In the middle of the kiln, half grown children were making bricks.
Among the team, the four who worked the hardest were Zhu Ya’s group of four.
Ever since they were punished last time, they had been working very hard, fearing that they would fall behind others.
For children of this age, what was really unacceptable for these boys was going hungry the whole day, being teased by adults, and being looked down upon by children of the same age.
It was precisely due to this unyielding spirit that these teenagers, who were originally at odds with each other, became the first to get to know each other.
Lang Jin put the stick on his shoulder and wiped the sweat from his forehead with both hands. “I can’t stir it any more.”
Mixing clay was a relatively heavy job in the kiln, but they had been doing it for several days. It stood to reason that they shouldn’t feel tired so quickly.
Seeing this, Niu Lu stirred the stick in his hand even harder. “That is because you are too weak. You see, I still have strength.”
Lu Yuo looked at Niu Lu, who was sweating profusely, exhaled a breath of hot air and finally didn’t say anything. Instead of wasting energy arguing, it would be better to do more work.
Zhu Ya wasn’t so particular. He threw the stick to the ground and said, “I feel tired too. It is all because it has been too hot these days.”
The moment Zhu Ya finished speaking, Bao Yue kicked him. “If you want to be lazy, you don’t have to find so many reasons.”
Hearing this, Zhu Ya immediately picked up the stick and said with a stiff neck, “I won’t be lazy!”
Bao Yue glanced at him and was too lazy to talk to him any longer. Once she turned around, she saw a few kids nearby who were stuffing sand into each other’s mouths affectionately.
Bao Yu took a step forward and quickly pulled the little bear and little rabbit apart. Then she saw that the two of them were holding a few ants in their hands. Not far from then, rows of ants were lined up and crawling outwards in an orderly manner.
Bao Yue patted the little paw of the rabbit who wanted to continue stretching forward. “Brother Bao Bai said that everyone can’t eat insects in the future. You can’t eat insects either, do you hear?”
The little rabbit obviously didn’t understand what Bao Yue meant. He jumped forward two steps and wanted to continue chasing the ants.
Qi Bai was in a thatched shed in the middle of the kiln, smashing stones and watching the children playing.
This was originally Qi Bai’s favorite scene, but for some reason, he always felt suffocated in his heart and couldn’t cheer up.
Just as Qi Bai bent down to pick up a new stone, his eyes suddenly blurred and his whole body started to shake violently.
Qi Bai quickly grabbed the wooden stake beside him, but the intense feeling of weightlessness didn’t disappear.
Wrong.
It wasn’t him who was shaking.
The whole earth was shaking.
There was an earthquake!
Following a series of clear clanging sounds, Lu Guo’s panicked voice rang out. “P-Pottery, our pottery!”
Qi Bai grabbed Lu Quo, who was about to rush into the straw shed, and shouted, “Don’t worry about the pottery! It isn’t safe here!”
As he said this, he grabbed Lu Guo’s hand, tried to steady his body despite the tremors and quickly ran out.
Boom.
The moment after the two of them left the hut, the tree trunk supporting the hut fell down. The house covered with yellow mud instantly shattered to pieces, raising a cloud of dust.
Qi Bai’s ears rang for a moment before he shouted loudly, “The children! Take the children to the open space!”
Lu Guo was awakened by Qi Bai’s shout. The horror in her eyes was repelled by the word ‘children.’
That’s right, the children!
The tribe’s children were all at the kiln right now. She had to protect the children.
Li Li and Lu Xia, who were filling clay into the mold, were knocked down by the huge impact. Their two little faces were covered with mud and their original appearance could no longer be seen. They obviously didn’t understand what was happening and were still sitting on the ground in a daze.
It wasn’t until they saw Qi Bai that they reached out to him.
“Brother Bao Bai!”
”Brother Bao Bai!”
“Brother Bao Bai is here.” Qi Bai hugged the two of them and ran to the open space outside the kiln.
In order to make as many bricks as possible, the middle of several pottery kilns in the kiln yard were almost all filled with half-dried bricks. However, these important tools in the tribe had now become a stumbling block for Qi Bai and Lu Guo to rescue the children.
Fortunately, the pottery kiln that had been tempered by fire was stronger than the wooden shed and there was no sign of collapse for the time being.
Qi Bai ran to the edge of the kiln, put Li Li and Lu Xia down, crouched down and said to the two children, “You have to do Brother Bai a favor. Lie down here and let the other children try to get closer to you, okay?”
The two little girls replied with wide eyes, “Yes!”
“Be good.” Qi Bai only had time to touch their heads before he immediately turned around and ran in the direction of Bao Yue, where there were still four children who couldn’t transform into human form.
Once Qi Bai arrived, Bao Yue was lying on the ground and there was no other figure around her.
Qi Bai’s heart skipped a beat and he quickly stepped forward. “Bao Yue!”
“Brother Bao Bai.” Bao Yue grinned at Qi Bai and moved his body slightly away.
At this time, the four little ones pressed under Bao Yue crawled out in a daze.
Qi Bai let out a long sigh of relief and bumped Bao Yue’s shoulder with his fist. “Well done!”
There were two bloody marks on Bao Yue’s face caused by sand. She wiped away the blood without caring and smiled at Qi Bai.
Once the two of them returned to the open space with the four little ones, Lu Guo also came back with the other half-grown children.
“Are they all here?” Qi Bai counted the number of children around him over and over again, fearing that he had missed one.
Fortunately, the kiln site was in an open area and there was no other danger except the collapse of the wooden shed.
The most seriously injured one among the children was Zhu Ya, who had a cut on his arm caused by a stone. The wound was quite deep, but it wasn’t serious for the time being.
Everyone felt that lasted an extremely long time, but in fact, it was only three to five minutes since the earthquake occurred.
“I’ll leave this place to you.” Qi Bai stuffed the children into Lu Guo’s arms. “Remember, unless the ground cracks or something heavy rolls down, don’t leave here easily. If you have to escape, be sure to find a wide place.”
Li Li poked her head out from between Qi Bai’s arms and asked curiously, “Will the ground crack?”
Qi Bai smiled at her. “I’m just making a guess. It might not happen.”
After speaking, he nodded to Luo Guo and ran at the fastest speed toward the direction of the tribe.
The earthquake had lasted only a few seconds, but no one knew if there would be aftershocks. He must get all the tribe members to a safe place.
Once Qi Bai arrived at the tribe’s square, there were only a few people who had just jumped down from the wall and were now running toward the caves in a panic.
After people encountered danger, especially when the ground was shaking and rocks were rolling, the first thing that came to mind was a safe place to hide.
This safe place was undoubtedly the caves surrounded by huge rocks.
However, Qi Bai had thousands of years of experience from his ancestors and knew that the cave was the most dangerous place at this time.
Once the intensity of the earthquake exceeded the tolerance of the Black Mountain and the rocks collapsed, it would be almost impossible to rescue the buried tribe members.
Qi Bai immediately caught up with the crowd running forward and shouted loudly, “Notify everyone in the tribe to come to the square!”
Quan Lie shouted loudly, “Bao Bai, the ground is shaking. It is dangerous outside!”
Seeing that everyone had the same idea, Qi Bai didn’t have time to explain and said sternly, “This is the priest’s order! Everyone must obey it!”
A vein bulged on Ma Ling’s forehead, as he gritted his teeth and said, “Follow the priest’s orders!”
The well-trained warriors no longer had any fear in their minds and responded in unison, “Follow the priest’s orders!”
As they spoke, they quickly dispersed toward the cave on the Black Mountain.
Qi Bai kicked open Yang Luo’s door, only to see their high priest crawling on the ground in a disheveled manner with bloody marks on his face. He was facing the wolf king’s head hanging on the wall and chanting quickly.
The sunlight that suddenly shone in from the door startled Yang Luo, but before his panic reached his face, Qi Bai lifted him up.
Yang Luo was half-dragged by Qi Bai to the entrance of the cave and was about to step out of the cave, only to finally react. He hugged the stone wall tightly, refusing to let go.
At this moment, the terrifying shaking appeared again.
Yang Luo yelled, his voice cracking. “The Beast God is furious. We can’t go out. We have to hide.”
Qi Bai grabbed Yang Luo’s hands and dragged him out of the cave, regardless of his struggle. “Grandpa Priest, you are wrong. The Beast God wants to see us. We must be on flat ground so that the Beast God can see us. It is only in this way that the Beast God’s anger will subside.”
Hearing Qi Bai’s words, Yang Luo’s struggles became less intense. “Is that really the case?”
Seeing that Yang Luo believed it, Qi Bai pushed Yang Luo forward and asked him to run to the center of the square. Qi Bai’s original purpose was to let Yang Luo stay in the square, so that the tribe members would believe his words.
Qi Bai turned around and looked at the other caves. He immediately spotted the warehouse door that was wide open. He ran over and saw Hou Yan desperately holding onto a shelf.
“Grandpa Chief, hurry up and don’t worry about these things.”
Hou Yan’s eyes were bloodshot. “This is our tribe’s winter supplies. We can’t waste it like this!”
“Things aren’t as important as life!” Qi Bai’s voice was firm in the midst of the panic. “Even if we have nothing, we can start over.”
At this time, another shelf fell down. Qi Bai took advantage of Hou Yan’s stunned moment to immediately pull the person out.
A fist-sized rock rolled down the hillside. Its speed slowed down due to the friction until it came to a complete stop.
The shaking of the ground finally stopped, and the world became eerily quiet.
The second earthquake lasted longer than the first. Qi Bai felt that it was at least ten seconds.
Fortunately, the magnitude of the earthquake wasn’t large. There was noticeable shaking, but it didn’t cause widespread damage.
Qi Bai turned to look at all the tribe members who had run out of the cave and could finally sigh with relief.
At this moment, a voice suddenly came from the quiet crowd. “What are you going to do?”
Qi Bai turned around and found that it was Shu Lin who stood up.
Shu Lin kept searching among the crowd. “Xiong Shan, where is my Xiong Shan?”
Qi Bai quickly grabbed him. “It’s okay. Xiong Shan and the others are at the kiln. We will go and pick them up now.”
As night fell, all members of the Black Mountain Tribe gathered at the tribe’s square.
There were several fires lit in the middle of the crowd, and everyone was roasting salted meat on bamboo skewers in an anxious manner.
They now had to prepare not only today’s meals, but also food for the next few days.
Yang Luo and Diao Lan moved among the crowd with herbs in their hands, treating every injured tribe member.
Looking at his fellow tribe members covered in dust and dirt, Qi Bai felt filled with self-blame.
Abnormal weather and the strange behavior of animals.
They were signs of an earthquake. He should’ve noticed it long ago.
If he had reminded everyone to be prepared earlier, they wouldn’t be in such a mess now.
Qi Bai looked at the gray sky, wondering where Lang Ze and the others were now, whether they had encountered an earthquake and whether they had found shelter.
Even in a safe environment, Qi Bai’s uneasiness didn’t diminish.
It seemed that only silently reciting Lang Ze’s name in his heart made him stronger.
Qi Bai woke up in the cold and wrapped himself tightly in animal skin.
The sudden heat of the past few days had dissipated without a trace and the air was even chillier than before.
It was another day.
Qi Bai silently calculated it in his heart. In three days, Lang Ze would be back.
However, what no one expected was that the first snow of the year would arrive earlier than the salt-seeking team.
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