Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Tusilalai
Under a weathered yet somewhat lonely old tree on the mountain, a lone wolf stood silently.
Its fur was messy and coarse, with several patches of mottled bloodstains standing out starkly against the grayish coat.
Its ghostly green eyes flickered like will-o’-the-wisps in the cold night, radiating a chilling, sinister light.
Its slightly arched back and taut muscles were like an arrow drawn taut, ready to deliver a fatal blow to any enemy at any moment.
Such a lone wolf twitched its nostrils as it fixed its gaze on them.
Hilt had seen wolves before, but…
This wolf truly frightened him.
He remained motionless. The wolf stared at them for a long time before finally leaving silently.
“Why does that wolf look so scary…” Once he was sure the wolf had left, Hilt breathed a sigh of relief and muttered to himself.
“It just finished fighting.” Xie Changqing withdrew his gaze and lowered his head to continue picking herbs. “It should have come looking for medicinal herbs.”
In nature, many animals have instinctive behaviors to maintain their health and survival.
For instance, when dogs are injured, they’ll seek out herbs to treat themselves.
Wild animals especially will gradually accumulate related memories bit by bit.
Generally speaking, they’re quite accurate at finding what they need.
“Huh? Wolves can find their own medicine too?” Hilt was quite surprised, his eyes widening.
Xie Changqing hummed in acknowledgment, then thought for a moment. “Did you see? That wolf had a lot of grass on its body.”
It had obviously rolled around in the grass many times already.
This wolf clearly knew there were herbs it needed here, but held back from coming because of their presence.
“So it will…” Hilt’s small face wrinkled with alarm.
“Yes, it will definitely come back.” Xie Changqing nodded and secretly quickened his pace.
So they needed to finish gathering herbs quickly and leave.
“That should be a former pack leader.” Sangtu pondered and frowned. “It looks quite frightening.”
Encountering this kind of wolf was quite dangerous.
So they quietly quickened their herb-gathering pace.
It had to be said, the medicinal herbs in this area were growing really well.
Xie Changqing’s two large herb baskets were soon filled to the brim.
Nomin and the others weren’t idle either, each having gathered quite a bit as well.
“I wish these baskets were bigger.” Hilt felt somewhat regretful.
“It’s fine, we can’t pick them all anyway.” Sangtu wiped his sweat and smiled. “Besides, we’re close by now, so worst case we’ll come again in a couple days.”
After resting for a few days, they’d grow back up.
Xie Changqing had been repeating the motions of bending and standing, and now felt somewhat tired. “Let’s all take a break.”
“Alright.” Sangtu mounted his horse and pointed ahead. “Let’s go to the riverside. It’s more open there.”
He had also cut some dry branches, perfect for making a fire, and they could look around to see if they could catch any birds.
“Oh right, there are fish there too! I’ve eaten them before!” Speaking of food, Hilt’s eyes lit up.
After all, he was still a child. Talking about delicious food swept away his earlier fatigue, and he immediately perked up.
Before long, they had a fire going.
Nomin and the others continued gathering dry branches to keep the fire from dying out too quickly.
Xie Changqing helped sharpen tree branches for Hilt to spear fish with.
As for Sangtu, he searched around for birds.
With the gentle breeze, it felt like an autumn outing.
To Xie Changqing, this was quite interesting.
Unfortunately, Sangtu had brought a longbow but had no opportunity to use it.
“Haven’t seen a single feather! Ugh!” Sangtu felt somewhat disappointed, but then pulled out a handful of bird eggs. “Haha, but I got some bird eggs!”
He had climbed trees to get them. The fire was burning quite vigorously now, so he scraped out some ashes and carefully tucked the bird eggs inside. “They’ll be ready to eat soon!”
“Abu! Look!” Hilt, who had been silently focused, suddenly cried out in excitement. “Haha! I speared a fish!”
The fish had almost broken free, but fortunately Xie Changqing had left a forked tail when sharpening the spear.
The fish was directly hooked and couldn’t shake free no matter how it thrashed.
“Hey, that works!” Sangtu hurried over to take over, pulling out his dagger. “I’ll go process this. You gather some more firewood, and we’ll roast fish later!”
Just earlier he had been lamenting that he’d brought salt for nothing today, but now it would come in handy.
Xie Changqing and the others all crowded around to look. The fish really wasn’t very big—probably just one bite per person.
But it was precious!
While Sangtu roasted the fish, Hilt fidgeted restlessly beside him.
If it weren’t for the fact that it wasn’t cooked yet, he really wanted to grab it with his hands. “It smells so good…”
“Whew!” Finally, the fish was getting a bit charred. Sangtu patted it and blew on it. “Alright, it’s about ready.”
But he directly avoided Hilt’s reaching claws and handed it to Xie Changqing instead. “Here, Changqing, try it!”
Xie Changqing tore off a small piece and put it in his mouth.
It had to be said, this fish actually didn’t taste very good.
No oil, not pan-fried, purely roasted.
Just carried a bit of salty flavor.
Xie Changqing thought for a moment, then found two grass fruits from his herb basket. “Wait… let me add some grass fruit juice…”
Grass fruit is the fruit of plants in the ginger family’s cardamom genus, with a special rich aroma and spicy taste.
He dripped some onto the fish meat, and when he ate it again, the aroma was much richer.
“Hey? This works!” Sangtu also tried some, his eyes lighting up. “What did you add?”
“Grass fruit.” Xie Changqing showed him the squeezed grass fruit and smiled. “For flavoring. This can only temporarily enhance it—if ground into powder, the taste would be even better.”
Or directly putting whole grass fruits in a pot to stew with beef—that taste would be incredible!
Listening made Hilt nearly drool with excitement. “Abu! Let’s try it when we go back!”
“You little rascal.” Sangtu laughed and scolded him, but didn’t refuse.
Just as the group was eating happily, they suddenly heard a shrill horse’s neigh from the direction they had come from.
Xie Changqing immediately stood up, and Sangtu even leaped onto his horse.
Standing high, he could see far.
He looked toward the sound and clicked his tongue. “Not good, that wolf really did come looking for herbs.”
Someone had appeared from who knows where, running alone to gather herbs, and had run right into the wolf.
Xie Changqing frowned and also mounted his horse. “I can’t see…”
“Hmm, that horse seems to have fallen. What we heard was that person’s horse neighing. Eh? Where’s that person?”
Sangtu looked at them and hesitated.
On the grassland, when someone encountered danger, you basically had to lend a helping hand.
But today he had brought Xie Changqing and the others out, and they couldn’t afford even the slightest mishap…
At that moment, a person’s cry for help came from over there: “Tusilalai! Tusilalai!”
Seeing the wolf about to pounce on him, he didn’t hesitate—he abandoned his horse and fled directly toward Xie Changqing and the others.