Chapter One: The Hunt

  The tall wormwood is as deep as the waist, stretching across the two continuous forests, like connecting the camps of the two purgatories, bringing a little relaxation to this lush thicket, and providing a habitat for the creatures within.

  The leaves rustled slightly, a dull whooshing sound swept over, and the long wormwood bushes seemed to be suddenly awakened, curving down their straight waists to express their respect for the wind's messenger from afar!

  Let the raging wind sweep through, and the humble Artemisia bushes will lower their posture to the lowest point. Let the messenger stir its soft body, not daring to resist in the slightest, lest it be ruthlessly strangled like the upright branches of some unknown tree in the old forest.

  The fierce wind swept across with satisfaction, galloping freely in its own territory. The humble attitude of the wormwood bushes was appreciated by the fierce wind, and so it handed over the bodies of the rebels to the wormwood bushes.

  Feeling this, the humble thistle cluster became even more obedient, almost sticking its entire body to the fertile land, with a rising and falling figure. The thistle cluster hurriedly accepted the gift of the strong wind, constantly nodding and bowing, showing its gratitude.

  The dense roots of the wormwood are separated, and the withered branches are inserted into them. The action is so skilled and elegant that it inadvertently exposes a thick layer of withered branches at the bottom. In this secluded forest, it looks exceptionally desolate. Obviously, this is not the first time!

  Accept the messenger's gift, the dancing Artemisia bushes restored their calmness. As their movements gradually stopped, the Artemisia that had narrowly escaped disaster stepped on the familiar beat and was about to enjoy this rare peace as usual, when a whistling sound rapidly approached from afar!

  Before the grasses could react to what had invaded their territory, the whistling stopped, and a dull roar came from among the grasses. Immediately afterwards, a green figure rose up from the midst of the grass clump.

  With a rough gasp, the green figure burst forth like an arrow from a bowstring, forcibly tearing open the grass in front of it and charging forward with a pair of blue bony horns.

  Suddenly, the humble nature of the wormwood thicket reappeared, and it bent down again to make way for a green biological image to emerge. It was a deer-like creature, only with some strange features!

  It was clear that the deer had been startled at this time, and its speed began to erupt, like a green light, quickly rushing towards the dense forest in front of it. Although I didn't know what happened, my intuition told me that danger was approaching!

  It's just that it started a bit later now, the roe deer's speed has not yet reached its limit, and five figures quickly darted out of the dense forest in front of it.

  Along with the five figures, there were also five unclear objects that appeared simultaneously, spinning and rapidly approaching.

  From this sound of breaking through the air, the deer obviously sensed danger. Its biological instincts told it that if it went any further forward, even if it could escape, it would inevitably be severely injured. In this dense forest, being injured is equivalent to death!

  Although the deer does not understand these things, having witnessed countless predecessors die in this way, it has already formed a conditioned reflex of alertness.

  At a critical moment, the deer's foot trembled, and the muscles on its two front legs quivered, like steel cables, twisting violently.

  A mighty force burst forth from this, the two front hooves of the deer deeply pressed into the roots and stems of the Artemisia bushes, amidst the wildly flying catkins, they abruptly stopped their pace, their body suddenly made a swift and fierce movement as if drifting, abruptly turning their body's direction by one hundred and eighty degrees.

  Facing the suddenly turning elk, five figures rushing out of the dense forest paused slightly, and with a loud cry to the sky, they rushed out at a speed that was not much slower than the elk.

  Under the faint sunlight, five figures gradually became clear, revealing their originally ferocious appearance. These were indeed five slightly stooping, ape-like creatures that walked upright but had dense body hair, high cheekbones, and protruding foreheads - apemen!

  All five apemen were robust, and the first one was exceptionally sturdy, with muscles bulging all over his body, even the thick hair on his body couldn't hide the bulging lines of muscles.

  Behind him were several slightly smaller apemen, who looked a bit younger, but judging from their calm expressions and agile movements, this shouldn't be their first hunt!

  The howling sound was made by the leading ape-man, and as it let out its howl, the sharp stone the size of a human head in its large fan-shaped hand also flew out horizontally, chasing after the deer that were fleeing in panic amidst the howls.

  As the first ape-man's stone flew out, four more stones of slightly smaller size also shot out rapidly, carrying a whistling wind sound, striking the poor elk. Apparently, the four people behind him had also made their move.

  A moment later, a mournful cry sounded, and the deer's body stumbled, almost falling to the ground. Two of the five stones hit the deer's head with incredible accuracy, causing severe injury, while the other three unfortunately missed!

  However, it seems that these two hits were enough, although the deer did not suffer a fatal injury, but it had already clearly lost its composure and began to run wildly, in a state of panic, regardless of its body shape, it made a sharp turn and rushed forward.

  But just a moment later, after the deer had recklessly charged into the dense forest to the side, what greeted it was not the terrifying and now warm forest appearance of the past, but ten figures of varying sizes, along with the whistling stones in their hands.

  In the end, this unlucky elk was held by the neck by three thin apes and slammed heavily to the ground. Suddenly, flesh and blood flew everywhere, including not only the elk's but also the apes' own!

  Hunting is impossible without paying a price, especially for the proto-humans or hominids who had not yet evolved into humans!

  As the deer fell, with the bright red blood seeping out, this hunt was thoroughly over. The apemen who had been lurking around emerged one after another, fifteen apemen surrounded them, under the faint sunlight, all of whom stared at the deer with fiery eyes.

  But none of them dared to make a move, because the leader had not spoken yet!

  Excitedly licking his tongue, the robust ape-man walked a few steps forward, and the leader of the previous five-man group was actually the leader of this team!

  The ape leader bent down, leaned into the deer's wound, and took a few big gulps of deer blood. The warm flow flowed into the leader's abdomen, making him even more excited.

  He took another sip of the deer blood, quenching the hunger in his stomach. The leader slightly raised his head and beckoned to an ape-man behind him.

  With a few indistinct shouts, the leader pointed to the deer's wound, seemingly gesturing for the ape-man to come over and take a drink!

  This ape-man was one of the five who had just shot the elk with their leader.

  Having received the leader's nod, this young ape immediately took a few steps forward, and under the extremely envious gaze of others, came close to the deer, and without hesitation, put his mouth on the terrifying wound, and poured the deer blood into his belly in big gulps.

  Feeling the power inside him gradually recovering, experiencing the warmth of blood filling his stomach, Chen Xu couldn't help but let out a comfortable sigh, and for some reason, he thought of the feeling of Nescafe coffee.

  For a moment, Chen Xu couldn't help but feel a sense of disorientation in time and space.

  It wasn't until he had taken five more gulps that his stomach was bloated to the point of bursting, and the fresh blood in his mouth was also gradually drying up. Only then did Chen Xu finally lift his head, ending this bout of drinking that had brought him extreme comfort!

  Satisfied, he patted Chen Xu's shoulder. The leader's terrifying mouth opened again, and he gestured to the other three members of the five-man team, explaining his meaning clearly with a series of roars and gestures.

  In Chen Xu's view, this move can be expressed in four words: "It serves you right!"

  "Tragic reality, damned fate, I was just joking around, did you have to make it come true immediately?"

  Feeling the strong bloody taste in his mouth, Chen Xu opened up a position and saw three other hunters excitedly rush forward to lick the remaining deer blood, unable to help but feel a wave of toothache!

  Looking around at the dozen or so creatures that seemed like giant apes from a past life, Chen Xu really couldn't have imagined that one day he would be living with them, fighting alongside them, and perhaps even passing on his lineage together!

  Although he knew that he was also in this state of honor at the moment, but until now, looking at these dozen or so upright people around him, Chen Xu still had a feeling of unreality, as if he was watching a 3D version of "Man and Nature", like a scene of ancient humans hunting simulated by computer special effects.

  But the thick bloody smell on the scene, the strong body odor from his own kind and himself, the sweet deer blood in his abdomen, and his long-haired and somewhat hunched body all made Chen Xu understand that this was not 3D, but 4D, a real-life scenario with time added to it!

  Listening to the sound of the dense forest around him, feeling the cool air, looking at the thatched roof under the blue sky, and gazing at the countless strange flowers and grasses he had never seen before, Chen Xu couldn't help but admit a fact: he really did cross over!

  If this is still Earth, if the thing in front of him is what they call a Saola, and if the familiar hunting method hasn't been mistaken, then Chen Xu would probably be able to determine which era this is, assuming those experts aren't speaking nonsense this time.

  This is the Stone Age! Maybe you can add a limited word, this is the Old Stone Age, not far from the respectable 21st century, probably, maybe, possibly over a million years ago, for Chen Xiang, the pressure is not that great!

  After all, heaven didn't throw him into the dinosaur era, it's already a blessing for him!

  Thinking of the reason why he crossed over, even though it's already been a month since he came here, Chen Xu still felt that it was unbelievable.