LSLFBW: Chapter 49

The yak hunted by the hunting team this time required the beast form of two horned beastmen to drag it. This showed how huge its size was.

This meant that the Black Mountain Tribe had obtained enough beef.

Yang Luo ignored Ma Ling and She Li. He rushed directly to the yak with a bone knife. He wanted to store all the meat well.

The hunting team returned with a full load. It not only brought back prey, but also a lot of firewood and soil. This all needed to be sorted and stored by the tribe members.

Qi Bai walked to Lang Ze and patted the giant wolf’s neck. Lang Ze lowered his head.

Qi Bai rubbed Lang Ze’s ears hard with a wicked smile and wiped off the blood.

Lang Ze didn’t know Qi Bai’s intention. He just let Qi Bai knead him quietly.

The ears of the wolf were bigger than Qi Bai’s palm. The base of the ears was a bit hard, but the cartilage of the ears was surprisingly soft. Once Qi Bai let go, the ears subconsciously turned twice.

Qi Bai took two steps back and made sure that the giant wolf was really clean this time before he took the rattan basket from Lang Ze.

The rattan basket was filled with mud from the riverside, which Qi Bai had specifically asked Lang Ze to bring back.

The wooden shed at the kiln was crushed by the snow once. Qi Bai wanted to add a few more supporting pillars to the shed before covering the walls of the shed with adobe bricks.

The mud house was definitely not as sturdy as the stone house, but it was definitely stronger than the hay that was laid on it now. At the very least, Qi Bai didn’t have to worry about the roof of the wooden shed being blown away by the wind in the future. Moreover, once the walls were thickened, it would definitely be warmer than it was now.

Qi Bai carried the rattan basket to the side of the wooden shed, mixed it with hay, poured water on it, and mashed it with a wooden stick.

In just a short while, Lang Ze had already put on his fur coat. His slightly red ears were hidden by his hair.

Lang Ze walked over, took the wooden stick from Qi Bai’s hand, and started pounding the soil.

Qi Bai stood aside while thinking about the issue that Shu Lin and the others had discussed. He asked, “Didn’t you go to track the sheep? How is it going? Did you find it?”

“We found them, but we can’t move against them for now.” Lang Ze put down the stick and poured the remaining half of the soil into the pile.

Qi Bai was puzzled and asked, “Why? Are there no pregnant sheep in the flock?”

“No, it was a flock of more than 30 sheep, and four of them are pregnant.”

Qi Bai said in surprise, “That’s perfect. Everyone was worried about not having enough sheep milk today. Four ewes can produce a lot of sheep milk.”

“But these ewes haven’t given birth yet. They don’t have milk at the moment. We need to wait at least ten days. Before that, I will have people keep an eye on them and not let them leave the tribe’s hunting range.”

Lang Ze planned to wait until the ewes gave birth before stealing the ewes out one by one without alerting the head sheep. It was only in this way that the tribe could ensure that they obtained the most milk.

However, Qi Bai obviously didn’t think so. He looked over with a sharp gaze and said, “There are more than 30 sheep. Can we catch them and raise them in the tribe? This way, we don’t need to have people guarding them in the ice and snow all the time.”

“No, wild beasts won’t eat food that beastmen have touched.” Lang Ze shook his head. “The wild animals that the beastmen bring back to the tribe will starve to death, or they will become violent and die. We can’t feed them.”

Qi Bai frowned. That’s right. Beastmen needed to rely on the milk of wild beasts. So after catching the wild beasts, they must hope that they can live longer. In this case, it wasn’t surprising that they found the wild beasts difficult to tame.

Qi Bai leaned his head against the wood of the shed and asked hesitantly, “What if we don’t bring them back to the tribe?”

Lang Ze looked up at him.

Qi Bai picked up a branch and drew a circle on the ground. “According to your idea, we can drive them into the valley. Then we will watch them and prevent them from running away.”

“In fact, we can change our thinking.” An oval gradually formed on the ground, and Qi Bai cut it in the middle with a branch. “We can drive them into the valley and fence them in. There is food buried under the snow in the valley. Once they are hungry, they can eat the wild grass buried under the snow.”

He looked at Lang Ze with bright eyes. “As long as we build a fence big enough, they won’t find out that this is where we are keeping them.”

Lang Ze carefully analyzed Qi’s idea. “It is hard to feed them just by relying on the wild grass buried in the valley.”

Qi Bai lowered his head in frustration. It seemed that as long as they had backbone and refused to eat the food given to them by beastmen, Qi Bai’s idea of raising livestock would be difficult to realize.

The next second, two hands gently straightened his crooked fur hat. “But the method you mentioned is very good.”

“We can think of another way to solve the food problem.” Lang Ze’s hand didn’t leave as if he was holding Qi Bai’s cheek through the fur hat. “It is difficult for us to catch all the sheep alive just relying on the hunting team, but we can drive them into the valley.”

“But… if we don’t solve the food problem of the sheep, the ewes will starve to death. Then we won’t be able to get sheep milk.”

Lang Ze withdrew his hand. “Then I will go find other beasts with babies. The method you mentioned is worth a try.”

Lang Ze smiled and said, “You will make great contributions to the tribe this time.”

With this plan in mind, the two of them split up to look for people. Yang Luo was very reluctant when Qi Bai dragged him away from the yak. What could be more important than dealing with food at this time?

He looked incredulous even after he sat in the cave and listened to Qi Bai and Lang Ze’s plans.

“We don’t need the sheep to be alive all the time. As long as they can survive until the ewes give birth, it will be enough. If we trap them, the warriors of the tribe won’t have to stand guard in the wind and snow in the days to come,” Lang Ze said.

Yang Luo felt as if he was dreaming just thinking about having more than 30 live sheep as their food reserves.

Hou Yan was even more excited than Yang Luo. The more he listened, the more he thought that it made sense. He stood up, leaned on his stick, and was about to walk out. “It isn’t easy to find prey in winter. We can’t miss this flock of sheep. I’ll go and gather the tribe members now.”

Yang Luo stopped him with a bear bone staff. “Don’t be anxious. Where are you going to chase the sheep to? After you find a place to drive them away, what are you going to use to surround the sheep? In addition, who should be sent to guard the sheep? We can’t let Xiong Feng and Huan Ping stay by the sheep all the time. They won’t be able to hold out there for long. These things haven’t been discussed yet. There is no point in rushing out.”

Hou Yan patted his head and sat down quickly. “Yes, these things haven’t been discussed yet.”

Yang Luo frowned. “We have been building the wall for over ten days and only half of it is built. If we want to enclose the sheep, how many bricks will we need?”

Qi Bai smiled. “Grandpa Priest, the reason why the walls in the tribe are built so slowly is because we need to build them strong. It isn’t just to resist the wolves, but more importantly, to resist the attacks of beastmen. But this time, it is different. It is fine as long as we can stop the sheep.”

At this time, Hou Yan thought of another problem. “What if we finally trap the sheep, and they are discovered by other wild animals in the forest? Then they will become food for other wild animals.”

Yang Luo also nodded worriedly. “We haven’t seen any wolves recently, but the sheep will be in danger if they haven’t left yet.”

Lang Ze said coldly, “The number of wolves is greater than that of sheep.”

The implication was obvious. The sheep were the prey of the Black Mountain Tribe. Anyone who sets their sights on the sheep must be prepared to become food themselves.

“As for the location of the sheepfold—” Qi Bai ran to the closet and took down a large stone slab of around one meter long from a row of piled stone slabs. “During the time when Lang Ze and I were looking for limestone in the surrounding area, we had already surveyed the surrounding terrain.”

This was a stone slab with a map drawn on it.

Qi Bai couldn’t draw professional maps. Fortunately, he had solid drawing skills. After countless revisions, he finally obtained this topographic map. Not only did it depict the general environment in the area, but most importantly, Qi Bai also marked the important materials needed by the tribe.”

Lang Ze stared at the stone slab for a long time before suddenly standing up. His hand gently wandered over the stone slab. The memories in his mind and the picture on the stone slab in front of him gradually overlapped. He almost immediately understood the meaning of the map and held Qi Bai’s hand excitedly.

Qi Bai was looking for the valley he had thought of when he found Lang Ze guiding his hand, moving it forward, and finally stopping at the edge of an arc.

Qi Bai pointed to the location in surprise and said, “It is right here. It is only ten minutes away from the tribe. We can get there even faster after changing into beast form. Even if a wild beast attacks, we have enough time to fight back.”

Qi Bai was so excited that he even said ‘ten minutes.’ Fortunately, Yang Luo and Hou Yan were staring at the stone slab and didn’t pay attention to the new words that Qi Bai suddenly came up with. Lang Ze did glance at Qi Bai but quickly looked away without saying anything else.

As for the method of making this fence, Qi Bai had already planned it and would simply use local materials.

He would bury the thick tree trunk in the soil and wrap it with thorny vines. As long as the wooden stakes were driven down densely, Qi Bai felt that he could easily trap the flock of sheep.

However, Qi Bai still needed to go and see the sheep with his own eyes to determine how high the tree stumps needed to be.

Once everything was arranged, Hou Yan immediately summoned all the members of the tribe. Apart from a few wounded and pregnant people who were left at home, Yang Luo almost immediately led the other members of the tribe to the small valley chosen as the sheepfold.

They had to shovel snow, cut down trees, and move large rocks to complete the preparations before Qi Bai and Lang Ze returned.

Qi Bai and Lang Ze didn’t stop for a moment. They turned into beasts. Two white figures, one big and one small, ran quickly and soon disappeared in the vast snow.