Ch149 – Gift Giving

Shi Li, who had been smashed into the ground, could feel that his crystal core was unstable and that cracks were appearing on its surface.

If he cultivated properly, he could fill up the cracks with the energy from cultivation. However, after he had arrived at the Beast God Temple as a Beast King, he had encountered many things and had had no time to cultivate.

When he’d first been reborn, he’d lost face in the Big Bear Tribe. Later, he’d been looked down on by others when he arrived at the Elephant Tribe, and it wasn’t until he became a Beast King that he felt like he could stand up and live again.

But now, his dignity had been trampled into the ground once again.

Shi Li very much wanted to fight against Xiong Ye, but he also knew that he couldn’t fight. If he fought, he might lose his life––once his crystal core shattered, he would come to the same end as Xiang Tian!

When Shi Li was young, he’d also had a short fuse and hadn’t wanted to be looked down upon. But as he grew older, he became less and less aggressive and impulsive. He even started to hesitate and place emphasis on preserving his life.

“Xiong Ye, I’ve always appreciated your help from before. I won’t fight with you.” Shi Li repeated.

Xiong Ye sniffed contemptuously, “If you were truly grateful, then why didn’t you return to the tribe even after becoming a Beast King for so long?”

Shi Li was left momentarily speechless. As soon as he looked up he saw that everyone around them was looking at him with strange gazes. For a while, he felt that his face was burning hot with pain and wished that a crack would appear in the ground so he could go inside and hide.

“Are you going to fight or not?” Xiong Ye pressed.

Shi Li replied, “I was at fault before. I won’t fight you this time.”

With that, the huge lion left quickly.

Those onlookers really looked down on Shi Li when they saw this scene. Some of the braver ones even said, “Shi Li became a Beast King when he was young, and I really admired him before. I didn’t expect that he would turn out to be like this...”

“His words are pleasant, but at the end of the day, isn’t it just that he doesn’t dare to fight?”

“I didn’t think that the Lion Beast King would be so weak!”

......

Someone else spoke about Xiong Ye, “That Bear Beast King’s animal form looks very powerful.”

“The Bear Beast King is really good to his mate.”

“When I went to the Big Bear Tribe to watch the excitement, I saw that the Bear Beast King lived and ate with his own people and even helped them do things. He didn’t put on any airs at all.”

“I saw that too. He even went out fishing this morning!”

If they looked at Shi Li, then looked at Xiong Ye, anyone would immediately feel that Xiong Ye was very good.

Even Shen Yue now felt that Xiong Ye was better than Shi Li.

She even regretted that she’d ever been together with Shi Li... they were both Beast Kings, but Xiong Ye was so much better than Shi Li.

Besides, she needed to flatter someone like Shi Li very carefully, and do all sorts of things to please him. It was different with Xiong Ye, who was especially good to his mate... Shen Yue raised her eyes and watched as Xiong Ye went over to Zhou Ji’s side.

After the huge brown bear arrived by Zhou Ji’s side, he quickly turned back into a man, picking up a piece of white cloth to wrap around him as he spoke to Zhou Ji, “Zhou Ji, don’t be angry about the words that Shi Li spoke earlier.”

“I’m not angry.” Zhou Ji smiled and said.

Xiong Ye continued, “What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll go get it for you.”

“No need to catch anything... someone’s here to see you.” Zhou Ji gestured for Xiong Ye to look at the people who had come over.

It was Shen Yue. Seeing Xiong Ye, Shen Yue began, “Hello, Bear Beast King.”

“Hello.” Xiong Ye replied.

“We never thought that you’d also be a Beast King. We’ve neglected you previously.” Shen Yue said. She felt that she’d been harmed to death by Shi Li.

Shi Li had spoken to her about how badly off the Big Bear Tribe was, and he had almost led them to offend a Beast King! Fortunately, they hadn’t done anything, and there was still time to fix the situation.

“It’s nothing.” Xiong Ye replied. He hadn’t felt slighted at all.

“Your Lordship is a Beast King. Why didn’t you tell us? The Beast God Temple gives a lot of benefits to each Beast King...”

“There’s no need. I will be returning to the wild forest after participating in the Beast God Sacrifice.” Xiong Ye said.

Everyone around them were stunned.

This Big Bear Tribe had come from the wild forest. This was something that everyone knew, but they all thought that this tribe would choose to stay in the Beastman Continent after seeing how prosperous it was. Yet as a result, they now wanted to go back to the wild forest?

Were there actually people like that?

Even Shen Yue was a little confused. Shi Li had been very disgusted with the wild forest before...

However, while Shen Yue might not understand, the Beast Kings who had been concerned that Xiong Ye would snatch resources with them were relieved, and the gaze they used to look at Xiong Ye turned even kinder, “The Bear Beast King doesn’t want fame or wealth. Admirable!”

These Beast Kings all came over to talk to Xiong Ye, and Shen Yue had no chance to speak. However, Xiong Ye also didn’t have much to say to these people, “I’m nothing special...”

Xiong Ye was obviously not very good at dealing with this kind of scene. The Rhinoceros Beast King spoke up, “Let’s go back to the market. Anything that you want to say can be said there.”

Since the Rhinoceros Beast King had spoken, everyone went back to the market together.

In the morning, when the people of the Big Bear Tribe had gone out to the market, the people around had merely been watching the bustle. Now, however, they were all looking at them with great respect.

This Big Bear Tribe had a Beast King! They were really amazing! No wonder they were willing to drive out the Lion Beast King! No wonder they had so much pottery and didn’t take any of it out for trade!

Some people who had originally wanted to make trouble for the Big Bear Tribe felt very fortunate for a moment. Fortunately, the Lion Beast King had gone and made trouble with them before they had...

At this moment, the entire market was talking about the fact that Xiong Ye was a Beast King, to the point where the matter of the Rhinoceros Beast King having another father was already no longer a topic of discussion. Even if it was brought up, others would only say, “Isn’t it merely that the Rhinoceros Beast King’s son acknowledged another relative?” and then move on to another topic.

The duel between the Bear Beast King and the Lion Beast King was the most striking topic of conversation.

While people were all talking amongst themselves, Zhou Ji and the others had already returned to their residence. As soon as they returned, Zhou Ji told someone to light a fire––he planned to fry up some soybeans to eat.

When he was young, his grandmother would fry soybeans for him to eat. Of course, he wasn’t allowed to eat much. Although he didn’t know how to fry soybeans, he could give it a try and see. In comparison... he completely didn’t know anything about how soy sauce was made.

After the fire was ready, Zhou Ji poured the freshly washed soybeans directly into a pot.

He remembered that his grandmother didn’t put oil in when she fried soybeans. Instead, she would dissolve some salt in water and add some soybeans in instead.

After frying the soybeans in the pot on their own, the fragrance of soybeans wafted out. Zhou Ji added a little salt water and continued to stir; the soybeans would be ready when the water was completely dried up.

They were very delicious eaten one by one, and they also made for a good snack.

Of course, children couldn’t eat too much of it as it was easy for their stomachs to swell up. If some children had originally been frail, they would die if they ate too much.

Xiong Ye spoke with the Beast Kings while Zhou Ji fried up the soybeans.

Xiong Ye was actually very smart, but he had always lived in the Big Bear Tribe before and could only come into contact with a limited amount of people. They could only talk about so much...

Zhou Ji discovered that while he hadn’t been busy for long, Xiong Ye had already given a lot away in conversation.

However, there were also a great many things that Xiong Ye refused to say. For example, anything that was related to him.

As he’d said, Xiong Ye was very smart.

What Zhou Ji didn’t know was that Xiong Ye had a reason for not talking about it. All kinds of stories that they’d heard along the way had put Xiong Ye on guard against the Beast God Temple.

Zhou Ji was the Beast God’s messenger. He was afraid that when the people of the Beast God Temple learned about this, they would refuse to let Zhou Ji return to the Big Bear Tribe with him. Naturally, he would hide this matter completely.

In short, he never once mentioned Zhou Ji.

Fortunately, those Beast Kings weren’t interested in Zhou Ji. They were more curious about how Xiong Ye had become a Beast King, and how Shi Li had become a Beast King.

Xiong Ye said that he had accidentally eaten a Beast God Fruit and become a Beast King. As for Shi Li, he didn’t know.

The Beast Kings were unable to obtain any information, but they did manage to try some of Zhou Ji’s soybeans.

It was very delicious.

The place that the Big Bear Tribe was living temporarily had so many Beast Kings gathered together that people even tried to walk more lightly when they passed by. Not only that, the people of the Giant Rhinoceros Tribe also quickly sent over some things to try and make amends.

Because their territory had been given over to the people of the Big Bear Tribe by the Rhinoceros Beast King yesterday, today, when the people of the Giant Rhinoceros Tribe encountered the people of the Big Bear Tribe, they hadn’t had good expressions on their faces, and some people had even spoken some bad words.

They had already decided to try and crowd out the Big Bear Tribe, but in the blink of an eye, everything changed, and it was said that the tribal chief of the Big Bear Tribe was a Beast King.

Thanks to the Lion Beast King visiting them before they had, they hadn’t made a big mistake! The people of the Giant Rhinoceros Tribe quickly sent gifts over to make amends.

After that came gifts from the Beast God Temple and some other large tribes.

The place that the Big Bear Tribe lived in was suddenly stuffed full of things.

Before, Zhou Ji had felt that they didn’t need to put up a stall in order to trade things, but now that he could see so many things piled up... Perhaps their tribe would really need to set up a stall for the next few days!

Of course, before all that... He wanted to first make some soy milk.

Soy milk required soybeans to be ground, but using force to crush them into pieces should also work, right? Unfortunately, they needed calcium or some other kind of mineral to make tofu, and he didn’t have any at this time...

Zhou Ji asked Xiong Ye to beat the soybeans into powder and prepared to boil it with water to see if he could make soy milk.

It would be best if he could make it successfully. But if not, it would just be a matter of wasting some soybeans.

In addition to this, he also soaked some soybeans in a separate pot. Some of it could be boiled and eaten, and another portion would eventually be used to produce bean sprouts...

While Shi Li was busy doubting his life, Zhou Ji had already begun to happily study the many ways of eating soybeans.