LSLFBW: Chapter 113

The sun was high in the sky and the Black Mountain Tribe had never been as lively as it was today. Everyone gathered around the fire and ate without even raising their heads.

No matter whether it was stewed meat, bamboo shoots or salted eggs, the food of the Black Mountain Tribe was something that other people had never eaten outside. They simply couldn’t understand why even the wild grass could become delicious in the Black Mountain Tribe.

Qi Bai used a small bone knife to roast the venison on the fire until it was slightly charred. Then he squinted happily.

Hou Su held the rice bowl and stuck his head between Qi Bai and Lang Ze. He looked around and said, “I don’t have a place to live yet. Are you going to take care of me?”

Qi Bai nudged Lang Ze with his arm and asked incoherently, “You didn’t arrange anything for him?”

Lang Ze grabbed a piece of bone and replied, “I’ll take some people to build a tent for him later.”

“Hey, that won’t work.” Hou Su immediately refused. He looked at Qi Bai and said, “That isn’t what you said at the beginning. I was invited to your tribe. It doesn’t make sense that even the slaves live better than me, right?”

Hou Su saw that the two caves were equipped with stoves for making fire and cooking. Even the pots on the stoves were precious pottery pots. But when it came to his place, they just wanted to set up a tent and get away with it.

Qi Bai felt that there was nothing wrong with Lang Ze’s arrangements. After all, except for Hou Su, the people they brought back this time all knew each other. Even Dai had a sub-beastman who was on good terms with her.

Moreover, these people might become members of the Black Mountain Tribe in the future. They were essentially different from Hou Su, who was a guest. It would be troublesome if they were to live together, so it was indeed better to let Hou Su live alone.

Qi Bai said, “Everyone is living in temporary residences now, so you can just stay here for a while. Don’t worry, Lang Ze will definitely build the most comfortable tent for you.”

Lang Ze bit off a piece of meat with great effort. Actually, he didn’t think so, but since Qi Bai mentioned it, he would make the tent bigger for Hou Su later.

Hou Su firmly denied it. “No, I want to live in a cave.”

Qi Bai thought for a while before asking, “How about I find you a student and you can live in the student’s home first?”

Seeing Hou Su was hesitant, QI Bai smiled and said, “Until next spring, the weapons your student makes will be considered as yours and I will pay you.”

Hou Su raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

After thinking for a moment, he called over a few half-grown beastmen children.

It wasn’t that Qi Bai didn’t want the sub-beastmen to learn how to make weapons. However, Hou Su was a horned beastman after all. Now that he was going to accept a student, he planned to live in the student’s home. This meant the first student couldn’t be a sub-beastman.

Qi Bai explained the situation to everyone and emphasized. “As Hou Su’s student, you must respect and take care of your teacher. Of course, Hou Su won’t live in your cave for too long. The tribe will soon arrange a new residence for him.”

In the tribe, the concept of teachers and students had always only existed among priests, and no one had ever seen such a way of accepting apprentices. The area was soon filled with people holding bamboo tubes, eating and watching the fun.

Yang Luo looked at Hou Su’s somewhat arrogant expression and asked Hou Yan beside him, “What does this beastman do? Why Is Bao Bai so nice to him? Why does he want this beastman to accept a student?”

Hou Yan also followed to see what was new. Hearing this, he said, “I don’t know either.”

Yang Luo glanced at him with disdain. “You are the chief of the tribe. These people might become your people in the future. You must understand them all clearly.”

Hou Yan chuckled. “I see. I’ll ask Lang Ze about it tomorrow.”

In the midst of the crowd, the people who were questioned looked at each other.

They had never heard of the crossbow or bow that Qi Bai had mentioned. They were facing a strange beastman and didn’t know what to do for a moment.

Contrary to Qi Bai’s expectations, the first person to take a step forward was Ci Yi.

The hairo on his forehead fell below his eyes, barely covering the slave mark on his forehead. He lowered his head slightly and said, “I want to learn.”

Qi Bai hadn’t expected Ci Yi to take the initiative. After all, with his personality, he probably didn’t like living with other people.

Qi Bai was right, but he underestimated Ci Yi’s trust in him.

Ci Yi didn’t know what he could learn from Hou Su, but since it was Qi Bai’s request, it must be useful to the tribe. As long as he knew this, there would be no difficulties that couldn’t be overcome.

Qi Bai said to Hou Si, “Ci Yi is calm and patient. He will definitely learn well from your teachings. If you have no objections, follow Ci Yi back later.”

Hou Su saw the slave mark on Ci Yi’s face, but he knew that being a slave wasn’t a big deal in the Black Mountain Tribe. Qi Bai also promised him a better place to live in the future, so he nodded. Anything was better than letting him live in a tent.

Hou Su didn’t see that after he turned around, Qi Bai whispered beside Ci Yi, “You have officially become his apprentice, so you must study hard and learn all his knowledge.”

Hearing Qi Bai’s solemn instructions, Ci Yi felt that a heavy burden had suddenly been placed on his shoulders and he nodded seriously.

After eating and drinking, everyone returned tot heir caves one after another except for the tribe members who had to keep watch on the wall.

Ci Yi did exactly what Qi Bai said. He respectfully carried Hou Su’s animal skin package and took him back to the cave.

Qi Bai walked into the room and touched the bamboo table casually. Sure enough, his fingers were covered in thick dust. This was the disadvantage of living in the mountains. If they didn’t clean their furniture after a few days, it would be covered with dust.

Qi Bai opened the doors and windows of the cave, letting out the foul air that had been trapped in the room for more than two months. Then he found a large bamboo tube tied with straw ropes in the corner. He carried the tube to the waterfall and filled it with water.

“Baa~”

As if sensing Qi Bai’s presence, Qi Bai had just entered the fenced yard when he heard Chuan Chuan’s cheerful call.

Qi Bai trotted a few steps, opened the door of the bamboo nest and bumped into Chuan Chuan.

Before he knew it, Chuan Chuan was already nine months old. His body was much larger than the four-eared sheep in the sheepfold. He was now as tall as a person and it was difficult for Qi Bai to touch Chuan Chuan’s head.

“Quack~”

The ducks separated by a bamboo wall also cried out, trying to attract Qi Bai’s attention.

The ducks were no longer the little ducks that waddled behind Chuan Chuan. They had now grown into big girls of considerable size.

That’s right, they were big girls. Now that they were over five months old, the ducks still maintained their grayish-white feathers. There was no need to speculate too much about their gender. They were definitely female ducks.

Female ducks were good since they could lay eggs. He had to think of a way to find male ducks outside so that they could quickly reproduce and have many offspring.

After playing with Chuan Chuan and the ducks in the bamboo nest for a while and checking his vegetable garden, Qi Bai returned to his cave. He poured the remaining water in the bamboo tube into the stone basin and used the animal skin to thoroughly clean the room.

After all this busy work, it was already late at night.

A cool breeze blew in from the window. Qi Bai spread a clean animal skin on the big bamboo bed and rolled twice on it.

Just before going to bed, Qi Bai was still thinking in a daze about how good it felt to be home.

Early the next morning, Qi Bai looked down from the platform and saw white smoke emanating from the chimneys of the two new caves. Outside the caves, beastmen were chopping bamboo and branches.

Qi Bai ate a few bites of breakfast, put the bamboo slips and charcoal sticks into the animal skin bag, and walked along the stone steps to the tribe’s square.

Lang Ze and Hou Yan were checking the condition of the carts.

The Black Mountain Tribe now had a total of seven carts. In addition to the five bone-wheeled carts that had just completed their mission and returned to the tribe, there were also two wooden-wheeled carts in the tribe.

The bone wheels made from flying birds were very strong. Even after being transported over such a long distance between mountains, there was basically no major damage.

However, the wooden boards placed on the bone wheels weren’t so durable. As the team encountered mountain roads that were impassable with carts, they had to dismantle the carts. The boards became severely worn out along the way, especially the two boards made temporarily by the trading team. It was a great honor that they could last until the tribe.

Hu Huo and Ma Shu unloaded the planks. “Both planks are broken. We need to collect wood and make some new planks.”

Lang Ze said, “I will leave a few people with you. Go cut down trees later and repair the cart as soon as possible.”

Hu Huo nodded. “Don’t worry. As long as the bone wheel isn’t broken, these are all trivial matters.”

Hou Yan told Yu and Lang Ye, “The two of you shouldn’t go hunting today. Stay and help the gathering team transport food.”

In the square not far away, Qi Bai and Yang Luo were also preparing for the next work.

The two of them re-divided everyone into teams, among which the horned beastmen were divided into a large team of more than 20 people. They would be selected by Lang Ze and Hou Yan to form a hunting team.

The gathering team didn’t have so many requirements. Yang Luo simply broke up the gathering team and reorganized it, turning the original four teams into seven teams. Each team had around ten people. In addition to the originally four captains, three more team captains were added: Diao Lan, Shu Lin, and Lu Guo,

The members of the Black Mountain Tribe had grown significantly in this year. Take Tu Ya and Shu Lin for example. Now facing so many unfamiliar beastmen, they no longer felt fear and anxiety. They were only thinking about how to lead the team to collect more food.

The first problem faced by such a large team was the lack of tools. The unused rattan baskets in the tribe’s warehouse were completely insufficient, so everyone could only take out the rattan baskets in their own homes to barely make up enough numbers for everyone to use.

As the morning light rose and the fog in the forest dissipated, the gate of the Black Mountain Tribe opened. Three bone-wheeled carts and two wooden-wheeled carts drove out of the tribe along a well-maintained path, and separated at the fork beside the Man-Eating River.

Dai sat on the cart, looked back at the Black Mountain wall that was getting farther and farther away, and held the rattan basket tightly in her arms.

“We are going to the sweet potato mountain today. There are many sweet potatoes buried underground there. They are very precious food.” Tu Ya smiled at her, took out the wooden rake from her rattan basket, and put it into Dai’s hand. “This is a tool made by Bao Bai. You can use it.”

Dai shook her head timidly. These were tools of the tribe and she didn’t dare to take them.

At this time, a white rabbit poked its head out from Tu Ya’s fur coat. The long ears came out one step later than its body. Due to the reaction force, it swayed twice in the air. Once the little rabbit saw Dai sitting there, it jumped into Dai’s arms.

Dai awa sso frightened that she didn’t dare to move for a moment.

Tu Ya rubbed the little rabbit’s ears. “This is my child, Xian. He likes you very much.” As if to confirm Tu Ya’s words, the little rabbit Xian spread out his limbs. He lay on his back on Dai, his four legs constantly swinging.

Dai looked at Tu Ya and held the wooden rake in her hand. “I… will use it well.”

Tu Ya smiled. “Don’t be so careful. These tools are easy to make. It doesn’t matter if they break. You never have to be afraid in the Black Mountain Tribe. We won’t hurt you.”

Dai gently touched the little rabbit’s eyebrows with her fingers and a faint smile appeared on her face.

Once they arrived at the destination, everyone jumped off the cart and quickly dispersed among the mountains under the leadership of their captain.

The temperature had dropped recently, but it was still the time of the year with the most abundant products. It was for this reason that the members of the Black Mountain Tribe never stopped for a moment and seized every opportunity to harvest more prey and plants.

No matter whether it was food that could fill the stomach such as sweet potatoes, radishes and chestnuts, or seasonings such as pepper, fennel, onion, ginger and garlic, or berries of different colors—the beastmen just had to be willing to work and the fruits in the mountains and forests wouldn’t let them down.

In the afternoon, the two wooden-wheeled carts brought out by the gathering team were filled with sweet potatoes. Everyone carried other scattered food and slowly walked back to the tribe, following the carts.

Fresh fruits and vegetables were packed in rattan baskets and placed at the door of the warehouse, waiting for Yang Luo’s distribution.

Under Diao Lan’s arrangement, the sweet potatoes on the cart were spread out in the square to dry the moisture on the surface of the sweet potatoes.

After a while, the hunting team also returned to the tribe with their carts.

However, compared to the huge harvest of the gathering team, the hunting team’s harvest seemed a bit disappointing.

Dozens of beastmen went out but they only brought back six prey. Most of them were hunted by the beastmen of the Black Mountain Tribe. Looking at the sweet potatoes all over the ground, many people showed frustrated expressions.

Lang Ze looked at the somewhat dejected wolf beastmen and just turned away indifferently.

The tribe’s first collective hunting exposed many problems. Sometimes, having more people didn’t necessarily mean it was better. For example, several hunts that were about to be successful today failed due to the team’s poor coordination. Everyone’s tempers and hearts had to be tempered. This wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a day or two.

After leaving the task of slaughtering the prey to Xiang Yu and Quan Lie, Lang Ze and Hou Yan walked into Yang Luo’s cave.

Qi Bai and Yang Luo had already sorted out and organized the materials in the warehouse. They were now copying the quantities of materials recorded on the blackboard onto the bamboo slips bit by bit.

Seeing the two people coming back, Yang Luo looked up and said, “You are back just in time. Let’s take a look at the supplies in the tribe together.”

Hou Yan just glanced at the blackboard next to him and felt a headache. It was really too difficult for him, a beastman who had been illiterate for 40 or 50 years, to learn these things.

However, no matter how painful it was, he still had to face it. Several people checked the remaining supplies together and Yang Luo’s brow relaxed a bit. “The supplies in the tribe can only barely survive the winter. We need to prepare more food.”

Everyone knew that the amount they were calculating now was based on last year’s distribution share. Last year, the tribe distributed food to the tribe members just to ensure that everyone wouldn’t starve to death. It was far from enough to fill their stomachs.

Hou Yan said with some shame, “Today’s hunting wasn’t smooth.”

Yang Luo waved his hand. “Those people were originally slaves. Many of them haven’t learned to hunt at all. We didn’t expect you to bring back a lot of prey immediately.”

Yang Luo rolled up the bamboo slips on the stone table, looked at Qi Bai and said, “You said before that you have some drawings to show us. Now is the perfect time to show them to us.”