Song Xu followed that group of beastmen for several days in succession. They had already gone beyond the farthest range of her usual activities, and were still continuing forward, with no idea how much farther they would go. After some hesitation, Song Xu did not continue following them.
On the day she stopped following, Weishan led a group of beastmen to their destination.
This place was close to the edge of Wumu’s territory. It was the upstream section of the river where he often hunted. Three tributaries converged here, and the river surface was broad. Even in winter, the water level was not shallow.
“The primitive beasts haven’t arrived yet. We’ll wait here. They should be coming very soon.” With one order from the experienced Weishan, the beastmen all began to prepare.
They unloaded the rope nets twisted from beast tendons, the hook-and-lock tools ground from beast bones, and the long spears made from primitive beast bones, hiding them in the mountain forest near the river as they waited.
A day later, dense black dots appeared at the edge of the sky. Those black dots shot in from beyond the heavens like arrows. Only after approaching the riverbank did they slow down, descending one after another.
At first came the smaller primitive beasts, their bodies only a little over a meter long. They had wings similar to birds, long beaks, and a slender tail behind them. These small primitive beasts were the most numerous. They were also the most agile within the primitive beast flock, with the fastest flying speed, always serving as the vanguard.
The young beastmen waiting in the mountain forest became restless when they saw the primitive beasts arrive, and were pressed down by the older beastmen.
This was only the beginning. They generally did not hunt this type of small primitive beast, because they were almost all bones and skin with no meat, and they were extremely vigilant. Once disturbed, they would never land again, affecting the later hunting of large primitive beasts.
Next to land were primitive beasts seven to eight meters long. Most of these had patterned bodies. Their pouched beaks occupied almost half of their bodies, and their membrane-like wings looked semi-transparent.
There were also primitive beasts over ten meters long, their entire bodies covered in fine feathers, with long crest-caps growing on their heads. Along the edges of their beaks were terrifying serrations.
In past years, the hunting team only brought back meat that had already been cut into pieces. The young beastmen had never seen the true appearance of primitive beasts before. Seeing such huge primitive beasts, they all became excited, each one eager to try.
“All of you, wait properly!” Weishan barked in a low voice, forcing the restless young beastmen to quiet down.
They continued to wait patiently, finally waiting for the last few primitive beasts of this migrating group to arrive. These were the slowest, and also the largest in size—precisely the targets of this hunt.
Their bodies were bulky, like small brown mountains. In order to support their stocky forms, their wings were so large they looked like dark clouds. When they flew over, they blotted out the sky and covered the sun. When they flapped their wings, whirlwinds instantly formed on the surface of the river.
In this entire group, there were only six such large primitive beasts. When they landed by the river to drink water, Weishan’s eyes gleamed as he stood up with his spear raised. “Warriors, the hunt begins!”
The riverbank turned into a battlefield. Smoke and dust rose everywhere. The commotion even faintly reached the area near the stone cave.
Song Xu had just been thinking about when the hunting of primitive beasts would begin. Hearing this disturbance, she immediately ran out and climbed a tall tree to look into the distance.
This place was too far away. She could only see a bit of dust and faint, strange cries. Her heart was instantly itching with curiosity.
“Just take a look from far away. Once I see what primitive beasts look like, I’ll come back.”
Song Xu glanced at the silent stone cave, and dashed wildly through the treetops.
The movement over there was too big. During the process of rushing over, Song Xu saw many animals that had been startled and were fleeing, and even hibernating bears crawling out of their dens. She made up her mind not to get too close, and indeed there was no need to get close, because the so-called primitive beasts were gigantic. From far away, she could already see them.
The moment she saw what the primitive beast looked like, Song Xu let out an “aowu” and bit down on the tree trunk beside her.
What primitive beast—this… this is a dinosaur!
She only knew that there were beastmen here. She never expected there to also be dinosaurs!
That gigantic creature being dragged into the forest, wailing and struggling, really looked like a hybrid of a pterosaur and a spinosaurus from the dinosaur picture books she saw as a child. Short forelimbs and thick, powerful hind limbs, a row of tall, upright sails along its spine—just with the addition of two enormous wings.
Song Xu just stood there blankly watching that “dinosaur” fall. The nearby ground trembled in response. The first reaction in her mind was actually: Is hunting dinosaurs illegal?
Then Teacher Luo’s voice rang out: “Of course it’s not illegal, because dinosaurs aren’t protected animals, right!”
Song Xu: “……”
Over there, the hunting had temporarily come to an end. The other small primitive beasts that had been frightened scattered and flew in all directions. One of them had an injured wing and, in its panic, actually plunged headfirst into the forest where Song Xu was staying.
Song Xu immediately snapped back to her senses and leapt down from the tree. The primitive beast, several meters long, swooped down right above the dense forest behind her, crushing several trees.
Matching this primitive beast that was still struggling to take off with a certain kind of pterosaur in her mind, Song Xu recalled the Jurassic Park she had watched as a child.
There were still many “dinosaurs” flying in the sky. Wings filled the air all around. One might fall at any moment and crush her flat. Only then did Song Xu understand why Snake Snake had repeatedly warned her not to go out. This kind of dinosaur excitement really was not something she could watch.
Song Xu decisively turned around and left. She had seen the primitive beasts, broadened her horizons—time to go, time to go.
By the river where the gigantic primitive beasts had fallen, dozens of ferocious-beast-tribe beastmen who had transformed into their original forms were exerting themselves to drive away the small primitive beasts trying to swarm over.
After going through immense hardship to kill their prey, the matter was still not over. Large and small primitive beasts in the surroundings would all come to fight them for the flesh of the dead primitive beasts.
In this hunt, six young beastmen had died. One was eaten by a primitive beast, three were trampled to death, and two were flung far away by primitive beast wings and smashed to death. But this was already the smoothest hunt in several years. Everyone who had just gone through intense battles was very excited. Next, they only needed to stay here. Once these competing primitive beasts left, they could cut up the prey’s meat and transport it back to the tribe.
Shiyou was covered in blood, standing in beast form atop a primitive beast’s corpse. Whenever another primitive beast approached, he would raise his head and let out a roar to threaten and drive it away, venting the excitement surging within his body.
The small primitive beasts did not dare to come close, but primitive beasts over ten meters long were not afraid of such a lion, and still tried to land and taste this rare food.
Being ignored by the primitive beast in front of him, Shiyou forgot Weishan’s instruction to only drive them away and not attack. On impulse, he lunged forward and bit down on its hind leg.
That primitive beast let out a screech, flapped its wings, and took off, trying to fly higher to shake off the attacker on its back leg. Shiyou was suddenly carried into the air and instantly dumbfounded. He could only bite down hard on that hind leg, wildly swinging in midair to hinder the primitive beast’s flight.
Seeing this, Weishan roared in anger, snatched a hook-and-lock from a companion’s hand, and hurled it forcefully at the primitive beast. It happened to loop around its neck. Relying on his brute strength, he temporarily fixed it in midair. The other beastmen hurried to help, and together they dragged it down along with Shiyou.
The primitive beast, tightly bound around the neck and pounced on by several beastmen who tore and bit at it, struggled weakly on the ground. It probably knew it was going to die here. It suddenly lifted its head and let out a hoarse “yue yue” screech toward the sky.
A primitive beast over ten meters long circling in the sky responded with the same “yue yue” cry and dived down. The beastmen, who had just gone through consecutive battles, failed to react and dodge in time. One who had just stood up was seized in that primitive beast’s mouth. Its huge jaws, like serrated steel bars, went crunch and bit him into two pieces, swallowing one half.
“They’re a pair, attack quickly!” Weishan shouted, rushing forward first. The other beastmen swung their hooked ropes and swarmed toward that primitive beast.
After a bitter struggle, it ended with Weishan tearing out that primitive beast’s internal organs. The big tiger, too tired to move, lay in front of the primitive beast’s torn-open abdomen, mouth full of blood, panting heavily.
The other beastmen were not in much better shape. Each sat down on the ground to rest. Fortunately, this series of battles had already scared away all the small primitive beasts, and the riverbank became much quieter.
“This primitive beast isn’t dead yet. How about we just bring it back to the tribe like this, and let everyone see a living primitive beast!” Shiyou was the first to stand up. He looked at the primitive beast whose hind leg he had bitten off earlier and that was still struggling, already imagining how imposing he would look when they returned to the tribe.
Weishan gathered a bit of strength to stand up, lifted his leg, and kicked the lion with the proud face, cursing loudly: “Who was it just now that suddenly went to attack!”
Shiyou tumbled to the side, climbed up in a sorry state, and roared back unwillingly: “If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t have hunted two extra primitive beasts!”
This kind of eight-meter-long primitive beast was not the same as their target prey. They were usually one female paired with several males. Once a female was provoked, several might attack them at the same time. This time, they were relatively lucky that there were only two. Otherwise, several more beastmen would have died.
Weishan did not want to explain it to him. He raised his hand and gave the hotheaded, ignorant youngster a beating.
After beating him, Weishan called everyone over to cut up the prey.
That primitive beast that was not yet dead was not killed at Shiyou’s insistence. The other beastmen also thought that since this kind of primitive beast did not have much meat, bringing a live one back for the tribe to see as a curiosity was fine. Therefore, what they processed were the other one large and one small primitive beasts.
The primitive beast whose belly Weishan had torn open, once its thick membrane-like wings were removed, had only a little bit of meat on its belly. It looked huge, but its body was almost entirely bones and skin. Its belly was full of inedible internal organs, so the hunting team generally did not waste effort hunting this kind of primitive beast.
The beastman handling this primitive beast sliced off a thin layer of meat, then cut open its internal organs, wanting to retrieve the body of the companion it had swallowed.
Inside the primitive beast’s stomach pouch were many undigested things, and even some small stones. While rummaging through them, a tiger-tooth necklace strung with colorful stones was turned up.
Weishan and more than a dozen older beastmen were processing the large primitive beast on the other side, when they suddenly saw a companion walk over holding a familiar-looking tiger-tooth necklace.
“Weishan, look, isn’t this Heisen’s tiger-tooth necklace?”
