The group followed the carts and looked up at the wooden gate in surprise. They passed through the wall and entered the Black Mountain Tribe.
The moment Yang Luo entered the square, he pointed to the cave next to Hu Huo on the far left side of the mountain wall. He said to Lang Ze and Hou Yan, “There are two caves that are the same as the children’s cave. You should find a way to let them stay there.”
Then he pulled Qi Bai and walked toward the tribe’s warehouse without looking back. He just wanted to know what supplies the trading team had brought back.
Qi Bai twisted his head to look back as he walked. Yang Luo pulled him hard and asked, “What are you looking at? Hurry up and walk.”
Qi Bai said, “There are only eighteen beds in a cave. I wonder how they are going to accommodate so many people.”
Yang Luo rolled his eyes and said, “When we first came to the Black Mountain, there was only an empty cave, but all the tribe members lived there. Now they have such a beautiful cave to live in. What else can they complain about?”
Qi Bai smiled and said, “That’s for sure. They have such conditions thanks to Grandpa Priest.”
Previously, when the trading team left the tribe, everyone already agreed that the tribe members who remained in the tribe would carve out habitable caves for the slaves they were about to bring back.
Qi Bai originally thought that Yang Luo would only be able to dig a simple cave. After all, these newly joined tribe members would eventually need to build their own houses. This cave was just their temporary residence.
However, Yang Luo actually dug two caves in the same manner as the children’s cave. This took a lot more time and was much better than Qi Bai had expected.
Yang Luo raised his head and snorted coldly, but his steps became visibly lighter. It was obvious that he agreed with Qi Bai’s words.
The tribe’s warehouse was no longer the empty cave where everyone lived. A wooden door was placed on the arched entrance of the cave, and the space above the door was left empty to ensure the smooth flow of air.
The scene inside the wooden door had completely changed. There were rows of wooden shelves placed nearly in the middle of the cave. There were some animal skins and pottery on them, and neatly arranged rattan baskets at the base of the wall. Qi Bai took a look and saw that they should contain dried bamboo shoots that the tribe had dried in the spring, as well as other food collected in the past few days.
Yang Luo touched the wooden shelves lovingly, his eyes shining. “Let’s quickly fill these shelves with the supplies we exchanged.”
Before the trading team returned to the tribe, Yang Luo couldn’t sleep for nights. Now that he saw everyone had returned safely and there were so many more mouths to feed, Yang Luo just wanted to quickly sort out the supplies to ensure that everyone could spend the coming winter safely.
Qi Bai nodded. “Okay. How are you doing with the multiplication formula I taught you when I left the tribe? I can check on you while I’m sorting out the supplies.”
Yang Luo’s smile froze, and he didn’t dare to say a word.
It wasn’t that Yang Luo didn’t study hard. On the contrary, as a cultured priest, Yang Luo discovered early on that the formulas taught by Qi Bai were very useful. He had always been diligent in his studies.
However, for many things, one wouldn’t necessarily see results just by working hard.
From the beginning of learning numbers, Yang Luo found that his intelligence might be much better than most adult beastmen in the tribe but he still wasn’t as good as the younger beastmen, especially in addition and subtraction. Sometimes, Yang Luo would count on his fingers for a long time in the cave, but he still wasn’t as good as Bao Xing and Li Li.
Of course, as the priest of the Black Mountain Tribe, Yang Luo certainly couldn’t let other tribe members find out about this. He could only work harder. He didn’t expect that the first thing Qi Bai did when returning to the tribe was to check his homework.
Yang Luo had never been to school properly, but he already felt the fear of being dominated by exams.
At this time, Shu Lin poked his head in and asked, “Priest, Bao Bai, where should the supplies on the cart be moved to?”
Yang Luo turned around, pointed to an empty corner, and said, “Let’s pile it there first. Bao Bai and I will calculate it bit by bit.”
Shu Lin replied simply, “Okay, let’s start moving them now.”
“By the way—” Qi Bai shouted at Shu Lin’s back. “Don’t forget to take away all the things that everyone has exchanged. They will be confiscated the moment they are moved into the warehouse!”
Shu Lin tilted his head and smiled. “Don’t worry. Everyone is watching. None of them will be left behind.”
Qi Bai hung the large stone slab that he used for lectures at the entrance of the cave and listed all the general types of supplies on it.
The two people first started to count the animal skins, which were large in size and easy to count.
Yang Luo touched the animal skins exchanged from the War Bear Tribe and said, “What type of beast’s fur is this? It is so beautiful.”
Qi Bai thought about it and said, “They seem to be called the ming beast and ding beast. They should be wild beasts that only exist near the War Bear Tribe.”
Yang Luo said with some regret, “It is too far away, or we could raise some ourselves and always have the fur.”
Qi Bai smiled and thought it was good that Yang Luo had such an idea. It was only with such motivation that one could make progress.
A total of 350 animal skins were exchanged from the War Bear Tribe, plus those obtained from hunting on the road, exchanged with other tribes, or confiscated from the Amo Tribe. In the end, a total of 540 animal skins were stored in the tribe’s warehouse.
However, these animal skins weren’t all of it.
“It was a bit cold at night on the way back. We couldn’t let everyone suffer from the cold, so I distributed some of the incomplete animal skins. There weren’t many, so each person only got one.” Qi Bai stretched out a finger shamelessly. “In any case, they have already been distributed and there is no need to ask for them back.”
Yang Luo glanced over, endured it, and finally swallowed down his words.
Qi Bai knew that with Yang Luo’s temper, he must be feeling pain at this moment. Therefore, Qi Bai quickly apologized with a smile and took out his winning magic weapon, the jar of brown sugar.
Sure enough, seeing such a treasure, Yang Luo no longer had the heart to feel sorry for those broken animal skins. He held a small piece of brown sugar in his mouth, saliva overflowing, and couldn’t help urging, “If you have any other good things, take them out quickly.”
Qi Bai didn’t disappoint him. There were linen, gems, feathers, herbs, various plants, and countless salted meats. The two of them worked until dark and had only sorted out half of them.
The moment She Li entered the tribe’s warehouse, she almost tripped over the supplies on the floor. She didn’t dare to walk in casually out of fear of stepping on the good things in the darkness. She stood at the door and shouted, “Priest, dinner is ready.”
After a while, Qi Bai and Yang Luo groped their way out.
Under the three big trees in the square, there were several steaming big clay pots. Tu Ya and her friends were stirring slowly with bamboo spatulas.
There was a fire set up outside the clay pots. Diao Lan was roasting fresh prey with the sub-beastmen who had just arrived at the tribe.
A bit further away, dozens of bamboos were piled together, and the horned beastmen were chopping them. Qi Bai saw Lang Ze’s figure in the middle at a glance.
Seeing Qi Bai staring at the bamboo, She Li smiled. “These bamboos were cut by Lang Ze, who also brought back a few small prey by the way.”
Qi Bai nodded. He said that everyone needed to chop some bamboo to make bamboo bowls and tubes.
Along the way, everyone could use the stone bowls they had polished themselves. However, due to limited space on the cart, these stone bowls couldn’t be made too large, especially for the beastmen rescued from the Amo Tribe. They even had to share a stone bowl for drinking water.
Now that they had arrived at the tribe and had so many laborers available to work, the first thing to be solved was food.
Seeing Qi Bai coming, Dai looked at him eagerly. She obviously hadn’t adapted to the strange beastmen and the Black Mountain. She only let down her guard when seeing Qi Bai, who rescued her.
Qi Bai crouched down beside Dai and whispered to her. Dai answered slowly and happily.
It had been almost a month since Dai left the Amo Tribe. Now she could basically communicate normally, but she always avoided people and never spoke unless she could use gestures. It was really distressing to see such a little girl.
The horned beastmen brought the bamboo tubes over, and all the new beastmen in the tribe were given two. They were all curious about the bamboo tubes in their hands.
However, everyone had seen too many new things this afternoon. Not to mention other things, even the caves where they lived were something they had never seen before.
Therefore, no matter how curious they were, they didn’t dare to speak out and just sat there stiffly.
Once everyone had arrived, Yang Luo slowly walked over.
He was wearing a brand new linen robe with a bright feather on his head and well-fitting sandals on his feet. He held a bear bone staff in one hand and an exquisite pottery bowl in the other.
He usually didn’t want to use this pottery bowl and only brought it out to decorate the house, but these new beastmen didn’t know that. They only thought that the pottery bowl shining brightly under the firelight was really beautiful and must be a precious treasure in the tribe.
As the saying went, clothes make the man. Once Yang Luo put on this outfit, everyone forgot about the money-grubber who held onto supplies during the day and refused to let go. They just thought he was a high priest who could really communicate with the gods.
Qi Bai looked at the robe on Yang Luo with satisfaction. He thought that linen was ridiculously expensive, but it was undeniable that it was indeed unique and suitable as a gift.
Therefore, before leaving the trading day market, he went to the stall of the Linen Tribe to exchange for a few pieces of linen to make a piece of clothing for Yang Luo and Hou Yan respectively. Yang Luo’s was a robe, and Hou Yan’s was a short shirt.
After all, they were the priest and chief of the tribe. They had to behave in a proper manner.
The effect was also obvious. Even Lang Kuang and Lang Pu, who once lived in a big tribe, were frightened. The once powerful priest of the Silver Moon Tribe wasn’t more powerful than this.
Yang Luo was very satisfied with his outfit, especially when he knew that the price of linen was several times that of animal skin, causing him to walk even more carefully.
Yang Luo stood in the middle of the fire and pointed the bear bone staff at the sky. “The Beast God has guided you to the blessed land. This is the glory of all of us. Every beastman on the Black Mountain must be grateful for the blessing of the Beast God!”
Yang Luo stretched his limbs and started to move rhythmically. The stones and shells on his body made crisp sounds as he moved.
Yang Luo casually grabbed a handful of powder from the animal skin bag at his side, and sprinkled it reverently. As he moved, the flames around him became stronger, and even the temperature rose a bit.
The crowd was frightened by the scene and screamed in surprise, but they quickly covered their mouths and looked at Yang Luo with more reverence.
Yang Luo put his hands together and changed loudly, “The Beast God exists above!”
“The Beast God exists above!”
At the gradually louder response, Yang Luo shouted, “The Black Mountain Tribe!”’
“The Black Mountain Tribe!”
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