Chapter 240 – Prophet[1]
Laura took a deep breath and carefully examined the war flag that was raised above the camp. It truly was the Cattle-head King’s war flag. Laura turned to Zhao Hai and said, “Brother Hai, it truly is the Cattle-head King’s war flag. What should we do?
Zhao Hai frowned. He had his suspicions about this. Why would the Jackal tribe unexpectedly attack the Titan Cattle tribe? Zhao Hai felt that this was strange. The problem was that he couldn’t say for sure what exactly was strange about it.
He looked at the battlefield and sighed. “Doing anything else is useless. Now that we’re near the battlefield, they should have already seen us. All we can do now is move forward.”
Laura also examined the battlefield. Sure enough, she saw that they’d already been noticed. Turning back at this time would be far too late.
They weren’t really afraid of having problems with the other party. Don’t forget that they had the Big Bellied Pig tribe’s friendship war flag raised above their carriage. If they ran, Spear would receive no small amount of trouble. After all, there was no such thing as an airtight wall in this world. No matter if it was the Titan Cattle tribe or the Jackal tribe, they were both tribes Spear couldn’t contend with.
Zhao Hai’s caravan slowly moved toward the battlefield. Their reaction was contrary to the parties presently fighting. Currently, the Jackal clan was on the offensive while the Titan Cattle tribe was on the defensive.
The Jackal tribe had mobilized two thousand tribe members while the Titan Cattle tribe only had several hundred tribe members in their camp.
While the defending Titan Cattle tribe members only numbered three hundred, they were all elite warriors. Each of them wore leather armor and held double-edged heavy axes. They didn’t ride any mounts as their mounts were stationed within the camp. The mounts were earthen-yellow bulls of around three meters tall. These bulls had thin, fine fur crowing around them and looked extremely strong. Their muscles were well built and they had a pair of angular horns about a meter long. With thick hooves that pawed the ground uneasily, they seemed to want to join in the fight.
Beyond this, Zhao Hai understood why they were called the Titan Cattle tribe.
Titan Cattle tribe members had a height around 2.5 meters with muscles comparable to a top bodybuilder. If they went to Earth and joined a bodybuilding competition, even Schwarzenegger[2] would have to step aside.
Their skin was a golden yellow color and glossy as it flashed like metal. They were comparable to the actors who played in the 18 Bronzemen[3].
They each had a giant cattle’s head and a pair of half-meter long horns. Their hands were large enough to handle a three-meter long huge double-edged war axe. Just looking at the axe’s head, its weight definitely wasn’t below a hundred kilograms.
Although their numbers were small, they had formed a circle formation and were defending the perimeter of the camp. They were like an impregnable bronze wall. Not even the Jackal tribe was able to pass through them. At the front were numerous Jackal tribe corpses.
It was the opposite for the Jackal tribe. These Jackal tribe members rode their mounts. Their mounts were like wolves, a type of canine that was similar to jackals from Earth. Their build was a lot larger, around two meters in height. They had sharp claws and teeth and cold eyes. These jackals had already revealed an extraordinary ability for assault.
The Jackal tribe members didn’t wear any leather armor, but instead wore the ordinary leather clothing that beastfolk wore. They were around 1.7 meters tall and held a variety of weapons in their hands. Their eyes were like that of a jackal’s as they exuded a flash of brutal light.
Zhao Hai didn’t really think of the Jackal tribe as very tall. They were even shorter than average humans. It was a shock that they could become the most outstanding robbers in the prairie with such stature. This astonished him.
At this time, both sides battling each other noticed him. Zhao Hai didn’t move forward in a straight path but instead made the carriage circle the area, putting on an appearance of refusing to look at either party.
The reason why Zhao Hai did this was because he was testing them. He wanted to see if the Titan Cattle tribe would move to ask him to reinforce them. If the Titan Cattle tribe seeks his help, then he would help. If they didn’t, then he would die here as well[4].
His performance, however, shocked both sides. They had seen many human merchants, but seeing Zhao Hai, a human merchant with such great courage, was their first time.
Generally, the human merchants that venture out into the Beastfolk Prairie would usually carry an understanding of the path they would take in advance and be aware of it. In this case where they were battling and a human merchant came upon them, the humans would certainly hide far away. They wouldn’t act like Zhao Hai who even went forward and put on an appearance of ignoring both parties. Their caravan didn’t have many people, so how could they go up against both parties?
It was no wonder the Titan Cattle tribe and Jackal tribe had such an idea. Presently, Zhao Hai and his caravan had fifty people altogether. Fifty coachmen and Zhao Hai with the three women[5]. Such a number and still playing cards, these people dared to put themselves out and face their enemies. One side was the Titan Cattle tribe, a strong tribe, while the other was the Jackal tribe, the Beastfolk Prairie’s most notorious bandits. This really gave the feeling that they let their heads get kicked by a mosquito[6].
At this time, a person suddenly left the tent in the middle of the Titan Cattle tribe’s camp. This person was a member of the Cattle-head ethnic race, but he was obviously not of the Titan Cattle tribe. This cattle-head member had a head of thin, black hair and a height of two meters or so. A pair of short horizontal horns adorned his head. This person wore a black cotton robe and held a beast bone cane in his hand. The cane was about a meter long and looked almost like a crutch.
Zhao Hai gawked. This was the first time he’d seen a beastfolk wearing robes. The beastfolk commonly wore leather clothes, yet this person wore a long gown that was similar to magic robes. What’s more important, this person was about two meters tall, but Zhao Hai felt the person was quite thin.
At this time, Laura suddenly interjected, “If I’m not mistaken, there must be a high ranking Titan Cattle tribe member here, otherwise there wouldn’t be a beastfolk prophet around.”
Zhao Hai stared for a while. He couldn’t say that he hadn’t heard of this beastfolk profession before. On the contrary, he knew of it. A beastfolk prophet was quite famous.
Prophets were a respected profession among the beastfolk. They couldn’t cultivated the Bestial Soul Possession War Skill, but they could roast beast bones over a fire and predict the future from the cracks in the bones. They could also use bone tablets made of magic beast bones in order to use the Soul Summoning technique[7], which could summon magic beast souls to attack. As such, the position of prophets among the beastfolk was comparable to human magicians and was quite high.
Due to a prophet’s status, only a war tribe could generally have one. Moreover, these prophets didn’t only have special abilities, but were also very intelligent members. They played a role as a military strategist within war tribes.
Zhao Hai turned to Laura and asked, “That’s a beastfolk prophet?”
Laura nodded. “That prophet is from the Water Buffalo tribe[8]. The Water Buffalo tribe is noted as the most intelligent tribe within the Cattle-head ethnic race. Most of the Cattle-head prophets come from the Water Buffalo tribe. Due to this, they have a very high status within the Cattle-head ethnic race, even though they don’t have high battle strength.”
The Water Buffalo tribe prophet also saw Zhao Hai, its eyes puzzled at first. Then he saw the friendship war flag from the Big Bellied Pig tribe and his eyes shone.
As a beastfolk prophet, he naturally understood what the beastfolk’s friendship war flag represented[9]. Since Zhao Hai was able to obtain one, it showed that they had gotten it from a horde or tribe. With regards to common merchants, this kind of goal wasn’t achievable in their lifetime.
Obtaining a beastfolk friendship war flag didn’t only mean that you obtained the friendship of the beastfolk; it also meant that the beastfolk wouldn’t consider you an outsider. In other words, Zhao Hai’s every action in the prairie could be counted as an action by a beastfolk.
Zhao Hai wasn’t aware of this. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t react to it. So long as the war flag was useful, he wouldn’t get into any trouble.
Upon seeing the war flag atop Zhao Hai’s carriage, the prophet was stunned for a moment before heading back into the tent. Before long, a Titan Cattle member came out.
This Titan Cattle member looked young and had a height of 2.3 meters. The muscles on him were overly exaggerated, and he didn’t wear leather armor but black cotton garments. The style of the black cotton clothes were very simple, but one could see that the materials it was made from were of good quality[10]. One must understand that the beastfolk couldn’t produce clothes, so clothes were quite scarce in the Beastfolk Prairie. Only a beastfolk with status could wear cotton clothing, and for high quality clothes, only those of very high status could acquire them.
Zhao Hai carefully observed this Titan Cattle tribe member. He found that this person’s horns had two golden hoops. Reflecting the sun, they shone golden rays of light.
Looking at the situation, Zhao Hai knew that those Titan Cattle tribe members were continuously protecting this person. As the beastfolk prophet stood behind him, it revealed that this person’s status wasn’t low.
Zhao Hai looked at the Titan Cattle people and they looked back at him. The black robe Zhao Hai wore was very conspicuous. It made it hard for others not to pay attention to him.
At this time, a team of two hundred Jackal tribe cavalrymen suddenly moved towards Zhao Hai. Zhao Hai didn’t do anything in return as he wanted to see what these Jackal tribe cavalrymen would do. If they only threatened him with words, then he wouldn’t fight back. If they tried to attack him, however, then he wouldn’t be polite.
Without waiting for those Jackal tribe cavalrymen to close in on Zhao Hai, the Titan Cattle leader opened his mouth and shouted, “Human friend, please come towards our camp. I will guarantee your safety.”
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1]先知 – Xiānzhī.↩
[2]Good god, how old is this thing… when was the last time Old Arnie even competed in bodybuilding?↩
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18_Bronzemen↩
[4]Questionable. 那他就在这里死等好了↩
[5]A few chapters ago, they should have put most of the caravan into the Space. I don’t know what’s happening here…↩
[6]Another weird saying that doesn’t make sense. Maybe the head is really empty and light enough to get kicked around by a bug?↩
[7]召魂术 – Zhào hún shù.↩
[8]水牛族 – Shuǐniú zú.↩
[9]Actually, based on the description given before, EVERY beastfolk should understand what a beastfolk friendship war flag is…↩
[10]How could one see this? What type of vision do they have?