Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

"Great human, I will definitely warn all tiger people: although humans do not have sharp fangs and horns, they are smart and intelligent animals, and the most powerful animals. We tigers must never invade humans." The Tiger King said seriously.

Qiu stroked his white beard and said to the tigers sternly, "Tiger King, I hope you will keep your word. Otherwise, no matter how fierce you are, you will be killed."

After saying this, he walked out of the cave and said to Dong and others, "The Tiger King surrendered sincerely, and now he has been punished. We don't need to worry about him attacking us again in the future."

"The cave master is wise and brave. We agree to the Tiger King's surrender." Dong was full of admiration and expressed his opinion immediately.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Qiu come out unscathed. Especially Dong, who was impressed by Qiu's courage and immediately said, "The cave master is really wise and brave. We agree to Tiger King's surrender."

Pinghe Yang, Liu, Xi, Bei and others followed suit and expressed their acceptance of the Tiger King's surrender. Qiu immediately ordered his men to put out the fire, then tied up the Tiger King and the Cat King, and took them to the dungeon, where they were imprisoned together with the Rat King and the Ox King. The other tiger generals and cat soldiers were all driven out of Tianju Cave and left to go back on their own. The tiger and cat groups lost their king, so they scattered and fled back to the Tiger King Mountain lair in panic. Then Qiu came to the sub-cave and shouted excitedly: "Xing, all warriors, the Tiger King has surrendered, you can come out now."

Upon hearing this, the people inside opened the cave door and walked out.

"Yeah, the tigers surrendered, that's great!" Xiaoxing danced with excitement.

"The tiger has been defeated! The tiger has been defeated! Oh!" Xia Hechen and the others cheered loudly.

The battle between man and tiger was declared a victory, so Zhi led the elderly, the weak, women and children back to the cave, and after repacking their things, they returned to their previous stable life.

Tiger King and Cat King were locked in the cave. Rat King and Bull King could not believe their eyes and asked in surprise, "What? Brother Tiger and Brother Cat were also defeated by monkey-like people and captured? Don't you claim to be more powerful than anyone else?"

"Humph!" Elvis regained his composure and replied, "If it was a fair fight, how could humans be our opponent? We trapped humans in a cave and we dared not come out. We were about to be trapped to death, but the cunning humans deliberately lured us into the cave and then lit a big fire to trap us in the cave, intending to burn us to death. We had no choice but to surrender and be captured."

"Brother Cat, didn't you make a bet with me before? If you meet humans, you will bite off their necks, rip open their stomachs, and eat their hearts and livers. Hehe, I didn't expect that you didn't eat the humans, but were captured alive by them!" The Rat King said sarcastically.

"You cowardly mouse, we surrendered because of the fire, not because we were killed by humans like you." Elvis was insulted and tried his best to defend himself.

"Hmph! No matter what, defeat is defeat, and the final outcome will be that you will be locked up here like this Rat King. You are still bragging here, talking about how powerful and capable you are. You are so shameless, I am so ashamed." The Rat King mocked him again.

Hearing this, the Cat King was furious and rushed towards the Rat King in a rage, saying viciously: "You damned rat, you dare to humiliate me like this. From now on, I will never be reconciled with you. Let me tell you, now that there is no Emperor Nian to control me, I will eat you up, and you will not know how powerful I am."

Of course, the Rat King was no match for the Cat King. He was so scared that he ran away immediately. The Cat King chased him closely. After chasing for a long time, the Rat King hid in a crack in the stone and never dared to come out again. From then on, the two beasts became enemies, and mice were eaten by cats for generations.

The rooster, who was watching from the hilltop of the ancient pine forest, saw the tigers chasing the people and thought that today would be another victory. Later, when he saw the tiger king trapped in the cave by fire and finally surrendering to humans, he knew that the tigers must have fallen into a trap and suffered a terrible defeat. The rooster was terrified and quickly flapped his wings and flew back to Tianshan to report to Emperor Nian. Let's not talk about it for now.

Besides, the people had quelled the tiger plague and eliminated the danger, so everyone celebrated and cheered. As usual, a celebration meeting was held in the evening.

Qiu invited Xiaoxing, Xia, Chen and a group of tiger-luring warriors to the platform. Qiu stroked his white beard and made an opening speech: "Dear warriors, all my people, it has been six days since the tigers attacked. These days, we have been living in fear. Today, we finally defeated the tiger and cat packs and captured the tiger king and cat king. We finally won!"

The crowd in the audience cheered and applauded: "We won, we won!"

After the cheers, Qiu pointed at Xiaoxing and Xia, Chen and other warriors, and continued: "This time we defeated the Tiger King, thanks to Xingxian's Fiery Plan, and the warriors Xia, Chen, Sun, Moon, Wind, Cloud, and Thunder who worked with Xing to lure the tiger into the cave. They are all fearless and fearless heroes. Let's applaud and thank them."

As soon as Qiu finished speaking, the audience burst into applause that was even more enthusiastic than before, and people shouted: "Hero, hero!"

Qiu patted Xiaoxing's shoulder excitedly and praised her: "Xing, today's victory is ultimately due to you. You always come up with various solutions when we are in the most difficult and critical moments. You are so smart and talented. Xing, you are not only our wise star, but also our savior."

Qiu suddenly had the urge to promote Xiaoxing to be the cave master, but when he saw his nephew Dong, he hesitated. After all, Xiaoxing had only been showing his talent for less than three months.

Xiao Xing was praised by Qiu, but he was still very humble: "Master, you are too flattering. In fact, this is nothing great. It is still the result of everyone's efforts that will lead to success."

Dong felt like a thorn in his side when he heard these words of praise. He thought bitterly: How come Xing and his companions were not eaten by the tigers in Zidong at that time? It would have been so much better for me if that had happened!

Except for Dong, all the other friends present were envious and admired him. Hong Er climbed up the platform, shook Xiao Xing's hand, and asked mischievously: "Xing Ge, you are also a brain, and so am I. You can use your brain, and I can use my brain too. Why do you have so many good ideas when you use your brain? Is there a smart bug in your head that helps you think?"

This sentence made everyone laugh. After Xiaoxing finished laughing, he suddenly thought of his mother and felt sad again. He suggested to Qiu: "Master, the attack by the Ox King and the Tiger King caused many casualties. The culprit was the Nian Beast. The Nian Beast is determined to kill us and will definitely send its beast army to attack us next time. In my opinion, we should change from being passive to active. We should go to Tianshan Mountain and destroy the Nian Beast to prevent future troubles."

"Xing, I don't think your suggestion will work." Qiu stroked his white beard and shook his head, saying, "According to the beast kings, Tianshan is thousands of miles away from here. Although the Nian beast alone is not to be feared, the beast armies are numerous and extremely ferocious. As the old saying goes: Don't fight a battle without preparation. It would be too risky for us to go there rashly."

"What the cave master said is absolutely right." Upon hearing this, Zhi from the audience objected, "Based on my hunting experience of more than fifty years, we are going to fight against the Nian Beast, and we don't know the enemy situation. What if the Nian Beast has too many beasts? We won't be able to kill Nian, but will be eaten by it instead."

Seeing that what everyone said made sense, Xiaoxing nodded and let it go.

Qiu stroked his white beard and gave the order to everyone: "Warriors, although we are not going to attack the Nian beast, we still have to be vigilant against it sending its beast army to attack us again. Starting tomorrow, we must organize two patrol teams to patrol the surrounding area. Once we find an enemy beast, we must blow the horn to alert the enemy immediately."

"Yes, Cave Master!" The warriors responded loudly.

After the meeting, Xiao Xing pleaded with Qiu Dao: "Master, now that the tiger threat has been resolved, should we bury my mother?"

"Xing, this is of course necessary. Tomorrow we will choose a piece of land and bury the four warriors Chun, Bai and others solemnly together." Qiu replied.

So everyone got off the stage and sang and danced joyfully in the venue. Xiaoxing quietly left the happy crowd and stayed beside Chun. Although he had traveled through time, he had also felt Chun's meticulous motherly love during these days, so he was still very sad. Xiaoxing murmured a prayer: "Mother, your unfilial son has successfully brought back the fire from Yanshan, and also defeated the tigers with a trick to avenge you. The cave master promised to bury you tomorrow. May your spirit in heaven bless your son to be safe and everything goes well."

After the prayer, they washed Chun's body, took out Chun's clothes and put them on her, and then waited for the burial.

There were no coffins at that time, and of course no incense or burning candles, so the funeral was quite simple.

The next day, Qiu chose a sloping land as a cemetery, carried Chun and the four warriors to the cemetery and buried them, and built a large tomb. Because of Xiaoxing's outstanding contribution, Qiu specially ordered everyone in the cave to see Chun off and pray for Chun, and the scene was indeed very grand.

After the burial, Xiaoxing was still immersed in grief. Chen, Xia, Hong'er, and Lan'er all came to accompany him. The four of them took Xiaoxing for a walk along the river. It was mid-March, and flowers were blooming everywhere, and the grass and trees were lush, a scene full of vitality.

Chen said, "Xing, don't be sad anymore, cheer up. Although the Tiger King has been defeated now, the Nian Beast will never give up. It may send another beast to attack us. When that happens, you will need to fight against it and win."

"Yes, Chen's estimate is very likely. The Nian beast will never stop until it conquers us humans." The next person followed.

"Mr. Chen, I also expected that the Nian Beast would definitely send the beast army to fight again. Don't worry, with you around, I will definitely get back on my feet." Xiaoxing forced a smile in order not to make everyone worry.

"Brother Xing, don't be sad anymore. Even if your mother is still alive in heaven, she wouldn't want to see you in so much pain all the time." When Hong'er saw Xiaoxing was unhappy, she felt depressed for some reason.

"Yes, Brother Xing, don't you hope that our mother's spirit in heaven will be unhappy?" Lan'er also advised.

"Of course not." Xiaoxing shook his head quickly.

"Brother Xing, look at how beautiful this scenery is." Hong'er changed the subject and asked, "Brother Xing, tell us more about the future world. Is the future world so beautiful?"

"Hong'er, there are ancient trees here, the air is sweet, and the oxygen content is high. At night, even the sixth-magnitude stars can be clearly distinguished. Although the future world is developed, the environment is severely damaged. There are almost no virgin forests, and the air is very bad, either smog or sandstorms."

"Xing, will there still be the Nian beast in the future world?" His curiosity was aroused and he asked quickly.

"Brother Xia, in the future world, the Nian beast will no longer exist, and even the ferocious tiger will almost become extinct. Dogs and cats have all become human pets, and pigs, cows, and chickens have all become people's livestock." Xiaoxing couldn't help but talk endlessly when talking about modern society.

"Xing, according to what you said, we humans will never become extinct, and the Nian beast will definitely be eliminated by us." Chen was relieved and no longer worried.

"Of course." Xiao Xing nodded, "If we are exterminated by the Nian Beast now, there will be no future world."

As they walked, they talked. Little Xing gradually forgot his sadness, and his mood suddenly brightened up, becoming sunny again. He talked and laughed with the four people, and this happy laughter flew far away.