LSLFBW: Chapter 44

The wolf meat and wolf skin were separated and placed in the corners of the collective cave. The cave, which had become more spacious after the tribe members moved out, suddenly became crowded again.

Qi Bai sighed happily in his heart. What sweet trouble…

In the innermost part of the cave, several furry little beastmen were sleeping in a ball. Qi Bai added a few pieces of charcoal into the charcoal basin.

At this time, Bao Xing was kicked out of the circle of children by his sister, Bao Yue. However, he was unaware of it and continued to sleep on his belly. Qi Bai smiled and covered his little belly with an animal skin.

Hou Yan, Xiang Yu, and several other older beastmen were sitting at the entrance of the cave, chatting idly. Once they saw Qi Bai coming out, they asked lovingly, “Why don’t you go with them to the stream to wash? We have a few old guys in the tribe.”

Since the pool on the other side of the waterfall had frozen, the tribe now had to boil snow water directly or walk for around half an hour to a small stream at the top of the mountain. The flow of water wasn’t too large, but it was the only water source nearby that hadn’t been cut off.

Of course, it was impossible to bathe completely in such a small stream. Everyone could only stand by the water and wash their bodies with the cold stream water.

It was scrubbing in the snow in the middle of winter. If there happened to be a gust of wind, the feeling would be unforgettable once one had experienced it. At the very least, Qi Bai didn’t want to experience it a second time.

Qi Bai smiled and shook his head. “I just have a bit of the finishing work left. It will be done soon.”

It wasn’t that he deliberately changed the subject. The snow in front of the collective cave had been cleared, but the smell of blood on the ground couldn’t be dissipated.

Qi Bai carried down the wood ash he had saved and scattered it carefully. Once he was done, he rubbed his nose hard and sniffed the air deeply.

It seemed like it was covered up a bit. After being immersed in this smell the whole day, Qi Bai felt that his sense of smell was a bit impaired.

Once he said goodbye to the few people who stayed in the valley, Qi Bai returned to the cave and took out his small bathtub from the bottom shelf.

This storage rack was carved out by Qi Bai on the wall after the main body of the room was completed.

The storage rack was located on the right side of the cave entrance, closest to Lang Ze’s cave. The stone wall was dug into five closets of different heights. The bottom layer was the highest and deepest. It was specially used to place large items such as rattan baskets and wooden barrels.

Qi Bai poured the hot water that hadn’t fully boiled yet from the stone pot into the wooden barrel. He tested the water temperature with his hand and felt that it was just right.

The figure standing there disappeared. A little snow leopard crawled out from under the blood-stained animal skin coat, scratching his neck with his claws in disgust.

He leaped lightly and jumped to the edge of the barrel. He tentatively put his feet into the water and slowly sank his whole body into the water. This left only his small head exposed and resting on the barrel.

This was why he didn’t follow the large group to have a bath outside. The advantage of his small animal form was that he only needed a slightly larger wooden tub to enjoy a hot bath.

Take the middle section of a tree that was so thick that a person could hug it, peel off the bark, hollow out the wood in the middle, and polish it repeatedly with rough stones from coarse to fine. It wasn’t easy to make, but Qi Bai felt it was all worth it at this moment.

The ripples in the water swayed gently, and Qi Bai’s head became dizzy. It was so comfortable, as if he was floating on the clouds.

Outside the cave, Lang Ze was carrying his hay, which had been turned into a mess by the wolves, back to the cave. He was all wet.

He was the warrior that Qi Bai had mentioned. Not only did he take a bath in ice water, but he was also busy working in the open air with his upper body exposed.

Lang Ze suddenly stopped what he was doing, and his ears twitched slightly. He seemed to hear splashing sounds of water coming from the cave next door, mixed with the childish voice of a little snow leopard.

Lang Ze frowned and strode forward. Once he opened the door of QI Bai’s house, he saw the little snow leopard struggling in the water like he was drowning.

Of course, this would be the case if Lang Ze hadn’t seen that the water in the small wooden basin only went as high as his forearm.

Lang Ze’s mouth curled up. He walked to the wooden barrel, put his hands around the snow leopard’s forelimbs, and gently lifted him out of the water.

“Meow?”

Qi Bai had indeed dreamed that he had fallen from the clouds into the sea and was ‘drowning.’ He opened his eyes and saw a ‘giant’ who rescued him. Then the ‘giant’ wrapped him in a clean animal skin.

It wasn’t until Lang Ze left that Qi Bai secretly struggled out of the animal skin. He shook off the water on his body and held down the tail that was gloating. Qi Bai licked the hair on his chest in a depressed manner. Why did he always do such embarrassing things in front of Lang Ze?

Qi Bai changed into human form, put on a clean animal skin, threw the dirty clothes he had taken off into a wooden barrel, and poured in some wood ash to soak them.

He looked up and saw a small piece of wood lying quietly in the bamboo basket he used to place small tools. It had never been used since it was made.

The embarrassment just now completely disappeared. Qi Bai’s eyes lit up instantly. He grabbed the small piece of wood and ran briskly to Lang Ze’s cave.

Lang Ze put the hay back in place and looked at his roughly shaped cave in a bit of a critical manner. He was wondering if he should make the cave more tidy like QI Bai and make some beautiful furniture.

“Lang Ze! Look at what this is! I made this specially for you!” Qi Bai said excitedly.

Lang Ze took the block of wood from his hand. It was carved from a whole piece of wood. The surface was very smooth, but there were many fine teeth underneath. He had never seen anything like it before.

Qi Bai clasped his hands together while looking expectant. “Quickly change into beast form, and I will tell you what it is used for.”

Lang Ze wasn’t wearing animal skins now. He just took a step back and a giant wolf appeared in front of QI Bai.

Qi Bai stroked the giant wolf’s fur with his hand. “I wasn’t mistaken. Lang Ze, you seem to have faded…” The originally gray fur on the giant wolf’s back had now turned light gray.

The giant wolf’s body paused slightly. He nudged Qi Bai lightly as if angry.

Qi Bai laughed loudly. He spread the animal skin that Lang Ze had put aside on the hay, and patted the giant wolf’s neck. “It’s okay. Lie down quickly. I’ll comb your fur. If the old doesn’t go, the new won’t come. You will definitely grow new fur next year.”

That’s right. What Qi Bai specially prepared for Lang Ze was a comb.

Every time he used his barbed tongue to comb his fur, Qi Bai would always think of his giant wolf fur who couldn’t lick his fur. He was so pitiful and really wanted to help Lang Ze.

Qi Bai placed a small dustpan beside him. He knelt on the animal skin, and combed the fur bit by bit, starting from Lang Ze’s neck.

The neck was Lang Ze’s most vulnerable part. However, at this moment, he didn’t feel any danger. It was so comfortable that he swept the ground lightly with his tail.

He secretly wondered if his beast form was too big and if Qi Bai would feel tired combing his fur like this.

Of course, if he asked this question then the answer he got would be: Absolutely not!

Finally, he could touch Lang Ze’s beast form with a clear conscience. Qi Bai was immersed in the fur and couldn’t extricate himself. HE was wrong. When he was bathing in the pool just now, why did he feel like he was in the clouds? Obviously, what he was holding now was the cloud!

Qi Bai blew gently on Lang Ze’s back. He felt relieved when he saw that the fur was still dense. The slightly shorter new fur looked even softer and more beautiful.

He combed the light gray fur off the comb and put it into the dustpan beside him where there was already a large pile of soft fur.

After feeling that Lang Ze seemed to have been silent for a long time, Qi Bai turned his head and stretched his neck. He saw that the giant wolf was resting his head on his forelimbs with his eyes slightly closed, as if he had fallen asleep.

Lang Ze had been out in the open for 20 days. He had been busy without stopping since returning to the tribe. He must be very tired…

Qi Bai changed his position quietly and continued combing his fur carefully and gently. It seemed that his massage technique was quite good.

The early morning sun shone into the cave. A tiny snow leopard was curled up against the giant wolf. The lower half of the snow leopard’s body was covered with a fur coat, and a small wooden comb had fallen casually on the coat. It looked like he had subconsciously turned into his beast form after falling asleep.

As if to avoid the sunlight from disturbing his dreams, the little snow leopard moved closer to the warm body of the giant wolf in his sleep, with his pink paw pads loosely covering his face.

The tribe member’s conversations could be heard in the valley. Qi Bai finally opened his eyes reluctantly and found himself trapped in white fur. This didn’t seem to be his cave…

Qi Bai jumped out of the animal skin coat and turned into human form. He found the fallen comb in the animal skin coat and put it in the dustpan full of fur. He held the animal skin coat and looked at Lang Ze, who still maintained his elegant sleeping posture. He somehow felt a bit guilty and cautiously left Lang Ze’s cave.

What Qi Bai didn’t notice was that immediately afterwards, the giant wolf behind him opened his eyes without any trace of sleepiness in them.

Qi Bai rarely woke up so late. He washed up and had breakfast. Then he quickly ran to the square in front of the collective cave. As expected, he saw Lang Ze and Yang Luo waiting for him in the middle of the square.

Of course, the two of them were standing very far apart. If they hadn’t made an appointment in advance, no one would have been able to tell that they were waiting for the same person.

Since Hou Yan’s legs made it difficult for him to move, there were only three of them when surveying the terrain this morning.

They were just around the collective cave, but the tribe members usually only went in and out through the few paths that had been opened up. This meant the snow in the forest they were heading to was still very thick. They couldn’t move forward very quickly.

Yang Luo followed behind Qi Bai. He wanted to step forward several times to stop Lang Ze from staring at Qi Bai, but he finally held back.

Putting aside the fact that Lang Ze was once a slave, Yang Luo discovered to his dismay that Lang Ze was indeed an excellent beastman. It seemed like there was nothing wrong with Qi Bai choosing such a partner.

At this time, Qi Bai, who was walking in front, turned around and interrupted Yang Luo’s melancholy. “I think this is enough. If it is any further, I’m worried the materials won’t be available.”

Lang Ze looked around and found a fairly sturdy tree. He climbed up the branch in two or three moves. It took him a while to get down from the tree. He nodded and said, “Okay.”

They were now measuring the area where the tribe planned to build fences and lookouts.

During yesterday’s impromptu meeting, everyone clearly realized that the Black Mountain might be a natural protection in their rear, but the forest in front of them was a hidden danger.

Last time, it was a black bear. This time, it was a pack of wolves. They both entered the tribe directly under the cover of the forest.

Lang Ze now sent people to patrol around the tribe every day, but the number of people in the hunting team was limited. There were always places they couldn’t detect.

Qi Bai proposed to build a barrier around the tribe. This would not only block the wild beasts in the mountains and forests, but more importantly, it would also block the prying eyes of other beastmen.

They came here early in the morning for this purpose.

The location chosen by Qi Bai at this time was about one hundred meters away from the collective cave.

The Black Mountain extended outward at an obtuse angle of around 120 degrees from the collective cave as its center. Therefore, they needed to build at least a fan-shaped structure that could completely cover this range and connect to the Black Mountain.

In addition, an additional section needed to be built on the right side of the stone mountain so that the kiln could be included in the tribe’s defense.

As the most important resource in the tribe besides salt, Yang Luo hoped to exchange the pottery produced in the kiln for more food. He naturally couldn’t give it up.

The observation tower would be built at the junction of the wall and the Black Mountain. It was only in this way that it could be built higher and the range of vision would be further.

A large wooden door with two openings should be built in the middle of the wall to facilitate the hunting team carrying prey into the tribe. At the same time, a small door should be opened on the side. The main gate would usually be closed while the tribe members would enter and exit through the small door on the side.

Qi Bai used charcoal to draw the entire wall and the scope of the tribe on the light gray stone slab.

According to Qi Bai’s estimation, the wall must be at least two meters wide and ten meters high to stop beastmen like Lang Ze. Taking into account larger beasts like Xiang Yu, the workload would be endless.

However, this was only what he thought in the end. The final plan they decided on was to build the wall into a brick wall that was one meter away and five meters high. Just for this, Qi Bai roughly calculated that the number of bricks needed seemed like an astronomical figure.

Moreover, if the beastmen really wanted to raid them, they wouldn’t be able to hold out for long with dozens of people even if they built a wall that was several dozen meters high.

“It is so spectacular…” Hou Yan looked at the tribe planning map that Qi Bai had drawn on the stone slab. He couldn’t imagine that they could build such a beautiful wall.

Lang Ze pointed to the block outside the wall and asked, “What is this?”

Qi Bai showed a row of small white teeth. “This is the farmland I reserved.”

“Farmland?” Yang Luo asked in confusion.

Speaking of walls, Yang Luo had heard about them from the old priest. The City of the Beast God had walls. Of course, he intuitively knew that the walls weren’t made of bricks. However, this ‘farmland’ was really unheard of.

“Yes.” Qi Bai nodded. “Next spring, I will try to plant radishes and sweet potatoes in the soil. If successful, we can open up farmland like this and grow more food.”

The yield of seeds collected from the wild was certainly not as good as that of modern bred seeds. Fortunately, the beastmen were strong. They just had to make some commonly used tools, and they could completely offset the problem of low yield by expanding the planting area.

Of course, these were all things for later. Whether he could succeed in breeding next spring was still unknown.

Qi Bai was currently facing another crucial problem. It was how to make adhesive for bricks.

Qi Bai crouched down in front of the white-gray mountain, holding his head that had been scratched like a feather duster.

What were the main components of limestone? Calcium hydroxide? Calcium oxide? Calcium sulfate?

How to turn limestone into quicklime? He seemed to remember that it required a high temperature? How… how high should the temperature be? Did he need to add anything???