A Delayed Repulsion

Caesar skipped cheerfully the entire way.

The wanderers who were working hard in the fields saw a giant creature hopping like a rabbit from far away. As Caesar hopped, he stopped to see if there were any familiar faces nearby. If he saw any familiar faces, he growled lightly to greet them.

At first, everyone thought that Caesar was happy because Shao Xuan had returned, but very soon, more and more people noticed that his empty eye socket that was initially covered with a blindfold was replaced with an entirely new eye. It looked just like any normal eye and didn’t seem fake at all.

“How is this possible?!”

The people in the fields were stunned as they watched Caesar hop away. They snapped back into reality with unbelievable expressions on their faces. One of them asked his friends hurriedly, “Did I see it wrong?”

“No, you saw it right. I saw it too!”

“Could it be that fearsome beasts can grow new eyes?” someone suspected. There were fearsome beasts that had regenerative abilities, but they never heard about any wolves with such an ability. Plus, if he had this ability, why did he wait until now to regenerate a new eye? How much time had passed since then? Caesar’s case became the new discussion topic for the tribespeople.

Shao Xuan didn’t publicly announce it to everyone because he didn’t know it would succeed, but since it was a success, Shao Xuan explained to everyone when he went up the mountain for a meeting.

“The Jing tribe’s True Eye?” Xing paid no attention to his favourite pottery today. He came over to ask Shao Xuan about Caesar’s eye.

Everyone else came for the same reason. Even Zheng Luo and Duo Kang who were guarding the post at the Flaming River Trading Point came over. After all, some warriors in their tribe had lost their eye too. They were all curious if they could regenerate new eyes like Caesar, so everyone was looking forward to his answer.

However, after they heard Shao Xuan repeat the Jing shaman’s message, their enthusiasm faded.

Blood affinities, fire seed. These were unchangeable factors. They could cause strong repulsive reactions. If they had to risk losing their lives for an eye, it was not worth it. Some things could not be forced.

They decided to set the topic of the True Eye aside. They were more curious about the Universal Eyes that Shao Xuan brought back. Although the ground eye stones were pretty, to most of the people in the Flaming Horn tribe, especially those who had already been living here from the start, the ground eye stone was not even worth more than a piece of beast meat. The people from the other side of the sea, however, were more interested in the ground eye stones. They were smarter and more sensitive when it came to trades, so they were the main force stationed at the Flaming River Trading Point.

However, the Universal Eyes did not merely attract those from the other side of the sea. Even the locals fancied it. Sometimes when they were not familiar with a new region during a hunt, or when they encountered rainy weather, they did not have any tools to tell the direction, so they had to wait for the sun to come out again to check. Now that they had the Universal Eye, they no longer had to stay and wait for the sky to clear out.

“This is even better than the sun stone.” Zheng Luo picked up a Universal Eye. He held in tightly and observed it in his hands to check if it was pointing in the right direction.

“It can tell apart sunlight and moonlight. It’s good stuff.” Ao was also excited.

They had a total of eighteen Universal Eyes accumulated from all their encounters downstream. The Gu shaman gifted them some, then they traded some with the Jing tribe, and then the Jing shaman also gave them some more. After they divided the stones up, Shao Xuan and four other elders, along with Gui Ze and Gui He, the current chief and shaman, each of them had one Universal Eye. Ta and Duo Kang, the two hunt leaders, also received one each. The nine extra Universal Eyes were left in Gui He’s keeping. If anyone needed to go on expedition trips, they could ask him for more in the future.

In their tribe, they were all part of the same team, so naturally, their goods would also be distributed evenly. Shao Xuan had no intention to keep it all for himself, but they were also rewarded by their effort, so since Shao Xuan was the one who helped them obtain most of the ground eye stones, he had more authority in making the decisions.

“Right, today the Hui tribe sent over a beast hide scroll.” Zheng Luo brought out a beast hide scroll that they had received at the headquarters and passed it to Gui He.

After Gui He looked over the scroll, he did not look too happy. “People are coming from the other side of the sea.”

“They’re finally coming?”

“No, there were some movements, but they are still not sure who was coming over. Something strange happened near the desert. Maybe there were some conflicts, but we’re still not sure what exactly happened,” Gui He said.

“As long as the people of Rock Hill City are keeping guard, even if people are coming over, there wouldn’t be many of them,” Shao Xuan said.

“Indeed, there are not many of them, but it’s still better to be careful. We’ll start expanding the patrolling grounds today, especially the area near the Flaming River Trading Point.”

No one objected to Gui He’s decision.

“Is anyone going over there from here?” Shao Xuan asked.

Gui He passed the beast hide scroll to Shao Xuan. “I’m not sure about other tribes, but they mentioned that the ‘robbers’ are quite active recently.”

Every time they mentioned the ‘robbers’, they couldn’t hold back the disgust they felt towards them. They even almost vomited their dinner from the day before. These people stole other people’s treasures so openly and proudly, and they were not at all embarrassed by their actions. Instead, they were proud. This was why all the tribes guarded against the ‘robbers’.

However, as the two continents drew closer to each other, there were more goods on the other side of the sea, so it was not at all strange that the ‘robbers’ were attracted to the other side.

The robbers were probably targeting the rich slave masters over there. As the Flaming Horns thought about this, many of them were feeling quite happy.

Let the ‘robbers’ go to the slave masters!

“It’s good for us that the robbers are attracted by the people there.” Zheng Luo smiled as he thought about the bad things that were going to happen.

It was apparent that everyone was thinking the same way.

Regardless, since there had been movements there and it had already been a year since the disaster, they knew that whatever was coming was unavoidable. Even though it wouldn’t affect the Flaming Horns too much during this time, they still had to make necessary precautions.

After the meeting, Shao Xuan descended the mountain. Caesar ran up and down the hill wildly, as if he wanted to let everyone know the change that had happened to him. He even went to show off to a few other fearsome beasts in their tribe before he went home.

Seeing Caesar’s change, Old Ke was also quite satisfied. He smiled cheerfully.

“It’s a good thing that you got your eye back.” As Old Ke thought of something, he asked Shao Xuan again, “Caesar’s eye probably wouldn’t have any problems in the future, right?”

“Judging by the look of it now, it’ll be fine. The repulsion wasn’t severe during the merging process. Just follow the Jing shaman’s instructions, and there shouldn’t be any other problems after the merge,” Shao Xuan replied.

“How incredible! It is exactly the same as before. His vision is the same too, right?”

“We’ll have to judge from his performance during future hunts.” If he performed the same as before, then it was definitely not a problem.

Even though they followed the Jing shaman’s instructions and knew that there wouldn’t be any problems afterwards, Caesar’s case was still different, so they still had to observe him for a few more days.

With his right eye regenerated, the amount of food Caesar brought back from his hunts was a lot more than when he only had one eye. Before, he could only catch those slower fearsome beasts that were not good at hiding. Now, all of the prey he brought back were ones that were usually hard to catch. He also didn’t have as many new injuries as before. From this, they learned how much Caesar’s movements were limited without both eyes.

As soon as people thought there were no problems with Caesar’s newly grown eye, something happened to him.

He was cheerful for the first two days, but he was slowly growing impatient. He no longer ran up or down the mountain. He only laid in front of his house and sometimes scratched his eye with his paws. After all, he wasn’t human, so his paws were not as flexible. Every time he reached out to scratch his eyes, he had to tilt his head at a weird angle.

After Shao Xuan checked him, he noticed that there were no unusual symptoms with his right eye. It was the same as when it first merged, and Caesar was not only scratching his right eye but his left one too.

“What’s wrong with him?” Old Ke asked anxiously.

“I don’t know.” Shao Xuan was also frustrated when he saw Caesar like this. The merging process was so successful, but why was this happening now? Was it a delayed repulsion?

As an Elder, Shao Xuan didn’t need to patrol the grounds, and he also didn’t need to go to the Flaming River Trading Point. All he needed to do was stay at home, watch over Caesar, and check in case something happened to his eye.

On the fifth day after the merge, Caesar became even more impatient than before. He rubbed his eyes more frequently and sometimes even roared in a low voice. He seemed very frustrated, probably because his paws were not as flexible and couldn’t reach the part he wanted to scratch, so he rubbed his face against the ground instead.

Shao Xuan couldn’t identify the cause behind this. He speculated that it was a late repulsion, a side effect after the merge but it affected both of the wolf’s eyes. However, every time he checked Caesar’s eyes, he noticed that nothing was abnormal about them, but Caesar was growing more irritated. At first, he was only pounding on the ground furiously, but now he was banging his head on the ground. Sometimes he even purposely ran into a tree.

However, besides these strange behaviours, nothing much changed on Caesar’s body. There were no signs of any repulsive reactions the Jing shaman mentioned. The wolf’s eyes were both normal. It only looked a little fierce sometimes because he was so frustrated. Sometimes when some tribespeople came to visit him, they would also be startled by his glare.

Days passed by slowly, and Caesar continued to run into the tree, but it happened even more frequently. Later, as if running into a tree was not enough, he even ran directly into a mountain. Blood spilt from his head. Even if fearsome beasts recovered fast, his body couldn’t tolerate such actions. He was running into objects on purpose every day.

His self-torture made a lot of people in the tribe worried. They realised that the Jing tribe’s True Eye didn’t work as efficiently as they had expected.

Shao Xuan went to Gui Ze for some medicine. Gui Ze had been personally trained to be the next shamaness, so she knew enough about medicines and illnesses,  but even she had never seen a case like Caesar’s before. Without any knowledge of the sickness, she could only prepare some medication to help alleviate the pain or strengthen his immunity. However, Caesar’s condition did not improve even after taking these medicines.

“What should we do?” Gui Ze passed all the medicine she prepared for Caesar’s self-induced injuries to Shao Xuan. She went through all the written records that the ancestors left behind about different types of sicknesses. None of them matched with Caesar’s case. After all, their ancestors’ notes were mostly about humans, and rarely about curing fearsome beasts.

“I want to bring him to the Jing tribe and see whether the Jing shaman can help him.”

Shao Xuan had just finished speaking. Lang Ga hurriedly rushed up the mountain to look for Shao Xuan. “Caesar ran away!”

“He ran into the mountain again?” Shao Xuan asked.

“No, he ran away from the tribe, into the forest. He didn’t seem very well when he left!” Lang Ga was in charge of patrolling today. He even followed Caesar as he passed by their patrolling team. As soon as he noticed something wrong, he ran over to inform Shao Xuan.

Shao Xuan’s expression suddenly changed. He set down the medicinal bag in his hands and followed Lang Ga down the mountain, towards the direction Caesar departed.

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