âThereâs a saying, that a good hound serves as the eyes and ears of the hunter. Iâm trying to train Caesar into a good hound. Perhaps he would be able to help in the hunting missions later.â
Ta was about to leave disappointedly, but at that word, he stopped in his tracks and kept listening.
âGood hound?â Old Ke was confused.
âEven the slyest fox couldnât escape from a houndâs nose.â Said Shao Xuan.
âHound?â asked Old Ke.
Ta was paying attention to Shao Xuanâs explanation, too. He felt pretty interested in taking advantage of the wolfâs sense of smell.
âHound. Itâs a trained wolf.â
Shao Xuan was training Caesar, and he taught him to find things by smell. At first it was clothes, then bones, and fruits afterwards. Now, Shao Xuan wanted to ask Caesar to find something with even fainter smell.
âWolves have sharp nose.â Shao Xuan smiled.
âThe Shaman taught you that? It is a good method.â Old Ke said without much interest.
At Old Keâs words, Shao Xuan responded with a single âUmâ, and gave no further explanation.
In fact, he would love to bring the scene depicted on the walls of the orphan cave back to life. However, since someone deliberately covered it up with stone powder, Shao Xuan chose not to reveal the secret easily. Before he left the orphan cave, he painted a layer of stone powder on the fresco when the other kids were fishing outside. The window of that stone room was blocked as well, and no one had noticed that.
When they had enough rest and were about to head back home, Shao Xuan glanced at where Ta was standing earlier and sneered, before leaving with Old Keâs tool box in his hand.