Chapter 144: Chapter 144: The Wanderers

"Elder Senda, who would dare venture deep into the Wangyue Mountains to hunt anacondas?"The snake tribe worships anacondas as snake spirits—who’d have the guts to hunt one? Aren’t they afraid of provoking those snake lunatics?"The tribes of the Twilight Forest live in peace—could it be outsiders, wanderers?"In an instant, everyone began to discuss.

The Twilight Forest was in the center of Western Land, alongside the Qinghai Plateau and the East Sea as one of its core regions. These three places were home to the beast tribes, bird tribes, and fish tribes.

But aside from these three, many other people lived scattered across Western Land.

Most of them were outlaws, or wanderers who’d been exiled from their original tribes for wrongdoing. The people from the three core regions called them outsiders, or wanderers.

They gathered together to form tribes.

Some of these tribes were good, others bad—mostly bad.

“By outsiders, do you mean the Chenrong?” Changxia asked hesitantly.

Nan Feng shook her head and explained, “Changxia, you’re mistaken. Outsiders are also called wanderers. Most of them are violent people, or those who have been exiled from their original tribes. They burn, kill, loot, and commit all sorts of crimes.”

“Wanderer” was definitely a derogatory term.

Likewise, outsiders were not welcome at all.

“They’re that dangerous?” Changxia exclaimed in surprise.

“Extremely dangerous. If you run into them, don’t talk—just kill them,” Maple Leaf said coldly.

Changxia glanced nervously at Maple Leaf’s grim expression, guessing that she must have had a bad encounter with wanderers before.

“Wanderers are a serious matter. We need to confirm first,” Senda said solemnly.

If it was confirmed that wanderers had entered the Twilight Forest, they had to contact the Kanar Holy Mountain’s Shaman Hall and report it to the shamans, letting them decide what to do. At the same time, the other beast tribes had to be notified. Wanderers were a band of thugs and bandits who would plunder everything—including the beast tribes themselves.

Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, loud rumbles echoed from the distance.

Everyone instantly felt the ground shaking beneath their feet.

“That’s intense!” Changxia barely had time to think before the sudden tremors startled her.

She looked up toward the wilderness.

Sure enough, Elder Pukang had already engaged the anaconda.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the surrounding snakes scattered, finally breaking free from the anaconda’s oppressive aura. The snake-filled wilderness quickly cleared out, and even the air seemed fresher.

“Hee-hee-hee—”

“Nice! You beast, take two more of my iron fists!”

“That lunatic’s gone wild again!” Senda shook his head and ordered, “Kongshan, clean the polished stone pot and get it ready to cook for Pukang. Don’t let him keep rampaging. Changxia, help prepare some food to snap him out of it.”

When Elder Pukang got hungry, he was prone to going berserk.

Once he lost control, things could get out of hand.

That anaconda was incredibly valuable—they couldn’t let Elder Pukang waste it.

Anacondas were precious. Because of the snake tribe, few beast tribes in the Twilight Forest hunted them. Besides avoiding conflict with the snake tribe, it was also because anacondas were hard to find.

This was a rare opportunity, and the Heluo tribe wasn’t about to let it slip by.

If the anaconda had been in the Wangyue Mountains, the Heluo tribe would never have crossed the border. But since it had wandered into their territory, even if the snake tribe found out later, they couldn’t blame the Black Panther tribe.

As Senda finished speaking, he turned into a blur,

rushing toward the battlefield where Elder Pukang and the anaconda were fighting, joining the fray.

“Elder Senda—”

“He’s fierce, isn’t he? Elder Senda’s called the Snake Catcher for a reason. He’s killed more than just snakes—few wild beasts in the Twilight Forest can escape his black blade. But rumor has it he got the nickname because he loves eating snake meat,” Nan Feng whispered, sharing some gossip.

Everyone knew Elder Senda was called the Snake Catcher because he hunted snakes, but according to Nan Feng, it was really because he loved eating them. Whether that was true or not, Nan Feng couldn’t say for sure, but it was fun to gossip about.

“Elder Senda likes eating snake meat?” Changxia asked in surprise.

Maple Leaf tapped Nan Feng and said quietly, “Don’t spread rumors. If Elder Senda hears, you’ll get smacked.”

“I’m serious! If you don’t believe me, just watch later,” Nan Feng replied, rubbing the spot Maple Leaf had hit, grinning mischievously.

“Snake meat’s not bad,” Chenrong chimed in.

Kongshan, eyes fixed on the wilderness, added, “If you’re going to eat snake meat… it has to be anaconda. The elders always said anaconda meat tasted amazing. Unfortunately, the snake tribe are lunatics—they treat anacondas as snake spirits and forbid anyone from hunting them.”

As soon as the topic turned to food,

everyone perked up.

“How does forest python compare?” Changxia asked. She’d never tasted either, but judging by Kongshan’s eager expression, anaconda meat must be delicious.

Given how rough the tribe’s cooking usually was,

if they praised a food this highly, Changxia could imagine how good anaconda must be.

“Forest python tastes a bit like fish,” Kongshan said.

Nan Feng shook his head in disagreement. “Forest python’s nowhere near as tasty as fish. But its skin makes the best beast pouches and medicine bags. Changxia, if you want to sew a beast pouch, you should hunt a forest python and use its skin.”

Bags made from forest python skin were incredibly spacious—

they looked small on the outside, but were huge inside.

The tribe stored salt and other precious items in these python-skin bags.

Forest pythons were cunning, even harder to hunt than crocodiles.

Of course, crocodile skin could also be used for pouches and medicine bags,

but python skin was better—more flexible, waterproof, and fire-resistant. Crocodile skin was tougher, but less stretchy than python skin.

“Python oil is really useful too,” Maple Leaf added.

She’d never used anaconda oil herself—probably only the elders had eaten anaconda meat or used its oil. The snake tribe strictly forbade hunting anacondas, but Maple Leaf doubted the fierce elders ever listened to their warnings.

The elders were the very definition of “might makes right,”

and they showed it in everything they did.

“Didn’t you say there were forest pythons in the Little River?” Changxia asked. If the meat was tasty and the skin useful, how could the tribe pass that up?

Nan Feng shrugged and spread his hands. “There are, but only near Weishan. And there aren’t many— even if you go to the Little River or Weihe, you might not find one. Crocodiles, though, you’ll almost always run into.”

But—

Crocodile meat wasn’t tasty.

At least, no one in the tribe liked it.

So even though crocodile skin is quite good, the tribe members still wouldn’t deliberately go hunting for them.

Unless they were unlucky enough to run into one by chance.

After all, the tribe has never been picky about what they hunt. Ever since Changxia started making beggar’s chicken, spicy chicken, chicken soup, and so on, they haven’t even spared the small animals.

Because of this, their hunting speed has only gotten faster.

After hearing this, Changxia instantly understood—it was all just an excuse.

In reality, the tribe members simply couldn’t be bothered to go out of their way to hunt forest pythons. After all, relying on luck is a waste of time. With that kind of free time, they’d rather hunt wild boar or bison—herd animals that you can find in large groups with little effort.

As they chatted and joked, a faint aroma began to waft from the stone pot.

However, there was still a slight fishy smell mixed in. Yadong hadn’t returned, and Shankun hadn’t brought any seasonings, so Changxia simply put the cleaned snake meat into the stone pot to stew.

The elder Pukang was known to chew on ironwood, so surely he wouldn’t mind a lack of seasoning in the snake meat...