Banished to Another World
chapter-53

Everyone was very happy that Yan Mo regained his eyesight. These few days he mysteriously lost his eyesight and now can see just as clearly, such an event made him seem more out-of-worldly, the kind of aura that shrouded priests.

At least, that’s how Meng and A’wu saw Yan Mo.

The following day, Yan Mo soothed Jiu Feng and the bee colony and put his simple luggage on his back and the healer pouch on his waist, setting out together with Yuan Zhan.

The two of them quickly made their way through the seepweed marsh, heading to the left edge of the eye-shaped lake.

After the salt lake, walk a bit forward, and you’ll see a big stretch of grassland. All sorts of grasses and short bushes grow wildly. In summer, perhaps these grasses can reach the height of a person, walking through the bushes, you might be ambushed by a hiding beast.

In winter, the vegetation was not as dense. Many of them, if not withered, have collapsed to the ground. Because those grasses have fallen down, they can see the short bushes are in full view.

Yan Mo had walked for a while now, but he didn’t see any plant familiar to him. That the plants have shrivelled and withered also played a part, he suspected that he had seen a small citron daylily and wild alfalfa, but he couldn’t be sure, he can only wait until next spring to confirm it.

He looked up to the sky. The sun didn’t come out today, it’s cloudy and cold. Yan Mo shivered, he took two steps forward to catch up to Yuan Zhan, who was clearing the road ahead with his wooden spear. Yan Mo said, “The second snow is going to fall.”

“How do you know?”

Yan Mo didn’t say that it was Jiu Feng who told him after he came back from his morning walk, Yan Mo just smiled.

Yuan Zhan licked his lips. “Let’s walk faster and return faster, try to get back before it snows. Can you understand Jiu Feng and the bees?”

The question came out of nowhere but Yan Mo wasn’t flustered, he had long prepared for it. He gave the young man an odd look and said like it was obvious, “I’m the mountain god Jiu Feng’s priest, isn’t it natural that I would understand his words? as for the bees… I think it’s because of what Jiu Feng fed me, I also don’t know the specifics.”

“Your eyes, why does it suddenly can’t see?”

“Didn’t I say it already? Punishment.” Yan Mo put on a slightly tired of questions face to fit the occasion. “I will definitely tell you what I can tell you, but some things, if I didn’t take the initiative to tell you, please don’t try digging into it. I cannot divulge all of the divine machinations.”

Divine Machinations? Yuan Zhan felt that it’s getting harder and harder to listen to the boy’s words. Sometimes he needed to guess based on his tone of speaking as well as the previous and next words, because the boy uses many words and pronunciations that he had never even heard before.

“Okay. In the future I won’t ask more about things you don’t want to talk about. But if it’s something that will affect everyone’s lives, you better explain it to me in advance.”

“Are you ordering me?”

Both of them stopped walking and looked at each other, both felt unhappy and also had to restrain themselves.

Wind blew over the ground, the grasses that were as tall as half a person revealed the dark yellow earth under it. The mud and roots underneath have frozen into pieces of ice, his foot and toes were wrapped in foot wraps, but still ached from the cold. This place wasn’t a very good place to have a conversation, but these two people, no one was willing to be the first to avert his eyes.

Yuan Zhan, who still dared going around barefooted in the middle of winter, was the first to talk. “Your character is totally different from your face. Yanmo, is slowly becoming unbearable something all priests do?” He said without breaking eye contact.

Yan Mo’s expression stiffened, because of the cold! “I didn’t expect you to like me, and I don’t need your like. Yuan Zhan, you did save me once, but I’ve returned it and more.”

“You hate me, why?” Yuan Zhan asked outright. This question had bothered him for too long.

Yan Mo let out a laugh. Does this kid plan to reveal everything in the open today?

That’s fine, he had kept some things buried inside too long, he won’t feel good if he doesn’t let it out!

“You’re actually asking me why I hate you? No no no, don’t think of yourself too highly, my hate is not something you can get. At most, I just… find you displeasing.” Now having Jiu Feng and the man-eater bees as his backer, Yan Mo’s real nature slowly exposed, his way of speaking also becoming less and less like a young boy.

“Why?” Yuan Zhan seemed to have determined he would get to the bottom of it today.

“Why?!” Yan Mo felt so angry he laughed instead. “Slaves also have dignity, but what did you do to me? You fucking raped… how can any man put up with that thing?!”

“You’re angry because of that?” Yuan Zhan was taken aback, he was thinking maybe he didn’t give the little slave enough food to eat, that’s why he hated him this much. He didn’t expect that it was because of that thing.

“Can’t I be angry?” Yan Mo laughed angrily. “Or maybe you can try lying down and let me rape you.”

“If you can beat me.” Yuan Zhan really didn’t understand why he would make such a big deal out of that. Aren’t they all living like this? Before, when Jiuyuan tribe hadn’t been established, their priest-daren even encouraged them to go look for other tribes’ women, they would snatch the other tribes’ women when they found them, and as long as the women had enough to eat, they would just stay in the tribe. Sometimes if they can’t get a woman, they will also look for a good looking man, hit them unconscious then carry them back to the tribe on their shoulders.

Afterwards when their three clans merged into one tribe, the tribe had slaves, and the kidnappings eased a bit. But even though that’s the case, when they find a weak tribe, they would still take their women and men, if not, where would they get so many slaves for their needs?

In general, when a tribe is lacking women, don’t say doing a slave, it’s not weird for two warriors to get together. No matter if the partner is a slave or another warrior, in the future when they have women, they’ll just separate.

Why does this become such a big problem? I didn’t even starve you and didn’t hit you.

Yuan Zhan can’t accept it. He said his thoughts out loud, “I provide for you, give you enough food and a tent to sleep in, gather herbs and help you with your wound, so what if I do you?”

Looking at the young man’s righteous posture, Yan Mo felt so stifled his ribs hurt. Their philosophy of life, values of right and wrong, and worldview are not aligned at all. How can he explain to this person that that humiliation was the greatest insult most men in his original world won’t be able to accept? That dignity as a human can’t be trampled on even if the alternative is starving to death.

Yan Mo weakly waved his hand. “Since it’s like that, if you ever become a slave then other tribes buy or take you away, some other man gives you food and drinks and a place to sleep in, will you let him do you?”

Yuan Zhan frowned. He had never considered this question. “If I can’t beat him, of course I can only accept it. If I can defeat him, then of course I will do him, if I want to.”

“But if you’re injured, or other people are around, and you have no way to fight back.”

Yuan Zhan’s face grew dark, he grimly said, “After he did it I will try to kill him, run away and destroy that tribe.”

Yuan Zhan’s face looked unprecedentedly bad. He just found out that that kind of thing was very normal when it happens to other people but once put on himself, becomes very hard to accept.

Then why do those women and the mother in his memory, can easily accept that thing? His mother had even been taken by another tribe once and gave birth to two kids to another man before. Afterwards that tribe was attacked and looted by Yuanji, and his father brought his mother back.

But his mother didn’t run away from that tribe, she also didn’t run away from the Yuanji tribe. She continued to live with his father and gave birth to him. Then when he was 5 or 6 years old and was about to get a little brother, but that baby turned out to be the source of her death. He killed his own mother and himself before he could be born.

His mother was like that, many women and slaves in the tribe were like that too.

Why didn’t they fight back and get angry like the little slave? Why can they accept their situation so easily?

Because they’re not strong enough, so they can only endure it to stay alive?

“The strong does. The weak can only accept it.” Yuan Zhan seemed to have understood it. His eyes became decided again after a total of 10 seconds of confusion. “I wasn’t wrong, the tribe did nothing wrong. Only the strong can kill beasts, beat the enemies and only strong people can get everything, the weak ones can only accept things that happen to them.”

My god! Yan Mo thought that he had finally persuaded this guy, but who’d have thought his thoughts would leap off to the other extreme?

“Fuck! Does the weak not deserve to live? Not good at hunting and fighting is weak? Weren’t you also born from a woman? Can you live so easily without your slaves doing various works? If you ever become the weak one later…”

Yuan Zhan directly cut off his words. “I will remember all the humiliation and become even more stronger!”

Yan Mo trembled from the cold, even his teeth were chattering when he spoke. “Then what you mean is, if I can’t defeat you, you’ll keep doing that?”

Yuan Zhan didn’t reply. He just turned around and kept walking without even turning his head.

“Hey! Answer me! I’m telling you, if you want me to be your priest, you better stop having that kind of thoughts about me. Don’t you just lack a woman? You can just grab one on this journey!”

“So I can take those women but can’t force you? Why? Because you’re more useful than those women? Because you can threaten me? Because you’re stronger than those women?” He turned his head and gave the youth a mocking look. “Don’t deny it my priest-daren, you’re just like any of us.”

Yan Mo felt stifled again. He knew that the other guy was giving a fallacious argument but he couldn’t give a retort. How can he answer the guy? That women are meant to serve men? On what basis would those women be subservient to men? Just because they naturally have more body fat than muscles? Their body constitution determines that they are the weaker one? And the weak can only accept what the strong makes them do or forces them to do?

The problem revolves back to: If there are similarly very weak men, on what basis that they can’t live like the women? Those women can accept that kind of life, why can’t the men accept it?

“Women can also be strong…” Yan Mo weakly said, he didn’t know that he had veered off-topic.

“Yes, women can also become strong, Bairi tribe’s chieftain is a woman herself.”

Yan Mo facepalmed. So it returned to the strong vs weak problem. No matter if it’s a woman or man, you only have a say if you are strong. If you don’t want to be oppressed or forced by other people, and want other people to revere and respect you, then you have to have the ability to make them fear you. At least, strong in some aspects, strong enough that other people need you and can’t lose you, and also can’t offend you.

So he ended up being the one persuaded by a muscle brained primitive guy?

A grassland fox appeared in front of them and quickly ran away. As it ran, it looked back to them again not very far away.

Yan Mo watched the scurrying fox with a drool in his mouth.

On the other hand Yuan Zhan became alert.

“I’m not weak at all.” Yan Mo jogged to catch up to him. He couldn’t hold back from justifying himself, “I’m just not good at hunting and fighting, but I can easily kill you, do you want to try?”

“I won’t give you a chance to. Later if I want to do you, I will tie you up first.” Yuan Zhan said while looking around in all directions.

“……” The sentence caught the fuming Yan Mo off guard and made him feel like laughing. Did this guy think of this method because he uses the golden needles?

“Don’t forget, I still have Jiu Feng and man-eater bees.” A certain someone still fought for the upper hand and some dignity for himself.

“I know that you can order those man-eater bees.” The young man pulled him away from a pit in front. “Every time I send you to the tree, those bees will drive me away. But they never stung me, so I know that they were acting under your orders. You don’t want me to see what you’re doing in that nest.”

“Heh. Really smart.” A certain someone put on a false smile and didn’t say thanks to the man who helped him.

“Man-eater bees are afraid of fire. If you anger me, I’ll burn down that nest.”

“I’ll make them sting you to death first!” A certain someone hadn’t noticed at the time that their serious conversation had shifted into a childish quarrel.

“I’ll find some way so they can’t sting my body.” The young man muttered almost inaudibly.

“What did you say?”

The young man stopped on his track and turned his head around. “I said, when I think about entering you right in front of mountain god Jiu Feng and those bees, I get very excited.”

“…You pervert!”

“What is a pervert?” He couldn’t guess the meaning.

Yan Mo sneered, “It means you’re not normal. Most of your brain is in your balls and you only have a little brain left on your neck… Gh!”

His body was suddenly pressed to the ground by the other man. It happened too quickly that he couldn’t prepare himself, his mouth nearly kissed the ground.

Yan Mo raised his head and was going to curse at him when he saw him looking at himself with a finger on his mouth. He didn’t even say shh.

Yan Mo went alert. He noticed now that the feeling around here was different. The wind blew and he caught a stink which Yan Mo felt was similar to the wild animals in a zoo he had visited before. He can also hear the rustling of grasses, as if there were some kind of animal cutting through the thickets.

something flashed by in the grasses far from them, Yan Mo felt as if he saw something but couldn’t say for sure.

The two quietly lied on their stomachs until the smell and sound were completely gone.

Yuan Zhan looked on all sides alertly as he slowly raised up on one knee. His waist was folded in and his spear was in his hand.

Yan Mo tilted his head up and used his eyes to ask: Can we get up now?

Yuan Zhan pulled him up.

Yan Mo borrowed his pull to stand up. “What was it?”

Yuan Zhan’s expression looked heavy. “Wolves. White-tailed wolves, at least twenty of them just passed by.”

Twenty wolves? Yan Mo deeply inhaled the cold air before quickly asking, “Where are they going?”

“To the forest. White tailed wolves usually live in forest and grassland borders, this area might be their hunting ground.”

Yan Mo regretted now, he should have thought of a way to bring the man-eater bees along. “Then do we continue to go forward?”

“Of course, what are you scared of? It’s just twenty wolves. The grassland is Jiu Feng’s place, there won’t be any big meat-eating beasts around.”

Yan Mo didn’t know how Yuan Zhan knew, but through some sort of clue, he corrected their path and took Yan Mo further inside the grassland.

“You know where the A’wu tribe is?” Yan Mo got curious when he saw the young man’s assured look.

“Don’t know. But places people live in will always have traces left around it. As long as we follow those traces we’ll find it.”

Yan Mo didn’t know how to look for those traces, he could only silently follow behind the young man.

He had actually asked Jiu Feng whether he knew where A’wu people lived, Jiu Feng only told him that they’re in the grassland, beside a small lake. When he asked for something that could be a landmark, Jiu Feng couldn’t describe it anymore, he only said that they’re the closest two-legged monsters living near him.

The two of them didn’t talk for the rest of the journey, one in front one at the back, they traversed through the grassland.

This trip made Yan Mo once again aware that without Yuan Zhan, an experienced hunter with natural sensitivity toward the surrounding environment, he might fall over a lot of pits and cracks just walking around the grassland.

They had even nearly stepped into a swamp along the way.

Well maybe it couldn’t be called a swamp, it’s more accurately a mud pool. It’s really small, about 3 metre radius. The surface had grasses floating on it, so at first glance it didn’t look like a mud pool at all.

Yuan Zhan had suggested carrying a large stick and it proved to be very useful. When Yuan Zhan checked the ground ahead, the stick got buried into the pool.

Yuan Zhan felt something was wrong and quickly pulled it up.

“There are a lot of mud pools like these in the grassland and forest. When you walk around, never put all of your weight on your feet. You have to tread lightly, after your stick has proven that the ground ahead is safe, then you can walk on it.” Yuan Zhan taught Yan Mo. Not because he’s his future priest, all warriors have the responsibility to teach the young members of the tribe as well as their own slaves. Firstly to keep them alive longer in the harsh environment, and secondly so that the other party won’t drag their own hindlegs.

After leaving the mud pool, Yuan Zhan found traces of people’s activity.

Yan Mo looked around for a long while and couldn’t see those traces he talked about. He didn’t hesitate to ‘consult his subordinate’. “How can you tell A’wu people have walked through here?”

Yuan Zhan didn’t mock him, he pointed ahead at the left side of the wild grasses, “Did you see it? There were a lot of grasses pulled out.”

When it was pointed out to him so clearly, Yan Mo also found it.

Yuan Zhan walked up to it and felt the grass. “The wild plants here are long, and a bit tough, good for making grass rope.”

Yan Mo looked over briefly and found some plants he felt familiar behind the grasses. He was about to go over and take a closer look when Yuan Zhan moved forward again.

Yan Mo had no other choice but to follow up. He didn’t want to be left alone in the wilderness.

Then, Yuan Zhan found traces of human activity one after another. They followed the traces and really arrived near the A’wu clan’s settlement.

It was a very small tribe. By the looks of their tents’ size and number, the members of this tribe couldn’t be more than one hundred.

Probably because it’s convenient for the people, the tribe’s tents were set on the other side of a lake where it’s dry.

The lake wasn’t big. There was wild vegetation all around the lake. The plants were very strong, even though they’re withered and yellowed, they’re still standing straight.

Yan Mo was ducking like Yuan Zhan and silently observed the A’wu tribe in the thickets. But when he saw the lake, he stood up from surprise.

“Mo?” Yuan Zhan immediately jerked to pull him back down. There are people at the lake, alright?

“Flax!”

“What?”

“The plants around that lake and the plants behind those tough grasses before, they’re flax!” He saw just a sparse few before so he couldn’t be certain, but he is sure now after seeing a large stretch of them. In front of such a large stretch of natural flax, Yan Mo got so excited his voice nearly changed pitch.

Editor: Silversun

Thank you Jikazu for the kofi and your sweet message!