Deep Sea Drifter Diary

深海流窜日记

deep-sea-drifter-diary

Chapter 50

Shen Lan and Xia Chuan quickly walked into the middle of the group. When the others noticed their presence, they couldn't help but glance at them.
After scanning their entire bodies and not finding any weapons, everyone was astonished. A muscular, bearded man couldn't resist patting their shoulders, wanting to pull out a few stone arrows from the quiver on his back to give to them, which was better than nothing.
Those simple men probably thought that the reason Xia Chuan and Shen Lan didn't bring weapons was because they were new and hadn't been allocated suitable gear. Who would have thought that the two of them waved their hands, declined the man's kind gesture, and pushed the stone arrows back.
The crowd was even more surprised and couldn't help but discuss amongst themselves, even slowing their pace.
They slowed down, but Xia Chuan and Shen Lan did not. They were tall with long legs and big strides. They quickly went from the back of the crowd to the very front, unintentionally becoming the leaders. The other men, including the leader who caught up later, slowly went from surprised to curious.
If it were someone else, they might have been dismissed as troublemakers long ago. But Xia Chuan and Shen Lan were different. They had witnessed the extraordinary skills of these two people at the welcome ceremony yesterday. Not only were they not inferior to anyone present, they were far superior. They always felt that two such people could not possibly go hunting recklessly and unprepared.
They seemed to want to see what these two guests were planning to do, so no one stopped them. Instead, they gripped their weapons in hand and followed behind them in tacit understanding.
When passing through the first patch of shrubs, the crowd looked normal and their steps were steady, showing the qualities of hunters, gliding through the forest quickly and lightly without making much noise. The creatures living in this forest were relatively small in size, but very agile and cunning. Sometimes even after great effort, only a few could be caught, which was indeed not very worthwhile.
They usually hunted in a tall forest ahead, which was just over a kilometer in length and stretched endlessly in width, almost surrounding their entire living area.
There were many beasts inside, mostly fierce and difficult to deal with, but large in size. Hunting one was enough to share among a group of people. Hunting three was a big harvest. Paired with some wild fruits, mushrooms and river fish, there was no problem eating for a few days.
Of course, they were both hunters and prey. While they hunted wild animals, they were also one of the targets hunted by the beasts. If they were lucky, only a few people would suffer minor injuries during a hunt; if they were unlucky, companions would fall inside and never return.
So as they followed behind Shen Lan and the others, they crouched down as soon as they entered the forest, observing their surroundings extremely cautiously, wishing their ears could stand eight feet high to hear the various sounds in the forest clearly.
However, whether they were too unlucky or too lucky, they followed Shen Lan and Xia Chuan through most of the forest lengthwise without encountering a single fierce beast.
This was actually because the leader was Shen Lan. His hearing was more than thirty times that of ordinary people, naturally much farther than these primitive people. He was determined to go straight to the seaside and naturally would not be willing to waste time in the forest.
So while advancing, he deliberately avoided all places where there were sounds of wild animals.
Of course, these primitive people did not know this. They even couldn't help but look up at the sky, suspecting that it was because of the gloomy clouds and impending rain that many fierce beasts had found places to nest and did not come out to move about.
The leader raised his hand to stop the people behind him, then quickly took two steps to catch up and pat Xia Chuan and Shen Lan on the shoulder.
"Hmm? What's up?" Shen Lan stopped and turned his head to look at him.
Fortunately, the person speaking was Shen Lan. He fully expressed his confusion on his facial expression, so although the leader could not understand his language, he understood his meaning. If it were the ever cold-faced Xia Chuan, it would have been quite a challenge for the leader to guess.
The leader was seen glancing around vigilantly, then lowering his voice and speaking gibberish to the two while gesturing with his hands - his left hand pointing south, his right hand pointing north, drawing a circle, then making a motion of drawing a bow and shooting an arrow.
The meaning was expressed quite clearly: don't continue walking lengthwise, change to hunting crosswise, looking for wild animals along the north-south direction of the forest.
Shen Lan solemnly said "Oh", not forgetting to nod in cooperation, indicating that he understood. Then he pulled Xia Chuan and turned to continue walking towards the sea.
Leader: "..."
The men behind them also had looks of despair on their faces, probably feeling that the language barrier was the most painful thing in the world. You want to go east, but they understand it as going west. How the hell do you play this?!
The leader had no choice but to take a big step forward in desperation, grabbing Shen Lan and Xia Chuan's arms, trying to forcibly pull them back.
Shen Lan indeed stopped, but he did not walk back. Instead, he glanced at the leader's hand grabbing Xia Chuan from under his eyelids. After two seconds of silence, he slapped the back of the leader's hand, knocking him off Xia Chuan's wrist.
Xia Chuan: "..."
Leader: "..."
The former was speechless, the latter was about to go crazy.
After having one hand slapped away, the leader did not stubbornly continue to grab Xia Chuan. Instead, he put this hand on Shen Lan's wrist as well, imperceptibly using both hands together to try to pull Shen Lan back first. The leader prided himself on being one of the strongest in the tribe in terms of strength and physique.
But now, with both hands pulling Shen Lan, the tendons and bones on his arms were protruding, yet Shen Lan did not move an inch.
If this continued and Shen Lan kept walking forward, there was a high possibility of him being dragged along.
The leader thought about that scene and felt it was better not to compete with Shen Lan on this. He let go with a look of helplessness on his face, put on a serious expression, turned back and gave a few instructions in a low voice, neatly dividing the entire hunting team into two parts.
Sixteen of them stayed in the forest, led by another old hunter, continuing to search for prey. The other seven, along with him, followed Shen Lan.
Who knew Shen Lan would wave at them with the back of his hand, indicating that they didn't need to follow: "Go on your hunt, the two of us are enough."
This time it was the leader's turn to pretend not to understand the gesture. He nodded, then led the team to continue following.
Shen Lan: "..."
The closer they got to the sea, the better Shen Lan's mood became, and his steps naturally quickened. Xia Chuan could still keep up with his pace, but the chief and the others gradually fell behind a short distance. In fact, it wasn't just because their strides weren't long enough that they fell behind...
Xia Chuan knew they meant well, so he naturally wouldn't ignore them. Every time he walked a stretch, he would look back and glance at them, occasionally slowing down to wait for them.
He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he always felt that these few people seemed to be very reluctant to walk in this direction, their steps becoming more and more unwilling, and their expressions a bit uneasy, as if they were... a little nervous?
Apparently, he wasn't the only one who noticed this. After turning his head to look a couple of times, Shen Lan finally couldn't help but poke him and whispered, "I feel like they're not going hunting, but to offer sacrifices to the heavens, right?"
Xia Chuan: "..."
Shen Lan had been in the sea for many years, and because he had forgotten many things, he remembered most clearly the time in the dinosaur world. So his sense of belonging to the sea was much stronger than to houses on land, and he became very sensitive to anything involving the sea.
So he keenly understood what the chief and the seven men behind him were really resisting.
"You're afraid of the sea?" Shen Lan couldn't help but scratch his cheek and asked, turning his head.
This wasn't something that could be expressed through facial expressions, so the chief and the others looked at him blankly, not understanding his meaning.
"..." Shen Lan wiped his face and waved his hand. "Never mind, pretend I didn't say anything."
But thinking about it, it wasn't really hard to understand. At this time, people's understanding of the sea was extremely limited. Seeing that kind of endless deep water, with who knows how many strange creatures living in it, it was perfectly normal to be afraid.
At first, they were only slightly behind, but by the time they reached the end of the forest, they were almost inching forward one step at a time. If it weren't for trying to maintain some dignity as hunters, they probably would have turned back long ago.
When Shen Lan saw the sea, he went crazy. Xia Chuan watched his back as he quickly walked towards the shore, inexplicably feeling like he was an unleashed large dog that couldn't be pulled back no matter what.
He had just caught up to the shore when Shen Lan had already dived into the sea with a splash, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, a collective gasp came from behind, the sound long and drawn out, as if they had been sucked dry all at once, and one more blow would make them keel over.
Xia Chuan silently rubbed his brow, feeling that the chief was also suffering. Even though he was terribly afraid, he still had to put on a brave face and stand at the front, seemingly eager to wade into the sea. But after taking just two steps, he was stopped by Xia Chuan.
This time, the chief didn't pretend not to understand the gesture and cooperated by retreating, though his face still showed some unease and worry. He and the men behind him all craned their necks to peer into the sea, seemingly trying to find traces of Shen Lan.
Xia Chuan's gaze also swept across the sea, but his expression was much calmer than the others.
Shen Lan's dive was a bit long. After a good while, Xia Chuan finally saw his head emerge from the water. The chief beside him also had good eyesight, almost simultaneously raising his hand to point in Shen Lan's direction, saying something to the men behind him in a flurry of words that couldn't be understood at all.
Xia Chuan tilted his head to glance at them, but before he could turn back, he saw the chief and the others suddenly widen their eyes, the color draining from their faces, as if they had seen something very frightening, their faces filled with horror.

Deep Sea Drifter Diary

Deep Sea Drifter Diary

Chapter 50 - Chapter 50

Windwalker