I am a Primitive Man

Cao Geng lifted his face, chapped by the cold wind, and wiped away the frozen snot with hands that looked equally worse for wear. He followed the sound and saw a companion excitedly pointing at a tall pine tree.

Cao Geng and the other two quickly ran over, and about two meters high on the pine tree, they found a fist-sized hole.

Seeing this hole, Cao Geng also grinned, happy for his companion's stroke of luck.

They first found a not-too-large stone nearby and leveraged it from the ground with a stick. After preparing another stone on another rock, the person who first discovered the tree hole took it. He climbed up with Cao Geng and the other two pushing him up the tree.

The cold and hunger had made their bodies stiff and weak. Otherwise, they could have climbed up the tree alone without assistance.

The person climbed up the tree, stood on a horizontal branch with both feet and held the slightly prepared stone in one hand. He continuously chopped and smashed at the hole in the pine tree.

After enlarging the hole, he switched the stone to the hand wrapped around the tree trunk and reached in with a smile to retrieve something.

Amidst the squeaks of some animals, he pulled his arm out of the tree hole, holding five or six sizable chestnuts.

With a smile and a hint of pride, he shouted down to Cao Geng and the others wrapped in animal skins, then threw the chestnuts down.

No one paid attention to the protests of the two squirrels, who ran out and jumped on the branches, squeaking loudly. If possible, Cao Geng and the others even wanted to catch these two squirrels and bring them back.

The tree hole was full of stored goods, including chestnuts, pine nuts, and acorns, all hopping about.

They filled nearly half of the animal skin bundle.

The person in the tree continued to smash at the tree hole with the stone for a while. After confirming that it couldn't be enlarged further, he reluctantly gave up on the remaining food in the tree hole and climbed down.

With Cao Geng and the other two carrying their sticks and bountiful harvest, they headed back towards the cave.

The two squirrels stood on the branches, cursing the four arrogant thieves who swaggered away after their loot. After a while, they reluctantly stopped and climbed down the trunk to inspect their devastated home.

Before they could reach the cave entrance, the two squirrels stopped, hesitated momentarily, then immediately turned around and hopped back toward the top of the pine tree.

Standing on the high branches, they watched in horror as more terrifying thieves appeared under the tree.

The three leaders of the Flying Snakes tribe stood under the pine tree, looking at the newly broken squirrel hole and the two squirrels, who were out in the cold instead of sleeping in their tree hole in the middle of winter. They then glanced at the footprints left behind and the distant figures, their faces breaking into smiles.

After waiting a while, they called over two people and instructed them to follow the footprints ahead.

The leader left marks here that their people could understand, waited a little longer, and began heading in the initially planned direction.

This newly discovered tribe is quite lucky. This year, the Flying Snakes tribe is not lacking in food; otherwise, they wouldn't have been let off so easily.

However, this doesn't mean their luck will always hold. The Flying Snakes tribe usually discovers other tribes and then attacks when food becomes scarce.

So far, there have been few failures. The worst was when they attacked a very peculiar tribe during a snowstorm a few days ago...

The three leaders of the Flying Snakes tribe are calculating like this. They are carrying woven grass baskets and traversing the snow with some difficulty.

In their baskets, aside from fruits and pieces of meat for food, there's only a kind of green, slightly blackened grass.

Glancing at the grass in the basket, the three leaders of the Flying Snakes tribe can't help feeling a bit frustrated.

If it weren't for this grass, they could stay in a warm cave, roasting meat by the fire. Why lead people on such a long journey through this icy wilderness?

This grass is what the increasingly gluttonous little monster loves to eat.

That little monster, covered in fur with a horn on its head, has grown large and loves to follow behind the shaman.

It's strange. The shaman, who isn't very interested in primitive women, is fond of this frightening little monster.

So, when the weather gets colder, and snow is about to fall, they leave the tribe and head to a previously conquered tribe's location to harvest this grass.

It's better to kill for meat, and its fur is warm when worn.

Of course, this is just a thought in his mind. In their tribe, few dare to question the shaman's decisions or disobey his commands.

"￥!"

After walking for a while like this, the three leaders of the Flying Snakes tribe take out something wrapped in layers of animal hide from a smaller grass basket hanging from their waist.

They unwrap the layers of hide, revealing something resembling a skull.

Inside the skull are some white solids, resembling frozen human brains.

The three leaders of the Flying Snakes tribe use their fingers to scoop out some of the white solids and apply them to the hands of the people who have stopped following their commands.

These people of the Flying Snakes tribe cherish the white solids on their hands and evenly spread them on their faces and exposed skin.

After scooping out more, the three leaders of the Flying Snakes tribe wrap the skull carefully and place it back in the grass basket around their waist.

These things are the Flying Snakes tribe's most significant reliance for venturing out in the depths of winter.

With these, they won't fear the cold north wind. Even if their bodies freeze, their hands and faces won't crack open.

The shaman gave them this. Only the shaman knew how to obtain such precious things in the entire tribe.