translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

On the other hand, s.h.i.+ 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, s.h.i.+ Li had just woken up when he was met with Lang Yin's smile, "s.h.i.+ 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… s.h.i.+ 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 att.i.tude.

s.h.i.+ Li felt somewhat proud, but it also made him look down on Lang Yin a little.

s.h.i.+ Li ate until his belly was round. When he emerged from Lang Yin's cave, the att.i.tude the tribespeople held towards him had also changed.

The people of the Big Bear Tribe all wors.h.i.+pped the strong, and s.h.i.+ Li's performance yesterday had been amazing. Everyone would naturally treat him with enthusiasm as they greeted him one after another, "s.h.i.+ Li!"

"s.h.i.+ Li, are you going hunting?"

"s.h.i.+ Li, how did you win against Xiong Qi?"

"s.h.i.+ Li…"

s.h.i.+ 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.

s.h.i.+ 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?

s.h.i.+ Li had begun to look forward to the time when Xiong Ye would become one of his men.

As for Lang Yin, s.h.i.+ Li didn't have a smidgeon of interest in her now.

s.h.i.+ Li didn't manage to find Xiong Ye.

After seeing s.h.i.+ 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." s.h.i.+ Li called out to Zhou Ji. He wanted to build up a good relations.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ Li and didn't speak.

s.h.i.+ 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.

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

"Yes?" Zhou Ji was a bit upset by s.h.i.+ Li's evaluating gaze.

s.h.i.+ 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?" s.h.i.+ Li pressed.

"No." Zhou Ji's reply was distant.

“What are you going to do now?” s.h.i.+ 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?" s.h.i.+ 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.

s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ Li seemed to be interested in him…

Zhou Ji no longer paid attention to s.h.i.+ 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, s.h.i.+ 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!

s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ Li had bailed, he hadn't been in the mood.

Now, however… Even if he didn't mate with s.h.i.+ 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s on hand when encountering devil frogs, but he had just caught some fish today and had also seen poisonous gra.s.s 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.

s.h.i.+ Li was talking to the tribesmen in the valley when Xiong Ye returned.

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

"I broke up with Xiong Ye because I wanted a child." s.h.i.+ 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."

s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ Li had said this before, but now, everyone believed him.

s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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." s.h.i.+ Li called out to Xiong Ye.

"Yes?" Xiong Ye frowned as he looked at s.h.i.+ Li.

“This devil frog…” s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ LI

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