owlsbooks Chapter 38 The Upstream Messenger
Chapter 38 The Upstream Messenger
That aura did not disappear.
When Chen Fei got up from his lodgings in the early morning, there was still a trace of the lingering scent in the wind from the direction of the rocky area to the south—the concentration was so low that it was almost negligible, but his nasal cavity had already formed a memory of that feature, and he could recognize it even if only a silhouette remained.
It was extremely large, came from the south, and left after confirming ownership of the territory.
There are two interpretations of this matter.
The first scenario: The other party was just passing by and casually checked the boundary, posing no threat.
The second scenario: The other party came specifically to gather information, then went back to report, with threats to follow.
Chen Fei's judgment leans towards the second one.
The reason is simple.
That aura contained no trace of the wandering nature of any migrating individual.
There was no smell of tired glands from a long journey.
This indicates that the other party has a fixed territory and a base of operations, and that they are out on business this time.
He moved westward, extending today's patrol route southward.
Meimei caught up.
It wasn't Chen Fei who called her; she got up and followed him on her own, landing about three meters to his left and behind, her steps steady and unhurried.
Big Head also has to follow.
It scrambled up from its sleeping spot, its left shoulder wound scraping the ground as it gasped for breath. It quickly composed itself, took a step toward Chen Fei, and after about four steps, it noticed that Meimei had already taken the spot to its left rear. It circled around to its right rear, found its own spot, and continued walking.
The formation was formed naturally.
Chen Fei is in front, Mei Mei is to the left and behind, Da Tou is to the right and behind, and the wandering A and B guard their place.
After walking about two hundred meters south, a hornbill flew up from a low bush, circled in the air, and landed on Big Head's head.
Big Head didn't stop.
Its ears perked up, its eyes rolled upwards to confirm the source of the weight, then it straightened its head, its expression serious, and continued to follow Chen Fei.
The hornbill perched on its head, lowered its head and pecked at the base of the hornbill's mane, looking for parasites.
Big Head walked about twenty steps, and the hornbill pecked about twenty times.
The terrain on the south side is deeper than it was yesterday.
Further in from the rocky area, there is a section of low hills with dense grass and limited visibility, which is the buffer zone with the most complex scents in the entire territory.
Chen Fei slowed down here.
He pushed his sense of smell deeper and peeled it away layer by layer.
The source of that aura yesterday was the low grassland further south of the hills. About four hundred meters further ahead, the terrain begins to transition from hills to plains.
That was the boundary of another force's sphere of influence.
He found three new markers on the edge of the hills.
The urine stain is fresh and concentrated, indicating it was left overnight or early this morning.
The other party is declaring: the area south of this line is my territory.
Chen Fei crouched down and sniffed one of the markings more carefully.
The territorial marking system of a lion pride consists of three overlapping mechanisms: urine marking provides chemical information, glandular secretions provide individual identification features, and howling provides acoustic coverage.
Three sets of overlapping elements constitute a complete boundary declaration.
There are only urine stains here, no glandular secretions, and no howling residue.
The strength of the statement has been reduced.
There are two reasons for the discount: one is that the other party is not strong enough and dares not make a full statement; the other is that the other party is deliberately conservative and does not want to reveal all their cards during the probing phase.
Judging from the physical characteristics in his aura, the opponent's basic combat strength is not weak.
Therefore, it is the second type.
Testing the waters.
Chen Fei got up and continued walking south for about eighty meters. He stood on a rock platform about half a meter above the ground and pushed his sense of smell and hearing to the limit towards the grass to the south.
The wind blows smoothly from south to north.
He caught a whiff of that familiar scent in the grass 400 meters away.
The other party is still there.
The other party also sensed him.
The level of adrenaline in the scent rose slightly the moment Chen Fei smelled it—it was an instinctive reaction of the body that couldn't be suppressed the instant it was perceived.
Chen Fei waited on the rocky platform for a while.
The scent in the grass neither dissipated nor advanced.
We're waiting for his reaction.
He jumped off the rocky platform and headed south.
After walking about two hundred meters, the scent in the grass began to move, approaching him at a slow pace, a deliberate and controlled approach that maintained an estimated distance.
The two scents met at the boundary between the grassland and the hills.
The other party was a bit larger than Chen Fei had estimated.
An adult male lion with a yellowish mane of medium density and an upper-middle-class size among adult male lions, with an estimated basic combat strength between 2,300 and 2,500.
It stopped about 25 meters away from Chen Fei.
Chen Fei stood still.
Neither side made a sound.
This is a very specific form of communication among male lions on the grasslands.
It's not a standoff, it's an assessment.
Both sides were trying to read each other's information through their breath, posture, and body shape. Before deciding on the next step, whoever spoke first was at a disadvantage in terms of momentum.
The adult male lion's eyes lingered on Chen Fei for about ten seconds.
Chen Fei could tell that the other party was assessing his physique.
The sub-adult male lion is about 30 kilograms lighter than its opponent, and its mane is not fully grown.
Judging purely from physical size, the opponent would have a clear advantage if this fight were to break out.
The other person's nostril twitched.
It was sniffing out Chen Fei's scent.
Chen Fei knew what it could smell: the heat from yesterday's hunt, the warmth after eating, and the peculiar, burning scent that lingered after the heat flowed through its limbs—a scent that no adult male lion on this grassland could replicate.
The other person sniffed for about fifteen seconds, then stopped.
Chen Fei pushed the heat flow in his limbs forward from its stored state, not activating it at full power, but simply making the characteristics of the heat flow more obvious.
This was a very deliberate action.
He was doing one thing: making the other person smell things even more clearly.
The other person's ear was pushed back a little.
At this moment, Big Head took half a step forward.
It walked with a firm stride, head held high, ears straight, as if it were about to ascend.
Then it sensed something in Chen Fei's aura and stopped in its tracks.
With all four legs still in place and the body leaning forward, the head still held high, but the steps were completely still, hovering half a step away, as if nailed to the air by something.
It held that position for about five seconds, then slowly shifted its weight back, returned to its original position, stood still, lowered its head to normal height, and adopted a solemn expression.
Chen Fei's attention was on the other person, and he didn't spare any attention for Da Tou.
The other person's gaze lingered on Big Head for a second before returning to Chen Fei.
The silence continued.
The wind in the meadow carried the scents from both sides together, wafting them back and forth.
The other person's aura began to change.
Adrenaline levels are rising slowly, but in the wrong way.
If you are in a state of readiness, your adrenaline should surge explosively, accompanied by the characteristic smell of muscle tightening.
But the other person's current rise is slow and steady, like someone trying to maintain composure but whose body has already begun to betray them.
In his previous life, Chen Fei had read a behavioral study about territorial confrontations among lions, which contained a conclusion.
If, after the atmosphere assessment phase, the weaker individual chooses to maintain the standoff rather than retreat immediately, it usually means that it has support behind it.
Either the group is waiting in the rear, or they are ordered to carry out a certain mission, and the retreat can only proceed after the mission is completed.
This adult male lion was sent.
The mission is to assess the true strength of the new core of this territory.
Its current state is that it has completed part of the evaluation, but has not yet obtained enough information to go back and report.
Chen Fei took five steps forward.
The pace was steady and unhurried, with a slight vibration of heat in the limbs with each step, the burning sensation spreading outwards with each step.
The other person took a step back.
It wasn't a voluntary retreat, but a stress response. After retreating, it regained its balance, stretched its neck forward, and tried to maintain the standoff.
Chen Fei continued walking forward.
I took another five steps.
The other person took two steps back, and this time did not stick their neck out again.
Within its aura, the slowly rising adrenaline began to undergo a qualitative change.
The effort to maintain composure turned into a frantic rush, closer to the moment before the instinct to escape was activated.
Chen Fei stopped about twelve meters away from the other party.
He let out a low groan.
Not high, not fast, like a low-frequency vibration coming from the depths of the grassland, coming out of the chest and spreading out in all directions.
That frequency wasn't an attack signal; it was a very specific sound, with only one meaning in the lion's language—
I know what you're doing. You can go now.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 775↑]
The other party maintained that low hum for about three seconds.
Then it turned around.
It wasn't a hasty escape; it was the kind of turn that comes after a decision has been made. The steps were steady, but the speed was almost twice as fast as when they came. They walked into the depths of the grass on the south side, and after about fifty meters, they disappeared into the grass.
Its scent slowly retreated southward in the wind.
Halfway back, Chen Fei sensed something.
In the other person's aura, in the rapid period before the escape instinct was activated, there was a very subtle layer that was almost masked by other scents.
Meimei took half a step forward to his left rear side, level with his shoulder, and stood in that position, looking towards the grass to the south.
They didn't say anything.
Chen Fei pushed his sense of smell deeper to the south, through the patch of grass where the messenger had disappeared, across the low grass, and to the terrain boundary about four hundred meters away.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 782↑]
There was a second presence 400 meters away.
It's been there the whole time, without moving.
Four hundred meters downwind, at the junction of low grassland and shrubland, there is a natural blind spot.
But Chen Fei still managed to find out.
Looking from the north, that spot is shaded by a gentle slope. Standing there, you can take in the entire hilly area while remaining almost completely hidden.
The choice was deliberate.
Smaller than the messenger, younger, with a faint mane and a lower-middle-sized adult male lion. The one sent to monitor them wasn't an elite, but a expendable asset.
If discovered, the losses are acceptable.
One detail in the scent is very telling: the other person has a slight smell of hunger glands, indicating that they did not eat enough before setting off. This usually means that the mission is urgent, they are in a hurry, and there is no time to eat their fill.
The lion pride upstream is in a hurry.
Chen Fei knew when to act.
The signs of the dry season have already appeared in the grassland climate. Water resources will shrink rapidly in the coming period. Whoever figurees out the distribution of water resources and core strengths in the surrounding territories first will have a greater initiative during the dry season.
The upstream lion pride sent messengers and monitors to gather intelligence before the dry season.
The other side doesn't want to attack; they want to figure out whether they can even launch an attack.
This assessment gave Chen Fei a concrete direction for how to proceed.
He stood up and walked south.
Meimei followed and landed on the left rear side.
Big Head followed, finding a good position on the right rear side. His steps were steady, and the wound on his left shoulder had already scabbed over. His limp was smaller than it had been two days ago.
After walking about sixty meters, we entered the downhill section on the south side of the hill. The density of the grass began to increase, and the ground changed from sandstone to mixed soil, which felt slightly damp when stepped on.
Big Head stepped down with its right foreleg, its foot sinking in a little. It lowered its head, sniffed at its feet, moved half a step to the side, and continued walking.
We walked about twenty meters more.
Big Head stomped down with its left foreleg, this time sinking its foot even deeper. It lifted its leg up halfway, and a dense buzzing sound came from the sole of its foot.
Mafengwo.
It was buried under the grass, and one corner of it was trampled.
Big Head dangled his leg in the air, slowly lowered his head, and looked down at his feet. The buzzing sound grew louder and louder, and the first wasp had already flown out.
It stood on three legs for about two seconds, then suddenly swung its left front leg diagonally forward, leaping its entire body to the right. Its right hind leg pushed off the ground, its left shoulder wound twitched, it gasped, landed, and regained its footing on all four legs, its head high, ears straight, and its expression solemn.
The buzzing sound behind them spread out in the grass, expanding in all directions, but it didn't catch up.
Meimei didn't stop walking; she went around Da Tou from the side and walked past him.
Chen Fei did not turn around.
Big Head stood still for two seconds, then took a step and followed.
It took about seven minutes to walk 400 meters.
As they approached, Chen Fei slowed his pace, walked more lightly, and pushed his sense of smell to its limit.
The other person's aura is changing.
From a stable, dormant state, subtle fluctuations begin to appear—adrenaline levels rise slightly, and the breathing rate, as can be read from the olfactory characteristics, is half a beat faster than before.
The other party sensed him.
But it didn't move.
Chen Fei deduced the reason: the monitor's task was to collect information, not to confront it. Theoretically, it should retreat once it was discovered, but it did not, which meant that it was still evaluating one thing—whether this sub-adult male lion was worth it admitting "I have been discovered" by retreating.
Admitting to being discovered significantly diminishes the value of the intelligence when reporting back.
It's betting that Chen Fei just randomly approaches without locking onto him.
Chen Fei bypassed a clump of tall grass, emerged from the side of the gentle slope, and stood about thirty meters away from the other party.
The two forces collided head-on.