Other than the insects and beasts, the fleet also prepared some ice before they left. After coming back, although they hadn't reached the tribe yet, they no longer had the feeling of uneasiness that they had when they were at sea.
After resting for a few days, the fleet set off again.
In the sky, the people of the Hui tribe escorted them all the way with their giant mountain eagles. They didn't want to encounter any curious giant mountain eagles. Those curious or aggressive giant mountain eagles might cause a lot of trouble for the fleet. With the people of the Hui tribe in the middle, this kind of situation would be reduced a lot.
"Chacha and the others used to go to Eagle Mountain from here, right?" Shao Xuan asked Gu La.
"I don't know. We can't follow the giant mountain eagles to Eagle Mountain, but they probably went this way," Gu La said.
Maybe it wasn't at the estuary. The giant mountain eagles probably went over the mountains and took a detour. At that time, the disaster hadn't happened yet. The dangerous river was still there, so Chacha and the others wouldn't have gone there.
In the past, the people of the Hui tribe thought that Eagle Mountain was in the depths of the mountains. They didn't expect that it wasn't here. It was in the area full of fearsome beasts where Yanjiao lived.
When the fleet left the mountains and the giant mountain eagles' habitat, the people of the Hui tribe didn't need to follow them anymore. After bidding farewell, the fleet followed the river on the grassland and went back the way they came.
The people of Taihe were much more energetic after resting. Plus, they weren't at sea anymore, so they felt more at ease. They looked at the grassland tribes curiously.
Those who were more sensitive could even sense the ancient fire seed.
"Is that the ancient fire seed? It's amazing. "You Yu sighed.
The Taihe tribe had merged their fire seed a long time ago. There were no more ancient fire seeds on the other side of the sea. They didn't expect to sense it when they came here.
"Huge power."
Even if it was just a fire seed from a small tribe, the power it contained could not be ignored.
"We can still sense it now, but in a few years, it might be hard to see it again." Duo Kang told You Yu about the changes that were happening here.
As the major tribes on the mainland merged their fire seeds one after another, the people of the Hui tribe said that many medium-sized tribes had also started to merge their fire seeds. Perhaps in five or ten years, the small tribes would also start to experience similar changes.
Duo Kang excitedly told the Taihe people about the Flaming River Trading Point. Since they were back, they didn't have to worry too much anymore.
Life on the ship was very monotonous. After returning, there wasn't much danger, and the trouble they encountered was also much less. Many people on the riverbank were relieved to see that it was the Longboat tribe's fleet.
Why did he sigh in relief?
Last year, when they saw the Longboat tribe's huge ship leave, they didn't see them return until winter. They thought that something had happened to the Longboat tribe. It wasn't that they were worried about the Long boat people. They were just used to watching the fleet leave and then return. Last year, they had only seen the fleet that had left. They had waited for an entire winter, but they had not seen the fleet return. They always felt that there was something unfinished in their hearts. Now, they finally had peace of mind.
Some people felt that it was a pity. If the Longboat tribe's fleet had met with an accident, it would definitely be big news. After all, the Longboat tribe was known as the strongest tribe on the river. It was rare to see them get into an accident on the river.
While Duo Kang was explaining the situation around the Flaming River to You Yu and the others, Shao Xuan was in the cabin looking at the newly frozen ice cubes.
He didn't care about the rest. Duo Kang had just taken them out to sea because they were new to him. He wanted to show them to the people in his tribe who couldn't go out to sea. After all, these were things from a long, long time ago. After seeing them, they couldn't keep them sealed forever. They didn't have the ability to keep them in their original state. The Yanjiao people also wouldn't spend so much time and effort to preserve things that weren't useful to them. Hence, after seeing them, they probably ended up as fertilizer or thrown into swamps or tar pits.
What caught Shao Xuan's attention was the thing he had scooped up.
After re-freezing it, Shao Xuan didn't notice it when he was moving the wooden box. Now that he had time to take a closer look, he noticed that the bones of the thing seemed to have changed.
No, it wasn't just the bones. There were other parts as well. Shao Xuan felt a very weak life force. That aura was too faint. If it was left there after the ice melted, that tiny bit of life aura might disappear completely.
Hence, he didn't know what this thing was, but it was in a state close to death. It wasn't much different from death.
Shao Xuan wanted to find out immediately, but this wasn't the right place. They were on a ship. If he wasn't careful and something happened, the ship might be damaged. That would hinder their return journey.
Shao Xuan wasn't in a hurry. He just wanted to confirm his guess. When they returned to the Flaming River Trading Point, the conditions there would be more suitable for him to quietly tinker with these things.
Looking at the ice cube, Shao Xuan sighed. He closed the wooden lid and took out a light grey linen cloth. Then, he used a charcoal rod to draw on it.
He drew a skeleton made from the bones he saw. He remembered the skeleton's appearance in his special vision. He drew the skeleton onto the cloth and then disassembled it bit by bit.
After disassembling it, he felt that it didn't look good enough, so he found some wood and used a knife to cut it into small sticks. Then, he cut the sticks into the general shape of each bone.
Some small bones might be omitted, but the main skeleton would be disassembled and made into wooden bones.
After he was done, Shao Xuan started piecing the wooden bones together one by one.
First, the head. This was the most obvious part. Starting from the head, he pieced the bones together bit by bit. When he didn't know which bone to join, he would start with another obvious feature, the tail. Then, he would start from the tail. If he had trouble with both the head and tail, he would start with the back claws.
Once Shao Xuan was immersed in his work, he would easily lose track of time. He rarely left in the middle.
After Duo Kang finished talking to You Yu and the rest, he looked around and didn't see Shao Xuan. He asked around and found out that Shao Xuan had gone to the place where the ice cube was kept, so he went to look for him.
The door was closed. Duo Kang stood at the door and called out softly, "Shao Xuan? Grand Elder? "
No one answered.
After a pause, Duo Kang raised his hand and knocked lightly on the door. "Shao Xuan, are you in there?"
"Yes."
Shao Xuan, who was inside, finally came back to his senses. He had been staring at the pieced together product for a long time. He didn't even hear Duo Kang when he first called him.
After Duo Kang entered, the first thing he saw was a skeleton on top of the wooden box. The skeleton was very strange. At first glance, he thought it was a bat, but he quickly realized that it wasn't. It was a different skeleton from a bat. It gave off a more arrogant feeling.
After hunting for so long, even if it was just a skeleton, Duo Kang had a rough idea of what it was.
"What is this?" Duo Kang pointed at the unfamiliar skeleton and asked Shao Xuan, "I've never seen this before. It's not a bird or a bat. What is this?"
Shao Xuan rubbed his sore eyes and said, "Pterosaur!"
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