LSLFBW: Chapter 33

A cold wind blew through the valley. The hay nest behind the cliff moved slightly, and a little snow leopard poked his head out of it.

Perhaps due to it being the first time Qi Bai lived alone in such a dark and cold cave, he didn’t sleep well that night. He looked at the dim light outside the cave and gave up the idea of taking another nap.

The little snow leopard crawled out from the animal skin quilt. He shivered, turned into human form, and put on the modified animal skin clothes.

Thanks to the new animal skins distributed by the tribe, Qi Bai’s sleeveless coat had finally been upgraded.

He used a small bone knife to cut the relatively thin deerskin into thin strips about one centimeter wide. Then he cut out four pieces of skin according to the length of the arms and legs. He drilled small holes where the fabric was connected. Then several pieces of fabric were spliced together with the original sleeveless coat with the thin strips of deerskin.

However, clothes made in this way were more troublesome to wear as the straps needed to be loosened and then tightened one by one.

After tying the last strap, Qi Bai saw that the fire he had lit before going to bed last night had indeed gone out. The ashes of grass and wood were blown everywhere by the wind.

He tied together the thin bamboo branches he had collected when he cut the bamboo tubes yesterday. He cleaned up briefly and folded his nest neatly before walking out of the cave.

It was very quiet in Lang Ze’s cave. It wasn’t known if he had woken up, so Qi Bai tried his best not to make any loud noises.

First, he walked to the side of the earthen kiln. Even after such a cold night, the outer shell of the kiln was still warm. This was good news for Qi Bai. At the very least, it proved that the sealing of the earthen kiln was still quite good.

However, Qi Bai had no plans to open the kiln now. The earthen kiln couldn’t be opened too early, or the wood in the kiln wouldn’t be carbonized. Of course, it couldn’t be opened too late, or the charcoal output rate would be low. Qi Bai planned to keep it open for 24 hours this time. Then he would decide the next time based on the firing situation.

Qi Bai took a piece of firewood and prepared to go to the collective cave to get some fire. However, just after he walked down for a while, he heard the sound of stone chiseling coming from the right. He followed the sound and saw Shu Lin sitting at the entrance of the cave, barbecuing. The sound came from the cave behind him.

Shu Lin greeted him warmly. “Bao Bai, where are you going?”

Qi Bai raised the firewood in his hand. “The fire in my cave has gone out. I’m going to the collective cave to get some fire.”

“Don’t go there. Come and get it from me.”

Qi Bai naturally had no reason to refuse.

The stone platform at the entrance of Shu Lin’s cave and the mountain path next to it hadn’t been completely connected. Qi Bai held onto the mountain wall and slowly moved over.

Shu Lin took the firewood from Qi Bai and put it into the fire. “Once our cave is dug, we will dig this path as well. Then it will be more convenient for you to come to our cave to play.”

“Okay,” Qi Bai said with a smile. “I will also repair the road coming down from the mountain. We can just connect it together.”

At this time, Xiong Feng walked out of the cave. He held a stone hammer in his uninjured left hand. It was obvious that the knocking sound just now came from the cave behind them.

Shu Lin and Xiong Feng didn’t go out the whole day yesterday. The progress of excavating the cave was indeed much faster than Qi Bai. Now, it could be seen that the cave was spacious.

Qi Bai was just about to praise their cave when he saw Shu Lin pursing his lips and shyly handing the barbecue to Xiong Feng. Xiong Feng looked as if he didn’t even notice a big man like him standing there. After their eyes met, they couldn’t bear to part.

Qi Bai felt that his presence here was really an eyesore. Fortunately, his firewood had been lit. He coughed lightly with some embarrassment. “Yes, thank you for the fire. I’ll go back first.” After saying this, he quickly took the firewood and returned to his hillside.

Qi Bai sighed that love in a primitive tribe really came too quickly. These two people now looked like they were on their honeymoon.

Thanks to the comparison of the two people, his cave seemed a lot more deserted.

Qi Bai lit a fire outside the cave. He filled the stone trough with snow and put several bamboo kettles he had made last night into the trough to boil.

People in the tribe had always drunk spring water directly from the mountain. Qi Bai once suggested to Yang Luo that everyone could drink hot water. Unfortunately, there were so many people in the tribe that it was too difficult to supply hot water to everyone.

It was impossible to popularize concepts such as cleanliness and hygiene in primitive society. Qi Bai’s suggestion wasn’t adopted.

However, as a modern man and a patient with very low immunity before transmigrating, Qi Bai had always been very careful about the food he ate unless it was an emergency.

Therefore, Qi Bai specially made a few bamboo kettle yesterday. The kettle had a separate structure with upper and lower parts. The body of the kettle was made completely of bamboo. However, Qi Bai also found a few bamboo tubes with a diameter larger than the body of the kettle to make the kettle lid.

In this way, he could boil more hot water at a time and store it in the kettle for easy access. After all, the efficiency of boiling water in a stone trough was too low.

Qi Bai took advantage of this time and took out the stone slab used for the barbecue yesterday. He cut the beef and sweet potato into slices and grilled breakfast on the stone slab.

Not long after, Lang Ze was seen coming back from outside. He seemed to have just taken a bath and wasn’t wearing any animal skin clothes. His wet hair happened to cover his eyes and made him look less fierce than before.

Lang Ze seemed to be curious when passing by Qi Bai’s earthen kiln and looked at it a few more times.

“This is a kiln for burning charcoal,” Qi Bai explained. “Charcoal is a fuel that burns longer than firewood. You will see it tonight. Once you try it, you will know that charcoal is much more useful than firewood.”

Lang Ze pursed his lips and nodded. Then he returned to the cave to get his meat and came to the fire. Seeing Lang Ze trying to skewer meat directly on the sticks and roasting it, Qi Bai stopped him with some distress. “Do you want to eat the barbecue I made yesterday? Why don’t I help you cook it?”

Hearing this, Lang Ze handed the meat in his hand to Qi Bai without hesitation. He made Qi Bai feel as if Lang Ze had been waiting for him to say this.

“In return, I will help you dig your cave,” Lang Ze said as he stood up. He walked into Qi Bai’s cave and pointed in a direction. “Is it okay to dig here?”

Qi Bai subconsciously nodded in response to Lang Ze’s words. After receiving Qi Bai’s affirmative answer, Lang Ze didn’t waste any words and started to dig the cave.

As Lang Ze swung the hammer, his well-proportioned muscles gradually tensed and gave people an inexplicable feeling of security.

However, as Qi Bai was cooking the meat, he felt that this scene gave him a familiar feeling…

After breakfast, Qi Bai poured the hot water from the stone trough into the kettle and covered the kettle with a lid. Then he used some half-dry fallen leaves to cover the faint sparks of the fire before setting out to hunt with Lang Ze, who was waiting on the side.

The sound of footsteps could be heard in the forest. This was the back of the stone mountain. Since it wasn’t exposed to direct sunlight, the snow was much firmer than the front of the mountain. As the feet wrapped in animal skin stepped on the snow, the surface of the snow was crushed into pieces like white paper.

Lang Ze led Qi Bai all the way into the depths of the forest. He walked for a while before stopping under a tree. There was a shallow depression next to the tree. Lang Ze walked forward and swept away the snow. Qi Bai saw a deep pit.

Lang Ze looked around and found no signs of any animals passing by. Then he made a simple device out of leaves and branches and hid the deep pit.

This turned out to be a trap set by Lang Ze.

Qi Bai might’ve taught the tribe members how to dig traps when they hunted wild boars last time, but there was no need to set a delay device since they would be chasing the wild boars from behind at that time. Therefore, Qi Bai forgot to mention it. Unexpectedly, Lang Ze learned it himself. It was just that his current method was very crude.

Qi Bai reminded, “You can try to put some food on these leaves before replacing the leaves supported by the branches with a heavier piece of wood or stone. This way, any prey who comes to eat the food will be trapped in the pit and can never climb out.”

Lang Ze was obviously very curious about the delay device that Qi Bai mentioned. He took action immediately. They didn’t bring any food with them, so Lang Ze found some wild vegetables that rabbits and mice liked to eat in the surrounding land. After thinking about it, he turned one of his hands into a wolf claw. He used his sharp nails to split the branches into spikes that he placed at the bottom of the deep pit.

Qi Bai was watching in amazement. Lang Ze was a very smart beastman. According to Qi Bai, the prey could be trapped. However, if some spikes were placed at the bottom of the trap, the prey would be injured, and it would be more difficult for the prey to escape.

Once everything was arranged properly, Lang Ze sprinkled some fine snow on top and said, “Let’s go. We can’t stay here for too long. If the prey gets our scent, they won’t come near here again.”

“Okay.”

Just as Qi Bai was about to stand up, he suddenly heard a sharp cry above his head. Lang Ze grabbed Qi Bai’s wrist.

Qi Bai looked at Lang Ze’s tense jaw and quickly crouched down. He curled his body between the bushes to reduce his presence as much as possible. Following Lang Ze’s sharp gaze, Qi Bai finally understood the reason why Lang Ze was nervous.

It was a strange bird.

At this moment, the strange bird was holding tightly onto the branches beside it with its claws, which were as dry as dead branches.

Fortunately, the tree was at least 20 meters high, so the bird didn’t notice their presence.

This was the first bird Qi Bai saw after coming to the beastmen world, but this bird looked very scary.

Its dark red wings seemed to have a cold metallic glow, and its strong wingspan was two or three meters long.

Of course, what made Qi Bai feel the chill down his spine was the bird’s thin but sharp beak. Qi Bai had no doubt that as long as it was given the chance, its beak could pierce a person.

Just as QI Bai thought that Lang Ze was also waiting for the strange bird to leave, Lang Ze suddenly made a move from where he had been crouching down beside Qi Bai. Qi Bai’s eyes widened, and he wanted to stop Lang Ze, but it was too late.

He saw that Lang Ze’s limbs had turned into wolf claws. He easily stabbed his claws deep into the tree trunk beside him and slowly climbed up the tree silently.

Qi Bai looked at Lang Ze’s body, which was almost perpendicular to the tree trunk, and almost forgot to breathe.

In just a few minutes, Lang Ze had reached the same height as the monster bird.

Suddenly, just as Qi Bai blinked, a giant gray wolf appeared and pounced directly on a big tree more than ten meters away from him.

The giant wolf’s actions were very decisive. He only had one chance to attack the strange bird that could fly in the sky.

“Gah!”

The strange bird sensed the danger and let out a strange scream, but it had no chance to escape. The giant wolf had already tightly bound the bird’s body, and his sharp teeth pierced the bird’s skin.

“Lang Ze!”

Qi Bai’s eyes were bloodshot and he burst out with unprecedented speed towards Lang Ze.

Lang Ze hit the strange bird, but he also lost his footing. At this moment, Lang Ze and the strange bird fell to the ground at the same time.

The strange bird’s neck was pierced, and it flapped its wings hard. It tried hard to break free from the giant wolf’s fangs and flew into the sky.

There was a bang and the giant wolf and the strange bird rolled far away on the snow. Qi Bai gritted his teeth and rushed forward.

The strange bird was still struggling. It opened its sharp beak as if trying to pierce the giant wolf that had brought it down from the tree.

How could Qi Bai give it this chance? He clamped the strange bird’s mouth tightly with both hands, but Qi Bai didn’t expect the strange bird’s beak to be so sharp. Blood dripped onto the white snow, leaving a pool of red marks.

The giant wolf’s eyes were stimulated by the red color, and he started to bite even more desperately. The deep red feathers flew around, and the bones in the strange bird’s neck were exposed.

Even so, it lasted for several minutes before the strange bird finally died unwillingly.

However, the nervous Qi Bai didn’t notice at all that the strange bird had stopped struggling. It wasn’t until his arm was pushed by a ball of soft fur that Qi Bai came to his senses. He released the strange bird’s neck and took a few steps back.

In the next second, his hand was wrapped in something warm.

Qi Bai lowered his head and saw that the giant wolf was carefully licking his bleeding palm with his tongue. The wolf lowered his eyes as if afraid to look directly into Qi Bai’s eyes.

Qi Bai couldn’t feel the pain of the wound in his hand at all. He looked at the giant wolf anxiously. “Did you hurt any bones? Can you change back now?”

The giant wolf shook his tail gently before turning back into human form in front of Qi Bai.

Lang Ze’s body was covered with tiny wounds, including scratches from the tree branches and from the feathers and beak of the strange bird.

The situation looked dangerous at the time, but Lang Ze had actually been prepared when he fell. He used the body of the strange bird as a cushion and curled up his body so that he didn’t directly touch the ground. Thus, he only suffered some superficial injuries.

“I’m here. There is the corpse of the red bird here. No other prey should come here for the time being. You wait here. I’ll find you some grass to stop the bleeding.” Then he quickly entered the forest.

Qi Bai looked at the marks on his hands that looked as if they were cut by a knife. He clenched his hand into a fist to prevent further bleeding. The wound actually wasn’t too deep, and Qi Bai felt that he didn’t need any herbs at all.

Forget it.

Qi Bai thought helplessly that it would be a good idea for Lang Ze to go find some herbs. Maybe there were sound wounds on Lang Ze’s body that he hadn’t discovered, so it would be good to prepare some medicine.

Qi Bai sighed. He picked up the animal skin that had dropped when Lang Ze turned into a beast and turned to study the corpse on the ground.

Qi Bai looked at the wound on the strange bird’s neck with some confusion. Due to the sharpness of Lang Ze’s teeth, Qi Bai felt that Looked should be able to bite off such a slender neck in one bite.

However, reality obviously wasn’t like this. Lang Ze was in a stalemate with this strange-looking bird for a long time.

QI Bai thought of this and reached out to touch the neck of the strange bird. The feeling was so strange that Qi Bai gently tapped twice on the exposed bones.

“Knock knock.”

Qi Bai frowned. Was this the sound that bones should make?