Chapter 94

There is too much strong convective weather in the summer; as soon as evening arrives, it begins to thunder and the sky becomes overcast with dark clouds. The rain might only be a few scattered drops, but the sound of the thunder is enough to make people feel panicked.

At times like this, everyone inevitably goes back to sleep early, and there is no need to arrange for anyone to stand guard in this kind of weather; no animal would be bold enough to come out in such weather, right?

The thunder rumbled for half the night, and occasionally one could hear a burst of hurried rain. Baifeng was startled awake several times during the night, always feeling as if something was screaming and roaring, which made him feel flustered and very uneasy. However, he ultimately felt that it was just the thunder scaring him, so he forced himself to fall back asleep.

When he got up in the morning, the ground was indeed wet and there were some puddles, making it impossible to do much work, but everyone still consciously got up and gathered.

After taking roll, he let everyone scatter to get busy. Those who had no work to do and were unwilling to help out to earn work points just went back to sleep. Those with ambition went to earn themselves a house. Of course, not all tribesmen were diligent and ambitious; many just thought about muddling through, feeling that it was enough to be living better than the wandering savages.

Baifeng was inspecting his vegetable garden when a tribesman ran over in a panic, saying that the tribesman who raised the cattle was looking for him, and that something big had happened to the herd.

Something happened to the herd? Baifeng's first reaction was that the Xiaoniu born yesterday had run into trouble, so he hurriedly quickened his pace toward the direction of the cattle pen.

As it turned out, he saw the tribesman who raised the cattle halfway there, crying and sobbing with tears in his eyes. Baifeng guessed that the calf might have died, but it had clearly already stood up and started nursing yesterday; there was no reason for it to die.

"Did the calf die?" Baifeng asked tentatively.

The cattle raiser was stunned for a moment, wiped away his tears, and nodded, acknowledging Baifeng's question.

"It's fine, it's just one calf; if it's dead, then it's dead. We will have more calves born in the future; just consider this time as gaining experience," Baifeng comforted him.

But the tribesman who raised the cattle didn't seem to be comforted; instead, he burst out with even more grievance and squatted directly on the ground, wailing loudly.

Baifeng was confused; even if a calf was heartbreaking, it shouldn't be to this extent. He turned to look at the other tribesmen and found that their expressions were also grim.

Baifeng secretly thought, "Not good," and asked, "Only one calf died, right?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Then did both the big cow and the calf die?"

They first nodded and then shook their heads. Baifeng was even more confused, so he asked directly, "Exactly how many died? What happened? Just speak clearly!"

The cattle raiser tried to control his sobbing but failed in the end. Someone else on the side said, "Tribal Chief, our herd was attacked last night. Four cows—big and small—died, and even more were injured."

Baifeng felt a sudden wave of dizziness in his head: "Who attacked? Which tribe? Did they leave any traces?"

The tribesman said, "Tribal Chief, it wasn't done by savages; it was wolves, many, many wolves. There are even two wolf carcasses inside the cattle pen that were trampled to death, and there are wolf paw prints everywhere in the pen."

Wolves again! Baifeng felt that he was at odds with wolves. When he first arrived in this Kingdom, he was ambushed by wolves; last Winter, he was attacked by a pack of wolves; and now, his own cattle pen had been raided by wolves. How could this be tolerated?

Baifeng was now both heartbroken and angry, but there was no help for it; the matter had already happened. He stepped forward to pull up the tribesman who was squatting on the ground crying, and they went together to the cattle pen to see exactly how bad the losses were.

As soon as they reached the vicinity of the cattle pen, they could smell a strong, fishy stench. Upon entering, they saw blood, gray fur all over the ground, yellow cow hair, and paw prints in the puddles.

The herd was still in a state of panic; the sound of Baifeng entering the pen caused a commotion, which even gave Baifeng a start.

On the edge of the cattle pen lay three incomplete cow carcasses. The outsides were covered in wounds, bitten into a mess. Enduring the stench, he squatted down to look; the internal organs had all been hollowed out.

These were only the carcasses of three big cows. One of them was the cow that had just given birth yesterday; Baifeng could recognize it from the patterns on its head, but now its eyes were already dim and lusterless, and they were covered in mud and water.

Baifeng felt some sorrow in his heart too. He didn't blame the tribesman for crying so sadly; yesterday there was just a happy event, and today it turned into doubled pain—it wouldn't be easy for anyone to bear.

However, there were only three cow carcasses here; the calf was not among them. Following the traces on the ground, there was a very obvious dragging path. Following it all the way, he discovered that a hole had actually been dug in the wall. The hole was covered in claw marks. It was not easy to dig a hole through such a thick wall, let alone one large enough to drag a calf out.

They couldn't dig where the wall was too high, so they dug a pit on the ground. In any case, they dug out a large hole that could accommodate three Baifengs crawling out at the same time.

Baifeng was extremely angry, but it was more important to look after the herd now. He walked inside and called for the calf. After the calf mooed twice, it came out. Its pure white fur was already matted with mud, blood, and the like; its original color was almost unrecognizable.

Dried blood could still be seen on its horns; he didn't know if it was from the wolves or other cows. It seemed to have injuries on its body as well. After checking it carefully, there were many places on its body that had been scratched, with the fur torn in strips, but its mental state was fine, and it was in no danger.

Most of the other cows in the herd seemed to be carrying injuries, but none were life-threatening, and they could all walk and eat normally. Even if Baifeng wanted to apply some medicine to them, their alertness was too high now, and Baifeng didn't dare to get close.

On the ground were two wolf carcasses that had been trampled to a pulp. Not to mention that their bodies were crushed to a pulp, if it weren't for that special fur and size, Baifeng really couldn't have linked them to wolves.

He dug the two wolves out of the mud. They couldn't be eaten, but the fur was still intact; it was just that the bones and internal organs had been crushed. Baifeng had people skin these two wolves. Baifeng wanted to use them to make a pair of Boots; if he didn't step on them every day, Baifeng wouldn't be able to resolve the hatred in his heart.

Turning back, Baifeng went outside the city wall to look at the situation outside the hole, to see where the calf's carcass had been dragged. He followed the drag marks for a long way before finding the skeleton in a pile of rubble. On the white, ghastly skeleton, there wasn't a shred of meat left. They really knew how to cherish food; Baifeng was so angry he almost laughed.

Because there was really nothing to eat on the cow's head, it was left there intact. The more Baifeng looked, the angrier he got. Thinking of his own experience of being tormented by wolves, Baifeng decided not to endure it anymore; he was going to find people to wipe out this pack of wolves, damn it.

From now on, no wolves would be allowed near the Baifeng Tribe. If a pack came, he would wipe them out. Baifeng made a harsh vow, then hurried back to the tribe in a rage, preparing to pack his things and follow the tracks to wipe out this pack of wolves and get revenge.

It just so happened that the tribe was short of good hides. Since they had the ability to dig such a large hole in the wall and kill four cows in such a large herd, it meant that their numbers were definitely not small.

However, on the way back, Baifeng suddenly thought of something and took a detour to check. Sure enough, the cow placenta hanging on the tree was gone, and the ground under the tree was covered in wolf paw prints.

Baifeng was a bit annoyed. This time it was his lack of consideration; wasn't hanging meat outside just inviting wolves? In the future, if there were such things again, even if they didn't eat them, Baifeng would burn them rather than hang them outside.