Chapter 65: The Herd

Although the matter of the Glass temporarily diverted Baifeng's attention, Xiaoniu had been with Baifeng for so long that not hearing Xiaoniu's annoying calls at night still caused Baifeng some insomnia.

During the day, various trivial matters would again draw away Baifeng's thoughts; after repeating this for several days, finally, as the frame of Baifeng's new house was erected and Baifeng was tidying the ground outside the house, he could no longer suppress his worried feelings.

Sui also became dejected because of Xiaoniu's absence, for Xiaoniu was one of the few friends she had; a cow would not care about a human's beauty or ugliness, and only the human who gave it fresh Grass was the most beautiful.

Every day, the cowshed next to the room was empty; there was no need to clean up its dung every day, no need to add Grass to it, and no need to take it for walks, which seemed very leisurely, but inside, he felt very empty.

Having not seen Xiaoniu for several days in a row, Baifeng became too anxious to bear it, so he decided to take some people to look for it; regardless of whether Xiaoniu had any intention of returning, it could be considered settling a bit of his own mental burden. As for the previous talk of personally killing Xiaoniu if it didn't return, Baifeng really couldn't bring himself to do it now; it would be better to let it return to Nature.

Just consider it compensation for the annual slaughter of the cattle herds, Baifeng thought to himself.

Taking over a dozen Soldiers, Baifeng set off early; Sui also wanted to follow, but this time Baifeng refused to let her come along no matter what, as they were not going for a stroll.

If Xiaoniu had no intention of returning, then he would hunt another cow to bring back; this theory seemed absurd, but for the tribe, it was necessary. Every time the Soldiers were dispatched, there had to be results; the tribe could not afford to support idlers, and it was impossible to waste energy doing things of little significance. The Baifeng Tribe was growing larger and larger, but it was still very poor, and there was a relatively large gap between it and other large tribes of a thousand people.

The Tribal Chiefs of other tribes had great power to do some of their own private business and had a high degree of freedom; whether it was food or women, they almost had exclusive rights. The Baifeng Tribe only had priority rights; the house and food he needed were all exchanged by Baifeng through his own contributions, and he could take them at will without the tribesmen having any objections.

Leading the Soldiers along that familiar path, Baifeng walked faster and faster; originally, Baifeng's body was much stronger than his own Soldiers, and coupled with his anxious mood, the Soldiers were having trouble keeping up.

By noon, Baifeng and the others ate a few mouthfuls casually, and after settling their stomachs a little, they immediately set off again. Although Baifeng told the tribesmen they were going hunting and catching cows, everyone knew it in their hearts, but they just didn't say it out loud. Their Tribal Chief's requirements were low enough, so being willful occasionally was understandable.

When they had covered more than half the journey, Baifeng saw birds in the distant woods flying away continuously. Baifeng estimated that some large wild beast might be coming, and it would be dangerous for just the few of them, so Baifeng immediately led the people to climb up the large trees on both sides of the path, lying in ambush to see if they could attack when the opportunity arose, mainly to hide.

Although many fierce beasts could also climb trees—tigers, bears, and the like could all climb trees, and their speed was also very fast—the trees here had many branches and grew densely, so it was not that simple for these large wild beasts to climb up.

The commotion drew closer and closer, and Baifeng also panicked a little, because this commotion was not something a single tiger, a bear, or a family of bears could make; it was very likely that a herd of elephants was coming, or a giant herd of wild boars. Regardless of which it was, it was extremely dangerous for Baifeng and his group.

There were elephants in this place, and the number was not small, but their territory was large and they were usually on the move. Baifeng had not seen them in his own territory, but ivory was not uncommon at the market, and there were not a few tribesmen who had personally said they had seen elephants.

In fact, in this era, there were even many rhinoceroses; their size was not as large as those in Africa, but they could still give people a great sense of oppression. In the past, when Baifeng saw them, he could only run quickly, without the slightest thought of hunting them; at that time, his tribe was full of Wooden Spears and stone spears, and they might not even be able to pierce the skin of a rhinoceros.

In the small path, dust was stirred up. With this commotion, Baifeng only hoped that they would not discover him and his tribesmen, otherwise they would really be done for here. Even the battle-hardened, excellent hunters were now so scared they dared not breathe.

When that cloud of dust approached, Baifeng saw that the leader was actually a white cow! Looking closely, it was Xiaoniu, without a single problem. But behind it, there were dozens of large cows following in a mighty force, which left Baifeng a bit stunned. Had it been biding its time, and now it was bringing its own tribe to take revenge? Had he raised an animal mole?

Just as Baifeng was puzzled, Xiaoniu had already reached the tree where Baifeng and the others were hiding. Xiaoniu seemed to have discovered something, suddenly stopped its pace, and began to wander left and right under the tree, sniffing everywhere with its nose. This made Baifeng even more nervous; he could not guarantee that the current Xiaoniu would still be as kind to him as before.

Xiaoniu finally discovered something was wrong. Looking up under the tree, it spotted Baifeng hiding in the tree. Baifeng hugged a branch, touching his Knife in his hand, fearing that Xiaoniu would make some aggressive move, so he could fight to the death.

But Xiaoniu showed no signs of attacking at all; it was still the same as when it was with him in the past, rubbing its neck and back against the tree and looking up at Baifeng, thinking Baifeng was playing a game with it.

If it were only Xiaoniu, Baifeng would have climbed down the tree long ago, but behind Xiaoniu, dozens of pairs of eyes also saw Baifeng, all looking at him in unison. Baifeng felt that if he went down, he would probably be trampled to death by the herd on the spot.

The other Soldiers were so scared they could barely stand on the trees. Baifeng had no choice; at this moment, he had to go himself, even if he were trampled to death, it didn't matter. Anyway, since he arrived in this era, which day had he not been hovering on the edge of life and death?

Baifeng had to pretend to be calm as he slid down the tree. Xiaoniu immediately leaned over. Baifeng moved to the side a bit out of fear, but Xiaoniu walked closer and leaned its neck over, wanting Baifeng to scratch its itch; after all, in the tribe, there was Baifeng to scratch it, but in the wild, there were no wild men to scratch it.

Seeing that Xiaoniu had not regained its wild nature and still trusted him, Baifeng boldly used his hand to scratch it. Xiaoniu was scratched comfortably, so it stretched its neck even longer and even stretched out its tongue to lick Baifeng.

The herd was a bit restless after Baifeng came down, but after Xiaoniu let out a call, it gradually calmed down again. The other tribesmen saw there was no problem and slid down from the trees one by one. They originally wanted to draw their Weapons, but were stopped by Baifeng.

Since this herd of cattle currently seemed to have no malice toward them, there was no need for him to create extra complications; let's just make contact like this first and see what the situation is.