121: Competition

The next second.

His wrinkled, weather-beaten face froze instantly.

It was soft and flavorful, bursting with juices. The beef fibers melted away with a gentle press of the tongue, and the rich sauce instantly filled his entire mouth.

This wasn't just delicious; it was a warm current that slid down his throat and into his stomach, instantly filling his exhausted body with strength.

“Sidai! (Excellent!)”

The Old Chief shouted praises excitedly, and tears even welled up in his cloudy eyes.

He turned and shouted a few sentences to his tribesmen behind him, signaling that this was safe, God-given food.

At that, all reserve was completely shattered.

The warriors swarmed around. Though their eyes were filled with longing, they still maintained order.

Jiang Yuan was not stingy either. He ran the Molecular Gastronomy Machine at full power, continuously synthesizing all kinds of delicacies: roasted chicken legs, soft sweet bread, iced mango juice... The originally dull and tedious rest during the migration instantly turned into a gluttonous feast on the wilderness.

After eating and drinking their fill, to welcome this generous and magical Eastern friend, the Maasai people decided to perform their most unique welcoming ceremony—the Adumu (Jumping Dance).

This was an ancient dance of courtship and a display of strength.

Dozens of slender Maasai warriors formed a semicircle and began to make low, rhythmic guttural sounds.

“Hu! Hu! Hu!”

The sounds became more and more rapid, carrying a primal, wild rhythm.

As the rhythm reached its climax, a young warrior coated in ochre powder stepped into the center of the circle.

His body was as straight as a spear, hands pressed tight against his thighs. Without any running start, his knees bent slightly, and his whole body sprang up from the spot like a coil.

This jump was a full seventy or eighty centimeters high!

He hung in the air for a split second before landing steadily, followed immediately by an even higher jump.

A round of cheers erupted from the surroundings.

In Maasai culture, the higher one jumps, the stronger they are, the better they can survive on the savanna, and the more favored they are by women.

The warrior jumped until he was dripping with sweat, his eyes filled with pride.

After he finished jumping, he didn't retreat. Instead, he looked at Jiang Yuan, who was standing to the side clapping, with a hint of friendly provocation in his eyes. He shouted loudly in the Maasai language:

“Friend from afar, why don't you give it a try?”

The surrounding Maasai people all broke into good-natured laughter.

In their eyes, this fair-skinned Easterner, whose build didn't look particularly strong, surely wouldn't be able to jump very high.

After all, this was the innate talent of the Maasai people.

Jiang Yuan smiled and set down the glass of fruit juice in his hand.

“Alright, then I'll make a fool of myself.”

He walked to the center of the crowd, feeling the warm red earth beneath his feet.

Jiang Yuan took a deep breath, and his physical functions automatically adjusted to 150% of the peak state of an average human.

He naturally couldn't use his full strength. With his current terrifying physical constitution, if he jumped with all his might, he might fly over ten meters high like Superman, scaring these natives into kneeling and worshiping him.

As the low guttural accompaniment sounded again, Jiang Yuan adjusted his breathing.

His knees bent slightly, and his thigh muscles exploded with power.

Swoosh!

Without the sound of a heavy stomp, Jiang Yuan's body rose from the ground like a graceful bird, defying gravity.

With this jump, his line of sight rose rapidly.

In the air, he even had the leisure to look down.

His gaze looked directly down at the top of the head of the tallest warrior present!

Estimated height: 1.2 meters!

This already surpassed the vertical leap of most professional basketball players, and what's more, it was on soft red earth without a running start.

In that instant, the originally noisy singing came to an abrupt halt.

The air became so quiet that it seemed one could hear the sound of the wind blowing through the dry grass.

Thud.

Jiang Yuan landed steadily, his legs bending slightly to absorb the impact. He didn't even kick up much dust.

After a few seconds of dead silence, thunderous applause and screams erupted.

The young warrior who had been looking at him provocatively just now now had his mouth wide open, his eyes full of disbelief and admiration.

In the Maasai worldview, the strong deserve the highest respect.

However, the true test was still to come.

To express the highest respect for this 'Super Warrior,' the Old Chief made a decision.

He waved his hand, and two warriors led the most robust bull out from the herd.

They skillfully used a leather strap to tighten the bull's neck, making the jugular vein bulge, and then used a specially made short bow to fire a tiny arrow from close range.

Puchi.

Dark red blood gushed out and was immediately caught in a yellowish-brown gourd.

Once the gourd was full of blood, the warriors immediately pulled out the arrow and sealed the bull's wound with mud—this method of bloodletting would not kill the bull and was a piece of survival wisdom the Maasai relied on.

Then, they mixed the hot blood with freshly squeezed milk and stirred it rapidly with a wooden stick until it turned into a pink, steaming, thick liquid.

This was the Maasai 'Red Bull,' a drink that only the most honored guests and bravest warriors were eligible to enjoy.

“Drink!”

The Old Chief held the gourd in both hands and solemnly presented it to Jiang Yuan.

A strong and unique fishy smell wafted toward him, a scent that was a mix of rusty iron and the gamey smell of raw milk.

Jiang Yuan looked at the bowl of thick liquid, his eyebrows twitching imperceptibly.

Although he respected cultural differences and knew this was the highest form of hospitality, as someone who grew up in a modern civilized society, drinking raw blood directly... was still a bit physiologically repellent.

“Activate Oral Substance Decomposition and Filtration Mode.”

Jiang Yuan murmured in a low voice.

“Command confirmed. Nano-filtration Mesh has covered the oral mucosa and esophagus.”

Having prepared his cheat, a heroic smile appeared on Jiang Yuan's face.

He took the gourd and, without any hesitation, tilted his head back and gulped down the bowl of blood-milk.

The moment the liquid touched his lips, an invisible force field immediately activated.

Those nauseating fishy molecules were instantly decomposed and reorganized into tasteless pure water and high-protein energy. The originally thick texture also became as smooth as silk.

Gulp, gulp.

To outsiders, Jiang Yuan's Adam's apple rolled as he swallowed the bowl of pungent blood-milk with a straight face, not even knitting his brows.

“Ha—”

Jiang Yuan set down the empty gourd, wiped a bit of pink liquid from the corner of his mouth, and praised in standard Maasai:

“It tastes good, very potent!”

“Good job!!!”

Now, the Maasai people completely treated him as one of their own.

To be able to jump higher than a cheetah and drink this big bowl of blood-milk without flinching—this Easterner was definitely a tough guy among tough guys!

Just as this cheerful atmosphere reached its peak.

Suddenly, a warrior on lookout in the distance let out a shrill scream.

“Olowuaru! Olowuaru! (Lion!)”

The cattle that had been grazing peacefully instantly panicked, scattering in all directions.

The grass shook violently as three large nomadic Male Lions, clearly having been lying in wait for a long time, launched a surprise attack during the gap in the celebration.

Their target wasn't the strong bulls, but a lone calf on the edge.

“Kill!”

The Maasai warriors reacted extremely quickly. Without any hesitation, they grabbed their spears and round shields from the ground and rushed over.

To them, cattle were their life, property that could never be taken away.

Jiang Yuan's eyes narrowed, and he followed them.

But the situation was not optimistic.

These three Male Lions were lean, clearly starving nomads, and were in a frenzy of ferocity.

Facing the charging spear formation, they didn't retreat as usual. Instead, they let out ear-splitting roars.

One Male Lion with a messy mane cunningly bypassed the frontal defense and lunged toward the youngest warrior on the flank—the one who had just challenged Jiang Yuan with the dance.

The young warrior, eager to prove himself, had rushed too far forward. His foot slipped on the red earth, and he tumbled to the ground, his spear flying out of his hand.

“Roar!”

The lion seized the opportunity, opening its bloody maw and, with a suffocatingly foul wind, went straight for the youth's throat.

“No!!”

The distance was too great. The Old Chief and the other warriors could only watch helplessly, completely unable to rescue him in time.