Chapter 709: The Finless Porpoise's Confusion

Still feeling lingering fear, Changle hurriedly had everyone row the boat toward the center of the river, moving far away from the bank so they wouldn't have to be so afraid; the firewood they had collected was now enough to reach the Xuanyuan Tribe.

Although Changle and the others had never been to the Xuanyuan Tribe, they could still roughly judge how long a trip to the Xuanyuan Tribe would take based on the time it had taken boats to travel back and forth in the past, so Changle was still able to estimate the approximate time.

The Xuanyuan Tribe's boats were busy traveling; they also needed to go fishing and go to the bank to fell trees. This day, the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe actually saw a group of large fish swimming and playing happily in the water, and they were quite large in size. Their first reaction was: with fish this big, how many people would it be enough to feed if they caught them?

So they immediately looked for tools, but unfortunately, their fishing tools were just fishing nets, and very small ones at that, so their ability to catch fish was really far inferior to Huaxia.

Their fishing nets had no way to catch fish as large as finless porpoises, so they planned to use a Spear to stab them. In order not to lose the Spear, they tied a rope to the back of the Spear, and then prepared to row the Boat a little closer before throwing the Spear directly to catch them.

But they didn't expect that before they had even rowed the Boat over, the large fish swam toward the side of their Boat on their own, and there were many of them. For a moment, the huge fish made them somewhat afraid.

With their massive size and large numbers, these fish they had never seen before were swimming directly toward their not-so-large Boat; they couldn't help but be afraid. Now they had abandoned the idea of hunting them and were instead thinking about how to protect themselves. If these fish capsized their Boat and they fell into the water, they wouldn't have a single chance of survival.

So, one by one, they picked up their Spears, stood up in a panic, and prepared to attack at any moment. Perhaps it was because the finless porpoises had come closer and saw that these humans were a bit different from what they had seen before, so they weren't that affectionate and kept a certain distance.

However, one finless porpoise didn't care about that and swam right up to the side of the Boat, looking at the people on the Boat with its eyes. The people of the Xuanyuan Tribe were a bit scared and raised their long Spears high to throw them down, but because of the rocking of the Boat and the fear of the unknown creature, the throw was slightly off. The Stone Spear, which wasn't very sharp, only caused the finless porpoise to suffer an injury, though it wasn't serious.

The attacked finless porpoise was somewhat panicked, immediately moved away from the Boat, and let out a sharp wail. The other finless porpoises echoed it one after another, and after collectively watching these humans, they chose to leave.

As for the injured finless porpoise, it didn't lose much blood, and after being harmed by the humans, it left straight away. It didn't understand why, among the same kind of creatures, the ones it met last time were so friendly, while the ones this time wanted to harm it.

Watching this large group of big fish leave, the hearts of these few people from the Xuanyuan Tribe finally settled. Their Boat was too small, and there were too few of them. They felt that if they had that kind of Large Ship from Huaxia, or even just a normal-sized boat, and had that kind of Weapon from Huaxia, they wouldn't have to worry at all and could have directly killed all these fish.

Crocodiles often existed in the river. Although the crocodiles occasionally seen in this river were mostly small and dull, having seen the large crocodiles in the swamps, they felt awe and some fear toward the fierce beasts in the water. These large fish they had never seen before, looking at their teeth, should also be very formidable. It seemed they would have to tell their tribesmen after returning so they would pay attention to the river and not get hurt.

Feeling that they had escaped a disaster, the few of them steered their small Boat and chose to continue upstream. Those big fish had gone downstream, so they had to avoid them. They still had to continue catching fish, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to complete their mission.

Although the Xuanyuan Tribe now had sufficient food, no one would complain about having too little food. Their mission was to catch enough fish for their tribesmen, but due to technical reasons, they might have to go out for several days before they could catch enough fish to return to the tribe.

The two groups of Huaxia people were slowly moving downstream like this, and the people from the Ministry of War had long since become accustomed to the various fierce beasts appearing on the shore. Although they really wanted the tiger's variegated fur, after all, this was on the territory of the Xuanyuan Tribe, and for them to hunt the prey of others, that didn't really conform to the rules.

As for the Dahe, although it flowed through their respective territories, in reality, there wasn't such a clear sense of possessiveness regarding the ownership of the river. Water was always flowing; no one knew where it flowed to. Springs, lakes, or swamps on land, however, had to have their ownership clearly demarcated.

However, not fishing in front of someone else's house was a consistent requirement of Huaxia. After all, they couldn't control the river far away, but that stretch of river in front of their own house was definitely theirs. If you came over and were so presumptuous, it would be very impolite, with a bit of a provocative meaning in it.

The Navy also brought their own food; fish were just a garnish. Huaxia didn't lack fish, and they didn't need to use such a Large Ship as a fishing boat. Occasionally casting a line to catch some fish, even in front of the Xuanyuan Tribe people, was nothing; they might even praise you for being skilled if they saw you catch one. But casting a net directly, and pulling up a huge netful, would definitely make others feel very unhappy if they saw it.

It was under these circumstances that, a few days later, Changle and the others encountered the first boat from the Xuanyuan Tribe. They were there to haul timber from upstream. Seeing a boat larger than their own, the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe knew these were people from Huaxia, but there were only two boats, which made them somewhat puzzled.

Originally, they hadn't intended to bother, thinking that if they got close, they would just say hello, but they didn't expect the Huaxia boats to approach them.

Changle was a bit excited when he saw the Xuanyuan Tribe's boat because this meant they were about to reach the Xuanyuan Tribe. Having drifted on the water for so long, rocking back and forth, and even encountering a rainstorm midway—although he had plenty to eat and drink on the boat and could use the boat canopy to shelter from the wind and rain—the constant rocking every day was still very torturous. Even the few fishermen couldn't stand it; they mainly felt that such days were too dull, dull to the point of being stifling.

Seeing the Xuanyuan Tribe's boat, their mood was equally urgent, wanting to hurry over. This was also their first time as ordinary people interacting with the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe.

The boats drew close, just a few meters apart, and everything could be seen clearly. Changle asked excitedly on the deck: "You are people from the Xuanyuan Tribe, right? How much longer until we reach your Xuanyuan Tribe from here?"

Seeing that Changle was dressed neatly and gorgeously, the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe were even more certain that these were people from Huaxia. Upholding a friendly attitude toward allies, they also responded enthusiastically: "We are from the Xuanyuan Tribe. If you continue forward for about three more days, you will be able to see our Matou."