Chapter 422
Domestication
Shao Xuan did not touch the old man . He just took the stuff and left .
What goes around comes around . If they killed and robbed, they had to be prepared to be robbed themselves .
When he got down the tree, Shao Xuan did not see the fat duck . There was a piece of rope tied to the tree and the other end had been pecked off .
Shao Xuan had no interest in where the duck went either . He went back to the robbers . The person who had collapsed on the ground had his features blurred like melting wax . It was very eerie .
Shao Xuan attempted to dig up some of the poisonous grass but they withered immediately . He still brought away a few withered plants but after using them on prey, he realised the toxin in this plant poisonous enough to kill an advanced totemic warrior greatly decreased as it withered . The worse it withered, the weaker its toxins were . In the end, it could not even poison an ant .
Then it was no use carrying it around . Shao Xuan gave up . Perhaps this peculiar plant could only grow here .
Shao Xuan continued walking in the planned direction . When he passed the treehouse, he heard a loud thud, like a huge wooden plank was smashed on the ground . Then he heard the old man’s furious curses and the duck’s quacks . It sounded like they were fighting .
“Ahh……” There was a shriek, then the old man screaming at the top of his voice-- “Die! Die!!”
Shao Xuan did not look inside . He just walked past with the stuff he packed .
On the other side, the treehouse had collapsed .
When Shao Xuan left, the old man spat out of his house and cursed but now much softer . He dared not yell too loudly or that damned man might come again . He was already relieved that he was alive . Then, he saw a green flash flying from outside into the house . It scratched across his head and then flew out again .
A clump of hair with some skin and blood was torn off his scalp . Not just that, the duck even left deep scratches from its clack . If its claws were a little longer and sharper, or it was stronger, they might have punctured his head .
The old man yelled in pain, waving his axe immediately . He was still in shock, now his fat bird was rebelling . Now he was so furious smoke might be coming out of his ears . He swung his axe around his house, chopping at everything .
However, the fat duck was not slow either . It looped around the house . The old man did not manage to chop off its head but instead managed to wreck his house .
The wooden treehouse wasn’t a robust structure either . It crashed from the tree and shattered into pieces of planks .
The old man scrambled out of the pile of rubble and grabbed the chipped axe . He chased after the duck, hacking at it but in the forest, the fat duck was a lot quicker than the old man .
The fat duck seemed to be having fun, bringing him for a ride and grabbing at him with its claws occasionally . It usually did honest work mainly because it was afraid of the rest of the men . Strength-wise, this old man was the weakest . Now that the rest were all dead and this old man was the only survivor, the duck did not want to listen to him . It would never give up such a good opportunity to turn against him .
The old man had lost all sense of sanity as he chased after the duck . It lured him into the area with traps nearby, set up by the other three men . The old man was not aware of this . The shriek Shao Xuan heard was when the old man’s foot was caught in a sharp, toothed clamp on the ground .
The old man set off multiple traps at once and was trapped on the spot . He did not have the axe with him now and could not get out of the trap . Seeing this, the fat duck went at him a few more times then waddled off . It spread its wings, leaving .
Soon after the duck left, the sky gradually darkened . A dark shadow perched on a tree nearby, watching the old man below . Soon, another similar bird arrived too . They were nocturnal and liked rotten meat . If there was no rotten meat, they would create some .
The old man was familiar with these . He sometimes fed them with remains of other humans . Now that he saw a few birds on the tree, a sense of hopelessness crept into him .
Within the quiet forest, a sudden shriek of agony shattered the silence . Then, there were squawks of many birds and the shriek intensified .
Animals hidden in the dark corners of the forest caught a whiff of blood and started sniffing in search of the feast .
As for Shao Xuan, he had already found the original path he came from . He did not rest in the cave, resting on a tree instead .
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Before he closed his eyes, his eyes darted at a tree nearby . Among the leaves was a fat shadow, thinking it was well hidden .
Shao Xuan ignored it . He had used up a lot of energy fighting the three robbers, it was time for some rest .
On the next day, Shao Xuan woke up and continued on his journey .
The fat duck followed not far away . When Shao Xuan saw it, it would fly away and hide . When Shao Xuan turned around, it would follow again .
He didn’t understand . What did the duck want?
As he travelled, he suddenly heard a very desperate “Quack!”
When the duck flew between the trees, a larger bird swiped at it with its claws . Several duck feathers flew .
The duck fell on a branch, then a snake coiled itself around it . Its short claws could not reach the snake’s body . Then the snake bit down on the duck’s neck so it could not even make a sound .
Shao Xuan chopped the snake in half with his sword and lifted the duck by its leg, shaking it . The duck’s neck shook too- it was already unconscious . The snake had been venomous, it might not live long .
Shao Xuan looked at the unconscious duck, tied its legs with some rope, and carried it off . He picked up the snake too . He was going to roast it .
There were many venomous snakes in this forest . He wasn’t sure if this duck would live . It was a pity because if the duck was poisoned, he couldn’t eat it .
That night, Shao Xuan rested in a cave . This was one of the resting spots Gongjia Heng found, there was even a stone pot Shao Xuan made when they rested here .
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He roasted some animal meat, boiled a pot of soup and threw the snake in . Then, he looked at the duck . Coincidentally, the duck had just regained consciousness . It lifted its head and stared at Shao Xuan .
“Quack!” It wanted to hide but the snake venom had not dispersed completely yet . It did not have strength in its wings and legs so all it did was tumble on the ground .
Shao Xuan looked at the duck, wondering if he should boil it . If it could wake up, that meant its body had broken down the venom already . If it could live… . It was edible .
The duck almost exploded in fear as Shao Xuan stared at it . Toughening up despite its fears, it quacked again .
Shao Xuan turned around and picked a stone bar up to stir the pot . He looked at the snake . This snake, while it was not the most venomous in the world, it was still not to be underestimated . An advanced totemic warrior had to be cautious too . However, the duck seemed to be fully conscious now, so soon and without the help of any antidotes too!
In some places, poisonous plants were probably more dangerous than venomous animals . The duck living in a place like that must have high resistance towards toxin .
Shao Xuan looked at the fat duck lying on the ground, his intentions unclear . Cooked and roasted food was all around him . The duck was not interested, perhaps because the effects of the venom had not completely faded yet . It fell asleep .
On the next day, Shao Xuan was woken by the sound of a duck quacking .
The duck had pecked the rope around its feet broken and then escaped at top speed . Shao Xuan had not stopped it .
The boulder he used to block the mouth of the cave was still there . The fat duck almost got stuck in the tiny gap between the mouth and the boulder .
When Shao Xuan rose, he pushed the boulder and looked outside . The duck was pecking at something in the bushes not far away, fluttering and energetic as ever .
Looking at how energetic it was, the venom must have been fully broken down already . The hungry duck foraged for food but Shao Xuan ignored it . It could do whatever it wanted .
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After eating yesterday’s leftover meat, Shao Xuan continued on his journey .
The duck, who was still pecking among the bushes, dropped what it was doing and chased after Shao Xuan as he left . This time, it followed closer than before although it struggled to keep up with his speed .
When he passed through the monkey forest, Shao Xuan was once again before the large river . He looked around but he couldn’t see that giant crocodile . He was now going to take the risk though, he had no plans to build a raft .
Shao Xuan fished out a wooden whistle . Gongjia Heng had whittled it out of a tree branch from Gongjia Valley and taught him how to blow it . However, Heng could not guarantee if Hammer the Bird would obey Shao Xuan .
Shao Xuan blew into the whistle according to Heng’s instructions .
Soon, a bird flew over from the opposite bank . However, when it saw Shao Xuan, Hammer did not land immediately . It was only when he spoke a little and offered it a prey when the bird finally relented .
When Hammer was eating, the fat duck landed from the sky . It hid not far behind Shao Xuan, watching it cautiously . The duck was guarded around a bird so much larger than it .
After a full meal, Hammer was in a good enough mood to bring Shao Xuan across the river . The duck continued following behind . Hammer did not even look twice at it . It was just a tiny dot not worth its attention .
When he crossed, Shao Xuan did not see the giant crocodile .
Shao Xuan stayed for two days at Gongjia Heng’s place before setting off again . He did not enter Heng’s stone house, merely resting in the treehouse .
The fat duck rested outside nearby .
It understood very well that following Shao Xuan could mean it was going to be eaten but it followed him anyway . This was because it was not capable of surviving in the forest . After it was domesticated by the old man, it had lost all sense of survival . It was very reliant on humans . Everyone was dead and it had vented its anger on the old man already . Since it could not continue living in the forest, it decided to follow Shao Xuan . However, the places they passed through were even more dangerous . It kept seeing all these birds in the sky that could kill it with one swipe so it lived in terror every day . This duck grew thinner as time went on .
Even Shao Xuan wondered if the duck suffered from Stockholm syndrome-- or in the tribesmen’s words, it was an early sign of domestication .
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