Chapter 167: Chapter 166: Demon Race Bird Egg
At one year of age, all the children could run and jump. They hurried through the tribe’s snow-covered paths, dashing toward their homes.
After their weekly lesson with the Elder Witch Priest, they would return home to practice their Spear Technique. Jiang Qiu would also return to Xiong’s house, where he had been living for the past year.
Just as he pushed open the courtyard gate, a clear, sweet voice suddenly came from next door. "Hill, are you back from the Elder Witch Priest’s?"
He turned to look and saw a girl with rosy cheeks leaning out from the neighboring courtyard. She was rubbing her hands together, her breath forming puffs of white steam, her large eyes shining brightly.
Her name was Flower, the neighbor’s daughter. She was likely five or six years old and a good half a body taller than Jiang Qiu, though she looked small bundled up in her fur coat.
"Yeah."
Jiang Qiu nodded in response.
"Wait a second..."
Flower suddenly seemed to remember something. She scurried back into her house with short, quick steps. A moment later, she came out holding a large, steaming bird’s egg and briskly handed it over. "My dad brought this back. It’s cooked. It’s for you."
"Aren’t you going to eat it yourself?"
Jiang Qiu was stunned for a moment. An egg as big as his head wasn’t easy to come by. Moreover, judging by its patterns, it seemed to be the egg of some kind of avian Demon Race creature. The nutrition it contained went without saying.
To the North Snow Tribe, who had lived in this snowy land for generations, food was the most precious thing, especially food that could both sate hunger and promote Luminous Blood circulation.
Although Xiong was usually very good to him, getting to eat a Demon Race bird’s egg this large was not easy. Xiong didn’t have a wife, and while he always brought back enough food from his hunts to keep them from starving, a treat like this was rare.
The last time he had eaten an egg like this was... well, the last time.
"I’ve already eaten! You’re still so little, you should eat more."
Flower grinned, revealing two rows of small, white, and neat teeth. Her already rosy cheeks seemed even fuller.
Her father and Xiong were good brothers, so naturally, she and Jiang Qiu would be good friends. In the tribe, everyone helped each other out.
Moreover, in the tens of thousands of years of tradition, women, lacking strong muscles and being physically weaker, were always at a disadvantage. Few women could become Warriors and go out to hunt, so she didn’t need such good nutrition.
She was content just being raised well-fed and chubby by her parents.
Jiang Qiu stared at the large, steaming bird’s egg for a moment, his heart slightly moved. He reached out his small hands and held it, as if receiving a warm current from a hot spring. A steady stream of heat seeped from the eggshell’s surface into his palms, creeping up his forearms and dispelling the wandering chill within his body.
Even without eating it, the egg was an excellent hand-warmer just to hold.
Although he had only been in the North Snow Tribe for a year, Jiang Qiu had received quite a few useful things from Flower. On his first day lying in Xiong’s house, Flower had come over to play and stuffed an Ice Crystal Fruit she was about to eat herself into his mouth. With his teeth not even fully grown in, the cold had almost made his throat smoke.
In the time that followed, Flower fed him quite often, right up until he could finally get out of bed and learned to say no.
"Hehe, you’re growing up so fast! You’re already this tall."
Flower reached out her right hand to pat Jiang Qiu’s head, then held it level with her own chest to compare their heights.
The warmth from her small palm transferred to Jiang Qiu’s hair. His scalp felt warm, and his mood lightened.
"I guess I am growing pretty fast."
Jiang Qiu replied casually, and she giggled happily.
This lasted until a loud shout came from her house: "Flower, come back and help me weave baskets!"
"Okay, coming!" Flower answered loudly. Before leaving, she looked at Jiang Qiu with a grin and whispered, "I’ll bring you something yummy next time."
TAP TAP TAP...
The little girl darted back into her own courtyard with light steps. Jiang Qiu stood still for a moment, holding the large bird’s egg, then let out a soft breath and strolled into Xiong’s house.
He had been thrust abruptly into this world, picked up from the snow by Xiong, and even given the name Hill because he was found in a grove of snowy hillocks.
In one year, he had basically integrated into the life of the North Snow Tribe.
Although the living conditions here were primitive, they weren’t as savage as one might imagine. On the contrary, after tens of thousands of years of heritage, the tribe’s conviction had become so resilient that not even ice and snow could bury it.
The people of the North Snow Tribe, like other tribes, believed in the legend of the Northern Boundary Mountain. They waited for someone to pick the Enlightenment Fruit and restore this sundered world to its original state.
Xiong often said that tens of thousands of years ago, the Northern Boundary wasn’t eternally covered in ice and snow; a great seal had ended all that. He hoped Jiang Qiu could answer the call of the legend and become the Chosen One who would break the seal.
In truth, the Northern Boundary didn’t have just one generation of Chosen Ones. It was just that most of the Chosen Ones who appeared in past years went to the Northern Boundary Peak and never returned.
Over tens of thousands of years, the North Snow Tribe had nurtured dozens of generations of Chosen Ones. Unfortunately, none of them ever came back...
’Sigh, this Great Secret Realm’s trial really isn’t easy,’ Jiang Qiu thought as he casually grabbed the fire tongs. He raked away the ash on the fire pit, revealing glowing orange charcoal, and sat alone by the pit’s edge. ’I originally thought this was just one of those rumored Illusion Realm-type trials, but it turns out this body is real, and the panel has even refreshed with a new interface.’
[Human Race Bloodline]
[Tier One Luminous Blood: 6/100]
He hadn’t activated his bloodline yet, so he hadn’t officially stepped onto the North Snow Tribe’s Path of Body Refining. Thus, he didn’t have a Realm for his physical body yet.
In reality, Jiang Qiu was just a one-year-old brat right now. Even with his astonishingly brilliant Spear Technique, he couldn’t use it for the time being.
However, in three days, after the bloodline test was over, he could start tempering his body with the tribe’s adult Warriors. He had heard they bathed in the waters of frigid pools, washed in scalding hot springs, and brandished spears naked in the snow.
The methods were rather barbaric, but it was precisely these methods that forged the tribe’s Warriors who could regenerate severed limbs.
’The other Chosen Ones, like Tang Guang and his group, have probably found their own tribes or clans by now,’ he mused. ’They’ll be using different methods to temper themselves, pushing to gain greater power, all to compete for the Enlightenment Fruit on the Northern Boundary Mountain nineteen years from now.’
’Nineteen years isn’t long, but it isn’t short either. What I need to do is break through to the strongest physical Realm in this world, get my hands on a longspear forged from Cold Iron, and gain as much power as possible.’
’But since my Spear Technique is already transcendent, I don’t need to work hard on practicing it. Instead, I should focus more on improving my Luminous Blood.’
At this thought, Jiang Qiu looked down at the large bird’s egg in his arms. He clenched his right hand into a fist, and the corner of his mouth curled up slightly. ’For me, absorbing food like Demon Race bird eggs has a much more significant effect on improving my Luminous Blood than it does for others.’
