Banished to Another World
chapter-3

Chapter 3- The Yuan Ji Tribe

Yan Mo got a scoop of water. He pounced on the water ladle…. Hold on, must drink it slowly.

While he was drinking water, the man was talking to Fei Quan. He pulled something from the grass belt around his waist and gave it to the brawny man with the protruding belly.

Fei Quan nodded his head after receiving the item. He immediately went to the thatch barn to pick up an animal that looked like a dog. The beast was severely wounded. Chopped head, severed limbs, its stomach was cut open…

The man saw that Yan Mo already drank all the water in the ladle, he forcefully grabbed the ladle and filled it with blood from the beast’s neck. Shoving in front of Yan Mo’s face he said “Drink!”

Drink animal blood…. Sure, after all this was just another way to replenish the body’s salt and nutrition content.

Yan Mo endured the nausea, slowly holding the wooden ladle he began to drink the animal blood. He wasn’t sure if it’s because this body was already used to this treatment because his body had no nauseating reactions. Yan Mo figured it was only a mental thing.

During this period, the man went around and began collecting the leaves of the thistle, giving it all to Yan Mo to hold.

Wiping his lips, Yan Mo expressed his thanks to the man. The man grabbed onto Yan Mo’s arm, looked at his broken leg, and lifted him up under the arms.

Yan Mo felt very thankful in his heart, he was carried over the shoulder by people before. The nauseating feeling would not need to shift upwards. If the man put him over his shoulder right now, he would vomit on him.

Being carried under the armpits was not comfortable but Yan Mo endured the pain to observe his surroundings.

This is not a harmonious tribe; that was Yan Mo’s first impression.

In the plaza, besides the man speaking with Fei Quan, all the men and women around would not even glance at him or even say a word to him.

Around the plaza, You could see there was a giant area used for a stockade. The people here live in tents made from hide. The stockade was set up to let people pass. In the middle ran two parallel dirt roads that could each fit a horse carriage. There are tents on either side of the roads.

There were people in the tents and on the roads, but Yan Mo has not seen the man talk to anyone. There was also no one who wanted to talk to him. People were mostly walking on the roads. The people sitting in front of the tents were all busy doing various kinds of labour.

The plaza is in the middle of the stockade. The tents in the stockade below the plaza were very crude, simple, and small. But the tents above the plaza were much larger and cleaner.

The man did not walk for long. Holding onto Yan Mo, he turned onto a small path.

Yan Mo snuck a glance and realized the more they walked forward, the better the tents got. The one at the very top looked like the Chief’s tent. It even had leather skirt wearing men guarding the entrance.

This living area seemed to be on a gentle hillside. Yan Mo guessed that the bottom of the hill was where the poor and slaves lived. The higher you lived, the higher your status.

Not long after passing the square, it was obvious to see that the man’s position was average.

Yan Mo made a mental note along the path. After turning in from the small path, starting from the first tent along the big dirt path, the man’s tent is in the 4th row, which also happens to be the last row.

The space between each tent in the rows were all equal. It’s like…. Barracks, but the elderly men and women working in front of the tents were full of life.

Most of the people here were only wearing a leather or grass skirt. The women’s upper torso was also naked. The children were naked and running around, a few of the elderly were also naked.

The tent area was not completely calm and peaceful. The children’s loud noises and the adult’s scolding voices reverberated. From time to time, the sound of screaming or screeching could be heard from the tents.

“Yuan Zhan, didn’t you say to divide the meat? What is this?” Finally, someone greeted the man. The man, Yuan Zhan, directed Yan Mo to the front entrance of the tent, then turned to the other person.

“The meat didn’t die so I brought it back.”

The man who arrived, was a head shorter then Yuan Zhan. He also had a tattoo on his face and squatted down next to Yan Mo.

Because of his position, Yan Mo clearly say what was hanging underneath the man’s leather skirt, it developed very well!

“Brought it back? As a slave? With injuries like this what use is he?” The man extremely disliked Yanmo and jabbed his face. “And he’s still a boy, can’t even have bastards.”

Yuan Zhan opened his own tent, pulled back the curtain on both sides, then casually said, “He doesn’t want money, I found him without any effort.”

“Keeping him alive won’t be useful. Oh by the way, I was looking for you for something.” The man changed the subject.

“Wait a minute” Yuan Zhan walked around Yan Mo, he removed the slabstone on top of the stone jar outside of his tent. He dragged Yan Mo to the edge of the jar, then ladled out water to pour over his injured leg.

Yan Mo was shocked by the cold water, he did not hold back the sound of a moan.

Yuan Zhan noticed the water did not wash away many of the maggots, so he used his own hands to pick them off.

“AH!” Yan Mo shrieked.

Yuan Zhan didn’t care if it hurt or not, with all the maggots and the smell, he didn’t want him to enter his tent.

“I’ll call my family slave to come help wash him.” The man said with a smug tone. He turned to the neighboring tent and shouted, “ Cao Ting come here!”

A women with a naked torso emerged from the tent next door.

“Clean him! Don’t waste water!”

“Yes sir.” He couldn’t tell what age the slave was. The slave kneeled on the floor and took the water scoop from Yuan Zhan’s hand.

Yuan Zhan watched the slave takeover and was happy to not do the job and be lazy. He beckoned to the man, “Come inside and talk.” The man walked inside with Yuan Zhan then lowered the curtains.

Inside the tent there are not many items. There are many stones that make up the foundation. The top of the stones are covered with straw while the furs are used as blankets. In the middle there is a big square stone used as a table. There are no chairs so everyone sits cross legged on the floor.

Two spears rests on the walls of the tent. There are also sharp bones and leather skirts hanging on the walls. There is a pile of bones and fur in the corner near the entrance. It wasn’t known if it’s because of those things that there is a strange smell in the tent.

“Why?” The man asked as soon as he sat down.

Yuan Zhan understood what the other man was asking. He smiled and replied, “Because he is injured but refuses to moan and can still smile at me. This kid will definately be tough in the future.”

“Really?” The man secretly glances at Yuan Zhan’s left leg.

Yuan Zhan’s expression slightly dropped, then immediately lifted. “What were you looking for me for?”

The man’s face immediately changed. With a look of resentment he softly said, “ Bu E and them are relying on their 3rd rank Xiang chief and their elder to demand an expansion of their hunting grounds. The territory they want overlaps with our hunting grounds. If the elders agree, we’d have to fight over the beasts. It could be that those people don’t have much pickings from their own hunting ground, but we’ll be missing opportunities to fight 2nd and 3rd rank beasts. It’ll be harder to get to a 3rd rank warrior.”

Yuan Zhan knocked his own knees, “It’s more than just a promotion, it’s whether we’ll be able to eat this winter or not.”

“It’s like that, and you’re still trying to raise someone. But if you can’t keep it alive, you can kill him in the winter. As your personal slave, you don’t need to share his meat with the tribe.”

“You were looking for me, it’s not to just complain about this is it?”

“Complaining has no use, I was looking for you to ask if you want to….” The man moved closer to Yuan Zhan’s side, his voice becoming deeper and deeper.

* * *

At the entrance to the tent, as soon as the two men entered Yuan Zhan’s tent, Yan Mo immediately turned to Cao Ting and forced out a smile.

“Sister, can we do what I say please? I learned healing with a priest.”

(In China, sister is just a nice way of calling a lady.)

Cao Ting is a very sweet girl. She saw that Yan Mo was in so much pain that he was sweating from his head, she couldn’t help but reach out to wipe his head.

“You are the disciple of another priest? Then how did you…” be brought back as a slave?

“I am from the Yanshan Tribe. Our tribe was robbed of our homeland by the Zhi Tribe. I and some other tribe members were bitten by beasts during our escape….”

Without finishing his words, Cao Ting already understood the reason why Yan Mo was here. Here eyes showed her sympathy and the helplessness to fate.

“What is your name?”

“My name is Yan Mo.”

“Yan Mo? Then I will call you Xiao Mo from now on. You can call me Cao Ting.” (1)

“Sister Cao Ting.” Yan Mo completely disregarded his own age and tried to act out this body’s age.

(Because the original Yan Mo was a full grown adult but his new body is 14 years old.)

“Sister, can you help me boil a pot of water? I need it.” Yan Mo, with the help of Cao Ting, managed to sit up.

The firepit and the water tank are both placed outside the tent. In order to prevent fires, the fire pit is placed right next to the water tank.

The pot is not an iron pot, it is a pot made from a hollowed out stone. It looked really heavy, but Yan Mo watched Cao Ting lift the stone pot on top of the firepit without any difficulties.

“Sister, is there a knife here?”

“Yes, wait here. I’ll go get it.” A painstakingly polished knife is considered a valuable item and would not be loitering outside the tent.

“Sister wait, it needs….” Yan Mo stopped and realized that this place didn’t even have ‘needlework’ as a word.

Cao Ting was waiting. “What else do you need?”

“Planks, if there are no wooden planks then sticks will work too.”

“How big do you need them? I’ll go back and look. There isn’t a lot of wood here. To use the large pieces of wood, you need the consent of the master.”

“Tree branches are fine.” Yan Mo roughly sketched the length of the branch he needed. He also had Cao Ting bring him straw ropes. “Also bring me some salt.”

“I can’t get salt. It needs the approval of the master.” Cao Ting, because Yan Mo needed branches and rope, did not dare to make decisions without authorization. She could only stand outside the tent and softly call the names of their masters.

The man and Yuan Zhan came out together. Hearing about the things Yan Mo needed, went inside his tent to get the items. The man left Cao Ting behind to help Yuan Zhan, then went to someone else’s tent. Yuan Zhan gave the things they needed to Cao Ting, then grabbed his spear and left.

The sky wasn’t dark yet so he wanted to go out and see if he could find more prey and fruits. Also, since he took Yan Mo back, he had to give back meat to the tribe equal to 20% of his weight.

While waiting for the water to boil, Cao Ting told Yan Mo that this tribe’s highest warrior rank was a rank 4. The only 4th rank warrior was the Chief. The Rank 1- 3 warriors had to take turns going out to hunt. When they returned with the prey, it was turned over to the tribe to be distributed. If there are no turns that day, all the soldiers can go out and hunt, they just have to give 20% to the tribe. They can keep the other 80%.

At first glance, it seemed like a pretty good requirement. But the further you go from the tribe, the stronger the beasts are. A single soldier cannot hunt them by themselves, but there are not many beasts closer in range to the tribe. The warrior’s hunting grounds was also divided by rank. The lower the rank, the less beasts there are in the hunting ground.

Sometimes, the warriors not on duty will group together to go out and hunt to help the tribe, but the places they went to were not necessarily within the hunting grounds designated by the tribe. Needless to say, these new sites could increase the harvest but also the danger.

The civilians without fighting capabilities were in charge of doing other tasks. Here, the people with no fighting capabilities were the elderly and the weak.

The slaves were divided into two categories. One class belonged to the tribal use. These slaves were usually working the most bitter and tiring lives. What they ate, what they wore, where they lived, was the worst. They were used for farming, herding, skinning, grinding stones, etc… If food was scarce, some would be turned into food for the winter.

Warriors at Rank 2 and above could have their own personal slaves. 2nd Rank could have one, 3rd Rank could have two.The higher the warrior rank, the more slaves and riches you would have. The lives of the personal slaves could be better than the shared tribal slaves. If you met a benevolent master, then your life would be better than the civilians. But if you got a terrible master, then life would be miserable.

The slaves did not get a share of the tribe’s provisions. Soldiers with personal slaves could have some, but they must provide for the slaves themselves.

“My master is called Yuan Diao. In this tribe, only the warriors were allowed the surname of the tribe. Our tribe is called the Yuan Ji Tribe. It is said that the grassland and the desert has been here for more than 100 years. It is one of the larger tribes nearby. You talked about the Zhi tribe, I know about them. They are slightly larger than our Yuan Ji Tribe. We trade with their tribe. You will most likely be seeing them in the future when they come to trade.”

Yan Mo understood Cao Ting’s good intention. She was warning him.

Yan Mo only wanted those people not to purposely bother him, then he would not care about them.

“Are you crushing up herbs at the moment?” Cao Ting asked curiously.

“Yes.” His master, Yuan Zhan, did not have the materials for a mortar and pestle. He could only find some things to make do. With a small stone pot — there was no concept of bowls here, and a big thick bone, he put the leaves of the thistle inside the stone pot and ground it up.

The water started boiling, Yan Mo placed the knife inside the boiling water. Once the stone knife was cooked, he then boiled some salt water.

The salt Yuan Zhan gave him was very crude and had large amounts of other minerals in it. Appearing yellowish black, the salt water could not be used and had to be filtered.

Using the sterilized knife, he cut away the pus and rotten flesh from his wound including the maggots biting at the rotten flesh.

Yan Mo was in so much pain that his hand was trembling, but there was no one here who could help him. Cao Ting did not dare to help, she would not even look at his wound.

The Yuan people were fearless, but not everyone here was a doctor. This wasn’t about being used to blood, you also needed to be cool and composed, but a steady hand was most important.

“Why did you put the knife in the water?” Cao Ting followed Yan Mo’s instructions, took the branches she got from Yuan Zhan and chopped it to the desired length with the knife while removing the splinters from the wood.

“Disinfection.” Yan Mo scraped off all the rotten flesh and dirt from his wound. He only needed to clean his wound with the filtered salt water that he boiled twice, when he saw a bright light emerging from his right palm.

Yan Mo looked up to look at Cao Ting, but she was too busy cleaning the branches to notice his palm.

Suddenly, a clamour came from afar. Yan Mo did not have enough time to see the changes to his palm. Cao Ting stood up and looked forward.

The noise was getting closer, it was heading straight for them.

Someone ran past them and to the tent next to Yuan Zhan’s neighbor and cried loudly.

A woman rushed out from the tent and followed the person. Two children also hurried out of the tent and ran with them.

A moment later, a shrill wail was suddenly heard

“DA HE!”

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1. Yan Mo’s name is written 严默. But she thinks it’s written 盐默, which uses the same Yan(盐) from Yanshan(盐山). 盐默 literally means salty silence. She calls him Xiao Mo (小默) since he is younger than her. Adding Xiao to a name means they are younger and can also be a term of endearment.

TN:

There are lots of idioms/phrases that Chinese people use that don’t make sense if translated word for word in English. So I’ve been rewriting them to the actual english meaning. But if it’s killing the writing style and you would like the idioms/phrases instead, I can write in the idiom and a side explanation for each one.

As mentioned in my bio, although I’m Chinese my knowledge on certain parts aren’t the best. So if you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out.