Qi Bai still planned to go to the sweet potato mountain to dig sweet potatoes today. There were many people who had the same idea as him. It might be increasingly difficult to find intact sweet potatoes in the land, but its overall yield was still greater than that of other wild vegetables and fruits.
The weather was very cold now, but the mountains here weren’t completely devoid of green plants.
The Black Mountain Tribe was located in the north and surrounded by high mountains. There weren’t only many deciduous plants growing in the mountains but also large areas of pine, cypress, and cold-resistant ferns. It was just that these trees and plants weren’t suitable for beastmen to eat.
Qi Bai was carrying a shoulder pole on his shoulder, but he wasn’t walking very fast. He wasn’t a very competitive person. The reason why he mobilized everyone to participate in such a competition today was mainly to allow the slaves to participate. After all, the prize of this competition was to choose the stone wall according to the ranking. In this way, once the results of the competition came out, it would be difficult for Yang Luo to exclude the slaves alone. Doing so would be like looking down on ordinary beastmen like them. In this way, everyone could get a piece of stone wall to carve out a cave.
Just like Qi Bai, Shu Lin had no ambition to win and moved even slower. Qi Bai had walked quite a distance before Shu Lin caught up from behind. He finally asked the question in his mind. “Bao Bai, there are so many stone walls on the Black Mountain. Forget the fact that we are one tribe, even if there is another Black Mountain Tribe… No, even if there were two or more Black Mountain Tribes, we can still accommodate them. Why do you still say I will fight with you for the stone wall? I won’t fight with you for them.’
Qi Bai silently agreed in his heart, ‘Yes, it isn’t like there is no place. It is such a big rocky mountain, but the slaves can only squeeze together. How can this be justified?’
Of course, Qi Bai couldn’t say what he really thought. After all, Shu Lin was an ordinary beastman and might not understand the difficult situation of the slaves. “I’m not saying that you will definitely compete with me. I’m just making an analogy. Given our relationship, I won’t compete with you.”
Shu Lin asked happily, “What is our relationship?”
Qi Bai thought that they were probably ‘best friends’, but he said, “Of course, we are good friends.”
Shu Lin originally wanted to refute it. This person’s good friend was obviously Lang Ze. Then he changed his mouth and thought, ‘Lang Ze should be your future partner, so I must be a good friend.’ He instantly felt happy.
Even though both of them knew that they couldn’t become the strongest sub-beastmen in the tribe, they still worked very seriously after arriving at the sweet potato mountain. After all, they were all the food reserves for the tribe to survive the winter.
Qi Bai’s luck was pretty good today. It took him half a day to fill up two rattan baskets. Qi Bai put the wooden rake on top of the rattan basket. He looked at Shu Lin’s basket, which was still half empty, and said, “I’ll send it back to the tribe first. I will come back soon.”
Shu Lin originally thought he could at least win against Qi Bai, a child. He hadn’t expected that it still wasn’t possible. He nodded dejectedly. “Go. Don’t worry about me.”
Qi Bai looked at Shu Lin with amusement and put his rattan basket on his back. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t act like I’m going to abandon you.”
The moment Qi Bai returned to the tribe, he found several old beastmen who had stayed behind in the tribe. They were chatting and laughing while pickling the prey brought back by the hunting team. Several young children surrounded them, helping them.
In front of them, a large open space was specially cleared and a lot of food was scattered around.
Seeing Qi Bai coming back, Yang Luo stopped smiling. However, Chief Hou Yan beside him greeted Qi Bai with a happy smile. “Bao Bai is back. Put the food you collected here. In order to separate the food collected by each of you, Priest Yang Luo personally cleared vacant land for you.”
Yang Luo just snorted when he heard this. He was now somewhat glad that he hadn’t said anything about accepting Qi Bai as his student. It was impossible for Qi Bai to become a priest in his current state.
Qi Bai wasn’t angry at all. Yang Luo might be a bit stubborn, but Qi Bai also understood that it was very difficult to make Yang Luo, who had always been trained as a priest, to change all of a sudden. In his mind, once a beastman was branded as a slave, they could no longer be equated with other ordinary beastmen. Only a strict hierarchy and status gap could make the tribe members more united and brave in battle.
Still, at least Yang Luo was willing to accept change. Regarding today’s matter, he could completely reject Qi Bai’s proposal. Qi Bai believed that other tribe members wouldn’t think too much about it. They would only obediently listen to the orders of the priest and the chief.
Qi Bai smiled at Hou Yan and the others, knowing it would be better not to offend Yang Luo at this time. He quietly unloaded the sweet potatoes in the rattan basket in one place. Then he put on his shoulder pole again and walked out of the tribe. He had to hurry because he could make one more round trip before the sun went down.
In late autumn, it always became dark early. The sun had just risen to the middle of the sky when it rushed to the other side of the horizon.
At around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the members of the gathering team at the sweet potato mountain gathered together at the call of Tu Ya and Niu Xi. By the time they were about to reach the tribe, the sunlight was already very faint.
The moment the crowd walked out of the dense forest covered with vines and entered the open space in front of the cave, they saw the lively tribe members in the middle of the clearing.
A bonfire had been lit in the middle of the crowd. Everyone was gathered together, not knowing what they were watching.
Seeing Tu Ya and the others coming back, someone shouted loudly, “They caught up. Someone else is back!”
Qi Bai put down the shoulder pole in the place where he had placed the sweet potatoes during the day. He walked over without knowing why and saw a small fire burning next to a big fire. At this time, Niu Yong explained, “The priest said that it is too difficult to calculate it after dark. Only those who return to the tribe before the fire burns out are qualified. Those who return to the tribe after the fire goes out will lose the qualification to rank and will become the last one. The other members of the gathering team have already returned. You are the last members of the gathering team. if you delayed a bit longer, the fire would’ve gone out.”
Upon hearing this, Qi Bai looked around. The sky was dim and it was the time of day when the firelight was the brightest. He looked around but didn’t see Lang Ze.
At this moment, there was a commotion in the crowd. Qi Bai looked outside and saw Hu Meng walking towards the tribe, dragging a muntjac in one hand. He saw the gazes of the tribe members and immediately raised his other hand to let out a loud whistle.
Qi Bai heard Quan Lie’s laughter and said, “Hu Meng is a really good kid. As a child, it is very rare for him to catch such prey.”
Another old beastman, Lang Ye, wasn’t too impressed. “What is the use of this? Among the beastmen who returned to the tribe, he can’t even be ranked fifth.”
Qi Bai carefully looked at the open space in the square. Unlike the sub-beastmen, who piled up the rattan baskets and strolled around, almost every horned beastmen stood next to their prey. It wasn’t because they were worried that their prey would be taken away by others. It was mainly because many of the prey caught by the horned beastmen were still alive. They needed to stay next to their prey to prevent their prey from escaping in the chaos.
Looking at a group of people standing there in an orderly manner and waiting to be judged, Qi Bai felt like he was really participating in some important competition.
Qi Bai walked towards some places to check. There were all types of prey, including hares, wild mice, mountain phoenixes, and roe deer. Huan Ping had actually hunted back a big goat. The goat was twice as big as the young muntjac in Hu Meng’s hand. No wonder why Lang Ye looked down on it.
At this moment, Hu Meng also walked into the crowd. He laughed with great pride when he saw that Zhu Ya only had a wild mouse in his hand. However, as he got closer to the other beastmen and saw the prey in their hands, he gradually put away his proud expression.
It was just as Lang Ye said. It was still difficult for him to compete for fifth place now. It was because everyone in the Black Mountain Tribe knew that the one who could find the most prey now was Lang Ze, and Lang Ze hadn’t come back yet. Nevertheless, Hu Meng was still unconvinced in his heart. He thought that being able to find prey didn’t necessarily mean that it could be hunted. Perhaps Lang Ze’s prey wasn’t as big as his own.
As the minutes passed, the air in the square gradually became tense. Everyone gathered around the fire in silence.
Qi Bai clenched his hands anxiously. Suddenly, he felt his face getting wet.
In the gray-blue sky, tiny snowflakes were actually floating.
Qi Bai didn’t blink as he stared at the flames that were starting to flicker. He was afraid that his rapid breathing would extinguish the faint light.
Suddenly, someone shouted, “Someone is back!”
Qi Bai quickly pushed away the crowd and saw a giant one-horned wolf covered in blood, dragging a bison that was bigger than him and walking towards the tribe step by step in the flying snow.
This scene was too shocking and dreamy. Qi Bai stared blankly. For a moment, he even forgot to move forward.
Someone shouted excitedly, “It is Lang Ze! Lang Ze has brought back a bison!”
“Blessings of the Beast God!”
“Lang Ze!”
The crowd erupted in thunderous cheers. The warm atmosphere could even melt the falling snow. Without anyone noticing, the faint sparks finally merged with the dark night.
No one knew where Lang Ze found the bison because even experienced beastmen like Hou Yan and Quan Lie had never found any traces of such a large bison living around the tribe.
No one would think that Lang Ze was lucky because even if Hou Yan had encountered such a large bison, he wasn’t confident he could hunt it down and bring it back to the tribe.
However, Lang Ze did it. There was no doubt that Lang Ze was the undisputed first place among the beastmen in this competition.
As everyone was celebrating, only Yang Luo felt a chill on his back.
As if sensing Yang Luo’s gaze, the wolf’s eyes, which were as dark as the sea, raised slightly and stared straight at him. The ferocity in those eyes could no longer be hidden.
Lang Ze was demonstrating.
Yang Luo was certain of it.
After lying dormant for so long, Lang Ze was finally showing his fangs.
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