Ita Era

Chapter 79 The Primitive Era (14)

Wang Meng looked up again and saw Ding Shi grabbing a tree branch and flipping upwards, while the saber-toothed tiger was hugging the tree trunk and climbing upwards. The man and the tiger were chasing each other at top speed.

Ding Shi shouted, "Run! I'll hold it off as much as I can, as a way of repaying you for all these years of kindness."

As Wang Meng hesitated, he could no longer see the people and tiger. Ding Shi's voice came: "Hurry up and go. This is just a game. Don't talk to me about loyalty now."

Loyalty? You traitor, talking about loyalty to me? Wang Meng cursed inwardly, then ran away without lingering.

Up in the tree, Ding Shi stood on a branch about the thickness of a man's forearm, and with both hands raised, he grabbed a branch about the thickness of a woman's forearm. The saber-toothed tiger was five meters away from him, half of its body already climbing onto the male branch.

Ding Shi glanced down at his feet and, unable to see the ground, estimated that he was about 20 meters above the ground.

Ding Shi asked, "Brother Tiger, are you going to pounce or not?"

Once the saber-toothed tiger pounces, Ding Shi immediately flips upwards. After the saber-toothed tiger misses its pounce, the first possibility is that it falls from a height of 20 meters. The second possibility is that it grabs a tree branch, but this branch cannot support the 300-kilogram saber-toothed tiger, so it will still fall from a height of 20 meters.

Ding Shi shouted down, "Wang Meng, run! Ah..." The scream abruptly stopped. Judging from the sound, the saber-toothed tiger had bitten Ding Shi's neck, carried his body, and climbed down the tree. As for whether he could fool Wang Meng, Ding Shi wasn't too worried. If Wang Meng could shoot him in the back, why wouldn't he take the opportunity to escape?

Why did Ding Shi perform? Because Wang Meng might have stayed for one reason: he wanted to confirm that Ding Shi was dead.

This guy was, after all, Ding Shi. One after another, Wang Meng's men died, but Ding Shi alone survived six years of bloodshed with him. How could Wang Meng believe that Ding Shi would die at the hands of a tiger?
In Ding Shi's calculations, Wang Meng was very rational. He would quickly realize one thing: he was no match for the saber-toothed tiger. So Wang Meng would hesitate at first, but after reason prevailed over emotion, he would choose the option most advantageous to himself: escape.

The man and the tiger continued their standoff in the tree. The saber-toothed tiger tried to move towards Ding Shi's direction, but as soon as it put its weight on him, the branches began to droop. However, the saber-toothed tiger did not give up, but instead entered a pouncing stance.

Ding Shi started to get nervous: "Use your brain, okay? Are you really going to do this? It won't do anyone any good." The Golden Thunder Talisman couldn't be used because it required a hand seal, and the saber-toothed tiger's pounce could happen in an instant. Besides, there was no time to get the Golden Thunder Talisman right now; if Ding Shi made any extra movement, the saber-toothed tiger would act.

The standoff lasted longer and longer, with the saber-toothed tiger remaining ready to pounce at any moment, while Ding Shi's focus began to waver, and he stopped noticing the saber-toothed tiger's subtle movements.

With a roar, the saber-toothed tiger pounced on Ding Shi. Ding Shi used his arm to flip himself upwards. However, Ding Shi overlooked a detail: the branch on the woman's arm was elastic. Therefore, Ding Shi did not immediately flip up, and the tiger's left claw grabbed Ding Shi's left calf.

Missing its target, the saber-toothed tiger clung to a tree branch, hanging upside down with a vacant stare. The next second, the branch snapped, and the tiger, branch and all, plummeted to the ground.

Ignoring his injuries, Ding Shi quickly climbed down the tree, only to find the saber-toothed tiger lying on its side on the ground, unsure whether it was already dead.

Ding Shi took out a willow-leaf throwing knife and plunged it into the saber-toothed tiger's neck. The saber-toothed tiger was clearly no match for Zeus's bloodthirsty eagle; the sharp blade sliced ​​through its fur. Ding Shi then slashed horizontally left and right, and tiger blood gushed out, clearly indicating it was dead.

Ding Shi limped towards the grove of trees, and with each step he took, blood gushed from his calves, his left rubber shoe becoming soaked with blood.

Upon reaching the platform, Ding Shi knelt down on both knees and then prostrated himself in worship.

A playing card, radiating golden light, slowly descended from the sky and stopped in front of Ding Shi. Ding Shi reached out and took the card, but unsurprisingly, he could only see a ?.

This riddle is very simple: a circle plus an eight-shaped symbol represents a person; the circle is the head, and the eight-shaped symbol is the legs. This is the most intuitive and simplest way for preschool children to draw people. Males will have some short hair added, and females will have two braids. A circle plus a child's head indicates the person is kneeling. Half a head represents the person kneeling in worship.

Ding Shi didn't know what he was kneeling to, but he did anyway and received a playing card. This playing card contained a truth, but unfortunately, Ding Shi couldn't understand it at all and could only look it up in his notebook after leaving the instance.

Upon returning to the saber-toothed tiger, Ding Shi was certain there were no wild animals around, otherwise he would have devoured the tiger's carcass, which is why he left so quickly.

Ding Shi examined his injuries; they were somewhat serious, but none of them involved any broken bones. He cut off a piece of tiger skin to wrap the wound and secured the bandage with wooden splinters. As for the risk of infection, Ding Shi didn't know; he still had to walk back to camp and couldn't let blood gush out with every step.

Ding Shi cut open the saber-toothed tiger's abdomen, scooped out all its internal organs, and threw them aside. After removing the tiger's head, blood, and entrails, the saber-toothed tiger weighed less than two hundred kilograms. Ding Shi used vines to bind the saber-toothed tiger's body and dragged it towards the camp.

You hurt me, so I'll eat you up. That's perfectly reasonable.

……

Yu Yuan looked at the western sky; there was only an hour left until sunset. He ordered, "Su Su, Xiao Long, go and search to the west." Before the two could respond, Wang Meng emerged from the woods and headed towards the cave.

Yu Yuan and Wang Meng approached and asked, "Where is Ding Shi?" He didn't ask where they had gone, but asked about Ding Shi's whereabouts first.

Wang Meng replied, "I encountered a saber-toothed tiger."

Yu Yuan asked, "And then?"

Wang Meng replied, "The saber-toothed tiger has taken a liking to him."

Yu Yuan asked, "Are you alright?"

Wang Meng: "It's nothing. Chief, can I ask you a question? What do these patterns mean?"

Wang Meng drew three diagrams on the ground with a twig.

Yu Yuan observed for a while and then shook his head.

Xiao Feng came over and took a look, then reached out and made the oval representing the head more rounded, asking, "Is this how it is?"

Wang Meng nodded repeatedly.

Xiao Feng said, "Humans kneel in worship."

Wang Meng didn't understand.

Xiao Feng explained, "A head plus an eight equals a person. A head plus a 'er' means kneeling. Half a head plus a 'er' means kneeling in worship."

Wang Meng clenched his fist. Damn it, it was so simple. Thinking about it, it made sense. Primitive people, working on stone, how complex could they possibly carve? But couldn't they just write it down? Right, primitive societies didn't have writing.

Seeing Wang Meng walk away, Su Su stepped forward and said to Yu Yuan, "I'll go take a look."

Yu Yuan shook his head: "No way." If Su Su found Ding Shi, it would be equivalent to finding a saber-toothed tiger. With the current professional skill level of humans, they couldn't possibly be a match for the saber-toothed tiger. Even the most robust Wang Meng wouldn't last two moves against it.

Su Su said, "No, I meant to tell you I'm going to take a look, not to ask if I can go take a look."

Yu Yuan was speechless, utterly bewildered: "You..."

Su Su, carrying a musket, waved as she ran, saying, "Don't wait for me."

As Yu Yuan polished the stone, he kept an eye on the forest and the setting sun. Once the sun went down, everyone had to return to the cave and seal the entrance with branches.

Time passed second by second. Not only Yu Yuan, but even the herbalist girl, who originally didn't join in the fun, put down her work and kept looking towards the forest to the west.

Finally, in the afterglow of the sun, Su Su and Ding Shi appeared, dragging the carcass of a saber-toothed tiger.

Su Su shouted excitedly, "Quick, someone come and help! There's meat to eat!"

Xiao Long, Xiao Feng, and the others ran over.

Yu Yuan smiled and said to the herbalist beside him, "Your divination result is correct; his compatibility is suitable for this instance."

Standing at the cave entrance, Wang Meng said regretfully, "I should have gambled on his survival."

(End of this chapter)