LSLFBW: Chapter 3

On the way back, Tu Ya deliberately took everyone to another route.

She still remembered Yang Luo’s instructions to find a water source along the way.

It was still raining but the rain would stop one day. They couldn’t be short of water for a day.

Surprisingly, after walking only a short distance, Qi Bai heard the sound of running water.

Tu Ya obviously heard it too. She walked toward the sound with a happy face.

However, when they got closer, Tu Ya’s expression changed. Even Shu Lin and Diao Lan, who were following behind her, looked serious.

Bao Xing didn’t notice the strangeness of the adults. He held the leaves full of Li grass and shouted happily, “It is a river! We found a river! I’m going back to tell Grandpa Yang Luo!”

Maybe it was because the child had a strong adaptability. Even though Bao Xing had been running around for more than ten days, Bao Xing was always in high spirits after hearing that everyone was going to take him out gathering, even if he was hungry. As he spoke, he put down the leaves in his hand as if he wanted to go closer to take a look.

At this time, Tu Ya grabbed his arm and said, “Bao Xing, you must remember that this river is called the Man-Eating River. If you encounter such a river in the future, you must not go to the river to get water unless you have to.”

Bao Xing looked up at Tu Ya, obviously not understanding. “Why? There is a lot of water here.”

Qi Bai was also very puzzled.

Tu Ya pointed to the yellow river water and said, “Look, this yellow river water means that there are man-eating piranhas in the river.”

Qi Bai was shocked when he heard this. He thought the yellow river water was just because the rain disturbed the mud and sand at the bottom of the river. This caused the river to be turbid for a short time.

In addition, the mother river of Qi Bai’s country in his previous life was also yellow. It was because the river passed through a section of the road where soil erosion brought mud and sand.

In short, he never thought there would be piranhas in the turbid river water!

The children still looked disbelieving. This made Tu Ya look around, pick up an earthworm that had drilled out of the soil for air, and threw it directly into the river.

Splash!

As the earthworm fell into the river, the previously calm water surface instantly stirred up chaotic splashes.

Several arm-length piranhas, with big mouths full of dense and fine teeth, rushed out of the water one after another, vying to bite the small earthworm.

Qi Bai and the others could hear the chattering sound of two rows of teeth hitting each other from the shore a few meters away.

The little sub-beastman, Li (raccoon dog) Li, was directly scared silly. She hugged the leaves for a long time before reacting and crying.

Diao Lan quickly protected Li Li in her arms. “There is nothing to be afraid of. Remember not to get close to such a river in the future, okay?”

Li Li nodded while hiccuping. “I-I know… woo woo…”

Tu Ya saw this and didn’t want to stay here for long. She asked everyone to pack the leaves and continue on the way.

Only Qi Bai was still a bit absent-minded as he looked at the river surface that had just calmed down before leaving.

Tu Ya saw that he was still standing there and thought he was also scared silly. She said with a smile. “The piranhas can’t run to the shore to bite you as long as you don’t provoke them. What is there to be afraid of?”

However, Qi Bai’s next words made Tu Ya not know how to answer for a while.

Qi Bai opened his bright eyes and asked sincerely, “Can this piranha be eaten?”

Tu Ya blinked. She didn’t want to pay attention to Qi Bai, but she was afraid that Qi Bai would really run to catch fish when he was hungry. Piranhas were too dangerous. Even horned beastmen with rich hunting experience wouldn’t easily provoke them. She hurriedly said, “This piranha isn’t delicious.”

Tu Ya thought about how the Li grass in her hand wasn’t delicious when eaten raw and emphasized, “Piranha aren’t delicious. They aren’t delicious even when cooked. They are bitter and fishy. Don’t think about eating piranhas!”

Qi Bai only heard Tu Ya say that piranhas weren’t delicious, and his eyes opened even wider.

Tu Ya only said that they weren’t delicious, not that they couldn’t be eaten. This meant that piranhas could be eaten!

As for the bitter and fishy taste mentioned by Tu Ya, it was very likely that there was something wrong with the way the fish was processed.

After all, the fish was very fat and looked chewy. It didn’t look like it wasn’t delicious.

The most important thing was that fish meat was still meat!

Qi Bai saw clearly that there was a dense number of piranhas attracted by food under the surface of the water.

This was a whole river of fish meat!

Of course, Qi Bai also saw the danger. He had to figure out a safe method if he wanted to eat fish.

Qi Bai was lost in thought as the group returned to the cave.

There were some wild vegetables piled up in the cave. It seemed that another gathering team had returned. Everyone put down the Li grass in their hands. Tu Ya also told Yang Luo the news of the Man-Eating River as soon as possible.

Yang Luo was also very serious when he heard this. He nodded. “I will tell this news to the others and let everyone be careful to avoid the river. Tu Ya, you have done a good job.”

Tu Ya was a bit embarrassed about being praised. She saw that Yang Luo was busy making a fire, so she didn’t disturb him and set off again with the team.

The forest in autumn was rich in products. Qi Bai’s group had to search for a long time but they never returned empty-handed.

As a modern person, Qi Bai hoped that he could help other orcs find some food that he had eaten in modern times. However, it might be due to the different era or different worlds they lived in. In short, Qi Bai didn’t find any familiar plants today.

This didn’t mean he got nothing. After the Li grass, Tu Ya and Diao Lan led them to find several edible vegetables one after another. They even found a type of red, sour, and astringent wild fruit, which Tu Ya called ‘red fruit.’

It was the time when the red fruit was ripe. Unfortunately, many fruits were knocked on the ground by the wind and rain that had lasted for days. They were already soft and rotten, so they couldn’t be eaten.

Shu Lin and Diao Lin climbed up several red fruit trees and picked many of the surviving red fruits.

Qi Bai’s group wasn’t allowed to climb the trees, so they only searched for not rotten fruits on the ground. They also gained a lot.

It was already past noon when they returned to the cave again.

The work of the gathering team was so busy.

They couldn’t be out gathering all day like the hunting team.

The gathering team had to take advantage of the morning time to collect enough wild vegetables and fruits as quickly as possible. It was because after returning to the tribe, they had to tan the animal skins, make tools, and prepare dinner. There were many trivial things, but each one was very important to the beastmen.

In the beastmen world where there was no male superiority or female inferiority, every beastmen and sub-beastmen were using their own methods to make the tribe members live a better life.

It was just that they weren’t a tribe yet, and they were also very poor. They didn’t have animal skins or tools at all. This didn’t mean that they had to do less work.

Qi Bai put the red fruit he brought back in the northeast corner of the cave. There was an empty corner at an angle of around 90 degrees. Yang Luo had asked people to clean it up, and it was now used to store the materials collected by the gathering team.

The cave was filled with a clanging noise. It was the sound of hitting a stone pot.

There were five people in this group, and they were sitting around the entrance of the cave at this moment. The leader was Lu Guo, the first one to speak yesterday.

Not long after the hunting team left in the morning, Lu Guo took the other four sub-beastmen out to look for stones that could be used to polish a stone pot.

The cave where they were now located was a natural stone cave formed on a stone mountain.

The stones in this cave were very hard and smooth. Thus, Hou Yan and Yang Luo judged that this was a good place for them to stop. It was because this stone mountain was very hard and not covered with a lot of soil. There was no need to worry about it collapsing even if it rained heavily.

This meant Lu Guo and the others didn’t have to walk far before they saw a huge stone that could be used to polish the stone pot. The five of them might be sub-beastmen but they were very strong. They worked together to move a concave stone with a diameter of around one meter back to the cave.

Unlike the other teams who were talking and laughing, these people would only ask Lu Guo questions in a low voice when they didn’t know how to start. Lu Guo would carefully inspect it before telling them what to do.

For a moment, there was no other sound around them except the sound of stones colliding.

Polishing stone tools was a job that required time and patience, not to mention that they were going to build a large stone pot that needed to be used by over 50 people. This wasn’t something that could be done in a short time.

At this time, Yang Luo came to check their progress. He was very satisfied with the stone that Lu Guo chose. Tomorrow, you will take people to find another similar stone. I will ask more people to help you polish it. We need at least two large pots to cook for everyone.”

Lu Guo lowered her head when she saw Yang Luo. She immediately nodded after hearing what Yang Luo said. “Don’t worry, Elder Yang Luo. There are still many such large stones where we went today. We will move them back tomorrow morning.”

Yang Luo saw that Qi Bai’s team had returned to the cave first, so he called them over.

Yang Luo asked the children, such as Bao Xing and Li Li, to wash the wild vegetables they picked with the rainwater.

As for Tu Ya, Shu Lin, Diao Lan, and Qi Bai, they were left behind by Yang Luo to polish the stone pot together.

There were many large stones and pointed stones with sharp corners that Lu Guo’s group had picked up by the cave entrance. Lu Guo took a stone hammer and sharp stone to demonstrate to the four of them. In fact, only Qi Bai needed to learn. Even if Tu Ya and the others hadn’t polished the stone pot, they had made other stone tools.

Fortunately, unlike other fine stone tools, polishing the stone pot wasn’t very difficult. Qi Bai quickly learned it.

Lu Guo arranged their positions, and everyone worked hard.

Thanks to the addition of Qi Bai and the others, the atmosphere here was no longer as dull as before.

Tu Ya told Lu Guo and the others about the interesting things they encountered along the way today. In particular, several people laughed softly when they heard about the dilemma of several children who ate the Li grass.

Once Yang Luo arranged the work here, other gathering teams also came back one after another. Yang Luo went to arrange the work of others without stopping.

Qi Bai could see that even though he was as busy as a spin top, the old man Yang Luo was very happy.

It wasn’t until everyone was doing their job that Yang Luo went back to stare at the two underage beastmen who were making fire.

There was a reason why Yang Luo chose them.

In addition to the experienced sub-beastmen, the people who could make a fire in the tribe were mostly horned beastmen.

During the hunting season, horned beastmen often needed to hunt outside for several days. Fire could allow them to eat fresh barbecue in the wild. More importantly, some wild animals didn’t dare to approach if there was a fire, and they would be safer.

However, the number of adult horned beastmen they currently had was too small. Yang Luo couldn’t transfer manpower from the adult horned beastmen. Therefore, he planned to train these two horned beastmen who were about to become adults.

It was difficult to find clean firewood and hay outside the cave. Fortunately, the original owner of this cave had stored a lot of hay that was mixed with many thin branches.

At this moment, the horned beastman, Hu (tiger) Meng, was rubbing the branches quickly with his hands. There was hay and some grass clippings under the branches.

The horned beastman, Niu (ox) Yong, lay on the ground, blowing air onto the branches.

Qi Bai had seen the scenes of making fire in the wild on TV shows. It was precisely like this. Some people would add a straw rope to increase the speed of friction, but the beastmen were very strong. The speed at which Hu Meng rubbed the branches was quick, but there was still no spark.

Qi Bai sat at the entrance of the cave and chiseled at the stone pot with his head down.

It wasn’t known how long it took when he suddenly heard warm cheers from the cave, occasionally mixed with ‘Blessings of the Beast God.’

Several people at the entrance of the cave hurriedly walked into the cave and saw many people gathered in a circle and dancing. Some of the little beastmen didn’t understand the meaning of these dances, but just danced randomly.

Everyone’s dance was different, which represented that everyone came from different tribes, but their beliefs were consistent. They were all dancing for light and life.

Qi Bai was also infected by such pure and passionate emotions.

The fire burning at this moment wasn’t just fire, but hope!

At this moment, someone outside shouted, “The hunting team is back!”