Seeing that Yanjiao was fishing, the Longboat tribe moved even faster.
The Taihe tribesmen heard the commotion and came out to see what was going on, even though they were exhausted. After a while, they even helped.
The Longboat tribe had many boats, but the Taihe tribesmen were definitely helping Yanjiao. Seeing so many Taihe tribesmen helping Yanjiao, Mu Fa was furious. The Taihe tribesmen could cross the sea only because of the Longboat tribe's boats!
How ungrateful!
No matter how angry Mu Fa was, it was the truth. The Taihe tribesmen were all on Yanjiao's side.
Pieces of ice with unknown things inside were scooped up. Some had only one small thing inside, some had several worms inside, and there were also small animals and things like fish inside.
"What's frozen inside?" Duo Kang was curious. Through the ice, he could roughly see what was inside. However, even though he had lived in the forest for a long time and had seen a lot of things, he did not recognize any of the things inside the ice. He had never seen anything like this before. At least, he had never seen anything like this before.
"I've never seen anything like this before either." Although Guang Yi was face-blind, he still had some impressions of animals. However, he did not remember seeing these worms and beasts before.
The Taihe tribe's chief, You Yu, shook his head. They had never seen anything like this before either.
"Hey, Long boat tribe, have you seen anything like this before?" Duo Kang looked at a Longboat tribe tribesman.
"No, never seen anything like this before. It must be from the sea! " The Longboat tribe warrior was overjoyed. He felt like his chief was right. It was definitely from the sea. Otherwise, who would be so bored as to freeze worms and palm-sized animals?
To the Longboat tribe, everything in the sea was new and strange. They needed to explore. These were all treasures!
"How can this be from the sea? It looks like it should be living in the grass or the forest, "Duo Kang said disapprovingly as he looked at the ice. He wasn't sure about some, but based on the appearance of some, he could deduce where they lived based on what he saw and heard in the forest. What they looked like was related to their living environment. It was impossible for them to look like stone worms and fly in the sky.
"But, where did these come from? Where was he originally born? "You Yu was also very puzzled.
If it was just one type, it wouldn't be a big deal. However, the Taihe, Flaming Horn and Longboat tribes had never seen any of these frozen insects and beasts before. None of them knew any of them!
Shao Xuan looked in the direction where the ice floes came from. It was the wind that had pushed the ice floes in this direction. When they came out, the wind at sea was different from now. Even though there were frequent changes, the wind still had a main direction. Now, it was probably because winter was leaving, so the ice floes were pushed in this direction.
In the direction where the floating ice floe had come from, there might be even more floating ice floes further away. However, now wasn't the time to look for floating ice. Their main priority was to return safely.
The fleet didn't change course. They only slowed down for the time being and scooped up the frozen objects to take a look.
Some of the floating ice had melted, exposing some of the insects and beasts inside. They had been bitten by the fish in the sea and were badly damaged and rotten. On the other hand, the ones frozen in the ice were still in perfect condition. They were two extremes. Those that were exposed would rot and be eaten, while those that were frozen would remain in their original state.
Most of the things they fished up were completely frozen ice cubes. Those that were half-rotten or had bite marks, even if they were fished up, they would only look at them curiously before throwing them back into the sea.
"Rumor has it that that direction is an extremely cold place," You Yu suddenly said.
"An extremely cold place?" Shao Xuan asked.
"That's what I saw in the notes left behind by our Taihe ancestors. I didn't think of it before, but when I saw you looking in that direction, I suddenly thought of it," You Yu said. "We have never been there, so we don't know what it's like. Our ancestors only heard about it, so there aren't many records. Since it's an extremely cold place, there must be very few people there. That's why people rarely talk about it. "
The weather was bad, and the climate was unsuitable for survival. With so few people, no one was willing to go there. Naturally, things about that place would gradually disappear, and people would no longer mention it.
You Yu had inadvertently flipped through the notes while waiting for the reply letter. At that time, he didn't pay much attention to it. The world was big, and they couldn't go to every place. Therefore, they only paid attention to things related to themselves and their tribe. He just didn't expect to encounter something like this.
When he heard You Yu mention the 'extremely cold place', Shao Xuan had a guess.
Regardless of whether there was an extremely cold place or not, if what You Yu said was true, and the rumor the Taihe ancestors heard was also true, then there must be icebergs in that place, and these small pieces might have been split off from the icebergs.
However, Shao Xuan guessed that the most likely cause was a disaster that caused the icebergs to break away from their main bodies and float on the sea. If the temperature was low and the icebergs were big, then they could exist for a long time.
These pieces might have come from one of the icebergs. As for how the icebergs split into so many small pieces, there were too many possible reasons, and they didn't know.
"Qing Yi, you've swum in the sea before. Have you seen these before? These should be creatures that live in the water, "Duo Kang said as he pointed at two of the creatures with fins.
"No, I haven't seen them in the river either." Qing Yi squatted at the side and looked at the strange-looking insects and beasts curiously.
Duo Kang saw that Shao Xuan seemed to be deep in thought, so he asked, "Shao Xuan, what do you think?"
Qing Yi, Guang Yi, You Yu and the others all looked at Shao Xuan, waiting for Shao Xuan's answer.
"These …" Shao Xuan pointed at a few pieces of ice that looked like insects and beasts. He said, "These might not be things that live in the present."
"What do you mean?" Mu Fa walked over.
"They might have existed a long, long time ago," Shao Xuan said.
"A long time ago? How long is a long time? "Mu Fa asked.
"It could be tens of thousands of years, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, or even longer."
Shao Xuan's words made Mu Fa, Duo Kang and the others gasp. No matter how much they thought about it, they wouldn't have thought of this.
Ten thousand years was enough for them. Many tribes only left traces from that time. But "hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, or even longer?" This shocked them.
If someone else said this, Mu Fa, Duo Kang and the others would definitely think that person was spouting nonsense. But this was Shao Xuan!
Was Shao Xuan wrong when it came to guessing so many things?
"That, that long?" Duo Kang's voice trembled at the end.
Had these things existed even longer than the ancestors?
"These … are all dead, right?" Mu Fa pointed at the frozen beasts on the ground and said.
"Isn't that obvious? How can they still be alive after being frozen for so long? " Duo Kang glanced around and picked up a piece of ice that had already melted to the point where its fur was exposed. He had someone light a torch to speed up the melting process.
As the ice melted, the strange furry creature that was about the size of an adult warrior's palm appeared in front of everyone. Without the interference of the ice, they could see the strange creature more clearly.
"Have these really existed for a long time? It doesn't seem to have changed much, "Duo Kang sighed.
"Dead," Guang Yi confirmed.
"It's injured. It was pierced by a sharp weapon," Duo Kang said as he looked at the strange creature.
They then took the half-eaten insect beasts that had been bitten by the fish in the sea. After melting the remaining ice with fire, they found that a few of them had similar wounds on their bodies. The insects with carapaces had been pierced through the neck. The fish and prawns had been pierced through as well. The wounds were similar.
Duo Kang cut open the small beast that had been melted and found that there was still some undigested food in its stomach. You Yu said that it was probably some kind of grass.
"What killed them?" Duo Kang asked.
"Who knows? They must have been killed by the beasts that ate them. But now's not the time to think about that. " Mu Fa said as he had the Longboat tribe put the ice together. He scooped up some ice floes that didn't contain anything else to keep the temperature low.
Meat kept in a cold cave would last longer. These unknown insects that might have come from ancient times needed to be kept in ice to survive, just like how they had been frozen until now.
Duo Kang did the same. He wanted to bring some back as a souvenir so he ordered the people to continue scooping.
Shao Xuan looked at the ice from Yanjiao and the Longboat tribe before looking at the sea.
There was still a lot of ice. Some had things sealed in it, some didn't. Some had things similar to what they had scooped up.
Looking at the ice floes, Shao Xuan suddenly pointed at one of them and said to the people scooping, "Scoop that one up."
"Which one are you talking about, Great Elder?" The people scooping the ice didn't know which one Shao Xuan was talking about.
"Let me do it." Shao Xuan did it himself. He took the net and scooped up the piece of ice he fancied.
"What is this?" Duo Kang looked at the blurry lump in the ice and asked.
They scooped up the ice. Because the boat could only carry a limited amount of weight, they couldn't scoop up all the ice. They could only scoop up a little.
They scooped up the ice that they could roughly see. They didn't want to waste so much effort only to find out that it was just a lump of dirt. That wouldn't be worth it. Therefore, the piece of ice that Shao Xuan was pointing at had been ignored. They didn't even scoop up the same type. They already had one, so why would they want more? Anyway, they were just curious and wanted to bring it back as a souvenir.
"I don't know what it is either." Shao Xuan looked at the ice in front of him. After looking at it a few more times, he handed it to the person in charge of storing it. "Bring it back with the other ice."
Since it was something that Shao Xuan scooped up, the person in charge of storing it didn't dare to be careless. Even if it was just a lump of dirt, they would treat it seriously and carefully.
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