LSLFBW: Chapter 145

Several fires burned inside the tent, where the beastmen of the Black Mountain Tribe huddled together. They occasionally smacked their lips as if savoring the delicious meal they had eaten before bed.

Qi Bai felt the sudden tension in the body beside him and woke up from his light sleep. He saw Lang Ze with bright eyes, listening intently to the sounds outside the tent.

Qi Bai immediately became alert and focused on the sounds outside.

A gust of wind blew, swirling snowflakes from the tent roof into the forest, striking tree trunks and leaves with subtle sounds, seemingly nothing unusual.

However, Lang Ze frowned. He sat up and walked nimbly to the animal skin curtain.

Lang Ji and Quan Liu, who were on night watch, were about to ask what was wrong when Lang Ze shook his head at them.

Lang Ze slowly lifted the curtain, turned back and took Qi Bai’s hand. The two of them crouched down and entered the snow and ice outside the tent.

The passage that was half a person high was dug by Qi Bai in front of the door during the day. Now it served as a ready-made cover.

Qi Bai peeked out and scanned the area around the tent.

Behind the tent lay a wide plain while there was a forest in front.

It had snowed all night, leaving the area around the temporary camp untouched by footsteps. Only the frost-covered trees were indistinct in the cold wind.

Qi Bai asked softly, “Is there something?”

Lang Ze shook his head. “The snow is too heavy. We need to get closer.”

“Okay,” Qi Bai said. “I’ll transform into my beast form and follow you.”

Qi Bai hadn’t studied prey detection but his beast form was small and white. IF he was careful, it would be difficult for anyone to spot him in such heavy snow.

Lang Ze agreed almost without hesitation. He sensed danger nearby. He could only feel at ease with Qi Bai by his side.

Qi Bai’s figure vanished, replaced by a small snow leopard emerging from his animal skin coat.

His beast form was a snow leopard so Qi Bai wasn’t particularly afraid of the cold. His thick paw pads allowed him to stand firmly on the snow, making him even more agile than in his human form.

Lang Ze rushed towards the nearest forest and Qi Bai followed behind, stepping in his tracks to minimize the footsteps they left.

A few minutes later, Lang Ze stood beside a large tree, examining the huge ‘footprint’ on the ground that wasn’t completely covered by snow. The footprint had the shape of a toe in the middle and there were signs of melting.

Qi Bai wasn’t sure if it was a footprint because it was so large.

It was a snow pit at least eighty centimeters deep. If it was really a footprint, even a bull would look small next to this beast.

The snow leopard circled the large footprint before lightly leaping onto the tree.

“Meow~” The snow leopard meowed softly.

Lang Ze straightened up. Following the sound, he saw a paw print on a branch that was almost as large as the footprint on the ground.

Based on the two tracks, one could imagine that a massive beast stood here, watching the Black Mountain Tribe’s camp until the snow beneath their feet melted into water from their body heat before freezing back to ice after they left.

It was just unclear why they hadn’t attacked the beastmen camp, but instead left after observing for a long time.

Lang Ze stared at the somewhat messy footprints in the distance. “I’ve never seen a beast like this before.”

The little snow leopard scratched the snowflakes off his ears with his front paws. If even Lang Ze didn’t know about this beast then Qi Bai definitely wouldn’t.

The two of them followed the footprints for a while, the forest growing increasingly dense. Without the snow on the ground, Qi Bai was certain that he would’ve become lost. Of course, they couldn’t let their guard down now. There was such heavy snow that their tracks would soon become blurred, making further pursuit too dangerous.

However, they soon no longer needed to worry about these things as the tracks left by the wild beast became increasingly difficult to find. Lang Ze stopped after passing through another stretch of the forest. “The footprints are gone.”

Qi Bai was unwilling to give up, so he ran a bit further, climbed a tree and peered into the distance. The forest was completely silent, without a single trace. The footprints seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Lang Ze stepped forward. The feeling of being stared at had disappeared. Lang Ze guessed that the wild beast was already far away. “There was only one beast.”

“Meow~”

The little snow leopard softly replied to Lang Ze. He leaped lightly from the tree and landed on Lang Ze’s shoulder.

It wasn’t the wild beast itself that was frightening, but the strange behavior of this particular beast that made Qi Bai uneasy.

This was the beast’s territory and they had their own way of hiding. Finding them wouldn’t be easy for the two of them. Lang Ze ruffled the little snow leopard’s head with his large hand. “Let’s go back first.”

By the time the two of them returned to the camp, most of the tribe members had already woken up.

Lang Kuang and Lang Pu had heard about the previous events from Quan Liu, who had been on night watch. Now they rushed forward to inquire about it after seeing the two people enter.

Qi Bai described what they had witnessed. Being older and members of a powerful tribe like the Silver Moon Tribe, they might’ve seen such a beast before.

After Qi Bai finished speaking, Lang Pu shook his head. Lang Kuang frowned, seemingly thinking of something but ultimately remained silent.

“Such large footprints must be made by a very large beast. How could we not hear it moving?” Ma Song wondered incredulously.

Quan Liu quickly added, “There really wasn’t a sound. We listened to the sounds outside while we were on watch.”

Lang Ji nodded in agreement.

After Lang Ze and Qi Bai went out, they carefully recalled the previous events and confirmed that there was nothing unusual.

Lang Ze didn’t blame them but simply told everyone, “No matter what type of beast it is, it can’t stop us.”

Due to the existence of these unknown beasts, everyone needed to complete their work faster.

After breakfast, everyone took the tools piled up at the door and continued to mine ore at the rocks.

A thin layer of snow had been added to the ground that the mining team had cleared yesterday, but it didn’t hinder their progress.

These rocks that had rolled down the mountain were more spectacular than they looked from a distance. Many of them were even taller than the horned beastmen.

Between the rocks, one could see the thick bones of a wild bull, devoid of any flesh of blood. It carried a tragic air in the frozen world.

The horned beastmen started hammering away at the rocks while Qi Bai and Niu Xi stood by the cart, examining the iron ore their tribe had dug the previous day. Based on their previous experience with iron smelting, they were going to perform a preliminary sorting of the ore.

Niu Xi held a stone for a long time and pondered on it before finally handing it to Qi Bai. “Bao Bai, these stones are a bit different.”

Qi Bai took the stone and immediately noticed something was amiss. It was dark red in color but it felt very light.

He picked out a stone of a similar size from the rattan basket in front of him. The difference in weight became even more obvious.

Qi Bai struck the two stones together heavily and the lighter stone easily broke in two.

This was clearly different from the reddish-brown stones they had used in their previous iron smelting in the tribe. After all, they had spent considerable effort breaking these stones into smaller pieces.

“Who was in charge of these stones?” Qi Bai asked.

Niu Xi pointed to a spot a bit further away. “Niu Cheng and the others dug that.”

Qi Bai said, “Let’s go and take a look.”

They were all stones from the same mountain, but the Crimson Mountains collapsed during an earthquake. This caused the stones they were now touching to have come from different locations on the mountain.

Qi Bai specifically instructed everyone that if they were chiseling different large boulders, they should be carried separately.

The reason for doing this was mainly to make it easier to observe the iron yield of different ores after they brought the stones back to the tribe. It was also to ensure that if the stones they chiseled weren’t right, they could stop the losses immediately.

Seeing Qi Bai and Niu Xi coming over, the people working in shifts stopped what they were doing and cleared a path in front of the stones.

Qi Bai and Niu Xi held up the stones in front of the large boulders and compared them. Niu Xi even scratched the surface of the stones a few times before shaking his head.

The horned beastmen looked at each other. Then Niu Cheng stepped forward and asked, “Did we dig badly?”

The people of the Black Mountain Tribe had no mining experience. After arriving at the Crimson Mountains yesterday, everyone just randomly found a spot and started.

Niu Cheng and his group were a group of horned beastmen who had pulled the carts before reaching their destination. They rested for half a day before starting work, so they chose a location further out.

Qi Bai took out a piece of charcoal and drew a large X on the stone surface. “You have dug very well but we haven’t figured out the purpose of this stone yet. I will mark it first. Don’t touch stones marked like this for now.”

A horned beastman scratched his head. “We chose this crimson stone. How should we choose the next one?”

Qi Bai handed over two stones in his hand. “Niu Xi and I just discovered the difference between these stones. In the future. try to choose the harder and heavier stones.”

Ma Song, who wasn’t far away, heard what Qi Bai said and came over. “I wondered why they were digging their stone so fast. It turns out that this stone isn’t hard.”

It was no wonder Ma Song was curious. After all, Niu Cheng’s small team started last but they were chiseling stones much faster than the other teams. This made the neighboring teams quite frustrated. Now that they knew it was due to the stones being different, not because they were weak, they felt a bit better.

Niu Cheng caught sight of Niu Xi and Qi Bai out of the corner of his eyes and his face flushed red. “If we choose the same stone, we can quickly surpass you. Our beast forms are strong bulls!”

The horned beastman behind Niu Cheng clenched his fist and agreed. “That’s right! Let’s have a contest!”

Ma Song was also fired up. “Then let’s have a contest! Come and dig from the same stone as us. You definitely can’t beast our Horse Tribe’s beastmen.”

Niu Cheng spat into his palm, gripped his stone axe and puffed out his chest. His bulging muscles were clearly visible even through his animal skin clothing.

Qi Bai took a few steps back and gave Lang Ze a look. ‘Should we interfere or not?’

Lang Ze glanced at Niu Cheng and Ma Song. He saw it was just a stone digging contest and not a fight, so he gently shook his head at Qi Bai. ‘Don’t worry about them.’

Conflicts occurred even between beastmen of the same tribe, let alone the Black Mountain Tribe composed of several tribes. Suppressing them would only backfire.

Most importantly, the tribe had a clear reward and punishment system. If things went too far, their work points would be deducted. Everyone understood that without work points, there was no food. No one would risk their food.

After this little incident, Qi Bai and Niu Xi checked the stones the beastmen had dug with even more care. Going out under these conditions wasn’t easy. It would be a huge waste to waste energy and time on the wrong materials.

Fortunately, the two of them only found one large, unusable rock afterward. Qi Bai quickly marked it, preventing significant losses to the group.

The winter forest was silent, save for the echoing sound of the horned beastmen chiseling stones.

Lang Ze glanced into the forest. That vague feeling of another gaze had returned.

Lang Ze put down his stone hammer and said to Lang Ji, “Notify everyone to prepare to depart.”

Lang Ji’s ears were still ringing with the sound of chiseling stones. He nodded instinctively and only realized what was happening when Lang Ze had walked quite a distance. He quickly put the stone in his basket and relayed Lang Ze’s message to the other members of his tribe.

Qi Bai and Niu Xi were cooking the team’s meal when Lang Ze lifted the animal skin curtain and entered the tent. Qi Bai saw Lang Ze had returned alone with a somewhat serious expression and quickly asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lang Ze replied, “That wild beast is here. This time, there is more than one.”

Qi Bai stood up nervously. “Should we fight them?”

Lang Ze shook his head. “No, it doesn’t seem like they intend to attack for now. We should leave here immediately.”