The dew on the leaves fell to the ground with a plop.
Niu Shuo looked at Qi Bai and Lang Ze, who had a clear goal and no surprise on their faces. He smiled in a self-deprecating manner. “It seems you have already discovered that someone is following you.”
“Not entirely. At the very least, we didn’t know it was you.” Qi Bai couldn’t say anything harsh when facing these somewhat embarrassed beastmen. After all, the beastmen were tracking them so desperately. Even if they were enemies, they could be considered respectable enemies.
Lang Ze showed no mercy to them. “What is your purpose?”
“Our purpose should be the same.” Compared to the nervousness of Niu Xin and his companions, Niu Shuo was much calmer. He looked at the beastmen resting on the cart and said, “Did those slaves guide you here?”
Lang Ze’s eyes darkened slightly. “What do you mean?”
“There were slaves we want to exchange,” Niu Shuo said in a deep voice. “They weren’t brought by the Rough Wood Tribe to the trading day. We found out before the trading day that the Rough Wood Tribe exchanged some slaves with a cannibal tribe.”
Qi Bai asked, “So you are going to that cannibal tribe?”
Niu Shuo nodded.
Lang Ze said, “Then you have arrived now.”
“Impossible.” Niu Xin’s eyes widened, and he interrupted. “That cannibal tribe is at least ten days away from the trading day. It has only been…”
Niu Xin counted hurriedly on his fingers. They had set out one day earlier than the Black Mountain Tribe, but they still only traveled for six days.
However, when Niu Xin wanted to speak again, Niu Shuo held down his hands.
Qi Bai asked, “What do you want to do?”
Niu Shuo patted the animal skin bag on the ground and said, “These are all the salt we exchanged from your tribe. If our people are in that tribe, we will use salt to exchange for them.”
The ideas of these people coincided with the Black Mountain Tribe. Qi Bai said, “But this isn’t the reason for you to follow us.”
Niu Shuo didn’t hide his intention and directly stated his plan, “You treat these slaves surprisingly well. A lot of the food we hunted went into their stomachs, so I wondered if they were your people. If so, you should also want to go to that cannibal tribe to exchange for your people.”
Niu Shuo pointed behind him. “There are only eight of us, but we are all strong beastmen. You will never suffer any loss if you form an alliance with us.”
After this conversation, Qi Bai already knew that these people had no ill intentions. Still, he wouldn’t fall for Niu Shuo’s tricks. He chuckled and said, “If you want to cooperate, you should show your sincerity instead of hiding in the dark. Our Black Mountain Tribe doesn’t need to form an alliance with others.”
Seeing Qi Bai and Lang Ze turn around to leave, Niu Shuo finally became a bit anxious. Of course, he knew the strength of the Black Mountain Tribe, or he wouldn’t have wanted to seek their help. It was just that he didn’t want the people of the Black Mountain Tribe to look down on them, so his attitude was a bit arrogant.
Niu Shuo hit his chest hard with his right fist. Then he lowered his head and said, “We ask for the help of the Black Mountain Tribe. As long as our people can be rescued, our Xiaoniu Tribe will be the Black Mountain Tribe’s eternal friend.”
“The Xiaoniu Tribe?” Qi Bai’s footsteps paused. Then he asked in surprise, “Do you know the Xishui Tribe?”
Niu Shuo’s eyes lit up. “Of course, I know. The Xishui Tribe comes to our tribe to exchange supplies every year.”
Qi Bai and Lang Ze looked at each other. They hadn’t expected these people to be from the Xiaoniu Tribe, who had migrated after the flood and forced the Xishui Tribe to seek the help of the Black Mountain Tribe.
At the foot of the mountain, dozens of caves slightly above the ground were scattered around, and next to each cave were piles of randomly discarded bones.
Unkempt beastmen crawled out of caves, sat on the muddy ground, and used bone knives to peel tree bark and grass roots.
Just then, a dozen beastmen carrying animal skin bags came to the outside. The one walking at the front of the group was Qi Bai.
Since the Black Mountain Tribe had too many supplies, it was impossible to expose all of them to this strange tribe. Therefore, this time, Qi Bai led the group to negotiate with the cannibal tribe while Lang Ze led his subordinates to guard outside and observe their movements at any time.
Following behind Qi Bai were Niu Shuo and Niu Xin. They came to identify whether there were any members of the Xiaoniu Tribe in this cannibal tribe.
Qi Bai cleared his throat and said loudly, “We brought salt and wanted to exchange it with you for some two-legged sheep.”
Hearing Qi Bai’s voice, the beastmen sitting on the ground turned their heads in unison. Their gazes were filled with indifference and emptiness, with no other emotions.
Soon, a beastman got up from the ground and ran toward a cave in the middle of the tribe, shouting something in a language that Qi Bai couldn’t quite understand.
An old beastman quickly crawled out of a cave. Her hair was gray, and the corners of her mouth were raised high. The wrinkles on her face were layered like tree bark due to this smile.
This beastman looked quite old, but she was very agile. She walked in front of Qi Bai, pointed at herself, and made a sound with her mouth.
Qi Bai took a long time to figure out that she was saying ‘Wu.’ It was unknown whether this Wu was her name or her status in the tribe.
However, judging from the other people’s attitude toward this old beastman, it wasn’t difficult to see that she should be the one who could make the decisions in the tribe.
Lang Kuang whispered to Qi Bai, “The people of this cannibal tribe don’t speak the beastmen language.”
Qi Bai naturally understood. Judging from the other people’s attitude toward this old beastman, it seemed that it was more difficult to communicate with them than the Bloodthirsty Tribe on the trading day.
Qi Bai thought for a while. Then he opened the animal skin bag on his body, pointed to the salt inside, and slowly repeated, “Exchange, exchange the two-legged sheep.”
We glanced at the salt in the animal skin bag. Then she looked up at Qi Bai and said with her frozen smile, “G-Go.”
No one knew whether Wu understood what they meant, but at this moment, they could only follow her.
Wu led them to the entrance of a cave. This cave was higher than the other entrances. The floor of the cave was covered with animal skins, and it looked like a place to entertain guests.
Wu stopped outside and didn’t urge them. She just waited quietly. It seemed that as long as they didn’t go inside, she would continue to be in a stalemate with them.
Qi Bai glanced at one side of the mountain and took the lead in entering the cave.
Hu Qiao, who was guarding the mountain, was a bit confused when he saw this. “What are they doing?”
Niu Cheng, who was waiting outside with them, also turned and looked at Lang Ze.
Lang Ze’s eyes were sharp, and he signaled for everyone to be patient. “Wait a bit longer.”
Inside the cave, everyone sat on animal skins and listened to the difficult conversation between Qi Bai and Wu.
“Amo.” Wu pointed at herself and then outside. “Amo.”
Niu Shuo asked, “Is your tribe called Amo?”
Wu nodded vigorously. “Here, wait.”
After saying this, Wu turned and left the cave. She left the group of people staring at each other in bewilderment.
Qi Bai looked around casually and inadvertently saw the dusty spider web in the corner sway gently twice. He raised his head and looked at the sky above the cave.
Just then, two beastmen walked in from outside. They held some stone bowls in their hands and placed them in front of everyone.
The two of them muttered a lot about the stone bowl. Once they saw that everyone wasn’t moving, one of them smiled like Wu. She raised the stone bowl and said in a stumbling manner, “Drink.”
Qi Bai looked at the yellow water. Before he could refuse, he heard a gulping sound.
Seeing everyone looking at him, Niu Xin said with some embarrassment, “I’m thirsty.”
The beastman was obviously a bit happy. She grabbed Qi Bai’s wrist and repeated, “Drink, drink.”
This person’s strength was very strong. Qi Bai pulled back with all his strength, but was unable to break free of her.
Ever since entering the Amo Tribe, Qi Bai felt that weirdness was everywhere. No matter whether it was their previous indifference or their over-enthusiasm at this moment, all the people in the tribe made him feel uncomfortable.
At this moment, his strange feeling reached its peak.
Qi Bai tried to talk to the beastman. “We aren’t thirsty. Let your Wu bring out the two-legged sheep so we can exchange them quickly.”
The beastman ignored Qi Bai completely and used even more strength, as if wanting to dig her finger into his skin.
Qi Bai knew it was useless to talk to her any longer, so he picked up the stone bowl with his other hand.
Fortunately, the temperature was lower in the morning and evening. When Qi Bai went out this morning, he changed into a long-sleeved animal skin coat. Once the beastman wasn’t paying attention, he secretly poured water into the cuffs of the animal skin coat. The stone bowl was empty when he put it down again.
Seeing this, the beastman finally withdrew her hand with satisfaction.
Qi Bai’s eyes darkened slightly, and he whispered, “This water can’t be drunk. Find a way to pour it out.”
Fortunately, the people of the Amo Tribe weren’t proficient in the common language of the beastmen, so Qi Bai could remind everyone so blatantly.
However, when Niu Xin heard this, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Could it be that the water was poisonous? He had already drunk it. Was he going to die?
At this time, no one had time to comfort Niu Xin. During the time when Qi Bai deliberately talked to the two beastmen, everyone quickly picked up the stone bowls. They either poured the water on the animal skins or rubbed it directly on their bodies. In short, when the two people from the Amo Tribe left, the stone bowls in front of everyone were empty.
Lang Kuang asked, “What should we do now?”
Qi Bai looked at Niu Xin. “Are you feeling unwell?”
Niu Xin’s lips trembled a bit. “I feel… a bit cold.”
Qi Bai smiled. “That doesn’t seem like the effect of this water. Feel it carefully again.”
Niu Xin almost cried. “How can you still smile?”
Qi Bai comforted him. “You have already drunk it. Don’t think too much about it.”
Soon, Niu Xin’s body started to shake, and there was some confusion in his eyes. “I… I’m so sleepy.”
Qi Bai looked at the Amo people looking inside from time to time and whispered a few words to everyone.
“Hey! Hey!” Someone shouted loudly at the entrance of the cave. After making sure that the people inside were silent, a dozen beastmen came out.
They communicated in monotonous syllables. Genuine excitement finally emerged in their tone.
A black figure walked to Qi Bai’s side and carried him on his shoulder. He seemed very satisfied and immediately took Qi Bai out of the cave.
Another two stepped forward and tried to lift up Xiong Feng beside Qi Bai. However, after failing once, they simply grabbed one of Xiong Feng’s legs and dragged him outside.
The people on the mountain saw their companions being dragged like prey, and their eyes were bloodshot.
Tun Quan pulled the animal skin coat on his body and said, “Captain, let’s go!”
The veins on the back of Lang Ze’s hand bulged. He suppressed the anger in his heart and reached out to stop Tun Quan.
He had seen Qi Bai’s gesture, which was the secret signal agreed upon by the two.
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